Bicycles

[Darkrider]

On a more positive note, I had a feeling there was a thread about bicycles on here somewhere and i was correct. I have been researching new bikes over the past couple days as my wife wants me to get back into riding as an activity to spend time together. She has an older beach cruiser style bike that a family member got her awhile ago. Cannot remember the brand atm. Will try to get some pics of it tomorrow if i remember. When i was younger i used to build sort of rat type mountain bikes out of spare parts not so much for the look just that was all i had. Various frames and parts combinations that i used to ride 8 km races every spring. All but one of the bikes i built completed it. That one suffered a combination of brake failure and a bent rim. Now granted this is over 15 years ago since i built the last one the specs on them have since faded from memory. First new bike i bought was a Renegade 570. That bike lasted me from the age of 15 till my mid 20s when it got stripped behind my old home one night. Anyways enough rambling on the past and onward to the present. When i was looking at new bikes i had wanted a solid fork/hardtail like my old 570 and previous bikes. Only to discover...pretty much no one sold that combo anymore..not even canadian tire or wal mart it seemed. And the suspension bikes that both those two had...i knew for a fact would not survive more then a year or two with me. Which ended up leading me to the local sports shop to look at some Giants. Did some research on the models offered. Looked heavily at the Giant ATX Lite and the Giant Talon 3. The ATX has the hardtail/solid fork combo i wanted but..the shop offered a hell of a deal on the Talon 3. Close enough in price that i am going with the Talon 3. I test rode a couple of the Talons today to figure out what frame size i was going to go with. Rode the large frame one first. half of the ride with the forks locked out and the other half without. Did not notice enough a difference to convince me i still needed a solid fork. Rode a medium frame after that and found it to be more enjoyable as it kept my knees in the right position for comfort and felt more flickable. However i learned that bikes have come a LONG way in their braking as i grabbed too much rear brake and ended up on the pavement...opps...

Anyways here are some "Stock" pics of the two...



This is the ATX Lite




And this is the Talon 3. Will get pics of the actual Talon 3 once i buy mine in June.

[Sir kayakalot]

Yes they have come a LONG WAY in the past few years. Brakes and suspension are amazing on the newer bikes. These are my two main bikes that I ride regularly. (I have 4 lol). The brown bike is a Jamis Dakar 6" travel suspension. The white bike is a GT Fury Elite 8" suspension. I would highly recommend getting a dual suspension bike because they're just so much more comfortable. Especially if you ride rough trails. My 46 year old back appreciates it!

[Darkrider]

Originally Posted by Sir kayakalot

Yes they have come a LONG WAY in the past few years. Brakes and suspension are amazing on the newer bikes. These are my two main bikes that I ride regularly. (I have 4 lol). The brown bike is a Jamis Dakar 6" travel suspension. The white bike is a GT Fury Elite 8" suspension. I would highly recommend getting a dual suspension bike because they're just so much more comfortable. Especially if you ride rough trails. My 46 year old back appreciates it!

As things have changed on my end i may need to wait but hopefully things pan out to allow me to resume the original plan of getting the Talon. I will possibly consider a dual suspension bike at some stage. One thing i did not like about older ones was how they just flat out sunk in the middle when putting weight down and pedaling.

[wheelbender6]

I love the disk brakes. You seldom need to adjust them. If your wheel gets knocked a bit out of true, it doesn't ruin your braking performance. The disk brakes are well worth the extra weight, to me.

[Weldangrind]

This is my utility trailer setup when we go camping.

Utility Trailer.jpg

[ben2go]

That's a nice cruiser. It's hard to find bikes with color matched rims.

[wheelbender6]

You think your job is tough?
Giro de Italia competitors had to race up Mt Etna this year!

[kirbo7106]

Yeah, I don't ride bicycles like that anymore.

My bicycle is a Beach Cruiser! It has a basket (to hold the ice chest), a cup holder and a radio!

Life is Good!

[Weldangrind]

Originally Posted by ben2go

That's a nice cruiser. It's hard to find bikes with color matched rims.

Thanks. It's an $85.00 Walmart special, which I bought to get my daughter active. I bought one for her at the same time that is mint green and white.

[ben2go]

Originally Posted by Weldangrind

Thanks. It's an $85.00 Walmart special, which I bought to get my daughter active. I bought one for her at the same time that is mint green and white.

Surprised you can find something like that at Walfart.

[wheelbender6]

The city of Portland has started to deploy bike racks that make it much tougher to steal your bike. Well done, Portland.
http://newatlas.com/saw-resistant-bike-racks/50042/

[cheesy]

Finished this little beauty over the weekend.


Early seventies Sears 3-speed. Replaced the tires, tubes, and overhauled the BB, headset, and hubs. Was sold to me having only two speeds and I guessed that the low speed pawls were gummed up. Yup, but all the hub guts were gummed up with dried up 3 in 1 veggie based oil. Awful stuff for an internal gear hub. A few spritzes of wd40 freed everything up, then lubed the hub with a light machine oil and packed the bearings with Marine bearing grease.

Good for another 40 years.

[wheelbender6]

I have never seen this feature on a Triumph bicycle before. I skimmed the pic from a motorized bicycle site.

[BlackBike]

That spells a w e s o m e .

[ben2go]

That is a pretty slick crank. I've never seen a bike with the name in the crankset like that.