hey thanks for the recommendations. I'll look online for some deals.

hopefully. Ive already upgraded the tires and grips. I just took the stock grips off and double wrapped the bars with cork tape. much more comfortable for my big hands.

The saddle is not that bad but I wouldnt want to use if for say a 30 mile ride. what do upgraded saddles add?

thanks

If you have flat bars I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend Ergon grips. I have them on 2 of my bikes (one of them specific for the swept back Mary Jane bars), and they are amazing!

Actually, I haven't seen that movie all the way through. Will have to download it from my favorite illegal site and do that.

OP, if you stay with platform pedals, then you could try some sort of pedal strap on them. Was looking around and saw that Wellgo has a velcro pedal strap like this one:



This might be the best of both worlds (don't want to get a clipless pedal system yet but still want something to hold your foot). Have seem them on Ebay as low as $10 or so.

@PatrickGSR94 I was perusing Ergon's website. They have some interesting stuff. Their saddles look nice and wonder if you or anyone else has tried any of them:

Products ? ERGON BIKE

They say they are available in two sizes, but don't seem to find what they are yet. Hmm. I seem to like my saddles flat with a little more padding than most typical road saddles. Their SMC4 MTB saddle looks interesting even though I'd be buying it for a road bike.

Edit: Just found out the sizing. Medium is 145mm width and Large is 155mm width.

https://www.ergon-bike.com/en/product...#smc4-44030005

The price is good at $60 for the base SMC4 model. Tempting...

Comfort. Saddles are the most personal, so difficult to recommend. They need to support your sitbones, and not compress your soft tissue, and since everybody's anatomy is different, there is no saddle that is The Best.

The most popular saddle though is hands down Brooks. They have a variety of leather models, and recently introduced the rubber/fabric Cambium. I ride a Selle An-Atomica Titanico X (X is for Xtra Ass). Leather is pricey though, and there are lots and lots of other cheaper options, many of which would also probably work for you.

LBS often have saddle libraries or loaner programs where you can try saddles for a week or two.

Actually had pretty good results with this cheapie from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A71M0UY

Picked it up to replace a damaged saddle, intending to grab something better in a couple weeks, but I've been riding it for almost a year now. No problems as long as I don't get surprised by a big pothole.

I agree it's personal. I have a fairly expensive SMP Extra saddle (although as SMP saddles go, it's a cheap example, it was $70 and they go over $200) and I like it. But I also like cheap saddles of the sort that come on $400-500 hybrids and "sport" MTB's. Most people who have Brooks saddles love them but I've given them several chances and haven't liked them.

That cheapie looks like it has a nice wide cutout, should be good for avoiding soft tissue

I have a friend who swears by his SMP saddle. That thing looks like it needs a shot of viagra tho!

It is, but I've managed a bruise right on both ischia from not spotting where some new pavement had sunk almost 6" at an expansion gap, and frogged my right hamstring with it from catching a curb edge while leaning hard on a left turn. Starting to think I might need to adjust the old suspension seatpost away from the fully clamped down position just a bit to soften stuff like that.

thanks for the rec. however, if you havent tried bar tape. WOW. my bike came with the grips shaped like the Ergon grips but not at all comfy. I took them off and wrapped one layer of cork tape around the bar. too thin. I wrapped a second layer and voila! wow. I think Im even going to double wrap my road bike bar its so comfortable.

I dont use the bar that much though. I have extensions and I try to be on those as much as possible as thats the most comfortable hand position.

I think it depends on the grip brand, also. My wife's bike has grips sort of like Ergons, "ergonomic" style or whatever, and they're not nearly as comfortable as the actual Ergon GP grips.

I like classic WTB solid rubber grips... they are not particularly padded or shaped. Go figure

ahhh so that's what the WTB on my 26" disc wheelset stands for.

question guys- is there such a thing as a car-loud horn for bikes?

https://www.mec.ca/en/product/4013-5...d-Cycling-Horn

Or something similar.

Buddy of mine has one after his accident.

The Airzound that many people use and recommend is a much higher pitch than most car horns, and single tone. If you want to really sound like a car horn you will need some sort of dual-tone setup, probably battery powered. I've seen people rig up stuff. Check out the Traffic Droid in the UK on YouTube, channel name "sonofthewindsinc", he rides with 5 or 6 cameras, and has a custom setup dual-tone air horn attached to his handlebars with a push button near the right brake hood.

There's a guy I've seen a couple times commuting in my area who has a whistle that he blows when he's entering hairy intersections.

thanks guys. I definitely feel like drivers will be more aware with a loud horn .


Im not really at risk being a tall 300 lber on a bike that's almost as tall as a Honda civic - They definitely see me


but you just never know

ok guys, Ive been commuting on my mountain bike and I just love it. its very comfy and still pretty quick.


but I wanted to also start going on group rides with my road bike and have learned a lot about tire pressures and rolling resistance.


so I put a conti gp4000 25c on the front, and gp4000sii 28c on the rear(really a 31c)


with my weight, I can pump the rear to 120psi and get the 15% drop. cant do that with a smaller tire and the bike wont fit a bigger tire.


here is the problem - the rear tire fits everywhere but my out of true wheel makes the tire touch the brake boss in a couple of spots, ever so slightly.


so my question is , if I took the rear brake off and ground that boss down about 1mm I should have all the clearance I need.


would it be unadviseable to have a bike without a rear brake?

I'd true the wheel before doing that, or else swap front and back tires. It's advisable to have some redundancy in brakes.

absolutely. didn't have the spoke wrench but will grab one today. hopefully that will fix it.


there is no way that the 28c tire will fit in front . not gonna happen
someone said that putting the same tire on a wider rim will make it shorter. does anyone have insight on this?


thanks

I'd expect it to be taller on a wider rim.

Shouldn't be. As the tire beads spread farther apart, the height of the curved arc of the tire's cross section would have to get shorter.