Surly fat tire fun during winter storm Uri in TX.
Surly fat tire fun during winter storm Uri in TX.
2nd ride in 4 days. If I get back to 3 a week I will be happy, last time I did 2-3 rides a week for about 5 years before the knee injury (not from exercise but car related).
I really love this bike, it is so smooth and comfortable. I want to ride very long multi day trails with it.
I have better brakes I should install on it, and I'd love a 1x12 setup someday too.
AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:
Surly fat tire fun during winter storm Uri in TX.
So ah, your fork is installed backwards in this picture! Just loosen off the stem bolts and swing it back around, should help the handling of the bike.
AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:2nd ride in 4 days. If I get back to 3 a week I will be happy, last time I did 2-3 rides a week for about 5 years before the knee injury (not from exercise but car related).
I really love this bike, it is so smooth and comfortable. I want to ride very long multi day trails with it.
I have better brakes I should install on it, and I'd love a 1x12 setup someday too.
That's a great looking rig. I'm in the same boat trying to get out a bit more consistently, work travel huts that but I'm trying. I'm headed to Mosport this weekend but there'll be a bike on the roof (along with my spare track tires) to hopefully do some extra laps once the track goes cold in the evening.
In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :
I picked up a Canyon Endurance Al earlier this year. It's my first road bike and I definitely like it. I'll probably be picking up a gravel bike next year as the main ride, but for the price the Canyon is hard to beat.
Edit: Disk brakes are totally worth it. I got the bike so I could ride in the wet when the mountain bike trails are closed, and they keep working where rim brakes would slide. Plus more braking power in the dry
adam525i said:AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:
Surly fat tire fun during winter storm Uri in TX.
So ah, your fork is installed backwards in this picture! Just loosen off the stem bolts and swing it back around, should help the handling of the bike.
That will definitely increase wheel wheelbase! I will do that this weekend and play around on it. I've been wanting to try it at the beach.
Found some more interesting damage from last weekend's wreck, the shirt I was wearing. I left it to soak in a basin the same day since it was clearly covered in road grime, but it seems to have been left permanently stained in a brown-green color. Most interestingly a spot of the shirt where my shoulder hit the pavement melted! This wrinkly-looking part of the shirt is almost like the side of a thin plastic bottle in stiffness. It came out of the wash like this:
Total damage cost so far:
Helmet $60
Replacement outer lens for prescription-insert cycling glasses $5 (got scratched up after they flew off my face)
Shirt $10
The saddle, grips and headlight also took some cosmetic damage.
Just finish a sympathetic restoration on this, made a short thread of it over on the pedal sports topic.
Classic Pedal Sports.
I should just stay away from Craigslist.
I've been hugely interested in trails bmx for a long time, but for reasons and money, I've never actually ridden a trials bike. Today I found a killer deal on a very lightly used older 20" jobber, so I guess we'll see how it likes me.
First impressions
Its harder than it looks. Also I'm really out of shape. The brakes are very aggressive and the overall stance is pretty foreign. Should prove a good challenge and a convenient full body workout. Taking it slow so I don't aggravate my wrists. It may not end up being for me, but you never know until you try. And I'm going to give an honest effort.
Anyone need this? I had an E.T. model back in 1986 or so.
New road bike. It's aluminum so I don't have to worry about it so much but disc brakes and the wider rubber is a huge upgrade over my older road bikes. It's been 10 years since I ride over a 1000 miles in a year. If so get this bike to 2500 miles I will shop for a carbon endurance road bike with electronic shifting.
Im probably switching to brown bar tape for looks soon.
In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :
I'm looking forward to seeing it in person!
I posted in the other sub forum, but I picked this up Friday afternoon & put it together yesterday for under $200 all-in.
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
Those cranks look like they'd double as kickstands! Is that just a bmx thing?
TheTallOne17 said:In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
Those cranks look like they'd double as kickstands! Is that just a bmx thing?
That's an issue it took me a while to figure. I really prefer a specific crank length and handle bar width. I also like a smaller frame but don't mind if it has a longer reach. My torso length and shoulder to shoulder width far exceeds my leg length in relation to many others. Getting a comfy bike fit is important. I can tell from the photo I posted I need to level my saddle a bit too. After riding it a bit more, I may look at the bar angle and the position of the shifter and hoods too.
This trials thing is fun. Spent half an hour out with the kids. They ride literal circles around me while I attempt to track stand, rock, and pivot. I definitely favor turning left in any maneuver, probably from living frontside all those years skateboarding. Learning proper brake control and timing too. Lots of little technical stuff that hopefully can be orchestrated into actual riding. I dig it.
I did a thing today. I swore I'd wait to get a new race bike until after I did my first timed event in 9 years, but.... I told myself I wanted electronic shifting on my next race bike. I saw an ad for a race bike in my size with SRAM Force AXS 12 spd.... new.... for about the same price as the groupset by itself. Don't tell my wife!
The bike is SRAM Rival AXS. Not as light or expensive as force but it will still be my first electronically shifted bike. I confessed my weak moment to my wife today.
I ride 800-1000 miles per month and do my shifting with cables and old school derailleurs. I still haven't grasped the benefit of wifi shifting.
Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) said:I ride 800-1000 miles per month and do my shifting with cables and old school derailleurs. I still haven't grasped the benefit of wifi shifting.
Better adjustability and the ability to snap through multiple gears (sprockets?) faster than a cable system. Not worth hundreds of dollars IMO, plus I like to keep a bike as mechanical and battery-independent as possible.
I've seriously looked into building a regen braking system for a bike to charge a battery for lights etc. to reduce dependence on total-loss electrical systems, right now the generators to do it aren't available off the shelf, something that could harvest a lot of energy quickly into a battery pack (maybe through a supercap bank?) with pass-through output could do the trick, I'm thinking with rubber wheels that squeeze onto a brake rotor before the pads make contact...but it wouldn't be light weight.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
I am with you man. I don't want anything that needs charging on my bike. I ride too much to have to worry about it.
I have heard what the manufacturers and fans say about electronic drivetrains. I also know that the manufacturers need to figure out ways of getting people to buy new bicycles and quit using their old ones. And I know my old school Shimano derailleurs will rake up and down the gears as fast as anyone can use. The purported added speed of shifting doesn't equate into much in reality IMO. Even if an electronic shifter will move the derailleur ten gears in one click, the reality is that the chain has to climb up or down the cassette those ten steps and that requires a little bit of time and revolutions. I can manually shift as quickly as the chain can jump up or down the cassette. I think my 105 stuff will jump three gears with one long throw of the lever as it is.
As far as the electrical charging thing, have you considered a front wheel with a dynamo hub ? Shimano sells a variety of them, as do other brands. You can use them to run your lights or electronic devices.
https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/bike-dynamos/
https://www.amazon.com/SHIMANO-Dynamo-DH-3N72-Generator-Hub/dp/B0029LD6D6
The last bike I ever owned was a Schwinn 5 speed Stingray. I out grew it and eventually gave it to the poor next door kid who's parents couldn't afford any kind of bike for him. I always wanted to slap one of those gas engines on the back wheel as seen on the back of comic books that you could earn if you got 15,000 points selling some scam product. This is what I might consider 55 years later if I ever wanted a mechanical transport contraption. 
Why walk to pedal when you can pedal to walk? Behold, the chariot of the hipster gods! 
Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) said:I ride 800-1000 miles per month and do my shifting with cables and old school derailleurs. I still haven't grasped the benefit of wifi shifting.
Time and tech always marches on. I way prefer disc brakes to old rim brakes, but maybe I'm being silly. Electronic shifting seems to be fine on the grand tours and the classics, so I'm going to see what the fuss is all about.
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