If you want walkability in your clip in bike shoes, you'll have to break down and get mountain biking shoes & cleats.
As someone who went from Speedplay X road pedals to Speedplay Frog mountain pedals, I can 100% say that shoes & cleats meant for mountain biking work great on road bikes, and I will never go back to road cleats on my road bike.
My "mountain" shoes look like black low top trail running sneakers, not like boots, and can easily pass for regular shoes. So not only do they perform well as a clip in bike shoe, they perform well as a normal walking shoe, and they blend in well enough that I could wear them to work and nobody would notice.
So next year, if you find yourself in the Boston area on Marathon Monday, there's a whole crew of bicyclists (about 3000 this year) who ride the marathon route on the midnight before the official marathon. Basically, take the last train out to Hopkinton, grab your bike from a moving truck, and ride 30 miles back to Boston.
Anyone got any miracle cures for lower back pain? My lower back muscles can get really tight and refuse to relax. It was making a mountain climb last weekend a lot tougher than I'd like, had to take a couple breaks just to let it calm down for a bit. Plan right now is to try and get better about stretching/rolling hip flexors/glutes.
Core work - mostly planks and dynamic movements on a yoga ball. There are a ton of good options out there, but the best idea is to have a PT appointment to get something specific to you.
I'd been putting off some much needed bike maintenance for months. Rode a lot of my components into the ground but wanted to hold off on the rebuild until road and weather conditions were a bit better so I wasn't immediately sandblasting nice new stuff with road grit from my commute. Finally hit my (figurative) tipping point with my back wheel hub developing a sketchy wobble.
Should hopefully be getting my bike back from the shop tonight with a new back wheel, drive train, and front derailleur. I am excited, riding a freshly tuned bike always feels great
Tomorrow here we have the Spring Up Wolf Creek ride. It's a Lion's Club fund-raiser that's really simple and low-key but well-supported by their volunteers. It's sort of the first* big spring kick-off ride and everyone comes out of the woodwork to drive out to this little town on the river and go pedal around together. Most of the course is blindingly flat for this area because it follows Wolf Creek... so a lot of people ride out on hilly-ish Old Wolf Creek road (which is closed to through traffic in many places), then ride back on Wolf Creek Road proper. Because we're masochists about climbing**, I guess?
* There are other supported rides before this one but they tend to be pretty niche and draw small crowds.
** The official route has turn-arounds that allow riding for 20, 32, or 42 miles. Sadly the longest option, involving a 5 mile climb up East River Mountain, is missing this year. The elevation:
Yeah Trek's had some nice color schemes the last few years. That there is a beauty @DouglasDanger My brother has the same model from a couple years ago and I got an XCaliber that I love the shit out of. Do yourself a favor though and get an inner tube repair/replacement kit and strap that shit under your seat. I got a speck of glass in my front tire and lost an inner tube to it on my first ride. That can happen to anyone at any time and luck favors the prepared.
Cable locks are generally ok for locking up your bike while you're at a restaurant or shopping or whatever. They are easily defeatable for a dedicated thief, so don't leave your bike somewhere outside over night. Bar locks are supposedly more secure, but they weigh more and are less easy to use. I've had both kinds, and carry my cable lock 95% of the time.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
I'm not a fan of cable locks as a lot of them have cheap locks and can be easily cut by moderately-sized bolt cutters. A U-lock is probably the most secure (though there are debates on this) but a quality portable chain lock is almost as good and is more versatile if you expect you'll need to hitch it to a lot of different racks.
If you go the U-lock route, make sure you get something big enough to lock through a wheel and part of the frame. Depending on how often bikes get stolen in your area, you might want to remove a wheel (the front is the easiest) and the seat if you're leaving it outside overnight.
My friend's Trek Silque above on the left has a gorgeous paint job: very subtle small metallic flake navy with powder blue accents. You only really catch the metallic flake when there's strong light reflecting off it and suddenly it's just THE TINY STARS ARE SPARKLING OMG. (I'm jealous of her bike.)
Trek has some paint work that I don't care for but I can't think of a major manufacturer these days doing a better job with their hits. I'm pleasantly reminded of Klein from the early 2000s.
Regarding security, I read this guide the other day, which I found interesting. They argue for a U-lock and locking skewers for the wheels. I have no idea if they're right, but the section on how bikes are typically stolen is pretty useful for prevention. The pipe technique for breaking cable locks, for example, is pretty smart.
One thing I've always wondered is the benefit or harm of visibility. Is a bike locked in a visible place, on a busy street, safer because fewer people would risk stealing it when they're likely to be seen; or more at risk because it's more likely to be seen at all by a potential thief? Similarly, is a bike locked out of the way on a side street safer because it's less likely to be seen and doesn't advertise, or less safe because someone can feel comfortable working to take it without being seen?
I think the visibility thing depends a lot on the (hyper-)local culture. Someone grinding through a lock at my local coffee shop is going to get some Serious Questions Asked by Very Stout People. Someone grinding through a lock at my friends' house in downtown Richmond is basically just called Saturday. So in Richmond you hide your bike and here you make sure you put it with all the other bikes. Hiding basically never works, though, because meth-heads got nothing else to do.
I know someone who had their bike stolen; a few weeks later they found it again, locked (with someone else's lock) to a bike rack downtown. They went home, got a Big Hammer, came back, found their bike still there, and beat on the u-lock until it broke, then off they went. Nobody said or did anything while the hammering was going on, despite this being in a very busy location.
Cable locks are sort of secure but only if nobody really wants it; the key broke off in the lock of the cable lock I was using at one point, so I went back with wirecutters and snipped through the strands one by one until it came apart. Sure, it took a while, but it's not difficult.
Y'all folks who live in cities sure do have some problems as regards bike theft, eh?
Bikes and mopeds are very easy targets, yeah. I live down the road from a college dorm, and the university would send out several emails a week about something getting stolen between such and such time.
Some friends rented a house in Whistler BC for weekend festivities. Figured I'd give the Gran Fondo route a shot for the first time, riding from Vancouver to Whistler. Rode up on Friday, back today. A weekend total of 260km with 3150m of climbing helped me justify the excessive consumption
Well, I ended up buying another cruiser lol. Being at a new apartment that is not on the first floor, I really didn't feel like lugging a steel cruise upstairs so I got a Jamis Hudson Easy which is aluminum.
Now I can ride to the Starbucks down the street on something that isn't my Cervelo P2. :hydra: I'll probably use it for just a quick tool around bike as well since it has normal flat pedals and a nice comfy seat.
So we get stiff once in a while. So we have a little fun. What’s wrong with that? This is a free country, isn’t it? I can take my panda any place I want to. And if I wanna buy it a drink, that’s my business.
I've used these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ACAM06, because they were easily available locally -- but as they say in that review, they're a tight squeeze with bigger tyres.
I've got one of those same mounts for my road bike, works fine. Get the corresponding tire tray for the back wheel to keep from it making a mess of your wall (also a wet wheel can stick and peel off the paint)
I've used these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ACAM06, because they were easily available locally -- but as they say in that review, they're a tight squeeze with bigger tyres.
Couple of bikes I've seen locked up around here with a not-entirely-appropriate amount of security measures:
The top middle lock isn't in play here, but they have a d-lock fixing the frame to the pole, a thick cable lock fixing the front wheel and frame to the pole, and another thinner cable lock fixing the back wheel and frame to a pole. This is on a bike that's locked up in a secure chainlink fenced off section of the garage under the building where I work, which you need an access card to get into. What's more, all those locks come and go with the bike every day, they aren't just leaving them here to avoid carrying all that weight around.
This one just looks like it's waiting to grow up to be big enough for its lock, though:
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
Would multiple locks make any difference, though? Like if you're coming up to saw/cut your way thru a lock, are two more going to stop you?
Or if someone sees you cutting thru one lock, are they more likely to call the police at two or three?
I guess it's just the "steal my one-lock neighbor's bike" set up, right?
Posts
As someone who went from Speedplay X road pedals to Speedplay Frog mountain pedals, I can 100% say that shoes & cleats meant for mountain biking work great on road bikes, and I will never go back to road cleats on my road bike.
My "mountain" shoes look like black low top trail running sneakers, not like boots, and can easily pass for regular shoes. So not only do they perform well as a clip in bike shoe, they perform well as a normal walking shoe, and they blend in well enough that I could wear them to work and nobody would notice.
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2017/04/17/midnight-marathon-bike-ride-boston-2017/
https://www.midnightmarathon.org/
https://www.facebook.com/midnightmarathonbikeride/
8-)
Unrelated: I am cursed. I re-cabled my Roubaix and replaced the bar tape ... and now the forecast is a week of solid rain.
(Trying out the Fizik microtex-style stuff rather than the usual Cinelli. We'll see!)
Core work - mostly planks and dynamic movements on a yoga ball. There are a ton of good options out there, but the best idea is to have a PT appointment to get something specific to you.
I don't have time to post more, but rest assured, this bicycle is super cool, but a bit of a hassle to put together.
Should hopefully be getting my bike back from the shop tonight with a new back wheel, drive train, and front derailleur. I am excited, riding a freshly tuned bike always feels great
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
*shakes fist at Spring*
Edit: on the plus side, replaced the truck's clutch master cylinder today so at least I won't have to pedal two hours in the rain just to get there.
* There are other supported rides before this one but they tend to be pretty niche and draw small crowds.
** The official route has turn-arounds that allow riding for 20, 32, or 42 miles. Sadly the longest option, involving a 5 mile climb up East River Mountain, is missing this year. The elevation:
Yeah, we doin' alright.
Yeah Trek's had some nice color schemes the last few years. That there is a beauty @DouglasDanger My brother has the same model from a couple years ago and I got an XCaliber that I love the shit out of. Do yourself a favor though and get an inner tube repair/replacement kit and strap that shit under your seat. I got a speck of glass in my front tire and lost an inner tube to it on my first ride. That can happen to anyone at any time and luck favors the prepared.
I guess I need to start least get a lock of some sort
I'm guessing the cable type ones are still the best bet if you live in an area without those bike parking rack things
Trek has some paint work that I don't care for but I can't think of a major manufacturer these days doing a better job with their hits. I'm pleasantly reminded of Klein from the early 2000s.
Hmm
I will see if I can find one of those
bundesrad.de/galerie/
Slightly out of my price range.
One thing I've always wondered is the benefit or harm of visibility. Is a bike locked in a visible place, on a busy street, safer because fewer people would risk stealing it when they're likely to be seen; or more at risk because it's more likely to be seen at all by a potential thief? Similarly, is a bike locked out of the way on a side street safer because it's less likely to be seen and doesn't advertise, or less safe because someone can feel comfortable working to take it without being seen?
Cable locks are sort of secure but only if nobody really wants it; the key broke off in the lock of the cable lock I was using at one point, so I went back with wirecutters and snipped through the strands one by one until it came apart. Sure, it took a while, but it's not difficult.
Bikes are easy to sell and hard to trace the origin of so yeah in larger cities theft is pretty common.
Bikes and mopeds are very easy targets, yeah. I live down the road from a college dorm, and the university would send out several emails a week about something getting stolen between such and such time.
I need that elf gang getriebenabe in my life right the fuck now.
The fabike carbon frame alone is 1590€, because it's 33% off the normal price.
It is really sleek though.
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
Now I can ride to the Starbucks down the street on something that isn't my Cervelo P2. :hydra: I'll probably use it for just a quick tool around bike as well since it has normal flat pedals and a nice comfy seat.
I've used these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ACAM06, because they were easily available locally -- but as they say in that review, they're a tight squeeze with bigger tyres.
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
OK, I'll check it out, thank you
The top middle lock isn't in play here, but they have a d-lock fixing the frame to the pole, a thick cable lock fixing the front wheel and frame to the pole, and another thinner cable lock fixing the back wheel and frame to a pole. This is on a bike that's locked up in a secure chainlink fenced off section of the garage under the building where I work, which you need an access card to get into. What's more, all those locks come and go with the bike every day, they aren't just leaving them here to avoid carrying all that weight around.
This one just looks like it's waiting to grow up to be big enough for its lock, though:
Or if someone sees you cutting thru one lock, are they more likely to call the police at two or three?
I guess it's just the "steal my one-lock neighbor's bike" set up, right?