gbowne1

Hi all,

I'm 29 years old, and I live on the N side of Seattle, WA. I ride all over the city, mostly on the concrete, paved and city sidewalk (where permissable) to get me all over. I also ride the citys bike trails which are for the most part paved. Right now, I own a bunch of cobbled together 21 and 24 speed mountain bikes that I am working on upgrading with trick parts. I've got like 8 bikes all together. Some will eventually be sold, so that maybe I could build the ultimate bike for me. I'm tearing all these bikes down, having the frames sand blasted or glassbeaded and then rebuilding them. Selling whats left over.

I used to have a 24 speed built from a 10 speed frame that I had stretched in the rear. I have two different soft-tail MTB's but with similar suspension set ups.

I love the Shimano Deore XT casettes, derallieurs and a lot of the other XT parts. I love the Ritchey handlebars and the Gripshift 5 or Max, even though I've had problems with their shifting. I like the Cateye mity 3 series cyclometer, Mavic rims, Shimano QR hubs, and gold spoke nuts. I like the old rock shocks like the judy. the shocks I got on the front forks are really wild. but, sorry to say they are all not really very good stock brakes. tires I like continenal tires for street / city. Shimano chains too. I also like the teflon cables.

I eventually wanna have my own bike frame made, or learn how to build my own frames. Then have it painted some wild blue and dark cherry red and silver black metallic colors.

At one time I spend like $950 on my bike getting it fixed up. Probably more than I shoulda. I coulda bought a new bike for that.

But if I buld a new bike it's gonna have all those type parts on it.. just the newest ones I can get.

I tend to ride the city pretty hard. Brakes get worn a lot but everything else besides that stays in good shape. I also have touble keeping dirt out of my chain.

I have NOT found a headlight and reflector system that has worked out. The headlamps all are very dim at night, the batteries do not last, and really are a piece of crap. I need something that's gonna light up my way and stay that way for a while.

I got a ton of questions on this equipment. Stay tuned for my posts.

Greg

jyossarian

Welcome Greg! Check out the Commuting forum for recommendations on lights and reflectors. There's even stickies on lights to help you out. As for keeping dirt out of your chain, it's impossible so invest in a chain cleaning doohickey and clean it once in a while.

gbowne1

thanks for the reply!

I'm going to be working on my bike here in the next few months!

Greg