buying a bike

also ok minor rant: holy geez how is it that people go and buy nice bikes and even a decent lock and then like lock up only the front tire or put the lock between forks, tire and wahtever they're locking to? it blows my mind. i have felt compelled to leave short notes tucked in water-bottle holders of bikes locked at my workplace. they are not dickish notes, i just don't want people to suffer the pain of a stolen bike. i mean, i don't know what else to do, except obv nothing :/

(when i say 'forks' i mean front forks with quick-release agh i almost took the bike myself but quelled the evil)

Haha! I go for the front wheel-and-frame d-lock action - not flawless (they can steal my back wheel easy enough) but hell, the only place I lock it is in a private underground car park. Let's see how long it takes to get nicked.

i use locking skewers (and headset top cap), and i've had good luck so far. it's super convenient only having to lock the frame and never worrying about the wheels.

getting a flat and realizing i forgot the key is miserable, though... having to search all over for the hole to patch while the wheel is in the frame really blows.

My shit ought to be showing up tomorrow afternoon....they were out of crosscheck frames, so I just went for the complete and will part it out over time. might just replace the wheels immediately, though.

best part: $300 below retail!

I have the pista happening. I need to put a new brake lever on it tho. The Dura-Ace levers look majorly retarded.

Can the many wizened minds of ILTRBMB come up with a new bike for a bike n00b like me?

I'm tired of riding a silly high maintenance off-roader with a heavy frame, fat tyres and about twenty-two more gears than I have any use for. I never cycle anywhere except roads and the steepest incline I face on a day-to-day basis is Waterloo Bridge, so I'm inclined toward a single speed (fuck a fixie tho) with as light a frame as I can afford.

Not looking to spend more than £500 (although could stretch to £600 if the value was there). Initial inquiries have come up with the Trek Solo S and the Trek District (yup, my local bike shop's a specialist Trek dealer).

Thoughts appreciated...

presumably 2nd or 3rd District (the other two are belt drive)

tbh the one the guy showed me was belt drive, and although I can see the benefits (weight, maintenance etc) it doesn't really hold much of an attraction for me. Certainly not worth the extra expense from my point of view. Pretty bike though.

see also: Kona Paddy Wagon, Charge Plug and Surly Steamroller (a little high priced). Evans appears to have a sale on right now so might be worth a look.

The Kona is one I've also looked at online and the brand appeals but my ignorance is such that i can't, in truth, appreciate the tangible advantages of any of the above over any of the others. Am very eager to be enlightened though.

raleigh one way.

i'll sell you mine.

I would buy it, were it not for the fact that I'm buying it through a work cycle scheme whereby it has to be new and I have to go through a participating vendor.

I was in the exact same boat, test rode a Steamroller that was set up fixed, and loved the hell out of it. Keep in mind that you can ride fixed and not immediately turn into an asshole (a concern of mine). But I think it'd be just as nice single speed. Make sure whatever you get you budget for a few things you'll probably want to add (better pedals, toeclips, lights, etc) and, if you want to work on it yourself, replacement parts for the ones you screw up (the left crank is REVERSE THREADED).

I can see the Steamroller being a bit overpriced, but it was a) the prettiest b) the one I didn't have to special order.

Sounds like a test ride would be a good idea. Buying a bike on looks and on-paper spec alone is probably a bad idea.

I am verily appreciating ilx helping me to narrow it down from lots to some.

i was in the exact same boat as you at the beginning of the summer and ended up buying an origin8 uno. not a bad bike at all but not probably the best i could have had. what i figured out tho is that basically every manufacturer has a single-speed road bike offering and they are all pretty good! my only tip from experience is that if you have a vague idea of using the thing for utility as well as fun, make sure it's a road and not a track-style frame as those will probably not have rack mount braze-ons.

Yes, also the track bikes are twitchier and don't absorb the shock of going over curbs (or kerbs) and other road hazards as well.

yeah i hear that

Very few lower priced SS bikes are track geo these days, from what I understand.

But yeah, I switched back to my pista for a few days and even tho I love how twitchy it is, it kills my back before too long. All scrunched up.

Of my cycling buddies the favourite mid-priced ss/fg bike seems to be the Pearson Touche - can you get that through your scheme?

Personally, I can totally recommend getting a steel frame. Mine's a track frame but it is so much nicer over bumps than either my alloy or my carbon roadie.

Is the £500-£600 including the cycle to work discount (if that's the scheme in question), or do you actually mean the RRP of the bike could be about £1000 before the scheme savings?

Spesh Langsters are in your price range, assuming it's the former, and are very popular if you do go for alloy.

And finally, man the fuck up and ride fixed, it's so satisfying once you figure it out!

But WHY is it so satisfying??? I'm gonna buy a flip-flop hub either way so of course I'll give it a go, but all I can imagine is that Dog Kennel Hill's gonna be a shitload less satisfying if I can't free-wheel it.

And the £500-6 is pre-discount cuz I am a cheapskate and disinclined to have much more that £25/month taken out of my wages. Could afford it but don't really think I'd appreciate the extra money spent.

climbing is loads easier on a fix than on a SS, fwiw, but yeah, descending is a pain.

srsly tho, unless you suddenly start putting 650s and flat bars on yr track bike, you've got a long way to go before riding fixed automatically makes you a d-bag.

amen

And yeah dude srsly I was not planning on riding fixed at all, thought I might do it much later but generally had a lot of reservations, worried about hills and stuff, but five minutes and a few comers on that thing and I just wanted to ride it aaaaaaall the live long day.

fuck riding fixed, yeah i said it.

I can see that... Now that I'm not doing a time-trialesque commute on my fixed bike and actually putting in 3-400 miles a week, riding fixed seems slow and inefficient in comparison.

Cuttles, why selling the 1-Way? Seems like an ideal commute/errand bike?

May have to hold off on the new bike purchase as there's a fair chance I'll be leaving this job within the next three months and would have to pay for the bike outright if I did.

Committing to a job for a year just for the sake of a shiny new bike would be pretty stupid, right?

How about singlespeed conversion for yr current?

Or better tyres, unless you plan on going off-road much. Singlespeed conversion's fun though, although not quite as cheap and easy as I was expecting.

Really? What was cost? chain + tensioner + cog = £30-40?

Better tyres whether or not you do the conv though, yup. I guess that adds to the cost too.

Yeah, I've been thinking about new tyres for a while anyway. How much would youse estimate if I were to do the whole thing properly?

Haven't bought a new chain yet, but needed to buy a cone wrench and chain breaker (which are useful tools to have, although if I get a SRAM chain like everyone I speak to says the chain breaker will be surplus), also getting the bus to work for 3 weeks because I'm kind of useless at this sort of thing and didn't really plan it (like buying all the tools and the parts at the same time).

Look at me as a worst-case scenario, maybe.

Costs: tyres, maybe 30-40 for a pair? I don't know about 26" tyres though. Parts for the conversion like ledge said, I paid £30 for a Surly tensioner and a cog was £8 or something. Tools cost about a tenner too.

£30! I got an on-one tensioner for a tenner
http://www.on-one-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Tensioners.html

oh well. Saving you money already!

Honestly dudes, maybe Britisherians' ways are different, but in my experience bike shop workers are insanely friendly and if you talk to them for around five minutes about yr biking goals you'll get the use of things like a chain tool, etc, and they'll usually throw in any v. small parts you might need like screws n shit

Also, if there are any bike co-ops in yr area, as a rule, they'll have specialized tools you can use for free.

That said, a multi-tool with a chain tool is u+k

Yeah I've got the odd free screw from my local bike shop guy.

Ahem.

So today I broke my Fuji frame right above the bottom bracket coming out of an intersection. I think the gear ratio (53:16) was too high for a single speed, although I was going to change it anyway because it had gotten so annoying. I'm thinking about buying a frame on craigslist and then having my old parts put on it. Last time this happened (on a Raleigh frame that broke in a different place) I lived near a pretty friendly bike store and got a new frame and labor for $200. We'll see what my luck is like. I've been, in the meantime, looking at this:

http://orlando.craigslist.org/bik/1355953008.html

Except I want that damn seat.

Also this:

http://orlando.craigslist.org/bik/1355023370.html

That's all I see right now. Comments on those?

yow what is that crazy seatpost?

Cuttles, why selling the 1-Way? Seems like an ideal commute/errand bike?

if i'm communting, generally i have already ridden that morning. i find riding a single-speed (even though not fixed) limites my ability to do strictly a high-cadence recovery ride on the way to work. the bridge ascents especially hurt me on the one-way after a hard work out. i could always switch the chain-ring, but then i'd be spinning out way too much on the flats.

sorry, bikes should have gears, unless you are on the track or riding on an airstrip.

just get a three-speed hub!

i'd rather ride my road bike to work, thanks

eek, hope you can bring it into the office

Having a fixed for my commute and a geared bike for other riding is perfect - I fucked my last road bike by using it for a commute through the winter, so I've found having something that is relatively easy to clean and maintain is useful and I can leave my road bike for the days when I can get out, come back and clean it up if necessary. I clearly don't ride anywhere near as much though as lots here though - it's just a case of what suits, really.

Also, um, I do really like riding fixed in town.

The lack of gears isn't really relevant (in London anyway), and having a nice low gear (48/19) ensures that I've got a generally high cadence and can get away from junctions easily, and well, that feeling of rolling along just really sets me up for the day.

my building has a gated bike area with key entry. also NYC just passed a local law requiring all buildings to have indoor bike parking space.

!!!

I have a friend that works for Tr3k and can get me the 30% employee discount - is this worth it or should I just get a bike on sale somewhere?

Trek make good bikes, there's a lot of choice and you'll know you're getting something decent. If there's something in their range that fits your desired spec and price range, then it might be ideal. But sale bikes are definitely worth keeping an eye on - Trek is perhaps a little bland and commonplace a brand and there are certainly more interesting bike out there.

any of you cats got an opinion of ARGON 18, by any chance? the local bike shop has a couple of their lower-end models in at the moment.

I think they're fine, except a) it looks like you've got a bike from Argos and b) it reminds me of Comb4t 18...

was not aware of the latter group, jesus christ!