mrodgers

As you may or not know, I started riding last year after dusting off and cleaning up the old worn out Walmart dual suspension mountain bike.

Well, I talked to the shop today and my Escape 1 should be in tomorrow!

I can't wait. Unfortunately its only suppose to be a high of 29 tomorrow which I haven't ridden that cold yet. I'll probably be too pumped up to even notice. I'll definitely be taking my first ride of 2014 tomorrow.

Ursa Minor

Grats ... lol I don't even know what an escape 1 is but its sounds exciting.

Charlie

Mark Stone

Congratulations mrodgers on your new Escape! As mentioned in a thread over in the Commuting forum where I saw a post from you, I have ridden a Giant Escape for a couple of years now and it is a dependable, responsive urban bike. I'm happy with mine, so I'm sure you'll be happy with your new faithful steed!

ill.clyde

Congrats! Don't forget to post pics!

mrodgers

Can't post pics. Stole the NiMHs out of the camera for my lights, LOL. I guess I can steal the NiMHs out of the xBox controllers. I can't hear the kids whining about the batteries being gone out on the trail

Dang it, wish I did bring my camera to work with me. A pic out on the bridge would be a nice shot.

TXsailor

I have had my Escape 2 since July and put over 1,600 miles on it. I'm still as happy with it as the day I first rode it. The only problem I have had is the shifter for the rear derailleur came apart and I had to ride home in one gear. I took it apart and the nut that holds it all together had came off. I finally got it all back together and used locktite on it. The LBS was supposed to get me a new one but they haven't called and its still working.

Lately I have been ridding with a small group. All but one of them so far has shown up on road bikes. They are all younger and most have rode many miles. So far I have been able to keep up. I know some of them could drop me any time they want but they seem more interested in everyone having fun than seeing who is fastest. Once you get your Giant and get used to it find a good group to ride with, its a lot of fun!

Beachgrad05

Woo Hoo! Can't wait so see pics!

Mark Stone

I've had my Escape 2 for two years and about 4,000 miles and can say the same thing. Those things are bulletproof.

mrodgers

Well, it came in! Unfortunately when I called at the end of work (3 pm) he said it had just came in and needed assembled yet and would be ready at 5. I couldn't stick around that long as my wife had to work tonight. So, I'll definitely be picking it up tomorrow.

It was only 22 degrees anyways. Thats a bit cold for me though I would have just suffered through for a first short ride. Tomorrow looks better for temps, should get up to 35 which is 5 less than my coldest to date, so that sounds a bit more doable for a nice ride. Wifey is off work tomorrow too, so I won't have to be in a hurry.

I'll be sure to grab my camera also as the cell phone is about useless.

Jimbosays

Have an Escape 2 and love it.

I put a pair of 700x35 Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on it . . . And now often refer to it as my SUV ride (sporty, easy to ride and will stand up to a road beating on unfamiliar territory!)

mrodgers

To finish off my excitement thread here, sorry, no pic yet but... The oh so short ride I tried, I love it!

The trails I ride are still completely covered with icy snow. Thought they might be clear by now. I also completely froze with the wind at about 28 degrees.

I took a short spin around town. Did a small steep climb up a hill and being able to stand was way cool since I couldn't stand on the old bike because the chain would jump.

Love the trigger shifter. I didn't realize it would downshift either 1 or 2 gears depending on how far I pushed it. That's cool!
I grabbed a set of bar ends for it while I was there. I've been fretting around with the net trying to figure out what I wanted.

My daughter is mad at me because she wanted to ride my old bike with me but I stopped after work because I knewit would be cold. I just didn't think it would be that cold!

BillinPA

Congrats on the new ride...where in W.PA are you? I live in Darlington/Chippewa area.

mrodgers

I use to frequent a bar in Chippewa for wings when a friend was seeing a girl down there. I am now way up on I80 near Emlenton and ride the Allegheny River trail.

2 days now and I haven't ridden yet. Took it to Emlenton on the way home from picking it up and there was still 5 inches of icy snow on the trail. I started riding around town a bit but it was 26 with a lot of wind. I was freezing!

Last night I had som work to do cleaning up the garage. Had to set up the old bike for y daughter to ride around.I installed the bar ends I bought and set up the cycle computer. Just received 2 small cree flashlights and handlebar mounts from Amazon so I got those mounted. I took it for a spin down my road but its only a half mile dead end. Theres a slight rise up to my house and I can tell its going to be so nice on hills compared to the Walmart bike. It was pretty much impossible for me to ride the old bike on the road because of constant hills.

Today I wanted to run up to town, which is about 2 miles up a 55 mph state road that I never would have done on the Walmart bike. Unfortunately today started out about 37 and rain and dropped to 29 and snow around noon. so much for the positive 40 plus warm forecast I was looking forward to this weekend.

I still need to get a pucture of it. I'm not posting a picture of my incredibly messy garage, lol.

BillinPA

Better weather coming. I work with a guy who lives in emlenton, get up that way on the M/C some also. I heard that trail was nice...might have to see for myself!

mrodgers

Just wanted to tell you all, yesterday I finally got a chance to get out on the new Giant Escape. I didn't mess with going to the bike trail and just took off from the garage.

Have to say, WOW! I am loving this thing! I ended up doing about 9 miles and with it being all up and down hills and coupled with the fact that I ended up exploring a bunch of dirt roads around my house, I averaged 7.7 mph.

I started out just running to my little local town but that was too short so I veered off on the way back. Like I said, I ended up on some dirt roads back in the farmlands. I was passing by a field trudging up a hill and was watching a hawk circle around the field. I turned around shortly after this point and headed back and when I reached the field again, I didn't see the hawk. Then I noticed up in a tree along the treeline, it wasn't a hawk but a bald eagle was perched up there. Exciting! I love those things. I stopped this time and sat there for a bit to see what it would do. After about 10 minutes it swooped down from the tree, circled the field and flew off. I'm kicking myself for not bringing the camera with me as I figured I could run the strap over the left shoulder and have the camera hang on the right slightly behind me at my back and still ride (it's a superzoom, so not terribly bulky.)

Ridewithgps.com tells me my ride was 9.1 miles with 689 feet of climb. That stuff nearly killed me on the old bike the few times I ventured in behind my house. Toughest hill was 4.5-5.4% for about a half a mile.

I headed out after work this afternoon as well. Just ran the same route (except for the run to town part which is only 2 miles.) I was coming up on that same field and as I passed the end of the treeline, there was my buddy the eagle in the middle of the field having a snack. When I appeared he flew up into the trees. I turned around again and stopped to watch him and he again swooped down after a few minutes and took off out past the trees. I definitely need to remember the camera next time as I wanted to bring it but again forgot.

Next time I'm going to plan on a longer loop around rather than just turning around and going back. I'm really liking riding on the roads now. I need to get use to riding up hills since all I did was ride the flat bike trail last year except for a handful of rides.

My cell phone has a really crappy camera, but here's a shot of my ride. The bald eagle was in the field that would be just to the left of this picture. Still need a pic of the bike.

mrodgers

Just wanted to tell you all, yesterday I finally got a chance to get out on the new Giant Escape. I didn't mess with going to the bike trail and just took off from the garage.

Have to say, WOW! I am loving this thing! I ended up doing about 9 miles and with it being all up and down hills and coupled with the fact that I ended up exploring a bunch of dirt roads around my house, I averaged 7.7 mph.

I started out just running to my little local town but that was too short so I veered off on the way back. Like I said, I ended up on some dirt roads back in the farmlands. I was passing by a field trudging up a hill and was watching a hawk circle around the field. I turned around shortly after this point and headed back and when I reached the field again, I didn't see the hawk. Then I noticed up in a tree along the treeline, it wasn't a hawk but a bald eagle was perched up there. Exciting! I love those things. I stopped this time and sat there for a bit to see what it would do. After about 10 minutes it swooped down from the tree, circled the field and flew off. I'm kicking myself for not bringing the camera with me as I figured I could run the strap over the left shoulder and have the camera hang on the right slightly behind me at my back and still ride (it's a superzoom, so not terribly bulky.)

Ridewithgps.com tells me my ride was 9.1 miles with 689 feet of climb. That stuff nearly killed me on the old bike the few times I ventured in behind my house. Toughest hill was 4.5-5.4% for about a half a mile.

I headed out after work this afternoon as well. Just ran the same route (except for the run to town part which is only 2 miles.) I was coming up on that same field and as I passed the end of the treeline, there was my buddy the eagle in the middle of the field having a snack. When I appeared he flew up into the trees. I turned around again and stopped to watch him and he again swooped down after a few minutes and took off out past the trees. I definitely need to remember the camera next time as I wanted to bring it but again forgot.

Man, I'm loving shifting the gears on this thing. I am so use to having to twist the grip shifters and prepare way early for hills, but still needing to stop on them, lift up the back and get it to finish shifting with the old Walmart job. I'm going to wear this thing out because I'm shifting constantly just to shift because it's so smooth, LOL.

Next time I'm going to plan on a longer loop around rather than just turning around and going back. I'm really liking riding on the roads now. I need to get use to riding up hills since all I did was ride the flat bike trail last year except for a handful of rides.

My cell phone has a really crappy camera, but here's a shot of my ride. The bald eagle was in the field that would be just to the left of this picture. Still need a pic of the bike.