Cycling Thread

[Clarkey]

I'm looking for a pair of shorts that is somewhere between "you can tell my religion," and "I look like a Ken doll." Any suggestions?

[pylon]

Originally Posted by hmmhmmcamo

At $1650 it's definitely exceeding the cool with the wife budget, but with some careful negotiations I think I can make it happen. I'm still looking for cheaper options but man is it sweet.

Do it. By the time you kit out a bare bike, you will spend more. And that is a super sweet looking rig. Love the aero wheels.

Ask you wife this. "Do I make you consult with me, when you by the groceries?"

What could possibly go wrong, it is fool proof.

[hmmhmmcamo]

Originally Posted by pylon

Do it. By the time you kit out a bare bike, you will spend more. And that is a super sweet looking rig. Love the aero wheels

Haha thanks. That's what I wanted to hear.

Ask you wife this. "Do I make you consult with me, when you by the groceries?"

She always does, but only because she's awesome. I definitely won the wife lottery. She's been ridiculously supportive of my plan to start biking to work and I'm not worried about the price being an issue.

It was funny because I talked to a buddy of mine tonight who is a year round bike commuter in Vancouver and he told me about his Brodie Energy that he's had for a couple years now and loves.

http://www.brodiebikes.com/2012/bikes/energy.php

I thought the Infinity looked pretty sweet too.

http://www.brodiebikes.com/2012/bikes/infinity.php

Anyway, I put all three up and asked which one she like best..."definitely the Specialized."

Easy game

[Coys1882]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

I'm looking for a pair of shorts that is somewhere between "you can tell my religion," and "I look like a Ken doll." Any suggestions?

These are what I wear - no idea how they stack up next to the big brands but I find them comfortable and durable.

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/Cyclin...horts-mens.jsp

[FLAMESRULE]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

I'm looking for a pair of shorts that is somewhere between "you can tell my religion," and "I look like a Ken doll." Any suggestions?

I picked both of these up at Bow Cycle...they are awesome. Super comfortable to wear, no chafing, and the Road gear leaves little to the imagination...

Road Warrior
http://www.jensonusa.com/Bicycle-Sho...cs=White/Black

Downtown Work Ride
http://www.jensonusa.com/Cycling-Sho...stov-Shorts-12

[TSXCman]

Hey guys,

I have been looking at 29ers for the summer, 90% ride to work, 10% fishcreek paths on weekends. Since the 29er market seems to have been bought out or raised so much in price I was also considering some hybrids with front shocks, which I see a couple of awesome suggestions from you guys on here.

I have come across a 'lightly used' Scott Sportster 10 hybrid in my frame size:
link: http://www.scott-sports.com/global/e...portster-10-s/

The guy wants to sell it for $200 less than new price, I may be able to lower it slightly. Asking price is $1250. What do you guys think of the level of components on this ride? (shifters, derailers, etc.) anything I should be wary of? and would I be okay biking over rocks and roots with this type of ride? This looks like it probably won't work out after talking to some shops.

Thanks in advance guys, I am going to try to get as near to 100km on my first ride as possible, so I need to hurry up on my purchase.

EDIT***

Think I am going to sack up and commit up to 1400$ to a bike that I can ride for the next few years on pavement and some light trails. Cyclecross, stronger hybrids, or 29ers seem to be the direction to research further.

[Northendzone]

To me that bike looks acceptable for what you are thinking of doing with it.

Surprises me that a bike that is less than $1,500 is equipped with xt, but maybe these days there are more levels of shimano stuff?

[pylon]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

To me that bike looks acceptable for what you are thinking of doing with it.

Surprises me that a bike that is less than $1,500 is equipped with xt, but maybe these days there are more levels of shimano stuff?

I am thinking the compromise is the fork. The fork is usually what drives them out of reach.

So, I got my totally neglected mountain bike out for a nice long ride today. I will admit when I bought it a few years ago it was an impulse buy. Just loved the matt finish, but the compnoents kinda sucked, and that is probably why I hardly rode it. The 6000 frames though are bomb proof, so I figured it was worth a pretty huge upgrade to take it from run of the mill Trek 6000, to a pretty capable hard tail. Upgrades included:

- OEM crank swapped out for Shimano SLX.
- Ritchey carbon seat post and Easton Monkey Lite XC carbon bars.
- Upgraded cable disks to Elixir 5 hydraulics.
- SDG Bel-air seat.
- Swapped out Dart 3 fork, for Rock shox recon 335 air fork.



Didn't look like this after my ride was done today...lol. But A clean mountain bike isn't a mountain bike.

[hmmhmmcamo]

Update on my bike shopping...

Woke up today 99% sure I’m getting the Specialized I posted earlier. I talked to one store about it and they told me they can’t order it in because Specialized is sold out of my size (medium). Bummer.

So I call the store that I saw it at the other day and mentioned that I had been in there to look at it but wasn’t sure what the size of the one they had in stock was. Dude on the phone says it was a small, and that they had sold it that morning. He said they had a medium still in the box and they could put it together for me to try out. I told them I’d be by Saturday morning.

Here’s where it went a bit weird. I went in this morning and before I talked to anyone I went over to the bikes to check out what was there. I’m 99.9% positive the same Specialized bike I looked at a couple days earlier was still sitting there (the one the guy said was a small and had been sold). The reason I’m sure it’s the same bike is because there we’re a few different scuff marks on the frame that I noticed immediately and just seemed weird....and which seemed even weirder now because apparently this bike had been out of the box for less than 24 hours.

Regardless I took it for a quick spin out in the back parking lot and it felt pretty awesome. But when I looked at it closer I noticed a few scratched in the paint right above the chain. Maybe I’m just being paranoid but my gut tells me this was a bike that had been returned and is probably considered “very lightly used”, but definitely not new anymore. I think they are trying to sell it as new so I won’t be buying my bike from there.

The next stop on my tour had Giant, Cannondale and Kona bikes. This was by far my best bike store experience and I left thinking that even if I don’t buy my bike there, I will get all my service done there and support them as much as possible.

I had mixed feelings about Giant, but the Seek 1 looks really sweet so I took it for a ride.(http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-ca/....1/9774/49361/) It was awesome and honestly the photos online don't do it the proper justice at all. It just felt really solid and comfortable and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.

Next I tried the Cannondale Bad Boy Solo. (http://www.cannondale.com/2012-bad-boy-5-20118). She set this one up for me while I was riding the Seek 1, and even though I knew 100% I wasn’t going to buy it because I think the one fork is stupid and gimmicky, I was kinda interested in just seeing what it was like. In the end I really liked it and didn’t notice the one fork at all, but still I won’t buy it because I just can’t get over how dumb it looks.

From there I went to look at Brodie’s and I probably came across the dumbest bike dude in the world. Honestly I knew more about the bikes than he did, and I’ve only really started researching things this week. In the end they didn’t have anything in my size so I’ll have to try another Brodie dealership tomorrow.

One good thing from that place was he did get me to try a Devinci Sidney which was really awesome (except no disc brakes). It felt really light but solid and it seemed like it would go like stink. After looking online a bit more tonight I noticed they have the coppenhagen model (http://www.devinci.com/bikes/browse_19#19_59_197) which has disc brakes. I also noticed the rest of their frames have disc brake mounts so maybe I can upgrade to them if I find something that I like but doesn’t have the discs.

Next it was off to the Trek store. I took at Trek 7.5 (http://www.trekbikes.com/ca/en/bikes/road/fitness/fx/7_5_fx_disc/#) for a ride and didn’t like it at all...I was really surprised too because I’ve always really liked their bikes.

Tonight I came across the BMS site and really like the look of this bike (http://www.bmc-racing.com/int-en/bik.../standard.html). I don’t know anything about them but that bike sure looks sweet.

Tomorrow’s action plan:
-go ride the Specialized again
-go check out the BMC bike, same bike store has Felt bikes that look pretty cool too
-go check out Devinci and Kona...really interested in riding more Devinci’s
-finally ride the Seek 1 again. I really can’t get over how sweet this bike looked and rode.

[pylon]

I love my Devinci, best all around bike I have ever owned, ++ Canadian made frame. Seriously, get this one, it is essentially what I built mine up to, all this thing needs is a $50 rack everything else is top notch for a commuter:

http://www.devinci.com/bikes/browse_19#19_60_179

I started with the model down, and ended up regretting not getting the higher end cranks, and wheels, so I just finished it off myself with upgrades. The bike has linear pull brakes, which I find more powerful than my hydraulic disks on the MTB. But the big bonus... Full Road gearing, and wheels = 5-8 KP/ higher speeds. Not some BS MTB/road mix. And mans cranks, double, not this hairy fairy triple crap. The bike also weighs just over 20bs. You will not regret that purchase it will keep up with the roadies, and if they are like my LBS, you can get 10% off. The thing kills the 7.5 FX, and that is why I bought mine. It was $300 less, with better performance, and components. Doooo It! Join the Devinci club, there are few of us...it is an exclusive club.

For the record, disk brakes in my opinion are overblown. Plus I cannot stand the ting,ting,ting... sound they make when you corner, or if they get a tiny warp in them. They are awesome for MTB in the mud, but are massive overkill for normal commuting use.

I <3 my Devinci:

[pylon]

For the record, that Cannondale look ridiculous.....ly awesome! I would buy it just because it looks so weird.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by pylon

For the record, that Cannondale look ridiculous.....ly awesome! I would buy it just because it looks so weird.

I agree. The lefty fork should is a thing of engineering and beauty.

I was just wondering how the front hub worked to keep that wheel straight while leaning the bike into a turn.

[bossy22]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I agree. The lefty fork should be in a thing of engineering and beauty.

I was just wondering how the front hub worked to keep that wheel straight while leaning the bike into a turn.

It's a 20mm axle. It's stiffer than your standard 9mm quick release. The only issue is, you need an allen key to remove your front tire, and if you have a fork mount bike rack, you need an $80 adapter. This axle is fixed to the fork, and you need to remove the brake first to get the wheel off because it slides off instead of down.

[hmmhmmcamo]

Today I went out and rode the Devinci’s. Wow, are they awesome!

Also, I’m off the disc brake bandwagon for now. I told the sales guy that I wanted the discs, or at least the option to add them later and I could tell he had his answer ready.

He said that what makes them awesome and better than conventional brakes for big heavy mountain bikes with very large tires, is that there is a lot of tire surface area & weight to grip the usually softer/sandy surface. But on a road bike, where the bike is light and the tire is skinny, there is very little surface area gripping the pavement. So I guess just because the wheel has stopped doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting better stopping power on the small tires because you’d be skidding for some distance?

Who knows, but I thought it was an interesting way to look at it. What do you guys think?

So I rode a 2011 Amsterdam and a 2012 Oslo (I think). I really loved how light it was and it feels really solid. The Amsterdam was a medium and I thought it was perfect, but the sales guy suggested I try a large just to be sure. Good call. It looks like I’m right in between a medium and a large, but the large feels a lot less cramped. It was nice because I got to spend quite a bit of time jumping back and forth between the M and L just to be sure.

I really liked this shop and the sales guy...the only negative is location. It’s in a really inconvenient spot for me to get to for maintenance/ tune ups, especially after work but also on weekends. But it seems like the only Devinci dealer around so we’ll see.

Thanks to Pylon for mentioning your Devinci a few pages back. I actually saw your post before I had decided to start riding to work and thought your bike looked awesome...nice work. I doubt I’d have even been considering them if it wasn’t for your recommendation, so thanks again.

After that I went back to try the Specialized again and take it for a longer ride. It’s awesome. I also wanted to try a large and do the same back and forth comparison. I definitely like the large better.

Finally I went back and rode the Giant Seek 1 again. After riding the Devinci and Specialized earlier in the day, it just felt too heavy and bulky, so it’s no longer in the running.

I also took a Cannondale Quick for a ride (another Pylon recommendation). http://www.cannondale.com/2012-quick-sl-1-20947 It was nice but just didn’t really do anything for me. It would be at #3 right now, but I doubt I’ll be riding it again.

So that’s where I’m at tonight. Mostly I’m interested to hear what you guys think about sales guy’s disc brake theory. Thanks.

[pylon]

The sales guy hit the nail on the head. I can lock up my linear pulls on my Devinci, just as easy as the disks on my Trek. L-pulls, I feel, are better for commuter bikes for the following reasons. Lighter, super cheap to maintain, and better suited to road riding. As for raw braking performance between my three bikes.

1-Hydraulic disks (MTB) 27 lbs
2-L-pulls (commuter) 21 lbs
3-Side-pull (carbon road bike) 17 lbs

It is funny, the lighter they get, the worse the performance. That being said, all three bikes stop on a dime. I would never thrash through the bush with side-pulls or L-pulls. Disks are awesome at isolating themselves from mud and A LOT of water. Plus they do modulate better. But I have never found myself a road situation, where I felt I needed them, dry or wet. In theory, in dry conditions, rim brakes will fade a lot less, as they have way more surface area to work with to dissipate heat as well.

I would highly suggest, if going the Devinci route, look at the one I suggested earlier of the 2 in the fitness commuter category. This years Oslo is a MTB/road mix, and the model I bought last year, would be considered a fitness this year. Plus the tires you want are 700x28 for commuting, I actually went down to a 700X25 (which is as narrow as you would want a commuter tire). The 2012 Olso is a 700X32. Plus the wheels on that top model (melbourne), are worth the price upgrade alone. Wheels/tires are your # 1 priority in achieving speed. The narrower and lighter the better. Lastly, it looks like the Melbourne has the Kenda tires that came stock with mine with the reflector strip. If you are a TRON fan, you'll dig'em. This is how people will see you at night, and this was just my iPhone flash, not a set of HID's lol:

[FLAMESRULE]

These are now on my wish list...but does anyone know about / have experience with Renovo?? Its a wood bike builder out of Portland that makes some seriously sexy road/mtn/commuter bikes...

http://www.renovobikes.com

[red sky]

Not sure this is the best place for this but I am wondering if anyone can recommend a good trunk mounted bike rack for 2 bikes? I know it isn't the best solution compared to roof/hitch mounted but I don't want to go spend 500. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Coys1882]

Originally Posted by red sky

Not sure this is the best place for this but I am wondering if anyone can recommend a good trunk mounted bike rack for 2 bikes? I know it isn't the best solution compared to roof/hitch mounted but I don't want to go spend 500. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I got mine at Canadian Tire - holds three bikes and was $80. It fits any trunk or hatchback. Works great.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en

[red sky]

Does that one fit on an SUV? I see they have another one for SUVs and vans. Is it secure or does it bounce around a lot?

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by bossy22

It's a 20mm axle. It's stiffer than your standard 9mm quick release. The only issue is, you need an allen key to remove your front tire, and if you have a fork mount bike rack, you need an $80 adapter.

Most through axles have a quick release style lever and a notch it fits into so you can take out the axle just by rotating the lever.

Adapters for racks are $25 at MEC.