Freud

Roody,

You say to keep an eye out for an older MTB this no suspension to use in the winter. What are some brands that you recommend? What are some things to look for in a good Road or MTB that I could find on Ebay or CL? My Specialized has disc brakes so I need adapters to mount a rack. But I have a front and read fender for it, one that goes under the front fork and the read that clamps to the seat post.

Roody

Specialized, Trek and Giant are the reliable brands you see most often around here. Any of the brands sold in a bike shop are good. You don't need a great downhill or racing mountain bike for street use. You need a sturdy frame that's the right size for you. Steel or aluminum makes little difference. Look for components (brakes, gears and shifters) from major companies like Shimano and SRAM. If you find a bike with middle or top group components, it's definitely a good bike and you should buy it. But if it has low-end components, it can still be a good bike. Make sure the wheels are sound because they're expensive to replace.

For mountain bikes, pre-1995 models are usually steel frames and "rigid" (no suspension). These are my favorites, but they're getting hard to find. 1995-2005 MTBs are steel or aluminum with front suspension--called hardtails. You'll see a lot of good buys in this area. More recent bikes are likely to have front and rear suspension. These are the ones that can be a little harder to adapt to street use. Also, they cost too much and kids will want to steal them.

You should be able to find these older bikes for $100 to 200. Look for bikes that have barely been ridden. (It's surprising how many people bought MTBs when they were a fad, didn't like them, and are just now getting around to selling them.) If it has disc brakes and nice components like your Specialized I'd pay $200 to 300 in new condition. If there are signs of wear on an old MTB, I would not pay even $100 for it. If it was a discount brand, I would not buy it at all, unless I needed it to get home and it was cheaper than cab fare.

wahoonc

MTB's make excellent commuters. One of my all time favorite commuters was my 1990 Giant Iguana, I bought as my first mountain bike and actually bought it new I rode it on trails like crazy for about 2 years then added fenders and racks and bought a second set of wheels to mount slicks on so I could use it as a commuter. That bike is still alive and kicking after being stolen and recovered (by me) sold, stolen and recovered, given to a BIL then the BIL brought it back to me a couple of months ago! Now it is torn down waiting on some new parts and will be reincarnated as an Expedtion Tour bike. FWIW it is a steel frame rigid with Suntour XCM components and was about 2 or 3 up from the bottom of the Giant line up in 1990. What I would reccomend is that if you are looking for a decent used bike haunt the thrift shops and see what they have. Avoid newer suspended mountain bikes, especially with names like Next or Mongoose (however the old rigid Mongoose (mongeese?) are fine) Another bike to look for are the English roadsters like the Raleighs, Robin Hoods, etc. however they are becoming very scarce and are starting to command higher prices.
To give you an idea of what can be done with a thrift store MTB check out this website... an around the world tour anybody?

Aaron

Artkansas 

I second that. My Specialized Hard Rock was a freebie. Its about 15 years old and I added fenders, lights, a rack and street tires. It has been a solid performer ridden daily in all kinds of weather including snow. In the first two years that I commuted all it needed was a tire patch and a little retruing of the rear wheel one time.

Roody

I think Hardrocks are about my favorite street bikes. Those frames are so sweet. Yours probably cost $300 brand new, and it's probably worth almost that much now. Well, it's worth more, but that's what you'd get for it. But we'd better stop talking about old MTBs or everybody's going to want one and they won't be cheap anymore!

bhtooefr

OK, a few questions...

I'm going car-lite. Not car-free, unfortunately, but I don't feel like doing a century if I have to go home for some reason. (I'm moving to an apartment 2.4 miles from work, and MUCH closer to some of my friends.)

Anyway, I'll add to the dating question. This one's more specific, though, and is actually more similar to shumacher's question.

I have a close friend that I may end up dating... (she seems to be extremely interested in me, and not at all interested in her boyfriend.) Looking at the maps, however, she'll be about 6 miles from me. That's not the problem. The problem is that ~1.6 miles of that are on a very hilly, very curvy road, and ~1.2 miles of that are 55 MPH. I can eliminate the 35 MPH segment, which is all of 0.4 miles. An alternate route that's 1.5 miles longer can trade that for a lot of very curvy, somewhat hilly 35 MPH road, leading to a straight and flat 55 MPH road. Eh, screw it, why am I posting on here, I should just try that route. In fact, looking at a variation on that route, that might be the way to get her out of her car and on a bike... well, if there were a child seat on her bike, and she were willing to take her kid on some of these roads...

And, that's a tip I'll give - if you're not car-free yet, try driving your bike route as closely as you can (I won't drive this route entirely, because there's about a half a mile of MUP involved, to avoid heavy traffic roads,) watching for things that benefit your riding style, or an ideal riding style for that road.

Another tip: if you're not opposed to it, your SO having a car could come in handy, if you actually are going to sell your own car.

Cargo, invest in at least one, and preferably two panniers. Seriously, it's worth it. Also, I might be getting a used B@W trailer. I hear that kiddie trailers also work well, even if they're not ideal for holding a lot of cargo, because motorists think "this guy's got kids in the back," and give you all the room you'd ever want.

waldo82

This may sound like a lot of work, but I take my tires off when the roads clear. I do this to save wear on the tires and my legs. Last year I think that I ended up taking my studded tires on and off 3 times. Roody is right, I live in central Iowa and we get a LOT of ice. I used to live in Minnesota and you may be able to get by with knobbie tires (cheaper).

bhtooefr

Alternately, just run two sets of wheels - one with studded tires, one with knobbies. Then, once you know you won't need one of those sets for winter any more, you can swap that out for slicks for dry/non-freezing weather.

Roody

In fact, if you're going to do this you probably only need to have a studded tire on the FRONT wheel. That will give you about 75 per cent of the advantage of studs. Then you can change out the front wheel and you don't have to mess with that dirty rear wheel.

One thing we forgot to mention: you can put studded tires on a ROAD BIKE too.

bhtooefr

But, there's the uphill traction advantage of studs that you mentioned, and you need studs on the rear wheel to get that, no?

bhtooefr

Oh, another thread reminded me...

Except for short distances, bike shorts are worth it, trust me.

Performance has a decent short (IMO) that occasionally goes on sale for CHEAP.

If you don't want to show the whole world your exact dimensions, wear them under regular shorts. That's what I do.

shumacher

This is some great encouragement for me! My MTB was bought just as front suspension started trickling into the low end. Instead of putting my money into cheap components and a cheap suspension fork, I bought a nice non-suspension MTB. I already have a rack on my Rockhopper Comp, so I think I'm a set of lights, fenders and some rain gear away from making a proper go of it. My off-road tires are new, and I can't see replacing them already. Maybe if I get into it. I'll see if I can get outfitted this weekend (I'm sick and out of town now) and I'll see what next week brings.

bhtooefr

Heck, annoyingly, I find it difficult to find a rigid MTB new - the only ones I've seen (I haven't looked all that much, though) were the Roadmaster Mt. Fury and its ilk.

shumacher

There's the Stumpjumper classic. I think the fitness bikes like Trek's 7.5FX are trying to fill this void. They figure you're not really going offroad if you don't want shocks, I guess.

Cosmoline

One thing I found useful when developing bike routes was Google Earth. The photos are generally more accurate than local maps, and reveal shortcuts and side routes that keep you away from the main arteries and save time.

cerewa

If I wanted a brand new rigid MTB style bike for commuting, I would look for bikes being sold as hybrids. As far as I know, some new hybrids (not most) have 26" wheels, ~1.75" width tires, 21+ speeds, no suspension, and clearance for fat tires.

Nitram

Just got my new bike! I goes awesome
I'll put up photos later.

Anyways,

Wheres a good source to get a milk crate from???

JoeyMac

I became car-free by default last year when the 6th car I'd had in the 6 years since I got my license blew a transmission. I reverted to doing exactly what I did as a teenager before getting a license and started riding bikes everywhere again. And I realized that I LOVE riding bikes, have always loved riding bikes, and I can't believe I had forgotten long enough to dump thousands of dollars into cars over the years. Now I rarely get into a car, even turning down rides to places I can just as easily ride to. The only exception is that my girlfriend has a car and doesn't particularly enjoy riding herself (she has foot problems), so if we go out somewhere, I will ride in her car, or even be a gentleman and drive it for her. Other than that, bikes all the way!

shumacher

I'm about to pull the trigger on a couple of fenders and/or some bags, but I wanted an opinion. From a practical standpoint, I realize the question isn't a critical one; the distance I'd ride would make a department store cruiser or something with a banana seat and handlebar tassels a practical commuter. Most day-to-day rides would be under two miles one way, and my area is as close to level as possible. If you told me there was a ten foot elevation change, I'd call you a liar.

I have a 1992 Specialized Sirrus Triple. This older Sirrus is a drop-handlebar road bike with lots of braze-ons for mounting all sorts of stuff - at the time I was thinking about touring. It runs a 700x23c. The wheels are a little largish, so I hate having to deal with flats. It's in great shape, even though it was both my road bike and my mountain bike for the first couple of years I had it.

I also have a 1995 Specialized Rockhopper Comp. This was bought at a point in time when suspension was an option on mountain bikes. This bike didn't have that option. I didn't think the kinks were worked out enough. I loved how rigid it was - it didn't waste energy on flexing or noise, it just went. It's also covered with braze-ons galore. A foolish loan to a friend went wrong, so it's not as shiny as the Sirrus, but it's still in decent shape. I think it's going to need some new brake pads and possibly a new middle chainring soon. I'm looking at a new rapidfire unit for the rear deraileur, as it's being a little finicky about shifting to the lower half of the range, and my deraileur is fairly new.

I was thinking about prepping the Rockhopper with all the stuff because as much as I love the bike (it's my favorite) it's also furthest behind the curve, what with the maturity of front suspension systems in $500-$1000 price range bikes. The improvements in road bikes are less likely to show improvement to my experience, considering my fitness level. Besides, being a slightly scruffy burgundy-colored bike with some rust in the bolts might say "steal me" less than whatever new bike I might get or my fairly shiny road bike. But hey, that's my thinking. What do you think? Am I buying MTB fenders or roadie fenders?

stevegor

I'm not car free, but does this today's riding count as almost?

1: Went for a training ride on my Specialized roadie

2: My son and I went grocery shopping on the tandem and BoB trailer

3: We also used the tandem/BoB to pick up an old bike the other side of town

4: I rode to work, then home later tonight on my highly modded Raleigh 20

Juha

Lots of good advice on studded tyres in this thread already, but I'll add a few cents. My experience is from utility riding in winter. Off-road is probably quite different.

Dry pavement and studded tyres: you will wear yourself out before you do any real damage to high quality studded tyres. There's added rolling resistance, less comfortable handling and a funny noise involved. The tyres won't mind any of that, but you'll be seeking snowy/icy patches in no time.

You will get limited traction even with a normal knobby rear tyre, unless the conditions are really, really, really slippery (wet ice or such). Rear wipe-outs are recoverable, front wipe-outs usually aren't. I believe that's the logic with getting just one studded tyre and putting it on front. Having a whole wheelset just makes swapping easier. Peter White seems to think having just one studded tyre is not worth the savings (https://www.peterwhitecycles.com). I think in road use it might work.

I'm lazy so I have a winter beater with good studded tyres permanently installed, front and rear. Because the tyres are high quality, I won't have to particularly try and avoid dry pavement for their sake. I get on the road in mornings with minimal hassle (no tyre/wheelset changing required), and can freely err on the safe side if the weather looks at all slippery. Which it does for a good 4-5 months around here.

--J

East Hill

This is a GREAT tip! I have spotted more ways around things than I can list by looking at Google Earth carefully, and realising that I can get to some places cycling that I would not be able to get to easily by driving.

East Hill

hugo

"I'm lazy so I have a winter beater with good studded tyres permanently installed, front and rear."

That really is an excellent idea. I'll be getting a new bike in a couple months and now have an excuse for new tyres on my old one! I'm guessing you ditch the beater on nice winter days - that was my plan anyway, how could I resist riding a new bike just because of winter!

tiffanydob

I think my biggest concern is what lock to get. there are a million different kinds, some are huge and extremely heavy and some are tiny and thin and look like you could break it with your bare hands. what does everyone use? whats the best way to lock it up? key or combo lock?

pluc

I don't know if I'm getting more (haven't scientifically analyzed it), but they're all addicted to my booty. No kidding.