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Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 00:54
by SanadaUjiosan
Just wondering what people have to say about bicycles, concerning if they like to ride, what they ride, that kind of jazz. I work in a bike shop, and I love the damned things, so I felt compelled to see what people feel like here.

Growing up both in a mountain bike heavy area, and during the great mountain bike boom of the early '90's, I am more familiar with mountain bikes and mountain biking, but my current location does not lend itself to mountains so I've been taking up the mantle of road setups. I have a Cannondale mountain bike that is a few years old, a Cannondale road/hybrid setup on a frame that is at least a few decades old, and a Schwinn road setup from the '70's that I plan on fixing up.

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 01:08
by oksnoop2
SanadaUjiosan wrote:Just wondering what people have to say about bicycles, concerning if they like to ride, what they ride, that kind of jazz.
Bicycle Jazz is probably the best and least appreciated of the Jazz genre.

EDIT: I love my purple carbon fiber trek road bike.

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 01:31
by Hobo Joe
I like bikes but I live too far from everything to make them worth using for anything other than recreational purposes

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 03:33
by ==Troy==
Mountain bikes become waste after about 5 km distances. You want roadbikes up to 10-15km, and trek bikes for anything more than that.

The range is determined mostly by how fast you get tired, mountain bikes usually have a lot of friction and are not optimised for high speeds and cruising.

The "faster" the bike is, the easier it is to fall down, especially if you live in icy winter areas, watch out. Safe routes are also important, since mountain bikes will allow you to go on pedestrian lines, but the trek bikes are not very comfortable to switch from road to ped or to a sidewalk (usually worse asphalt).

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 03:39
by SanadaUjiosan
The mountain bike boom did a lot of bad to the bicycle industry... like making "mountain" bikes the norm for department store models... its sad that most people, who should be riding some kind of road setup, are pedaling around on something that is both not fit and probably not of adequate quality...

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 08:50
by Masure
My last bike was the one my parent bought when I was 13.

I recently bought a bicycle after a long time without any kind of sport activity. I now ride to my work with it.

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 10:02
by Sucky_Lord
I ride everywhere on my bike, but its the 2nd hand mountain bike my parents got me when i was 12. Thinking i might need a new one...

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 12:38
by Wisse
I <3 bikes.

I ride to the train station and back every day, using my mother's old girl's bike, it has a basket, where I can put my rucksack in.
I ride it on sunny day, in rain or in snow. I hate rain, but I utterly enjoy everything else.
My pants are always dirty couse of rusty chain, sometimes fresh oil, but mostly couse of stupid puddles.

I have very very old mountain bike also, which I outfitted with road tiers for my sea trip. Frame is way too small for me and made out of Chromoly steel.
I'm wishing to buy new one for ages, but I don't have money for something good. I'll once buy something for over 2KÔé¼, probably ultra light hardt-tail. We'll see...

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Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 13:16
by 1v0ry_k1ng
bike ownz, car people get fat

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 16:04
by Erom
I actually own a crap wallmart mountain bike from high school, but I still use it constantly. Parts are cheap, it's easy to repair, and it's expendable in case I wreck it, and where I live getting from A to B quickly often involves trails or road construction, so having a mountain bike instead of a road bike has saved my bacon quite a few times. And I bike this one 12 mile loop pretty often, so I dunno about 5km being the upper limit for a mountain bike. More like 15km or 20km, more than that you probably want a road bike.

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 18:06
by Panda
I like bicycles, but the place where I live isn't bicycler friendly. A bicycler might get hit by a car because there aren't really any bicycler paths that they can ride on.

It's too bad that we don't have many bicyclers around here either. I met some people who were riding their bicycles across the country before and they told me about their many adventures. It sounded like they really enjoyed their trip, but that it required that you be in very good shape. It would be nice to have friendly bicyclers like them around.

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 18:08
by Jazcash
Panda wrote:I like bicycles, but the place where I live isn't bicycler friendly. A bicycler might get hit by a car because there aren't really any bicycler paths that they can ride on.

It's too bad that we don't have many bicyclers around here either. I met some people who were riding their bicycles across the country before and they told me about their many adventures. It sounded like they really enjoyed their trip, but that it required that you be in very good shape. It would be nice to have friendly bicyclers like them around.
Cyclists* ^_^

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 18:30
by KaiserJ
my city is great for bikes; all major roads have a bike lane

and if you guys arent keen on mountain bikes, then you probably REALLY hate bmx bikes :D i got a haro racing MX bike after i cracked the frame on a norco bmx ten years ago (cheap canadian-built crap)

but yeah. pretty decent for short distance trips, riding up stairs, taking onto the bus, that sort of thing

i'd love to get a road bike but after riding with my friend a few times and using his dads bike (they are both bigtime into distance cycling, so they have crazy custom made bikes) i think i'd have to spend quite a bit to get something up to my standards

although wisse brings up a good point, even a crap bike can be useful, and you can get attached to it

those old granny bikes, we call them "iron riders"

beach cruiser bikes look pretty silly

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 18:54
by Sucky_Lord
Jazcash wrote:
Panda wrote:I like bicycles, but the place where I live isn't bicycler friendly. A bicycler might get hit by a car because there aren't really any bicycler paths that they can ride on.

It's too bad that we don't have many bicyclers around here either. I met some people who were riding their bicycles across the country before and they told me about their many adventures. It sounded like they really enjoyed their trip, but that it required that you be in very good shape. It would be nice to have friendly bicyclers like them around.
Cyclers* ^_^
*Cyclists?

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 18:56
by KaiserJ
Sucky_Lord wrote:
Jazcash wrote:
Panda wrote:bicycler
Cyclers* ^_^
*Cyclists?
*velocipedists

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 19:49
by Masure
Here's the bike I bought 3 monthes ago for my home/work route and more. It's a Lapierre road with flat bar < 9kg.

I'm going to make a 3 days trip for the first time. I just mounted the rack with paniers. A pain as it doesn't have anything to handle the rack.

Image

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 20:06
by Cremuss
bmx, bmx, bmx, bmx, bmx, bmx, bmx, bmx, bmx and bmx :-)

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 20:07
by SanadaUjiosan
KaiserJ wrote:i'd love to get a road bike but after riding with my friend a few times and using his dads bike (they are both bigtime into distance cycling, so they have crazy custom made bikes) i think i'd have to spend quite a bit to get something up to my standards

although wisse brings up a good point, even a crap bike can be useful, and you can get attached to it

those old granny bikes, we call them "iron riders"

beach cruiser bikes look pretty silly
Like most things, there is a point in bicycles where you're spending extra money more on brand names and shaving off grams of your vehicle. An entry-level road bike at the shop I work at goes for like ~$500. Of course, I'm not sure if this is "quite a bit" or not for your standards, but crazy custom made bikes are extraneous for most bicyclists. Of course if you get into it and want absolute performance, you can go that route.

The cruisers are pretty popular where I live. We sell them as our comfort bikes, and we get a lot of people both older and younger who like them. But again, I'm not in a bicycle-heavy area so most of our customers are leaning more towards comfort over performance.

Very nice setup Masure. I'm digging the flat-bar setup 8)

Here are some pics of my bikes, my two Cannondales.

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Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 20:53
by Masure
I like the first one :)

I became a fitness/cruiser style fanboy when I had to choose my bike. I don't understand why people buy mountain bike even if they only ride on road.

Re: Bicycles

Posted: 20 Jun 2010, 21:59
by 1v0ry_k1ng
pure racing bikes have a tendacy to have wank turning and a requirement to lean really far foward (for minimalising air resistance) which gives you a bad posture

mountain bikes are comfortable and manuverable, which is much better if you are going to be traveling at low speeds and stopping/turning frequently (eg, in a city)