Official GRM Cycling Thread

Donalson, I think you and I could get along, bike-wise. I'd buy you a beer.

I personally value long-haul comfort over pure speed, but I like to keep up too, so my bikes are steel-framed lightweights with fat tires. I get some odd looks from the local spandex crowd, but some people get it.

My wife has a Wisconsin-built Trek 560 converted to STI Dura Ace 8 speed shifting, with a 650b wheel conversion, 32c tires. Her comfort bike is a Carlton-built Raleigh Mixte.

I ride a Rawland rSogn. 650b multi-use bike with low-trail geometry and a big honkin front rack. 42c tires, full stainless fenders, friction thumbies, on-one Mary bars, Ideale saddle.

My go-fast bike is a 92 Bridgestone XO1, with moustache bars, 26x1.4 tires, bar-end shifters, and a wide-range double crank.

Road only here.

Scattante Race with mavic deeps of some sort currently. Before that I was a die hard softride guy for personal rides and a CAD for in a group.

Softride looked like this but with no paint and spin X rims. 17K miles on it and the upper mount failed and I turned the bike over to the neighbor kid who welded it back up and still rides it 8 years later. Still wish they made bikes like this.

SilverFleet wrote: Looks like I'm going for another ride tonight with the wife and the dog. before I can ride, I have to figure out what's wrong with the brakes on my Schwinn. The rears take a lot of effort to work, and the brake lever sticks. Probably some small adjustments needed. Like I said, it was put together by some acne-riddled kid at Target.

Sounds like maybe the cable is getting hung up? I'd pull the inner cable from its sleeve and lube it a bit--we used to use a dab of grease. If it's not that, it's hanging up somewhere. Or use it as an excuse to buy a new bike.

In reply to wearymicrobe:

I did a short ride on a SoftRide about 20 years ago - was definitely one of the most comfortable road bikes I've ever ridden. A close second was the short-lived Trek Y-Foil.

I'm a cyclist. BMX, road, mtn, DH, touring - I've pretty much done it all. Even owned a cyclo-cross and a track bike for awhile (although never raced on the track). The current fleet (I won't bore you specific build specs unless someone really cares to know):

2014 Intense Carbine 275 "Enduro" bike. Longish travel (150mm rear, 160mm front), 27.5"/650b wheels and slack angles. Currently set up for DH riding (just came home from a DH race at Windham a couple of weeks ago).

2012 Niner EMD (Eat My Dust) 29er. My main hardtail XC bike. Soon to be replaced with a generic carbon fiber hard tail frame.

1997 Colnago Master BiTitan. Road bike. Pretty much unchanged since I bought/built it in 1999.

1998 Santa Cruz Chameleon. Dirt jump/slalom bike. Set up with 100mm travel fork (was considered a long-travel hardtail back in the day...). Single front ring with chain guide.

1998 Gary Fisher "Lush Rush" BMX. 20" BMX bike. Upgrades to cranks and wheels. Not ridden much, but not worth enough to sell.

Retired/semi-retired:

'97 Independent Fabrications Deluxe. Full XTR mtn bike.

'98 Yeti Lawwill DH-6. One of my first DH bikes. Currently set up with parts off my last DH racing bike.

Coming this fall: Intense 951 Evo DH bike:

After that, I want to build a proper long distance touring bike.

Some awesome rides on this forum that's for sure!

Back when it had super uncomfortable drops & an origin-8 back wheel (Was waiting for the Mavic to show up still)

I just picked up this bike a couple of weekends ago, a 1985-ish Torpado Super Racing:

I am also rebuilding my dad's old Schwinn Sportabout. It needs new bearings everywhere, new wheels and tires, and a new fork:

I used to cycle a lot when I was a kid and now I am just getting back into it. Once I am done with the Schwinn I will get another vintage bike to be a grocery-getter with fenders, racks, etc.

bastomatic wrote: Donalson, I think you and I could get along, bike-wise. I'd buy you a beer. I personally value long-haul comfort over pure speed, but I like to keep up too, so my bikes are steel-framed lightweights with fat tires. I get some odd looks from the local spandex crowd, but some people get it. My wife has a Wisconsin-built Trek 560 converted to STI Dura Ace 8 speed shifting, with a 650b wheel conversion, 32c tires. Her comfort bike is a Carlton-built Raleigh Mixte. I ride a Rawland rSogn. 650b multi-use bike with low-trail geometry and a big honkin front rack. 42c tires, full stainless fenders, friction thumbies, on-one Mary bars, Ideale saddle. My go-fast bike is a 92 Bridgestone XO1, with moustache bars, 26x1.4 tires, bar-end shifters, and a wide-range double crank.

I dig the 650b conversion... but didn't see the need when I can run 700x32's on my 560 frame (also Wisconsin built... with silver solder even :)... she runs 9 spd because thats what I had... the ultegra brifters need new hoods and I can't find them anywhere so I picked up some campy shifters... going to try out the shimergo thing.

for bars I had some knock of on-one mary bars on an old '88 gt avalance that I used as a commuter some years back... good bars, the crook gave a nice forward tuck position... i prefer the much uglier titc/jones bars for the additional hand positions... prefer it to the newer jones bar because the crook is where I like to be most of the time but the design does limit your shifter choices which is ok because I really like the mtb brifters on this setup... i've got a spare set of XT ones but prefer the deore because of the rounded shape over the hood area which is another common grip position... the xt are more boxy... but they stay in the parts bin just in case... not easy to find these things now lol.

and just for giggles... I came across this pic a while back... was my first road bike back in '00 or so... I didn't know much about them at the time... this was hodge podge build by the LBS in Panama city FL... they did a lot of Tri stuff... I commuted on it to work for a while it was really too small for me (58cm I think) but tubular wheels and all that carbon sucked me right in lol.. I sold it for more than I paid on ebay so it wasn't all a loss lol...

SilverFleet wrote: Looks like I'm going for another ride tonight with the wife and the dog. before I can ride, I have to figure out what's wrong with the brakes on my Schwinn. The rears take a lot of effort to work, and the brake lever sticks. Probably some small adjustments needed. Like I said, it was put together by some acne-riddled kid at Target.

like mentioned before... sounds like a cable... got my sons trek 24" bike thing and could hardly shift it... pulled the cable and they where frayed all over the place... new cable and it shifts like butta...

David S. Wallens wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: Looks like I'm going for another ride tonight with the wife and the dog. before I can ride, I have to figure out what's wrong with the brakes on my Schwinn. The rears take a lot of effort to work, and the brake lever sticks. Probably some small adjustments needed. Like I said, it was put together by some acne-riddled kid at Target.

Sounds like maybe the cable is getting hung up? I'd pull the inner cable from its sleeve and lube it a bit--we used to use a dab of grease. If it's not that, it's hanging up somewhere. Or use it as an excuse to buy a new bike.

Well, thanks for the tip, but I found my brake issues are related to a BENT REAR WHEEL. What. The. berkeley.

So yeah, not happy. I have no clue how that could even happen, and I didn't even take it off any sweet jumps. I think I'm going to eventually replace the wheels and just sell the damn thing. This is why we buy bikes from real bike stores (and Craigslist) and not Target and Walmart.

After this happened, I busted out that old 20 year old Mongoose I have, pumped up the ancient tires (which should be replaced soon) and ran with that. So about 3 more miles of trouble-free, nostalgia-filled riding happened tonight. That damn bike is so basic and rides so nice. The only thing I ever replaced on it in 20 years was... get this... the rear wheel. The hub exploded, so I had the bike shop replace the whole deal. It wasn't bent, though.

So, where can I get a cheap set of wheels for my craptastic "Schwinn"? it's got 26" wheels.

nashbar? Maybe? I'm not sure if anything on there would work. I've gotten several sets off ebay for various bikes. Or just go to your non-big chain LBS and ask what they've got used

In reply to SilverFleet:

Is it just a bit wobbly, to the point that it's grabbing the brake pads? Or is it taco'd? Getting it tensioned and trued is definitely less expensive than replacing the wheel.

Wheels can take a fair amount of load in the vertical plane, but side loads, not so much. A relatively minor side hit can knock a wheel out of true. However, if it's popping spokes left and right it's time to replace the wheels or have them relaced.

out of true wheel will do it lol... if you understand the concept of truing a wheel it's pretty easy to get it true enough to be ok... heck my sons bike had a tacoed wheel that I had to loosen all the spokes and bend the rim to get it to where I could "true" it up...

that being said... you should be able to find a wheel pretty inexpensively on ebay or even at your LBS if its beyond fixing... if you do have a LBS true it check how much, my LBS here does it for $15 but I've been to a shop that costs $35... my local shop will build a wheelset for that.

I'll have to look into getting it trued. It's not completely taco'ed, but it has quite the bend. I figured since it was a Pacific Cycle "Schwinn" that this would not be possible.

Either way, I think that fixing and ditching would probably be my best bet at this point. Pretty disappointed, but I can always replace it later if I get more serious with riding again.

Here is the fleet (plus the mother in laws Trek Hybrid) in the garage at the old house...

I can ride a bike, but I know nothing about road biking. My old man recently retired, and he's totally into it now. He's buying a new bike and giving me his old one, which is a "Trek." So I guess now I'm going to be into biking?

Anyhow. Learn me.

There's tons of bike threads on here, which would be great to use if the search function worked. Google search works better.

Current stable is a Giant TCR3 carbon road bike with 105/Ultegra drivetrain, all stock but for an ISM Adamo road seat and an aero bar that doesn't fit quite right. Also a Wally-world cruiser tandem, which is great on vacations and for annual Tour-De-Bar.

On the wish-list is a general beater / dog exercise bike, something like a 24" BMX or Free-ride type frame with a 3spd internal hub and belt drive. And I'm thinking of getting a fitness or commuter type bike to put a kid seat on so I can exercise with my wife when the little one is stable enough to ride.

My very first project was building up a cro-moly GT Team Avalanche frame set, which I did in 1995 or 1996 while in college. Its hanging in the basement and occasionally get ridden. Last spring we did the Va Creeper and it was the longest I've been on it in a decade. Components are a hodge podge of Shimano XT and STX, with some generic bike store stuff added in, no suspension.

My current stable:

2011 Trek Madone 4.6 - looks like this but with white saddle and one white and one blue bottle cage. It's the Plastic Fantastic, light and fast but comfy for mile after a pro fit and an upgrade to 25mm GrandPrix 4000s tires.

2007 Specialized FSR-XC Pro - the fun bike. I love it because it's balance suits the way I ride - rowdy XC. Loves launching roots and small drops, bashing rock gardens and steep, iffy climbs.

2004(?) Trek 6800 hard tail that has been converted to a commuter / backroad wanderer / gravel / adventure bike. Really liking this bike right now. I was riding the 6.5 miles to work everyday before my heart attack, and when they let me back on the bike it will probably be rides around the block on this beast. Heavy, but a great ride.

Past horses include a 1999 Speshy Hardrock (steel), a Scattante Team Alu/carbon road bike built with Chorus, and a Niner One9 Scandium single speed 29er with carbon fork (Full Rigid Babee!) The Niner was one fast bike but not playful enough. Long chainstays and sharp angles kept it glued to the ground and it just didn't feel right to me. Which sucked, 'cause a 19lb rigid MTB is one helluva ride...

Ian F wrote: In reply to wearymicrobe: I did a short ride on a SoftRide about 20 years ago - was definitely one of the most comfortable road bikes I've ever ridden. A close second was the short-lived Trek Y-Foil.

I dream about building a Y-Foil in Tour colors, 8 speed, with say a modern set of 420 climbing lightweights.

I have an unknown year Trek OCLV 9800. Front suspended, rear is hard.. with it's c/f frame, it is still a light bike by today's standards.

And it's confy.. I can do dozens of miles in a day with only my leg muscles to limit me (and time)

Comment on truing a bicycle rim: It amazes me that on a forum known as "Grassroots Motorsports", a wonderful place where people build entire race cars from junkyard parts and duct tape, that it is deemed necessary to consult an "expert" on the subject of truing a bike rim. It ain't rocket science, people!

http://sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/truing.html

1988RedT2 wrote: Comment on truing a bicycle rim: It amazes me that on a forum known as "Grassroots Motorsports", a wonderful place where people build entire race cars from junkyard parts and duct tape, that it is deemed necessary to consult an "expert" on the subject of truing a bike rim. It ain't rocket science, people! http://sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/truing.html

You can check spoke tension with a guitar pick, BTW.

Just finished a ride on my only remaining bike, a 92 pinnarello Treviso with 9 speed Campagnolo and a OG Powertap rear wheel.

Well, it ain't rocket science, but we ain't buildin' rockets neither.

I had plenty of people true their own wheel, and it would be straight as a berkeleying arrow but out of round enough for the tire to rub the brake pads, or out of dish enough to rub the frame.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

I can true a wheel well enough. Lucky for me, I have a Park pro truing stand, which does make it easier.

Wheel building, on the other hand... while I've built a few that worked well enough for DH racing a decade ago (when DH wheels were considered wear items), I learned enough to realize wheel building is a skill that needs to be practiced and I simply didn't build enough wheels to ever get good at it. So I'm fine with paying others who do build wheels all the time. Granted, all of the wheels I've been buying lately are pre-built.

Sky_Render wrote: I can ride a bike, but I know **nothing** about road biking. My old man recently retired, and he's totally into it now. He's buying a new bike and giving me his old one, which is a "Trek." So I guess now I'm going to be into biking? Anyhow. Learn me.

Repeat after me: FIT. IS. EVERYTHING. ON. A. ROAD. BIKE.

A road bike that doesn't fit will be a miserable experience - much more so than an ill-fitting mountain bike. And we're talking centimeters - sometimes even millimeters - between a bike fitting you and not fitting you.

Find a good roadie shop. Cough up the $100 (give or take) and spend an hour or so getting fitted to the bike. Your back, knees, neck, etc... will thank you.