John Redcorn

If this kind of thread is ok with the mods add your own quick questions.

Few of mine:

I'm thinking a lot about dual-sport bikes with disc brakes like the trek 8.3 or maybe a bikesdirect equiv (suggestions? my mtb ran out of gears!). I mostly drive my grand prix and take my bike everywhere, I take the front wheel off now to put it in trunk. Is this easy on a bike with disc brakes? It looks way simple. What's the process? Is there anything about disc brakes that's more delicate and might not be so great in a car trunk? Should I get a rack or be driving my truck if I get an expensive (to me) bike like that?

Another: Why does $500ish seem to be a price-point where on the high-side of, a good majority of bikes do not have any type of chain guard, not talking a full guard like some bikes have, just the plastic ring. Do they never expect you to bike at all in pants? I loved going biking before work or lunch hour in winter with no need to change clothes or shower.

One more: I've seen you guys say a 26"-wheeled mountain bike can accelerate off the line faster than a bigger wheeled bike, is that really true? Wouldn't the rider of the bigger wheeled bike have found a "best" lower starting gear that makes it a wash? When I bought my truck it came with 2 sets of wheels/tires 29" highway and 31" all-terrain, back when I still had the 29s I could definitely feel faster acceleration with them but I had no huge # of mostly-unused lower gears to start in like you would on a bike.

fietsbob

Noted, You are in Oklahoma . Europe is more inclined to include a chainguard on a bike designed to be transportation not recreational Sports.


I suggest you read up on Physics ... you are asking about Newton's laws of Motion , namely, Inertia .

ahsposo 

But I agree that a full blown pants guard would be Excellent.

Except on an IGH equipped bike they don't seem to exist. Probably hard to design around that FD, no?

Retro Grouch 

1. I think that a disc brake bike is actually easier to remove and re-install the front wheel because you don't have to release the rim brake.
2. A chain guard with a front derailleur is easier to talk about than to design and make work.
3. If everything else were equal, a smaller drive wheel would have a lower gear and would accelerate better. Everything else is never equal. All you have to do is shift a 700c bike down a gear to negate the advantage.

Homebrew01

A smaller diameter wheel will accelerate faster. But the difference is tiny.

no1mad 

Disc brakes- just go to the LBS of your choice and let them know that you are interested in a DS, pretty much tell them what you told us (save for BD being an option), and I'm sure they will be more than happy to demo the wheel removal.

A couple of related tips:

-I think that mechanical disc brakes will be just fine for the areas that you are riding in.
-If you plan on installing a rear rack on the bike, then look for a bike that has the rear brake mounted to the chain stay (inside the triangle)- gives you more options for racks.

Sixty Fiver

It depends on how small the wheels are... mtb wheels and tyres usually come with a weight penalty compared to lighter road wheels and tyres.

I just swapped the winter tyres on my car to the summer tyres which are narrower, shorter, and lighter... this makes a huge difference with a car that has a small 4 cylinder engine that does not have buckets of low end torque like my Jeep, although the power to weight ratio is better with the car which works better at higher revs.

The biggest improvement has been in the highway mileage as the rolling resistance is much lower and accelerating and re-accelerating requires less power... my Moulton works in much the same fashion except the engine is much smaller. It gets up to speed very quickly and one can barely shift the gears fast enough to keep up with it's accelleration.



As for bikes, discs are fairly easy to deal with save for the need to protect the disc rotor during transport and in the case of hydros, you want to block the caliper or lever when the wheel is removed as accidental compression can result in the piston seals blowing out when there is no rotor to stop their travel.

John Redcorn

Thanks you all I've mainly been thinking of trek 8.3, giant roam 2, specialized crosstrail disc. To me the, trek seems the winner since specialized has no fork lockout and giant has hydraulic discs that might be more trouble.

Also been looking at some of the motobecane elite adventure ones for $400. But it may be worth the extra to buy the trek in town to know it will be a good fit and have a bit of support from the store.

It's a trek brand store I walked into and looked at some bikes. Should I buy locally-owned instead?

fietsbob

I expect The franchise is Locally owned by the proprietor , not the Trek corporation .. Its so Here.

though the Trek Corp does offer their long standing dealers Bikes on Credit a rotating account ..
which allows the seller to pay for them with the sales , not up front.

so there are a wide selection of bikes in the inventory.

SKS, for example, makes a chainguard that you can buy and add to your existing bike , if you really want one ..

SKS Chainboard | Chain Reaction Cycles