I got one of those surly cornerbars (offbrand) and they're fucking great, would recommend to everyone. Easily the most comfy handlebars I've ever owned.
Also currently trying to piece together the perfect small size at most medium weight bicycle EDC pouch to chuck in my panniers so I can field repair my entire shit and also help other people.
Pretty sure I'll put some bar ends in there just to slap them into random bicycles so people don't core sample themselves. I am the velocipedal crusader, you will be saved from doctors having to extract a tubular 21mm cross section of yourself so they can figure out what the fuck you managed to lose because you didn't think to put 50 eurodollarcents of bar ends on your stuff.
I bought an e-bike last year and I’m 2000% bikepilled now. My family thinks I’m crazy for going get groceries by bike. Bike shit.
500 miles in on my ebike since early Summer. I have a 10 year old truck and I'm convinced between both vehicles I will never buy a new automobile again.
Now obviously I hate cars but gotta say bicycle / truck is a working combination. Run something similar myself, basically just for things that are actually unrealistically far to go by bicycle or if I need to haul more shit than a bicycle can feasibly carry. Allthough I gotta get a bike trailer honestly, there's this missing middle where I feel dumb using a car but it also doesn't really carry well on my bike and I say that as someone who regularly rides short distances one handed carrying shit like a rain barrel in one hand
Conditions as they are, I own a house. I need a truck. I hate cars but this is reality and it's not changing any time soon.
That being said, my ebike baskets are big enough for a small haul from a grocery store. If my wife and I both go, we fill up for 2 or more weeks with room to spare.
I wanna ride my bike, but i keep being consumed by something making me stop. Dumb shit like “where am i gonna go?” and “do i really want to get sweaty”
Make it stop.
I feel this. What helped me was making it an errand, even if the car was nominally faster. But time spent biking is exercise, which is good, time sitting in a car just burns money.
Or you could go for the coffee-ride. Ride somewhere, get a treat, ride back. Just to have a goal.
Alternatively you could just go for something like wandrer - there's similar services. Some gamification here helps.
You can just ride it to get to places, like to your friends house or the bar or work or w/e. I ride a ton but basically never just "go for a bike ride"
this always seems kind of dumb until you realize every road was cobblestone and the metallurgy to produce chains wasn't quite mass market ready and then it makes perfect sense. The big wheel both serves as gears and also makes you just roll over most gaps in cobblestone
my child learned to ride late this season after a few years of late blooming. I'm so proud.
I was harassing a driver stopped at a stop sign for honking and screaming past me and my partner on a bike route the other day. Dude was apoplectic that I had the nerve to knock on his window and turned into pure white rage. Tried to use his car to hit me when I tried to ride away.
All this was like whatever because I was going to beat the tar out of him but then he turned right in and hit my partner's bike when he sped off.
As much as it's deep in my constitution to use my strong and powerful male body and voice to bully back drivers who try to bully me on the road, I never really considered that I might be putting my partner in danger and I felt absolutely sick that I let my anger put her at risk
Replaced my old car with an ebike back in June and I just passed 1.2k km on the odometer, fuckin love this thing. Had a weird catastrophic failure recently where the screws popped off the motor faceplate, thankfully I had one left to size check some replacements when support got me nowhere, but after finding the right machine screws I'm back in business.
I got a back rack with a wire basket so I can get groceries, it's so keener. I've been racking the web for a front basket/rack seeing as my frame has some pre-set screws for one, but the company I bought it off doesn't seem to have one available, maybe not in Canada. I found a few that may but it's a pretty expensive risk for a basket that may not fit, those things can cost a pretty penny.
I just ordered a studded tire now that it's getting colder, I intend to try and bike to and fro as much as possible.
I got a back rack with a wire basket so I can get groceries, it's so keener. I've been racking the web for a front basket/rack seeing as my frame has some pre-set screws for one, but the company I bought it off doesn't seem to have one available, maybe not in Canada. I found a few that may but it's a pretty expensive risk for a basket that may not fit, those things can cost a pretty penny.
Just jury rig that shit with some zip ties honestly. Maybe some metal affixings with old tube on the hang points to not scratch your shit. I got a collapsible wire basket on one side of my rack and it is so, so, fucking good man.
I just ordered a studded tire now that it's getting colder, I intend to try and bike to and fro as much as possible.
Studded bicycle tyres are fucking hilarious to see other people witness because no one knows they exist. Car drivers look at me in awe as I pull a 15° corner lean at 30kph on my bicycle, wondering how I'm not eating shit. It takes like 5 minutes of not trusting them before you're ready to huck yourself down a bobsled track. So much fucking grip.
I need to find a good saddle. The one I've got makes me sad and not want to ride.
Measure your sit-bones by putting some thicker cardboard on a hard surface and sitting on it. Measure distance between both central points of distention and shop for something that advertises this as it's seat width or similar (not the technical outside spec)
Also remember, saddle comfort has like 0 bearing to price. Two of my most comfy saddles are unbranded and I have 0 idea who even made them, but they came with cheap bikes. Another one is like a 10 eurodollars Decathlon one.
Also do note unless you do short-short trips, like a 1 mi / 2km too much cushioning just means you're gonna rest your stoff on your soft bits instead of your boney bits. Think maybe more fabric-covered public transport seat and not couch
I was thinking lately about how people who bike for fitness and those that bike as a form of transit have very different bodies and vibes. I was the latter, with that sandy hair and wiry, dusty body. I miss having that vibe, but now that I drive I get regular sleep and can ferry my roommates around.
The cornerbars look like they'd be rad for my commuter. I should see if I could find some.
I am discovering the joys of AliExpress this week. I now have an electronics case that holds my phone, wallet, earbuds, and bike lights instead of just letting everything fly around loose. I also got some shoe packing cubes for my change of clothes and running stuff so I can stop using plastic shopping bags. Total cost was a couple bucks, should've done this sooner.
Also this is my first year doing cyclocross and I am having a ball. Last race of the season is in a couple weeks and I am not keeping up with my workouts
How much is a decent bike and does it need to be kept inside? My bike is rusting away and I kinda want to get a new one.
Replaced my car with a $1500 priority. You definitely have to keep it inside
my friend told me the last bike they purchased was from aliexpress and they rode that shit for years cross-country. link your favorite aliexpress bike so I can inexplicably keep a bike in my small apartment and use it twice a month thanks
I'm an internally-geared hub kind of guy because I hate doing maintenance and keeping shit clean. My most recent ride had a 5-speed Sturmey-Archer hub with a built-in drum brake, which was good. The drum brake was amazing, but the gears less so. They were always kinda finnicky, but they finally gave out a few months back and I lost everything but first. For a minute I was considering trying to rebuild the hub myself, but it seems like a lot of work, and I might not even be able to replace the parts anyway. Besides (I told myself) I bought this bike for $140 mostly as a "let's see how often bikes get stolen here" test, to which the answer has been "basically never if they're locked up".
So I went and spent $600 on one of these used from a guy who seemed to be transitioning to all e-bikes, which made sense considering his house was on a massive hill. This bike has a NuVinci/Enviolo continuously-variable transmission which is absolutely wild. Essentially endless gear ratios, and that plus the belt drive mean it's quiet as hell. The only issue is that it has kinda cheapo hydraulic disc brakes that don't let you adjust the bite point, but custom fenders, built-in dynamo lights, it's a pretty nice machine.
Also I had to get new tires for the e-bike I use when my wife and I are going places together (she rides on the back) and the tires I got are called "Carless Whisper" which I think is pretty funny.
I am so jealous, I always wanted to try a NuVinci/Enviolo, especially on an acoustic bicycle but I can only find them in expensive ass e-bikes here. How's the power loss?
A little noticeable. But I don't think it's egregious. Possibly balanced out by being able to maintain the perfect ratio and cadence.
