General Bike Thread (Desiderata, Questions, Pics)

[LawrenceMD]



Love seeing pics of the Bridgestone. That new FD looks BOSS.

I was on a group ride the other day and the 2012 Sram Red FD really had everyone asking me a ton of questions. Its totally compatible with the previous generation Red shifters/crank/RD. It really does allow cross chaining without any trim.

when on the work stand cross chaining will produce rub with the new FD but under crank stress/weight it really does "yaw" and provides ample clearance without need for trim.

riding those cross chained combos takes some getting used to. but once you feel its totally smooth its nice to have those options. Since I run a compact 50/34 crank and 11-25 cassette I'm pretty much only on the big chainring now for NYC riding (including williamsburg bridge and prospect park).

Gypsy Donut run
2010 Cinelli Estrada at 14.2lbs.

^impressive. its awesome these days that you can get to the near 13.xx lbs range with non-super exotic parts. Then again super record is creme de la creme...

I might have to use that ritchey post in my build. The guy suspects that I will need a setback post and most of the setback options either suck or are ugly (or are the thompson setback posts which just look like you let a fat guy ride your bike).
Do you think that logo would come off with acetone or some buffing?

sure you can rub the logos off.

there are some very inexpensive polished silver seatposts with setback if you don't mind about heavier weights from kalloy, uno, salsa, origin 8.

there are some expensive polished silver seatposts with setback too from nitto, deda, and campy....

 

[dron]

my two quite different rides:

 

[Fang66]



my two quite different rides:

Very nice. Deets on the track bike.

 

[dron]

thank you.
old benotto pista. 3ttt cockpit
the wheels are my favourite. custom made mack hubs and araya ct19 rims, laced by myself. and veloflex tyres.
and a mix of parts.

 

[Fang66]



thank you.
old benotto pista. 3ttt cockpit
the wheels are my favourite. custom made mack hubs and araya ct19 rims, laced by myself. and veloflex tyres.
and a mix of parts.

Very pretty.

 

[fp_panlvr]



Last changes for this bike I guess.... Went with the matching Ritchey Classic Seatpost, and a 2012 SRAM Red FD.

The new sram red FD is great. The old FD was good, but freaking finicky if not dialed in.

the new FD has a standard Chain Catcher.... better safe than sorry I guess.
I love this Bridgestone because its simultaneously retro and racy, but also utilitarian because it has fender mounts (which I do actually use). I could theoretically commute with this bike, but couldn't bear to think it my be stolen. I really like the continental GP4000S 25c tires I've got on right now. They have a useful (for NYC riding) reflective strip, but what I really like is that they are actually 27mm in width - so its basically a 28c tire at 210g a piece.
The whole bike weighs in a 17.45lbs. It was at 17.22lbs with weight weenie skewers, but one of the motherfucking skewers bent when I tightened it. They were warrantied, but I figured it was stupid to keep using them so I went with the standard beefy Easton Skewers that came with the wheels.
My next build is going to be a typical carbon uber weight weenie build (maybe 2012 SRAM Red on a Parlee). I almost pulled the trigger this summer on it, but figured to wait out if anything new was coming build group wise. I'm also considering just getting a CAAD10-4 (with the awesome Gulf baby blue+orange paint scheme with SRAM Rival) instead of wasting money on an expensive carbon build and using if for group rides/crits/anything. Sometimes I think uber weight weenie carbon builds are an exercise in futility, and diminishing returns.

I could stare at this bike all day. I'm a Campy guy...but....freaking bravo.

 

[fp_panlvr]



Last changes for this bike I guess.... Went with the matching Ritchey Classic Seatpost, and a 2012 SRAM Red FD.

The new sram red FD is great. The old FD was good, but freaking finicky if not dialed in.

I could stare at these images all day. Nice build!

 

[vm1336]

That is a beautiful bike and I can't believe how nice the paint looks for what I assume is an older frameset. My first road bike was a red 1993 RB-1. I sold it years later to a roommate but wish I hadn't. It was a great bike for long rides - not very light but great steel comfort. My only real complaint was that I once experienced pretty bad frame shimmy on it at 50+ mph and it scared the crap out of me. But it only happened the one time.

 

[Fang66]



That is a beautiful bike and I can't believe how nice the paint looks for what I assume is an older frameset. My first road bike was a red 1993 RB-1. I sold it years later to a roommate but wish I hadn't. It was a great bike for long rides - not very light but great steel comfort. My only real complaint was that I once experienced pretty bad frame shimmy on it at 50+ mph and it scared the crap out of me. But it only happened the one time.

50+ mph would scare the crap out of me shimmy or no shimmy.

+1 on the paint job, I believe it's a respray not original. The paint on my NOS 1980s Pinarello is awful, paint has rubbed off where cables touch the frame and the decals are weak as piss. I think eventually I'll get it resprayed and Dr Larry's bike is definitely one inspiration.

 

[vm1336]

Okay, I wondered about this frame (like NOS) b/c my old Bridgestone was beat up and missing the head badge. I even emailed Grant Peterson to try to get a replacement head badge around 1999 but he didn't have any. As for 50+ mph, if you ride in Colorado very much (where I lived) you might hit that speed a few times without even realizing it. Some of the descents are so long and straight you don't care.

 

[LawrenceMD]



Okay, I wondered about this frame (like NOS) b/c my old Bridgestone was beat up and missing the head badge. I even emailed Grant Peterson to try to get a replacement head badge around 1999 but he didn't have any. As for 50+ mph, if you ride in Colorado very much (where I lived) you might hit that speed a few times without even realizing it. Some of the descents are so long and straight you don't care.

its original paint for the frame and fork. the donor fork (from a 62cm red 93' RB-1) that I used [to make a threadless set up] had to be powder blasted and repainted to match.

the reason the paint was so nice was it was hanging in a storage barn the whole time in Pennsylvania. I guess there's a famous bike store down there that hires Mennonite/Amish workers. It ended up in a amish worker's barn the whole time.

 

[Maximator]

Hello Guys.

After seeing hundreds of really amazing bikes, it's time to get back to the lowly levels of Chain store bikes.

Here is my bike: A Giant FCR 3100, with handlebar raisers and a custom(aka extra ridiculously long) saddle post. Why did I have to get that you may ask? Simple, the largest frame that Giant China carries is a 48cm. So with me being 6'8" that doesn't really work out unless I have some serious raisers. The reason I went with such a cheap bike(about 300 USD total) was that in Beijing, bikes get stolen. A lot. The average life of a bike here is about 1 year(my first one got stolen from a guarded parking lot after 3 months), so dropping 1k+USD on a bike here is insane. This isn't made better by the fact that even the rather crap Giant bikes are high value targets for thieves considering that 80% of the biking population in Beijing is riding on 20-30 USD granny bikes.

One really good thing about that is that they always break down(the 20-30$ bikes), meaning that there is a bike repair guy with a small cart to do basic repairs(fix flats, change wires/spokes and if you have an old bike everything else too). They're really cheap too! I paid about 1.25$ to get a spoke changed and about 20 USD for a new tire, including inner tube.

If anyone wants to know more about biking in Beijing I can write more, but for now that's all. Enjoy the pictures.

Since all of you LOVE handle bar raisers

The saddle tube is actually almost as long as the frame, 48 for the frame and 42 for the tube + whatever is inside the frame.

 

[Fang66]



Hello Guys. 

After seeing hundreds of really amazing bikes, it's time to get back to the lowly levels of Chain store bikes. 

Here is my bike: A Giant FCR 3100, with handlebar raisers and a custom(aka extra ridiculously long) saddle post. Why did I have to get that you may ask? Simple, the largest frame that Giant China carries is a 48cm. So with me being 6'8" that doesn't really work out unless I have some serious raisers. The reason I went with such a cheap bike(about 300 USD total) was that in Beijing, bikes get stolen. A lot. The average life of a bike here is about 1 year(my first one got stolen from a guarded parking lot after 3 months), so dropping 1k+USD on a bike here is insane. This isn't made better by the fact that even the rather crap Giant bikes are high value targets for thieves considering that 80% of the biking population in Beijing is riding on 20-30 USD granny bikes. 

One really good thing about that is that they always break down(the 20-30$ bikes), meaning that there is a bike repair guy with a small cart to do basic repairs(fix flats, change wires/spokes and if you have an old bike everything else too). They're really cheap too! I paid about 1.25$ to get a spoke changed and about 20 USD for a new tire, including inner tube.

If anyone wants to know more about biking in Beijing I can write more, but for now that's all. Enjoy the pictures.

Since all of you LOVE handle bar raisers 




The saddle tube is actually almost as long as the frame, 48 for the frame and 42 for the tube + whatever is inside the frame. 

You would look like an average height guy riding a Moulton .

Actually Giant make some nice bikes and make some good frames for other companies like Colnago etc. I also think they invented the compact road frame.

 

[vm1336]



its original paint for the frame and fork. the donor fork (from a 62cm red 93' RB-1) that I used [to make a threadless set up] had to be powder blasted and repainted to match.
the reason the paint was so nice was it was hanging in a storage barn the whole time in Pennsylvania. I guess there's a famous bike store down there that hires Mennonite/Amish workers. It ended up in a amish worker's barn the whole time.

Great find! There are a lot of Mennonites near our farm in South Alabama - maybe I should start poking around in their barns.

Can you give us a total weight for the full build?

 

[Joffrey]

Been in the market for a bike and wanted some opinions on one I looked at this afternoon.

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/bik/3388495879.html

I rode it today (around a parking level - forgot to take it arund the block) and it rode well. Looked fine to my [inexperienced] eye as well (I did look up some tips on what to look out for when buying a used bike). Some of the parts (rear derailleur and saddle) looked quite new as the seller had refurbished it.

General thoughts? $300 high for it? He may go down to $250.