Whiskey

Hello all!

Long story short, for the last few months I've been hiking and jogging after work for some exercise, but now that daylight savings hit, it's too dark by the time I get home to hit any of the local monntians.

I'm considering buying a mountain bike, and simply riding it to work and back, plus on the weekends I could get back into mountain biking again, which is something that I haven't done in about 10 years. (I moved somewhere with no mountains but now I'm back in sunny So Cal)

Back when I was in high school I belonged to a mountain bike club, and rode a Specialized Hardrock, that was a GREAT bike, until the bearings in the crank, and the crank housing rusted out, but that's another matter. BUT! I've also been burned by a couple bikes,.. I had a Huffy that just fell apart, and a K-mart bike that was a piece of junk right out of the box.

I'm far from rich, but I am willing to spend a little more for something that lasts.
I intend to do some light mountain biking, but mostly commuting.

I've seen a number of name brand bikes, that look quality on craigslist around $300,.. I've also seen some in the store around $500 that look good, but I don't know what I'm looking for, or what size frame to get, or what components are good,.. etc etc.

Plus! I also need to buy a good helmet,.. are they all good quality? Is there a rating like on motorcycle helmets?

Please help me make a wise choice
Whiskey.

P.S. You might find this interesting. I'm in the process of loosing weight after quitting smoking 3 years ago, to help me do this I bought a product called Body Bugg and it monitors how many calories I burn.

I rode a borrowed bike to work and back today to test if it was feasable.
The ride was 7.11 miles, lots of up and down.
I'm a 6 foot tall guy, around 214 LBS
The ride there and back, including rest at my destination took me about 1.75 hours
In that time I burned 750 Calories
If I had been resting for that amount of time I would have burned 262.

So the ride basically burned off 488 calories more than watching TV.

If I were to ride to and from work 3 times a week, that alone would burn off about a half pound per week assuming no change in my diet.

no1mad 

As to the bike- go to your Local Bike Shop (LBS) and tell them what you just stated in your OP. Go for a ride on what they recommend. Come back here after you have your "short list" of potentials.

The helmet? Depends on your budget and sense of style.

zacster

While it is tempting to use an MTB as a commuter, the reality is that the knobby tires suck up a lot of energy, and make for a slow, vibrating ride on smooth pavement. I tried it for commuting and immediately swapped out the knobbies for narrow slicks.

I'd recommend either spending as much as you can on a good bike from one of the top names, Specialized, Trek, Giant, Cannondale, or maybe one of the next tier below, but stay away from the department store bikes.

Test ride as many as you can, try different styles. There are all out MTBs with suspension, hardtail, flat bar road bikes. Some will have mountain components, some will have road components...

I was looking at the Trek FX, Specialized Sirrus, Giant Dash (that's the women's model, there's a men's model too) and Cannondale Quick for my wife. All are flat bar road bikes. They would make a great commuter bike that you can also do longer road rides with, but not really dirt trail bikes. They start at around $500.

The other option would be to find a decent used bike. Craigslist is notorious for bad deals. Everybody thinks their bike is worth twice what it really is, until you find someone with no emotional attachment that just wants to give someone else a good deal. Jump on the latter.

And one last bit of advice: Make sure it FITS!!!

CCrew

Umm, sorry, no way no how are those numbers correct. First off you're doing well to burn 35 calories per mile riding. Secondly, no way you're going to burn 262 sitting in front of the TV set.

May want to do research on how accurate most calorie counters are. Yours isn't.

monsterpile

Welcome to commuting! Its way better than jogging imo. =)

Helmet quality doesn't matter especially if its at a bike shop. You get something with better style lighter more vents etc, but the cheapest helmet (if you want to go that route) is going to be fine.

If you are serious about wanting to get back to riding a mountain bike again and you don't want 2 bikes get a mountain bike to commute on. Its already been mentioned but get some tires that are smoother and it will be plenty fast and 7 miles is a pretty short commute. In e prosess you can be getting used to riding that bike and getting it dialed in so when you go ride it on trails it will feel good.

You can get a great deal on Craigslist in almost any market, but you have to be able to work on the bike yourself and know what you are looking for. I don't think its very hard, but its not for everyone. It sounds like you have enough cash to buy a new bike if you want to. What is your budget low and high range?

Whiskey

Sorry,.. I mis-typed. The ride was 7.11 miles each way - 14.22 total.

I looked up accuracy of this device, and managed to find a study which stated this:
In any case, it has to do pretty good because it's helped me loose about 45 lbs so far, simply by tracking calories burned VS. Calories consumed.

Whiskey

Whiskey

Thanks for the advice folks!

As far as my budget goes, I'd like to stick at $500 as the top,.. if necessary I can bend that a bit, but the more it costs, the longer I have to wait till I can get it

I don't mind working on things,.. I'm the handy type, I build computers for a living, and rebuilt a junkyard engine for my RockCrawler this year, along with fabbing up and welding on all kinds of armor. I have plenty of tools at my disposal, including air tools, and I'm pretty good at following instructions.

My goal is a multi-purpose bike though; I don't have room for two, so I'll need something I can ride to work during the week, and hit the trails with a few friends on the weekend.

Whiskey

009jim

For your budget, take into account the money you save by cycling to work. I've only have my latest bike 2 years and have paid it off 4 times over already by savings in train fares. I suggest a flat bar road bike. It should have 25-28 mm slicks and no suspension which increases the weight. Giant CRX-3 comes to mind. Helmet - who cares, just get something that doesn't look too daggy.

rmcintosh

If you are budget minded then I suggest not worrying too much about style. You can save a pile by not worrying what you look like when riding. I have green rain pants, red jacket, and blue bike. I look like a box of smarties! But altogether it cost me nearly nothing.

monsterpile

With your mechanical skills you could very easliy go the craigslist or used route. You can get a pretty good bike for less than $100 sometimes really nice bikes for less than$300 and if you want to spend some money to get it really nice. If you just want a functional bike just get a 90's steel frame bike (these are dirt cheap sometimes free) and put some different tires on it probably a new chain and ride it all over the place. Get a 2nd set of wheels for it and put some fat mountain bike tires on is and ride the trails.

If you are willing to tell us where you are located we could point out some bikes on your area craigslist that would be good to check out. Also how tall are you? Garage sales are places to look and also sometimes pawn shops can have deals. If you lived here and were the right height there is a Gary Fisher for $150 that would be a good deal at a Pawn shop near my house. If you are on facebook you could try their looking in their marketplace ads. If you want you can post some Craigslist bikes you are interested in and we can let you know what we think.

Whiskey

Yeah,.. sure. I don't mind at all telling you where I live. I'm in San Marcos, CA, and I'm 6 foot tall.

How much are a set of wheels? I always imagined those were really pricey.

I'm going to go to a local sport shop today and check out some of the different styles so I can attach a picture to words like "Flat bar road bike", and also try to get a feel for what frame sizes I should be looking at, and how much I'm looking at spending after the bike for things like a lock, speedo, headlight, taillight and helmet. Without that information it's hard for me to know what I should be interested in on Craigs List.

Thanks!
Whiskey

CbadRider

Stop by the Southern California regional forum and say hello. There are lots of North County riders on BF.

monsterpile

Getting a 2nd set of wheels might be as simple as buying another bike taking the wheels off and selling the frame. Thats what I usually do. For my mountain bike I splurged Friday and bought a Vuelta wheelset on Nashbar and its going to end up costing me around $60. I am sure they aren't the best, but every review of them has been very happy customers. With my relatively low expectations I am sure they will exceed them easily.

Riding at a bike shop should get you a pretty good idea of what you are looking for. What Craigslist area are you looking at? I am not familiar enough with that area to know for sure where to start looking. You might get lucky and find someone that is selling a bike that includes some of the accessories you need.

Whiskey

Thanks for the invite! I'll come check you'all out

Whiskey

Whiskey

I'm looking in the San Diego area.

There are some amazing deals on here,.. like check out
https://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/bik/2083773539.html

Or even better:
https://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/bik/2083847217.html

But they look really well used. Is that something that should scare me away? Do parts other than chains, tires and breaks wear out? What about the shocks? Are they good for life,.. or can they be re-built?

Whiskey

Whiskey

This one is in much better condition, for not much more, the frame might be a hair too big though. Looks like Craigslist has allot to offer,.. and I haven't even looked through half the listings yet.
https://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/bik/2082880286.html

And another:
https://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/bik/2082396640.html

Are any of these bad choices for any reason?

Whiskey

monsterpile

Any of those bikes would be pretty solid as far as value. I think for your height you are going to want at least a 19 inch frame but people like different things. That Trek 930 would be a great bike for $70 and it already has a rear rack which is a nice bonus. The only real obvious issue is the torn up seat, but thats easily replaced and you probably want something different anyway. You could also recover it cheaply if you wanted to.

Whiskey

Well,.. I looked up reviews on the Trek and the Cannondale.

The reviews agreed with you, in fact it was really tough to find a bad review.

So,.. I figured,.. well - I mean if were only talking $70, then there is no reason I can't afford that now,.. I wonder if he still has it?

He did, I checked it out, and it fit perfect - so I picked it up.

The Bad news first.
This thing clearly hasn't been ridden in a very long time.
The tires are like new tread wise, but totally dry rotted out and cracked.
The break pads are hard as a rock, and are not useable.
Everything is a little stiff, and a little out of adjustment.
One rim is out of true.

The good news:
Everything works.
It takes standard size tires, and I know I can find them cheap
The break pads look very common, I'm sure they will be easy to find
The shock is rock hard - but not stuck (that may be the way it's supposed to be, kindof a bonus for what I"m doing)
It shifts through all the gears.

Before I ride it I have some work to do. I would like to go through and maintenance the derailleurs, clean out all the old grease, and re-lube them as well as inspecting for wear. I would like to do the same for the wheels. Is there a good writeup on how to do this somewhere?

Is there anything I need to do for the shock?

Can I true the rim myself? Or will a bike shop have to do it for me?

I would also like to replace the chain.

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I'll keep you up to date on how it goes.
Whiskey

monsterpile

What you have found is pretty typical for used bikes. The things you want to do to it are just what probably need to be done. It should cost too much and you will probably enjoy the experience of working on the bike. The website below has a ton of great info. If you are not sure how to do something just google it and you should be able to figure it out. You can true a wheel its pretty easy you just need a spoke wrench. For the chain you will need a chain tool.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/

I have little experience with the shock forks, but you can probably easily take it apart and rebuild it or at least clean it up. I just did that on a cheap fork a few days ago and it works fine. For commuting you can get a rigid fork pretty cheaply if you wanted to. Here is a link to the shock you probably have. You might need to look for some elastomers of they are no good on ebay because they might not make them anymore. Or you could just get a new shock. My 95 Diamondback has good elastomers still and its fine, but I am far from a hardcore rider.

https://mombat.org/Quadra2.jpg

I think you are going to be happy with the bike. One nice thing about used especially for commuting is its already beat up a bit so you don't have to be worried about it getting beat up a little more. Plus its a little less likely to get stolen if you are locking it up somewhere. Looks like your bike is 1994. Here is a link with specs to that year of bike.

https://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/B...+SHX&Type=bike

Anyway, enjoy your new project. Hopefully you can get out and ride it soon and take some before and after pics!

Whiskey

You want pictures?
Not a problem

I will be heading to the bike shop today to get tires, tubes, Cycle computer, water bottle, break pads, chain, oil, and the bicycle equivalent of break cleaner.

One weird thing about this bike,.. it has some goofy tiny tire pump nozzle, not a standard schrader valve like on a car or bike. I'll have to talk to the shop about that, maybe I can replace that when I change the tube, but the hole in the rim doesn't look big enough for a standard one.

Thanks for the links and all the help! I really appreciate it.
Whiskey

exile

The valve is probably a presta. It is pretty common now. I think the guy took down the link for the bike you bought so I didn't have a chance to look at it. Everything you described doesn't seem major as far as repairs go.

Helmet wise most are cpsc certified or standard. Just go with whatever style you like.

Whiskey

So he did!

Oh well - I'll get my own picture up tonight, with pictures of the cool new stuff I bought

Whiskey

Whiskey

Okay,.. I made a ton of progress tonight,.. I'm happy with how far I got, but I'm a little dissapointed in myself for not inspecting this thing for rust better.

First - we'll start with the fun stuff. Here's about $250 worth of random bike stuff.
Tires
Tubes
Helmet
Gloves
Headlight
Tail light
Chain
Cycle computer
and a few MISC tools I needed.


Here's the bike as it sat - looks great, but there are some things you can't see right off:


This tire is in sad shape:


See all the grime? That wasn't helping smooth operation. I didn't see that rust until tonight though - I should have inspected more carefully.


Here's the back part,.. the whole cassette has rust on it, but not bad enough to hinder performance:


I spent my time tonight mounting new tires, replacing the front break pads, removing the de-railers and cleaning them as best I could with solvent, then re-oiling them with the oil the bike shop reccomended. I also replaced the chain, removed the bike rack to re-paint, but it may never go back on because some of the hardware was rusted into the threaded holes in the frame

Here's where we sit:


I tested it, and it rode great,.. but you may notice there is no rear breaks. That's because one of the parts that squeezes on the rim was broken The plastic piece that holds the spring in is cracked preventing it from returning properly. I'm worried about this,.. I'm going to start a thread in the mountain bike fourm asking what to do. I can't imagine it's a standard part.

On the plus side, I rode it around the neighborhood,... and it shifts great! I have more work ahead, but I'm happy with how far it came tonight.

Whiskey

monsterpile

Pics aren't showing up. =(

Grime just gives you a chance to take something that looks nasty and make it look nice. It sounds like you are doing a fantastic job.

Rust on the cassette isn't a big deal if its just surface rust which it probably is. A new cassette isn't a big deal even if you have to replace that. Some people freak out when they see rust on a chain even though it works perfectly fine. For your bike replacing the chain was the way to go though.

If you have some surface rust on the frame you might end up repainting the whole thing. Lots of people do this and there are a ton of ways to do it. Its not too difficult. For now you could sand down the spots and get some nail polish thats a close match.

A new set of rear canti brakes should set you back much if thats the worst case scenario.

I am curious to see what you are talking about with the rear rack hardware.

Hopefully you can get the pics to work soon. You got alot of work done on it already. Nice work.

Whiskey

Sorry about that!
The internet at the house was down, which means the server that was hosting the pics was down too.

They should be up now, let me know if you still have any issues.

There are no pics of the rusted in hardware, but if you notice the rear rack things are still on the bike in the final picture. Those screws thread into a bung that's welded on the frame, and the whole thing is seased with rust. The screw is the type I can't get vice grips on, and it's stripped out. I have one more thing to try before I just cut it off.

Is it really that easy to repaint the frame? I think I'm going to ride it for a while first, but that may be an option for the near future to dress it up a little more

Whiskey