Hey Everyone...I been lurking around for months now, and just wanted to become part of the community if that doesn't sound too corny. I currently have 3 bikes, one road, one track, and one fixed conversion.

The road bike is a custom built bike from someone in florida, who sold it to someone in CA, and then sold it to me. It was originally a $1800 frame - made of columbus tubing. The frame came with a Titec seatpost, carbon stem threadless, Richtey Carbon fork, and a San Marco Saddle, all for the "hefty" price of $300. It is in beautiful condition, and has Ultegra FD, RD, and hubs, with the rest of the parts from nashbar. I am SLOWLY upgrading parts to ultegra when I feel like it, ha.

The Track bike is nothing special at all, it is the Mercier Kilo TT that I just bought a few days ago from sprtymama on ebay for $307 with $40 shipping, but I used the 10% off coupon with paypal, so I got a good deal in my opinion. Its definitly a nice bike, even the wheelset is decent. Seems like too many people on here hate no-name parts for some reason. It is cheap, and if well maintained with grease or whatever is needed, it should last it's money's worth.

The fixed conversion bike is the cheapest, but it's my go-to bike, taking it wherever I'll like to go, and not care about where it's locked up. It is an old sears roadmaster bike that was converted to fixed gear with suzue basic hubs and sun CR16 36 holes. every part on that bike is nashbar, except for the promax adjustable stem. I want to bend my own handlebars, if anyone has some suggestions / tips on what I should do to accomplish that, help me out! I have a pipe bender, and I figure you go out and get some cro-moly tubing and bend it? I want to bend IBIS SCORCHER Handlebars - as shown on this site: https://www.fixedgeargallery.com/cont...ashimax500.jpg I figure with the adjustable stem, I can raise the bar high to have a cruising style, but if I drop the stem, it can become sorta like drop bars. I have a roadmaster leather saddle that works great for dropped position or raised.

Looking forward to being a part of the heated yet funny as hell discussions on here.
Chad

Hi, and welcome to the forums from a former 'Burger. I still live pretty darn close, and go there often. I have an idea on bending the bars for you. Look for an ornamental iron working shop in the yellow pages. I used to live close to one on Becks Run Rd. which is off of Carson St. in South Side. They could probably do something like this quick, and on the cheap. Who knows, they may even do it for free just because it's different. Plus they have all the proper equipment for doing the job right. The one I mentioned used to weld forks together for a friend of mine, so he could make chopper bicycles when we were kids. Couldn't hurt to call around, and ask. Anyways, just wanted to give you an idea, and say hi. Good luck, and maybe I'll see you on the road in Pittsburgh.
Denny

Awesome, I've ridden on becks run rd lots of times. the only road that I am not brave enough to ride yet is forbes and 5th ave, way too hectic for me. I ride in the bus lanes a lot, but when it closes off and becomes part of the main road, it gets hairy for me. I'm up and down carson a lot on the fixie. I love this road, beautiful to cruise on and say hi to lots of people. I am also hearing impaired, so I use my eyes way more than my hearing for things. Thanks for the idea, I will definitly check this out.

Chad