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This is my commuter/do everything bike right now. Pretty happy with my set-up after a few different iterations. Working at a shop for a few months was super nice, got lots of parts I'd been hoping for for cheap.



I want to be strong and commute during the winter too. My battle plan is to just get a cheap set of disc brakes to replace my current so I don't have to worry about them rusting up like crazy and then just oiling anything and everything as much as possible. Any winter commute advice aside from studs for tires?

post your damn bikes you kings

the latest incarnation of my fixed gear bike.

I have removed the back brake
de- stickered where i can
got new, green, shorter bars (the same bar just cut shorter and green)
shortened the front brake
changed the seatpost and saddle from my road bike while i'm not using it

have a love hate relationship with this bike. when i'm on it, nipping round town with time to burn it's great, love it. but when i look at it hits me in the brain worms, the geo looks so squished due to the curved and flattened tt, nothing on this bike measures 56 but it's a large frame and fits like one (the new seat post helped clean this up a little). i think the other reason is i've tried to be budget conscious with this build and as such its left things that were taken care of on my other bikes not done here, namely finishing kit and part / brand choices.

if i had the cash i would get a zipp stem and old spesh sworks downhill bars for the kit, chop the steerer and slam the stem, change the cranks to an omnioum or, real brain worms hours, and old rotor set, possibly a set of mavic eclipses for those sweet logo wheels, or some hsons with blinghubs, sram front brake, nicer brake lever with red cable.

but then thinking about all that it's like, my fundamental issue is the frame, i can't put a rack on it other than horrid axel mounts, nor is it racey enough in tube shapes/geo to look non functional, it hasn't got that sacred

h o r i z o n t a l t o p t u b e

so i naturally have a dislike to it, so i don't spend "real" money on it as even with these parts i'd have to buy a new frame, it would be a different bike

when you're on it tho? it's sweet, nippy, well controlled, takes a 28 and is plenty comfortable for 50-70k or so, dual bottle cage mounts and could definitely take some real mud gaurds. really good bike objectively, that and you can lock it around town without too much worry, that's what i bought it for and it achieves that.

i think i'll probably go to 20/48 gearing in the near future, line the tyre logos up, maybe my brain worms will kick in and i'l buy the matching stem, maybe it'll be a slow build? a challenge of self control.

i say "beater bikes don't really exist as you'll just eventually buy what you wanted anyway", but maybe, for at least this short time, they do.

my dad's friend who he cycles with (in his late 60s) got a new bike in august and he's already put 8k+ miles on it... gray king...

Wouldn't worry tooooo much about your da benson, lots of oldies /race/ the tour divide:

https://bikepacking.com/bikes/tour-divide-rigs-2019/

So if he's just doing it at his own pace...maybe it's not too bad?

some bike updates

the spesh:

new rack, new stem, new saddle

i enjoy the bike much more like this, it's a nice town bike, I'm thinking of putting flats and straps on it once summer gets going and we're out of lock down.



my bowmans

Built this up last year, loved it, rode it but the stem angle/ spacers always annoyed me and in all honestly it looked a little too mamil, but not bling enough in components/ geo for it to lean into being a chariot

for this summers trips i took the stem from the spesh which is a shallower pleb' version of the old stem, found a bargain thomson seatpost and curated some good sticker placement then took it all to the local shop for them to trim cables and cut the steerer. it's now a very nice "utilitarian" looking, fast road bike on a modest budget, like a cosworth...but a bike.

this will likely get a few more stickers but as it stands B))))))



now not to die over the next month so I can ride these bikes in something less than a block headwind and 0 degrees rain

i bike everywhere but don't know anything about them. just put together this one from stuff i found second hand. bought the frame of a colleague of mine.. wheels are from my old bianchi racer and i got the nitto handlebar off facebook marketplace. its so fun to ride!!! super fast and scary. you can switch to holding the flat part near the stem for them sick aerodynamics. oh and since the handlebars are horizontal you can ollie it like 40cm just by lifting and jumping!! so fun.

Had to stop strength training bc of the rona, went home to my parents' place and started road riding with my dad's old bikes:





I much prefer the Bianchi to the Lemond. The steel frame is far more forgiving and less twitchy than the carbon frame of the Lemond and the riding position is quite relaxed.

made some updates to my allez. new bars (36cm profile design aero drops, new groupset (shimano di2 ultegra), drilled a few holes in the frame to route the di2 wires.

robo bike goes beep boop whirrrrrrrrr. electronic shifting is cool.

edit for the nerds: the rear is aero becuase my training rim's hub is dead.

edit: nvm i figured it out

while i was out cycling a month ago in the countryside with a friend, going single file, a car came around the corner, crossed into our lane going at least 20 over the speed limit, missed me by inches, and hit my friend hit on--car drove off without stopping. my friend somehow lived, but it wasn't pretty to say the least. i had to make a tourniquet. i'm still pretty traumatized, haven't gone cycling since. bought an indoor trainer to maintain my sanity but i wish i felt safe going back on the roads again. is it worth it? i was abstractly aware of the risks of cycling before, but now its all much more tangible. anyone else come back from something horrific like that and kept on riding?

Found this at a consignment store in Flagstaff on my way to Boise, had an empty bike rack so I figured why not. $25 for a steel frame and shimano groupset was a pretty good deal. Has two visible dings on down-tube and top-tube but I'm not too worried.

It has a shimano 105 groupset that I think is from the late 80s (which apparently then it wasn't as "top-tier" so to speak), chromoly frame and fork, and the (apparently) infamous biopace chainring which is assymetric and ovular but is 90 degrees out of orientation with what you would want/expect.

I swapped the pedals for something bigger and threw on a saddle I had laying around. Other than that I plan to leave it as is for a while. I want to figure out how wide a tire I can run (I like 28s) and then try out flat bars and see if I like it. I was presently surprised commuting with the drops, though. Gonna get some white tape once I find a place in town with some in stock.

It's a fun one!

Outside coffee outing on the small wheeler earlier this week.

Yo, need some advice.
My gf and I bought matching bikes from this dude on craigslist, turned out to be mostly pieces of shit. Whatever. In true alby fashion I got way too involved and bought a bunch of tools, new groupset, new wheels, etc... and was going to convert old bike to modern shifters and whatever. I turned out to be in over my head and end up with brakes with calipers that are too short. I could buy new brakes but I just feel like I'm participating in sunken cost fallacy at that point. Not sure what to do. I could buy a new frame, fork, headset? I have a full groupset and wheels. What would you guys do

e: i got a new bottom bracket, casette, and derailleurs installed. no cable ran yet and i was fearing as that would be the hardest part

Buy the brakes second hand and stick with the frame for now, you'll learn a lot and when the time comes you can swap all your new parts to another frame.

whats a good bike to buy if you decide you need a bike but will be plunged into existential despair if just one of a trillion east london rapha cold press mhl tote alikes nods and says 'sweet ride bro'

4th bike :grimmce:

friend gave me an excellent deal on his built up caadx, i've been wanting a bike like this for a while and the deal he offered was too good to pass up, he'd pretty much built the exact bike i wanted

some stickers and a frame pump later, here it is



i've also tinkered with my langster in lockdown, the friend who sold me the caad is building a new bike, and i swapped some parts for his inline thomson, 110 x2 and his set of thomson downhills, picked up a 47t arrn, prety much new for 50% off from a forum and then threw some mks and cages on

i'm extreeeeemely happy with how it looks/rides now

Biking remote gravel roads seems to be the only socially-distant activity this Summer. Pretty happy with how my bike handled! Can't imagine changing anything except ditching the tent in favor of a sleeping pad I don't have to blow up.

I never could have expected the malevolence that I have received from certain cars passing by. Today some guy just screamed, "Asshole!" at me as he was driving by the other way. I'm in the suburbs, it's very car-based here. It wasn't the first time I'd been heckled on a ride, so I asked my mom about whether she got weird comments. She said that today someone said, "Nice ass!" to her. It's not just a heckle when the other person is in a car. It feels more threatening.

ow. is it bad that my two biggest thoughts are: did i break my carbon frame & how long till i can ride again?

how it happened: coming down off the mountain, the road dead ends at a 60mph highway (big shoulders, common for cyclists). a family of bike riders was noodling around and swerving all over the lane so i hammered it around them in the oncoming lane right before the turn onto the highway & came in way too fast. didn't have time to check if cars were coming and so pretty much yanked it right rather than go into potential car traffic. caught gravel and wham.

was stupid, i should have just yelled i was behind the family or waited.

Quarantine coping mechanisms are becoming increasingly focused. I wanted an 80s steel MTB I could run 26ers on and have a good time with. But also commute? Every bike I own has to be a back-up commuter?

Gonna try to be good and build this up from the parts bin but we'll see how long I stick to that plan. Repacked the hubs and threw on some fat 2.35" slicks today. Gonna get the drive train going once I've found one that /sparks joy/. It's got U-brakes which is exciting, the seat tube is a bit odd I got a shim working for now. I've heard about the BB sheering so I hope I don't run into issues. This BB isn't super rusted so I'm hopeful my timid single track adventures don't cause issues.

The handlebars were just so I could ghost ride it home. Hoping to find some cool mustache bars eventually.

I'm continuing the trend of getting $25 bikes and immediately putting a $25 cage on 'them.

N = 3;

After a long, grueling battle, here she is. Unknown aluminum frame, shimano 105, random bmx peddles i thought were cool, random green fork. first bike i've had in my life that doesn't wobble. ended up taking it to a shop to finish it off (do cabling and shit) and I think that was a smart play.

This all started with a shitty schwinn frame that I tried desperately to upgrade but couldn't handle the BB issues so I got a new frame

calling your bike a "she" is just not it chief

All done! (sorta)

Gonna keep an eye out for a stem I like. And I have no idea when I'll find a proper seat post but this shim works well enough for now. Then lastly some break levers that aren't so bulky. It is an absolute blast of a bike to ride around on though! 26ers are great.

I'm definitely a friction shift convert now, too. It's just so nice knowing you can take a component apart completely and put it back together super easily if you need and it feels super ergonomic shifting around. Might eventually see if this can work out for bikepacking. My frame bag fits on this one, surprisingly, and its got enough braze-ons to put a rear rack on and some lighter stuff on the front, too. What a hoot!

e:

The 30t in the front is a bit spinny, I think I'll keep an eye around town for a 38t. I'm kinda indifferent about the ovular chainrings, I only notice them when I start going >90rpm but I definitely notice them when I get back on a regular chain ring. Gonna put a burrito style bag on the front and call it for now though, ride it around for a while and see what I like/don't like. Oh, and the rear triangle isn't evenly spaced after widening it to fit the 7spd, but I'll have to fix that on another day when I have the patience to dial it in.



and

put a basket on my caad along with a dinner plate cassette, neo rando bike now, also a 2x drive train to come, climbs up the steepest shit as is so excited to be able to vertically ascend



ordered a wizard works alakazam for it and my other project (pics when it's done), along with a matching, large viola snack bag. went with black canvas body and top flap, grey xpack roll top, thinkpad inspired. actually really excited for them to arrive far in the future.

greatly enjoying the basket life atm, just good to carry stuff around and not get too sweaty, works as a great reminder to take it easy and go a little slower, enjoy the ride, too.also looks sick as fuck.

Eagerly awaiting the bike no cop thread

the langster v2, couldn't be happier (smiling)