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General Bike Thread (Desiderata, Questions, Pics)

kjb

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40 minutes of "bike practice" yesterday afternoon. followed some of ya'lls suggestion of picking an empty parking lot and riding slow.

track stops weren't in the cards, need to work up more towards those, but did get a bit more comfortable riding one handed especially at slower speed (<5mph). i'm going to shoot for once a week to try to do more of this until i can get really comfortable grabbing my water bottle, things in my jersey pockets, etc. it did help a lot though even for just the first time. thanks everyone.
 

am55

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On the subject of tyre pressure, hard vs fat tyres, etc., from F1:

“All things being equal the bigger rims, low-profile rubber is always going to be a worse tyre than the sort of tyres that we have on our racing car today,” he said in a video published by Mercedes.

“That sort of balloon-type tyre that you see on our cars today and have seen on racing cars for decades is a really good solution for going quickly. It allows the tyre to transmit the forces to the road really effectively, it’s light, it acts as a good suspending element so it gives the driver good ride quality, allows the forces to be taken at quite low inflation pressures, which means you get more grip, et cetera.

 

smittycl

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mhip

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I thought about things like that when ordering my Trek. It will be great to have it but also a new level of ass-pain to always be on guard.
Remember the movie Death Wish?
We just need a willing forum member to ride his newish bike that has integrated down-tube storage that can fit munitions, to cruise around that area...
 

patrick_b

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IMG_6354.jpg


Put the 28mm tires on yesterday and took a nice hour long ride at a chilly 40°F. I ran them about 10PSI less than the 23's. I was able to comfortably enjoy the gravel/crushed stone trail without fear of pinch flatting and it was absolutely more comfortable on the road. I know wider tires have been the norm for years now but it's strange after hearing thinner is better forever.

Looking the other way from the above pic, this is actually the bridge on Rte 95N a few miles before the NH border. When they replaced the old bridge, they connected two sections of local rail trail. When it's cool like this, I have the place to myself.

IMG_6357.jpg
 

Piobaire

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Agree about the tire width thing as it happened to me. When I left cycling I was running 25s, as I was around 200# at the time, and people would remark on the 25s. I also ran them at 110 psi. Then when I made the firm decision to buy a bike last summer, and started my research, I was amazed to find what width endurance bikes were running. I was pretty skeptical about 32s but I'm very happy with them at 70 psi. When I get my Zipps I'll drop to 30s and I have to admit I'm meh at the thought of dropping down at this point.
 

patrick_b

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Your mere mention of the 303's sent me down the road of window shopping carbon hoops. The only reason I haven't dropped thousands on a set of carbon wheels is that I have rim brakes. I'm sure I'll get a new bike at some point and it will most certainly have disc brakes and I'd want to use the new wheels on the new bike. That and I think this bike was about $3300 brand new in 2008, a set of Zipp 303 NSW's are $3200. I can't get that to sync.
 

kjb

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Put the 28mm tires on yesterday and took a nice hour long ride at a chilly 40°F. I ran them about 10PSI less than the 23's. I was able to comfortably enjoy the gravel/crushed stone trail without fear of pinch flatting and it was absolutely more comfortable on the road. I know wider tires have been the norm for years now but it's strange after hearing thinner is better forever.

same really. i bought a set of conti 5000s at 700x25, which is the largest my rims can handle. i'm saving them for the summer when the roads are a bit cleaner but it'll be interested to see the difference between those and the 23s i've always run.
 

Piobaire

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Your mere mention of the 303's sent me down the road of window shopping carbon hoops. The only reason I haven't dropped thousands on a set of carbon wheels is that I have rim brakes. I'm sure I'll get a new bike at some point and it will most certainly have disc brakes and I'd want to use the new wheels on the new bike. That and I think this bike was about $3300 brand new in 2008, a set of Zipp 303 NSW's are $3200. I can't get that to sync.

I'm going Firecrest and it's looking like 2k. I'm looking forward to getting them but am really waiting for that damn saddle to get in. I got the 3-D printed Fitzik for only $200 but the trade off was I have to wait for it to come in. I'm hoping to have it in two more weeks.
 

sugarbutch

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On the subject of tyre pressure, hard vs fat tyres, etc., from F1:



I am hesitant to second-guess one of the leading lights of F1 engineering, but I think the problem is that F1 will need to relearn how to spring and damp the cars with heavier wheels and stiffer sidewalls. One of the biggest challenges of the balloon tires is that they have to account for what is essentially an undamped, laterally deflecting spring which is controlled by a third party. They might be slower initially, but it won't stay that way.
 

sugarbutch

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UnFacconable

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Having a super weird day. As relates to biking, I was driving back from a mountain bike ride when I heard some honking and people driving by flagging at me. Turns out my bike bounced out of my bike rack. Before I got in the car, I double checked that the bike was secure and it's a pretty secure rack design so I'm not quite sure how it came loose. Then when I got back to the car I noticed that someone had recently destroyed my driver side keyhole (looked like they jammed a screwdriver in). Not sure if they were looking to steal my ****** old ride or just break in to steal my ... kid's car seats ... bike helmets and shoes? Good news is that the bike frame seems to be fine and the damage was limited to scrapes on one pedal and the handlebar ends.

Before I came back into the city from my ride, I noticed that the guy parked in front of me had a bike I like (Ripmo) on a rack I like (1up) and a ****** old car (90's 2 door explorer) that had me thinking I should finally pull the trigger on a 1up rack. Then the rational side said that my bike rack was perfectly fine, barely broken in and that I don't need a new one. On the other hand, if my ride is going to be stolen soon, why bother getting a rack that will get stolen with it?

At the time, I was also on a sort of professional phone call with a former boss which adds to the weirdness.
 
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patrick_b

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Having a super weird day. As relates to biking, I was driving back from a mountain bike ride when I heard some honking and people driving by flagging at me. Turns out my bike bounced out of my bike rack. Before I got in the car, I double checked that the bike was secure and it's a pretty secure rack design so I'm not quite sure how it came loose. Then when I got back to the car I noticed that someone had recently destroyed my driver side keyhole (looked like they jammed a screwdriver in). Not sure if they were looking to steal my ****** old ride or just break in to steal my ... kid's car seats ... bike helmets and shoes? Good news is that the bike frame seems to be fine and the damage was limited to scrapes on one pedal and the handlebar ends.

Before I came back into the city from my ride, I noticed that the guy parked in front of me had a bike I like (Ripmo) on a rack I like (1up) and a ****** old car (90's 2 door explorer) that had me thinking I should finally pull the trigger on a 1up rack. Then the rational side said that my bike rack was perfectly fine, barely broken in and that I don't need a new one. On the other hand, if my ride is going to be stolen soon, why bother getting a rack that will get stolen with it?

At the time, I was also on a sort of professional phone call with a former boss which adds to the weirdness.

I always had roof mount racks using the logic that the most common car accident is a rear end collision. That may be flawed thinking, it was a passing thought after all and my XC MTB weighs something like 21lbs. I'm not sure I'd feel the same way with today's heavier 29" wheeled 4" suspensioned bikes.

That said, I'd never seen the 1up racks before you mentioned it. Very very nice.
 

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