Where are you from,what do you do?



Hi! I'm a 47 year old pilot who is just taking up MTB'ing. I told my wife that I can neither afford a sports car nor a new wife so this is my mid-life crisis... :p

I've been riding my 4 year old Trek 3500 on the pavement up and down the hills around my house in Indianapolis for the past few years for exercise. Now getting off road and onto the trail where my bike is supposed to be.

Started running again and will try a 5k next year. Time to get healthy before it's too late.

Take care.TC
 
Yooooooo... u bikeees. This is just to say a big HI to one and all who are so creeezy about the cycling sport.

I am the cyberdroid, aka the warewolf. I come from Singapore. I cycle once a week usually on a Saturday. On this day there is a bunch of us that cycles in the night.

BTW, this club that I am in has just started a new web site. The URL is www.onwheelz.com. Pls be my guest. Do visit it and let me know what you think. I know its just launched and we are still building it up. But in time you will see many new ideas and themes that will fill that site.

Fyi, this site was officially launced on the 20th of Aug by an MP of a place in Singapore called Woodlands. For those who do not know what an MP is, its a Member of Parliament. Its just another loud mouth that promises a lot and does not deliver. What can I say about politicians huh...? I am sure you feel the same.

Anyway at the moment we have about 20 to 30 cyclists of varying ages and ethnic groups.:)

Well thats all from me now...till later...
 
hi tim



Tim C. said:
Hi! I'm a 47 year old pilot who is just taking up MTB'ing. I told my wife that I can neither afford a sports car nor a new wife so this is my mid-life crisis... :p

I've been riding my 4 year old Trek 3500 on the pavement up and down the hills around my house in Indianapolis for the past few years for exercise. Now getting off road and onto the trail where my bike is supposed to be.

Started running again and will try a 5k next year. Time to get healthy before it's too late.

Take care.TC
 
Tim C. said:
Hi! I'm a 47 year old pilot who is just taking up MTB'ing. I told my wife that I can neither afford a sports car nor a new wife so this is my mid-life crisis... :p

I've been riding my 4 year old Trek 3500 on the pavement up and down the hills around my house in Indianapolis for the past few years for exercise. Now getting off road and onto the trail where my bike is supposed to be.

Started running again and will try a 5k next year. Time to get healthy before it's too late.

Take care.TC
Hello, Tim.
37 years ago when I joined the Navy at the tender age of 19, our slogan
was "Live fast, Die young, Leave a good looking corpse". I may have ran
out of all 3 options, but all my couch potato friends are already DEAD!
I hear people say all the time "It's never too late". If they could still speak,
I know quite a few who would disagree. Glad to see you got your Mojo
workin. If you ever came through MDW I probably pumped your gas or
dumped your dumper. I see on the radar that your getting the same liquid
sunshine we are. Snuck in 20 yesterday before it really came down.
I can't run (phony hip) so you can take my place too.
KEEP ON MOVIN!:D

Regards,
FD
 
manos said:
Hi, I am new to the site and very happy I found it.

I am from Greece island Crete and my town is Chania.

I am 45 years old and I ride road and MTB many years for one of the best team in Greece, the last 5 years at the Masters category and I tray to be in as much competition is possible. I want to tell mach more but my English are no good so it go to take me …………..

If any Body Wants to Cycle In Chania, I'm ready to be with you.
Many thanks for the offer, I'm not sure I will get to Chania, but you will find people who visit your area and may look you up. Oh! and by the way I'm sure your English is better than my Greek.
 
Hello .from Newbie...
My name is Joolie n i am from nothe india (25f)...daily 2 hrs moring cycling is attach in routine it keeps me fit n fine.Now i m persuing my bca final Yer.
 
Fritodog--We don't get up to MDW much. Used to do the commuter airline thing through there--for the original Midway Airlines... :eek: What FBO did you work for?

Yeah, the weather sux this year. Our trail is closed for a few days--several inches of rain and being in a river bottom isn't a good mix. Oh well, good excuse for taking the bike into the LBS for service. (Bikestand, tools and a good manual are next on the agenda.)

Take care, hope it dries out up there.TC
 
Greetings from the Disneyland area of California...I have been a Caregiver since 1995 and am presently riding an older Kent International Avalon CS.
 
Tim C. said:
Fritodog--We don't get up to MDW much. Used to do the commuter airline thing through there--for the original Midway Airlines... :eek: What FBO did you work for?

Yeah, the weather sux this year. Our trail is closed for a few days--several inches of rain and being in a river bottom isn't a good mix. Oh well, good excuse for taking the bike into the LBS for service. (Bikestand, tools and a good manual are next on the agenda.)

Take care, hope it dries out up there.TC
TIM: :mad: Signature, the outfit that bought out Butler.
Good things for foul weather days....built my own stand for about $12.00; can show you how.
Do all my own maintenance. Saves money, keeps you from going squirrelly
and result have always been better. Almost every manual you can get off the web. And about 90% of things that need repair/maintenance I discover just
from cleaning my bikes. Just got through the other day remounting a tire for
a fellow who went in to get a tube installed and had it back to the shop 4 times in one week - then they told him his rim was shot. Baloney. He's back on the road and called me yesterday to tell me after 130 miles all was ok.
Pray for sunshine!

V/R
Frito:)
PS: Forgot to mention other day can't run but can really skip fast!
 
Rider2004 said:
Greetings from the Disneyland area of California...I have been a Caregiver since 1995 and am presently riding an older Kent International Avalon CS.
I love old bikes (if they get TLC). My MTB is a 90 and my road bike is a '69.
Both Schwinns, look and perform like new.
Just get a REALLY big box and ship a few pound of your weather this way!

V/R
Fritodog
"Pain is inevitable, Vicadin an option"
 
Hi. Just putting out there if anyone does any bunch rides in the yarraville, Melbourne, area, during the week days. I'm a shift worker so I don't have the consistency that most 9 to 5ers have. So i'm hoping to find some like minded people that I can hook up with to do a bunch ride.

Or, does anyone out there seem interested in the rides that I do...

I usually ride from yarraville to werribee south which is about 80 k's round trip. I try to maintain this but generally only manage shorter rides a couple of times a week, on my own. I also try an average speed of at least 30kph but when I'm on my own, the enthusiam is a little wanting most times. Oh, I'm training to race. I'm only D grade but I gotta start somewhere.
 
Hello, My name is Clara Baron, I am currently working with Boca Bearings company in South Florida.
I love bicyles and I ride for one hour over the weekend with my son.
I am pursuing a Business Degree at the moment.

:)
Clara Baron
 
BOCABEARINGS said:
Hello, My name is Clara Baron, I am currently working with Boca Bearings company in South Florida.
I love bicyles and I ride for one hour over the weekend with my son.
I am pursuing a Business Degree at the moment.

:)
Clara Baron
:cool: Please send me one, I have been trying to get my bearing for years.
I'm persuing 98.6 degrees at the moment.

V/R
FD
 
Aloha! I'm a 31 year old attorney from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. I just got back into cycling and presently ride a mid-90s Trek 950 mountain bike. I ride 5-10 miles a few nights a week and a 15-20 mile ride on the weekends. Next year I hope to pick up a road bike and maybe get into the local racing scene.
 
I am in Cochin, and that's in Kerala which in turn is in India.

In India it's a shame for someone to be seen around biking. The bicycle is for the poor who cannot afford a motor bike or a car -- and of course for the teenagers. Once a teenager comes of age to get a driving license, the bike is tucked out of sight and looked down upon. India is no Scandinavia or France.

I am into biking for exercise reasons. I had a Dahon, but the saddle gave me problems. I now use a Japanese frame with Sturmey Archer hub gear and brakes with Shimano front derailleur. And, an EasySeat. (www.hobsonseats.com)

I edit an English magazine for women. Separating Sense from Nonsense is the leitmotif, not an easy thing, you know.

Otherwise, I am into photojournalism. Please go to www.leica-gallery.net/india or www.kcgeorge.com if you have the time and the inclination.
 
FOR KC GEORGE:

Those ignorant of history fail to recognize that in 1900 France if you did not
own a bicycle you were unemployable. I have a car which is unfortunately a
neccessity but does not move if 2 wheels will do the job. In 1900 USA, if you
did not have a horse or mule, the same held true. In 1916, my Grandfather
bought my father a Model T Ford to take my Grandmother to church services.
(My Grandfather worked the oilfields 10 months out of the year as a millwright
commuting by horse and buggy) but on weekdays he had to walk to school
because he couldn't afford a bicycle!
When I was 13 I bought a 1952 Triumph motorcycle and my bicycle went in
the garage.
When I came back from Viet Nam, the bicycle came back out. I have never
apologized to anyone for getting anywhere on my own power. I cobble my
bikes together and commend you for the same. I do not know the status on
availability on Schwinn parts are in your region, but if you can start from frame up, let me know, and I WILL SHIP YOU ONE. They are legally avail-
able here for a few bucks.
As to your job, I would not even tackle that.
As to your photography, I will look it up. Used to shoot a Canon F1, Mamiya,
Hblad, then went to the digital stuff because it was so much fun to play with
on the computer. Also meant one whole room in the house was no longer
off limits as the "lab".
NEVER "DOWN" YOURSELF because you ride a bike. Get on your bike and do
what you like.
Anybody else who reads this and thinks I will ship them a frame better show
up at my door with more metal holding them together than I have.

V/R
FD

Just edited this. Put a sign on the back of your bike that says " MY OTHER
BIKE IS A LAND ROVER"
 
From Brisbane Australia, don't ride enough and wondering why I can only post in the introduction section.....
 
Fritodog said:
FOR KC GEORGE:

Those ignorant of history fail to recognize that in 1900 France if you did not
own a bicycle you were unemployable. I have a car which is unfortunately a
neccessity but does not move if 2 wheels will do the job. In 1900 USA, if you
did not have a horse or mule, the same held true. In 1916, my Grandfather
bought my father a Model T Ford to take my Grandmother to church services.
(My Grandfather worked the oilfields 10 months out of the year as a millwright
commuting by horse and buggy) but on weekdays he had to walk to school
because he couldn't afford a bicycle!
When I was 13 I bought a 1952 Triumph motorcycle and my bicycle went in
the garage.
When I came back from Viet Nam, the bicycle came back out. I have never
apologized to anyone for getting anywhere on my own power. I cobble my
bikes together and commend you for the same. I do not know the status on
availability on Schwinn parts are in your region, but if you can start from frame up, let me know, and I WILL SHIP YOU ONE. They are legally avail-
able here for a few bucks.
As to your job, I would not even tackle that.
As to your photography, I will look it up. Used to shoot a Canon F1, Mamiya,
Hblad, then went to the digital stuff because it was so much fun to play with
on the computer. Also meant one whole room in the house was no longer
off limits as the "lab".
NEVER "DOWN" YOURSELF because you ride a bike. Get on your bike and do
what you like.
Anybody else who reads this and thinks I will ship them a frame better show
up at my door with more metal holding them together than I have.

V/R
FD

Just edited this. Put a sign on the back of your bike that says " MY OTHER
BIKE IS A LAND ROVER"

Dear FD

I loved your extremely enlightening and perceptive reply. Well, this probably needs to be a rather lengthy reply.

During my childhood (I was born 12 Feb 49, slightly before you were), it was not easy to go biking. The Indian family set up is different. I was the youngest at home, and I had at that time four brothers and three sisters. There was an English Raleigh at home (26" wheels, no gears): my father probably bought it and it eventually became an elder brother’s machine: he would ride it to meet his friends in the evening. Raleigh, because India was a British colony until 1947. That probably explains for the absence of Schwinn in India.

I learnt bicycling on this bike: I was maybe 10 years then. I would push it around and graduate to acquire balance not by sitting on the too-tall Brooks saddle but by straddling the horizontal cross-bar. The saddling took years: I needed to grow tall. Oh, there was another stage in between: a small boy would tuck his right leg below the crossbar on to the right pedal of the big bike, and he would have the nose of the saddle support his weight by courtesy of his right armpit. I am curious to know if boys in the States ever do this to a big sized bike. What a sight, when I look back in amazement!

This brother incidentally had a Triumph Tiger Cub. He was a genius in mechanical engineering. In 1960 maybe when my 60-year-old father bought a Studebaker, my brother (who is no more) replaced its original indicators (which literally swung out and up) with blinking indicators. The earlier car we had as I remember was a 4-door Italian FIAT: this too had this swing-out-and-up kind of indicators. Nobody in today’s India would believe that cars’ indicators were the swing-out-and-up kind in the olden days. For that matter, until Suzuki introduced their 500cc-converted-to-800cc cars in India, drivers of other existing brands had to go to a car workshop to get the seat adjusted for their personal anthropometry. With Suzuki, one could recline and move the seat back or forward.

The automobile scene in today’s India is radically different. Porsche and Lamborghini and Harley Davidson are eyeing the Indian market.

That brings me to the bike. There is not a single proper bike on the Indian market: one on which you could adjust the distance between the handlebar and saddle, and raise or lower the saddle and the handlebar heights. These three things are sine qua non, I guess.

That apart, I have been reading up a lot of materials on bicycles, and I stumbled upon an article on Paul de Vivie (more famous as Velocio) at http://cycling.ahands.org/bicycling/velocio.html.

When Velocio invented the derailleur nobody would accept gears: maybe like the Pope who refused to accept Copernicus’s and Galileo’s observations. The earth for the Church remained flat till recently.

Let me quote from the original article.

Incredible as it seems today, Velocio actually had to fight for the adoption of his derailleur gear. The cyclists of the period resented this marvellous invention as a stigma of weakness. They stoutly maintained that only a fixed gear could lead to smooth pedaling. Even Henri Desgrange, the originator of the Tour de France, attacked Velocio. To defend himself, Velocio wrote dozens of articles, answered hundreds of letters, cycled thousands of miles (average, 12,000 a year). At his suggestion the Touring Club de France organized a test in 1902. Competitors were to ride a mountainous course of 150 miles with a total climb of 12,000 feet. The champion of the day, Edouard Fischer, on a single-speed was pitched against Marthe Hesse on a Gauloise with a three-speed derailleur. The Gauloise won hands down. The newspapers were ecstatic because "the winner never set foot to the ground over the entire course." Still Desgrange would not concede. Wrote he in his influential magazine, L'Equipe:

"I applaud this test, but I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur? We are getting soft. Come on fellows. Let's say that the test was a fine demonstration-for our grandparents! As for me, give me a fixed gear!" Said Velocio with admirable restraint: “No comment.”

Velocio has defined the ‘proper’ bicycle in his own way: let me quote:

A proper bicycle meant a comfortable bicycle with wide-ratio gears, a fairly long wheelbase, and wide-section tires. A bicycle with close-ratio gears, a short wheelbase, and narrow-section tires will roll better at first, he pointed out, but it will wear its rider down on long-distance attempts.

Then, there is Dr Alex Moulton’s comments:

If anyone imagines that present day roads especially in urban areas are smooth - forget it! Suspension is a must for all vehicles on which mankind sits! In cars the suspension of which I am still concerned, the present craze for tightened suspension and low profile tyres in my view is madness and encourages violent driving. (http://www.alexmoulton.co.uk/frames.asp?id=theman)

Dr Clive Sinclair’s new A-Bike design might enhance interest in bikes. (http://www.a-bike.co.uk/store/home.php)

Now, let me get back to myself. Another brother probably ignited my interest in bikes: he is an ardent reader of Scientific American, among other things. (He introduced me to Cartier-Bresson’s work and to Leica. With digitals around, I have no use for my Leica M7 and 90mm Summicron!) This brother prompted me to read an article, which appeared in Scientific American maybe in early eighties: I can now only recollect the title of the article: Bicycle Technology. It would have been in late 70s, and those issues don't appear in Scientific American's archives. www.sciam.com.

I at that time put it across to the chief minister of Kerala (the south Indian state where I live): my suggestion was that a well-designed bicycle and things like a unique Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome could improve the common man’s lot. The dome was something students in Accra (Ghana) were building under Fuller’s guidance. The serendipitous result was that temperature inside the dome was inversely proportional to the temperature outside. It came to be called the Chilling Box! Where would the airconditioning people be with such a dome around!

The chief minister was elated but nothing much happened for sheer lack of bureaucratic knowledge and interest.

Later, in the early eighties, I suggested it to Mrs Indira Gandhi whom I happened to know personally. She was then the prime minister of India. She ordered for the Cycle Corporation of India to be formed, but with her assassination and thanks to the cycle manufacturers’ pressure and vested interests, the idea behind the corporation itself was promptly muffled and killed. (Unfortunately I cannot attach any file to this reply.)

There was another interesting article in Scientific American: it was about a bike designed in a Corning-sponsored competition: the Kanagaroo. (http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.c...LEID_CHAR=F373850F-15F1-4357-BDC6-4ECB485DC8F)

Kangaroo, as the Scientific American article points out, could be made for around 80+USD, but I have not been able to figure out whom the design belongs to.

It’s half past four here, afternoon. I am excited about something else: in another couple or triple of hour’s time, the TNT people deo volente will bring home a parcel: it’s a Mobiky coming from France. I have ordered for two Giatex bikes, too, and they will probably reach sometime next week.

I am kind of taking the risk of trying to introduce some new things among bikes in India. I bank on my expertise at branding and positioning. But quality bike accessories are not available in India.

Mountain bikes are there in India, but there isn’t any mountain biking. There isn’t any biking at all, for that matter. When the affluent, high-income people who regard themselves as omniscient do not realize the intrinsic value of cycling, it’s almost a hopeless case. Or so it might seem.

Maybe I will look ahead to your advice.
 
I'm in SW Kansas and work as an insurance billing clerk for the hospital. I have a Rhoades Car that I use to commute and do errands on and I love it!