Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

this is one of my babies its a schwinn mens travaler III i posted it before but i just put the new bars on. it is a ******* childe of 4 or 5 different bike shops and my own work


Start (when i got the bike)


progress


and the work i did this weekend
old bars


new bars and break


and a trip to the liquor store to replace the beer i drank working on the bike and to test bars out and I painted the rack white (also i only got the rack so i could ride to the liquor store)

 

At first i was like (single speed)
Then i saw the brake and i was like
Then i saw the beer caddy and i was like

edit;
looks really nice man, i would love an old school racing bike for zipping around on!

 

thanks!

at some point i would like to be good enough to ride with no brake. but when your in trafic and some one cuts you off or pulls out infront of you it helps alot.

and i still have my road bike that i use for my 30/50mile runs

 

I'm looking to buy myself a bike, tired of walking everywhere and I used to enjoy biking so why not! Can anyone recommend anything? I'm not looking for anything special, just something that can take a bit of abuse and won't fall to bits after a month.

I have a budget of about £400 max and I'd prefer to not spend that, I would mainly use it to get around town/uni. As for the type of bike, well I don't know that much about bikes but I would class what I'm after as a mountain bike, the terrain here is fairly rugged so a road bike is a big no no.

Anyway if anyone could give me some tips/recommendations I would be rather appreciative.

 

The Edinburgh bicycle coop Courier bikes are perfect for that kind of work, i'm sure alternatives will be available near by but something like this would get you around.

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebw...2&f_SortOrderID=1&f_bct=c003155c018333c018336

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebw...6&f_SortOrderID=1&f_bct=c003155c018333c018336

 

Steveo's found some pretty good bikes there - I'd go down and ask them in person really. I'd avoid using mountain bike tyres on the road though, it's pretty immensely hard work with knobblies for town riding.

 

Ill agree with that, I replaced my MTB tyres with some semi slick continentals because of the time i spent on the road/cycle paths, and the difference is immense, I use much less energy on a ride now!

 

Yeah I will pop down to the local bike shop later,. It's fairly... rural, here so I'd end up cycling off road more than on it, which is the reason I want something fairly robust.

 

In which case you'll need a proper mountain bike really, rather than a hybrid bike.

 

Make sure you get a hardtail rather than a full suspension, and for £400 you could do with disc brakes as well, granted you probably wouldn't get hydraulics but a good pair of mechanicals wouldn't go amiss.

EDIT: Looking at Evans cycles the Felt Q520 2009 is in your budget, as are the Scott Aspect 55 2010 and the Specialised Hardrock Disc 2010. All are capable bikes, it's just a case of which one feels right (so go and take a test ride on each)

Then don't buy it from Evans, buy it through your local (most can order bikes in) with a year's servicing thrown in, as it'll most likely be cheaper than Evans, and a lot easier to haggle with

 

Ah ok, mtb it is then.

I assume that in my price range I wouldn't get a decent full suspension bike? The only disk brakes I ever used where on a friends bike and they were rather shockingly bad although I suspect that was because they were badly setup.

This is all very helpful, thanks guys. Are there any brands (either for parts or whole bikes) that I should avoid like the plague or are renowned for being great?

 

Yea that budget isn't remotely enough for a full suspension. General advice again is "if it seems too good to be true at a given price, it probably is" And good luck trying to find a bike without disc brakes these days, even every kid seems to have discs these days. To me it's all just utter BS, for "normal" cyclists the braking force benefit of the discs isn't needed and everything else about (mechanical) discs is just a con in my books.

I went around the stores with my friend when he was buying a bike in the spring, and there were surprising differences between the makes/models of about the same price, so I'd suggest grabbing a friend with you when you hit he stores... Or then just getting some solid recommendations on exact model (and parts) that you should get.

 

Have a look over at this thread for a little buyer's advice, and this one for their list of good 2010 bikes.

If you can I'd recommend finding some 2009 spec models. Not only are they better spec than 2010 at retail prices, but the fact they're 2009 models means they're likely to be on sale. The bikeradar 2009 recommendations are here.

As far as brakes go I'd avoid Tektro like the plague. I had a set of their hydraulic discs on my Mongoose Tyax and they were pretty awful compared to the hydro Avid Juicy 3's I've got on my current bike.

I'd expect all full sus bikes at your price range to be very heavy, not to mention sapping pedal power.

 

Thanks for all the links, I will have a good read this evening.

 

I was in that camp also however my new off road came with disks and while the roady is being repaired i've used it to get to work and well brakes that work in the wet, i'm scared of going back to the dual pivots.

Pair of nimbus style tyres for hard pack and road use or a pair of semi as suggested above for more muddy type tracks. I've had my nimbus II's for years and years and they still wont die!

 

Augh. This has not been a good few weeks for me and my bike. Had some pretty awesome riding at Glentress and so on but I knew my bike was in need of a good service. So, got my self a new chain. I even thought I'd support local (ish) business and get one out of Edinburgh Bike Co-Op and got one there. Came home and quickly realised how burnt out my cassette was. Very much so was the answer. So that's another £17 slapped down on the pile (£36 so far.) Got that through, cleaned my whole bike nice and proper and fitted it all.

Quickly however I found, much to my displeasure that is appears my front rings have also worn out and as the chain as it runs across them a couple links 'stick' to them until the tension of the dérailleur pulls them off. It's all rather upsetting... So that's potentially another £50~ down the drain since SuperStar's rings aren't in for a long while yet. I'm so upset by the potential cost of the rings that I am considering converting my bike to a 1x9 setup just to save them pennies!

And to go back even further! It appears the dust seal on my Talas' are on their way out and everything is sounding a tad water logged. Not such a huge issue at £13 for a set, but a big issue if I get it wrong! Luckily I've managed to save my self a great deal of money finding this page. Going to source my suspension fluid from a local motorbike shop instead now. Turns out float fluid is just 85wt transmission oil as well. How odd!

Anyway, that's my whinge over! Happy riding to all of those who can!

 

My poor EX8 really hasn't been getting the loving she deserves recently. I think the last time I did any actual off road riding was on that 40 mile charity ride, since then its just been trips to and from the gym...

I gotta rack up the miles and improve my skills, their building the olympic mountain bike course less than 15 miles from my door and i'd love compare times with the pro's.

Look at her, not a spec of dirt :\



http://www.imagecross.com/11/image-hosting-view-41.php?id=6181CIMG1242.JPG

 

While swapping the tire I also tried to find out why on earth does the front brake work so badly.. Turns out I've wrecked the front axle/quick lock. (have the 9 mm(?) variant of the forks)

So yet another part that should be changed.. Suppose I'll just ditch the front brake altogether.

 

After months upon months of searching I've finally found my new frameset:



It's a (nearly) new 2004 Rocky Mountain Element Team SC. Full scandium frame awesomeness It just happened to be tucked away in a corner of the basement of the shop that I work in, only having been used once or twice before. So I snagged it for a song and put my parts on to much success.

Specifications:
F80 RL fork, 100mm travel - don't ask (new one coming soon as this one is absolutely destroyed)
Float RP3 shock (wanting something different though)
Crank Brothers Cobalt wheels with Geax Argo tires (tubeless) - may be going with Maxxis Maxxlite 310's though.
Race Face Deus XC cranks
Crank Brothers Acid 2 pedals (white bodies, red spring)
XTR rear, XT front derailleur with Deore shifters (soon to be XTR), XT 11-32 cassette
Thompson Elite seatpost with Specialized Phenom SL seat (TI rails)
Juicy 5 brakes, 160/160mm rotors - either XT's or XTR's soon though, with a 140/160mm setup
FSA carbonfibre stem (soon to be Thompson) with Easton EA70 bars (thinking about Monkey Light's though)
Ergon GE1 grips

25.5lbs.


I've gotten in a couple rides with it so far, both in and out of the city, and I honestly cannot believe how well it performs for a single-pivot (ish). Rather, this frameset has nearly convinced me to buy another team issue frame for next year (as I doubt this one will last me long with how hard I am riding it - scandium is rather brittle)

 

...I had a crisis