bicycles

Bingenito · « **Reply #40 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 12:44 pm »

Quote

PhilNYC wrote:
I definitely expected to see a lot of guys into bikes, but I'm definitely surprised to see a preference of mtn over road...

I am not surprised about the popularity of mountain bikes. For the average person they work out great because you can ride them anywhere. Some locations I have lived the roads are so bad it is like riding off road. There is no way I would take a road bike out on pavement like this (not without spare tubes).

I have 2 sets of wheels for my mtn bike so that if the roads are really bad were I am going to ride I swap wheels and take out the mtn bike. For example riding through small towns that have high curbs and busted streets is always fun to hop over the curbs and not worry about busting your road bike.

PhilNYC · « **Reply #41 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 01:45 pm »

Quote from: Bingenito

I am not surprised about the popularity of mountain bikes. ...

I agree, but I was surprised because most of the audiophiles that I know who are into bikes are into road biking far more than mountain. Must be all the tweaking...

Carlman · « **Reply #42 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 02:00 pm »

I could never be a 'road wienie'

even though I've tried it a few times... I was into BMX for a long time. Mountain Bikes weren't an option until 10 years after I started riding... They didn't exist unless you made one yourself. I could never get comfortable on the 10-speed's of the day... and still don't care for the totally bent-over riding position... I didn't like shifting on the downtube or the handlebars... It was all work and no fun... and tricks were really limited.

I love technical trails, downhills, and mud. It gets me pumped. Riding through the city at night is fun too... I'm into the recreational aspect of biking, though.. 'extreme' recreation maybe...

But, I've never enjoyed the sport aspect... training on a roadbike is like watching paint dry to me... Unless there's a hot chick in front of me.

-C

Bingenito · « **Reply #43 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 02:21 pm »

I used to race BMX for years. Back then a road Cyclecraft frame and fork with with various components and gearing based on the track.

BMX is great fun but the injuries are not.

Carlman · « **Reply #44 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 02:59 pm »

Quote from: Bingenito

I used to race BMX for years. Back then a road Cyclecraft frame and fork with with various components and gearing based on the track.

BMX is great fun but the injuries are not.

I rode my 2-speed Huffy to some BMX victories.

But I only raced for a year. I wasn't allowed to do it anymore for various reasons. I thought the injuries were part of the fun.

I don't know how I'm still alive... especially after I got into ramps and half-pipe's... My mom took out a life-insurance policy on me when I was in my teens because she was so scared I was going to kill myself on my bike. I built my first mountainbike on a 10-speed frame. I called it the nutcracker.

I'm getting too old to ride like I used to... which is why I haven't ridden as much... the fun in falling is gone... That's why I'm planning to get back into shape and 'ride again'... This time I'll wear a helmet!

-C

Bingenito · « **Reply #45 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 03:12 pm »

Quote

I'm getting too old to ride like I used to... which is why I haven't ridden as much... the fun in falling is gone... That's why I'm planning to get back into shape and 'ride again'... This time I'll wear a helmet!

LOL How true this is. When I first got my MTN bike I took it to the local park and was riding like I used to when I was 16. Then I can up on a few bails of hay and decided to bunny hop over them. I used to be able to hop over a trash can without a ramp. Needless to say 15 yrs later I lost the touch and busted my ass.

Now back then I was around 160 lbs and knew who to take a fall. Now at 220 lbs I got the wind knocked out of me and layed there laughing at myself. Good times

PhilNYC · « **Reply #46 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 03:13 pm »

Quote from: Carlman

I'm getting too old to ride like I used to... which is why I haven't ridden as much... the fun in falling is gone... That's why I'm planning to get back into shape and 'ride again'... This time I'll wear a helmet!...

Smells like a "road weenie" in the making...!

Carlman · « **Reply #47 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 03:18 pm »

oopsy, duplicate post, please delete.

Carlman · « **Reply #48 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 03:19 pm »

Quote from: PhilNYC

Quote from: Carlman
I'm getting too old to ride like I used to... which is why I haven't ridden as much... the fun in falling is gone... That's why I'm planning to get back into shape and 'ride again'... This time I'll wear a helmet!...

Smells like a "road weenie" in the making...!

OH NO!

Man, the truth hurts sometimes... I'm also considering buying a Toyota Avalon... I must have had my mid-life crisis at 33.

.. I'm still in my 30's and damn it, that's where I'm staying!

Sounds like Bingenito and I had very similar reality checks.... 160... man, I remember those days. I ate rice, drank beer, and rode 20 miles a day sometimes just for fun. My legs were like boulders... but I had no real upper-body strength... Then I stopped riding, gained weight at a desk job... and now as Phil put it... am a 'road weenie' in the making.....

too funny.

-C

BikeWNC · « **Reply #49 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 05:15 pm »

My bikes:

Road
Independent Fabrication Ti Crown Jewel w/Dura Ace triple 9sp
Calfee Luna Pro w/Dura Ace 10sp

Mountain
Independent Fabrication steel Deluxe hardtail
Bridgestone MB-4 rigid

Height 6'3" Weight 175#

Andy

PhilNYC · « **Reply #50 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 05:20 pm »

Quote from: BikeWNC

My bikes:

Road
Independent Fabrication Ti Crown Jewel w/Dura Ace triple 9sp
Calfee Luna Pro w/Dura Ace 10sp

Mountain
Independent Fabrication steel Deluxe hardtail
Bridgestone MB-4 rigid

Height 6'3" Weight 175#

Andy

Andy...you have impeccable taste in bikes! Love the Independent Fabrications stuff... The IF guys were the builders at Fat Chance before Chris C sold the company to Serotta (and left his builders without jobs). If I were to ever dump my Fat Chance, the IF Deluxe would be the replacement...

Bemopti123 · « **Reply #51 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 05:49 pm »

Wow, nice post.

It is darn hard to ride in NYC....there are too many cars and I just do not see the point of "riding" my bike in a car to go to Central Park, to ride like some yuppees....in their 5K fully loaded DeRosas and especially Colnagos.

I wonder if there are any decent places I can ride at a leisure pace, without danger of becoming road kill close to NYC...I miss single tracks as when I used to go to school in U of Kansas...Lawrence.

Going back to equipment:

1-Road: 51 cm Bianchi Eros 1996 with affordable all Campy group, below the Veloce line. All steel lugged frame, red. Tires: the only things that are made outside....Indonesia or was it Malaysia...rubber land!

2-Mtn: 15" Kona Lavadome Steel...also 1996 model with some STX and LX Shimano components, orange and sky blue...Manitou shock added afterwards.

Lusting and fantasizing on: Single speed road bikes or

even exotic trackbikes.

Any recommendation of decent roads and single tracks around Metropolitan NYC would be great.

If I were to move to Queens, maybe I could join some other members for a mini mass ride...Do not alert the NYPD dudes!.

PhilNYC · « **Reply #52 on:** 8 Apr 2005, 05:56 pm »

Bemo,

A good option for a decent road ride is to take Riverside Drive up the west side of Manhattan up to and over the George Washington Bridge...then get on 9W north all the way up to Nyack. Depending on where you start in NYC, it's about a 50-60 mile round-trip ride with a nice place to stop for lunch on the river in Nyack. Not much in the ways of traffic, and a *lot* of other cyclists on the route if you run into trouble (eg. a flat) or need people to draft off of.

And of course, I'm only a mile off of 9W, so you can always stop by to hear some tunes...

Bemopti123 · « **Reply #53 on:** 9 Apr 2005, 12:49 am »

Thanks for the tip Phil! Maybe someday, some of us NYC Raver should get together for a ride. It would be swell, I am sure. Where is Setman, I remember that he was also getting into bikes.

Paul

beat · « **Reply #54 on:** 9 Apr 2005, 02:08 am »

wow,
how did I miss this thread..I'm an old school mountainbiker. I've been riding on the same frame since the early nineties. It is a Klein. I have swapped out about every part on it a couple times over I think. Let's see.....thinking...thinking...ah, the seat post is original! I'm on a set of mavic rims, xtr hubs right now, AMP research fork and beyond that who cares. It is all peripheral by my thinking. A place to put your butt and grab the bars. I'm still riding on my trimmed down bars from back in my
San Francisco days of dodging traffic and splitting lanes while taking trips to mt Tam, Diablo, and Weekend getaways to Santa Cruz or Anguin. Now, I have trailheads at the end of the street. Real nice singletrack with little traffic under ponderosa or in the blazing heat..take your pick. I can't complain. I try to get out to Moab at least once a year...YeaH!!!! I'm considering a new bike finally. Thinkin' Yeti.

eric the red · « **Reply #55 on:** 9 Apr 2005, 08:08 am »

BeBop's touring adventure sounds alot like mine. Spent 12 weeks in Europe in the summer of 82 on my Bianchi touring bike. Flew to London from Minneapolis with our bikes then took the ferry across the English Channel to Calais France. Rode down the eastern side of France to San Sebastian on the Atlantic coast then took a train to Madrid and spent 3 weeks attending World Cup 82 football matches including the Final. Took the train up to Barcelona then rode down the Mediterranean coast to Marseille where my friend continued down to to Italy and I headed north. Rode solo through lovely France Germany Luxembourg Belgium and finally Amsterdam for 10 days where I finally ran out of money and had to call my dad for plane fare home. Met lots of great great people on that trip and fell in love with France forever. Cheap nice camping grounds are everywhere in Europe and biking through the back roads of Europe where no tourists go is MAGIC. Boy was I fit after that trip

BeeBop · « **Reply #56 on:** 9 Apr 2005, 10:35 am »

Oh yeah. Those back roads winding through little villages, up and down gentle hills, little old ladies with baguettes of bread in their baskets. When we got to Italy had a big discussion about whether to go south and maybe to Greece, or east along the Riviera and finaly decided to go east and come back later to do the other route 'cause we didn't have enough money to reach Greece. Famous last words, sigh... Never got back. We stayed in youth hostels and pensions. We had hardly anything with us but a change of clothes, sleeping bags and cameras. I know what you mean about running out of money. You just can't make yourself go back can you? Did you go through the Brenner Pass to get to Germany? One hell of a climb, but what a ride down on the other side!

BTW anybody's interested, here's another bike forum

PhilNYC · « **Reply #57 on:** 9 Apr 2005, 02:08 pm »

Btw - for NYers, here's a website that describes some of the local routes for some decent road rides:

http://www.roberts-1.com/bikehudson/r/nyc/index.htm

speaker · « **Reply #58 on:** 9 Apr 2005, 02:25 pm »

Quote from: PhilNYC

Coincidentally, the subject of bikes (both road and moutain) has come up multiple times this week in conversations I've had with audiophiles. Thought I'd see if other ACers are into biking...

My fart around bike is a Giant, Rincon SE cheapie. My long-term project is a '61 Schwinn Jaguar resto w/ 3-spd Sturmey-Archer coaster conversion. My short-term one is a fully brazed Schwinn Paramount frame built into a fixie.

speaker

eric the red · « **Reply #59 on:** 9 Apr 2005, 05:46 pm »

I'm going back next year for three weeks to Germany for World Cup 06 with one of my best friend who I met in Madrid in 84. This time around I'm going to rent one of those small motorcycles everyone rides over there and cruise the back roads of Germany and Switzerland in between games.