The Bicycle / Biking Gear Thread

nuke_diver said:
I'm thinking maybe a gravel bike would be the best bet for me. My old steel was both the main commuter (to the gym) and occasional longer ride if my CAAD13 was in the shop (which has happened a couple of times). So I would probable want something that could fill a similar role and given there are some decent trails not too far away maybe a gravel bike would be the ticket. I'm not fussy on colour but at least part of me thinks if I'm going to spend $$ I should get what I want which means primarily through axles and hydraulic disc brakes. I've been looking at FB marketplace (not great since generally a single picture and very little details) or craigslist for something used but not much has jumped out at me. I will probably go to a local bike exchange and see if they have something reasonable in my size (about a 58/large frame depending on manufacturer).

@sunvalleylaw thanks for the advice Steve though I think the ship has sailed because they did give me $ for medical so I can use that for the bike. I never went to the doctor at all. Honestly I was not hurt too bad and didn't really have any lasting issues. And I agreed to that so I think trying to get something else now would be legally difficult or impossible.

I'm trying to be cooperative but I'm trying to not get low balled on the bike though like I said before I kind of get that you won't get a new bike money for it. I'm still waiting for a clarification from them, they offered $275 which is effectively what I could determine the interwebz thought the insurance claim would be. Of course taking that and finding a bike for 275 is nearly impossible. It's either a POS near that price or it's considerably more 500-1000ish for something that is in ridable shape with a similar vintage. The clarification was about a statement saying something like "if you find a comparable bike that the INS co would owe for the cost of that comparable bike" Which to me sounds like if I find a 1983 Japanese steel Lug frame bike with SunTour components for $600 they would pay for that but they won't give me $600 to buy a new bike :shrug:
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I love my gravel bike, the first one you see in my above post. That one accidentally ended up being a covid era purchase, (or at least delivery) though it was ordered after the season was over in 2019 from leftover stock from the year. A buddy built it up at the Sun Valley Co. Bike Shop for me, (by himself in the shop, with a later outdoor/distant delivery) though they were closed down due to pandemic closures. He told me I may as well have it for the pandemic for health/mental health and it ended up being a great thing for me, being able to ride by myself out a bunch of our local dirt roads without worry regarding any crowding at trailheads with out of town folks or all that. At that time, those contacts were still a worry for me.

Since, it got me in the habit of rarely driving to a trail head to start a bike ride (though I am trying to do more of that as I miss the alpine trails) , and helped me combine road and dirt in new ways. I have two sets of wheels, though I probably don't really have to. One set with narrower (but not narrow) tires for primarily road use, and one set with 52's on it, and I am so used to those now I rarely swap on the rims with the 38's. But for a long road day, perhaps I would. Once the 38's wear out, I think I will go down to some fast 32's on that set to make the difference more significant.

Anyhow, I support the gravel concept. And they make steel gravel frames too if you are inclined to check it out.

Glad you are pretty much healed up!
 
sunvalleylaw said:
I love my gravel bike, the first one you see in my above post. That one accidentally ended up being a covid era purchase, (or at least delivery) though it was ordered after the season was over in 2019 from leftover stock from the year. A buddy built it up at the Sun Valley Co. Bike Shop for me, (by himself in the shop, with a later outdoor/distant delivery) though they were closed down due to pandemic closures. He told me I may as well have it for the pandemic for health/mental health and it ended up being a great thing for me, being able to ride by myself out a bunch of our local dirt roads without worry regarding any crowding at trailheads with out of town folks or all that. At that time, those contacts were still a worry for me.

Since, it got me in the habit of rarely driving to a trail head to start a bike ride (though I am trying to do more of that as I miss the alpine trails) , and helped me combine road and dirt in new ways. I have two sets of wheels, though I probably don't really have to. One set with narrower (but not narrow) tires for primarily road use, and one set with 52's on it, and I am so used to those now I rarely swap on the rims with the 38's. But for a long road day, perhaps I would. Once the 38's wear out, I think I will go down to some fast 32's on that set to make the difference more significant.

Anyhow, I support the gravel concept. And they make steel gravel frames too if you are inclined to check it out.

Glad you are pretty much healed up!
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Is that a Kona as well? Saying that because of the K on headtube? That's one of the bikes I was looking at. I heard back from the insurance co and they are being reasonable after all :shocked: . Basically he said if I find an comparable bike they would cover it or give me $275 for my bike as is. When I asked to clarify saying if I found a bike for $600 that was comparable would they cover that and he said yes so long as I could provide a receipt. Which means if I want a new bike that's probably not going to happen but I should be able to get something reasonable decent around that price, assuming I can find something. So I plan to head to the bike exchange here and bring my old bike a few other spare parts to donate or have them properly recycle and see what they might have that could work for me. I think that is going to be my best bet as I suspect most bike shops would be less likely to have inventory of a comparable bike. If I can't find anything I'll probably go the new bike route.

I now definitely regret not keeping my old Gravel bike (Toughroad GX3) that I traded to get my new Revolt Advanced 2. I thought about it at the time but that's the bike I keep up in the PNW when I'm up there. Between the cost of shipping (bringing it on the drive wasn't a good option) and the work it needed plus the loss of the trade in value it was probably going to cost me at least $600 and I had hoped that it was going to be easier to get that much out of the INS Co. Now it does look like I might but that Giant Toughroad would have been a perfect commuter bike. Oh well live and learn. The Revolt is awesome though and it was great on the Tour de Whatcom century even though it rocks 45mm tires it was very comfortable for the 112 miles of the ride
 
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I know a couple guys who've recently picked up one of Arctos hydration packs and rave about them for tech off-road moto.
Been looking for a middle option between my USWE Zulu hip 2L pack/1 liter bladder & a Klim NAC Pak 13L pack/3 liter bladder. The Arctos Swift 6.2 looks like the sweet spot: 2L, low/hip load w/ no back coverage for hot days. The zulu is great for short bike rides but 1L goes fast on hot days. ~2L is my prefence. It should be great for all my 2 wheel needs & having quick side pouch acces to things like phone/engergy gells w/o removing the pack is clutch.
 
Well I went to the local charity bike exchange today and dropped off my old bike with some extra old parts (but forgot another box full of parts :facepalm: ) and ended up buying a 1997 Trek 2100 in excellent condition. Because it's a charity I think I paid a bit more than the usual ebay going price but the brakes and shifters are immaculate and since it's a bike shop it's been fully certified and has a 30 warranty so that's worth something. I have read that some of these have some issues with bonding but since it's been certified I'm confident that it's ok.

And I'm ok giving Good Karma bikes a bit more cause they do good work in the community. Don't yet know if the insurance company will cover all of it but even if they only cover what the cost of my old bike was worth it won't be a bad deal (I'd be out of pocket $200 in that case). No pictures yet but looks a bit like this with black bar tape that's a bit thin for my liking so I'll eventually change that and the seat is a bit worn but I have my old CAAD10 bike seat which is in better shape so I might use that.

1787961268073.png
 
nuke_diver said:
Well I went to the local charity bike exchange today and dropped off my old bike with some extra old parts (but forgot another box full of parts :facepalm: ) and ended up buying a 1997 Trek 2100 in excellent condition. Because it's a charity I think I paid a bit more than the usual ebay going price but the brakes and shifters are immaculate and since it's a bike shop it's been fully certified and has a 30 warranty so that's worth something. I have read that some of these have some issues with bonding but since it's been certified I'm confident that it's ok.

And I'm ok giving Good Karma bikes a bit more cause they do good work in the community. Don't yet know if the insurance company will cover all of it but even if they only cover what the cost of my old bike was worth it won't be a bad deal (I'd be out of pocket $200 in that case). No pictures yet but looks a bit like this with black bar tape that's a bit thin for my liking so I'll eventually change that and the seat is a bit worn but I have my old CAAD10 bike seat which is in better shape so I might use that.

View attachment 123843
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Havent seen one of those in a while (I used to have a slick shop that was a trek dealer up the street from me back then). Those bonded carbon frames were something & obviously you're aware of their reputation. I know many people were pretty fickle on that series so I'm really curious to hear your thoughts after you get some seat time.

At the time, my roommate's dad was a machinist/fabricator for a company that worked exclusively with Cannondale so he had some opinions on bonded frames.
 
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Lerxst said:
Havent seen one of those in a while (I used to have a slick shop that was a trek dealer up the street from me back then). Those bonded carbon frames were something & obviously you're aware of their reputation. I know many people were pretty fickle on that series so I'm really curious to hear your thoughts after you get some seat time.

At the time, my roommate's dad was a machinist/fabricator for a company that worked exclusively with connondale so he had some opinions on bonded frames.
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My brother had a couple of early, aluminum/carbon fiber bonded mountain bike frames back in the 80's. They definately had a shelf life. You didn't want to be bombing a trail on the expiration date.

*my brother's bike was a 1997 GT STS. Not the 80's. It had a carbon fiber frame reinforced in spots with aluminum. It also had an aluminum swing arm. Nothing bonded.
 
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Well now I really want to rebuild my '93 GT Outpost but I guess I'd be better off making sure the family box-store bikes are all operational first lol. The GT needs at the minimum a rear wheel, freewheel/cassette, rear derailleur, chain, new cables all around, and brake pads and grips. Trying to figure out the difference between freewheel and cassette setups, it looks like my options are pretty limited for a 7-speed system. I guess I could update to 8 or 9, but then would need a new rear shifter too.

Remembering what we paid for it and how much the parts are going to cost I figured there was no way it would be cost efficient. Then I went and looked at what bikes cost these days :embarrassed:

edit: just remembered we picked up a Mongoose "Maneuver" 21-sp mountain bike somewhere along the way. Pretty sure it was just a box store special, I'm not seeing it in any of the old catalogs, it's a dual-suspension model and heavy as hell. That'd at least save me from purchasing a new wheel, freewheel, and derailleur though. Sounds like the Shimano STX derailleur would be an ok replacement for the C10.
 
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