noob questions

Jim, srsly: so many people own bikes but never ride them. Ask around your similarly-sized mates and see if any have a bike they don't use they'd be hapy to lend - you can promise to return it to them fully servcied and rideable, say.

good idea, but in my case i'm not sure it will be much use, i know some people who have bikes, which they ride and can't lend, and i know some other people who have horrendous mountain bikes they rode when they were teenagers in the 90s sitting in their garages, who are generally at least a few inches shorter than me.

feeling pretty annoyed that we gave away my grandad's old road bike a couple of years after he died, was a flying scot.

not annoyed, annoyed at myself for not taking an interest at the time, i know some worthy dude got good use out of it.

Me again. Have paid off my Marin hybrid, having accidentally ridden about 1800 miles on it in the last 12 months. Commute is only a few miles a day but often go out for an hour in the evening or several hours on a weekend.

Now I can get another bike via same salary-exchange Cyclescheme. Am thinking I want to go faster, for longer, mainly on roads, but want flexibility to hit a tow-path and mount a pannier or two (not for weeklong touring, for example, but maybe with camera gear etc) when I want. Wife will allow me to go to about £700; anymore than that and I doubt I'd have a wife anymore. Will be keeping the Marin for pootling around and nipping into town sans cleats (got 2-sided pedals with a flat side)

Have bought and loved SPD pedals and shoes, no problem with them at all. Also fixed bar-ends to the Marin for more flexible hand positioning / help up hills. Don't really like hills but sometimes can't avoid an 850 foot ascent; tend to stick to undulations. Really like the idea of drop-bars. To the point that I'd say they were essential. Likewise double-sided SPDs so I can clip-in faster and not be flipping pedals round and round at traffic lights.

Said all this to the guy in the bike shop, and said I'd been thinking about light tourers. He recommended a tricross; looked at several, tested a couple for a mile on city roads, liked a Specialized Tricross best.

Advice?

Aren't Tricrosses really heavy? Can't deny they're functional, though.

I'd go for the raciest bike you can find that can still fit panniers and mudguards. The Genesis Croix de Fer is a cross bike that is prettier and a lot more appealing than the Tricross, but probably dearer (you realise £700 becomes £1000 when you take into account the tax benefits, right?) - I'd get one if I was in that market.

The Specialized Tricross has an aluminum frame, carbon forks and seat post, and was way lighter than the tourers. A couple of the other tricross bikes in the shop were much heavier. I reckon it was quite a bit lighter than my Marin.

And the £700 is definitely my tax-benefit-inclusive limit...

Tricross is the Spesh brand name fyi - cyclocross or just cross (or cx) is the type of bike.

Fair dos - Tricross owners do seem, anecdotally, to love their bikes, so I'm sure it'd be a great purchase.

Aha re; cyclocross. Guy in shop used it the way people might use 'hoover'.

Haha! Spesh will be pleased. Which reminds me, I see they've opened a new concept store in Covent Garden - Tempted to pop over there one lunch break.

ok so now i have money. and my new office has a gym w/ locker room!
now i must hunker down and figure out what bike to buy because parking is expensive!

nick i got a specialized crux recently to race cyclocross on - it's like a less sensible tricross. no rack and guard mounts, double crankset rather than the triple that the tricrosses have got these days, frame angles are a bit different to make the handling livelier. anyway i like it enough that i'm probably going to sell my road bike. the tricross sounds like it'd be right up your alley.

you should also look at more versatile roadies that will probably offer better braking with road calipers than the tricross' cantis, can take rack and guards, but still have a relaxed position - giant defy (aluminium) or kona honky tonk (steel) come to mind.

Hi Nick, ride me

bloomspot is running this deal today and it's making me angry at cute hipsters who don't wear helmets.

They are beautiful. However, I'm not sure the gearing would deal with Devon hills - we did Peak Hill out of Sidmouth today which is 550ft in half a mile...

Just seen a Tricross Sport kitted out with rack, fenders, and Brooks Flyer at one of the bike stations on campus. I want one, but a little more minimal. Oh yes.

I have ordered one.

i rode this and the 7.5 the other day. 7.5 obviously nicer, and way out of my price range! i think the 7.2 would be fine for my purposes, but dadrza thinks i could do better for the price (it was $529 at my local shop) and thought i should have something with a better derailluer. anyone know of anything comparable?

i am getting antsy to pedal to work now (parking is $6/day!).

i went a-shoppin' with a lady friend of mine on the weekend who's after a bike - she looked at a 7.something at the trek store, but didn't test ride. "i want a ladies' bike, it has to be pretty!"

tza that rear derailleur is the base model shimano one, you'd probably go up to ...probably deore XT as the next step, i think. that's pretty solid gear. maybe see if the shop could do an upgrade deal, they can be flexible with this stuff to make a sale sometimes.

there is a 7.3 that has a deore but it's also another $100+ dollars, and i don't really want to spend that much. dude didn't seem overly eager to wheel and deal... also i think the 7.3 doesn't come in 17", only 17.5, which would probably be too big for me. sigh. this is hard!

the margin on bikes in that price range is pretty thin, so most shops won't bend over backwards to make the sale for you. honestly, i wouldn't worry about the derailleur - you likely wouldn't notice a difference even if you put on a top-of-the-line model, unless you replaced the shifters, cassette, chainrings, and so on. getting hung up on one component doesn't make sense unless you're spending top dollar and have really specific preferences. if the 7.2 fx wsd fits you, i say buy it.

right i mean i think that was just one of his concerns, only one that i remember at the moment!
i did google a bit and the bike gets good reviews from people who own it and use it for commuting. honestly i doubt that i would really notice a difference in any of these parts because i don't know anything about bikes! i know the $999 bike felt a lot nicer/smoother to ride but i also wondered if that was psychological.

was the $999 exactly the same frame size and shape? cuz if not, maybe it just fit better. fit is it!

the 7.5 has a carbon fork.

but both were 17"... not sure if the shape was ~exactly~ the same.

may not have been psychological - a bike at 2x the price will have better bearings pretty much everywhere, which will make it feel smoother. or, it could have just had less tread on the tires!

what y'all think of this? dad sez much better components than the fx 7.2

except he says i'd need to get a 12-27 tooth cassette and wider tires.
this is hard. and confusing!

it's a nice bike for $600, no doubt about it. it's definitely more of a budget road bike (with flat bars, obv) than a fitness bike - narrow tires, higher gearing (both on the chainrings and cassette), and most likely a more aggressive riding position. carbon fork is very nice, probably the most significant upgrade over the trek... but your dad is right that the components are nicer across-the-board.

definitely worth a test ride - the biggest difference is if you want a bike that skews more toward straight-up road, or if you want a more mellow around-town/fitness bike. other tidbits (to add to your confusion) - trek will likely have better resale value, and service departments may look down on you when you wheel in a scattante, since it's a performance house brand, and most shops detest performance. but neither of those are reasons not to buy it if it is a better fit/feel for you.

long story short, comparing the two is less about individual differences and more about the kind of bike you want to ride. if one feels better than the other, buy it and don't worry about the components/dad [/broken record].

i dunno about needing a 27 toother at the back, would only come in useful if you were going up pretty steep hills while either touring or carrying a heap of shopping!

haha he came back and emailed me later pretty much what ytth said about it being a budget road bike. hmm. also a lot more links to look at. argh.

That's really it - you'd be exchanging low-speed comfort for better speed and acceleration. I'd totally prefer the latter but then at the moment I'm commuting on a carbon fibre racing bike.

What do you mean exactly by "it's a performance house brand, and most shops detest performance", Jordan?

i dunno about needing a 27 toother at the back, would only come in useful if you were going up pretty steep hills while either touring or carrying a heap of shopping!

― Omega-3 fatty acid house (haitch), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 23:06 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Not necessary in DC IMO.

Performance Bici is ofcourse a big nasty chain.

Ah, so it's like Pinnacle/Evans?

if pinnacle/evans employs the practice of calling shop owners and saying "either sell your shop to us at a ridiculously low price, or we will open one of our own stores next door"

yikes that makes me definitely not want to buy a bike there

i should qualify that that happened to the owner of the shop i worked for (not in so many words, but there was a shiny new performance in pasadena a few months after he wouldn't sell to them), so i extrapolated that they made a general practice of it. can't confirm it with evidence, though.

doesn't seem like too far a leap

http://cgi.ebay.com/SURLY-LONG-HAUL-TRUCKER-LHT-BICYCLE-BIKE-42-cm-/200631042390?pt=Road_Bikes&hash=item2eb68ac156#ht_500wt_1188

got an hour left...yr fam is in SC, right???

prolly too tiny

anyway, main point here: eBay has some tremendous deals, where you can get a lot of bike for like 50% of retail

$750 is not my price range! hah.

i am so stressed over this now because i feel like if i don't get what my dad wants he'll never let me hear the end of it. he now thinks trek 7.3 fx is far superior to the 7.2. it is also $150 more. sigh.

Have your dad buy the bike for you ...

i just looked over the 7.2 vs the 7.3, and i don't see it. if anything, the 7.3 is going to ride more harshly, because it has an aluminum fork (vs steel) and tires with kevlar in the casing. (the advantages to those are lighter weight and less flat tires, respectively). but upgrading a bike model because of nicer tires is dumb, since you can always replace the tires when yours wear out, and it's certainly not worth $150 to go up to the aluminum fork. it's still 8-speed, and a deore vs. an alivio rear derailleur is not even worth considering.

imo, where you really start to see the quality jump is at the 7.5 (carbon fork, 9-speed drivetrain, etc) - but, that's almost $1000. if the 7.3 is out of your price range, i'd forget it - it's a nice bike, but there's nothing you're getting on it that you will specifically miss if you get the 7.2.

hm interesting. he went and rode them both yesterday and said the 7.3 shifts better and brakes worked more smoothly. psychological? who knows.

i am so at a loss. and yeah, the 7.5 is nice but i am not spending $999.

could just as easily be chalked up to the person who built it

^^^ this.

pro tip, regardless of what you get: ~know your mechanic~

I work on some stuff at home but am basically stupid. Find out who the reputable shops are in yr area (message boards are good for this, but I can prob find out who's good in DC if you want) and pick one and stick with it. Local indy shops reward loyalty ime, and having a wrench you can trust is invaluable. a well-tuned w/e bike >>>> janky fancy bike, 94/7

I know my sis has had her bike tuned up from this place several times and seems happy with them. Ed recommended another store too.

zomg I bought one! 7.2. I have 14 days to return in case dad freaks. I rode both and for some reason the 7.2 felt better to me, aside from the grips. Yay.

btw i had to constantly remind myself that i am a grown woman and can make my own decisions regarding purchases. sigh. i am excited!