The Biking Thread

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cory said:
What does it have for friction/resistance?
Click to expand...

Magnet in the base section. You can type in the Watts you want to have as a minimum and it automatically brakes to force you to keep pedalling. Its quite clever really for its age. Some of the modern ones are unbelievable but at $1500 they're too expensive for me😄
 
I just recently "discovered" ebiking. We did it over a year ago with friends for a day on paved roads at Angle Island park. Fun for a day but no big deal.

Then rented ebikes for a day and took my wife to a fire road type trail we didn't cover enough ground on when we first discovered and hiked it. What a blast. Seeing all the beauty and different things at a quicker clip than hiking. Makes me feel like I did as a kid discovering new territory up and down my local creek. AND doing it at a peppier pace makes it a bit closer to the fun and excitement that attract me to tree work.
 
Here I go again...

Back in 1972 I bought a used Nishiki American Eagle for 200 bugs. Such a deal. 26", 14 speed Jap cycle. About $800 at the dealer. Lightest and top of the line in the day. Chromoly tubing. Heavy by today's standards. But I rode that Golden Eagle to school and all over Sonoma County for over 3 years. Thousands of miles! Surely I replaced most parts on the bike several times over, and could lace a hub and wheel true in an evening after dinner. Ready to go in the morning. I had so much fun with that bike I dream about it today.

The best part... Sonoma County had / has a super vast network of rural roads running all though the Coast Range Mountains, inland valleys and the Myacamas Mountains to the east, and I covered most of those roads on that bike from 1972 to 75. And at the time rural traffic in Sonoma County was a like a lazy Sunday morning ride in the country... any time or day of the week. Heaven to ride a bike across. Though way too crazy today.

But bikes are cool! I love'em.
 
Great post, Gerry.

I rode a bike to school too, 7-12 grade, good stuff!

Gotta love your description of those quiet country roads.

Wow, you could lace a wheel?? That is amazing in my book.

Yeah biking is awesome,

It is great to see it growing bigger and bigger over the years, especially now due to covid.

Save the world! Ride a bike!
 
Good idea, not to mention the possibility of a batt bike.
 
Being on a bike is the closest thing I feel to being free. Little noise, no fuel tank (other than my stamina and endurance) and just free to feel the air passing by, and going off to explore. The first American Eagle I saw on the east coast was under Rod Brice, who when he got out of the service in San Diego bought one and rode it across the country home to Delaware. When I saw his bike those were the first Suntour derailleurs (the inventors of the slant-pantogram mechanism for gear changers) I had ever seen in1969. He tragically died in an accident in 1972. My first really nice bike had Suntour. I was lacing wheels for Dependence Bike Shop after school and weekends back then. My shop stand is in the new shop, and I still wrench on friends, family, and neighbor's bicycles.
 
My neighbor has built a hunting bike, I've maybe mentioned. Lots of juice, big tires in place of suspension, and a rifle rack on the handle bars!
 
"This Venn diagram doesn't look right. Are you sure you copied the right data?!"

Bikes quit being fun for me when I traded my bmx bike for a multispeed. Sore ass, and I couldn't seem to cover the territory I did on a little single speed, nevermind the nimbleness I lost.
 
That's easy- go bmx again or if you've outgrown that, get a nice single speed. Lotta folks swear by them
 
I look kinda silly on a bmx. The bike's tiny compared to my body, and I'm not sure a larger version would give the same experience. I shouldn't be concerned with looks. Goes against my general philosophy anyway. Maybe I'll try one out, and see if the magic's still there. Haven't ridden a bmx in ~35 years, or a bike of any kind in ~25 years.
 
Thanks for sharing that story, Pat!

Today I was looking at the line-up of "ebikes" on the internet. Oh boy, oh boy, there's a lot to chose from, and the prices and features are competitive. For an asthmatic old timer like myself a midline ebike with pedal assist runs about 1,000 to 1,500 bucks. On our local park trails and log roads, all permitting, it could give me a comfortable radius of 10 to 20 miles easy. I'm thinking serious.

edited for usual misspells.
 
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I have a friend in Berlin; last time I rode with him we did about an 80km jaunt all around Potsdam and Berlin followed the routes he usually takes tourists on for his summer 'history tours' (He is a social studies/history teacher during the school year). At about 50km his eBike was running low on charge, despite the downhill recharging, and he was getting short of breath! Seems he had fallen prey to the ease of the electric bike, and was no longer in the top shape he had always enjoyed.
A neighbor with a-fib has an eBike, and now that I am about to find out about my cardiac issues I might well be joining them in their eBiking-ness!
 
It was great weather yesterday so did just under 40km in about an hour and a half. Lovely to be out and about when the sun is shining and all the Daffodils and bulbs are out.
Going to aim for 100 miles in a day over the summer
 
I just got rid of a mountain bike. Just no drive or desire anymore. Breathing can be an issue as well. Gave it to a guy that works at a troubled teen center. He loves mountain biking and plans events for thekids he oversees at the center. So some kid that cant afford a bike that wants to go on the trip in May will have a decent ride. Ill stick with tree climbing.
 
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