Ben, the All City stuff seems so nice, and i've definitely been admiring yours over Instagram. Maybe one of these days i'll pull together for one. Maybe also one of these days i'll get some recent pics of my bikes to put up here. Early pandemic was pretty awesome for cycling in NYC because there were hardly any cars on the road. I got much more into just riding around during that time period than I have been in a while but I lost the enthusiasm for it over the winter. Maybe i'll get it back. Otherwise I just ride my workhorse 'grocery bike' all the goddamn time as its easy for doing jobs like transporting combo amp cabs from the woodshop to my house:

Bikes are great!

Started riding in September with a single-speed that I picked up and rode pretty consistently until the first snowstorm hit in February.

Picked up a used Bridgestone last month at the recommendation of “friend of the forum” Jim K. as my foray into a bike with gears and I’m digging it. Very much looking forward to getting out for some longer rides.

Got some new drop bars and tires put on it today and I’m stoked. Easily the best thing I picked up over the last year.

My wife and I went to the New Forest for a long weekend of cycling, and I regret not having returned there sooner. Loved the area as a child, forgot about it as an adult. It seems to be run by wild horses, and we loved it. I’d bought a lot of bikepacking luggage paraphernalia during a lockdown spending spree, so deliberately overloaded the bike with stuff to see how it handled. It handled well, though taking a road bike on gravel trails without fully puncture-resistant tyres earned me a couple of punctures.

I’m trying to cycle 10,000km this year, an arbitrary target I abandoned in 2020. I was busy with work and lazy over the first quarter, so am labouring going catch up.

I’ll post photos once I work out how to do this again. I confess that trying to work out the most basic operations on returning to the forum is leaving me feeling a bit old.

Edit. This seemed to work:

The getting shit done bike. 48-16 single speed on a 30 year old Trek frame with cruiser bars and a basket. Well used, kinda looks like shit, but full of all the nice parts where it counts. Living the dream.

oZZma wrote: Sun May 02, 2021 10:55 am May I join this fine club?
(I also joined the Strava group, but I always forget to open the app to register my activity. )
Please tell me about your bike outfit for heavy rain. I have one of those ridiculous ponchos but I tested it last week and seems the most useless thing in this world. I arrived with both my knees and forearms completely drenched.

I had an ugly, cheap and effective blue Endura rain coat that lasted until I tried to activate my left hand brake lever with my right hand, fell over and made an impressive rip all down the right arm. I will not give the context of this experiment. The coat did the job, but could get unpleasantly humid. This was usually fine as I had a shower at each end of my commute.

Castelli do some nice looking jackets for not too extortionate a price, so I may get something from them for Autumn. If I'm riding through the heavy stuff, I'll wear thick shoes protectors, which also keep my feet warm in the winter.

Bikes are super fun.

I've just accepted I get wet when it rains heavily, whether it's from the rain or from the sweat. I use a tennis style. cap to keep the water off my glasses.


As for bike, I still rock 3*8 aluminum frame with v-brakes, here in the winter trim, so knobby 700*45 C front / 42 C back tires, which I saw for Schawbe Marathons (35 C front / 38 C back) for the non winter months. It's the second identical frame (well, the previous one had, which broke in December of 2020 had a white stripe) I use.



And here's how the rear mech looks after 30 km's in the snow:


How does it even shift at this stage is beyond me.

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 9:20 am The getting shit done bike. 48-16 single speed on a 30 year old Trek frame with cruiser bars and a basket. Well used, kinda looks like shit, but full of all the nice parts where it counts. Living the dream.

Perfect NYC bike. Not a lot of parts to break, looks like hell, secretly awesome, hella functional, and not a huge expense if something terrible should happen.

48x16 still seems big, especially if you're carrying a load. My city cruising gear is probably a 38x15.

This is the bike I'm currently J.O.'ing over. My main concern is that 57cm is on the very small end of what I can ride. Though my current bike is 58 and it feels pretty mostly perfect, so I feel like adjustments can be made to the fit of the Litespeed. It's a little more than I wanted to spend, but it seems like a lifetime bike, so the extra few hundred is not a huge deal in the long term.
Talk me into it or out of it.

https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/bik/ ... 44140.html

You get a decent amount of fit adjustment with saddle position and stem length. The bike's titanium isn't it? [Edit: of course it is, it says on the advert.] You'd be able to sell it on without loss were it not to work out, I'd hope.

Yeah- I've got the saddle on my current bike moved pretty far back to make it work. Changing the stem to gain a few cm should be no big deal at all.
Also, the Litespeed has no braze ons for cargo, but I know they make adapter kits that attach to the seat post and wrap around the seat stays so you can attach a rack.
Guessing this is totally fine with titanium as opposed to carbon?