Ha, thanks! This is my rain bicycle. I also ride an old steel MTB for commuting.

Agreed, I hate stock MTB gearing. I swapped my 7-speed 13-28 for a 13-25 and it's still got too many 2-tooth jumps. And in my top gear, 42X13 I spin out with a strong tailwind. I could probably get by with a compact road crank, I live in Louisiana, so I never need the granny ring.

http://jeffhendricks.net/images/bikes/commuter.jpg

OH.

MY.

GAWD.

I lurvvvve that bike! :love:

RAIN bicycle???!!? With rod brakes? They SUCK in the rain!

What size tires? 26 or 28?

You're right, but my commute is totally flat, I ride slowly and keep my braking distance according to rods "efficiency" :lol:
The tires are a strange size, 26" x 1 3/4" x 2" balloon or 54-571.

That looks really sharp, Nomad. Good job. :thumb:

They are Axiom Shoppers. They are absolutely huge! I like them for trips to the store and they keep my work things dry but I don't use them daily because of their size. I have folding baskets on and truly love them. I just put the shoppers on over the folded baskets when I want to use them. Yes, it's heavy. LOL

I think if you added up the fenders, kickstand and chainguard on that orange bike, they would weigh the same as my current bike. Kudos to you for keeping that thing on the road.

Sure, but that bike will still be on the road after World War VII.

Me too, I changed my MTB commuter's gears to 48-36-26 and 12-21 7sp and almost never use the small ring.

Here is my new commuter. Just hit 50 miles on the odo today! http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2554/...94d33c37_o.jpg

I think a picture of the above is in order here, no?

fx
 

I have had the 7.5 fx for a couple of seasons now, and it has worked beautifully for a year round commuter here in ohio. I have cyclocross tires now in anticipation of winter.

What kind of tire? I don't care for knobby tires but am curious to try the kind with knobs only along the sides, which you normally wouldn't roll on.

Clean commuter on Friday, dirty trail tank on Saturday:

Doolittle,

I can see your GF's bike has smaller wheels, but it looks like the geometries of those two LHT frames are very different ... ?

Chris

[QUOTE=Doolittle;9801764]My Surly...


My ladyfriend's LHT. It has a new rack now and will probably get dropbars and a triple this winter. I think it turned out pretty well considering it was primarily built from spare stuff I had.

"Cyclocross" tires, if they're meant for offroad cyclocross racing, are more like shallow-knob MTB tires with a smaller carcass and sized for full-size 700c wheels.

Bunch of examples:
http://www.bicycletires.com/ctzz/cyc...s/products.htm
http://www.biketiresdirect.com/ctzz/...s/products.htm

What you're asking about are also called cross tires, or maybe hybrid, semi-slick, or cross-country tires.
http://www.bicycletires.com/pkepol/k...95_tire/pp.htm

I don't know if I like this kind of tire very much. The side knobs really hurt cornering grip on pavement, and the smooth center isn't that great offroad. But, as long as you don't have to turn very hard on pavement, and you're not digging through dirt and mud off-pavement, they'll be fine.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...1&d=1257022757


Whoa, whoa, whoa...What happened to the street tires and the beam rack??? That looked perfect before...or did you just load the wrong pic?

Friday commute home was terrible. It was mostly into the teeth of a strong, cold wind. :notamused:

First bike ride I didn't enjoy.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...h_PB010046.jpghttp://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...h_PB010053.jpghttp://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...h_PB010051.jpghttp://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...h_PB010050.jpg

Just switched over to all Rival, Gatorskins and new tape. :D

It's amazing what a few flicks of a quick release lever can do. I did my first official MTB ride ever yesterday. It had everything, woods, water, mud, sand, monster climbs and a few descents that had me puckered up.
Another minute or two today and a hose off, it'll be ready for the Monday commute.

I gotcha...that's a great looking ride. I havn't hit the trails since I was a kid...I mean like 12 years old. I wouldn't last too long these days. :lol:

newbeat, that's a nice bike. But you should level your hoods, and put your light on your seatpost :)

You could either keep your bars in the same position and unwrap your bars, move the hoods up the bars a cm or two, then re-wrap, (the old school style, brifters into the dropping curve very slightly, but still level with ground)
or you could just loosen the stem, and tilt the whole bars up, for the new school style (hoods before the downward curve, level with ground)

I've ridden with that bar angle for a while now, so i might tilt it up just to shake things up a bit.

And again, that light has been there forever, but i'm open to change. thanks for the comments though.

This is my Giant OCR. I added a Bor Yueh rack and ATB panniers from Nashbar, and Planet Bike Hardcore fenders from the LBS. I have two small red blinkies in the back, one on the seatpost, and the other on the back of the rack. On the front, I have a small Cat Eye Opticube angled at driver-windshield height, and a PricetonTec Eos that I point downwards to see the road. I have a PB Superflash and a P7 flashlight that will be delivered this week. I'm going to remove the Cat Eye and the rack-mounted blinky, and move the Eos to my helmet. I'm currently running Vittoria Rubino 23 tires, but I'm going to swap them out soon for 28s.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/168335/OCR%20Commuter.JPG

That is a really nice clean setup. I like that. What tires are you going with?

Vittoria Rubino 700x23s. They're a great (and cheap, $22) summer tire, that grip better than the stock Kendas that came with the bike, but also match the blue/black theme I'm going for. I want to get some 28s for the winter, and cross my fingers that I'll have enough clearance.

Awesome! Do you have a close up on how to mount that rack? I have a 2002 OCR and a Bor Yueh rack laying around that is craving to be used on my OCR, but am not sure how to mount it.

I'll work on it tonight. Right now, it just screws into the eyelet next to the hub at the bottom, then has the arm connecting to the eyelet on the stay at the top. I could only get the right arm to connect because the other side interfered with my brake cables, but one arm is plenty.

Edit: I just took a look at your OCR, but it doesn't appear to have the seatstay eyelet that my '08 has. If that's the case, you'll need to jury-rig the top arm to the seatstay somehow.