Bicycles!

Pininfarina_ said:
[Questions, questions...]
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As Jay said, some answers depend on your location. If you're in the Northern hemisphere, winter is coming, that is good for getting a good deal on a bike.

BTW, what kind of gear do you guys like to ride in? For actually getting to places and running errands do you dress casual or do you have a specific set of clothes just for cycling?
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I have short and long gear for just riding around, picked up at local sportswear stores (sizes can be off the usual scale, so I wouldn't order online). For casual riding to places, like supermarket, pub or work, I dress casual, just the rain jacket is specific biking gear. And the gloves, of course, which I wear depending on length of the ride and temperature.
Zip-off trousers are great for riding if you want/have to wear long trousers at your destination.

How about helmets? I see some people wearing the typical, aerodynamic bike helmet but I also see many road cyclists wear the "skater" style "bucket" helmet.
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If you decide to wear a helmet, wear a proper one, not the skater style type.
 
DanRoM said:
[...]If you decide to wear a helmet, wear a proper one, not the skater style type.
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Care to elaborate why?

I use a classic (bucket-style) TSG-helmet wich is for skateboarding and BMX biking. In wich way is that inferior to a normal helmet in terms of protection?
 
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Interrobang said:
Care to elaborate why?
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Mostly because it looks ridiculous to wear a skater/BMX helmet when riding a goddamn racing bicycle.
And because skater helmets are less aerodynamic. I don't know how skater/BMX helmets compare to "normal" biking helmets in terms of ventilation - for that, wearing no helmet at all is obviously the best solution. ;)
Much more important is not to wear a "normal" biking helmet when doing BMX, skateboarding or inline skating. The aerodynamic "tail" of those is a real killer, in the neck-breaking sense, when falling on your back - a type of accident much more probable for those activities than for normal biking.

Regarding the ridiculous looks in general: It helps not to wear gear with "sponsor" labels all over (replica outfits)... :D
 
DanRoM said:
Mostly because it looks ridiculous to wear a skater/BMX helmet when riding a goddamn racing bicycle.[...]
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Racing bicycle, I can sort of agree with. On your normal everyday bike - not.
Personally I just don?t see why I should have a seperate helmet for my (non-sport) bike-trips, so I just take the one I use for inline skating and (used to) skateboarding. And since these sort of helmets are pretty tough in general ... I don?t see anything wrong with them if you are not on a racing-bike ... personally style-wise I think they look less dorky in a casual-everyday-biking context then your average "aerodynamic spiderweb on top of a bird-nest in bright neon color" biking helmet. ;)

Aerodynamic stuff, ventilation stuff
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like I said, personally I don?t use my bike for sport, so of course that is completly irrelevant for me ... I don?t think at 25km/h in "not breaking a sweat"- mode my skater-helmet is making any noticeable difference :D
 
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DanRoM said:
I have short and long gear for just riding around, picked up at local sportswear stores (sizes can be off the usual scale, so I wouldn't order online). For casual riding to places, like supermarket, pub or work, I dress casual, just the rain jacket is specific biking gear. And the gloves, of course, which I wear depending on length of the ride and temperature.
Zip-off trousers are great for riding if you want/have to wear long trousers at your destination.
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SO YOU CAN RIDE IN JEANS? IMPOSSIBRU.


I'm in Western Canada so yes, winter is definitely approaching. I don't know any local bike stores so I'll have to ask around about that; or is it better to buy online?
 
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I guess I'll hop in.

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Had it since the start of August, have put on maybe 200 miles on it. Use it for medium distance (30-40 miles on weekends) and daily commute (2-3 miles).
 
I've been riding to work for about a week now and I love it ^^

I've cut my commute time roughly in half (~40 minutes subway versus ~20 minute on the bike) and I've increased the dangerousness level by about roughly ~1000 (seriously, Beijing's traffic is crazy, especially in the bike lanes where people don't seem to give much of a fuck about their own safety).
While I'm getting used to the fixed gear, I'm also definitely glad I ordered the front brake as my legs are not powerful enough to stop me in a timely manner :-D

I think so far I've nearly died about 5 or 6 times, mostly when crossing other bikes in tight bike lanes of blind curves.
 
killpanda said:
I've been riding to work for about a week now and I love it ^^

I've cut my commute time roughly in half (~40 minutes subway versus ~20 minute on the bike) and I've increased the dangerousness level by about roughly ~1000 (seriously, Beijing's traffic is crazy, especially in the bike lanes where people don't seem to give much of a fuck about their own safety).
While I'm getting used to the fixed gear, I'm also definitely glad I ordered the front brake as my legs are not powerful enough to stop me in a timely manner :-D

I think so far I've nearly died about 5 or 6 times, mostly when crossing other bikes in tight bike lanes of blind curves.
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Riding fixed is tons of fun. I've been doing it for about a year now!

Good call on the front brake though, I don't find myself using mine much, but in the rare occasion that I do need it (ie. for emergency stops) I'm really happy to have it.

I just finished putting some upgrades on my Fixed gear. I'll post up pics one of these days.
 
my bike recently got damaged. found it in a dumpster yesterday
 
Hm, was going to buy (my second) replacement for my stolen Canyon Yellowstone 5.0, unfortunately they've just updated their catalogue with their 2013 models.. And the new model is more expensive, and there's been some slight downgrades to some of the parts :/ They only have the old model (which is also the better looking of the two, in my opinion) in a size too large for me. Now I'm a bit stumped as to what to buy, though when I compare to the competitors, Canyons prices are still very competitive. They were just more so previously.. :)
 
Dammit, my right pedal seems to be dying... It doesn't turn properly anymore and seems to be shaking quite a bit when pedalling. The left one doesn't look like it's going to be lasting much longer too.

There's a "Giant" store near where I live, I think I might invest in some nice pedals and maybe a few more accessories ^^
 
What are the advantages of having the drop handle bars? I see people riding while holding onto the top of them but I guess when you want less aero resistance you drop down onto the bottom bars?
 
I go into the drops when I'm facing hard head wind, or want to push myself really fast. Otherwise, I'm usually on the hood.
 
GaryC said:
I go into the drops when I'm facing hard head wind, or want to push myself really fast. Otherwise, I'm usually on the hood.
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Same here, usually my hands are above the brake levers, with two fingers on the levers so I'm always ready to brake or shift. The "inner" hold comes into play only when I expect neither to be necessary for a while on a flat road. It provides nothing more than sitting a little different and is thus good for the back - but on the other hand you're not ready to brake and have worse steering control. My hands go down on the drops when pushing really hard or when going downhill.
 
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So it's just more versatile than the regular straight handlebars? What's it like steering from the hoods (yay learned new vocab) compared to steering with straight handlebars?

I guess on the road you won't be needing to use the actual handlebars to steer but rather, lean to turn etc.
 
I've just had to "steal" my bicycle from the street's parking hoops since my lock has decided not to open anymore... It's completely stuck and I've already broken one of my key in it.
Serves me right for buying a cheap one at Carrefour...

I guess now I need to buy a new front wheel, which I planned to do anyway since mine is quite badly bent!
 
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