Originally Posted by
big john
Oh, get a new bike, fer cryin' out loud!
Seriously, if you do decide to get a new ride, consider a cyclocross bike. They can be had cheap, they'll take big tires, they're durable, and nobody will give you grief about the second set of brake levers.
There are also other road bikes that will accept wide tires and take a beating, and there's no reason you can't get the same position on a road or cross frame that you get on a hybrid. You'll just have the option of the drops.
I'm not aero and I run my bars almost even with the saddle and I ride 6K miles per year on all kinds of roads. 36 spoke wheels are my friends.
Gee, it's a close heat as to which is MY fastest bike, the '95 Schwinn Classic Cruiser SS or the Fiftywhatever Namesake Brand. Get new if you want but nothing beats learning what works and making it do that. Nothing beats experience, and you already know a lot of that, I'll bet. Of course, my goal has always been to get up Hospital Hill without checking in
I used to do 12-24 miles from Nyssa to Ontario and back when I was in my teens, taking either the local highway or the old back road with two big switchbacks on relatively flat road. Traffic was a lot lighter then.
That's probably a good goal for me again. Going into Payette is about as good as it's a good climb coming back from the bridges into Fruitland and the uphill bridge on the Snake River from Ontario is all downhill the other way--WHEEEEEEEEE!
Well, I may only be 43 but when I'm 50 I'll have been 7 for 43 years
