taz77

I'm Tim and I'm a relatively newcomer to cycling. I'm a Toyota mechanic, and when I switched to another dealer deep within the city, I got tired of driving around looking for parking. So... I just park several miles out and ride to work. Sooner or later, I hope to be in enough shape to just ride straight from my home.

I have an older Pacific bike from Toys R Us, from like... 9 years ago that I recently stripped down, powder coated most metal parts, and just rebuilt it up from the ground up, reusing a couple of components. I know it would have been cheaper to just buy a new equivalent bike, but hey, where's the fun in that? Plus, I get it to look just the way I wanted.

Right now, I'm looking into getting a road bike for the commute and want to change it to a flat bar. I'll have some questions in doing so, which is why I'm here. I saw the sub $750 road bike thread, which is exactly what I was looking for... sweet.

East Hill

OR, as you enjoy the tinkering aspect--perhaps an older steel bike is in your future? One with lugs...check out the Classic & Vintage forum, and see if we can entice you to join our ranks .

Oh, and where are you located?

Welcome to BF!

East Hill

taz77

I just changed my profile to show the location...
Steel bike huh? Let's just say I'm a little on the "heavy" side, so I was hoping for something a little lighter. Plus, I really wanted a carbon fiber bike. But since they're just a little out of my price range, I'll have to settle with a carbon fork and maybe carbon seat stay. Unless I find one off craigslist for cheap.

By the way. What are the "lugs" I keep seeing in ads?

East Hill

Oh, you are in the heart of lug wonderland! Here's a thread about lugs (which are the contrivances which allow straight tubes of metal to be joined to other straight tubes of metal)

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...highlight=lugs

C & V is full of very nice people who happen to live in the Bay Area...

But if you really want a carbon fibre bikes, well, all right . Just remember that you are the engine on a bike!

East Hill

old and new

Welcome. Lugged is an old way to join steel/ chromoly tubed frames together, tig-welded is more widely used the past fifteen years. Tig welded frames can be great too. Chomoloy since the early '90s (earlier even) is designed to accept tig-welding as well. Lug-Freaks DO abound. Lugged or NON-lugged steel (chromoly),aluminum, carbon, Ti.. a good bike can be had in ALL materials. Nuff said, I've converted bikes to flat-bars, I'm doing more. Mustache bars can be considerd. With them you can use the original stem, br-levers..etc, get the bike really nice for fifty to a hundred or more.