If she's riding it as little as you say, whatever you put on there (and maintain!) will last longer than the bike will. One alternative is to upgrade your bike and use the 'leftovers' for her bike. That way, y'all both get good stuff. S'what I did with my ex's stuff anyway. She got all my 'old' stuff. She also ended up with my Dean with M95X XTR on it too. M
I forgot to add, it is here commuter also. It will get alot of miles, but not alot of abuse. I like the "upgrade" idea. She would be ok with that.
Not even! It is an awesomely versetile frame. It is going to be her commuter/tourer/mountain bike..... It has been a really neat frame to build up, so many braze-ons it is crazy!
Been kicking around getting the Ogre frame with a king headset and just using parts I have lying around to build up a ss canti brake cruiser till I figure out what I want to do with it. Wierd frame not sure where it fits in, kinda like an ADV touring bike. Be good to have a mtn style fame for light trail riding. Maybe even put shock on the front ???
Well.... it was a race. Not a great race, but a race. Showed up in lots of time. Got my stuff from pre-registering. Strolled around the course on the way back to the car. Got the spare bike off the roof first 'cause I knew the tires were low. Set bike on the ground. Hmmm something don't look right. Wonder where that dirt came from?! Turned around, did some other stuff in the trunk and looked at the tire again. Hmmmm that's funny. Those look like threads! :eek1 Good thing I'd brought the extra rear wheel with the Tufo Dry tire on it. Good thing I didn't have to ride the extra bike too! It would be an 'interesting' experience to have to ride a tire that you've never ridden before during a race. I'm gonna go out on it sometime this week to see what it does. Tire in question looks like this: Bit of a difference in traction, huh? So I go out for a ride on the road. I figger if I get in between 45min and an hour my legs'll feel OK for the start. Did a few efforts and felt OK. ...but boy howdy was I wrong about the start! Managed to lose whatever good positioning I had at the start by not starting in the big ring. I figgered it was an uphill, paved start, I could get away with the small ring. Nope. Not hardly. Important note to self: work on starts! First turn = standstill Second turn = standstill Managed to find some breathing room till the next series of turns that were in a zig-zag. Got there = standstill So I'm racing with a few guys in mid-pack and my front wheel's feeling a little funny. I KNOW the skewer's tight. So I go thru the start finish for the start of lap #2 and manage to run myself into the tape on a corner on the north end of the course. (you can see it on the Schooley Mill Cross Course page on FB) Get untangled and WTF>! My front wheel's loose! Grr bitch moan complain (all mentally) about the spot I'm about to lose and the ground I'm about to have to make up. So I stopped and tightened my skewer. Talk about a Cat 5 mistake! Geez you'd think I knew better! Around the bends, up and over and I hit the steeplechase (horse) barrier. This thing's 3 RR ties high. Up and over! ....and my chain drops off the inner ring. No problem I'll just do the 'shift to the big ring and pedal' trick. Nope. That ain't working. ...so I have to get off the bike and physically put the chain back on. As the guy I just spent half a lap chasing down passes me. I got him back a bit later, but that's energy I didn't need to expend. Managed to keep it upright on the only real technical corner on the course: off camber, muddy patch at the low end of the course. Had to slow WAY down to do it, but slower and riding is faster than falling and remounting. Up the start hill to the start finish. Ugh Get to the top and I'm gassed. Have to soft-pedal a bit to get my wind back. ...till I managed to crash into the tape in the same corner I got into the tape the last friggen time! Grrr Hit my right knee on my bar as I'm untangling myself from the tape and the 'stick' holding it up off the ground. Lost more ground Then I hit the steeplechase barrier and guess what?! Dropped my chain again. #$%#$%^ Lemme tell ya. I wasn't a happy camper at that moment as I got off the bike again to fix the $%#$% thing. Overall, the legs felt pretty good but I had a shitfer race technically. I know the fixes, now I just need to work on em. M
Snuck out sunday in the nice weather and stole an hour. Had a flat & helped a fred fix his (he brought the wrong pump) but who cares, it was an hour on the bike.
I have been having major butt discomfort on my bottom of the line mountain bike and mentioned it here. The more important problem was a tingling in the groin area. There aren't a lot of bike shops in the Hilo Hawaii area. I was in a store and saw the Schwinn "Stress Free" bike saddle. I decided to grab one and try it. Reviews on this seat (and other "ergo" style seats) are all over the road. Some say they are the biggest POS ever made, while others LOVE them and say that now, with the noseless saddle, they are able to ride again after giving it up. Here is the seat: http://www.amazon.com/Schwinn-Stres...3&sr=8-1&keywords=schwinn+no+stress+bike+seat I installed in in about two minutes. Started trying it out. It does feel pretty different. I've been adjusting it and then retesting. I think I may have found my saddle. Yesterday I did about a 12 mile non-stop (except for quick drinks of water twice) with very little discomfort and no tingling. The only discomfort was in my arms. I think if I move the seat an inch forward or so that may do it. I do slide forward as I ride a bit and have to move back on the seat. Maybe I'll try a little back tilt on it. Some of the complaints about these types of seats are the feeling that you are going to fall of the front (not a problem to me other than the slowly sliding forward), that you can no longer ride hands off the bars (so what??-there isn't a big future in hands free riding), that it seems pedaling isn't as efficient (I don't agree-I have yet to have to even stand up to peddle up a hill-I poured it on on yesterdays 12 miler while going up some hills and it seemed fine). One reviewer stated that, since this type of seat has little or no thigh contact that should you turn around to check traffic you have way less of a danger of that movement causing you to swerve. Don't know about that. There are other brands of this seat such as: http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Bic...=1352743684&sr=1-3&keywords=ergo+bike+saddles http://www.amazon.com/Hobson-Easyse...=1352743684&sr=1-6&keywords=ergo+bike+saddles And here is the other Schwinn seat: http://www.amazon.com/Schwinn-No-Pr...=1352743684&sr=1-5&keywords=ergo+bike+saddles Anyway, it looks like it's going to work for me. I ride this bike mostly on paved streets and highways, but also on gravel roads. Has anyone else tried these types of saddloes? Thanks, Jon
There's hope that there's one out there willing to listen. Otherwise, I may as well try to convince the dog that he shouldn't chase squirrels. M
It's his herding instinct. Time to round 'em up!!!!!!!!!! Our beagle chases a better way to get more comfortable.
yup, the collie does exactly that. my lab is also good at the chasing more comfort thing, she's going on 6 now.