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Show us your bicycles

#81
Quote:
Originally Posted by mat gregory View Post
Cyclocross....eerrrgggghh, never again. Did a full season and never did any good at it. Too cold, too much running and the sprint is at the start...whats with that!?
Cold was not very often a problem in sunny So. California - wet sometimes, but not much in the way of real cold. Cyclocross has its own demands that are different than any other form of bike racing. Running (as well as mounting and dismounting) efficiently is something that has to be trained every bit as much as the cycling.

What do you mean, "sprint at the start"??!! 'Cross is a 45 minute sprint with a few hard parts mixed in for fun!!
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Hahahaha...I raced a season of 'cross in Sacramento and Reno. Kind of a shock coming from Seattle's scene, realizing that it is possible to race without being wet and cold, and eventually concluding that cyclocross is just not the same without sloppy mud and thigh-busting 100 meter runups. Runups are the best part!! :hyper:
EricF said:
I've always described 'cross as "riding as hard as you can to recover from running as hard as you can".
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Sounds about right...well that and "rugby on a bike" is another good one.

That's a sweet bike, mat! how much does it weigh?
 
#82
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#86
I have a Specialized Stumpjumper hard tail. It's a few years old but gets me round the trails but I do want to upgrade to something full suspension in the next couple of years. I also have a Giant TCR road bike that has had little or no mileage since I got it. I'm thinking about selling or trading it in on a new MTB.

Oh and for those with spandex issues here's a pic for you. No its not me.

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#88
I am not all "serious" like it seems most here are, I like to ride for "fun" and enjoy the side benefits (exercise, fresh air, saving on gas money, reducing my carbon footprint, etc).

Here is my ride to work this morning, a true "commuter" bike, Kona Smoke. Love it to death, rides like a dream, and treats me well while I'm on it.
 
#90
Eublet said:
Friction shifters! Old school, and very cool! Nice bike indeed!
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Yup. "Adjust for minimum clicking and grinding."

The oldest part of the bike is the TTT handlebar, from my very first 10-speed bike about 35 years ago. The downtube shifters are a little younger than that. The crankset is a Sugino Mighty Compe that I bought in the late 70s.

I bought the frame in about 1989 or 1990. I got the Weinmann brakes and the headset shortly thereafter from the same shop in Connecticut.

The wheels are relatively new, about 8 years old. I got those at a shop in Fountain Valley, Calif., about a week before riding in a "Tour de Cure" for the American Diabetes Assoc. I put them on the bike, rode around the neighborhood a couple times after work, and all was well. Then on the day of the big ride, about halfway through the 25-mile course the wheels started going way out of true, literally bouncing off one brake block and then the other. Fortunately, I had a spoke wrench in my tool kit and got the rims back to a reasonable trueness to finish the ride. The shop was good about re-truing them, and they've been excellent ever since. The tires are Forté with Kevlar reinforcement. I love not having punctures.

I did a cold set on the rear stays to accommodate the 126 mm width of the wheels, as the frame was originally built with 120 mm spacing.

I used to have an old-style Campy rear derailleur but was not happy with how it shifted, so I put a Shimano Deore on it because I liked the slant-parallelogram concept. It was a good investment. Now that the slant-parallelogram patents have apparently expired, everyone (including Campy) can make better rear derailleurs.
 
#93
Gard said:
I am not all "serious" like it seems most here are, I like to ride for "fun" and enjoy the side benefits (exercise, fresh air, saving on gas money, reducing my carbon footprint, etc).

Here is my ride to work this morning, a true "commuter" bike, Kona Smoke. Love it to death, rides like a dream, and treats me well while I'm on it.
Click to expand...

My trail bike (I'm reluctant to call it an actual mountain bike) is a Kona. I live near a park that has some decent trails, and I ride it around there some days after work. I initially bought the bike several years ago for Burning Man.
 
#94
Robynator said:
Hahahaha...I raced a season of 'cross in Sacramento and Reno. Kind of a shock coming from Seattle's scene, realizing that it is possible to race without being wet and cold, and eventually concluding that cyclocross is just not the same without sloppy mud and thigh-busting 100 meter runups. Runups are the best part!! :hyper:

Sounds about right...well that and "rugby on a bike" is another good one.

That's a sweet bike, mat! how much does it weigh?
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Yes, well I am in the UK! I was never built for cyclo-cross. What i meant by sprint is that everyone sprints at the start for position, then it settles down. But cyclo-cross is different all over the world. Its alot faster in Belgium. Here its a hard slog in the mud for an hour or so!

Thanks Eric, its a lovely bike to ride. Best i've ever raced on. Shockingly stiff and light compared to the nail i raced on prior to that! To answer ur question Mr Robynator it weighs about 16.5lbs dry weight. Which is pretty darned light for a 2005 bike. With some lighter wheels like american classics or lightweights it cud lose half a pound i think.

Also did a fair bit of track racing,

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#95
butchonbass said:
I used to race some many years ago. I had cervical fusion in '94. I thought I would never be able to ride again. I got this bike a couple of years ago. It's screaming fast... downhill with my 230 lbs. on it. :hmm:
bent.jpg
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Cool! I've been seeing quite a few recumbents around here … many more than just a few years ago.
 
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#97
Starting and stopping are the only hard parts. To start off the most important thing is to be in a really low gear, then just start one pedal high and start pedaling. No big deal, but it's very different than a standard bike. There is less wind resistance, so you cruise a bit faster and in a higher gear. I used to typically ride in 42-16 gears on my road bike, averaging 18mph on my road bike. On the bent, it's 52-14 and 21mph. You can't stand up when going uphill, so the triple crank really is neccessary. IF I can keep up with the road bikes going up, they become very small in my rear view mirror on the way down, 50 mph is not unusual on steep downhills on this bike.
 
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#99
butchonbass said:
Starting and stopping are the only hard parts. To start off the most important thing is to be in a really low gear, then just start one pedal high and start pedaling. No big deal, but it's very different than a standard bike. There is less wind resistance, so you cruise a bit faster and in a higher gear. I used to typically ride in 42-16 gears on my road bike, averaging 18mph on my road bike. On the bent, it's 52-14 and 21mph. You can't stand up when going uphill, so the triple crank really is neccessary. IF I can keep up with the road bikes going up, they become very small in my rear view mirror on the way down, 50 mph is not unusual on steep downhills on this bike.
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Wowzers. I can't imagine going downhill that fast with my feet out in front of me. Sounds spooky just thinking about it!

I notice that the chain goes through little "tubes" near the center of the bike. Do those things make a lot of noise?
 

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