HC Bike/Cycling Thread

[MexicanDragon]

You are a beast, Ari!

 

**BRENT**

[n_maher]

Holy crap, Ari.  That is just awesome.  I don't think I've got much more mileage on my bike this year and I started riding in March.

[Pars]

^ Really! I'll be lucky if I am over 1K this year.

[justin]

ari, did you really hit 51mph on the brompton?

[nikongod]

ari, did you really hit 51mph on the brompton?

 

I think this was due to some GPS calculation errors. 

 

I have gone as fast as 38.5mph on the Brompton. Maybe not the best idea I have ever had. 

[justin]

New mount for gps+light

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Icarium]

Ah wow... I'm always 1-2 years behind head-case in pursuits. I just started crossfitting awhile back and looks like everyone's moved on (Including Justin!!).

 

So sorry to hear about your crash and best of luck on the path to recovery.

 

I got a specialized tricross elite awhile back for commuter purposes. Pretty much just road it to and from crossfit, but outfitted it for SF bike riding as I'd like to get to places with it. Not sure I'm brave enough to bike in the city though, but practice starts this weekend. Probably won't go as deep into riding as it looks like you guys are, but chances are in a couple of years I'll be chasing your trails while you've moved onto some sort of flying.

[Torpedo]

Are you considering to go back riding, Justin?

[justin]

not right now, i had ordered the mounts before getting injured

[Dreadhead]

Ride #3 in the books. I wiped out on freshly wet road and have road rash on my shoulder and hip. Was a beautiful day though.

At least I ruined a jersey I hate. Pic from about 3 miles after fall.

[n_maher]

Bummer about the slide, Chris but at least you and the bike are mostly ok.

[Dreadhead]

Yeah the bike and I are a little banged up but fine.

I keep finding road construction on every ride. I had wet construction dust on my tires and a light rain on the rough road and I just slid out like it was ice.

Sunday is scheduled for the 40+ miles 3k+ft route. We will see it is hot as hell here.

[Pars]

Sorry about the slide out.

 

I'd take hotter than crap right now vs. what we have (10F this morning with about a 20mph N wind... would have been a sweet day to ride into work )

[Icarium]

Dreadhead sucks about the crash. Glad you and the bike are okay.

 

Btw, tried to discern by reading many pages of posts, but could you give me some details of your bikes? I remember you had some kinda insane Giant bike, but curious what else you have. Not really in the market, but it's good to know what you hardcore guys roll around with. It sounds like quite a few of you have insane builds now (VPI, Nate, Justin's cannondale looks great too).

 

I think at some point I will get a decent road bike as I'm pretty satisfied with my mountain bike (Too terrified to really do any serious mountain biking) and commuter... might make sense to do a nice road bike in the future. 

Edited November 27, 2013 by Icarium

[CD44hi]

Sorry to hear about the sliding crash Chris, but it looks like you got out of it OK. Great skies behind! Miss those fluffy clouds!

[Dreadhead]

After driving people around on the east coast of the island all day and being reminded how hellaciously steep some of the hills were out there and how poor some of the roads were I decided that the planned long ride needed to be less epic and dropped it down to 2500 ft of climbing in 38 miles:

 

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3725142

 

Still should be an awesome ride tomorrow morning. Wish us luck as it's my father in law's longest ride to date but I doubt that will be an issue (he's super fit) and I still have a tennis ball sized welt on my hip.

[Dreadhead]

Success Edit: The roads up in the hinterland were rough as hell and there were a few navigational issues too but a great time was had by both of us.

Edited November 29, 2013 by Dreadhead

[Voltron]

Nice going Chris!

Edited November 30, 2013 by Voltron

[n_maher]

Excellent! I'm jealous of the weather and scenery. It's predictably cold and windy today.

[VPI]

That looks awesome Chris.  I have not ridden in weeks and I will probably fall over as soon as I start off down in Florida next week.

[nikongod]

So we tried to RMA the hub from squirt, but Brompton is not having it. They want us to take it apart and tell them what broke, then they will send new parts. This is not really unreasonable, but will require them to send parts from the UK which will put Squirt out of commission for at least 2 weeks.

 

Facing at least 2 bikeless weeks I did the only head-case and Brompton approved thing. 

I bought another Brompton. 

This one is much older than Squirt. It is about 10 years old based on what the CL ad said and matching certain features (or lack of features) up with historical data. 

It also has a 6-speed gear setup, but with a "narrow range" 6speed - 214% range VS 302% on Squirt. The lowest gear is not nearly as low as the lowest gear on Squirt... Hopefully I am strong enough to get it up the big hills on the way home from work. 

The brakes SUCK. I am glad that Brompton upgraded the brake levers on the 2013 bikes.

But what do you expect for $400?

 

I spent a bit of time tonight switching it from "euro brakes" with the front brake on the right (which actually makes sense, considering that the majority of the population is right hand dominant, it's just not what anyone is used to) to "correct brakes" and oiling the cables&housings which felt like they have never been oiled. Switching the brakes was very easy, and ignoring the neglect could have been done in a few minutes. Good stuff. Maybe the brakes will improve now that I have lubed the cables. I certainly hope so. 

 

For some reason one of the stoppers that holds the bike together when folded (I dont know what its called - the one that bumps into the seatpost when its all folded) was installed backwards which made closing the bike nearly impossible. The guy I bought it from said he just had the bike tuned up, and it definitely has a brand spanking new rear tire (worth like $50!) and a much nicer front tire than I have now, but I cant imagine what else they did. Fuckers. 

 

Tomorrow I will move my long seatpost and rack over to the new-to-me bike in preparation for riding the next time it is more than 40* out. 

 

Although it would fit (thank you Brompton for reverse compatibility) I will **NOT** be putting my dynamo-wheel on this bike. Too much work. Switching the wheel is very very easy, but you need to take the front brake off to attach the mounting bracket for the light. Yea, not interested.

Edited December 2, 2013 by nikongod

[n_maher]

Nicely done, Ari.

 

Me: looked at the forecast last night and saw that it was supposed to be in the mid 30's at 6am and decided that was good enough.  I could have done without the persistent mist this morning but otherwise it was a pleasant, if slow, ride to work.  The afternoon trip should be nicer if things dry out a touch and it adds a few degrees to the mercury.  Sadly the Calfee is now covered in shit so a good cleaning will be in order but I couldn't resist getting a commute to work in in December.

 

And if anyone is interested the Roubaix is up for sale - see this thread for details - http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=140445 - I'd be willing to sweeten the deal for someone here.

[guzziguy]

Good luck with the sale, Nate.  I hope that bicycle tire kickers are more reasonable than headphone tire kickers.

[blessingx]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but anyone have any positive/negative experiences with specific balance bikes? After a few days research (closed bearings, steering limiter, room to grow) we're eyeing the FirstBike Cross, but certainly open to suggestions. 

 

 

vidlink
 

[n_maher]

No direct experience with that model, Ric, but it looks better built than the one that we bought for Andrew.  Of course it costs about 2x as much so that's to be expected.