Post your bicycle pics

[Patriot]

Cool electric Norm. Is that a custom battery box too?


Nice snow shot Stromberg. Ya have to lose the kickstand though...

[benchmade_boy]

Sorry to get off topic But can you guys recomend me a good bikke? I am looking for a mountain/trial bike. I was wondering a what a decent one would be.

Thanks

[PCC]

PCC, nice Colnago man! That reminds me of my racing days.

Thanks!

Now for something entirely different.
I'm past the stage of peddling to get places, but wanted to get around our small country town without using the car.

<took out picture>

Runs on 4 X 12Volt 7Ah batteries and draws a maximum of 17Amps, top speed on the flat no peddling is 35KPH. From brushless hub motor.

Cheater!

Man, the first time someone blew past me on one of those I was getting a little bit pissed until I realized that his bike was electric powered. I'm glad I still have the legs to be able to put in some decent miles on a bike!

[Norm]

Cool electric Norm. Is that a custom battery box too?


Nice snow shot Stromberg. Ya have to lose the kickstand though...

I was very fortunate that a friend has a friend who owns the local sheet metal works, cost be a slab (box) of beer a very common form of currency around here .
Makes the bike much more stable the batteries were originaly mounted on the rack on the back making the centre of gravity very high and the weight was unbalanced (all at the back).
The box is nice and central and the weight is now very even between the wheels, I'm very happy with it.

Thanks!


Cheater!

Man, the first time someone blew past me on one of those I was getting a little bit pissed until I realized that his bike was electric powered. I'm glad I still have the legs to be able to put in some decent miles on a bike!

I'd love to be fit enough not to need the cheat but I'm 56 and not extremely well, at least this way I can get out in the fresh air without the car and I still peddle to drop the current draw up hills, so I'm getting exercise I wouldn't get otherwise. From home into our small town is only 4K so I have plenty of range to go there and back a couple of times without a charge, although I charge every time I get home.
Norm

[PCC]

Sorry about that, I forgot the smiley after the "Cheater!".

[Norm]

Sorry about that, I forgot the smiley after the "Cheater!".

Don't worry I didn't take offence I understood were you were coming from.
Norm

[Robocop]

Hey Trashman good to hear from you again.....Believe it or not while I am not built like a rider at all I have learned to do pretty good. All of the shop guys told me it would be hard for me to keep up and it is however on a dead straight sprint or especially downhill I can beat most of the riders around here.

Now those 50 mile rides and long uphill rides the lighter riders kill me but I do finish. Having a good bike that does most of the work helps me very much.

[TJx]

Zoom, Zoom!

[mechBgon]

The Paramount got a new fork and stem. It's still relatively heavy at about 19.1 pounds (without accessories). I plan to knock another 1-1.5 pounds off it over the course of the summer with some Speedplay Zero Ti pedals, an extra-light wheelset, a Thomson Masterpiece seatpost and some KCNC skewers.

[Steve K]

what seatpost is on there now? kinda resembles an American Classic (a fav of mine.. affordable low weight).

I'm definitely a low tech retro guy, since 19 pounds sounds very light to me! My nice bike is an early 80's Raleigh Team with 753 tubing and a few titanium bits. Definitely no carbon.

Steve K.

[mechBgon]

what seatpost is on there now? kinda resembles an American Classic (a fav of mine.. affordable low weight).

That's right, it's a "real" American Classic (one-piece forged head & post, made in US, not the 2-piece bonded "Taiwanese Classic" they offered later. No offense meant to the Taiwanese, of course).

I'm definitely a low tech retro guy, since 19 pounds sounds very light to me! My nice bike is an early 80's Raleigh Team with 753 tubing and a few titanium bits. Definitely no carbon.

Steve K.

I remember drooling at those 753 Raleighs back in the day These days, there's sub-18-pound carbon bikes all over the place, so you and I will always have a 2-3 pound weight disadvantage, but our bikes have some unique character to make up for that.

[Steve K]

That's right, it's a "real" American Classic (one-piece forged head & post, made in US, not the 2-piece bonded "Taiwanese Classic" they offered later. No offense meant to the Taiwanese, of course).

I remember drooling at those 753 Raleighs back in the day These days, there's sub-18-pound carbon bikes all over the place, so you and I will always have a 2-3 pound weight disadvantage, but our bikes have some unique character to make up for that.

I've got one of the "real" American Classic posts, and a few of the later two-piece models. Both work fine, but the early one still seems nicer. The very latest Am. Classic posts look more like candy canes than seat posts. Haven't tried one myself.

re: Raleigh Team bikes.. I drooled over my Raleigh catalogs back in the 70's, so that's why I had to buy the Team frame when it became available about 5 years ago. The workmanship is quite remarkable for a semi-production frame. It's really very close to a custom frame, and has some unique features, like drilled out dropouts.

what's your Schwinn made from? 853, I assume?

Steve K.
(due to neck issues, I recently bought a steel recumbent. It weighs over 30 pounds, so I'll be buying a carbon fiber 'bent this summer. It's still going to be a tad over 20 pounds)

[PCC]

On my carbon fiber bike I "upgraded" from an American Classic seatpost to a Campy Chorus carbon fiber one and I added weight. The thing was that the Chorus post was lightly used and the condition for getting it free was that it was going onto that particular bike because the shiny silver just didn't look right on it.

[mechBgon]

what's your Schwinn made from? 853, I assume?

Yeah, but the weird thing is, it's lugged 853 Since 853 is air-hardening steel, they could've just welded it, but whatever. The downtube and seat tube are also swagged down most of their length, so they're quite large at the BB shell. I'm only 152 pounds, so I don't need massive BB rigidity, but it's definitely got it!

[Steve K]

Yeah, but the weird thing is, it's lugged 853 Since 853 is air-hardening steel, they could've just welded it, but whatever. The downtube and seat tube are also swagged down most of their length, so they're quite large at the BB shell. I'm only 152 pounds, so I don't need massive BB rigidity, but it's definitely got it!

Lugged is nice and doesn't have to add much weight. Depends on if the builder picks tubing that isn't as heavily butted as you would need for tig'ing. In any case, lugs are cool! Of course, as someone who owns a Hetchins Magnum Opus with curly stays, I'm not an average person.

I'm about 155 pounds, so I'm in the same boat. My Raleigh Team has standard diameter tubes, and it rides pretty nice. However, if I'm making a serious attempt at sprinting, then it's really not stiff enough. For non-racing, I think that standard diameter tubes might be better for guys like us. Gotta pay attention to tube wall thicknesses too, so that makes it harder to make a proper comparison between frames.

Steve K.

[kuksul08]

Kuk that looks a lot like the santiago hills area in socal.

San luis obispo

[mosport]

Speaking of Reynolds...

Here's my old 853 Thin Blue Line hardtail, handbuilt locally and sold out of a shop that had the Toronto Police Services contract during the 1990's. Rear Mavic CrossLink had a defective hub and was replaced with the XC-717 in the picture, components are XT (XTR rear) and Avid V brakes with Arch Rivals - old stuff but still lots of fun to ride. Usually rolls on Maxxis MaxxLite 310's but those were swapped out for some late night laps on outdoor hockey rinks

[parnass]

My RANS Stratus LE.

[BVH]

Here's my occasional ride:

[PCC]

That is one tall bike. Let me guess, 6' 7"?

[BVH]

No, only 6'2" but my legs are proportionately longer than my torso. IIRC, it's a 63.5 CM

[Flying Turtle]

Got a couple oldies around here. The first is one I bought from a friend in about 1972. It's a mid '60's vintage 10-speed Raleigh Touring, complete with a Dyno Hub connected to a small light under the seat. It originally was hooked up to front and rear lights, but lost the ability to power them, so I added a cheap wheel generator. It's a tough bike, but really heavy. Haven't ridden it in almost twenty years.



My "new" bike is a '91 Trek 830, suitably pimped with bags and a rack. Got a couple old Cateye and Specialized lights from my pre-CPF days ready to mount when needed. Haven't done much riding in recent years, but I guess I've put around 5,000 miles on this one. It still rides like new, but I've always taken it pretty easy.



Geoff

[PCC]

No, only 6'2" but my legs are proportionately longer than my torso. IIRC, it's a 63.5 CM

Considering that I ride 52.5cm bikes, that is one tall bike! Back when I was in junior high school a friend borrowed a bike from one of my teachers, who was 6' 7" and he was around 5' at the time. He sat on the top tube and was barely able to control it every time he rode it. He put a few hundred miles on that bike before he returned it.

Here's a picture I just took of my mountain bike. I finally put fenders on it so I took this picture. The fender had to be modified because of the fork design but I got it to work and it is pretty much rock solid. No more mud baths when riding in the mud! I still want to throw a small fender on the down tube above the bottom bracket but I'm happy with it the way it is now.

[Patriot]

Here's my occasional ride:

Holy cow Bob!!! That steer tube looks like it's about a foot tall!!

I would have guessed you to be 6'7" too, but I read that you've just got long legs.

Nice ride!

[Patriot]

Usually rolls on Maxxis MaxxLite 310's but those were swapped out for some late night laps on outdoor hockey rinks

I would never ride in front of you for fear I'd crash and you steamroll me with those tires....

[mechBgon]

Here's my revised 3-season commuter and training bike. It's a Soma Smoothie ES with the IRD Mosaic 57 carbon/aluminum fork. The frame and fork are built for longer-reach brake calipers, leaving room for fenders and 700 x 28 tires. The frame also features rack eyelets.

Core bike weight is about 20.6 pounds, and it generally goes out the door at 26-30 pounds fully equipped (including LIGHTS ).

[Patriot]

Nice rice mechBgon. Soma have a very faithful following and I almost always only here good things about them. I considered one recently but things didn't work out. Nice niche bike though.

[Steve K]

Here's my revised 3-season commuter and training bike. <....snip....>

Core bike weight is about 20.6 pounds, and it generally goes out the door at 26-30 pounds fully equipped (including LIGHTS ).

hey! hey! I'm pretty sure that there's a rule that says you can't show a bike light without describing it. So what's the story with the headlight? Homemade? or am I just painfully unaware of what's on the market nowadays? (or both??)

and am I the only person riding a heavy bike and packing a ton of stuff for my commute? My 'bent starts out at over 30 pounds (not unusual for a steel 'bent), and adding fenders, rack, saddlebag, hub dynamo, & lights bring it up to 45 pounkds.... lordy!

thanks for sharing, Mech!

Steve K.

[Richie086]

Hi folks,

I just came across this thread tonight and skimmed through it to see all the fantastic photos of some excellent looking bikes. I didn't notice any electric bikes, although it appeared Norm may have one, but I couldn't tell with his photo missing.

I purchased an Ezip Mountain Trailz electric bike in 2008 and added over 20 upgrades making it the most heavily modified, and original Ezip of it's kind in the USA. Here's a video on YouTube my wife shot for me. It can be viewed in HQ or standard.

Sorry for the choppy narration, but it was difficult trying to remember all the mod's done to it. Since the time this was shot, numerous additional modifications have been made. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UB1x6qbIXE


BTW...today my wife and I witnessed an 18 year old female hit by a car as she pedaled across the intersection. We called the police and waited with her until they arrived with the driver of the car. Fortunately she was in good shape and missed being run over by the left front tire, but the bike didn't fair nearly as well. With the warm weather just around the corner, let's all be careful out there and wear those helmets.

[mechBgon]

hey! hey! I'm pretty sure that there's a rule that says you can't show a bike light without describing it. So what's the story with the headlight? Homemade? or am I just painfully unaware of what's on the market nowadays? (or both??)

and am I the only person riding a heavy bike and packing a ton of stuff for my commute? My 'bent starts out at over 30 pounds (not unusual for a steel 'bent), and adding fenders, rack, saddlebag, hub dynamo, & lights bring it up to 45 pounkds.... lordy!

thanks for sharing, Mech!

Steve K.

The front light is a Light & Motion Seca 700, which uses six Rebel emitters with a custom reflector (upper row for throw, lower row for close-in flood). In the rear, it uses the DiNotte 140 as the primary taillight, with a Planet Bike SuperFlash on the rear rack as backup, and two Trek bar-plug taillights to give me visible width. I often use helmet lights too (SuperFlash rear, and one of my flashlights in the front).

My winter commuter would give your 'bent a run for its money in the weight department