Greetings from New England, USA!
 

Hi,

As a genuine old guy, I have been away from bicycles for many years. But old guys do better by getting some regular exercise and bicycles are particularly good for that. Years ago I did some regional touring but by far most of my cycling was done as a daily commuter, year 'round through all kinds of weather including sun, heat, rain, wind and snow and for eleven years I was averaging about two thousand miles a year.

Yet every once in a while since then I would think about my riding years and last year got to thinking about that again but then could not stop thinking about that. And so I went online and started looking around at what today's bicycles are all about, and wow, there have been a vast number of changes. The last bicycle I had, for instance, had a six-speed, threaded-on freewheel, back then what were ordinary shift levers are now known as friction shifters and the 27 x 1-1/4 inch tires I thought would be around forever are now practically museum pieces. But at least Brooks B17 saddles are still with us, yay!

I have owned, ridden and am familiar with different kinds of bikes, so I knew what sort of a bike I was most interested in, then I studied and learned about modern bicycle technology and components, then did some extensive shopping online, all while paying attention to the smallest of the many details and I now have a brand new bike, nothing fancy but it is inside and about ten feet away from where I am now. However, while its fork and frame geometry and so much else about it are near perfect, my next activity is to swap out its 1 x 8 gear train and go with a new 3 x 9 gear train. Yet as a delightful surprise, the bike's designers apparently figured somebody like me would consider that sort of a gear train swap and so on the sides near the upper end of the bike's down tube they included not just one but two mounting lugs, one for the bike's existing rear derailleur shift lever AND and an unused one for a customer-supplied front derailleur shift lever. Nice!

But I still do have some questions to ask, please, and so now I am headed off to an appropriate forum here to get into such matters.

Hello and good to be here!

reroll,
Very glad that you found Bike Forums, I see that you already have lots of experience on the mechanical side of things and think that you will fit in well with other members.
When you get your posts up please post some pictures of your current builds.
Welcome, Ben

Hi, xiaoman1,


Thanks for the welcome and good to meet you! Before signing on here I did a bit of lurking and enjoyed seeing intelligent discussions which generally stayed on topic. I appreciate that.


Because I have been away from cycling for so long and my now being considerably older, it likely will take me a while to build up my strength and endurance, but the bigger hills are to the west of me and most of the roads to the east of me are not so difficult. And also to the east of me there is more of civilization, a large village with coffee and food about a mile and a half away, a city of some 25,000 people about three miles away and two full-sized grocery stores another mile beyond the city, so with a rack and bags on my bike there is a lot I could do. Another bonus is there are a few smaller colleges in this region, where bicycles are popular and there are at least a few bicycle shops, too. Anyway, there are plenty of local reasons for me to get out of my apartment and go for a ride.

Welcome aboard!

Rage,

Thank you! It is great to meet an active cycling community.

Welcome aboard reroll-- There's a gold mine of information here. I'm sure you'll find the answers to your questions.

rickrob,

Thank you! There are things I know about, things I have questions about and things I could have even more questions about depending on how far I get into my new project. I am good at adjustments and maintenance but have no experience at wheel building, which no doubt would bring about a number of new questions, but someday I would like to give that a try.

I am from Albany
 

nice read, I love the racing scene in New England. Thanks for sharing