All things bicycle.

[3db]

Feel free to chime in on things bicycle from bikes, equipments and places visited by bike. I've been riding seriously since May to try and burn off some anger about losing my wife to cancer. So today, I broke the century mark cycling 104km or 65miles as I started working my way up.

 

[Mikado463]

good for you 3db !

I suspect 'Lovin' will chime in, I'm pretty sure he's serious 'two wheeler' !

 

[Eppie]

Keep posting 3dB. Hopefully that will be incentive for me to get off my butt and cycle more. The few kilometers I did at the Pinery Provincial Park were harder than they should have been. Did manage to kayak all of the way down the river and back with my son but the last 10 minutes were brutal. Having a desk job sucks sometimes.

 

[lovinthehd]

Good for you! Whatcha riding? Sounds like a road bike? Gravel grinder? Got any mountain biking there?

Cycling/bikes are my "other" money pit other than audio (not counting my house, which hasn't been too bad ). I have a few bikes....mostly into mountain biking, tho. I moved to retire to somewhat a mountain bike destination (Oakridge, Oregon). I found Oakridge when I retired the first time and went mountain biking thru the western US and Canada for 10 years (including a year stint as a co-owner of a bike shop/shuttle service). Still have a mountain bike shuttle van (15 psgr GMC fitted with racks to carry 14 bikes, used to be 15 but one rack kinda died, and another is on the way to make it lucky 13).

My latest is a mountain e-bike to help me get up those hills in my old age when I don't want to shuttle, a Santa Cruz Heckler CC with the S kit. My other newer one is a Santa Cruz Hightower CC also in S kit from a few years before. I also have a Santa Cruz Nomad 1, two older Santa Cruz Hecklers (2 and 6, the latter converted to 27.5" wheels), a custom Moots YBB and a Trek Carbon Pro Issue (single speed conversion). I also have a project in a box, a dissembled American aluminum bike from around '89-90) a friend was throwing out.

Road...Trek 2300 (converted to single speed/fixie with wheels I built) and a TST titanium frame built up with Shimano 9sp (but still down tube shifters) and DT Swiss built wheels (only because I tried to up the bidding for a charity auction and ended up as high bid, had already built a nice set for it but the DTs look pretty good).

Have decent technical skills/knowledge so let me know if I can be of any assistance....

 

[3db]

Im riding a 20 year old Bianchi Project2, a hybrid which is perfect for the gravel trails that I'm using. I'll try and remember to take a pic of the type of trail I'm on. I'm looking for a new hybrid bike from Trek and others of that ilk but will wait until next year as demand as far exceeded supply and people have raised their prices accordingly with what ever stalk remains. I also want to get a road bike as well so I can peddle on the secondary roads as well but those things are expensive.

 

[3db]

Keep posting 3dB. Hopefully that will be incentive for me to get off my butt and cycle more. The few kilometers I did at the Pinery Provincial Park were harder than they should have been. Did manage to kayak all of the way down the river and back with my son but the last 10 minutes were brutal. Having a desk job sucks sometimes.

Here are my kayak pics from a GPS perspesctive...





Distances are in KM so divide my 1.6 to get them into miles

 

[Eppie]

Here are my kayak pics from a GPS perspesctive...

View attachment 48937

View attachment 48938

Distances are in KM so divide my 1.6 to get them into miles

That's a really nice area, great for kayaking. We did a little under 10km that day in the Pinery. We have friends with a log cabin just across the Ontario Quebec border, north of Rolphton (Deep River). It's on the Quebec side on the Dumoine River. Love to go paddling and fishing up there. They have mountain bikes at the cabin but we usually end up on the water.

 

[ski2xblack]

The most important aspect is getting out there to play (the whole angle of "you don't stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing").

Over the 4th weekend I met up with some friends for some camping and biking in the San Juans. We rode parts of the CDT, CT and other trails with some truly epic descents. There's nothing quite like riding the high alpine way above timberline, then dropping into a crazy descent down a cirque on some of the most rowdy, technical, exposed, gnarly poop imaginable, followed by extended mad flow down the rest of the drainage that goes for miles and miles and feels like it'll never end, capped off with a plunge into the Rio at the end...yeah, that's why I ride. Fitness is a fringe benefit, and a good one, but for me it's all about the adventure.

 

[lovinthehd]

Im riding a 20 year old Bianchi Project2, a hybrid which is perfect for the gravel trails that I'm using. I'll try and remember to take a pic of the type of trail I'm on. I'm looking for a new hybrid bike from Trek and others of that ilk but will wait until next year as demand as far exceeded supply and people have raised their prices accordingly with what ever stalk remains. I also want to get a road bike as well so I can peddle on the secondary roads as well but those things are expensive.

I used to ride Bianchi mountain bikes (Super Grizzly!) back when I first got away from my Schwinn High Sierra Sometimes just a different wheel set can do the trick rather than a different bike for the differences between road/gravel....what's max width your frame can handle?

 

[Eppie]

That's the down side of a road bike. My rear forks won't accommodate anything bigger than a skinny road tire. MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) has some really nice lightweight hybrid bikes we've been looking at. I don't plan to go mountain trail riding but would like a hybrid tire that can handle pavement and gravel trails like on the rails to trails routes. Patches of sand can stop a road bike dead in its tracks.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

Here's a shot of my Bicycle playing card collection.

All things bicycle, right?

 

[lovinthehd]

That's the down side of a road bike. My rear forks won't accommodate anything bigger than a skinny road tire. MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) has some really nice lightweight hybrid bikes we've been looking at. I don't plan to go mountain trail riding but would like a hybrid tire that can handle pavement and gravel trails like on the rails to trails routes. Patches of sand can stop a road bike dead in its tracks.

Chainstays or seatstays? Rear forks is a term I haven't seen before in any case, but thought first of the dropouts, but the stays are forks are in a sense I suppose. Seems newer road bikes often accommodate wider tires than my older road bikes at least, think my max is probably a 28mm. I've not tried a hybrid or gravel grinder kind of bike, but a fatter tire would be nice on our gravel/dirt roads (the forest that surrounds us supposedly has something like 500 miles of singletrack but something like 5000 miles of dirt/gravel roads).

I've seen patches of sand stop mountain bikes pretty quick, too....mud puddles too. Can get tossed over the bars real quick

 

[Eppie]

The chainstays where it's typically the most narrow on a road bike. Got too lazy to look up the proper term.

 

[Mikado463]

I'm seeing a lot more 'E-bikes' around as of late. Lovin, what kind of mileage do you get , does peddling provide any kind of re-generation ? Do you plug the bike in or remove a battery pack and charge it ?

 

[lovinthehd]

I'm seeing a lot more 'E-bikes' around as of late. Lovin, what kind of mileage do you get , does peddling provide any kind of re-generation ? Do you plug the bike in or remove a battery pack and charge it ?

On mine the battery must actually be installed on the bike for charging (the charging port is built into the bike rather than the battery directly), but is easily removed/swapped out via a 4mm allen key. Mileage all depends on elevation gain/grade and pedaling mode selected. With just a little off the top of the battery currently it shows range of 55 mi for Eco, 42 mi for Trail and 27 mi for Boost modes right now for example. These are all with a relatively flat terrain profile in mind. I bought a spare battery I can fit in my hydration backpack for extending range/longer climbing days. One of my local rides involves about 3000 ft of climbing and about 25 mi round trip and that will use about 80% of the battery or so depending what modes I pedalled in (mostly trail, some eco, some boost). This is with a Shimano E8000 motor and its 504kwh battery. With the Shimano E-tube phone app I can change the amount of juice used for each mode to an extent, too. Eco is some pedaling assistance, trail is more an adaptive pedaling assistance depending on your input, boost is just that, full assist (to its extent). This is a pedal assist type 1ebike for max 20mph/32kmh boost, no twist throttle.

 

[Mikado463]

Thanks, dare I ask what kind of $$ we are talking about for a decent E-bike ?

 

[lovinthehd]

Thanks, dare I ask what kind of $$ we are talking about for a decent E-bike ?

Decent depends on what your use would be I suppose. Mine retailed for $8400 (but I bought a very slightly used demo model for less), battery/cover was another $650 or so (also not retail), but the same build kit is now $9250 with the newer EP8 motor. The "best" equipped model now goes for over $12k. https://www.santacruzbicycles.com/en-US/bikes/heckler

Some brands are in this same range, but I'm talking very capable mountain bikes....you can get a simpler less expensive model if you're just riding basic streets or mild path/trails....

 

[Dude#1279435]

Did buy a moped. Woo hoo! Says the kid with cotton candy.

 

[Mikado463]

Decent depends on what your use would be I suppose. Mine retailed for $8400 (but I bought a very slightly used demo model for less), battery/cover was another $650 or so (also not retail), but the same build kit is now $9250 with the newer EP8 motor. The "best" equipped model now goes for over $12k. https://www.santacruzbicycles.com/en-US/bikes/heckler

Some brands are in this same range, but I'm talking very capable mountain bikes....you can get a simpler less expensive model if you're just riding basic streets or mild path/trails....

12k, gulp ...... I suspect there are offerings for the cruiser segment under 5k ?

 

[lovinthehd]

12k, gulp ...... I suspect there are offerings for the cruiser segment under 5k ?

There's even wallymart stuff for far less. Yes, for 5k you can even get a decent mountain bike, but I'd think certainly a good cruiser/commuter. I just don't know what they are particularly as I don't follow that segment....even for non ebikes. I've seen very nice things said about Riese & Muller brand out of europe (where commuter/city/cruiser ebikes are much more numerous/popular than US).