Biking: Catch-all

Plastefuchs wrote:

Damn the lot of you! Without you I would have probably stuck to taking the tram and bus in the coming months, but now I am going to throw money at people to be able to bike through the winter.

Heh. I went on a binge for winterizing this year. In my case it's kind of overkill since in NC there are few days that don't get above freezing, but I've historically felt reallllly uncomfortable when that does happen (wearing "normal" winter clothing which is awful to bike on). The absolute worst around here is "freezing rain" or even rain in the mid 30s, both of which we seem to get a lot and I historically have had nothing good to really deal with.

I bought some Gore-Tex winter cycling gloves, Gore-Tex rain coat and pants (needed new rain gear anyway), and the h2os. All of which is not cheap but combined it's still less than a car payment, yanno

I have always just covered my feet in bread bags. Works like a champ.

gore wrote:
Slumberland wrote:

I snagged some Levis Commuter 511s in my size off Amazon at a good price. Will report back!

Have you had a chance to try these yet? If so, how's the sizing?

I see they have a couple of colors on sale over at the Levi's site right now.

They only just arrived in the mail, but I'll give them a spin Monday morning.

Now that I have a spare commuter bike I feel comfortable doing a little bit more of my own work. Before I got the new bike, I just couldn't afford to be without my daily rider due to a botched repair, so I paid the experts to get it right. Now that I have a spare, if I screw up I can still get where I'm going

So today I switched out the chain and cassette on my old beater to address a skipping gear issue. I've replaced chains before but this was my first cassette, and it turned out to be less work than I expected. One braindead thing I did (which I've done before) is thread the chain wrong through the rear derailleur (I passed it on the wrong side of one of the little guards that keeps it on track). I don't know why I have such trouble doing that!

While doing that I remembered that there's a little something weird going on with the rear hub. Basically, there's a tiny bit of play somewhere; when I pick up the bike, I can feel a very tiny movement as the weight of the wheel shifts down a tiny bit before it leaves the ground. It's not enough to be visible to me but I can tell it's happening due to "feel" and I don't notice this on my other bikes.

Anybody know what I'm trying to describe? Is it something to be concerned with? I don't even really know how to google this.

INABM. It may have something to do with the ball bearings in the rear hub and how they're set. You could do that yourself, but I prefer to take it to the local shop for maintenance.

So I completed my 100km ride! Oddly, it's only actually 86km :/

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/3...

When we turned at the halfway mark, it was about a 30km/hr headwind all the way home...

Absolutely brutal.

Very very happy to have completed it, cannot move at all.

I got to play around with the Park chain cleaning tool today. Chain is all nice and shiny now.

I'm seriously considering buying this for a new road bike.

IMAGE(http://s7d4.scene7.com/is/image/TrekBicycleProducts/Asset_166275?wid=1490&hei=1080&fit=fit,1&fmt=png-alpha&qlt=80,1&op_usm=0,0,0,0&iccEmbed=0)

Looks like an awesome setup, Norfair. My only concern might be the rims-- "Bontrager Approved" screams "cheap knock-off with Bontrager stickers" to me. But looking at the picture, they look almost exactly like my old Forté Titan wheelset (Performance Bikes' house brand) I used to run on my first bike, and those were surprisingly solid. The only problem I had was the axle bearings were a non-standard size, so rebuilding the axles after several thousand miles of climbing proved problematic. But looking at the Madone's wheelset, the hubs are different, so that's likely not going to be a problem for you.

Levi's Commuters seems cool so far. Double reflective strip reveals itself when cuffs are rolled up. Expected them to be a bit stretchier, but enough give to ride. Wasn't a sweaty mess when I got to work so I'm happy to stay in them.

WipEout wrote:

Looks like an awesome setup, Norfair. My only concern might be the rims-- "Bontrager Approved" screams "cheap knock-off with Bontrager stickers" to me. But looking at the picture, they look almost exactly like my old Forté Titan wheelset (Performance Bikes' house brand) I used to run on my first bike, and those were surprisingly solid. The only problem I had was the axle bearings were a non-standard size, so rebuilding the axles after several thousand miles of climbing proved problematic. But looking at the Madone's wheelset, the hubs are different, so that's likely not going to be a problem for you.

A bit of googling didn't reveal any specifics about em, but there's a bunch of folks who haven't had any issues with them on other Trek bikes.

Just got back from 2 weeks on the road with my wife with lots of stops around Southern Utah for mountain bikey goodness. I'm so pleased with the recent upgrades to my Heckler, it's almost like having a new bike. Putting on the hydros with 8" rotors was the best thing I could have done.

Phone pick my wife shot near Moab:

IMAGE(http://imageshack.us/a/img35/6793/3dkv.jpg)

I have a bunch of photos to sort through, hopefully some of them are worthy of posting here once I get to them.

Slumberland wrote:

Levi's Commuters seems cool so far. Double reflective strip reveals itself when cuffs are rolled up. Expected them to be a bit stretchier, but enough give to ride. Wasn't a sweaty mess when I got to work so I'm happy to stay in them.

Just got mine in the mail now. Tried them on. I ended up with the "pants" or something and not the "jeans" since the pants were on sale (one pair is denim though... so I'm not really sure what the difference is).

These are nice, but they're not dramatically different from regular 511's (which isn't a bad thing of course) at first blush. I'm 6'1" 210 pounds and the 36x32 are borderline too tight for me. Which is probably as expected since I'm on the line between 36/38 in "skinny" styles, but since I'm on a downward trajectory going snug was the smart play.

It's curious to me though that they're most snug around my calves and a bit snug around my quads. Regular 511's are snug there too, but in a cyclist specific pair of pants you'd think they'd give a bit of extra space for leg muscles - but then again, maybe the point is that they're tight so you can show off your leg-guns.

Ah well, once I trim off a few pounds of flab they should be about right.

I think Levis' site warned that they would feel snug at first and then break in. Mine feel a bit better on day two. They definitely taper in at the calves. Style!

It's cold out there in NYC today. Hit 'go' on some winterizing Amazon purchases.

Very helpful video for folks looking to get into mountain biking!

To be fair I was a coffee snob, then beer snob, before taking up mountain biking.

Just last night I was thinking that I needed to update my Google profile photo to my new bike instead of the old one. *sigh*

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/J34k31F.png)

Done! Need a better picture though.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/zfvaRHv.png)

I've always felt like I was a decent mountain biker, but this video put things in perspective:

Serengeti wrote:

Very helpful video for folks looking to get into mountain biking!

Man I want to see the equivalent for urban/commuter biking

gore wrote:
Serengeti wrote:

Very helpful video for folks looking to get into mountain biking!

Man I want to see the equivalent for urban/commuter biking :)

Is there one for road biking?

So I broke in my DZR h2o shoes and Levi's Commuter 511's on a group ride to benefit Habitat for Humanity today. I had to do the 31 mile since I just didn't have time to go further.

Most people were wearing typical road cycling gear, but some people wore Halloween costumes. I was really hoping somebody would ask me what my costume was, to which I would have replied: a bike commuter

It was 32F to start up to maybe 45F by the end, and that's about as low as I'd want to go without more layers. The damn jeans are so tight I don't really have room, though; guess I should thank the layers of fat for keeping me warm

The first half of my ride today was fantastic. I am absolutely terrible at climbing, but I wanted to climb today. I expected a pretty short distance today, around 10 miles of riding, but normally my rides don't have that much elevation change. The first hill I came to is a pretty short but steep 70ish foot climb that leads to another 20ft after crossing an intersection. Next it is a gentle mix of downhill and uphill that amounts to about a 50ft over the next 2.5 miles.

Normally I would be content to just turn around and go home along the same route but I wanted to go farther. The general elevation of my area is 2,450ft. At the 5 mile mark I decided to turn instead of head home to tackle one of the biggest climbs in my area. According to gmap-pedomiter I went from 2,450ft to 2,750ft in about 1.75mi. For me that is a huge deal because I lose motivation on climbs very fast and I am not in good shape. I had to take quite a few breaks during the climb but I fully intend on doing it again soon.

The road I was on continues on into the mountains where some very serious climbing occurs. I was already pretty happy with what I'd done so far so I decided to continue riding streets I've never ridden on before. A mile and a half down the road I ran over a bit of gravel that collects at the end of some driveways in the area and I punctured both of my tires at the same time.

I walked then last 3 miles home a little sad whenever I saw another cyclist. I also got a little self conscious because I assume they think I was too tired to ride.

I took my bike into the LBS for new tubes and to my surprise my front tire was punctured by a thorn and not a rock. My rear tire was destroyed though. I don't know much cycling terminology but they called the puncture a snake bite. I actually had two snake bite punctures on my rear tire that were revealed when they pumped up the tire to find the damage.

I kind of want to go do it again tomorrow. I think it would be wiser to save my legs for my commute on Monday though.

Snake bite is a jargon term for a pinch flat. It happens when you manage to compress the tire against a sharp edge and cut the tube in the two places against the rim. Usually it's a combination of low pressure and/or bad technique.

I had a thorn pierce my front tube last week. I installed a kevlar strip. If I get another flat, I'm going to install kevlar tires.

complexmath wrote:

I've always felt like I was a decent mountain biker, but this video put things in perspective:

That was some very impressive riding, but it kind of cements in my mind that some people are friggin crazy.

anyone ever use the Yakima King Joe Pro 2 trunk rack? I need one that fits on a hatchback.

LiquidMantis wrote:

Snake bite is a jargon term for a pinch flat. It happens when you manage to compress the tire against a sharp edge and cut the tube in the two places against the rim. Usually it's a combination of low pressure and/or bad technique.

BUUUURRNN!!! Liquid Mantis says you suck, Gimpy! Get out there and ride, dude. F*ck work days, go in with rubber legs.

I need a new saddle (for commuting and distance riding)...

So hard to decide on a good one to get.

My wife's saddle, the one that came with her Felt (I believe) from Performance, hurts her. Is there a good basic female saddle or is it really a try-lots-until-one-works game?