BIKES!
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Oh man, this is a thread I can get behind!
As a kid I worked on dirt jumps at a friends house and reworked all kinds of weird mountain bikes to make the most suspension travel possible out of the cheap Walmart bikes I found or was given.
The real stuff all started when I was working in the Scheel's service shop. I built / repaired bikes and a whole variety of other things, it was honestly one of my favorite jobs (outside of the dismal pay) and I have debated doing a similar job again on the side. I worked with a lot of high end road bikes and decided to try my hand at that, and with the employee discount of Scheel's (cost +5%) it was an easy decision to pick up a Fuji Sportif and I started riding that with a friend.
It was amusing but one day he and I were standing in my parents garage looking up at a pair of vintage mountain bikes and decided to take them for a rip around the gravel path near the house. We had more fun doing that than any other road riding session we had ever encountered. We started riding High Cliff right before winter, always returning coated in mud and cold, but it was so much fun.
The summer after that I started riding with a couple friends from school at Riverview Gardens in Appleton, and was introduced to the Reforestation Camp in Green Bay. I also started seeing a friend in Marquette riding some really cool looking trails that I had a desire to go see. I went to The Recyclist in Appleton and traded in my road bike for a Giant Talon with an air sprung front fork and hydraulic disc brakes. It was miles better than the Specialized Hardrock circa 2000 that I had been riding as a loaner from a friend, and it was what lead the same friend to buy a Fuji Nevada for his first MTB.
I started riding more with school friends and their friends, and that's when things really took off. We rode various places in WI (standing rock, a place in Tomahawk, Baird's, Refo) and at one point a friend of a friend asked if I wanted to do a skills clinic in Copper Harbor. I had ridden with him a couple of times and figured why the heck not!
We headed up and stopped at Michigan Tech and rode the DH trails they had there, which was the first time I had ever ridding a solely downhill trail. I am not one to make exclamations above standard volume, but Cory was in front of me hooting and hollering as we tore down the trail and I found myself matching his style and yelling in excitement as gravity took hold of the situation. The weekend in Copper Harbor was eye opening and was where I met even more people I still keep in contact with. A few weeks later a friend rented a full suspension bike in Copper Harbor and we both rode it and bought full suspension bikes in the following weeks. It was a massive upgrade from the hardtails that our legs and butts learned to hate.
Copper Harbor skills clinic lead me to do things that I never saw myself doing, I was always afraid of falling as a kid, but for some reason that fear was leaving me. Sadly it is coming back and I have been working on that as much as possible. A nice rock roll from Copper Harbor on my first FS bike.
Shortly after all of this I started talking more with the guy in Marquette who I had been in Highschool with. We started visiting Marquette more often and riding the trails out there, and if you have not gone, you absolutely must. The trail network out there is insane, and there are miles of unmarked trails that will knock your socks off.
I'm losing track of timeline here due to the overwhelming good times that are coming to mind. I have met so many awesome people due to MTB, it is the main reason I moved across the country, the reason for staying in shape, and also a great source of frustration. I'll never forget the time we got big talking @HipMF
to come ride the stuff we always talked about, and in the first 2 days he lost his wallet and broke his bike and body. I've been to CO, Whistler, Duluth (another amazing place to ride), Little Switz, Marquette, Alabama, and Washington all just to ride bikes.When we moved to WA we quickly violated the lease terms with our bike rack
Our typical bike chaining in Marquette
It was always a game of how many people and gear you could cram into one truck
I now have a two bike fleet. My 2017 Intense Tracer trail bike (165mm front and rear travel) and 2018 YT Tues (200mm front and rear travel). In Washington the trail bike is king, and I've quickly learned how to pace out (4) 1,300ft climbs in an afternoon to get some laps in on the trails. There are a couple of spots that are viable to shuttle and ride trail bikes yet though.
The one thing I've missed greatly this year is the ability to go into Canada. BC is absolutely insane, the trails are perfect, the views are stunning, and Whistler bike park is astounding.
A simple stop in Squamish for some Tim Horton's is picturesque
Riding the chair up at Whistler knowing you've got almost an hour of descent (with breaks) coming up if you go up high enough, just insane. This picture is of the second chair up, you cannot even see the first chair, and you start the the town that is behind the cables, not the dirt area to the right of them. It is 4,000ft of rideable mountain, and I don't know where else to get that kind of thrill, all 3.5 hours away from our house in WA. That was the amount of time I used to spend driving to Marquette.
But it all doesn't come without damage. Among the amount of blood and skin I've shed on trails, there was a particular day in MN when I overshot a jump and thought I hit my helmet on the tree that I landed into. The ski patrol couldn't see any marks on my helmet, but I sure did do a number on my lip and teeth. I re arranged my teeth, cracked one, and put a couple of said teeth through my lip. A memorial day trip to the urgent care was fun, and I still chuckle about it. The Urgent care people took all my info and then took one lip at my lip after uncovering it, and walked me over to the ER to get it taken care of haha. 8 stitches inside my lip, and that nice one on the outside.
If anyone is looking to ride and travel let me know, I will gladly provide transportation, a place to crash, and guide services to have a blast on bikes, regardless of skill level.
Sadly my job has me on the road a lot so I don't spend as much time on the bike as I would like, but I plan to start flying with my bike more often and not worry about the dark or weather and just start riding more.Lots of good memories and good friends, and I hope to keep that rolling!
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When we moved to WA we quickly violated the lease terms with our bike rack
I'm looking to put up a rack like this in my basement, I need to come up with something better than 'bikes all over the place'. It's hard to tell, is that something off the shelf or just some 2x4s and hooks from the hardware store? I'd like something that I can slide the hooks back and forth to pack bikes together when I'm not riding them.
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Forgot to post up this one: I picked up this 2011 specialized P.2 dirt jump bike with some upgrades a few years ago for goofing around when I lived downtown. I don't really ride it much anymore but I figure I'll hang onto it if the local clubs ever build the pump tracks they've been talking about at the local trails.
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I'm looking to put up a rack like this in my basement, I need to come up with something better than 'bikes all over the place'. It's hard to tell, is that something off the shelf or just some 2x4s and hooks from the hardware store? I'd like something that I can slide the hooks back and forth to pack bikes together when I'm not riding them.
It is indeed just 2x4 and hardware store hooks.
You could use an aluminum extrusion of sorts with sliding hooks possibly. There's gotta be an industrial solution available. Butchers rack maybe?
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It is indeed just 2x4 and hardware store hooks.
You could use an aluminum extrusion of sorts with sliding hooks possibly. There's gotta be an industrial solution available. Butchers rack maybe?
Ah ok, I'm thinking it wouldn't be impossible to put something together, just gotta find the right parts. Good idea on the butchers rack too, might be easier to make something like this vs a channel on the wall.
It doesn't really NEED to slide, I'd just like to accomodate N+1 if I can haha
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It doesn't really NEED to slide, I'd just like to accomodate N+1 if I can haha
That's the ideal number of bikes!
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metal closet door top track (box style):
+ hook setup: big eye hook (pry open) with machine threads + 2 lock nuts + nylon washers/regular washers. maybe electrical tape or plastic dip to coat the hooks and not scratch your rims.
or
iron pipes with some sort of hook setup around the pipes. that industrial look is all the rage these days.
obviously dont buy from amazon, but this sorta setup on the wall: https://www.amazon.com/Turnbull-Farms-Industrial-Pipe-Curtain/dp/B01EKNPGLK
maybe with figure eight hooks, bent as needed.
Dan
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I haven't run it dead yet, but it should be about 25 miles. Range depends a lot on how much effort you put in to pedaling and how fast you want to go. My longest round trip so far was 20 miles and the battery indicator was still at 80% (skeptical of that...), but I was putt-putting along at 12ish mph. Top speed on the motor is 16-18 mph.
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I did a 48(!) mile mini-adventure over to DeForest this morning to explore the fancy-pants bike path they have over there. The battery was still hanging on when I got back, but I'm pretty sure it was just about done. I'm obviously pedaling a fair amount, but my legs feel a lot fresher than they would if I tried something like that on my mountain bike.
I've racked up about 270 miles on this thing over the past couple weeks. Mostly going to work and shopping trips, but a couple joy rides obviously. The small wheels make the bike really agile and nimble, but the ride quality definitely suffers. I tend to cruise at around 12 mph, and only really put the hammer down when there nice smooth pavement.
Overall, I really like this thing. It's been a lot of fun to cruise around on and suits my needs really well. I did have some quality issues out-of-the-box though. UPS had obviously had their way with it. The battery was just laying loose in the bottom of the box. On my 2nd ride, I had it pop off of the bike and go skidding across the asphalt. The source of the problem turned out to be some loose hardware in the battery holder. That's fixed, but I still have a few wraps of electrical tape on there as cheap insurance. Looks a bit janky. There's also a tolerance issue between the front sprocket and crank spider which made getting the chain tension dialed in pretty difficult. Nothing too major IMO, but it would be nice not to have to deal with these kind of things on a brand new bike. I've heard that Propella's customer service is good, so I could probably go back to them, but so far I haven't bothered.
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Saving this here so I can find it later.
https://bike.bikegremlin.com/1985/bicycle-bearing-grease-explained/
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Saving this here so I can find it later.
https://bike.bikegremlin.com/1985/bicycle-bearing-grease-explained/
Interesting article, thats a pretty deep dive on grease. I've just been using park tool polylube 1000 basically everywhere. I haven't had any washout issues or things drying up, and its safe for carbon where that matters. Only place I don't use it is bottom bracket threads, those get proper anti-seize.
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Found this old Trek hybrid on the side of the road with a "Free" sign on it and couldn't pass it up. Spent the last few days getting it clean and dialed in. New tires and brake pads and she rides like a dream. Sadly it's a couple sizes too small for me. Shouldn't have any problems getting rid of it though. The bike racks downtown are always full of old bikes like this and I can see why. It rolls along really nice, is comfy, feels like a quality bike and they're not expensive enough to worry about it being stolen/vandalized/rained on/etc. The steering geometry though is very... relaxed.
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So, the honeymoon period has worn off with my free bike (I also picked up a bunch of dead laptop batteries thinking I'd Maguiver it into a free e-bike...). The moment of truth came when my BMXer turned reluctant mountainbiker ass tried to pull some body-bike seperation shit to transition from a road to a sidewalk (two opposing 90s within an arms span). The bike and I both survived unscathed, but the bike felt like it was about to turn itself into origami underneath me. Not sure if it's the road wheels, or if that what people call "liveliness" when they talk about steel frames. Regardless, I wasn't into it. The bike will be going to my friend at work Buna who is moving away this fall. He's in his 50's and cheap AF (1st generation American from Cambodia who hasn't been on a bike in 30+ years), so I'm pretty stoked about it. I think it will be a great fit for him.
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Free is the best price! I can understand the noodley feeling especially coming from a MTB, road bikes have always felt a little fragile in comparison to me.
I recently got a bug to rebuild my old Trek 560 into something I'd get some good use out of as I hadn't ridden it in years. I live within a mile of the bugline trail network and decided it would be silly not to have a bike path cruiser. Between parts I had kicking around and a few smaller bits I needed to buy I think it came out awesome for not much money.
Got it out for a ride this morning and it's fantastic. 28c tires (frame won't allow anything bigger) and wide-ish flat bars are super comfortable and I've always been a single speed fan so it's fun to have one of those again too.
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We got my wife into a new(used) bike recently to replace her 20+ old Ross mountain bike that her mom bought used before she went to college. Needless to say, big upgrade for her. She's put a few miles on it with and without pulling our bike trailer on gravel trails and it's a huge difference for her. Roughly 20lbs lighter than her old bike with an actual functioning front shock AND disc brakes. It's got me itching to replace my 2001 GT Aggressor 1.0...
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I went mountain biking for the first time in ~5 years this past weekend. A ton of fun, but I question whether it's even worth investing in a new bike at my age. They are not cheap...
In other news...
Woo!
Aww.
Rolled over 1000 miles, but no fireworks or prizes. Nothing much else to report. Haven't had any more issues. Bike is sill holding together and is still fun to ride.
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Reviving this thread!
Finally replaced my old Trek 3700 hybrid (ridden hard and like 4 sizes too small) with a still slightly small 2009 Trek 1.2. I’ve wanted a road bike for awhile now for the rail trails around here, and combined with a really nice 4-bike Thule hitch mount carrier (FB marketplace score for $80), I’m now set to get some miles done. For $350 for the bike, I’m pretty happy. Shifts smooth, rides nicely, really clean for the age, it seems well taken care of and hard to beat for the cost. Even has a carbon front fork!
Brakes kinda suck though (common complaint when it was new) so I’ll probably toss some more aggressive pads on it and see what that does. I put Kool Stop’s on the afrementioned hybrid and it went from mushy to tossing me over the bars if I wasn’t careful, so we’ll see if that does it.
I mentioned it elsewhere, but I’m also thinking I’m going to sell the e28 (zero time to use it or wrench on it) and dump the funds into a hardtail MTB, likely a Trek Roscoe 8. I’d like to go new on that to save the hassle of buying someone’s abused or worn out stuff. If anyone has any alternative recs to that bike, I’m all ears. I’m definitely a noob when it comes to bikes but I’d love to learn more.
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Let’s take a ride on the bugline trail and water balloon JOEBD2’s house
Cant go wrong with Trek. Don’t overlook Giant or Marin as good budget options. As the worlds largest bike frame producer Giant makes frames for Trek and many others. They usually end up having slightly higher end components at the same pricepoint.
W&S has become a Giant dealer within the last few years so they are easy to come by.
Checkout www.99spokes.com
it has a great comparison tool which helps you understand where on the totem pole certain components rank.
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