That is a purdy lil bike. I like the basic black.

I just broke a chain out in the snowy woods. It is always a pain with muddy fingers and compact tools. I was dropping pins left and right and saying to myself, you can build a freaking timberframe house, teach an emotionally disturbed child with ASD to read, cross log piles on a bike... then I got rational. The chain, being old, was stretched. I removed an extra link but didn't push the pin through the back plate, put the chain together and pushed the pin back through easy as pie.

Crossed one obstacle for the first time today. A tree fell against the root ball of another fall. The last couple times I went through I stacked limbs against both sides of it building a little ramp which I cleared today right across the root ball.:cool: Of course I fell later in the ride and my elbow is swelling up but let's stay positive.

The old Raleigh just has 12 gears - although I did fit a new mech that had a low ratio on it a couple of years back. I'll be interested to find out how the new bike compares and whether the addition of the extra lower set of gears proves an advantage or not (it might take some of the effort away but that might not necessarily be a good thing from a fitness point of view). Purdy could be a good name for the new bike BTW....

Haven't had a chain go on me yet (maybe I shouldn't risk saying that), but then I seldom go off-road (usually suffer punctures within minutes if/when I do!) - worst we had was on one of our France sorties a few years back - we were forced to negotiate a flooded village (no way around it) through 3 foot of water for about 50 yards - it rained most of the trip as well. Somehow the old Raleigh survived unscathed, but my pal's crank seized and he just about managed to limp (creak) into Calais (being a weekend there was no pace we could find to make a repair).

Nice bike CF! I have the Trek 7700 model

Looks like the same tires err, tyres... So far *desperately looks for wood to touch* no flats over very many miles! The Kevlar belts in these are very tough. I hit a piece of plastic the other day that had 2 spikes thru it. The thing was well embedded into the tyre and I thought for sure that this was going to be the first patch job. I pulled it out and nothing happened.

Black beauty was the first thing that came to mind, but I'm not very creative. I've never named my bikes, cars, body parts. Huh.

Think I'm in the minority?

Difficult to choose the right bike - the Trek range is so large to be bordering on the ridiculous. In te end went for the model the shop had in srtock that looked right for my type of cycling. Pleased to hear about the anti-puncture treatment - mind you, BS, your's could be different tyres on the 7700 - I'm not sure mine are the hardcase invert.... I guess there's one way to find out.

Griff said : Get on that bike Zip!

Ok Griff I think i'll take your advice .
I picked up this ride just today .
I am SO tired of being fat , tired , and sore all the fucking time that I have desided to do something about it .
So I am going to try rideing again .
Try and sweat some of this lard off , get stronger , get back on my game !!!
I beleve it was said in Fast times at Ridgemont High , " Going thru life fat , drunk and stoned is no way to be !!"

Get yourself a decent saddle Zippy - the backside's the place that hurts most. Legs and lungs adapt quite quickly, but the rear doesn't and starts to dictate the distances you travel if you're not careful. I use a Specialised Body Geometry saddle that is very comfortable and not too expensive...will post further details when I get home - my work pc is blocking pictures at the moment

Good man! Yep on the Specialized saddle as well. I've got one on my touring and one on my mountain bike. As you get in shape you'll find the wider saddle less comfortable. You can run it as is until you get firmed up though. Being Gomer Pyle, I know you'll take this advice ride through the pain

Here's the saddle - I have done a straight 65 miles using it and I can confirm that it works:

Thanks guys !! I Intend to ditch the granny seat SOOON !! Also the wheels are weird , it has been years but I still rember how a bike is SUPOSED to roll , these Wide semi knobbie thingees don't seen to be cutting it , WAY to much rolling restance !!!

You can get some good semi-slicks with kavlar or some other lining that provide a high level of puncture resistance for dry-semi-dry off-road cycling, while at the same time eliminating a lot of friction drag on road - below a good example, but plenty of others to choose from:

.

@ zippyt

Your bike looks like that one that was stolen from my patio about five years ago.


exactly. humm I am looking at your bike recomendations cyclefrance and taking them to heart too.

I'm on the fence about riding to work tomorrow. I'm not too fit yet so it will be painful, especially on the return flight. *chewing on it*

woosing out
excuse list
1) radio says rain
2) computer say wind (no rain?)
3) sick kid

I keep an old MTB at work which I've added slick tyres to so it works as a part-time road bike. If the weather looks dodgy or I am just not into the whole cycle, then I drive to work and at least manage a few miles on the spare bike at lunchtime. Do this all through the winter and occasionally during the summer (should say frequently given English summer weather!)

I live in one of the rainiest places in the US but the UK rain has got to be tougher. Occasionally, I like to bring the bike in on the roof rack, ride home, and then ride back in the next day. Sometimes doing 18 miles of our hills on both ends of a day at my job can be a little much. I can also leave fresh clothes in the car so I don't have to haul anything.


I guess this is the proper spelling of wuss, g r i f f

It was questionnable whether they were the same tyres or not, but the question has now been answered - merrily riding home from work on Wednesday, all properly asphalted roads, and suddenly I'm running on rims.

Have no idea what caused it but still managed to get a puncture....

im suprised to see such a large following of cyclists... either that or just alot of shit talking amongst the few that are here!

Just saying hi. :)

It's no good trying to sweet talk your way into our conversations you know.

I hear NZ is pretty good for cycling - what's it like in Hamilton - near Auckland in the North Island, isn't it? Post us some photos if you have some.

For myself I cycle to keep enjoyably fit - you can have a look at my websites via the profile link for more info. Don't claim to be the most knowledgeable of cyclist and if you start talking gear ratios and technical jargon you'll lose me within seconds! Just pass on what I discover for myself as I learn mainly from personal experience.

Hi back BTW...;)

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day. This is my favorite time of the year: warm & sunny & girls taking their clothes off for no other reason than those two.

I think it's about time I take off my fender.

Just saw what a young whipper-snapper you are. So guess anything an old fart like me says will come out sounding like shit! That aside, still pleased to hear further from you. BTW not much on yr website - I thought students had loads of time on their hands.....??

Ah, one more shit talker. I believe we are now a movement. :cool: Welcome to the greasey bike corner of the cellar.

Yes, welcome to The Cellar NZLcyclist! I've done a bit of riding last year on the South Island (around Nelson towards Moteuka) -- great place for bikes.

[Dieter voice]Dis is zee part of Shprockets ven vee danze![/Dieter voice]

Here are some pics on my ride on New Years day... did about 75km that day and got royally burnt.

http://cyclepics.fixed.net.nz/

These are in the Franklin District to the West of Pukekohe - a town that is south west of Auckland.

I will endeavour to take more pics in time to come!

Brendon

Nice bike, Brendon - it looks expensive but bet it rides well. Also like the lack of traffic in your pics - wish it was the same around here (one of the main reasons why I take my cycling hols in France - to get a bit of peace and quiet when cycling on the roads)

very nice pix Brendon! Now I want to go back a do some riding on the wron... oops, I mean lefthand side of the road. It does take some getting used to but with so little traffic, not very long.

That bike is now almost finished in it's rebuild as a Time Trial rig... now have a nice SCOTT road bike :) will take my camera out again at some point and get some photos of a different area.

Looks like your a bit of a devotee to the sport, Brendon. Are you riding as a professional or is this for pleasure only? Something tells me my max 50 miles a day when touring is going to look a little miniscule when I hear more about your exploits.

My maximum day has been 65 miles for a charity run from the outskirts of London (Hampton Court) to the coast (Hove), which I just about manage as it's towrds the end of the summer by which time I can handle the distance. Having said that I'm contemplating a two-day charity ride this year involving a cycle to the coast day 1 (60 miles) followed by a trip by ferry across to Dieppe in France for 100 miles on day 2. I think that will be my 2006 swan-song if I do it!

Had a short 25 miles yesterday around the Chiltern hills north of London. Just a couple of hours in the morning followed by an exceptional lunch. I'm afraid that's my formula for biking these days - cycle to make room for food so that eating doesn't involve a weight increase!

Don't know where this belongs, but I just saw the weirdest contraption at lunch today. It was some kind of bike, being ridden by four or five people. They sat around it facing each other and all of them were pedalling. The damn thing was always about a block away from me as I was walking on the sidewalk, so I never got a close look. It almost looked like a bunch of people sitting around a small table, riding down the street. The two people on the sides were facing in from the side, so they had to turn their heads to look in the direction they were travelling. Then the two people in back were facing forward. It wasn't very fast. Looked kind of awkward to pedal. They were pedalling like crazy, but it was always just slightly ahead of me. So it travelled at about a joggers speed.

Crazy. Have any of you heard of such a thing? It looked like a professionally manufactured thing, not like something thrown together by someone in a garage. Very strange. I wish I got a closer look.

I've seen pictures. I think ther's some sort of corporate "team building" scam that uses them.

For 6, 7 or 8? :cool:

I knew I'd seen the thing somewhere. crazy

Looks tailor-made for the Magic Roundabout!

Yup. That's it. Crazy.

Just bought one of these cycle tyre pumps - amazing!

I've found the normal style pumps wanting when trying to put 75-80 psi in my tyres. This one works a treat - all done in less than a minute!

sweet pump CF, is it a Schrader with a Presta attachment or?

Usual ability to swap between the two types of valve by changing around the two washer/gasket thingies in the connector at the end of the flexible tube (hope that makes sense!)

Well call me stupid and throw me in a cell, but I have just decided to do a 320km event at the end of november. twice around Lake Taupo. :O lots of training is needed! Ciao, must hop on the bike and ride to class. It is cold this morning!

www.cyclechallenge.com

Brendon

Hi Brendon,

320 km is 200 miles, - so that beats twice over my 100 miles in a day charity run I'm doing in September! It should be 160 miles over two days, but the first day, a Friday, I cannot do, so I am just joining the event for the 100 miles on day 2.

Details here

Good luck - I reckon I'll be all in after half the distance you will be doing!
Will you be looking to get sponsorship for a charity? If you are, then let me know and maybe we can do a swap sponsorship so that each of our charities benefit - I've just done this with Stevebsjb.

All the best
CF

Sounds painful and fun Brendan! The Mrs. and I are doing the MS150 and the Highlander this summer. The first is 100miles day one and 50 miles day two. The Highlander is "only" 100 miles but they work 10,000 feet of climbing in there.:thepain:

Jesus!

The profile alone's enough to give you nightmares.

So, are you sponsoring any charities? - always on for a swap deal

CF, I'll get back to you on the MS ride maybe we can do a swap.:)

That Highlander is NASTY!

I have done and died doing www.k2cycle.co.nz last year, took me about 7:38 for 192km.

Brendon

I know you'll find this hard to believe, but I tried some off-road cycling last week. Not exactly planned from my side, but my pal who lives north west of London in the Chilterns proovided the route which he claimed 'had one or two small bits with grass or hard flint surface'.

Forget that description and replace it with 'several miles of muddy, deep-puddled, pot-holed terrain' and you're getting closer.

New bike performed well though and will cause me to do more of this sort of riding. To busy keeping my balance to take any photos of the rough stuff, but here are a couple to show the ups and downs of it all even if without the mud!

.

Griff, keep me up on the MS ride, too. I'll be in you guys' posse.

Thanks Warch! Will update.

Our partners are all abandoning us on the Highlander but we are still locked in.

I rode Shindagin Hollow last weekend. I made some smart decisions about staying out of Area 51 a very scarey North Shore type place with all kinds of mtn bike playground toys. We actually showed some young guys-n-gals from Syracuse how to get in there and watched as a couple of the guys ran through some of the drops without even taking a peek. Very impressive physical stylings and I commend my fellow old farts for not succombing to the call of testosterone.

A bit of a sore Monday morning here. I took a hard loop on the road bike in the heat Saturday and a steamy mtn bike ride yesterday evening. Some doubts have recently been expressed about the Highlander but I really have a problem with chickening out so we'll see. My mtn bike partner finishes teaching for the year this week, meaning he will start running and lifting making my threat to kick his butt by the first week of July seem idle.

First, an introduction:

http://www.uoregon.edu/~gvidas/bike/modesty.jpg


Meet Modesty. She's a 23" Raleigh Technium, the brand they gave to their frames with a steel fork/triangle & aluminum top/down/seattube. I got her used; I don't really know how old she is. Parts remaining from when I first bought her: front brake calipers, handlebars, seat post (not seat), 1 crank, 1 chainring.

I built both of her wheels, the front one from a used rim & hub with new spokes, & the rear with entirely new components (Suzue fixed/free hub). She's rocking 38/13 with 170mm cranks, which gives a gain ratio of 5.7 (76.8 gear inches).

http://www.uoregon.edu/~gvidas/bike/frontwheel.jpg


Yesterday, I went for a 120 mile ride (round trip). It was a little grueling.

http://www.uoregon.edu/~gvidas/bike/florence/map.jpg

http://www.uoregon.edu/~gvidas/bike/florence/12_09.jpg

A nice day, though, & pretty out. (other photos.)

How are your knees this morning Mr crazy fixed gear man?:eek:

My knees are just fine. It's my butt that got most sore, and sometimes my thighs and calves were a little tight, but that's only because I kept forgetting to stretch enough.

I've gotten pretty used to the fixed gear pretty fast (picked it up maybe three or four weeks ago?), and all the "cool" points you get, particularly for trackstands at stoplights, are so totally worth it.

Holy cow! Push button before entering tunnel.....then what happens? :eek:

I was talking to a guy here who had done this with an old Motobecane frame. Does this movement have a name yet?

Yeah; "being a trendy youth." It's intrinsically tied to metropolitan bicycle messengers, who drew it from track racing, although in my case I drew most of the motivation from an aging Bostonian bicycle man (Sheldon Brown). See also: Fixed Gear Gallery


The button makes the set of lights above the tunnel flash, which is somehow supposed to suggest that drivers slow down (55mph to 30mph). Mostly it seemed to make them honk even more. (What the shit to honking in tunnels.)

As of this afternoon you have one more gear than I do. :sniff: I've now got an extremely dodgy derailler hanger and a broken derailler on my mtn bike. Where did you buy your hub etc.. I have an old Jamis frame that I wouldn't mind converting.

i would just like to say in all seriousness that you bike nerd, er, people impress the shit out of me.

I'm impressed too.
I'm also impressed by bed of nails sleepers, firewalkers and those muslims that pierce their cheeks with weedwhackers. :speechls:

LBS. In this town (I don't know if an endorsement of Eugene bike shops would really be helpful) it seems that every shop has some kind of a track hub. I just went for the cheapie. And any freewheel hub can be made into a quick ghetto play-around version; a standard threaded cog (of the sort that fits onto a BMX or track hub) will thread on fine, & then a bottom bracket lockring will sort of hold it on. Then it's just a matter of adjusting spacers on either side of the hub until the chainline is straight, then re-dishing the wheel to something close to centered.

Be aware that the cog in question is, through some fluke not entirely clear to me, only going to fit a BMX chain; the same chain will fit your old chainring, mostly just meaning that you need a new chain.

http://www.63xc.com/ -- has some good articles, particularly under 'howto.' Although I consider Sheldon to be the definitive.

Go for the Specialized Body Geometry saddle - I've just bought the BG2 model for the Raleigh Record Sprint and it's twice as comfortable as the mark 1 version that I have on my Trek 7.1FX.

Specialized claim that the saddle almost cancels out saddle soreness and they are just about spot on with that claim. I've always found that it's the backside that says how far you can go and so these saddles are a major plus.

See here and here

"fixies"
woof. knock yerself out, man.

My brother's really into fixed-gear. He's got two of them, one of which is painted to match the DC flag.