The bicycle thread

[8tg]

Today, beach

This was a fuckin slog, lot of climbing uphill on loose sand

the bit through the dunes in the woods is amazing though, I’ll have to come back here with the full face or chest mount to record it on video because it’s super fast, super fun

Just the climb from the beach back up the biggest dune to the main trail is a nightmare 

 

[wONKEyeYEs]

It boggles the mind...

 

 

 

[Motifator]

I'm seeing hardtail addicts... 

I'll be watching this thread from now on... planning to pick a hardtail for myself.

Full suspension is sold so I want something to get me back on 2 wheels.

[Motifator]

Here we go... now on with the assembly... 

 

[YellowJersey]

13 hours ago, Motifator said:

Here we go... now on with the assembly... 

 

I got my bike back from the shop last weekend. They had to put an extender to raise the handlebars up high enough for my fit. The joys of being tall.

[Motifator]

53 minutes ago, YellowJersey said:

I got my bike back from the shop last weekend. They had to put an extender to raise the handlebars up high enough for my fit. The joys of being tall.

Yeah I'm around 6 foot to 95 kilos, this thing is pretty low down to the ground. 26 inch, 46 cm from the post to the bar. Pretty much a semi hardcore hardtail. Like it's not as much professional as a custom carbon, but it's still a nice bike IMHO. Was kind of cheap for what it is, I'm going to install a Suntour SP12 to the rear to absorb the shocks better. It's going to increase weight (bike is 11.9kg stock), but hey, beats butt pain...

[wONKEyeYEs]

45 minutes ago, Motifator said:

I'm going to install a Suntour SP12

I was considering that unit also.

Let us know how it goes.

[YellowJersey]

1 hour ago, Motifator said:

Yeah I'm around 6 foot to 95 kilos, this thing is pretty low down to the ground. 26 inch, 46 cm from the post to the bar. Pretty much a semi hardcore hardtail. Like it's not as much professional as a custom carbon, but it's still a nice bike IMHO. Was kind of cheap for what it is, I'm going to install a Suntour SP12 to the rear to absorb the shocks better. It's going to increase weight (bike is 11.9kg stock), but hey, beats butt pain...

I'm around 190cm. I should have got a size 61, but got a 58 instead as it was on clearance and $700 off. I also prefer a more upright riding position as I do long-distance endurance riding, usually between 100-162km a ride, hence the extender.

 I prefer aluminium over carbon. You can dent it, smash it, scratch it, scrape it, and it keeps going. To me, it's the sweet spot between steel and carbon without the price of titanium.

 

[8tg]

Project bike

1988 (presumably) Marin Eldridge Grade

remaining items are to replace the headset, new tires and new tubes, gotta sort out the front derailleur 

been a decent bit of work but nothing insane, total list detailing an entire tear down and rebuild

-rebuilt the headset, which needs to be replaced anyway

-rebuilt the front hub

-new chain

-new saddle

-new old stock trek system 3 pedals from 1990

-replaced shifters with new shifters

-replaced brakes with tektro v brake calipers and levers

-new cables all around

-replaced the cup and cone bottom bracket with a new sealed cartridge bottom bracket

-new crank bolts, how exciting

-unstuck the seat post

-disassembled the seat post and clamp assembly, cleaned and polished all the contact surfaces 

-if anything makes contact there’s grease on it

-if anything is supposed to have grease on it, it has extra grease on it

-general clean and polish of the entire thing, though I’m not looking for a full restoration with the paintwork 

-entire inside has been treated to mitigate rust, was not actually that bad in there when j got the BB out

 

supposedly this bike survived being underwater multiple times in multiple hurricanes, rust damage is pretty minimal even looking in there with a borescope

hardest part was the drive side bottom bracket cup which took some substantial effort to remove

[YellowJersey]

It's that time of year again! Time to annoy every one here with my rides.

 

 Today was the first ride of the season. 77km in 3 hours 38 minutes. I was only originally aiming for 60km, but I was feeling pretty good around the 30km mark. I regretted it around the 50km mark, though. My legs feel like spaghetti noodles right now. I didn't do any training or anything over the winter, so this is my first time back on the bike since October. I am really feeling it.

Total this year so far: 77km

[Motifator]

Here she is back up... 

 

[RollyShed]

On 3/31/2024 at 1:42 PM, 8tg said:

-new old stock trek system 3 pedals from 1990

Pedals with toe clips. How does anyone ride (properly) without them?

 

Not sure if I have some from early 1980s (be metal ones) and leather straps tend to fall apart at that age.

[8tg]

40 minutes ago, RollyShed said:

Pedals with toe clips. How does anyone ride (properly) without them?

Usually by keeping more pressure on the pedals. I otherwise prefer platform pedals.

other bike, things I’ve been doing with it, 1989 muddy fox pathfinder 

tldr ups mangled it in shipping so now it’s running a Shimano rear freewheel and Altus derailleur, temporarily. Basically the bars got smashed so the shifters didn’t work and started breaking apart, so I put Shimano shifters on there, but then it’s Shimano pull ratios on old suntour Accushift so it didn’t work very well, it’s all gonna get replaced with deore lx components from the early 90’s anyway

it’s fast, it’s got cool original accessories 

[YellowJersey]

3 hours ago, RollyShed said:

Pedals with toe clips. How does anyone ride (properly) without them?

 

Not sure if I have some from early 1980s (be metal ones) and leather straps tend to fall apart at that age.

I use clipless SPD pedals. Nice and durable for both the pedal and cleat compared to SPD-SL cleats. They take a bit of getting used to; I fell over a few times stopping at stop signs or stop lights when I first started, but now I couldn't ride without them.

[RollyShed]

Clipless are good but need the right shoes to be worn. Nip down to the shop in sneakers, no clip-on.

 

As for "Usually by keeping more pressure on the pedals.", with clips the whole or near whole rotation can have power put in to the pedal while needing to press on the pedal all the time means less of the rotation of the pedal has power going to it.

 

Does the person without clips use higher gears?

With  clips, lower gears and a faster ride with seemingly less effort.

[YellowJersey]

102km today in 5 hours and 2 minutes. Absolute nightmare of a headwind on the way back.

Total this year: 179km

[Motifator]

How would the Frenchman say.. Bonsour, Monseur Lapierre. Aimer Lapierre... a la Aimer Lapierre. Here, another angle.

It's just way too zappy. The front end turns so fast, and when you getting it up to speed.. it kicks off faster than mosquitos on a garbage bin... the brakes aren't the best though. The rear end might as well lock down cause it goes so damn fast. My Trek EX6 had ABP on the rear brake, basically a tech like ABS which helps with the lockout. This does not have it, but it's also about 2 times faster than that heavy dual sus, on a straight line. The Trek was a burden in my hand... literally. Biking is so much more fun with this thing. I get to do BMX tricks because the thing is 12 kilos tops.

Btw, I fell off it. Nothing happened, part of it fell on concrete. No dents or anything big. So yes, it's more reliable than carbon...

I blame it on my speed and lack of training. Has been at least 2-3 years since I sold the Trek.