Any Road/Trail/Leisure Cyclists here?

Watchful · Mar 25, 2016

Sorry, I meant the cafe 8 express... it's a great little hybrid that I picked up from bicycles direct at a 60% savings over a bike shop. I have a bicycle repair shop (no sales) and I have no problems assembling and tuning the bikes, so BD is a natural choice for me.

I changed the pedals, seat and shifter (to a level thumb shifter) and added a gel cover as I am getting softer in my old age.

I also added end bars for more positions riding and ergo grips. We added a set of front and rear Ibera bags and a rear rack from Amazon. The front bag is a dslr camera bag, it's pretty nice.

jbylake · Mar 25, 2016

Cool. I'm glad that Motobecane is still in business. A far cry different from the old 10 speed road/race bikes from the days they were built in France. :allteeth:

Had a couple of those. My first "real" bike was a Schwinn Paramount in 1974. Back then, those bikes were almost $500 bucks, a LOT of money for a bike then. I came from a working class family, and when I asked my dad to loan me the money for one, he looked at me like I had three heads. He couldn't fathom why any bike would be worth that much money, and why someone would want one.
At great peril from the wrath of my mother, he bought one for me. The deal was, school was letting out, and the loan had to be paid back before the start of my Senior year. (We got about 3 mos. off, back in those days. Long story short, I worked my rear off, but barely made it, working minimum wage and odd jobs all summer. Walk into a bike shop these day's and mention Paramounts, Motobecane's, Pugeot's or any number of bikes made back then, and you'll probably just get a blank stare.
J.

Watchful · Mar 25, 2016

My first 'real' road bike was a Gitane ('75). I was a Schwinn Mechanic for 5 years. Great training. The Motobecanes are made of aluminum now. My Schwinn LeTour I built myself while I was at the shop is still here, a giant cro-moly monster road bike at 27" frame on 27" wheels. I rode that everywhere for years as my only transportation, including camping and fishing trips. The head tube is about a foot long.

jbylake · Mar 25, 2016

There are so many versions of "hybrid" that I almost wish someone would come up with another description, especially to help new buyers understand. Your Motobecane is totally different from my new CX3. Mine has a front suspension, that you can lock out for the road. The tires are made to match. They are 700c, with a "bald" top for road, and "knobby" side for trails. As stated above, you can lock out the 50 mm front fork suspension, for speed on the road, or unlock it for trails. I also like the fluid disc brakes, they don't change in rain, mud or snow. I haven't really got a feel for the disc brakes on the new bike, I haven't really got to ride it much yet. I do like the 24 speed tranny, you can do just about any riding you want with that. I first thought that was silly, and just hype and overkill, until I tried it on a friends bike, and then I was stuck on them. I can ride this bike fast, or I can do some serious trails, but not hard core or anything like that. Not a problem, since my body is way to old for anything else, and if I was going to try stupid stuff, I'd buy a full suspension bike.

Anyway, getting back to the OP, I'm looking forward to the new pedals. I really like the clip in/or platform that Shimano pedals give, and I pretty much know that on hard slick clay trails like we have around here, that I can do a header into the ground, so I have the option of riding the "cage" side, like a regular set of pedals.
J.

runnah · Mar 28, 2016

For long rides on easy terrain I'll run my clipless pedals, but any sort of sketchy terrain I'll switch to flats.

table1349 · Mar 28, 2016

This is my idea of leisure cycling.

table1349 · Mar 28, 2016

Watchful said:
lol it's my idea of a headache from the noise and pollution.

Thats is because you are on a slow poke human powered bicycle behind the comfortable riding, motorcycle.

Call me when you get here, in two or three days. :biglaugh:

table1349 · Mar 28, 2016

Watchful said:
lol you are a funny one, we can ride where that motorcycle will never see. We can even carry the bikes over rivers and streams, let's see you do that with your choice.
This is a bicycle thread, btw, thanks for not derailing it any more.

Don't tell these guys that. Apparently they didn't get the memo.

table1349 · Mar 28, 2016

That is because they don't need to baby their machine. It carries them not the other way around. :lol:

table1349 · Mar 28, 2016

Can the cyclist do this ride?

14 Day Kathmandu ride up Mount Everest.

Why get wet when you don't have to?

table1349 · Mar 28, 2016

Anyone can ride in the valley, the photo I posted was at the 16,000 + foot mark.

table1349 · Mar 28, 2016

Nope, no mountains here. When I want to get somewhere on a bike I use a bike made for the job.

table1349 · Mar 28, 2016

Old, well built, still very useful tech. This is just bicycling, no reason to reinvent the wheel.

jbylake · Mar 28, 2016

runnah said:
For long rides on easy terrain I'll run my clipless pedals, but any sort of sketchy terrain I'll switch to flats.

That's the whole reason behind the Shimano SPD pedals. The cage around them allows you to ride comfortably clipped in or with just running/training shoes. Many riding shoes, as you probably know, nowdays, have the cleats recessed into the shoe so the sides and front have plenty of grip to ride the SPD pedals just like regular old flats. Also lets you walk around a store without being an arse and scratching up the owners floors. On sketchy trails (I get your point), for me it just amounts to how sketchy it is. If there's a lot of climbing to do, I definitely leave them in for the increased efficiency and less wasted energy while climbing. These days, unless you're wearing dedicated road race pedals, all of the adjustment in most of the "dual platform" pedals, bailing in a bad place is pretty much easy enough to do without thinking, but I get why many people don't like that attached to the bike feeling.

J.

JacaRanda · Apr 13, 2016

Oh boy. I hope it's okay to not start a new thread.

I am about to embark on a new part of this photography hobby. There are many many trails around me that I don't always enjoy hiking back from to get 2 pictures of a bird. There is so much unexplored territory that I wish to reach. Now I am mountain bike shopping. Does it ever end? Apparently NOPE!

I want something probably a little more than I need at the moment. Looking at for the most part, casual, paved or graveled roads and trails. I'm sure occasionally I will climb a hill or two and sometimes without the camera gear (think fat burning) :heartpump: