Bikers of NICO (Pedals, not Harleys)

[OriginalWheelman]

So I was talking a bit in my last thread about my new MTB. I figured there have to be others on here who like to bike. Anyone got pics? Places they like to ride?

Mine's a 198x Redline Conquest Three SS MTB. I bought it at a bike shop for $99. I figured I was buying the frame at that price. I was right.



The BB came out in pieces. It had been wrenched in so tight the bearing bracket had broke, and one of the ball bearings was ground flat. This obvious ruined the spindle. Whoever owned it had taken it apart once. It looks like they beat the pedals off with a hammer, and lubed everything with Crisco™. It was bad. I had to replace the cup from the bad side, the spindle, and the bearings. I opted to stick with the sketchy crank for now since it is still true and I'm trying to spend as little as is reasonable. This got me rolling, and almost immediately the tire's sidewall ripped. Not entirely surprising, but I expected to get a little more out of them. So I bought a nice set of hybrid tires. They're a bit big for the frame, but they do fit. The ride is amazing. Smooth on the road, and grippy on the trails. I spent last night taking my wheels apart and greasing the axle bearings. There was no grease to speak of left in them. There didn't appear to be any mars or burs on the cups or caps so I greased the hell out of it and put it back together. I also think my rear hub is bent slightly. I won't knwo for sure until I true my wheels. Both have a sizable dent in them. The corresponding dent in the upper frame tube makes me think this thing was crashed hard once.





My wife's Bianchi. She's riding ti back and forth to worth. It's a 70s model. Still has centerpull brakes. She gave it a full tear down and grease last night too.



Bonus 1938 Schwinn that was getting some work done at the bike shop. He keeps it looking all rat-rod so no one steals it.

[BusyBadger]

Nice stuff! Love the rat rod look, had a friend do the some similar camouflage with medical & electrical tape to an old Fondriest race frame.

And I love the retro styling of the CP brakes. I rocked them forever on an old cyclocross bike I ended up giving away (along with two other bikes) when we moved to Tennessee.

I'll keep an eye out in my garage for anything that you might find handy.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Those are some old bikes!
Here's my most recent acquisition:

2013 Trek 7.2FX hybrid (I picked it up in 2012). I really like it. Rides great, super reliable, comfortable, and fast.
I also have a Trek VRX 200 that I pretty much never ride anymore. It needs a new rear shock, and the mountain biking season here is pretty short (and not many trails):

I also bought a Felt while I lived in Germany. It too was pretty bullet proof. I beat on it really hard - took it off jumps, crashed it a few times, did god knows what while tipsy, took it grocery shopping.

By the end of my year of abuse, it did develop a little play in the fork, which cost me quite a bit of resale value

[OriginalWheelman]

Love the Trek. I'd like to get a new bike but they have a tendency to get stolen. I'm trying to ride under the radar a bit. A good rolling older bike with a dinged up frame isn't going to draw as much attention.

one thing I do have here are tons of trails and bike lanes. It's really nice. But Oregon goes to great lengths to protect their greenery. It's nice.

Put another 4 on the bike today. Spent some tech time on the brakes but with the wheel a bit out of round there is no real good adjustment. Little by little.

[Bubba1]

I love old bikes. I still have my old 10 speed, which is probably considered an antique by now. It's a 1971-72 Atala Giro d'Italia. Bought it new. Funny, what was light in 1972 is now a heavy tank in 2015. My son's 21 speed Gary Fisher, weighs about the same as the front wheel of my Atala. go figure. I might have an opportunity to begin riding to/from my part time job as they're moving to within 2 miles of my home. I'm stoked.

[BusyBadger]

Funny how far bikes have come. The only bike I've kept over the years is my old Cannondale race bike and while it's more modern than Joel's is it's still pretty outdated.

I just don't have it in me to get rid of it even though I haven't ridden it (on the road) in years. It's currently mounted on an old Tacx trainer.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Terrible Nexus 6 photo of my K2 Zed 4.4. It's sort of a budgety low-spec storefront variant of a nicer K2, meaning it has a fairly lightweight frame but with cheaper spec. I bought it about 4 years ago, but then I moved to a less rideable town and it didn't get much use. Now I'm back where I can use it more and I've got a list of upgrades I'd like to make. First on the list: a taller handlebar riser so proper seat height doesn't mean spinal destruction (already replaced the riser with a much taller one). Then wheels/tires (the stock wheels have a bad habit of pinching tubes for some reason). After that, I'd like to replace the crank and front deraileur. Once all that's done I'd like to move to hydraulic brakes for a little better tunability, especially since my stock cabled discs don't have a whole lot of feel anyway--I modulate braking more off of sound than lever feel.

I have quite a few friends who are very dedicated riders with multi-thousand-dollar bikes, so I feel outclassed riding with them but it does what I need quite well, and I still keep up just fine. Sometimes I wish it was a soft-tail, but most of the time I'm glad to save the weight.

As far as where I like to ride...ANYWHERE.
I use it for a lot of road/asphalt riding, but I live on a spectacular mountain range with endless trails, too. Antelope Island State Park is just a ride away from my house (a couple miles to the 14 mile paved causeway and then multiple dirt trails on the island), and I used to ride that pretty frequently. I'd really like to take it on some Southern Utah slickrock but haven't had the time so far.

[OriginalWheelman]

I'd like to get longer crank arms one of these days so I can lower my seat at little. I don't like how high I ride. It makes leaning awkward. Then again, I'm not used to carrying all this weight. I suppose I should get true wheels and new brakes first lol.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Have any of you guys ridden a recumbant? I'm not a fan of the 2 wheeled versions, but I rode a few 3 wheelers (built in Australia) a few years back that absolutely hauled a**.

One of them was sort of like this:

The faster one was more like this:

[OriginalWheelman]

I've wanted to for a long time but never have. Ever offroad with one?

[MinisterofDOOM]

Never ridden a recumbent but they're not really my style. They'd make nice cruisers but the ride is totally different. I grew up on bicycles and motorcycles and I like a bike I can toss around. The recumbent seating position and especially 3 wheels really limits how you can use the bike. I can't imagine riding one very successfully offroad.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

I've never gone off road with one, but they always had videos of guys doing it at the expos I went to. Some of them were downright impressive, although they always seemed to be 2 wheel, not 3.
The low seating position and frontal profile cut down on drag quite a bit on the 3 wheelers I rode. They had pretty impressive top speed.

[Bubba1]

I rented an recumbent (2 wheeler).... once... several few years ago on the Ocean city MD boardwalk (that boardwalk's really nice). Didn't care for the bike much. You rode low at buttocks level, which could be briefly lethal when navigating around people consuming junk food all weekend. On future trips, we ended up bringing our own bikes. Much easier with a better view.

[OriginalWheelman]

Put another 8 miles on the bike yesterday. My old a** is feelin it. Feels good to get out and work out. I've been sitting too long. This is the onyl exercize I enjoy. But I spent last night riding at the sun setting behind the mountains. It was beautiful.

[OriginalWheelman]

Crashed! Severely sprained my right wrist. I took a friend's BMX out for a ride. I leaned too hard on the handles, pedaled hard and kicked the bike out from under me. I tried to roll but go caught in the bike, landed on my wrist. Nothing broke, but I crushed all the meat.



It was still throbbing after 4 days of Motrin and ice. Went to the Dr. They decided to 'splint' it.



Not what I was expecting. At least 2 weeks in it. I can't ride so I tried to game.



Can't reach the middle row,, can barely get the 2nd.



I decided the wrist rest was built into my 'splint' so I took it out.



Perfect



Bob's Burger's reference.



Yup.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Well done!

[Bubba1]

Fortunately, you still have your other hand to operate the TV remote....