Hey people,

It seems that I am quickly getting sucked into the cycling universe, and no exit is in sight. There is so much to learn and be familiarized with, frankly, I am a bit stuck on where to begin.

I'd like to purchase my first bicycle in the near future, but I'm taking it slow, methodically trying to get up to speed (pun intended).

Transportation/Fitness/Pastime seem to be the intended purposes. I'm not a huge fan of how the contemporary bikes look, yet I've never ridden one, so that's my only basis for pre-judgement. Either way, I prefer looking into the C&V realm as a starting point, specifically 80's road bikes and figure where to go from there.

An uncle of mine has let me borrow his garage queen of 15+ years, and I'm really enjoying riding thus far. It seems to be a 198_ Univega Viva Sport 49cm Suntour & Dia Compe components. Here is a pic...


The bike is really small for me (6ft 200lbs), so I know how crucial it is to have the right fit, yet being a complete n00b, there are still many terms I'm not familiar with. ie. lugged frame, dropouts, etc. There's not really a "beginners" section around here (or is there?), but I would love any insight or links to archived insight that gives me a breakdown of road bicycles, preferably 80's road bikes. What to look out for, negative and positive.

Anything to get a general sense of the cycling landscape. I'm not a badge junkie, so I'm open to English, Japanese, Italian, Marsian, whatever...if it's a well crafted machine, and effective in moving my body efficiently, I'm all ears.

I truly appreciate the help. Cheers
Mo

Velkommen.

Yep, the bike is way too small for you, but it's a decent bike. You need one about 10cm bigger. They are measured relatively the same way, basically some the top of the horizontal tube to the center of the round housing at the bottom that holds the pedal/crank assembly, which is called the bottom bracket. The term bottom bracket is also used for the assembly that holds the crank arms, so the confusion can start there....

Lugs are the pieces of metal where tubes need to join the other frame pieces to make a shape. The tubes fit into the lugs and are welded/brazed/glued, etc into them.

Dropouts are the part of the rear of the frame that hold the axle. They are also attached to the frame tubes (called stays in this part of the frame) in different ways. Fork ends on the front have a similar relationship with the fork tubes.

Just reading this forum a lot will help you understand stuff. Spend an hour or so with a local bike guy/gal, and point to things on the bike, and you'll learn a lot just listening.

There are some good books about bike maintenance, etc that name all the parts and will give you a great start. I just don't know the names of them, since I don't have one.

Theres a good website "mytenspeeds.com" that may be helpful to you.

Read Sheldon Brown's glossary.

Here is a pic that may help get you started on the bike part names.