Bicycling

That really sucks Brad. Sounds like you have a very, very similar injury to what my bro got when he laid down his Ducati a few years back. His foot also got caught on the pavement, pinned underneath the bike in his case as I understand it. Spiral fracture of the tibia. He was given two options, one was a hip to ankle cast for six months or some shit, the other was surgery to insert a rod from his knee to his ankle, along with some screws and plates. That was sold as having a much quicker recovery time. He was walking on a cane within 2-3 weeks of the surgery, although of course with a lot of pain. He's also tough as shit. I think the doctor had told him 2 months before he was going to be walking around, he misunderstood and heard 2 weeks.

He says that for the most part, his leg is 100% now about 5 years on. Sometimes his snowboard boots or hockey skates bother him a bit where a pin/screw is. He plays hockey, jogs, and is otherwise fairly active. I don't remember how long it was until he was back up to 90% or so, but probably 4-6 months give or take.

Famm_sl said:

Georgia At Its Best -

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They tried to pull that in WA as well. Not as extreme as the proposed Georgia law but they wanted to add a $25 fee to every bike sold. The argument is that they use roads and get bike lanes built so they should pay "their fair share."

I think all the motorist crying about bicyclist not having to pay any road taxes are morons. They are the same idiots that will turn right around and bitch about too much traffic. I will gladly pay more gas tax to put bike lanes on every road in this state if it means less cars in my way when I have to drive through Seattle.

I emailed the head of the transportation committee in this state bitching about how it would hurt small businesses (bike shops losing sales to out of state online vendors) and it was unfair to mountain bikers who don't use the roads but still buy bikes. Amazingly enough I got a non-canned response back basically acknowledging my concerns were legitimate and eventually the fee was nixed.

Thinking about picking up an inexpensive bike for just around-the-city commuting and getting a bit of non-boring exercise.

I'm in Seattle which is a pretty bikable city, and I could spend $500-ish without being too pissed off if it's just something I don't stick with. I could go more if I needed to, as well. I know I'll need decent raingear.

Any advice on good starter bikes, general tips?

Make sure you assert the fact that you're a motor vehicle just like cars. Then don't abide by any motor vehicle laws and you should fit in nicely.

Duppin_sl said:

Thinking about picking up an inexpensive bike for just around-the-city commuting and getting a bit of non-boring exercise.

I'm in Seattle which is a pretty bikable city, and I could spend $500-ish without being too pissed off if it's just something I don't stick with. I could go more if I needed to, as well. I know I'll need decent raingear.

Any advice on good starter bikes, general tips?

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This time of year is rather rough for biking in the Northwest but I personally enjoy it a lot. Not really sure on what bikes you are looking for? Road, single speed, mtb? Remember you will probably need a u lock and some lights and fenders too for the rain though you might find that with the used bike.

If you're commuting in Seattle you probably want fenders.

Been riding my absolute ass off since I got the two bikes at the beginning of August. According to Strava, just over 300 miles on the road bike (Felt Z5) and 200 on the Scalpel in the woods. This is definitely the most fun way to exercise ever - I'm down almost 30lbs since the end of July and definitely getting faster on and off the road which feels pretty awesome. The road bike's been aces - haven't had to do a thing to it other than check the tire pressure and a quick DR adjustment. The Scalpel has been a different story, heh. The guys I ride with go hard as hell (well, for a bunch of 30-something dudes with office jobs anyway) and it's been a blast trying to keep up with them. So far I've broken:

- One rear derailleur (upgraded to the XT Shadow with the clutch, so much better, NO chain slap)
- Taco'd my front wheel, had it repaired for a spare but upgraded it to a nicer Specialized rim that's a tad lighter.
- Two rear derailleur hangers (local place is called "Fort Rock, and those rocks shit on me)
- Went OTB and landed on my Edge 500, sent it into a rock, but EMS actually replaced it for free (woohoo)
- Snapped a non-master link on the chain in the middle of the woods (wtf?)

I've thrown a few bucks at both bikes - went SPDs on the Felt and got an asskicking pair of platforms for the Scalpel. Definitely going 1x9 in the woods next season with a chain ring/bash guard, and will probably get a dropper post before the end of this season.

Of the two I much prefer being in the woods to being on the road, but the road bike has been better for the all around workout. Did a 60 miler and wanted to hang myself at the end, but other than a sore ass and sore legs, so far this has been an A+ hobby to get into. Really not looking forward to winter.

Related: Pic of me on a rock roller. These fucking things never look as steep/cool in pictures as they are in person. This was an asshole-clincher, and I was all fired up to check the pic out, but meh...

lol, yeah, that's the same with any "extreme" sport, whether skiing or mountain biking or whatever. I always get all pumped thinking that finally, I caught something pretty sweet on my GoPro, and then when I get around to watching it I'm like "what the fuck, that shit looked gay!"

I was in Whistler last weekend for the closing of their bike park. It was good times, but only the bottom half of the mountain was still fully open due to snow up higher. I rode like a pussy though, I just didn't feel right or confident enough to really give it shit on A-Line, Dirt Merchant and the like. Or maybe my friends have just gotten faster and I've stayed about the same as last year, I dunno, they've certainly ridden a lot more than me in meantime.

There's a pretty ace downhill park about an hour from me calledHighland. I've been tempted to go there this season, but I'm being a pussy about it because a) I can't afford a DH bike right now, and b) I have a feeling I'll fucking kill myself, haha.

Looks like an awesome time though man, definitely. What kind of tire pressure are you running in the cold like that? Up here in New England it's not that cold, but the leaves are all down so it's some seriously slippery business just about everywhere. I haven't gone tubeless yet, so I can't really go lower than ~30psi. It works, but tubeless is probably the next money sink on my list. Or whatever like 19 things I end up buying on Chainlove that I don't really need but can't resist... This shit is like crack.

East coast rocky technical trails like that always look like nothing in most pictures, but when you've ridden shit like that you can just tell the balls it takes to commit to it.

Definitely go tubeless. For me nearly any trail I ride has thorns at some point. The ones that don't have tons of rock like your NE pic which makes pinch flats a real issue, and the lower pressures over relentless rock garden riding are a serious bonus.

Seventh_sl said:

There's a pretty ace downhill park about an hour from me calledHighland. I've been tempted to go there this season, but I'm being a pussy about it because a) I can't afford a DH bike right now, and b) I have a feeling I'll fucking kill myself, haha.

Looks like an awesome time though man, definitely. What kind of tire pressure are you running in the cold like that? Up here in New England it's not that cold, but the leaves are all down so it's some seriously slippery business just about everywhere. I haven't gone tubeless yet, so I can't really go lower than ~30psi. It works, but tubeless is probably the next money sink on my list. Or whatever like 19 things I end up buying on Chainlove that I don't really need but can't resist... This shit is like crack.

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I have no idea what pressure my tires are at. I pump them until they feel fairly hard. That came out wrong.

But seriously, it wasn't actually that cold. That was 2/3 up the mountain, lower down there wasn't any snow and the daytime temp was around 10-15C, so I dunno, 50-60F I guess. Definitely that one run down from the gondola through snow and mud was slippery as all fuck.

Eomer_sl said:

I pump them until they feel fairly hard...lower down...mud was slippery as all fuck.

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On the road cycling side of the fence... Any of you happen to know what the hell this is?

I was riding with a friend a while back, and around mile ~40 or so, this odd looking part ended up in my front derailleur. It took the chain right off (it went right back on) and when I reached down to pull it out of there, I noticed that it had a Felt logo on it. It's adhesive on the back and made of very thin aluminum (it's flexible). I don't see anywhere that it would have mounted on my bike, and it doesn't appear to have been fastened to anything. I've looked my bike over high and low and I can't for the life of me figure out where it even was to begin with.



What's even more odd is that this thing is all silver. My bike is carbon fiber with white highlights - there's not a lick of silver on it. Any idea what this could be? If not for the Felt logo I'd just assume it was some random piece of road debris, but the odds of me riding a Felt bike and picking up a piece of another Felt bike while 40 miles into a road ride have to be astronomical. I'm pretty sure it's "mine", I just have no idea what it is.

Ao-_sl said:

30 seconds on google and I got this:
http://www.feltbicycles.com/USA/2014...Protector.aspx

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Yep, that's it. Felt's CS already got back to me with the same answer. Cheers, sir, mystery solved!

I picked up some cheap nashbar rollers to keep my cycling fitness up over the winter time/work on my spin game and tested them out this morning. Holy shit, I don't know if it's because I'm not moving so no air circulation or what but I've never sweated so hard in all my life. Was on them for like 20~ minutes and my whole T-shirt was just soaked from sweat and I even had a fan blowing on me.

I plan on setting up my laptop in front of the rollers and catch up on my movies/TV shows.