Sweet agony of choice - best all-around bike for under a grand?



In article <[email protected]>,
Zoot Katz <[email protected]> writes:
> Fri, 8 Oct 2004 16:57:46 -0700, <[email protected]>,
> [email protected] (Tom Keats) wrote:
>
>>I just spent more on Scotch Gard (3rd can, @ $10.oo/can)
>>for my rain cape, than I initially spent on the cape itself.

>
> I've been wondering what kind of vegetable wax blend would work on
> canvas. Something that didn't get too stiff when temperatures drop or
> leave your clothes smelling like popcorn. Easy to apply and maintain
> and cheaper than proprietary products.


There might be some similar or related recipes listed
in Henley's Formulas, of which The Book Warehouse stocks
reprints (or used to.) I had a copy but I gave it away.


cheers,
Tom


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Bryanska: So you really did mean cookware when you said top-end
pans. I assumed you meant panniers-----bike bags. Bike riders don't
eat cooked meals, just granola bars and things from snap-lid cans. I
have enough fancy cookware and dishes to outfit 4 households, but I
haven't used them for years. I'm too busy riding and working on my
bikes to eat a sit-down meal. I down half my food when I'm riding home
from the store. By the way, if you get served lots of great meals,
riding will become more and more painful.

Steve McDonald
 
Mike Latondresse <mikelat@no_spamshaw.ca> wrote:
> David Reuteler <[email protected]> wrote in
> news:[email protected]:
>
>> Zoot Katz <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> I don't remember if she's got fenders on it. They're hard to
>>> mount and complicate removing the rear wheel on a track frame.

>>
>> sks race blades. here's my little snowbird.
>>
>> http://www.raildog.com/commute/images/0.jpg
>>

> No rear mud flap! I hate guys with no mud flap...makes me have to bust
> my ass to stay in front of them.


yea, around here (boise, idaho) the only time you need fenders is during
the "winter" at which point this minnesotan is the only one on the road
anyway (a low of +18F, feh! give me a challenge).

if/when i make it out to the wet part of the northwest i'll add a mudflap.

there's no mud here, btw. i miss the seriously muddy off-road cyclocross
adventures through the mississippi river flats. damn. bodies of water
that aren't reservoirs! water that falls right out of the sky!

mon dieu!
--
david reuteler
[email protected]
 
Fri, 8 Oct 2004 20:30:00 -0700, <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Tom Keats) wrote:

>There might be some similar or related recipes listed
>in Henley's Formulas, of which The Book Warehouse stocks
>reprints (or used to.) I had a copy but I gave it away.


Most of that stuff is on the internet now where Google makes it easy
to find. What I get from reading those books is a sense of how much
tougher people were when they were written.

I've seen recipes for 2:1 mixes of soy oil and turpentine. Linseed oil
is popular too. Some mention is made of bees wax.

"Thompson's Water Seal" is a good product but I don't know that I'd
want to wear it.

Maybe acrylic paint is the way to go.
--
zk
 
>[email protected] (Bryanska)

wrote in part:

>I proposed to my girlfriend this weekend (NOT as painful as many men
>would have you believe)


---snip----

The pain doesn't start until *after* the wedding.

>Given about $900, what is the bicycle you would purchase?


Given the context I'd say take the cash, buy an airline ticket, and start over
fresh somewhere under an assumed name.

Regards,
Bob Hunt
 
Hunrobe wrote:
>> [email protected] (Bryanska)

>
> wrote in part:
>
>> I proposed to my girlfriend this weekend (NOT as painful as many men
>> would have you believe)

>
> ---snip----
>
> The pain doesn't start until *after* the wedding.
>
>> Given about $900, what is the bicycle you would purchase?

>
> Given the context I'd say take the cash, buy an airline ticket, and
> start over fresh somewhere under an assumed name.


Bob, Bob, Bob... Marriage is a sacred union of two souls, and should be
honored and cherished.

{pause}

BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHHAAAAAA!

Bill "not at all jaded" S.
 
On 08 Oct 2004 22:22:28 GMT, David Reuteler <[email protected]> wrote:

>> And one brake lever on drop bars leaves you
>> without a balanced convenient alternate hand position on the hoods.
>> It's like having only one bar-end on flat bars.

>
>i've never missed the other, actually. and i do ride "on the hoods" so to
>speak. my left hand just drapes over the bend and pulls on the bar when
>sprinting or climbing.


I added a second brake lever to my fixed gear. The narrow steel bar
WAS uncomfortable and it was easy to add just enough of a brake
mechanism to have the gum rubber cover (took a bit more than just the
clamp, though, and ended up with a Weinman rather than a Campi for
some related reason).

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...
 
Curtis L. Russell <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 08 Oct 2004 22:22:28 GMT, David Reuteler <[email protected]> wrote:
>>i've never missed the other, actually. and i do ride "on the hoods" so to
>>speak. my left hand just drapes over the bend and pulls on the bar when
>>sprinting or climbing.

>
> I added a second brake lever to my fixed gear. The narrow steel bar
> WAS uncomfortable and it was easy to add just enough of a brake
> mechanism to have the gum rubber cover (took a bit more than just the
> clamp, though, and ended up with a Weinman rather than a Campi for
> some related reason).


well, fwiw, i've had it set up right only for 8 years on my commuter so it's
not something i'm saying lightly. a sizeable minority of bikes with single
brakes on fixedgeargallery.com are also one-sided. before i sanely put a
brake on there at all i was comfortable w/o any levers so maybe that's part
of the difference. ya personal preference.
--
david reuteler
[email protected]
 
On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 09:20:29 -0400, Curtis L. Russell
<[email protected]> wrote in message
<[email protected]>:

>I added a second brake lever to my fixed gear.


The road bike specialist at my LBS did that, and fitted an Air Zound
to it so working the lever set off the horn :)

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University
 
In article <[email protected]>,
Zoot Katz <[email protected]> writes:
> Fri, 8 Oct 2004 20:30:00 -0700, <[email protected]>,
> [email protected] (Tom Keats) wrote:
>
>>There might be some similar or related recipes listed
>>in Henley's Formulas, of which The Book Warehouse stocks
>>reprints (or used to.) I had a copy but I gave it away.

>
> Most of that stuff is on the internet now where Google makes it easy
> to find.


Yeah, a quick Google search on "homemade waterproof fabric"
turned up:
http://midtown.net/dragonwing/col0005.htm

> What I get from reading those books is a sense of how much
> tougher people were when they were written.
>
> I've seen recipes for 2:1 mixes of soy oil and turpentine. Linseed oil
> is popular too. Some mention is made of bees wax.


I thought about beeswax too, but something in the back of
my mind nagged at me about it being stiff in cold temps.

> "Thompson's Water Seal" is a good product but I don't know that I'd
> want to wear it.


The above site warns about its possible detriments to some fabrics.

> Maybe acrylic paint is the way to go.


I gesso.


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca