Types
- Thread starter jennyfermanuel
- Start date
Yup, I actually have 3 touring bikes, but I got them out of dumpsters! yes I did! one doesn't fit as well and other one does fit but it's just a frame and fork, so I will be moving the components off of a 84 Schwinn Voyager to the 87 Dawes Galaxy frame and fork sometime in the near future. Both bikes were in good condition when whoever dumped them, and the components on the Schwinn work and look great. Right now though I tour on a 85 Schwinn Le Tour luxe which I bought used for $60 and it only had 250 miles on it since the guy bought it new in 85. This bike works very well for touring but eventually I will have to change the rear gears to get a 34 tooth gear so I can eventually tour where steep grades will be an issue.
I have two mountain bikes, a totally rigid 87 Giant Rincon I bought new, it came with XT components for some reason, I say that because they didn't come with that from the factory so not sure why this one did, but XT back in that era SUCKED! This is the worst groupset I've ever owned besides Simplex I had years ago, I think they both are about the same...just pure ****. I did ride the bike down mountain trails in S California with no real problems in the handling department, but after every ride I had to readjust the derailleurs, and they never shifted right regardless of what either I or an LBS could do to it. The other MTB I have was given to me, it's an Ironhorse that I don't ride and will be giving that bike away to a young teenage boy that needs a bike.
I also have 3 road bikes that are not touring related, I had 5 but this last weekend I sold both of my Miyatas to a collector.
I have two mountain bikes, a totally rigid 87 Giant Rincon I bought new, it came with XT components for some reason, I say that because they didn't come with that from the factory so not sure why this one did, but XT back in that era SUCKED! This is the worst groupset I've ever owned besides Simplex I had years ago, I think they both are about the same...just pure ****. I did ride the bike down mountain trails in S California with no real problems in the handling department, but after every ride I had to readjust the derailleurs, and they never shifted right regardless of what either I or an LBS could do to it. The other MTB I have was given to me, it's an Ironhorse that I don't ride and will be giving that bike away to a young teenage boy that needs a bike.
I also have 3 road bikes that are not touring related, I had 5 but this last weekend I sold both of my Miyatas to a collector.
I only have 2 MTB's and a vintage all original Haro BMX, I also bought a a 20" MTB for my kid. I don't have a working touring bike but several scrap touring bikes which a neighbor gave years ago, but I still haven't had the chance to repair it yet.
I have a Schwinn 5th Avenue, the poorest excuse for a bike that I ever saw, right out of the box. That is now fixed up and working well. I also ride a Specialized Fatboy which is essentially a mountain bike but I only ride on sidewalks or through residential areas where traffic is sparse.
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The Fatboy isn't a bad bike, it may be a bit more difficult to pedal on the street due to the larger tires, but most people don't know about the fact you can vary the PSI A LOT with fat tires depending on riding conditions, so they ride around on too low of psi which makes the bike feel more sluggish, and fat tires are more sensitive to psi changes even as little as 1 to 2 psi! So if you're riding the bike on the street you want to have between 20 to 30 psi depending on how much you weigh or how comfortable of a ride your after; for dirt trail riding you want 12 to 15 psi again depending on body weight, and then for loose stuff like snow or sand you want 5 to 8 psi. Some of the psi is also regulated by how much bounce you get when you ride on trails, so start out on the higher end of the trail recommended psi and reduce it from there 1 psi at a time till the tires just begin to float.
Because fat tires are much more sensitive to fine tuning the PSI than other tire types it's highly recommended you buy an accurate PSI gauge that has a lower scale typically from 0 to 30 psi, your bike shop should have gauges for that range since fat tires are all the rage now, if not you can go on line and find a brand called Accu-Gage, they've been around a very long time and have always made very accurate gauges. But don't try to compromise and go with a 0 to 100 so you can use it on a road bike and kill two birds with one stone philosophy, because the higher a gauge will read in psi the less accurate it is on the very low end.
The Fatboy isn't a bad bike, it may be a bit more difficult to pedal on the street due to the larger tires, but most people don't know about the fact you can vary the PSI A LOT with fat tires depending on riding conditions, so they ride around on too low of psi which makes the bike feel more sluggish, and fat tires are more sensitive to psi changes even as little as 1 to 2 psi! So if you're riding the bike on the street you want to have between 20 to 30 psi depending on how much you weigh or how comfortable of a ride your after; for dirt trail riding you want 12 to 15 psi again depending on body weight, and then for loose stuff like snow or sand you want 5 to 8 psi. Some of the psi is also regulated by how much bounce you get when you ride on trails, so start out on the higher end of the trail recommended psi and reduce it from there 1 psi at a time till the tires just begin to float.
Because fat tires are much more sensitive to fine tuning the PSI than other tire types it's highly recommended you buy an accurate PSI gauge that has a lower scale typically from 0 to 30 psi, your bike shop should have gauges for that range since fat tires are all the rage now, if not you can go on line and find a brand called Accu-Gage, they've been around a very long time and have always made very accurate gauges. But don't try to compromise and go with a 0 to 100 so you can use it on a road bike and kill two birds with one stone philosophy, because the higher a gauge will read in psi the less accurate it is on the very low end.
The Fatboy is aluminum and a whole lot lighter than my previous Sun Spyder fat bike. I keep the pressures around 15 lb, and it rides easy, no noticeable extra effort to pedal it, over my Schwinn. I'm aware of lowering pressures for sand or snow, but I don't ride on either of those surfaces. We don't get snow in Florida, anyway.
I have a German, digital SKS Airchecker which fits Schrader and Presta, (the Fatboy uses Presta) and reads in PSI and BAR. It reads up to 144 PSI, and is the best tire gauge I've ever had. The indicated 15 PSI pressure is perfect for my rides. It gets good reviews from others who have bought it.
As for the tires, themselves, the original ones with big knobs on them, were not suitable for riding on anything other than sand, snow or dirt. The knobs caused a vibration, and because the tire wall in between the knobs was so thin, riding in grass caused several slow punctures. I got up, one morning, to two flat tires, and found up to fourteen sand burrs in each tire.
I now use tires that look like car tires, with a diamond tread suited for hard surfaces, which is where I do all my riding. With 3,500 miles on them, they don't show any signs of wear.
Nice Chucky. If I had the money to blow for fun I would look into a fat tire bike, I think they're much more versatile than a mountain bike, but when I got my MTB fat bikes were even thought of yet. With my age now mtb riding is sort of drifting away from what I do, especially since I no longer live where there's mountains or sand, but crashing and burning going fast on some trail could be a problem with age as well as my back fusion; but boy they look like a lot of fun...wish I was younger with a healthy back but that's what living does, so I'm glad the way I lived my life.
I enjoy it, Froze. As you know bikes aren't cheap, and my Fatboy was over $1,600 with tax. But I had given up motorcycling and sold my motorcycle to pay for the fatty. I had to modify it with a steerer extension to raise the bars up. I'm not into bending low and putting most of my weight on the bars.
The summertime is too hot to ride far, in Florida, so I stick to a local dead end road. I ride the fatty four miles in the morning and four (on the Schwinn) in the evening. Winter months are great for going longer distances, and I used the fatty for that because it's more comfortable even though both bikes have identical saddles.
I agree that we old 'uns have to be more careful. I got into roller skates, three years ago. I was good on them as a kid, but after trying them, again, I was afraid that if I went down butt first, I could break a hip or my pelvis. That would mean no more bike rides for a long time. I couldn't bear that, so out went the skates.
Yeah I was hit by a drunk driver who was at fault and the crash was so violent it killed the drunk driver...huh? that's unusual, usually the sober person dies! But it was a 60 mph crash T-bone crash with my front of the car punching through his drivers door and he wasn't wearing a seatbelt which from the looks of the car the seat belt wouldn't have done any good anyways. That crash is why i had to have fusion done to my lower back and it's why I had to stop martial arts I had been taking for 40 some odd years because the doctor said landing on my back could mess things up worse, but I ignored him about the bike riding! I like to ride bikes and I wasn't going to let some fusion thing stop that, in fact I'm such a bad boy that 3 weeks after surgery I was going stir crazy so I got on my bike and rode slowly for about a couple of miles, the doc said I wouldn't be able to ride for about 9 months! (the doc knew I was into cycling so even though he was advising to give it up he knew I wouldn't, so he advised I wait 9 months) So I started riding 3 weeks after surgery and before the 9 months were up I was riding almost every day doing an average of 40 miles a day with longer 75 to 100 rides on a Saturday! I never told my doctor I was doing that, but everytime he took xrays everything was progressing just fine, besides when I rode my back actually felt better for about 18 to 24 hours afterwards, not sure but it may have been due to stretching that area. What's really crazy I was trying not to crash of course and what happens? I lost traction trying to go across a loose dirt section and landed on my butt and tailbone right where the fusion was! that happened about 4 months after the surgery. I got up checked for unusual pain, there wasn't anything to bad so I got on the bike and continue to ride! got home and took a anti inflammatory pill to calm down any swelling that might have occured which was doing that on and off anyways, but that crash did cause it to swell a bit, but 48 hours later I was riding again.
I don't know if I a dumbass for doing that or not, all I knew was I couldn't walk very far but I could ride a bike so that's what I did. Maybe I got lucky by not causing any more problems, but I figured if I montoried the pain level I could tell if I was doing something bad.
I don't know if I a dumbass for doing that or not, all I knew was I couldn't walk very far but I could ride a bike so that's what I did. Maybe I got lucky by not causing any more problems, but I figured if I montoried the pain level I could tell if I was doing something bad.
You're a hard man, Froze! You could have ended your bike-riding days, permanently, but I think you already know that.
Right now, my back is painful from a pinched nerve. Chiropractic has kept me going most of my life, but I tried a new doctor and his method is questionable. He massages instead of making adjustments. Two office visits in two weeks, and a $100 wasted, I now need to find another chiropractor. But I've been riding with the pain because... well, because!
I knew the risks before I started riding 3 weeks after surgery, but due to going crazy staying indoors I decided to go for it. It was sort of stupid doing the dirt thing but I thought the dirt was a bit harder.
Hard? Some people are like that naturally, the military made me like that as it does for most people, for some the military believe it or not makes them less hard, not sure why that is. Some people came out of being a POW as hardened survivors and others as miele toast like Senator McCain (which is why I didn't vote for him, being a tortured pow ruined him and he wasn't fit to be a president, heck he's not even fit to be a senator which I sure I will draw backlash from that one! was he a hero? yes in some respects but no in others, you can read about that here: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/mccain-and-the-pow-cover-up/ Look in that story it talks about how he broke under torture, you're are taught that you will break but to resist as long as possible, and then to try to give accurate but misleading information, take a break and resist again, so I can't fault him for breaking, everyone will break it's just a matter of time).
Hard? Some people are like that naturally, the military made me like that as it does for most people, for some the military believe it or not makes them less hard, not sure why that is. Some people came out of being a POW as hardened survivors and others as miele toast like Senator McCain (which is why I didn't vote for him, being a tortured pow ruined him and he wasn't fit to be a president, heck he's not even fit to be a senator which I sure I will draw backlash from that one! was he a hero? yes in some respects but no in others, you can read about that here: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/mccain-and-the-pow-cover-up/ Look in that story it talks about how he broke under torture, you're are taught that you will break but to resist as long as possible, and then to try to give accurate but misleading information, take a break and resist again, so I can't fault him for breaking, everyone will break it's just a matter of time).
