Bicycling
 

This thread was born in the Trans States thread but we decided it'd be good to put it out there for everyone to add to.

(Note to Mods: Leave it here for a bit, por favor, so we can get some good exposure)

Thread made!

Also in... We regional kids need to stay in shape!!!!

Big fan of my Specialized Allez. Good thread! Lots of the flight instructors I work with are into biking of some form. I'm still trying to crack in to the road bike thing but it's been a lot of fun. I've learned that I'm really out of shape. ...blame it on the job.

:) I'm laughing now but I got passed by more than one guy who looked like that this morning.

I used to have a Specialized Allez sport when I first started out. I'd love to have one now despite my dislike of the big S. Sold my bikes to pay for a couple ratings. Worth it...I think?

..sigh, specialized has done a lot for advocacy, supporting trails, and many other causes within cycling. Yes, they protect their work like any company would. There were a few spec. employees a while back that came up with an idea for a bike frame that was rejected by specialized, but the problem was that they came up with it using company resources and presenting it as "work" within the company. The company then owns said idea and even if they decide to not produce it, they own the rights to it. Those employees tried to start their own company producing the frame idea. Specialized goes after things like this, as would most businesses. There were some other issues with names of products, and yes some of these things sounded like they went a little too far, but again, they've done a lot of good for the cycling community.

Specialized was also partnering with Fox when Stratos was trying to sell their Inertia-Valve idea, except that Stratos tried to cover the patent under an obscure off-road motorsport patent, while Fox protected it under a cycling patent, and Stratos imploded at the same time due to many many other issues, but Fox and Specialized get some of the blame for this, despite Stratos simply being poor/inept at protecting their work. Stratos imploded around this time due to improperly machined crowns that were far thinner than they were supposed to be, seals that were out of spec due to a change in suppliers and dropping the ball, other issues that ruined the perception of the company, mishandling R&D and poor/no product development, and many many customer service aspects.

I used to work in a shop, and ANY of the big companies are just as good/bad as the next. Giant, Trek, Specialized, etc. I got lots of stories of each one of these copying or borrowing someone else's ideas and making only minor changes that are questionable from a patent point of view (patent lawyers are gold for these companies).

https://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr...96bco1_500.gif

Only time will tell.

Most efficient thread ever in the history of APC, well done sir, well done :D

I'm still riding my 2004 Trek 5500 & telling myself I'm going to race again someday. I guess a more realistic goal is not look like the guy in Hawk's post. Yikes!

The one that gets me is NoTubes and Roval. :mad:

I plan on getting this:

http://cdn.cannondale.com/catalog/pr...2fa292_wht.png

Bike racing...yay!
http://gifsoup.com/view/139551/bike-race-idiot-o.gif

Cause it's fun!

http://www.strangecosmos.com/images/content/165156.jpg

Those must have been gold plated bikes or something!

just picked up a marin mount vision 5.8, cant wait to take it out on the trails, haven't ridden in years !

Uh oh, don't get me started. Half the reason I'm not flying anymore is so I can ride my bike more. Currently school gets in the way a fair amount, but not nearly as much as being away from home/bike for the majority of my life.

As far as what's good and what isn't, well that's a hard question to answer. I have 4 bikes right now and I want at least 2 or 3 more to have a bike for most occasions. If you want to tear up the trails, you will need a mountain bike, but do you go with 26", 29", or the brand new 27.5" wheeled variety?

If you want to get a little crazy and head off road on some easy trails, but ride a lot on the road, you might want to pick up a cyclocross bike. Cyclocross bikes are set up like road bikes with the drop bars and fairly aggressive frame geometry, but they are beefier and have more brake clearance to allow for mud caked tires. These bikes can still be stupid light and nice. Cyclocross racing is a hell of a good time (it is common practice for the fans lining the course to hand the riders cups full of beer and the rider chugs it and carries on) and it's also a great workout. Anyway, cyclocross bike = lots of versatility. These bikes have 700c wheels just like road bikes so again, the main differences are beefiness and brake setup.

Your next option is a pure road bike. These are set up to be light, go fast, and handle like a sports car...sometimes. The frame geometry and material determines how comfortable or aggressive the bike is. There are comfort-oriented race bikes that are designed to allow for long rides over varying road surfaces while still maintaining a moderately aggressive position. I've honestly never ridden one, but some examples would be the Specialized (I know, they are evil) Roubaix, the brand new Trek Domane, the Cannondale Synapse, and the Giant Defy. There are plenty of others, but those are some of the big players in that market. There are plenty of other brands that offer similar bikes.

I ride road bikes with a more race-oriented geometry. They tend to be a little stiffer and provide for a more aggressive/aero riding position. Every brand out there has something to offer in this category too. I race/ride these bikes for hours on end on a regular basis so it's not like they are unbearably uncomfortable or anything. Examples of these bikes would be the Cannondale SuperSix, Trek Madone, Giant TCR, Specialized Tarmac, Felt F-series, and the list goes on.

There are lots of other types of bikes out there, but those are probably the main types you're looking at. Beyond that, the choices come down to a few things. What material frame/fork do you want? Carbon fiber is strong and light and really the way most people are going these days. The bikes can break in a crash (I've wrecked my carbon bike in multiple races and so far it's come out ok), but can also be repaired for a couple hundred bucks unless they are totally trashed beyond reason. Aluminum is the other popular choice, but the tubes on an Al bike are ultra thin and can dent/bend in a crash too (my Al bike has a lovely dented seatstay from a crash in a rainy race).

The lighter you want the bike to be, the more $$$$$ you will shell out. That's just the way it is. Light wheels are hella expensive. I bought a brand new pair of carbon fiber tubular wheels for around $1500 and destroyed one of them in a crash the first time I rode it (thanks to some idiot I was racing against who couldn't corner to save his life). SRAM, Shimano, and Campagnolo are the big names in bicycle componentry. SRAM and Shimano are probably the two you would be looking at, and honestly they are not a whole lot different except that Shimano has electronic shifting available now and from what I hear, it's pretty sweet. Other than that, they operate a bit differently, but they both work well and it's all about personal preference.

I would recommend riding a bunch of bikes and finding one that you feel the best on. In my opinion, every company puts out a very similar product, but the geometry of each bike will be a bit different and will fit each individual differently. You gotta try 'em to know what's best for you. I own a carbon Felt, an aluminum Cannondale, an old CroMoly Specialized, and a cheapo off-brand aluminum cross bike. I like them all in different ways. So yeah, narrow down what category of bike you want first (mtn, cyclocross, road, etc) then you can start getting into specifics from there. I'll be happy to help suggest things, but ultimately it's whatever fits into your budget and fits/feels right for you.

By the way Carl, your lanky ass could probably be a hell of a climber on the bike if you trained enough. I warn you though, if you get started on this habit, it can be addictive as hell and it's not cheap.

I have the perfect song for this.....
Right Said Fred - I`m Too Sexy (The Original) - YouTube

You guys sound like serious bikers, but even duffers can enjoy renting a bike on layovers. Along the Cook inlet in ANC, across the Golden Gate in SFO, Palisades to Santa Monica near LAX, and around Central Park in New York are all good routes. :)

I miss it so much! But I'm finding that trying to purchase a bike outside of working in the industry on 1st year regional pay might be a challenge. Added to that is the bike snob in me doesn't want to get anything less than Ultegra or XT (Shimanophile here).

Also the way/where I ride will have to change just to make sure I don't lose my medical because some overzealous cat 5 Armstrong wannabe put me in a ditch or some trucker wants to teach me a lesson. Then again the only time I've seriously wrecked a bike was on a trail.

Protip: If you wreck and break your collarbone, get it pinned. I broke mine in four places so they had no choice. That summer, three other friends of mine broke their collarbone.

• Two of us had our collarbones pinned successfully and immediately ( I was back riding in three weeks)
• One guy had his pinned but had to have his stitches redone (he started lifting weights early and the skin got rubbed away over one of the bolts. Could see the metal in his shoulder.:eek:)
• One was told to rest up for a few months and that it would heal natutrally. He was in a great deal of pain for a month and they finally took another look. Turns out they didn't x-ray from the top and he had split his collarbone lengthwise with the fracture not visible from the side. He eventually got it pinned.

And no it doesn't set off security.

Anyway more cool pictures for HSLD.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/4...dhuffcrash.jpg
Brad Huff Tour of Missouri crash - YouTube (couldn't figure out how to embed it)

That was one hell of a write-up Copperhed. I knew you would come through with all the good info. We will talk more when it gets close to spending some serious skrilla.

As for climbing, it feels awesome to make it up a massive hill without going lower than 3-5 on the gears. And might as well add this to my already budding collection of expensive habits. Especially since it makes me feel like a BAMF.

Don't forget the international folks too. Most European layovers have bikes near by and the even NRT hotel has some ratty bikes for rent. Nothing like riding form bar to bar along the water in AMS.

Well, it's cheaper than skiing, and it's hard to put a price on being healthy and having healthy hobbies/activities/sports. LX and SLX work just fine too. The thing about skiing is not the $800 skis, $600 boots, $400 bindings, $150 poles and all of the other accessories (clothing, etc). It's that it costs 70-100 for a lift ticket, you spend a crapload of gas getting up there, maybe have lunch on the mountain, and at the end of the day every single trip costs a pretty decent chunk, vs. just gabbing my mtn bike and it's accessories and essentially "riding for free", usually the trails are closer (to me) and I'm more inclined to have some cheaper (than ski resorts!) food with me. Get a $1000 29 hardtail and you can be having tons of fun and riding just about any type of trail...I do like skiing though and I do it, just logistically and financially more difficult.

While on the subject, has anyone traveled with their bike as a non-rev?

I have, but I had to have my wheels trued at the destination. My bike got pretty dinged up too.

I agree with Copperhed. Biking is a great sport, I love the freedom and camaraderie, but it can and does get expensive...and addictive. As far as picking out a new bike, check out bicycling.com's gear finder They did some good reviews this year and you can get a feel for pricing. I prefer a custom build from a frame that I like, but most stock bikes would work just fine if you're just getting into the sport. Just be aware that the gearing on a stock bike isn't very aggressive. There are usually compromises in quality on stock bikes also, to keep the price point down. You have to carefully look at what components the bike is built with. A salesperson might tell you it's a full shimano 105 bike, but that's usually not true. Bike manufacturers usually mix and match SRAM, FSA, Shimano, etc to make everyone happy and, like I said, keep the price down.

As far as material goes, you can become a gram freak if you get into too much carbon :) Like, how many grams does this bottle cage weigh vs. another. But the lighter the bike, the less you have to carry with you. You'll find different "rated" carbons, ie...this bike has 36, 40, 60 ton carbon. This is referring to the tensile strength of the material. You can think of tensile strength as pulling on both ends of a rubber band. And I think (but I'm not sure) that the number is referring to how much tensile force can be placed on a square millimeter of carbon before the material fails. I seem to remember reading that somewhere. Depending on the material, you can fit something like 25 strands of carbon fiber to equal the circumference of 1 human hair. Anyhow, what it means to the consumer, is that the higher the ton rating, the lighter the bike will be because less material is required to make the bike strong enough for whatever the manufacturer is going for. This also increases the $$$. But, a lot of stock, lower end bikes are cast from the same mold as a higher end model, just made of different grades of carbon. Another cool thing manufacturers do with carbon is build different parts of the bike, like the chain stays, asymmetrically. Since the gearing is on your right side, they basically beef up that side of the bike so that more of the force from your legs is driven into your drive train and wheels and not lost in the flexing of the frame. Pretty cool concept, I think.

My personal favorites this year are the Cannondale Super Six (especially the Evo model - which I think is the lightest frame you can buy right now). Also liked the Cervelo R3, Colnago M10, Pinarello FP Quattro. These are pretty expensive bikes though, but very awesome. I'm also going through the process of buying a new bike this year. It helps to make a wish list of what you'd like, i.e. what level of components, material, consider your riding goals (crit..centuries..all of the above?)...check out what's available in your area in the shops and do some research. There is no one size fits all with bikes...find something you love and stick with it.

After the initial buy-in of a bike and all your gear, maybe it gets cheaper than skiing. If you're like me and race almost every weekend, you're looking at a bunch of gas money plus $30ish in entry fees and a few bucks here and there for race nutrition. It's definitely an ongoing expense for me, but I do win my money back sometimes. I don't know how I'd do it without the various sponsorships my team has. Getting everything at cost+10% at the local bike shop is pretty awesome.

Yeah, never much cared about racing. Done more than a few, done more than well, but I just don't really care how I stack up against others in that way. The challenge is always against myself, and I can do that anywhere, but getting out into the more "wild" and new-to-me places is what it's about for me, as well as riding with friends and doing every type of "mountain" riding. Racing fees are pretty crazy these days. You are lucky it's only 30 bucks for you, in many places it's up around 70-120 for individual races. I'd guess it's the same thing (lots more expensive) when you ski or snowboard race. I used to do the ski-racing thing a long time ago and I know how much more expensive that can be than just skiing.

Funny I saw this thread. I put my old 10 speed back together this weekend. I got it in about '85-'86 or so and rode it through college. It still has the bike permit on it but hadn't seen a road in 12 years until last night.

New tires and a little grease I rode maybe 7 miles last night, but we're in a very hilly area. It was a noticeable how bad I've let myself go. Hills that wouldn't have made be break a sweat 15 years ago kicked my tail hard this time. I have some lung issues to go along with pre-hypertension, and that added to the stress. Between the spin classes I started a few weeks ago (hate it...) and riding that old beater I hope to have my fat rear in shape ASAP.

Anybody had any luck with:

1) renting a reasonable road bike cheaply on an overnight
2) buying a cheap road bike and keeping it at a frequently visited overnight
3) contacting local cycling clubs on overnights and seeing if you can borrow & blag your way into a loaner.

I don't run due to ankle surgery but I bike a lot and I'm jonesing to make it work on these awesome summer overnights. Just yesterday I looked up the local bike club on the overnight but never called. I just wondered if anybody has made anything like this work.

Steel is real.

Been riding since highschool. Worked at a shop through high school and college. Still more fun than any flying job I've ever had and prior to third year pay, paid more than any flying job.

One of the perks of finally being a line holder again has been riding more. I'll go mountain biking or grab the road bike to break up running on overnights. I've gotten my girlfriend into it as well and the two of us will go ride local paths/trails and are regularly doing 20+ miles together.

60 pounds lost and blood pressure way down because I have found better things to do than post here. I'm finally getting to the point where I'm looking at upgrading from my 10+ year old bikes. They still work great but I really want a new 29" hardtail.

Wow, that was super helpful, thanks.

Back on topic, I've never actually traveled with my mountain bike, IDK why, but I've always done road-trips to places I want to ride, but everyone I know that does travel with them always does so with a hard case. It's worth it, but a little pricy.

Traveling with an expensive bike - a hard shell case is a must! Most bike shops have hard case rentals, I've also had success finding one to rent/borrow on Craigslist.

I've flown quite a bit with my bike in a Trico hard case but always as a paying passenger. I can't imagine traveling standby with my case though.

I have a friend that just got an Ibis Tranny with a smaller travel case. Apparently he can get it down to regular bag dimensions and under fifty pounds. I also know someone who used to travel with his wife all over Asia with his Co-Motion tandem. It had S&S couplers to keep everything down to a reasonable size.

Yeah, the only times I've rented a bike was on a trip to Maui (rode up Haleakala which was pretty effing epic/painful for this fatty non-climber). Renting a decent bike is a pretty expensive prospect, but it could be done occasionally if you were really jonesing on an overnight.

As for traveling with a bike, I have a hard case that I've taken back and forth to/from KC/Colorado/Hawaii and it did fine, but after doing a lot of researching, most people recommend a soft case these days. If you pack the bike properly, it is still well protected, and supposedly there are some soft-cases that can pass for a regular checked bag and bypass the bag fees (now that I have to worry about those sorts of things). Other than avoiding bag fees, I think the soft case would just be way less cumbersome to travel with.

Corporate guy chiming in here. I travel with my road bike when I can (if I'm going to a good cycling destination). I have no issues with a soft case, but it is in my control 100 percent of the time. If it is a day trip with no luggage, I don't even bother packing it in the case. I just take a wheel off and it fits fine in the baggage compartment of the LR45. It is a great way to kill a couple of hours on a layover.

Been riding this Schwinn since about 1999, got my moneys worth out of it. The larger tire size make punctures a thing of the past, but it's a bit heavy. Once upon a time Schwinn made bikes like Trek, Cannondale, etc. but went downhill after they were sold in about 2000. Broke my collarbone in 2010 in a crash and got it pinned, but stayed off the bike for a year. Ready to get back out there!

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/IMG_1503.jpg

^+1 Since I've never been a road cycling type of guy, I remember wanting a Schwinn Rocket 88 in the worst way. Funny enough, the object of my desire was around back then as well, the Santa Cruz Superlight.

atp and type ride complete, waiting for oe, but sooo glad to have some time off.

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...g/IMG_0991.jpg

I've done this a few times. It's been over 5 years, but my RJ crew rented 3 mtn bikes (cool FA) and we did a pretty tame 20 miles near the Garden of the Gods on a COS layover. Said FA later tried to embarass me in the crew room by saying loudly "Oh great. We're flying together? After our last layover, my a## hurt for a week" :D Never thought I'd reminisce about flying for the regionals, but the layovers (from a fun crew, camaraderie perspective) were much more fun. Nowadays it's mostly guys talking about prostate exams and melanoma, crying into their beer about how their ex-wife took what was left of their retirement :p

More recently (2 weeks ago) on a SLC layover we rented a car for $15 and drove up to Park City (30-40 minutes). 4 hour rental of a nice Trek road bike was $40. We did 35-40 miles and were back to the hotel with plenty of time to spare before an evening pickup.

Point is, it can be done reasonably cheap (relative to a ski day I guess), but it's been worth it every time I've made the effort. I love getting out and away from the hotel and finding stuff to do outside. We travel all over the country, but rarely see more than the hotel or local bars/restaurants.

I've found calling the local bike shop will usually yield good info on who's renting what kind of bikes and where the best roads/trails are. Have fun!

It's been a busy week for me and thread resurrections. Might have to change my name to CaptainNecromancer.

Anyway, after not riding for a couple of months, I knocked out 17 miles in the rain, sleet, and snow. Feels good.