Cycling Thread

[Northendzone]

i resisted the lure of clipless pedals for years, and i was dumb. at the time when i was commuting to work on my bike, going clipless increased my average speed by 4 kph.......it took me about a week to get used to them and feel comfortable being attached to my bike......i used to keep my right pedal a little looser than my left to make it easy to unclip downtown at lights - i was never able to do what the courirer guys do and balance while stopped.....

[Bill Bumface]

I find the just give you all around better bike control too. Especially in winter, I can plow through way worse stuff without having to put a foot down with clipless than without.

[bossy22]

Originally Posted by habernac

Careful taking newbies on more technical rides. My wife still won't ride with me, ten years after the fact.

Unfortunately, we all can't be married to Emily Batty.

[habernac]

I don't know if I could ride without clipless pedals now. I haven't owned a bike in 20 years without them.

[FLAMESRULE]

Any riders thought about doing one of these tours?? Looking at maybe the Kelowna + Banff rides after the Cancer Ride in June.

http://granfondocanada.com/

[habernac]

I'd love to do the one in Kelowna that Axel Merckx organizes. His Dad was out for it last year. Love to get a chance to meet the greatest cyclist of all time.

[Josh]

I purchased this off Craigslist last night, I'm moving all of my Deore LX components from my Giant Iguana Disc over to this frame. It's a little older of a design but I've wanted one of these for a long time. Now I just need to ride it and my road bike more (its way too easy to just hop on the motorcycle).

[#22]

Originally Posted by pylon

An idea I have been kicking around for a while is starting a general bike/parts bin thread in the buy and sell. You know for stuff like seats, handlebars, headsets, pedals, levers, cranks..... basically a pick-a-part for bikes. I probably have enough stuff to assemble an entire mountain bike, sans frame right now.

I have a bunch of really good usable stuff, and I am sure a lot of you do, but it seems silly to start a thread for "FS: Bontrager seat $5".

Anyway, who would like a thread like that? Would you guys participate? I think it would be cool to have one little spot to check if you need a stem spacer, or something random like that.

I think that is a great idea

[bossy22]

Originally Posted by #22

I think that is a great idea

It is. I'm going to be parting out my single speed and putting it all up for sale.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by pylon

Absolutely love SRAM double tap. In fact given the choice, I would take Rival over Ultegra, as it is so much smoother to use, and you don't push in your brake levers to shift.

I have the SRAM Rival set up on my Cervelo R3. I just don't like the feel of the double tap. If I was to do the purchase over again, I'd go with the Ultegra. I have 105s on my 2009 Kona Zing and I just like having separate areas that gear up and down. I've only put about 500km on the Cervelo, so hopefully it will get smoother with more use.

[Otto-matic]

Just picked up a Giant Talon 29er 0, awesome awesome bike.

[CalgaryFan1988]

Just picked this up last week-end. Good deal on a new 2011 model.

2011 Specialized Hard Rock Disc

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

What the hell, I saw like 3 people on the bike pat today with that exact same bike.
Were the on sale at Bow or something?

[FLAMESRULE]

This could go in the What Makes me Happy Thread...but my god I love my road bike (Trek 2.1 Apex w/ SRAM). Went out on a group ride last night with the One Aim team for the RTCC and loved the 2 hour trek. Bombing around + down hills at 60kph+ is alot of fun. Decent tracks through 12mile coulee and around Bearspaw / Church Ranches.

Biking in too work on my mtn bike (Kona Cindercone hardtail) now just seems so boring. Not mention its not even close to being as comfortable to ride.

Question for people with roof racks though...do you guys put the bike (road or mtn) on backwards?? So you'd have the rear tire facing forward so that you dont get the top of the seat or handle bars covered with grease/bugs/crap from driving around.

[Azure]

The front disc brake on my Kona doesn't have any power. Its very easy to completely pull back the level, and it only slightly brakes. Does it require a bleed or is there something else I can do?

A bleed kit seems to be around $60 on Ebay, but I can get it done for $50 at a bike shop in Winnipeg.

[Bill Bumface]

Check the lever adjustment as well, but yeah, otherwise bleed 'em.

[Azure]

I'll just take it in to be fixed. $25/brake for a bleed. I don't have time to figure out how to properly do it myself.

[Temporary_User]

Originally Posted by bossy22

It is. I'm going to be parting out my single speed and putting it all up for sale.

size, photos?

[djwazzy]

Where's the best place for a someone new to the sport to look for a road bike?

I am not looking for the latest and greatest, but a decent entry level bike, for under $1000 would be ideal. Are the 2011 models still generally available? I would look into used bikes that were 1 or 2 years old as well but not sure where to start looking. Looking for recommendations. Thanks!

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

First of all, I'll give you the advice I got when I bought my first road bike, and I've seen to be 100% accurate whenever anyone goes to buy one.
Whatever your budget is, add 20-40% and that's what you'll end up spending (then add gear to that, helmet, pedals, shoes etc.)

That' being said, for a new bike you can't go wrong with any of the big bike shops.
I'm partial to Bow, but you'll get just as many people who will suggest other shops (Ridley's, the Bike Shop, etc).

If you're looking for a used bike, Kijiji is always good, but chances are you're about a month too late to really have a good selection/quality bikes.

Good luck though.