Jump to content
Washington Football Team Logo
Extremeskins

The biking thread....


mcsluggo

Recommended Posts

Oh yeah, you can modify them so that they handle it better for sure. Similar to switching to slicks on a mountain bike for road riding. I have seen models from Giant and Trek that have the road bike geometry but more hybrid-like tires to handle modest off-roading but without changing tires a road bike probably isn't Forehead's best option.

 

Also your bike is a beautiful classic steel frame. It probably handles the bumps and other things better than the aluminum frames you find on current road bikes.

 

the grey tubes are graphite, i am not sure what they use to make the yellow forks, but i think they are aluminum?? 

 

apparently this type of mixed frme was discontinued after a few bike frames split apart where the graphite and <metal> were joined.. an exciting end to ANY ride!

 

<edit, i judt looked, and it is some sort of an aluminum alloy>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the grey tubes are graphite, i am not sure what they use to make the yellow forks, but i think they are aluminum?? 

 

apparently this type of mixed frme was discontinued after a few bike frames split apart where the graphite and <metal> were joined.. an exciting end to ANY ride!

 

<edit, i judt looked, and it is some sort of an aluminum alloy>

 

That's crazy. The fork shape on your bike usually denotes steel since there are issues (imagined or real) with aluminum handling the stress on the curved part. The tube thickness also is reminiscent of steel. It's a cool bike though. Have you ever ridden an all aluminum frame?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's crazy. The fork shape on your bike usually denotes steel since there are issues (imagined or real) with aluminum handling the stress on the curved part. The tube thickness also is reminiscent of steel. It's a cool bike though. Have you ever ridden an all aluminum frame?

 

 

no, i haven't.  I used to have slightly even older bikes, steel I think... all since stolen or wrecked.   I bought this one 3 or 4 years ago from the Phoenix bike barns (at Barcroft Park, on 4 mile run--- they teach at-risk kids how to repair bikes, and keep out of trouble a bit) ... it didn;t seem like this bike had ever been ridden when i bought it :) ,   but I haven;t been as kind to it .....    

Link to comment
Share on other sites

no, i haven't.  I used to have slightly even older bikes, steel I think... all since stolen or wrecked.   I bought this one 3 or 4 years ago from the Phoenix bike barns (at Barcroft Park, on 4 mile run--- they teach at-risk kids how to repair bikes, and keep out of trouble a bit) ... it didn;t seem like this bike had ever been ridden when i bought it :) ,   but I haven;t been as kind to it .....    

 

Honestly other than the components maybe being a bit more ergonomic to use your ride on that is probably a lot more smooth than the newer aluminum frames. Plus it's just a cool looking bike. :)

 

If you do ever decide to get something newer I think trek is making steel road bikes again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Where I live they have a Velodrome. I went last night to watch bike races for the first time. A guy sitting near me said the track is regulation and one of the nicest on the east coast and they are having nationals there. I live near Rock Hill, SC. It was pretty cool entertainment for free.

Edited by pjfootballer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Where I live they have a Velodrome. I went last night to watch bike races for the first time. A guy sitting near me said the track is regulation and on of the nicest on the east coast and they are having nationals there. I live near Rock Hill, SC. It was pretty cool entertainment for free.

Get a fixed gear track bike and join them!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I recently had some foot issues and wont be able to run for awhile. I want to start biking for fitness. What are some good road bikes and how would you recommend proceeding for $500 or less?

If you're willing to go about $700 you can get onto a brand new entry level allez from specialized, 1.1 from trek, or the defy 5 from giant. You can also find fairly good deals on Fuji bikes at performance and if you join their club and wait for a sale can get on a nice bike for around $500 and get some nice extras with the performance club thing.

Also, if you're near a college there are usually bike shops selling really nice used stuff for good prices.

Go to a few places and try out a few brands. This does a few things for you. First it'll give you a good idea what sized bike you need and second what type road bike/manufacturer you like. Each manufacturer generally offers a relaxed geometry as well as the more aggressive geo's for racing.

Craig's list isn't a bad place but you need to know what you're looking for before wading into it.

Does anyone have experience with Light & Motion USB rechargeable bike lights?

I'm having trouble with both of the ones I bought recently and wonder if any of you have had similar issues.

I use one on my bike. I've had issues with it not turning on once or twice in the year I've owned it but it's always turned on eventually. What's going on with yours? Edited by MrSilverMaC
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the reply Silver.

 

I went to a bike shop near my house, their entry level bike was $1,100 (and the sales guy was sort of a dick).  There is a "bicycle coop" near my house that I plan to check out.  http://velocitycoop.org/

 

Also, now i am starting to lean towards a hybrid.  There are a ton of trails near my house, i just want to exercise, i don't need a bike made out of ****ing carbon fiber.

Edited by PleaseBlitz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the reply Silver.

I went to a bike shop near my house, their entry level bike was $1,100 (and the sales guy was sort of a dick). There is a "bicycle coop" near my house that I plan to check out. http://velocitycoop.org/

Also, now i am starting to lean towards a hybrid. There are a ton of trails near my house, i just want to exercise, i don't need a bike made out of ****ing carbon fiber.

If he was trying to sell you carbon fiber he was trying to hustle you. The three I mentioned were all aluminum. A hybrid is really a good bike though. You're probably not gonna do any centuries on one but you get good work on them and a higher comfort level.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Trek Hybrid FX series starts off under $400, and have a few nice models in the $500-$600 range. Giant has the Roam series, starting under $500. Hybrids are great bikes for comfort. Still, try a few out, get what you feel most comfortable with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Spent last week in Colorado Springs. I rented a bike (different bike per day) a few days while I was there. I don't have a mountain bike or a fat bike, so I wanted to try them out and the trails were either gravel or dirt, so why not try them. It was a blast, both bikes were a lot of fun. My only complaint, and it's a complaint of me is, I wasn't digging the massive amounts of inclines in Colorado Springs, or the thin air. I have never been that sore before, but the scenery was fantastic. Here, there are some challenging "hills" but those were mountains. Anyway, happy biking!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...

Coronado rises up against bike lanes and 'paint stripe pollution'

 

Coronado residents have apparently had enough of bike lanes, lashing out at them as an eyesore at a remarkable City Council meeting last week, likely to make national news in 3, 2, 1...

Claire Trageser of KPBS captured the litany of complaints in a story posted today, resident after resident who wants the city to stop accommodating bicycles.

  • Gerry Lounsbury: “You are covering Coronado with paint stripe pollution.”
  • Aileen Oya: “The graffiti on the streets does not help our property values.”
  • Carolyn Rogerson: The lanes “bring to mind a visual cacophony that if you look there long enough it will induce a dizzying type of vertigo.”
  • Gerry MacCartee: “These black streets with these brilliant white lines everywhere ... it takes away from your home, from your outlook on life.”
  • Darby Monger: “It’s very similar to personally taking all three of my daughters to a tattoo parlor and having them completely body tattooed.”

If some of the hyperbole seems hard to believe, the KPBS video report shows the residents at the council meeting saying these exact things.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gerry Lounsbury: “You are covering Coronado with paint stripe pollution.”

 

I hope he was driving a VW Diesel when he made this statement.

 

If there was an argument that painting bike lanes doesn't change driver behavior and increase safety, then you could make the point that painting the lanes is a waste of money. But an eye-sore?

 

 

 

 

too much lane marker on roads?? really!!?? 

 

Philistine. Road paint aesthetes of the world unite!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

D.C. church says a bike lane would infringe upon its constitutional ‘rights of religious freedom’

 

The District government is going through the rather municipally boring process of determining where to build a bike lane on the east side of downtown.

 

And one church has given a charged response to some proposals, saying that a bike lane near its property would infringe upon “its constitutionally protected rights of religious freedom and equal protection of the laws.”

 

...

 

The parking loss would place an unconstitutionally undue burden on people who want to pray, the church argues, noting that other churches already have had to flee to the suburbs because of similarly onerous parking restrictions.

 

The church says that DDOT lets cars park diagonally on the street during busy times, which would be seemingly impossible if a protected bike lane were on the street.

 

“As you know, bicycles have freely and safely traversed the District of Columbia throughout the 90-year history of the United House of Prayer, without any protected bicycle lanes and without infringing in the least on the United House of Prayer’s religious rights,” the letter states.

 

Click on the link for the full article

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

 

 

oldy but goody story.....  

 

the hotties-versus-hasidic wars, and the clearly important topless bike-ride protest.

 

http://www.bicyclelaw.com/news/n.cfm/hipsters-v-hasidim-over-brooklyn-bike-lane 

  HIPSTERS V. HASIDIM OVER BROOKLYN BIKE LANE

Religion Dispatches: Hipsters v. Hasidim Over Brooklyn Bike Lane

By Nathan Schneider

December 28, 2009

Did Williamsburg’s Hasidic community have Mayor Bloomberg close a major bike lane simply because they were offended by the immodestly clothed hipsters biking through their neighborhood, as most of the press has reported? Was a topless protest the best way to respond?

There may be no New York City street more sensitive to attire than Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. On the north side of the Williamsburg Bridge, which crosses the East River to Lower Manhattan (an overpriced bastion of artists, ambitious émigrés, and wannabes), is the world capital of hipster fashion. Children and the elderly are nowhere to be seen, except as the remnants of the immigrant communities that have resisted selling to condo developers. “Normal” means skinny jeans, neon sunglasses, ironic tattoos, and something that is somehow shocking. On a warm Saturday fixed-gear bikes, the preferred mode of transportation, easily outnumber cars.

South of the bridge, however, Bedford passes through Williamsburg’s bustling, Yiddish-speaking Satmar Hasidic community, largely descended from Eastern European Holocaust survivors. The men wear long, black jackets and big, black hats—even bigger ones on the Sabbath. Married women cover their heads with wigs. Children, sidecurls running down their faces, pour out of yeshivas into yellow schoolbuses with Yiddish signage. Gray-bearded old men mutter prayers under their breath as they walk.

 

<more at link>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

personally.. i bike commute from McLean-Downtown DC from april-ish through the end of October... and hang up the sexy bike shorts when daylight savings time ends (this upcoming weekend)

 

but... last year i packed on almost 25 pounds between november and march, when i stopped biking, but kept on eating that extra 1000 calories a day.

 

does anyone else bike commute?  and do you do it through the winter??  

 

i'm considering trying to bike a bit during the winter this year...but i'm unsure.   The cold isn't really what is putting me off (yesterday it was upper 30s in McLean in the morning, but i biked in wearing shorts and a t-shirt.. with some raggy old knit-wool gloves.    I think with some decent gloves and a decent thin hat, the cold would be easily manageable  (although ice on the ground will suck donkey nuts on a bike)

 

if you bike commute in teh winter:

 

--- what light do you use?  the bright ones are soooo fricking expensive!

--- what gloves ???

 

its daylight savings time of year again :(

 

I think i am going to try coming in and leaving an hour earlier (pretend like daylight savings didn;t happen), but still.. the end of the bike season is drawing nigh

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...