buying a bike

so for my first real bike, which i would like to eventually use for a 9 mile work commute & transport around the city, do you think i should invest the $$ in a new machine?

On the one hand, 9 miles is a good bit of riding on a daily basis, and you'd want a capable and reliable bike for that. On the other hand, you haven't been riding enough to know what you really want or know how much you would put a nice bike to good use. So I would consider buying used or getting a cheaper new bike with the idea that you can invest in a nicer bike down the road (so to speak). You could also just get a nice bike now.

Do you have any notion of what kind of bike you want? Start with materials: aluminum or steel? Do you want something that can handle trails and light off-road or a true road bike? Do you want a more upright riding position or something more aero? What's your general budget?

Give us more to work with.

i'm not sure what material would be best, as i don't really know the advantages or disadvantages of either. whichever is more durable, i suppose. ideally i would be using the bike around the city, commuting to work on back roads, and weekend recreational use on bike paths etc. i won't be taking it off-road but it should be able to handle the occasional rough patch of pavement and smaller potholes.

i probably won't be commuting on bike every day, at least not right away -- i'll probably have to work up to it, physically -- but my eventual goal would be to cycle to work at least half the time from spring through fall. i don't need a bike to be particularly fast or agile, but i do want it to be durable and reliable.

budget -- I have about $350+ that i can spend right now -- which is basically 5 tanks of gas for me these days, hence the interest -- but I could probably augment that as needed, either by saving up for a little while, or soliciting bike fund donations for my approaching brithday.

i'd like to have a rack so i can port some stuff around, and maybe add fenders, but these are less than essential. it would nice if the bike looked cool, too.

I think a rack is essential for the sort of use you want to do, it makes popping to the store or bringing stuff to and from work easier. (Rack haters - I can get more six packs and potatoes home in panniers) But you can add this later. I think a flat-bar road or tourer would be ideal or a cross bike that will take a rack (like a kona jake, for example).

i'll admit i'm a bit intimidated by bike culture because i know next to nothing about it -- if i'm buying a new bike i just want to have a clear idea of what i am looking for. the employees at the local bike place i'd go to are (allegedly) pretty snotty / haughty to the uninitiated, so i want to have at least a basic vocabulary in place so they don't mark me for a sucker and try to sell me shit i don't need.

These could be some ideas:

http://providencebicycle.com/itemdetails.cfm?id=575
http://providencebicycle.com/itemdetails.cfm?id=747
http://providencebicycle.com/itemdetails.cfm?id=640
http://providencebicycle.com/itemdetails.cfm?id=640
http://providencebicycle.com/itemdetails.cfm?id=564

Ed, you are a treat!

i will definitely be stopping by prov bike after work -- the other shop i'm more familiar with is quite a bit higher end / specialty

http://www.thehubprovidence.com/

From their selection take a look at the Jamis Coda, KHS Urban XPress and Surly cross check and long haul trucker (the last two or probably out of your price range but I ride a cross check and it is a great bike).

The Hub carries Jamis, and I've heard a lot of good things about the Jamis Coda line. You should check into that.

I think you should tell the shop guy that you're looking for a hybrid or cyclocross bike. Explain that you want something closer to "road geometry" and you don't want a suspension fork. By saying those two things, I think you'll get more respect and can skip all the granny bikes.

The Bianchi Volpe and Surly Cross Check are both awesome, but totally out of your price range.

yeah! you guys are great

Thinking about buying this thing (will prob be commuting more if/when change job)

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii129/Eunimave/IMG_0089.jpg

It looks pretty fucking sweet imo

It's 56cm, my road bike is 58.

My first decent road bike was a 56cm alu Bianchi thing (rip ;_;) which I just scraped in with wrt height.

bought a bike!! -- or committed to buy, picking it up tomorrow

jamis coda sport

shop owner initially directed me towards the jamis coda and was selling it really hard but of course he didn't have my size / could get more -- so i went for the coda sport. shop owner is including a rack & a helmet to help offset the price diff.

excited

That's a great bike, and Jamis is a nifty company. Congrats!

Lovely! Is it this one:

http://capitolhillbikes.com/images/library/large/jamis_coda_sport_08_m.jpg

I love the blue.

that is it!

I might reverse my stem tonight for that important 1/2 inch reduction in reach. I have basically decided my bike is a wee bit too big for me but I don't really want to have to buy a new stem.

So I reversed my stem, apparently successfully, but I am now convinced there is some play in my headset that wasn't there before. Possible? Everything seems appropriately tightened, and my bike didn't fall apart when I rode in today, but I'm panicking about every little noise and vibration right now. I guess it'll have its 100-mile service in the next week or two so they can tell me if anything's wrong.

do you get any knocking or play if you hold the front brake tight and gently rock the bike back and forth?

A tiny bit, if I remember rightly. Should a headset be absolutely rigid (while still turning, obviously)? I also haven't figured out how much of the noise/rattling is the cable hitting the tubes - carbon is more echoey than aluminium, it seems.

it should be rigid, yeah. but the above test is not foolproof, it's possible the play is in the brakes not the headset. you did tighten the top cap and then the stem bolts, right?

I have only just realised what you mean by reversing the stem, for some reason I thought seat post. I am unsure as to whether this is that great an idea you will have changed the loading on the fork, steerer, headset and head tube quite dramatically. I'd worry more on a carbon frame as well as they are optimised for certain loadings

It seems to be a standard thing to do, Ed - certainly loads of people seem to recommend it as a simple way of changing your riding position and, indeed, my stem actually has "+/- 6 degrees" written on it - I am pretty sure it's part of the selling point.

I might undo the various bolts and re-tighten them, see if it makes a difference.

Ah, I understand further now, I though you had flipped it as in running it backwards over the cross bar.

YOu should tighten the bolt on the headset cap first I think, before doing the ones on the steerer clamp.

Wow, backwards would be a radically different riding position!

Yeah, I might give it another go. I have also convinced myself that the stem is now a 1/10th of a degree off centre, so that needs sorting too! I definitely prefer the position now - more sportive than race :)

if you have an expander in yr steerer (for carbon steerer) instead of a starnut, its a fussy adjustment. you need to load topcap enough to eliminate play, but the bars should turn freely and throughout range. then gradually tighten the stem bolts, alternating bolts. if you have a carbon steerer, its also fussy because the steerer may deform a bit. for this reason, you sometimes see guys with a spacer on top of the stem. this allows the stem to "grip" lower on the steerer, less deformation. stems in the past 5 years are better designed and its not such an issue. on my bike tho, i HAVE to have this arrangement, my steerer is just too soft.

one of my mates insisted on removing the topcap/expander wedge from his steerer after tightening stem to save 20g.

I have I think 5 spacers, then stem, the 2 spaces, then topcap. I hope I haven't deformed my steerer! I have to admit I have no idea what a starnut or an expander is.

Take off the topcap and look down the steerer and all will be revealed.

oh, you wont permanently deform it. it just flexes a bit. dont worry.

if you take off the cap and a plug comes with it, its an expander. if its just a bolt, then as ed says you can look into the steerer and see a "star-fangled nut" wedged up in there. 'course, after you tighten the stem, the cap and the wedge/expander serve no real function.

What shall I do with the large 70s/80s Holdsworth road bike I currently have in my shed, gathering dust and rust? It's a 14-speed (2x7) steel racer, very heavy, and completely unused at present. Is it even worth wondering whether it can be converted to single-speed? Perhaps it's just fit for using as a machine which might help me understand how bikes are put together - although I doubt it has a great deal in common with my lithe carbon beauty. I'll try and take some photos, maybe tonight if I remember.

If it's got horizontal drop-outs it should be relatively easy to convert to a single speed. I did this last fall with a 80's Trek road bike, and I've since inherited a box of frames and parts from a friend so I'm probably going to put together a couple of Frankenbikes.

I learned a whole lot by taking apart and rebuilding the Trek so it was totally worth it if you like to do that kind of thing. I think that having an untouched, fully-functioning main bike is a key element for this kind of thing - no matter how messed up your project bike is you can still actually ride your main bike.

Thanks joygoat. I took some pictures of the bike today - please have a look at the first 13 pics of this set on my Flickr!

I am thinking about perhaps trying to restore it to either close to its original spec, or to renovate the frame and usable parts and give it a more modern feel. At the moment I have bugger all idea, in all honesty, but as a medium-long term project it could be quite fun.

(p.s. Holdsworth was founded at my local bike shop, even though this bike came from elsewhere, so there's a bit of sentiment attached too)

<3 flat crown fork
the whole thing is cool

Decided against that hillbrick thing and opted for a too expensive bianchi pista frame :/

Are you in the US? If yes, have you checked out bikesdirect.com? The Hour and Kilo TT are both very popular and cheap.

shit that is cheap. I'm not in US tho, everything is super expensive in Australia :(

And by the time I added shipping it's probably not worth it.

Like I did look around quite a bit for frames and parts, both in aus and overseas, but I decided to just bite the bullet and do it.

re: the purpose of a headset top cap- even when the stem is tightened, you still need something to preload the bearings in the headset. tightening the stem on the steerer doesn't exert any downward pressure on the headset by itself. but don't over tighten the top cap bolt- otherwise, your bike will steer stiffly.

mark c- are you still having the rattling/looseness problem? i'm almost 100% sure that when you flipped the stem, you didn't force the steerer tube all the way back up before putting everything back together, and now you've got some play in the headset. if you haven't already solved the problem, take the top cap off, loosen the stem, and put your bike on the ground so the fork (and steerer) are snugged up as far as they can go. then put the top cap back on, tighten it, and see if you still have the problem. also- keep in mind that the steerer should NOT be flush with the top of the stem- it should sit about 2mm down.

anyway, sorry to be long-winded. hope this helps.

Thanks Jordan - I got back on the bike, the play seemed worse if anything, so I got out my tool, loosened the stem, tightened the topcap, made sure everything was aligned okay and woot! It worked!

Walter, have you actually bought the Bianchi? They're very pretty, I doubt you'll regret it.

even when the stem is tightened, you still need something to preload the bearings

think about this.

sorry to sound smug there

pretty damn sure once you tighten the stem, the steerer is loaded for good. those steerer clamps are pretty tight.

actually i think im here stupidly writing about something you didnt say ytth- gah. sorry again and back to work

xps Mark, yes I actually bought it. I'm going to put an oldish dura ace lever on it, which will make it somewhat ugly.

will post pics eventually

Is Recycle a Bicycle my best bet in NYC? Too bad they don't sell out of their L.I.C. workshop. Should I try East Village or DUMBO? And about how much money am I looking at for a general no frills bike?

i am buying....a bike!

Bro works at a shop is hooking me up. Thinking about pulling the trigger on a Traveler's Check since he can get me the frame at sub-$800. A Cross-Check is more likely, however.

Gonna dingle-speed it!

Is the S+S really worth it. Given that most airlines are charging for luggage now, the advantage of getting it down to luggage size is much less. Save your bucks and get a nice bag when you fly it.

Cross check is awesome though.

Me and the wife got the parents and in-laws to chip in and bought a Cross Check for her little brother's PhD graduation present. Best graduation present ever.

I JUST ORDERED A SURLY {GAYEST NAME EVER} KARATE MONKEY {/GAYEST NAME EVER}...STOKED ON THAT.