gear

My Campy Record components are dead silent even when shifting which is accomplished by an almost imperceptible touch on the lever. My Sram Rival components are noisy by comparison and require a much more purposeful throw of the shift lever. Yes, I can tell a difference. But that does not preclude a place for lesser components on some bikes.

The thing your looking for in a bicycle is to have the bicycle disappear from the bicycle riding experience. A perfectly fitting bike with great components does just that, it disappears and leaves just you there for the ride, unaware of any mechanical device being involved.

bkaapcke

The incredible comfort of a dialed in LWB recumbent. bk

bigbadwullf

Specialized Allez Double:
- It's comfortable for me
- It was priced well ($599 brand new)
- I don't have to worry about it( scratches, cracks, butting, getting stolen, aluminum just doesn't mess up(for the most part), etc)
- Bike shop I got it from is good, knowledgeable, and fair
- I can upgrade it as I choose, but will most likely leave it as-is. So far, a compact SRAM crank is all I've done to it. Would even have done that if I hadn't gone to an extremely hilly ride. Also borrowed a friend's MTB rear cassette for the ride that bolted on and shifted perfectly with minimal adjusting.

It's a great bike.....for me. Don't have a want for anything else.

jmccain

That looks like a very cool bike. Wish they were available in the States.

old&slow

2 of these on a Fatbike for fun in the snow all winter long...

stapfam

They are not readily available over here yet either--Hence the problem in getting a test ride. The other problem is that the 51cm frame will not be available till June 2012 and the 53 does look a bit big for me.

But Whyte bikes--Mainly noted for the top of the range Full suspension bikes that are expensive but work. I test rode a 146 a few years ago after seeing one on the trails. Nearly went for it but went road instead.

jmccain

I was in Alpine Bikes in Glasgow a couple of weeks ago and didn't see this model. That must be the reason why.

k7baixo

It's fast. I've never been known as a fast rider but on my third ride on it yesterday, I did 46 miles and averaged exactly 20 mph. On the first ride on it, i did my best time on a short loop that i ride reguarly. I expect to pickup a little more speed as I make adjustments and adapt better to its tendencies.

It's comfortable. Compared to my last bicycle, it's painless. No shoulder pain, no neck pain...nada.

Road Fan

Stapfam, reading between the lines in your first post, it sounds like you are getting more interested and proficient with long distance road riding; audax or rando riding, probably all-day solo wandering through the countryside, hoping you arrive at home eventually. For such riding, steel frames with light thinwall oversize tubes (Reynolds 853 or TrueTemper Ox-Plat or even S3) and running supple 42 mm 650b are becoming popular here, at least in some US randonneuring niches. I'm in the market for a bike, too, and I think I'm going this way. The 42 mm tires are said to float over road irregularities, and the light steel frames both absorb shock and vibration and give a lively, efficient feel.

For an example check out Boulder Bicycles, made by Rene Herse Bicycles, now located in Colorado. It will be different from what you have been riding.

Granted, randonneurs use a wide variety of equipment in events like PBP, so ideas that these are just for randos, or needed for randos, should be dispelled. The question should be, do they offer you something you might want. For me I think the answer is yes, and I wonder if you might share that view. Worth a look, anyway. I haven't seen much talk about these sorts of machines in Cycling Plus.

bobbycorno

What makes my bike work for me? Well, it has a lot to do with the fact that those crazy basques at Orbea know what the heck they're doing...

SP
Bend, OR

XR2

I'm flat broke,it's paid for and I like it.

Gravity Aided

I just kept swapping and flipping and learning what actually suits me best over 7 years of bike renaissance, and wound up with what suits me to the ground , a 1985 Ross Signature, not in Ishiwata but just plain old 4130 . Size, geometry, and stability/manoeuverability are spot on for me . Prolly could use a little longer reach on the stem. That being said, there will be a next bike. Maybe.

qcpmsame 

To stop hijacking by me and answer your question, Stap, The R500 fits me so well in 58CM and with the Ritchey stem and bars along with the changes to components I did a little bit at a time, everything works together with no having to compensate in some way for a shortcoming. It just "WORKS" well for me.

Bill

BikeArkansas

I finally put myself on a top of the line Cannondale CF bike with Dura Ace components. I have a steel bike (853 steel), I have an aluminum bike (E5 Aluminum) and I have a heavier CF bike. Nothing compares to well made, lite CF bike with top notch components. All day ride, short sprint, it makes no difference. It just rides. Now, if I can just come up with a solution to my current lack of funds due to the purchase.

Wilbur Bud

comfort. I can ride any time or distance or terrain and nothing ever hurts. I may get so tired I can't walk up the stairs when I get home, but no numbness, no swelling, no pain.

rasmith3530

What makes a bike work for me. Boy, is that a loaded question, and also a moving target. Years back, when I was a pup, it was that banana seat, a long sissy bar, the slick on the back, the apehanger bars, and a Schwinn cantilever frame with it's neck raked to allow for an additional ten inches of fork length.

Later, it was road bikes, either European or Japanese. Eventually, I wanted a mountain bike, not because their were any great inclines in Illinois, but damn they looked hot! Eventually though, my mountain bike transformed into a sport comfort with high end components. The desire to do a multi day ride led to a custom assembled sport touring bike and a return to drop bars. Along the line, a tandem entered my life, but my S.O. is not really that into riding, so it hasn't seen much use.

A move from city to suburbs changed where I would ride, and I was not at all comfortable with the change. Riding on roads with cars traveling at high speeds made me extremely nervous. My bikes took up residence suspended from the garage ceiling for a decade. During that decade, my body, formerly used to getting a twenty mile workout (or better) nearly every day, started packing on the pounds.

As this past summer progressed, I decided that I had to do something. Running was out of the question, and swimming was inconvenient from where I live. It was going to be bicycling, that was it. I discovered that my increased size made my touring bike quite uncomfortable, between a big gut and a neck roll. Even the citified mountain bike, with it's flat carbon bar had me bent over into a position that quickly turned to discomfort. I started wondering if this was going to work. Then, one day, I came across a balloon tired, cantilever framed Schwinn. Better yet, it was one that had actually been built in Chicago. It was beautiful, with nearly mint paint and all. I started riding, happy to be upright. As I started, riding around my subdivision, things were good. One night, I decided that I wanted to take my classic Schwinn down and show it off for our village's cruise night. The ride into town was great, a bit over a mile in length. I had a blast, a few folks asked me about the bike, and life was generally good. Then it came time to go home. The hill that I had gotten to whiz down now became like the Bataan Death March. At 57, I wondered if my heart was going to get the better of me before the crest. Well, I did make it, and better yet, I did not walk the bike one step, but it was made quite clear why someone had developed gearing for bikes. He was an old gray beard Clyde like myself, just trying to stay alive!

It wasn't long before I came upon a nearly mint 1995 100th Anniversary Cruiser 6. No, it wasn't built in the Chicago plant using the famous electro-static welding process that old Schwinn bikes were known for, but it had the look, and it had gears! It also had weight. It wasn't any lighter than its older, Chicago built sibling. Hmm. Where to go from here?

The answer came in the form of a garage sale and a Schwinn CrissCross hybrid with a cheap price tag. It looked like it had not seen much use, but it also had not seen much maintenance either, and, it had a flat bar. I could not resist, and it came home with me. A visit to Performance netted all new slick cables and a rear rack, but they didn't have the handlebars I wanted. Those came from a LBS, nearly 100mm in rise. Having noted cracks and even a small chunk in the tires, some Kenda replacements were also bought.

I like riding bicycles. I love learning about the history of a bike or type of bike, and I'm in heaven when I get to work on them. Next to slot cars, bicycles were the first machines I ever hacked, and four decades down the road, that love persists. Most folks look at a bicycle and see anything from a means of transport to a fitness venture. I see so many cool mechanical things going on, and each type of bike has both an art and a science to it. I would love to have at least one of every type of bicycle made, but alas, I have neither the space nor the financial means. I will state that I am extremely grateful that my family has been as accommodating as they have so far with my collection as it stands today.

Anyway, back to the CrissCross. A good cleaning helped immensely. The bars and new cables made for a more comfortable and controlable ride. A performance Forte comfort saddle helped smooth the road, but, there was a niggling problem. Try as I might, I could not get the gearing dialed in. Also, the shifter for the front derailleur was somewhat stiff. I began doing some research and discovered that I was not alone. A discussion with the son of a Schwinn dealer I've known since my childhood days confirmed that it was a problem with the bike and not with my mechanical abilities. The early CrissCross came equipped with an early version of Suntour's triggered index shifting, and from what I've heard and read, they were a problem child out of the box that did not improve with age. I also heard that the cassette/chainwheels might not index correctly with Shimano or SRAM shifters. This left few alternatives. I could live with the problem (no thanks), having a few less gears to work with, I could swap everything out with Shimano or SRAM components, ending up with virtually the cost of a new bike, or, and this was the route I took, replacing out the shifters with a set of non-indexed friction shifters. At under twenty dollars, it corrected the problem and made the bike an absolute joy to own and ride.

As mentioned earlier, I like to learn a bit about the bikes I own, and this one was no exception. I began learning about how hybrids came about, melding the essence of road and mountain bike into a compromise that would serve a number of uses. I also learned about what was happening with Schwinn at the time my bike was made, and how their line of "bike path bicycles," (their term for hybrids) were built. I learned that these bikes were built in Taiwan by Giant, to Schwinn's design spec. Unlike Trek, who was using the same frame for their FX line, making different componentry the thing that marked one model from another, Schwinn took a different route by using a similar design, but different frame materials and different components for the various levels. The CrossCut, which was their entry hybrid, was built on a frame of high tensile steel, with a matching fork. My CrissCross featured a main frame triangle made from double butted True Temper Cro-Mo tubing, with a matching Cro-Mo fork. Next up, the CrossCut received the full Crome Moly True Temper treatment. It also was the benefactor of Shimano's 400LX level of componentry. I decided that, if I could find a nice example of a CrossCut at a reasonable price, I would add it to my collection. A red '91 has become the latest member, and it is about to receive a full tear down and ground up rebuild, so that it will be ready come the first nice days of spring.

Meanwhile, a set of fenders that I'd bought with the CrossCut in mind are going to be mounted on the CrissCross, so that I can get out on some of this winter's more mild days. On those that I can't, a Schwinn XR7 stationary bike is just a few steps from my bed. An Android tablet and a Netflix subscription takes away the boredom of no scenery change.

So, what makes my bike work for me? It is a somewhat indescribable combination of materials, design, comfort and individuality that makes the machine a part of me. There is a satisfaction in having assembled a certain group of parts so that everything fits you, added with the knowledge that it was crafted with your own hands. THAT is, in the end, what makes my bike work for me. As always YMMV.

Happy trails, and remember to keep the sunny side up and the rubber side down!

rasmith3530

As an epilogue to my story above, I should note that the immaculate 1995 Cruiser 6 recently became a Christmas present for my favorite brother-in-law.

Gravity Aided

The Criss Cross gets a lot of love on the forum . It was a great bike for a hybrid, Schwinn really got that one right, along with the Crosscut, IMHO

pat5319

Before you make a final decision try a titainium or steel bike. I've been riding seriously for nearly 4 decades, and riddin and worked on more bikes than I can count, and found steel and Ti bikes have the best/smoothest rides and "last" best. I have a bunch of bikes including road, cyclocross, sport tuouring, mountain and utility. I will probably never buy another aluminum bike as the ride quality is lacking even though it has carbon forks and seatstays nad Ive riedden many others I wouldn't have considered buying. I may buy a carbon bike in the future, but only because I have several others as carbon bikes are known to be ver framesy breakable, not "lifetime" bikes, by the guys I know "in the business". My nest N! bike amy be something along the lines of Salsa vaya or fargo Ti frameset https://salsacycles.com/bikes/ or maybe built up thes things look great for comfort and rough stuff, that is if I can't afford another custom Seven. I had it built with 73' parallel angles, big chainstays for sprinting, clearance for 28mm tires, and a little more trail than their standard forks as i wanted it to ride like a "classic" stage bike, not like present race bikes that are too much like criterium bikes that are too "twitchy". Note: most of hte neeres steei ikes aren't as heavy as you minhgt think and the added comfort vs alu and in some cases carobon make up for it

M_Wales

It's a Raleigh that rides and feels great under me...

david58

I probably would be happy with a lot of different bikes, but my two have been a blast.

The first was procured in April of this year, beginning my cycling renaissance - a Fuji aluminum frame cross bike with 105 shifters. I have ridden it many, many miles on the road, have raced it CX, commute on it, have done centuries on it, and generally feel "one" with it. I don't know if it is because it is my first new bike in almost 30 years, or what, but it just works. I can ride it and ride it and ride it, and the cheap Velo stock seat just feels fine, and I have a hootin' good time on the bike. Blessed by the level of comfort, as I have not had an official fit, just adjusted things till they felt right.

In October, bought a road bike. Kinda late in the year for a road bike, but the price was such I could afford a bike for my wife, too. I have a few hundred miles on it on the road, and some hours on the trainer. The road rides have all been 40-60 miles, and the doggone bike is comfortable. It works for me because it is stinking fast compared to my CX bike (or I am faster on it) - it just works. Looking forward to some upgrading of the bars and seatpost and seat, getting it put together for my most favored long rides and hoping for some bigger challenges on it (hoping to ride the Mt Shasta Century and other climbing centuries).

The bikes are life-savers. I have lost weight, my blood tests are good (I don't even study), and I am motivated athletically like I haven't been since I pretty much stopped reffing soccer about 10 years ago. Not a quantitative description of why they work, but they just do.