The Bicycle Thread

I hardly ever start a thread here on this forum.
But a storm is rolling in and I am bored.

So, 1st I searched before deciding to do this.

After being assured no one else has done this here.

Being a Harley Riding Linux user with 2 POS slightly customised Goodwill 10 dollar bicycles of my own. I figured I could positively be qualified to start this thread. I am interested in photos, makes and model of bicycles members here may be aware of or own.

Here is a generic contrib of my own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GBAekgjSgU

Down the road about 80 miles away. I have access to

http://pedalyourselfhealthy.org/
http://www.bicyclehq.com/about.html
http://www.peytonsbikes.com/
http://www.pbbatx.com/


Never liked cars and trucks. Though I own them. 2 wheels is part of my dna makeup.

Later on. I will post pics of my low budget, rat bike, get around the block machines. Remember. Mine are throw aways so do not expect much. I bet other members here have units that shine and move like the wind.

Looking foward to pictures and links. A good off site place to upload your picture and just give the link are

http://www.postmyimage.com/

Happy Trailz, Rok

Hi Roky, everyones entitled to start a thread.

This may interest you, (if you don't know it).
http://www.cyclechat.net/forums/fixe...inglespeed.12/

My posts.
http://www.cyclechat.net/search/5746022/

My single speed

My single speed

I'm jealous. Grinning. Thanks for the forum link. I bookmarked it for my ideas when I dig in and trick out these older POS 10 dollar bikes out later. New Tires and innertubes were 1st. Then grease main gearbox and chain. Brakes work as they should. Chains are lubed. But still a long way from being a good all around tuned, dialed in, transport for me and the wife. They are still in rough shape.

Me being 6' 7" makes riding these smaller tire bikes and frames a PITA also. But I am just a padawan when it comes to re-learning this and soaking up how things have changed since I was a boy.

Pics like I promised


http://s10.postimg.org/73z6n1end/big_red.jpg

http://s14.postimg.org/7ctymva69/baby_blue.jpg


Both need New seats, maybe convert to flip flop hub on rear on one, extend the neck for handle bars on mine, gotta a lot to learn to dial these in
so my tall frame can ride one comfy. My size 13 feet get tangled with the front wheel sometimes.

In the meantime. I was wondering if I should pull the trigger on something with a bigger style frame,
Some 45MM rims since I live in the desert with goathead thorns. Plus some larger rims and tires also for the red one. The blue one will be the wifes (if she will ride it).

I built her a 1983 1000 cc XLS Harley Davidson that she rode one time with me to Phoenix Arizona.
She has never got back on it since. Sigh.

I have also left a message on 100 bucks for both on a craiglist listing of

Two bicycles for sale never been ridden. Both are echoing 7 speeds.Woman's maroon mens dark blue.Both bikes will be in my front yard on Sunday morning by 10:00 am.

But they are 80 miles away. So I do not hold much hope of getting contacted and having these ready to drive by and pick up in the truck later. So I deal with what I can find. Walmart is the only way or Amazon online shopping are my choices for parts or bicycles in my little town.

I hope other members who know more than I can share their knowledge in this thread. Some of you EU dudes don't have 80 mile jaunts inbetween towns like I do in Texas. But you have nicer rides I bet.

Friday, I rode my 45-year-old ten-speed for the first time in 14 years (I have a better bicycle) 10 miles to work to lend it to a co-worker (my son picked me up by car on his way home from work) . It worked surprisingly well, except that the wheels were professionally trued 14 years ago, just before I decided to buy my current bike and I checked they were still perfectly true after 14 years of disuse, but they were not nearly so true after 10 miles, so I needed to loosen the brakes for my co-worker to try it.
In 1970, my 10-speed was the first bike I ever chose or purchased (all my earlier bicycles were purchased by my parents for my sister, and I got them after). From 1976 through 1999, every few years I bought a better bike and set the ten-speed aside and rode the better one, until each of them was obliterated by hit-and-run cars in accidents where bizarrely I was never injured. Each time I used the 10-speed for a while before buying again. In 2001 I bought the best bicycle I ever had and have used it since. Hopefully I'm done getting hit by cars. I was never as reckless as typical cyclists and never understood why I got hit so much more often.

As a teen I owned a few mountain bikes, the bets being a Dawes which I spent hours on indexing the gears and setting up the brakes so they would stop the wheels dead. Fast forward to 2013 I bought my first bike in 20 years a Specialised Rockhopper -- I used it on a short commute to work and messed about off-road.
I really ought to use it more and what surprised me was that myself and my friend, who, I took a couple of rides with, seemed to in some way recall the necessary movements to ride the things.
I know there's a phrase "like riding a bike" but I think anyone who has ridden off road in earnest will recognise that it isn't a simple process and relies upon reflexes for even moderate terrain.
I'm still not sure whether going for a 29er was the best decision though as it does feel a bit heavy and cumbersome whereas my old chromoly steel bike (new one is aluminium) didn't feel that way and I was smaller in stature back then.

I grew up in the country, so a bicycle was a ticket to visiting friends and mobility in general when I was kid. Later on, when I was much older, I had a Huffy three-speed which I rode a lot when I lived in Narberth, Pa., which was a great area for bicycling, with wide suburban streets and relatively light traffic on the back roads outside of commuting hours. I stopped riding after I moved to upper Delaware; my little corner of Delaware was quite hilly, plus I suddenly found myself with two kids.

I now have a Fuji Sports 10 (circa early 1970s) which I ride several times a week once the tempurature gets above about 60 Fahrenheits.

I got it from the Urban Bike Project in Wilmington, Del., which restores donated bikes for needy kids, while selling some of them at quite reasonable rates to help support their efforts. (My son was volunteering there, I think because he was interested in one of the young lady volunteers at the time.)

Now that I'm back in the flatlands, I ride it several times a week and enjoy it immensely, plus it's great exercise. I keep track of my rides with Move! Bike Computer, an Android app that does not require me to create an account on some dodgy website somewhere, does not want access to my contacts list, and is generally well behaved. I'm not out to set any records, but, according to it, I've increased my average speed by almost two mph since 2012 when I started to ride regularly again.

I used to have a coworker who would ask, whenever we passed a runner on the street, "Have you ever seen a smiling jogger?" Good question, methinks. But you see lots of smiling bicyclists.

I have quite a list of blogs about bicycling blogs that I look at occasionally, but I've noticed that the ones not run by publications, online and otherwise, tend to come and go with frequency. Many of the best are European, which is in no way surprising, as Europe is so much friendlier to cycling than is the U. S.

And don't get me started about what the owner of a local bicycle shop and avid cyclist himself refers to as the "Spandex mafia."

I got back into cycling last year and bought a 2nd hand Apollo MTB. For the last 6 months I have enjoyed cycling to the swimming pool and back. I feel great after the exercise.

Unfortunately over the last few weeks my enthusiasm levels have been at a low. I am happy to go for a run in the morning but cycling when I get home at night doesn't excite me at the moment. This week I WILL get back on the bike!

Looking at your 2 old clunkers, I suggest you look for a bigger frame for your 6ft 7in, a 21 inch (I'd hazard a guess), as you won't be able to get the saddle & bars into a suitable position to ride comfortably (on what looks like a 17 inch frame).

We have Hawthorn hedges lining a lot of our roads, & their thorns are bad news, when they are being cut back, so I sympathize regarding your thorn problem.

Word of warning - those steel caliper brakes on steel rims won't stop you in a hurry.

Regrease the wheel bearings, soak the chains in an oil bath for a day or two, & hopefully they will roll OK.

Edit: Check the cable inners to make sure they are OK, not too frayed, & oil them as well.

Also, If you require additional advice, just ask, cyclist are a friendly bunch, just like computer nuts.

I had a bicycle when I was a kid, but I fell off so many times that my parents decided I'd better stick to walking.

Cool thread! Thx. Made me see if I could possibly find a pic of my very first bike. Here it is




My powered bikes were

1) Montesa Enduro 175 - sweet introduction to offroad madness

2) Bultaco Matisse 250 - I think my Dad loaned me the balance because after a test ride at the dealers he realized it was likely gonna take blasting powder to pry me off.

It's somewhat sad to think about my last bike, a Ducati 250 Street Scrambler, because right after I installed a desmodromic head, enabling rpms exceeding 12-13K on a single cylinder 4-stroke I was forced to sell it after having ridden it exactly twice and never on a real track where she could be wound up in all 5 gears. First and second gears were vision-blurring and mind-bending. I tell myself it's better that I had to sell it since otherwise I likely would be dead. It wasn't frightening from instability like many Kawasakis I've ridden but just sheer acceleration. Once it came on that cam it was difficult to hang on the bars. I have no way to judge objectively but it felt faster than a buddy's Triumph Trident by a considerable margin.

I have a Whyte Sussex 2015. I have recently been training for a ride I am taking part in next month. It's a bike ride for charity from London to Brighton (54 miles)

A few days ago I did a very silly thing. I was talking on the phone while cleaning my bike. I was so engrossed in the conversation that accidentally I sprayed my brakes with WD-40.
I did not register that fact until I tried to brake on my way to work the following day.

Really silly thing to do.

Been doing some of my own research for

you look for a bigger frame for your 6ft 7in

Pickings are slim in the desert on the Mexican Border. If I lived east or west coast, or northeast or even near Dallas or Austin Texas. My choices would expand exponentially.

Anyhows. Biting the bullet. Just so I can have something to ride before I break out my welder
and hacksaw and see what I can break. I gathered up some motorcycle parts funds and sprung for a walmart cookie cutter POS=(Piece of S_____T, Not Point of Sale) hoping my stab in the dark strikes paydirt. I did this all before reading the replies here.

Bearing in mind that delivery is free and not a lot lost if I screw up. I did not know this
stuff would be so tuff after I grew up. Looks like Nothing fits me. The story of my life. Sigh.
Bicycles got expensive. Maybe I might learn to adapt both of those 10 dollar bikes into a recursive type of 3 wheeler by cannibalizing the parts, cutting, welding, and painting.

I am pretty good with my hands and have all the machine tools I need in my Motorcycle shop
to attempt this. Just virgin territory for now. So still in a learning phase for me. Too bad most bicycles are made for folks 6'and under before Jumping up to the 500 dollar plus range.

This is not a obsessive mind set project for me. But. I quit smoking years ago and figured it was time to get my wind up/lungs in shape. I hate to Jog at my age and all the bike wreck operations. So gonna give this a good go.

To big dudes like me.

In my research.
I found you need frames from 63cm to 66cm
Wheels can be 700c on these frames.
Complete bikes like Cannondale have bikes in these sizes.

http://cyclingabout.com/list-of-xxl-...ts-62-63-64cm/

Expect to spend a lot of money for the right tool for the right job.

Edit: I have not yet taken the trouble to travel the 160 mile round trip to the bike shops in Midland and Odessa Texas yet. That will be for another weekend. Kinda a scouting expedition. See what kind of dudes they are. Either helpful or standup vendors. Or vultures. Something we see alot on the border.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/h...z82jazgoe.aspx

http://dirtmountainbike.com/longform...BEv31UbYibo.97

http://makezine.com/2015/01/07/diy-bamboo-bike/

For reading later on

http://bamboobicycleclub.org/

http://www.validcycles.com/main/Valid_Cycles.html

Hmmmm. The more I read. I may have a idea of making some home made extended seat posts to raise my seats. Cut and extend the front pipe steering and raise it up. Install some longer handle bars. Replace with longer cables. Just like customising motorcycles. Just have to take my time.

http://postmyimage.com/img2/183_DSC00517c.JPG

In Feb, my wife and I went to Venice Fl. for a week. Mostly we bicycled around the area using bicycles we rented for the week. Most days, we biked 30 to 50 miles a day, which is way beyond what we are used to or can do at home. The weather was perfect for bicycling (50 to 65F and low humidity) which is colder than it almost ever gets for sunny afternoons in Venice Fl. We went at a very slow pace. Everything is dead flat and we mostly went where there was no traffic. All of that made it much easier per mile than any other bicycling I've ever done.

The above link is a photo of those rented bikes on the beach.

I'm not a good photographer, and generally have no clue what makes a photo look like competent art to others, so this might well not be a photo anyone else appreciates. But something about the way those bikes looked there (as my wife and I walked back to them after interrupting a long ride for a short walk on the beach) made me decide I had to have that picture.

Next, a much less aesthetic photo of my wife and myself with our own bikes during our vacation in Maryland last year:
http://postmyimage.com/img2/232_100_1053.JPG