This item is to discuss bicycling.

291 responses total.

This item is linked from #9 summer agora to #119 in sports.

I had to drop my son off at his mother's house.  We'd talked about 
doing it by bike, with him riding on his Adams Trail-A-Bike.  (I've 
discussed this previously, it lets John who's 6 ride on a bike, peddle 
when he wants to, but it's attached to my bike and so he can ride along 
if he gets tired.)

Today we tried it for the first time.  It worked fine.  It's about 6 
1/2 miles each way.  It took about 45 minutes to get there, counting a 
wrong turn through a subdivision with no outlet in the direction we 
needed to go, plus a stop at the bank.  I got back home (riding 
directly home) in about a half hour.

This is the longest ride I've had in years and years.  I'm now tired, 
sweaty even after a 2nd shower, but pretty pleased.  It'll be a Good 
Thing for me if I can keep it up, as I'm carrying an extra 40-50 pounds 
with me everywhere I go.  It's also something my son and I can do 
together that we both enjoy.

Two weeks ago on vacation, we took the bikes out to Mackinaw Island and 
rode the 8 miles around the island.  It's almost totally flat around 
the perimeter and so was easy riding, however we also rode (and partly 
walked) up to Fort Mackinac and around, which is a steep grade.

We'd have ridden around Houghton/Hancock, but it was cold and rainy 
much of the time we were up there, and so the bikes stayed in the back 
of the truck.

Whups, this is really #118 in sports, not #119.

It appears to be both items 118 and 119 in sports

That's interesting.  All right, I'll do something about that.

Dang.  I was kind of excited when I saw there were two new response 
items in sports since this morning.  I killed 119.

Congratulations on making the round trip to Clinton and back - it will get
easier (tho not necessarily less sweaty if this weather keeps up).  I presume
you had lots of fun along the way.  We are hoping to be able to bike to
Pickerel Lake and back some time soon (in one day) but the only direct routes
are paved so it is likely to take 4 hours each way (3, anyway) because we
avoid car routes (paved roads).  Yesterday Jim found a way to attach a rear
rack to my bike without the lugs (he modified something intended to hold a
reflector so that it connected the part of the rack that is supposed to attach
to the lugs, and the hole for attaching a fender, so now I can carry food and
maps on trips.  How do you carry anything on the pseudo-tandem?  Can you put
a rear rack on the rear bike?  You would probably need a kid's size (20")
rack.  There are also expensive bags that clip on the handlebars.  

When is sour cherry season?  We hope to join you at the orchard soon.

I would encourage all of you who are getting into biking to join the 
Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society. We have rides for bikers of all 
skill levels (honestly!) and organized rides every day of the week. To 
get more information, go to http://aabts.org. For a list of rides, 
click on the "Calendar" link at the top of the page.

If you have any questions, e-mail me.

re #7: I have a belt pouch; that allowed me to take my cell phone and 
an extra bottle of water.  I've also tucked a few tools in there in 
case of emergencies.

I've been looking for a basket for the front of my bike for weeks, but 
haven't found one yet.  I don't know why they're so hard to find.  They 
weren't a couple of years ago.  They just don't seem to exist any more.

re #7, 9 ... I have a small pouch that clips under the seat on my bike.  
I usually keep a screwdriver, a set of allen wrenches, and my bike light 
(when I'm not using it) in the pouch.  It works , but it's not really 
big enough to carry much more ...

We could not find front baskets at the bike stores or K-Mart or in the catalog
(Nashbar).  I own one front basket, Jim owns another and they are really handy
for putting your backpack into, or a jacket, or lunch.  Kiwanis did not have
any either.  Yard sales?  We don't see them on bikes.  We don't see baskets
on bikes, only sometimes racks and panniers.  And trailers.

I feel a little better about being in Kennewick-- the atmosphere and 
room for biking is better.  I'll need to get in much better shape, but 
I might try to retrace some of my old adventures.  I used to bike with 
a cycling group at the Schwinn here for a bit, and I once took a tandem 
tour of Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland with a buddy of mine.

The old bike I have should suffice until I upgrade to an ATB.  The gear 
shift isn't fixed yet.

I searched the WWW and found this:

http://sportsbay.com/remfronbikba.html

It looks pretty much like exactly what I want.  Big enough to hold a 
grocery bag.  I've never heard of sportsbay.com.  Has anyone else heard 
of them?

bikepartsusa.com has a large list of front and rear baskets in various sizes.
Small, large, and giant front baskets $11 $13 and $28.  Silver or black, or
wicker. $2 extra on shipping.  Complete and ready for attachment.

sportsbay seems to be associated with yahoo.
I did not use a graphical browser so don't know what the baskets look like.
If you get any baskets we would like to see them.  They also have kids' front
baskets.

Ah, yes, they have a lot of selection, including the one I saw at the 
other site.  It doesn't make sense to me that no one around carries 
bike baskets.  They used to be widely available at K-Mart, Walmart, 
etc.  I'll have to check with the bike shops; if I can't get one 
locally I'll order one.

Thanks!

Way to go, John.

I pulled my old Nashbar road bike out of storage and got it into
mostly-usable condition.  The spokes and cables have some rust on
them but they are all working.

Unfortunately it still seems to be really heavy and slow, even
compared to my mountain bike which has much fatter, draggier
tires.  Or maybe it's just the higher vantage point.

One thing for sure, the clip-on aero bars are a lot easier on the
wrists than normal handlebars.  There's something about being able
to put your weight on your elbows which seems luxurious.

Anyone want a 27" wheel 21-speed road bike, cheap?

Am I the only person around who thinks that the weather of late is WAY too
hot for any biking longer than a mile or so?

No, I agree, at least before dark.  We cancelled a trip to the beach because
it is too hot to bike 20 miles each way.  What we need is a cold morning and
hot afternoon and cold evening.

Russ, maybe some of the non-visible parts of your bike need work.  Jim took
apart my bottom bracket and replaced bearings and cup and added grease, and
it goes much smoother now.  Also oiled the chain and pedals, which helps grind
down the rust.

John, you might want to invest in water-bottle cages for both bikes.
I know there are clamp-style mounts for bikes without braze-on mounts,
and those might suffice for both your bike and the Trail-A-Bike.

We have a collection of cages, two of which don't require mounts as they come
with clamps.  Stop by and take a look.  

I bought a water bottle which had a plastic clip (is that the cage?); 
unfortunately it broke.  It's still usable but it slides some and the 
bottle tends to fall out when I put it on John's bike.

I didn't ride on Sunday because of the heat.  Today I was just too 
busy.  Tomorrow is going to be in the mid-90's again according to the 
weather forecast.  I'm taking the afternoon off; John and I are going 
swimming somewhere.

This weekend it may cool off to the 80's for a high; we'll do some more 
riding then.

I would be nice if I could join in a bike ride while I am in Ann Arbor.
Unfortunately I'll be arriving on Saturday 14th September and be 
leaving 22nd September (only one week), and on Thursday the blue will 
be having her birthday, an event worth paying attention to.

resp:13  Swwwweeeeeeetttt!  I might actually get one, because my 
friends live *really* close to a grocery store!  Muy onda!

Re #18:  I recall that it felt about the same when it was new, though
I could be wrong.  It's not an overly heavy bike, so maybe it's just
the size and the gearing which makes it feel heavy.  I will try to
remember to oil things and see if it feels different.

I'm still lusting after a recumbent, so I may have two road bikes
to get rid of soon (the Nashbar, and one Torpado frame in need of
un-bending the fork and lots of work on derailleurs - the Torpado
is probably the better bike hands down, but I got tired of trying
to fix everything and was too cheap to buy a quality replacement).

My manager works part-time at Ann Arbor Cyclery (I think that's the one),
and told me they do have bike baskets in stock.  I forgot to stop by at
lunch time yesterday; I won't be able to make it today, but maybe
tomorrow.  I'd much rather buy one I can look at and tough, rather than
buying it over the Internet.

Russ, how much are you asking for the bike you're selling?

Re #16: How are the wheel bearings after all that storage?  If they're
draggy, that'd make the bike feel slow.  So would brakes that are out of
adjustment and dragging on the rims.

Russ, bike over some time and Jim can look at your bike.  He likes looking
at bikes, especially the innards.  By road bike I presume you mean something
with very skinny tires and curly handlebars, designed for racing not for
dragging trailers 6-10 miles.  John, we can put you together a better
all-purpose bike (lighter weight than what you have, better brakes and gearing
system) if you don't mind the 'mens' style' because we are only using the
womens' style for ourselves.  Start by trying out what we have working
already.  We have one very nice aluminum frame that needs one $20 piece added
plus wheels,  seatpost and saddle, and a Raleigh frame, both mountain style
but fairly lightweight.  If you want to pay us for our time and aluminum
wheels, we could probably build you something pretty nice for $100 (less than
a medium-priced K-Mart special).  
Are you free Wednesday evening?

I'm not too interested in a different bike, not really.  I was more
curious how much Russ was selling his bike for because I'm interested in
what different types of bikes are worth.  I don't have any problems with
the bike I've got now.  It's nothing special, but it gets me around.

I'll definitely check with you before changing to a different bike, but
that's not likely to happen this year and probably not until John is ready
to ride distances on his own bike.

You can spend $2000 on a bike, or $70, or get a used one for free.

I had a price in mind very close to "free" for the Nashbar, mostly
because it's taking up space that's at a premium and I don't expect
to be using it much.  OTOH, the frame is for a tall man, so not
that many people could really ride it; maybe I should have gone
with 700C wheels instead of 27".

It has little mounting nubbins for a top-bar frame pump, which I
don't otherwise have a use for and might as well go with the bike.
Carry a spare tube and a flat can't strand you, it'll take two.
A tube fits nicely in one of those little nylon under-seat packs.

I got in a ride before the storm clouds blew in tonight, and chopped
over a minute off my best time out but only made my third-best total
time due to a slow return leg (about 2.5 minutes slower than my best
return time).  I'm putting it down to the wind and/or traffic delays.
I'm still averaging over 15 MPH, which isn't bad.

Be careful about "oiling" a bike.  Bearings should be packed with grease, not
oiled.  Oil will disolve grease.  The only thing on a bike you should be
oiling is the chain.

And what would you use in one of those enclosed 3-speed planetary hubs?

I think those usually take straight 30-weight automotive oil.

Jim also oils the brake cables in their housings when they are rusty, and the
gear cables, and brake pivots and 'whatever I feel like oiling'.  He takes
apart things with bearings and greases them, or if he cannot get them apart
he oils them.  He oils pedals if he cannot get them apart to grease the
bearings.  There are bearings in the bottom bracket (between the cranks),
(ball bearings, those should be greased), in the headset (under the handlebar
stem), in the pedals, in the hubs of the wheels.  He oils anything rusty, such
as the seatpost.  Jim has enclosed 5-speed hubs and thinks 20-weight oil is
better than nothing.  Used motor oil will do or Sturmey Archer oil.

Enclosed 5-speed hubs?  Wow, I thought the most you could get in that
style is 3 speeds.  What kind of ratios do you get, and what's the
mechanical efficiency?  Do any of them have drum brakes?

Sounds like Jim's doing an effective destruction job on those bikes.  Cables,
brake pivots, components (rusty or not) that you don't want to fuse together,
and so forth, will all do much better with grease than oil.  Bearing
assemblies that he can't get into will probably still do better with old
grease than with new oil eating whatever grease is left.

All the cable lubricant I've ever seen is thin runny oil - I should
think grease would be very hard to spread along the cable, and would
also increase internal resistance.  Sure, for wheel bearings and pivots,
you want something much thicker, but I don't believe it's better
everywhere else as well.  For one of those enclosed hubs, I think grease
would make it pretty much unshiftable.

Jim says you want oil in the enclosed hubs, 3-speed and otherwise.
The 5-speed hub gives you one shifter on one side, acts like a normal 3-speed,
he cannot remember the percentage - up a third down a fourth?  No.  Anyway,
then there's a 2-range lever on the other side, which  essentially puts you
into a wide-range 3-speed with the same middle but two different ends.  To
go up a steep hill you go to wide range and low gear.

The bikes Jim's been working on were already left out in the rain for a few
years by the previous owners so he cannot make them a whole lot worse.  He
says he takes apart and greases things eventually, but to get them going he
first tries oil.  He has taken things apart (that he did not oil) and found
NO grease in them, so oil is better than nothing and he says it washes the
dirt out.  

The internal hub loses about 5% efficiency in the non-middle-gear as compared
with direct chain drive, he heard. 

He has one hub with coaster brake but not 5-speed and he thinks you can get
a combination.  Look for Sturmey Archer hubs online.  The coaster brake hub
can be used with a derailleur, he has heard, but it is currently part of a
3-speed bike.  He had another bike with a shoe brake, a drum brake, enclosed
in the hub, hand brake but enclosed, good for mud, and it has a freewheel and
multiple gears (5-speed cluster but you can sometimes change that).  He kept
the wheel when the frame broke.  He had some disk brakes but gave those away.
Good if you made a heavy duty trailer they are easier to put on the trailer.

Yesterday on the way to the dentist I found two free bikes.  One had a
shredded seat and good wheels and the gears don't work but are the ratchet
type which I like (if it works).  THe other had a new seat but a mismatched
post (the top two pieces did not fit the post itself) so wobbled, and a wheel
was gone, and it has a nice rear rack so we fixed it up for me as we could
not find a long enough seat post for Jim.  The open frame bikes are now being
made with 16 or 17" seat tubes.  6-speed, pink purple and turquoise era, twist
grips, upright handlebars which we will replace some day.  The bottom bracket
is loose and needs to be taken apart and maybe parts replaced, or at least
inspected before tightening it.  Jim trued a front wheel and added that - we
walked there and biked back, carefully.  This bike has working gears and he
adjusted the brakes so now they work too.  

We are going out of the 3-speed business, does anybody want one?  They are
heavy as they all have steel wheels.  Jim may keep the one with coaster brake
to haul large object but he cannot find long enough seat posts for the open
frame style and he does not haul on a top-tube bike.  We should make a trailer
some time soon.

I know nothing about the internal 3 speed hubs.

Cables should be greased before being put into the housing, thus making
greasing the cables very easy.  In addition to the grease being a longer
lasting lubricant, cable housings tend to have liners that oil would do nasty
things to.

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