[cerveza_fiesta]

Been getting into biking lately.

I've been rocking my bike trainer (with road bike clamped into it) all winter and its aaaaaaaalmost warm enough in the AMs to start bike-commuting to work. I'm pretty friggin stoked about it too.

I also just put together the first mountain bike I've had since I was 15. I have a bunch of buddies that do cross-country biking on the trails around town and I usually just pick my way through after them with my road bike. It's fun but its pretty easy to bend a rim or flat a tire if you aren't super careful. Finally I can keep up on a bike that's actually designed for that type of riding.

My new bike is totally shitty and built with parts of about 10 different bikes. It was a nice frame at one time, so it's pretty light but completely beat to pieces. If I can get 1 season out of it I'm totally happy though. Cost me relatively little actually. Just had to buy new drivetrain parts and a rear wheel.

ANybody else do much biking? Road? Downhill? Cross country?

[knight of shadows]

yeah I'm hugely into cycling I spend most of my time on the road but I dabble in cyclocross and mountain biking. I've spent every summer since I was 15 racing. I absolutely love it.
What bikes do you own?

[cerveza_fiesta]

I got a specialized brand cyclecross bike (aka my "road bike") that I keep slicks on for commuting to work in the summer. The roads around here are atrocious and I usually mix it with a bit of pea-gravel trail and dirt-road riding on the way out of town, so it really pays to have the robust cyclecross frame instead of the pure road-frame. I love the thing...totally tough bike that (if you put a treaded tire on it) can even handle some mild track riding...though you still end up carting it across the mud pits. A guy I know has been trying to convince me to join a cross race, but I'm not much of a racer all in all.

My other bike is a complete and utter zombie. Old aluminium trek hardtail frame. Mix-matched wheels, a BB mechanical disc brake and a decent-condition marazoochi XC air fork. I don't think the steering post bearings are even from the same set. Its for XC riding mainly on local-built trails around town. I'm by no means hardcore and could never justify the price of a full-suspension bike, or even a new hardtail bike. This one will do for now and if I get more into it I might put some more $$ into some nicer wheels down the road.

We've been building the trek out of spare parts from my buddy's basement and I took it out for a rip on Sunday night. I got halfway up the trail leading to the single-track I wanted to ride and my rear deraileur blew apart, wound into the spokes, snapped the chain and bent my rear wheel a bit.

I decided it was beyond my ability to fix, but the bike store guy said it would be no problem to fire a new deraileur on it and true up the wheel again. I pick it up tonight and weather permitting will take it for an *actual* rip instead of a shameful walk home with a busted shitty bike.

[Tiste Simeon]

Bikes hate me. I don't know why but every time I get on a bike things go wrong (ala Calvin & Hobbes) I have had all my worst injuries on a bike - fingernails ripped off, arms broken etc. etc. and sometimes I will be on a perfectly good bike, riding along and something will break for no apparent reason. Once the back wheel fell off, on a straight flat paved road... Go figure.

In conclusion, bikes = EVIL!

[cerveza_fiesta]

That's too bad.

I used to have problems like that, until I started buying new bikes...and then they stopped falling apart on me.

But now I've built a zombie bike...so I'll probably be dead by tomorrow.

This post has been edited by cerveza_fiesta: 03 September 2010 - 04:12 PM

[knight of shadows]

Yeah my body is covered in scars from riding it happens
I have three bikes that I use regularly, a ridley damocles full carbon for road, a ridley crossbow for cyclo cross, and a jamis Dakota mountain bike but when I started out riding I was on some real shitty rigs such as an old puegeot from the 70s and a couple other cheap bikes that i kept around in so that when I broke when I had something lying around to use.

[cerveza_fiesta]

Glorious ride in the dark last night. Nothing like bombing a root-studded narrow path when you can't see the roots...or the path.

Put the zombie to the test last night, flipped over the handlebars one time (blessedly at low speed) and smashed my shin on the pedal when my SPD clip pulled free on a landing. I gotta tighten those things a bit.

All in all a pretty sweet ride. The used fork (the part that really worried me) is actually working pretty nicely and the new derailleurs, rings, cassette and chain actually work without skipping now.

And holy shit do disc brakes ever grip hard. So used to my cantilever brakes on the cross bike now. I'm going to have to learn to feather those things a bit if I'm going to keep from flipping over the bars again.

[cerveza_fiesta]

Oooooh yeah. Sweet trail riding since I put the zombie together. Still can't keep up with the good bikers I know, but I'm slowly learning to balance the thing and how to climb sections with lots of roots and rocks.

Totally crappy bike, but it really makes me want to invest in a good one next year now. I'll probably look for something on the lightweight side of full-suspension bikes. Don't want a downhill bike for sure, but something a little beefier wouldn't hurt my riding ability at all. We met a dude selling a really nice specialized brand XC bike yesterday for 1500 bucks. Too bad I'm buying an effing house.

yep.

Yesterday we did some berm building on a gully in the woods not far from where I live. It kind of makes the trail into a halfpipe with about 5 consecutive dug-out turns on it and one huge death curve at the end to scare you.

[cerveza_fiesta]

Time again to ressurrect my other thread in here that nobody posts in.

Anybody getting geared up for mountain biking this season? I'm getting pretty stoked now that snow is off the XC ski trails.

[Darkwatch]

No mountain biking for me.
Bought a good rounder bike last year that is made to ride. You don't do any mountain biking with it though unless you like pain.
My biking habits aren't too exciting, and I plan on diversifying this year, try and find new routes, though there's only one other bike path in the city (running north-south rather than east-west) that I haven't tried.

[Tapper]

I plan to get me a shiny road racing bicycle - but I'll probably try and get one only in the autumn, for a special reason: the dutch based Rabobank cycling team sells its used material (that means carbon frames and general top notch quality stuff) by auction, donating the result to the Right to Play foundation.

I know a guy who bought one for 1500,-, which is peanuts for a bicycle of that quality.

[cerveza_fiesta]

Carbon scares me - for mountain biking anyway. They just kinda blow apart on occasion. When they fail, they fail fucking hard. No warning cracks or bending, just blammo and you yardsale down the rocky slope you were just descending at top speed.

My wife is heavy on the roadbike train now. She wants one for duathlon training but even cheap ones are well over 1000 bucks. I want to just get her an older steel-frame Raleigh or something to train on while we save up for a nicer one, but all the FUCKING HIPSTERS have drained the shitty-old-bike market and turned them into "retro" fucking fix-gear douchebag-mobiles. You see the want-ads all over craigslist and kijiji now too, "want a vintage looking bike to ride around town". FUCKING HIPSTERS. I hate them and their hipster conformist non-conformity.

Looks like I'm not going to be able to afford to upgrade my mountain bike this year unless I win the lottery either, so I'll be riding the same garbage bike I was on last year. Oh well, at least I don't have to worry if I wreck it.

[Darkwatch]

Well my bike is pretty good road wise and cost me under a thousand even with the taxes (not much less mind). Try and find a place that assembles them on site you might be able to get it cheaper that may (that's what I did).

[cerveza_fiesta]

Yea, we have a pretty good event here called the Bike Swap (and a ski swap in winter) that's put on by one of the local sports retailers. It's usually a massive stupid race on the first day for the good used stuff, but if you get there a good hour in advance of opening you can usually score some good quality stuff.

Cause, realistically we can't spend more than about 500 bucks on something. A new steel-frame roadbike runs about that much but it is bound to be a massive piece of shit at that price. A really nice but well used aluminium road bike or cyclecross bike runs about the same, but it's a gamble whether I can get my hands on it at the bike swap or not. Plus, it has the potential to be a massive piece of shit if it was used by somebody that doesn't give a rats ass about their bike.

Ideally the 50 - 100 dollar vintage bike is the best compromise because even if it is a massive piece of shit, who cares. At most you're out that amount + the price of some new tires.

Bah...I wish I could just get her something new. I blame hipsters. For everything. Including the humanitarian catastrophe in Libya.

[rhulad]

I used to ride BMX in the dirt, but I'm too old and feeble/out of practice to do it anymore. Thinking of getting into some downhill riding this summer if I can find the time though. Right now I have a cheap diamondback that I plan on upgrading as I break things (first thing to go will probably be the frame...) but we'll have to see how that goes.

[Bulwyf]

Thread necromancy!

I'm just getting into mountain biking. Moved a couple years ago next to a bike path, and for shits and giggles I dusted off my old Mt. Bike f/ my youth before I could drive and started exploring the path. Decided to get get a new bike, and it was a lot more fun w/ a decent bike. So I started riding more seriously and getting into better shape.

I mostly ride on the paved bikepath, but I take detours along any singletrack along the way whenever possible. Picked up some gear/appareal for winter riding and am getting in shape, waiting for spring and I'll test out some of the local parks trails. Looking forward to it!

My new entry level bike is a Motobecane off bikesdirect.com. 29er Fantom.

[Binder of Demons]

I have 2 old bikes, one road and one (alleged) mountain bike. Both were excellent in their day (over 25 years ago) but can't really compare to some of the newer bikes these days. The mountain bike is just too big and heavy and has no suspension or anything fancy like that but I love it and you could likely cycle through a tree rather than around it, which is what I like for cycling on pothole riddled Irish roads with crap drivers.

The racing bike is also old, and the gears aren't really to my liking. Did the cycling leg of a triathlon last year after ages away from the bike and quite enjoyed it. But even when I was in top gear, and peddling furiously, i was being overtaken by those actual triathletes on their fancy lightweight bikes with high gear ratios. Fuckin' wannabe athletes. This year I think i might try the full triathlon so a good fast bike would be nice, but I'll concentrate on the swimming first as I haven't swum properly in over 10 years. A friend built a beautiful carbon fibre road bike ordering the parts directly from China, and it seemed affordable. But I have other demands on my money so it'll probably be lots of swim training and then cycling on the old "British Eagle".

Did some actual trail biking while overseas and it was great fun, if pretty terrifying at times.

[Darthjamo]

Bulwyf, on 16 January 2014 - 08:23 PM, said:

Thread necromancy!

I'm just getting into mountain biking. Moved a couple years ago next to a bike path, and for shits and giggles I dusted off my old Mt. Bike f/ my youth before I could drive and started exploring the path. Decided to get get a new bike, and it was a lot more fun w/ a decent bike. So I started riding more seriously and getting into better shape.

I mostly ride on the paved bikepath, but I take detours along any singletrack along the way whenever possible. Picked up some gear/appareal for winter riding and am getting in shape, waiting for spring and I'll test out some of the local parks trails. Looking forward to it!

My new entry level bike is a Motobecane off bikesdirect.com. 29er Fantom.

Those Motobecane bike are a great deal. I'm a huge bike geek, and have been for over 20 years. I have a Salsa 29er MTB I put nearly 3000 miles on last year. Enjoy your new addiction.

[Bulwyf]

Binder of Demons, on 16 January 2014 - 10:36 PM, said:

I have 2 old bikes, one road and one (alleged) mountain bike. Both were excellent in their day (over 25 years ago) but can't really compare to some of the newer bikes these days. The mountain bike is just too big and heavy and has no suspension or anything fancy like that but I love it and you could likely cycle through a tree rather than around it, which is what I like for cycling on pothole riddled Irish roads with crap drivers.

The racing bike is also old, and the gears aren't really to my liking. Did the cycling leg of a triathlon last year after ages away from the bike and quite enjoyed it. But even when I was in top gear, and peddling furiously, i was being overtaken by those actual triathletes on their fancy lightweight bikes with high gear ratios. Fuckin' wannabe athletes. This year I think i might try the full triathlon so a good fast bike would be nice, but I'll concentrate on the swimming first as I haven't swum properly in over 10 years. A friend built a beautiful carbon fibre road bike ordering the parts directly from China, and it seemed affordable. But I have other demands on my money so it'll probably be lots of swim training and then cycling on the old "British Eagle".


Did some actual trail biking while overseas and it was great fun, if pretty terrifying at times.

Like I mentioned, I started out on my old bike, like a '92 Schwinn Huricane. It didn't shift well (18 speed, but I could only use the middle gear up front) and the back wheel needed truing and was rubbing against the brake. That and the tires were knobbies on pavement. So I got a decent workout while starting out which was a good thing. Finally took that bike in to get a tune up and got a new shifter and back wheel.

It was a night & day change for me, pretty much ordered my new bike like a week after that, and that was another huge improvement.

Bikesdirect.com is pretty cheap in the states, no tax or shipping, but they'd probably charge an arm and a leg for shipping to Ireland so don't know if it would be worth it.


edit: 100th post!! It only took like 7 years to do!

This post has been edited by Bulwyf: 17 January 2014 - 02:23 PM