so if you lump CSG and 'Other' in with MM, they beat LBS on $ as well as volume interesting that the total unit volume is split 28% 'all mountain', 14% 'comfort', 15% hybrid/cross, 17% road, and 16.5% 'youth' including bmx and freestyle cruiser and comfort are kind of nebulous categories imho. I wonder what was put in that hybrid/cross category... I can't imagine those are all serious cyclocross racing bikes. I'm guessing stuff like the Specialized Crossroads are lumped in there, which are really more like 'comfort' bikes.
I'm pretty sure that hybrid/cross catergory does not include cyclocross specific bicycles.. only meant for bicycles with 27" wheels that have flat or upright handlebars with wider tires than 700c road bike catergory. Cruisers are typically the baloon tires beach cruiser type. I'm not sure of the distinctions between comfort and hybrid/cross.
Yeah, but where do we get the $0.05 tubes???????? I know the quality is $0.05, because the first tube out of the box had a hole in it. CAT - You never said what you recommended for a patch kit to be kept with the bike??????
Thanks Perry I think I am going to give them a whirl. I will use these in a porch where I can lean against a wall if needs be when I start out. If all else fails I see you can buy a stand for the front wheel which would seem to negate most of the stability issues (please correct me if I am wrong ). I want to try it without first but I like the fact I have that option if I can't get to grips with it.
anyone find riding a road bike, sometimes upwards of 50mph, wearing nothing but lycra and a styrofoam salad bowl on one's head slighly incongruous with the ATGATT mentality of full face helmet and a roadcrafter suit to ride 30-40 mph for a backroad spin on the GS? anyone?
The stand for yer front wheel also negates most of the benefits of rollers. Best if you can avoid em if at all possible. If yer riding a trainer/rollers/whatever stationary, get a fan and point it at yer head. Helps keep you cool. DAMHIK how much you sweat otherwise. AFA the price of bikes argument I missed while sleeping: MOST of the bikes I sold working at PBS just recently were less than $300. Some between $3-400. 1-2 over that. It just ain't the 'Average Joe's' thing to spend more'n a few hundred on a 'toy.' Us 'Cyclists are the oddities spending more on our bikes than some do on a cage. Yer messenger/cyclist/'rider' types are all above average. Go check out the 'normal' people and you'll see lots of WM bikes: Huffy, Pacifica, etc. being ridden. I see em in Denver lots. The high end stuff is reserved for yuppies. *sip* morning coffee! Mmmmmmm Peet's! M
Yes and no. It takes a LOT of work to go even 25mph on a bicycle. Riding in a RC would be instant heat stroke thru most of the year. Downhillers, etc. wear body armor. But then again, they don't hafta ride UP the mountain first! Till they come up with something as protective as a RC, but breathes as well as cycling gear, don't make you hot, etc. I'll stick with the 'regular stuff.' On the MC, I'm in a poseur suit (Rallye 2) by BMW. M
exactly. just making a point to those condemning high horse ATGATT judgemental folks who live in a black and white world that it is actually gray "too hot, too heavy, not comfortable, not convenient, socially unacceptable" - sound familiar? I was swooping down a steep hill last weekend just around 45+mph in lycra knickers and a wool jersey and it dawned on me that I was OK with that risk profile but wear RC or R2P (poseur?) every moto ride Then I discovered this thread (who knew - in ADV?) and thought I'd ask...
Oh, don't get me wrong... I AM one of the high horse ATGATT types. I just don't go 'round preaching to the unwashed masses. I DO however shake my head in disgust when I see non-helmet-wearing idiots riding around. Having said that, ATGATT on a bicycle is a different critter than on a MC. Unless yer one of said downhillers, then it ain't much different. M
With tubes at 5 cents a piece, who needs to patch tubes... just put a new tube what goes flat. No idea why your first tube has a hole out of the box..
POS $0.05 tube that cost $4.95 to the end user. Ship me some $0.05 tubes, because I am sure I can't get a patch kit for that either.
Yo Merc: 1) you want to learn rollers in a DOORWAY (solid support on both sides, and not that far from you) 2) if "all else fails" sell them and get a trainer. rollers with a fork stand are about as usefull as tits on a bull. 3) think circles. it's all about a smooth pedal stroke. pretend you're wiping poop off your shoes, it'll make you arc the bottom of your stroke. 4) start off learning in big gear, it'll spin your wheels faster and make it easier to stay upright. counter-common-sensical at first, but trust me. have fun, and remember, it's not about balance more so about smooth technique. so if you stay calm and smooth, you'll get it. after a couple winter weeks, I was riding rollers no-handed while playing Project Gotham on the Xbox with my housemate.
to step back a bit into the thread. My take on the patch kit/spare tube thing is that anyone likely to stray far from their home on a bike also probably is carrying some kind of repair supplies. Folks that buy department store bikes don't often ride much more than a mile or 2 at a time (and that's a stretch, in my experience), so they hardly need to carry a spare tube or patch kit. If you are talking 'cyclist' rather than 'bicycle owner' - the average price of a bike goes way up, cause all that low end crap just drops right out of the pool. And I happily buy all kinds of stuff in my LBS that I could get for cheaper online. For clothes, it is because I can try the stuff on, but for everything else, it is a combination of convenience and the fact that I want my LBS to stay in business. That said, I don't buy much from the local chain store (something like 5 shops in the LA area). They have decent stock, but the folks that work there are basically college kids who have little knowledge on the sales floor and mexican laborers who don't even ride bicycles in the back doing the wrenching. I don't feel any need to keep them in business, though I will stop in and buy GU and spare tubes and stuff there. But my local pro shop gets ALL of my business, up to and including building new bikes or me even though I'm perfectly capable of building a bike myself out of parts. I pay about $150 for the bike build labor, and I pay it happily cause those guys know me super well, give me great discounts wherever they can afford it, and if I come in needing a repair, other bikes will come off the stand so that they can get mine done first. Similarly, stem swaps and such are free until I've got the bike dialed in, though they know exactly how I fit my bikes, now. We go on regular rides together, and I've been known to fill in when they are shortstaffed at the shop. When I forgot my clear lenses for a night ride, a pair of new glasses came off the shelf for my use during the ride. If I'd damaged 'em, I would have paid, but they'd have only charged me wholesale, I'm sure. In short, I get the kind of service at my local pro shop that I only wish I could get at a motorcycle dealership these days. And they have totally captured my business as a result. Hell, I even sacrifice my usual desire for instant gratification in order to let them order parts for me that I could get elsewhere. If I called them from my commute having discovered that my spare tubes were all defective, I doubt very much that I'd even have to ask before they'd volunteer to drop a tube off for me if I was within 10 miles of the shop (my whole commute is within 10 miles of the shop, conveniently). So there's the answer to your question about who pays the LBS prices, although I guess it is a bit of a non-answer, since I NEVER pay the price on the price tags in the shop. Those are for the casual shopper who just stops in. Everything I buy there comes at a discount, one tht comes reasonably close to an internet order and is way more convenient and fun. The only problem is that when I walk into a bike shop, I ALWAYS buy more than I came in for. The same usually isnt true of internet ordering. That's where they really get me.
....and don't forget the Pepsi Challenge. I remember seeing John Howard win it one year, and Kenny Sloan (TOGA) another. An icon of 80's Central Park history.
I was young, but I remember going to some really cool races in the Park as a kid. I was just at Toga yesterday, still a cool shop (a new one opened on the east side near me but it sucks). Some 5 boro history: The Five Boro Bike Tour is the largest recreational cycling event in the United States. Every year on the first Sunday of May, over 40,000 riders participate in the 42 mile ride around New York City. The route, closed to automobile traffic, takes riders through all five boroughs of New York City, across five major bridges, and finally across New York Harbor on the Staten Island Ferry. The tour starts and ends at Battery Park in Lower Manhattan. Participants line up behind the start line at Franklin Street and Church Street creating a queue which extends well south beyond the World Trade Center site. The tour runs north up the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) past Macy's before entering Central Park. After exiting the park the tour heads north through Harlem on Seventh Avenue and then crosses into the Bronx for a short 2 mile stretch before getting back to Manhattan and onto the FDR Drive. The FDR stretch of the tour runs south through Manhattan under Gracie Mansion before crossing the East River via the Queensboro Bridge into Queens. The first major rest area of the tour is in Astoria Park, Queens. Leaving Astoria Park the tour proceeds south through Queens before crossing the Pulaski Bridge into Brooklyn, where it winds along the waterfront, past the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The route crosses under the Brooklyn Bridge, and then up and onto the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. The tour continues on the elevated BQE before dropping down to the Shore Parkway and over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge into Staten Island. Once in Staten Island the tour makes a stop at Fort Wadsworth for a festival, before continuing the last three miles to the Staten Island Ferry where riders can take the ferry back to Battery Park in Manhattan. The event began on June 10, 1977 as the Five Boro Challenge with about 250 participants. The original tour was 50 miles long and started and ended in Queens. Last year was the last time I'll ever do the tour though, it's too big, too slow, and too un-organized.
