Time for a new bike.. help me out lads.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:39 pm

You might be thinking clipless, they're just a small pedal with clips in them that you have to buy a specific shoe that'll clip into the pedal. Clip pedals are like the ones pictured in the pic I posted with the big clunky crap wrapping around your foot (hate em) and then there's just regular pedals like the ones foo posted. Clipless is teh win.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:45 pm

The reason clipless pedals are so great btw is because it provides you the ability to put power down on the pedal in all 360 degrees of rotation on each pedal cause you can pull as well as push with your leg on the pedal.

There's two things that make it great, one you get power pushing on the pedal plus the power you get pulling on the pedal with the other leg and everything in between (back and forward) This means you're pedals are working more for you. The second and most important one imho is the smoothness of the rotation, usualy with regular pedals you get two bursts of power (the two downstrokes with each leg) it makes hillclimbing, acceleration and sprints much more effective.

Post by **reefsurfer** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:49 pm

I will probably get the Edge model from crescent the 500 ECT one...
Been to a dealer today and he would give me a certified $50 bike lock and a nice fender in the price aswell.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:00 pm

Make sure he doesn't give you one of those U locks with the small round key to unlock it with. I can unlock one of those locks with a 0.50c bic pen.

I'm serious about this too, don't get one of those locks. Any bike theif knows this.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:02 pm

Oh btw these bike locks go for about 50$ so if you think money = quality you're wrong in that dept. The cryptonite locks that I've opened several times costs 75$ and it's just plain crap.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:07 pm

A little graphical help of what I mean. Worst design EVAR. That lock will open with that pen if you know how to do it.

Post by **reefsurfer** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:27 pm

Ok kewl... now i know.
The bike will be in my apartment ALWAYS.. so only time i have to worry is when im in town and have it locked... usually thats in the day time though.

Post by **-Replicant-** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:37 pm

get a cyclocross bike, used off of ebay for your price range. i've got a Kona Jake the Snake, best $1000 i've ever spent on a bike. it can handle everything but the most ridiculous technical stuff, so it sounds like its what you need

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:39 pm

Yeah, it doesn't take long to steal a bike, trust me. I NEVER leave my bike behind, if I go to a mall I bring the bike with me, everywhere I go. If I can't bring it with me I won't go there, I don't even have a bike lock anymore cause I just don't trust them. Luckily I know so many people around the city that I can usualy find a safe spot for it while I do my running around if I need to (although I'd usualy just take the car if I was going out to do errands.)

Either way, I strongly suggest you follow my moto of never leaving the bike behind. The only time I ever almost had my bike stolen was when I parked it in front of a gas station door so I could pop in to buy a bottle of water, some kid jumped on my bike and took right off (I hadn't locked it)

Fortunately some guy was just leaving the gas station and saw what happened and told me to hop in. We drove up behind the guy who thought he was in the clear and buddy had a 2x4 lying in his backseat that I had in my hands. We did a drive by clubing. :icon19:

I stuck myself out the window of the car and smoked buddy off my bike with the 2x4, he wasn't in the greatest shape afterwards.

anyway, be very careful leaving a bike behind. I've seen trucks load up whole bike racks before too instead of picking locks, they just steal the whole rack with all the bikes pop it in a truck and take off.

Post by **-Replicant-** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:41 pm

boo, i'm too late

but listen to people when they say to get some clipless pedals- i've got a set of Candy SL's by crankbros. they've got the traditional eggbeater 4-way clip in that is so popular with mountainbikers (they don't clog...ever) freely rotating in the middle of a small pedal (so you don't have to always be clipped in if you wanna just take it down the road or whatnot without getting your gear on)

Post by **-Replicant-** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:43 pm

man, now you've got me itching to go for a ride...but its 7pm already and dark out

Post by **SplishSplash** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:47 pm

Kracus dishing out some lead pipe justice again. He should have his own TV show.

Post by **-Replicant-** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:47 pm

[lvlshot]http://www.konaworld.com/Prod/000000220/2K4_JaketheSnake_1300%20xl.jpg[/lvlshot]

my baby

edit: lvlshot

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:56 pm

SplishSplash wrote:Kracus dishing out some lead pipe justice again. He should have his own TV show.

for the record.... oh wait, I was gonna say that was the first time I beat someone with any type of "pipe" but I guess I'd be wrong cause the first time was this guy that shot me with a bb gun, I broke his gun... by hitting him with it.

Post by **werldhed** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 12:20 am

Kracus wrote:You might be thinking clipless, they're just a small pedal with clips in them that you have to buy a specific shoe that'll clip into the pedal. Clip pedals are like the ones pictured in the pic I posted with the big clunky crap wrapping around your foot (hate em) and then there's just regular pedals like the ones foo posted. Clipless is teh win.

Yeah, clipless is what I was talking about. I meant to say he (reefsurfer) should factor in extra costs like buying cleats for his pedals, but I kept saying clips without thinking about it. Clip pedals suck ass. Clipless are great. Because I use my bike for offroad AND everyday errands, I've got some reversible Shimano M324s , so I can used them with or without cleated shoes.

The pedals that ydnar uses that I was trying to remember are clipless AND cleatless... It's like a solid piece of metal that fits into a recess in the shoe. There are no springs to clog up or anything. They're nice, but I can't remember what they're called. :icon8:

Post by **reefsurfer** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 12:31 am

Kracus wrote:Yeah, it doesn't take long to steal a bike, trust me. I NEVER leave my bike behind, if I go to a mall I bring the bike with me, everywhere I go. If I can't bring it with me I won't go there, I don't even have a bike lock anymore cause I just don't trust them. Luckily I know so many people around the city that I can usualy find a safe spot for it while I do my running around if I need to (although I'd usualy just take the car if I was going out to do errands.)

Dude, relax... first off, i live in a small town(100.000 people) so i know alot of people and secondly, its just a bike and $700 isent all that, third, i got insurance.

What you´re doing sounds like a bad case of paranoia :icon27:

Post by **werldhed** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 12:38 am

Perhaps he is, but he's right about those U-shaped locks. It's well known how to break into them, so don't use them.

edit: I've got a regular Kryptonite cord, which has not failed me and, afaik, isn't easily removed.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 12:41 am

reefsurfer wrote:
Kracus wrote:Yeah, it doesn't take long to steal a bike, trust me. I NEVER leave my bike behind, if I go to a mall I bring the bike with me, everywhere I go. If I can't bring it with me I won't go there, I don't even have a bike lock anymore cause I just don't trust them. Luckily I know so many people around the city that I can usualy find a safe spot for it while I do my running around if I need to (although I'd usualy just take the car if I was going out to do errands.)
Dude, relax... first off, i live in a small town(100.000 people) so i know alot of people and secondly, its just a bike and $700 isent all that, third, i got insurance.

What you´re doing sounds like a bad case of paranoia :icon27:

Well my bike at the time cost me 4,000$ so yeah I might be a bit more paranoid. However, the city where it happened there wasn't 100,000 people.

Post by **reefsurfer** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:02 am

Kracus wrote: 4,000$.

JESUS!
For that amount of money for a bike you must be a professional biker of some sort... no one spends that much on a bike.

I will settle for my $700 bike and i dont have to be paranoid.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:08 am

I used to race across Canada. I raced pro races as an amateur and I raced in a league type of thing for 2 years. It was definitely fun but expensive, that summer I spent well over 6g's on various bike equipment but it was well worth it, I had a good run and I even managed to beat out a few good racers that were sponsored by pretty big bike company's. At the time I had dreams of making the Canada team but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. I did do quite well though even getting a few 1st place finishes in about a half a dozen dual slolom events.

fun times.

Post by **bork[e]** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:09 am

Kracus wrote:A little graphical help of what I mean. Worst design EVAR. That lock will open with that pen if you know how to do it.

:icon19: I still have that vid laying around somewhere...

To bad youre not over in the states, I've got a pretty nice GT with a borked front wheel...all terrain, with front shocks that I haven't used in over 5 years.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:10 am

I will say this though since we're kinda on topic. There's no feeling like crossing the finishline first with a crowd of cheering people waiting at the end. None, best feeling I've ever had in my life. Better than sex.

Post by **bork[e]** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:13 am

Kracus wrote:Better than sex.

Not much to go by, I would compare it to something you are more familiar with.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:17 am

Hey that's actualy clever. :icon19:

Post by **reefsurfer** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:19 am

Kracus wrote:I used to race across Canada. I raced pro races as an amateur and I raced in a league type of thing for 2 years. It was definitely fun but expensive, that summer I spent well over 6g's on various bike equipment but it was well worth it, I had a good run and I even managed to beat out a few good racers that were sponsored by pretty big bike company's. At the time I had dreams of making the Canada team but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. I did do quite well though even getting a few 1st place finishes in about a half a dozen dual slolom events.

fun times.

Sounds kewl kracus... got any pics?