A friend swears by his "armadillos."
A friend swears by his "armadillos."
bastomatic wrote: A friend swears by his "armadillos."
Yeah, those look like the way to go. My mountain bike seems to be doing okay but my cyclocross-soon-to-be-commuter bike can't go a week without a flat.
not to bring a thread back to life.. but I just completed a 12 volt, 35watt light for my bike today. Running an Mr11 spot in a custom PVC housing (with easily accessable on/off switch) and a 1 inch PVC tube beneath the rear rack housing 8 C cell batteries to get me 12 volts.
I will post pics later.. and right now I wish I could take the bike for a ride to test it out.. but it is pouring out.
Double thread revival:
I'm currently working on one of those lights, I saw your writeup elsewhere... however, I'm not that good with a soldering iron, and I managed to melt out the contact on one of my two 6-cell battery packs. Kinda stalled me until I can get down to the shop for another one.
Recently picked up an '07 Kona Sutra... wow. I've always had mountain bikes before, and the difference between pushing 3" wide knobbies and 1" street tires is amazing. I've been commuting every other day to work, ~8.5 miles 1 way, and I'm really enjoying it. Let's me feel like I get 32 mpg out of the Cobra ;)
Good sites for DIY bike lights...
I have all the jiblets for some super high output LEDs, I'll build them up once my Thursday night rides start getting dark again this fall. I've used 12V MR8s with a pair of 7.2 V NiMH RC battery packs in series. VERY bright, but they start to smoke if you're not moving. This is pretty steep and technical MTB trails in the dark.
I'll have to try one of these lights. I bought one for the meantime, but a huge light like that would be killer for trail rides at night.
I also finally got my bike finished, and boy am I proud of her:
I've since replaced the saddle with an old-school leather racing saddle, and wrapped the handlebars with black cloth tape. It's wayy faster than I originally planned it to be, but that's not all bad.
Looks sharp!
Couldn't resist posting this up (you know, since the thread was here and all) 
My custom Giant. The frame is an ATX870, but not a single component is still original. It's built sturdy, since I'm not exactly at my fighting weight anymore...
For my two mile commute to school, I've got an '86 or '87 Trek 400. Work is under a 1/4 mile door to door, so I walk now. There's a grocery store, mall liquor store, several bars, and plenty of restaurants within easy biking/walking distance as well. I haven't moved my truck in nearly a week!
I've been thinking about selling the road bike for a BMX. The drop bars and speed seem to be a bit overkill for what I'm doing, and it isn't the most comfortable with a backpack.
My wife has an old Schwinn Suburban, and I'll be honest, if you're looking for something to commute on you can't beat a big old heavy Schwinn. Sprung saddle, big cushy tires, sweet laid-back riding position and handlebars. I actually ride hers when nobody is looking...
A BMX is fun, but that gets old really quick if you use it to commute. I'm going with 650B wheels and tires for my next project, to try to make a decent commuter.
bastomatic wrote:
Fixed gear or single speed you got there?
My daily bike is an 85 Schwinn Probe. I guess you could consider it a hybrid bike since it doesn't have the thin road tires. It's pretty comfortable to boot around town for errands. Someone put it out for the trash and all it needed was the usual tires and brakes. It's nice around town but i've been keeping an eye out on Craigslist for a cheap/affordable road bike that I can do charity rides/longer distances on. I'm ready to give the bull bars a shot..
92dxman wrote: Fixed gear or single speed you got there?
Neither actually, it's a 7-speed Shimano cassette, so 14-speed. I'm not one of the fixed-gear crazies yet, though i certainly have friends who are. A hybrid is the way to go if you only have one bike, and you can certainly ride them on longer "charity rides" easily and more comfortably than on road bikes. Mine is great for what it is, but I don't know if I would ride long distance on it - it's pretty stiff.
Mine has what are known as Moustache handlebars, which I love and many others seem to hate online. lots of hand positions and riding positions - Bullhorn bars don't have a lot of positions, so they're fine for short rides but I doubt they'd be comfortable on a longer trip. All you have to do to make them is saw off some drop bars and mount them upside down though.
If I had my druthers, I'd have a Rivendell Saluki with drop bars, full fenders, racks, and bags for Randonneuring. That would be my dream bike, but I don't have $3000+ for a bike.
I picked this up over the weekend, the price seemed good 200, but I don't really know much about bikes, its an 02 GF Sugar, Manitou Black elite fork. I guess the plan is to transfer most of my hardtail parts over to it and put the stock parts back on the hardtail that I have upgraded over the years and use it for commuting and use this for off road. I had to order some cables and some tools before I can build it, I didn't have a bottom bracket tool or a crank tool, the last time I messed with any of that kind of thing was an old beach cruiser that you could work on with standard tools.
very nice.. I looked into a fully suspended bike, but here in flat south jersey, I really didn't see a need.
mad_machine wrote: very nice.. I looked into a fully suspended bike, but here in flat south jersey, I really didn't see a need.
It is a fully suspended bike.
I had one years ago, when they were a new thing.
I looked at several before building my current bike.
the weight penalty for the suspension is too high, plus the typical full suspension bike has wide tires which increases pedal effort.
I built my current mutt for ~$100 it's based off a Trek 820 with hybrid wheels and tires, rapid/ez fire shifters, and shimano components (I think STX). It's total weight is less than any aluminum full suspension bike I looked at.
For my measly addition to this thread.
Did my first- "cross country" ride yesterday- went from Ann Arbor to Dexter- only 11 miles one way, but since I've never done that, it was pretty intimidating of a distance.
Went really well. Even had my heart rate monitor- got really up there on the little climbs- most of the time I was deep into the 160bpm when going up. For the entire trip, I averaged 140bmp, which is spot on my target. And while we were tired, we feel good today.
Makes me think of either getting a real road bike, or at least getting some smooth tires for that kind of distance. This was on a 17 year old Bianchi mountain bike- totally original.
Eric
kilgoretrout wrote: Yeah, those look like the way to go. My mountain bike seems to be doing okay but my cyclocross-soon-to-be-commuter bike can't go a week without a flat.
Not sure if you got tires yet, but I'm using 700x32C Continental TopContacts on my commuter bike (Bianchi San Jose). So far, they're great. Not as heavy as some of the armored tires, reflective sidewalls, and a little bit of tread for not-perfect pavement, gravel, etc. Only drawback is the price.
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