BIKES!
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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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Nick pick up on the road bike! A pad swap will probably make a huge difference in braking, kool stops have been my go to for rim brakes.
I'd say the roscoe 8 would be a great hardtail, solid component set and good geometry. One of those would be more than capable enough for just about every trail in the area. I have Sram eagle drivetrains on both of my MTBs (GX on the trail bike, NX on the fat bike) and have zero complaints, they are a little fiddly to set up once dialed in I think it works really well. Since basically every bike shop around here is a trek dealer you could definitely go take a test ride on one and see how you like it! They might even do demos where you could take one out to a trail.
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Nick pick up on the road bike! A pad swap will probably make a huge difference in braking, kool stops have been my go to for rim brakes.
I'd say the roscoe 8 would be a great hardtail, solid component set and good geometry. One of those would be more than capable enough for just about every trail in the area. I have Sram eagle drivetrains on both of my MTBs (GX on the trail bike, NX on the fat bike) and have zero complaints, they are a little fiddly to set up once dialed in I think it works really well. Since basically every bike shop around here is a trek dealer you could definitely go take a test ride on one and see how you like it! They might even do demos where you could take one out to a trail.
Thanks!
Yep, putting my order in today. My first real ride over the weekend exposed how not great they were. No panic stops needed but I don’t want to have to rely on them as they currently sit.
That’s kinda what I’m thinking, it’ll be a good chassis to grow into as far as ability while still keeping it reasonable as far as price. Were your eagle setups problematic out of the box or is it more of a wear over time issue that they can be fiddly with?
I stopped at wheel and sprocket the other day and they said they can order one in for me anytime when I want to test ride, so once the e28 is running and ready to get gone I’ll have them bring one in.
I did see a 2020 X-Caliber 8 for $800 on marketplace this morning though, which is tempting
I think I want the Roscoe geometry though -
Thanks!
Yep, putting my order in today. My first real ride over the weekend exposed how not great they were. No panic stops needed but I don’t want to have to rely on them as they currently sit.
That’s kinda what I’m thinking, it’ll be a good chassis to grow into as far as ability while still keeping it reasonable as far as price. Were your eagle setups problematic out of the box or is it more of a wear over time issue that they can be fiddly with?
I stopped at wheel and sprocket the other day and they said they can order one in for me anytime when I want to test ride, so once the e28 is running and ready to get gone I’ll have them bring one in.
I did see a 2020 X-Caliber 8 for $800 on marketplace this morning though, which is tempting
I think I want the Roscoe geometry thoughI think the fiddly setup is more a comment on 12 speed drivetrains than a specific brand, it just means less spacing between each gear so it takes less misalignment to cause a problem. That being said, having the huge range of ratios on a 1x drivetrain FAR outweighs any downsides. I don't have any experience with shimano MTB drivetrains but I've been completely happy with eagle after ~5 seasons of using it in various forms.
99spokes.com has some great comparison tools like @B C mentioned, you can visualize the frame geometry differences between the Roscoe and X-Caliber:
It really depends on what type of riding you want to do. If you're plan is to get into racing or cranking out a lot of mileage on smoother trails the X-caliber would be the right choice, but if your interest is casual riding for fun the Roscoe would be a better fit. If it were me, I'd definitely go Roscoe between the two. The more modern geometry (slacker head tube, steeper seat tube, etc.) will be generally a lot more stable and confidence inspiring, it'll be more forgiving of questionable line choices too.
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I've been playing with old bikes again. This time it is a 1990 Diamondback Ascent EX with an awesome candle smoke and purple pearl paintjob that I got for free from a friend. Basically every component on it was completely trashed but the frame and fork polished up nicely. After a bit of scope creep I rebuilt it into a nice cafe cruiser that's really fun to ride.
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Looks good. Jealous of those rackmounts on the forklegs. Not a super-rare feature, but not super-common either.
Thanks! Yeah I was excited to find those on the fork when I picked up the frame, that basically made the decision for me to put a front rack on it.
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Found a 1993 Stumpjumper M2 on the curb this past fall. Retail on this thing was $1300 at the time, which is mind boggling. Was set up with 1.25" tires, bike computer, stupid åĕRő handlebars, but otherwise complete and original. I cleaned off the 20 years worth of dust, change a bunch of stuff and I've been using it as my main bike for a couple months now. I feel a little guilty about it, because it's actually in really nice shape, and there's probably someone out there that has a huge boner to buy a rare bike they had, or wanted, when they were a teenager, but free is free.
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