I remember discussing bicycles here but can't find the threads. So I'm starting a new generic thread to discuss bicycles.

I'm a fan of machines so bikes are a natural fit. I just finished up my "new" commuter bike made from an old Miyata, misc leftovers, and craigslist parts. I'm into it for around $50. I need a bike computer and some platform clipless pedals, so my guess is $75 after those pop up on Craigslist.

I have this, a mountain bike, and a road bike. Everyone in the family has mountain bikes, and I have an old spare iron frame road bike. So my garage ceiling looks like a bike shop.
Feel free to post your stuff here.

I know this bike. This is the bike travelling lazily down the middle of the road holding back me and 6 other cars for several blocks.

If I was on I-5 in LA I'd be the guy going 3 times the speed of teaffic.

Lucky for me, I can take a bike trail from home to 1 mile from the office. So the last mile is winding through a neighborhood.

I'm not sure how people ride through traffic. I've been hit twice in 3 years in my car.

Always had a bike somewhere handy. Now it's a mountain bike, but in my yute it was a superb chrome-plated Carlton road bike that I used to commute on in London. Air-powered fog-horn on the handlebars, and a 6' orange whip antenna on the back with an orange ping-pong ball on the tip. It was fun until I nearly got squished and then I bought a mo'bike with big fat crash-bars on it. Much better.

I have to have cruiser handle bars because of my jacked up back and neck. It looks pretty bitchin on a 20 year old 10 speed

My flat bars came from an old mountain bike. The original road bars got stuck under a guy's car in his garage and we're rather bent out of shape.. That's why he sold it for $10. They make the steering very stable.

I have three. My 18 year old Cove Stiffee hardtail 26" mountain bike hand made by genuine Canadian stoner mountain bikers in Deep Cove British Columbia. It was the first of the mountain bikes where they actually got the geometry right and Marzocchi had gotten suspension fork technology to where it worked and didn't feel like it was made of spaghetti when cornering. That bike has untold countless miles and adventures on it including a 1400 mile tour of New Zealand. Unfortunately it has a Hayes, not international standard, rear disc mount so I have to run a vee brake on the rear and a nice disc on the front.

My "road bike" is a 2015 Salsa Fargo. It is my around town fitness machine, gravel road and touring bike. It has great wheels an 2.2" nobbies because I can't not ride stairs and curbs and bunny hop speed bumps, although lately my body is telling me to cut that shit out every time I land.

Finally my sort of impulse purchase/midlife crisis bike is my 2015 Santa Cruz Bronson. It is all carbon fiber and full squish. Six inches of ultra smooth travel front and rear. Climbs well and goes down hill dangerously fast. It is the most incredible cornering machine I have ever ridden and screams push me harder, push me harder. It is a total pig on road stretches.

My wife rocks a 2004 Kona Cinder Cone which I recently BUILT for her because she just loves the frame geometry so much. It is a sweet blingy classic.

The Stiffe is still the Swiss army knife. I think the new breed of long travel, hardtail, steel framed 27.5" could do better but I already own the Stiffee.

My favorite bike porn here.

http://theradavist.com/

I tend to build up something from craigslit finds. My mountain bike is an aluminum frame Diamondback Sorrento with a new bottom bracket and a higher tooth front triple since Nebraska is flat. I'm putting on disk brakes and some heavier wheels with better bearings I found this week.. I got the front bearings repacked and the disk brake set up last night. I'll need to fabricate a rear disk brake bracket or buy one before changing the rear wheel.

I use Kenda 26x1.95 city slicks on it in town. Comfy and they cut down on drag. These have a couple thosand miles on them so they hold up well.

Current steed. I bought more than I needed on the basis that i might actually ride it more. So far as good.

SailDesign wrote:Current steed. I bought more than I needed on the basis that i might actually ride it more. So far as good.

Specialized 29er?

Thanks for this thread! I started riding mine last summer. It's a 1991 Trek Singletrack 930. I've had it since 1998, I think. The frame is a bit too big for me, and it has no suspension, so it's mostly a workout piece of equipment for pavement. Not sure I'd want to take it off-road, what with the better suspension systems that I see on $1000 bikes at REI these days. Still has big ol' knobby tires, which is fine with me. More resistance.

Your bike is like my daughter's GT Palmero. My road bike ways 18-19 lbs so it moves, but my other bikes are 35-40 lbs and is much better for working out.

I went on a slow 4 mile ride alongside my daughter running, then a 7.7 mile fast test ride. The right pedal clicks so I need to tighten it. Otherwise, with all the rain we had the fenders worked great.

inomaha wrote:

SailDesign wrote:Current steed. I bought more than I needed on the basis that i might actually ride it more. So far as good.

Specialized 29er?

Spec Fuse 6-fattie (actually a 27.5-plus, apparently) My last bike was a 2000 Spec HardRock 26"-er that was mostly stock except for the Uncle Jesse handlebars. This thing is like a freaking Ferrari by comparison - remote seatpost riser (Hint, ALWAYS adjust to maximum height before playing with it - it comes up hard and fast into a tender zone....) 1x10 gearing - no stupid front derailleur, disks all round (my first bike disc brakes) and oh-so-cushy 3.5" tyres....

The new geometry is interesting. Remote control seat? Cool. I never understood the older boy/girl bike thing. One, the straight bar was a nut cracker so it seemed backwards, and 2 people are people.

I'm 6'3" and hover around 235, so bigger stronger bikes interest me more. I have to air up my tires more then most to keep it from looking like I'm riding on a flat.

I started with mountain bikes back in the early '90s after I got out of the military and had no money. Somehow they kept getting roadbike-a-sized. So then I got a real roadbike...a Waterford 1200 built on a Reynolds 753 tubeset, with an Ultegra grupo. That 753 makes for silky yet lively ride, but the requirement for silver-brazing made it expensive to produce. I don't think it's used much anymore. Anyway, I rode the shit out of that for 10 years. In '97 and '98, I rode the Seattle-to-Portland, both times in one day. My ass hurts thinking about it.

and this is mine. a 35 yr old, 35 lb huffy aerowind phase 1 12 speed. suede seat. "ride like the wind". there's a video on utube. in its' day nothing special, traded a wal-mart mtn bike i was given for it, so the price was right.
before this, i rode a peugeot which i acquired through nefarious means, involving an axe and a young lady. long story.

so this huffy, it has some minor issues, propietary brakes, shifters, derailleurs, seat post, blah blah blah. it's currently a mutt-bike, changed the rear deraileur, brakes and brake levers. brake cable brackets are homemade. the real problem is, it's too small, seat post and handlebar stem at max, can't get full extension. so i'm starting to look for another road bike.

i was never especially serious about bikes, they never defined my lifestyle, although i went on a couple of road rallies and for a couple of years in my 20s it was my sole means of transport. i am stunned, i say stunned, by the changes in bike tech, aluminum, carbon fiber, shifters in the brake levers. computers. on a bicycle? they've gone back to a version of side-pull brakes, safety levers (i'm seeing them called suicide handles) and open-cage derailleurs are gone... and not for the better. campagnolo, simplex, all the old names are obsolete, replaced by the latest flashy whiz-bang. but the prices! i've bought good used cars and motorcycles for less.

today i looked at a local bike shop, their low end starts at $700. they showed me one for $2200. no, just no. tomorrow i'll go look at wally-world, see what the low end looks like, maybe adjust my attitude or find something i can be happy with. damn yuppies have spoiled everything, again. i just want to ride into town now and again, or tour the back roads, and an old peugeot or raleigh could be fine, just fine, if i can find one big enough. need to haunt the pawn shops and yard sales, i guess

My son got into Tri races and biking. You need three bikes minimum. One for flat races, on for off road, one for just bumming around, unless of course you are into fat wheel biking and then you need at least 4. His good bike was bought used from a winner of the Tour de France, at least the frame was. It weighs about as much as my 1911, and costs more than my F150 with trimmings. It hangs on a wall most of the time. My bike was about $100 four or five years ago. I really should try it out sometime.

I'd go with a bigger name used bike off of Craigslist before Walmart. I stripped down a Walmart bike for someone, greased the bearings, and adjusted it to work. Really low end components and way heavier then it needed to be for a new bike.

We have several bike shops in town that recycle bikes and operate as charities. Decent bikes at decent prices.

Added and Orthopedal to mine so I can ride again, makes me really happy.

Now you lot are speaking my language. This is the first time in 20 years that I have not been employed at least part time in a bicycle shop. I've held all the roles from shop grunt to general manager. My most recent full time stint was managing the service department of one of the largest Trek dealers in the country. Have been helping out part time the last couple years outside my full time non-industry job, but had to have hip surgery this year so took a break from it.

At present I have 8 complete bikes, one usable frame, and two broken frames that will someday be wall art.

Complete bikes:
- NS Bikes Eccentric 27.5 hardtail mountain bike with a 150mm fork.
- Trek Sawyer 29er steel singlespeed.
- Trek Superfly carbon 29er built up rigid with drop bars as a gravel bike.
- Trek Madone 6.Something road bike. I probably ride this bike the least.
- Electra Cruiser.
- Eighthinch city bomber (think the hipster singles speed that a lifelong mountain biker would build).
- Homebuilt chopper.
- Beater Trek Antelope with tall bars and a cushy seat for my dad to ride when he visits us.

The frame is an old steel Bianchi 700c frame with canti studs to be built up as a retro single speed cross bike. I have all the parts just haven't gotten around to building it.

I've primarily been a mountain biker who spent time on the road because of convenience. I started mountain biking in the early 90s, when Girvin flex stems were the cutting edge in suspension technology. Got my driver's license in 1996 and have been chasing brown pow around the country ever since. Started working in a shop in '97 and have worked in 6 shops in 3 states since then. My exploits in my teens and 20s, racing downhill and generally going balls to the wall at all times, caught up with me and I've spent my 30s fixing myself (5 surgeries in 7 years). Most of my riding at present is tooling around the neighborhood with my kids, commuting to work on occasion, and dawn patrols around town. Prior to my latest sideline from injury, I was starting to get my kids out on trails and my son did his second mountain bike race this summer. My daughter likes trail riding but has no interest in racing.

My porch, and the boy's race:








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dwnhlldav wrote:Now you lot are speaking my language. This is the first time in 20 years that I have not been employed at least part time in a bicycle shop. I've held all the roles from shop grunt to general manager. My most recent full time stint was managing the service department of one of the largest Trek dealers in the country. Have been helping out part time the last couple years outside my full time non-industry job, but had to have hip surgery this year so took a break from it.

At present I have 8 complete bikes, one usable frame, and two broken frames that will someday be wall art.

Complete bikes:
- NS Bikes Eccentric 27.5 hardtail mountain bike with a 150mm fork.
- Trek Sawyer 29er steel singlespeed.
- Trek Superfly carbon 29er built up rigid with drop bars as a gravel bike.
- Trek Madone 6.Something road bike. I probably ride this bike the least.
- Electra Cruiser.
- Eighthinch city bomber (think the hipster singles speed that a lifelong mountain biker would build).
- Homebuilt chopper.
- Beater Trek Antelope with tall bars and a cushy seat for my dad to ride when he visits us.

The frame is an old steel Bianchi 700c frame with canti studs to be built up as a retro single speed cross bike. I have all the parts just haven't gotten around to building it.

I've primarily been a mountain biker who spent time on the road because of convenience. I started mountain biking in the early 90s, when Girvin flex stems were the cutting edge in suspension technology. Got my driver's license in 1996 and have been chasing brown pow around the country ever since. Started working in a shop in '97 and have worked in 6 shops in 3 states since then. My exploits in my teens and 20s, racing downhill and generally going balls to the wall at all times, caught up with me and I've spent my 30s fixing myself (5 surgeries in 7 years). Most of my riding at present is tooling around the neighborhood with my kids, commuting to work on occasion, and dawn patrols around town. Prior to my latest sideline from injury, I was starting to get my kids out on trails and my son did his second mountain bike race this summer. My daughter likes trail riding but has no interest in racing.

My porch, and the boy's race:

[<snip pics>

Anyone with a Surly sticker can't be all bad....

SailDesign wrote:
Anyone with a Surly sticker can't be all bad....

I've had 3.
- First generation Instigator
- Cross-Check
- 1x1

When I bought the NS, it was between that and the new Instigator.

The Krampus is also on my radar, though a full suspension ride will probably be next. I miss my downhill bike, and sold off that and my long travel trail bikes when I started dealing with my nagging injuries. I really have not done much mountain biking in the last 4 years between injury and wanting to spend the time with my kids instead.

I added it up recently. In the last 25 years I've owned 30 different bikes not including the trash picked beaters I've built. Working in a shop, you tend to turn them quickly because you can usually buy a new bike, ride it for a season and sell it for what you paid for it.


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I'm watching all the Toure de France with the kids. The crashes and the grueling riding they do day after day. Since it's 98-100 degrees out every day with 110 heat indexes, I've been riding the trainer. Nothing motivates you more to work out on a trainer then watching the TDF on the screen in front of you. The crashes remind me of some road rash I've gotten and the hole in my chin incident.

I need to focus some repair work on the road bike and try some longer rides with it. It needs new tires, a new chain, new gears, new handlebars for better brake geometry (maybe wider too), and I could use a new indoor trainer.

I know the guy before me put some serious miles and I've personally done a couple thousand miles more. My magnetic trainer is squealing at times so I'll switch it out with a better fluid trainer or maybe try rollers.

This isn't my road bike but it looks similar.

dwnhlldav wrote:

SailDesign wrote:
Anyone with a Surly sticker can't be all bad....

I've had had 3.
- First generation Instigator
- Cross-Check
- 1x1

When I bought the NS, it was between that and the new Instigator.

The Krampus is also on my radar, though a full suspension ride will probably be next. I miss my downhill bike, and sold off that and my long travel trail bikes when I started dealing with my nagging injuries. I really have not done much mountain biking in the last 4 years between injury and wanting to spend the time with my kids instead.

I added it up recently. In the last 25 years I've owned 30 different bikes not including the trash picked beaters I've built. Working in a shop, you tend to turn them quickly because you can usually buy a new bike, ride it for a season and sell it for what you paid for it.


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I used to lust after a 1x1, or a Pugsley built up as one. Then my knees started to go and I'm very happy on my 1x10 with (gasp) my first ever set of front sus at the age of 62... First disks as well.

Damn you all make me feel old. I have a team criterium bike from about 1975. Chromed 531 double bottled frame with beautiful tapered lugs. Campy super record and Cinelli parts. Used to ride on silk sew-ups. I was 70 pounds lighter then... the only other thing I changed was to take off the super record pedals and replace them with Looks.

It's hanging in a dry part of the barn with a couple other bikes. I took them all down last year, repacked bearings, etc. I gotta get back on them,.