Bicycling

Finally ran into some brave souls out at the track today, people are so damn friendly compared to what I'm used too. They were both cat3s and wanted to run some practice laps with me, I got dropped so hard it was hilarious.

For portable bike pumps, I've been rocking one of these for about 4 years.

Amazon.com: Topeak Road Morph G Bike Pump with Gauge: Sports Outdoors

Kind of pricey, but so worth it considering the walks it has saved me from. I run skinny tires on a cyclocross bike. I've flatted a handful of times and with this I've been able to pump up to 115 PSI and get home without too much trouble. Takes a bit of effort, but for a frame pump I think it is more than reasonable. For low pressure tires it would be more than adequate.

That looks to be almost the same one I've been riding with for several years now, Apex. The reason why I like mine so much is that it actually has the psi on it so I know when to stop, rofl. I hate using those CO2 cartridges though as you have no idea how much air is actually in your tube.

So use CO2 and then check the PSI somehow, either with the hand pump or a standalone gauge. I generally only inflate to get back to somewhere, not to keep riding significant miles though since I don't do centuries or huge rides and I'm not taking chances on a second flat situation when way out in the woods.

I ordered a bunch of stuff recommended here (as well as a bike rack cause I'm sick of shoving my bike into the trunk). +1 all around. I was hoping they'd come in by this weekend so I could start fiddling with my bike, but Amazon decided to fuck me over by splitting my shipment up.

Anyway, any recommendations on a brand of tubes for mountain bike tires? I was looking over some and I saw that some have different gels and shit inside to seal punctures, and there were conflicting reviews on lots of them. Does it really matter, or are they all pretty much the same?

Double. Ride a unicycle like a real man.

I wouldn't worry too much about the brand. I've used the sealant filled ones and it doesn't help enough to justify the weight. I run tubeless on my mountain bikes now and would never go back, but I've tried most of the bargain brands and half of the big names on my road bikes and don't notice huge differences. The things that cause flats will usually flat any tube the same. I wouldn't really expect many punctures (thorns) on the C&O but I guess anything could end up underneath. Just keep them topped off to avoid pinch flats and hope for the best.

Famm_sl said:

I wouldn't worry too much about the brand. I've used the sealant filled ones and it doesn't help enough to justify the weight. I run tubeless on my mountain bikes now and would never go back, but I've tried most of the bargain brands and half of the big names on my road bikes and don't notice huge differences. The things that cause flats will usually flat any tube the same. I wouldn't really expect many punctures (thorns) on the C&O but I guess anything could end up underneath. Just keep them topped off to avoid pinch flats and hope for the best.

Click to expand...

I think it depends on where you ride, out in AZ, the self sealing tubes are a blessing from all the little stupid thorns and shit out in the desert but here in OR I see no need since it's mostly pinch flats/rocks that are going to cause flats.

fifey_sl said:

I think it depends on where you ride, out in AZ, the self sealing tubes are a blessing from all the little stupid thorns and shit out in the desert but here in OR I see no need since it's mostly pinch flats/rocks that are going to cause flats.

Click to expand...

Well, once again I wouldn't go with tubes for serious mountain biking anyway. I deal with a number of thorns on some of my trails and I never flat with tubeless and sealant. For his C&O canal ride it probably won't be an issue though. Also, if you're running schrader valves on that old Trek its really easy to just add off-the-shelf slime sealant from WalMart or where ever to your tubes. Its not that hard to add sealant to any tube with removable valve cores, but you might need something like the Stan's injector, while Slime bottles are made for adding to a schrader tube.

Edit: schrader not presta.

Well, he's asking for tubes on a MTB so saying get tubulars isn't really an option unless he wants to drop 500 bucks.

I didn't say tubular, but what ever. I told him I thought brands weren't important.

My bad, I read tubeless and my head just goes to tubular.

trying to get my hands on this one, wish me luck =)

Those things had their moment in the States like a long ass time ago, I never really see them anymore thankfully.

Eomer_sl said:

I don't like the danger of it, that's a big downside to it in my books. But I do enjoy the hell out of it because of the adrenaline rush aspect. That said, I draw the line at single black diamond runs at Whistler and Silver Star. I had a buddy who trained a couple experienced riders on Crabapple Hits at Whistler, and the only thing I could think of was "there is no fucking way I will ever do that". 30+ foot jumps will never be my thing.

Click to expand...

Same reason I would love to be a Rally car driver, looks fucking awesome. I have some minor mountain biking experience when younger and invincible(head scars to prove it) lots of pucker moments and 1 major crash but that never stopped me wanting to keep going, gravity is awesome until you hit the ground.

Just bought a Trek X-caliber 4 mountain bike. Can anyone recommend a 2" truck hitch bike rack? I saw a couple on amazon but none had any or even good reviews. Don't like the idea of it rolling around in the truck bed.

Also bought a helmet and some padded shorts so my hairy ass cheeks don't rub together and start a fire. Other than a spare tube and a hand pump is there anything I am missing that I should get before I get started?

I will be only doing quite "light" mountain biking for the foreseeable future.

It's a little spendy, but I like theTuf Racksystem. It is modular, well built and uses a tray system which can accommodate a wide variety of bike types.

Wow, double post all by itself, neat.

Another indispensable piece of mt. biking equipment imo is a good pair of riding glasses. I prefer something with interchangeable lenses.

Julian the Apostate_sl said:

Just bought a Trek X-caliber 4 mountain bike. Can anyone recommend a 2" truck hitch bike rack? I saw a couple on amazon but none had any or even good reviews. Don't like the idea of it rolling around in the truck bed.

Also bought a helmet and some padded shorts so my hairy ass cheeks don't rub together and start a fire. Other than a spare tube and a hand pump is there anything I am missing that I should get before I get started?

I will be only doing quite "light" mountain biking for the foreseeable future.

Click to expand...

Some tire levers to pry the tire off if you do flat and a set of metric allen keys for adjusting stuff(don't know MTB sizing but probably a 3.5/4/5/6/8 )

So, I'm tired of commuting on my Fisher HiFi. I'm moving house so will be 9 miles each way (currently just over 6) and the MTB makes it a real slog, which means I don't do it as often as I should. The commute is 95% road/paved cycle path with a little bit of hard pack dirt at the start, new commute is basically same, just extra road tacked on at one end and if I wanted I could actually avoid the dirt bit entirely by doing an extra 1 mile loop.

Anyhow, after much research I decided a road focused cyclocross type bike would be my best bet, specifically I'm looking atthisI did consider the Trek, Specialized and other brands of this type of bike but the spec is less for the same or more cash and Whyte bikes seem to get good reviews, this bike in particular. The price point is fixed as there is a UK cycle to work scheme that means you buy it from gross wages, so effectively it's tax free (so 32% discount) for bikes up to ?1k. I also ruled out the flat bar hybrids as I'm basically road based and ruled out a true road bike due to the shocking nature of roads around here, truing a wheel every day doesn't sound fun, plus I can stick mudguards and a shelf on this.

Now onto the question, a 54cm frame sits about 2cm below my family jewels, bloke in LBS reckons a 52 would be my size (long story short they had neither size in so I went and sat on the 54 at a different shop who tend to be not quite as helpful so would prefer the original shop, to sit on a 52 I have to get them to ship one in as neither shop had that size in stock). With my MTB I went small on the frame for the obvious reasons but I haven't ridden a road(ish) style bike for over 20 years so need a little advice. I did like the feel of the 54 as it was a comfortable reach to the bars and was a relatively upright ride (but still no MTB) and as I'm pushing 40 I just don't want to be hunched over some tiny little frame. The question (eventually) is this, should I be happy with the 54 or go to the effort of tracking down a 52 to sit on? As mentioned LBS guy recommended a 52 but that was before I sat on the 54 at a different shop.

Cheers

edit: oh yeah I'm 5'10" if that helps for the choice between 52 and 54cm frame (I like to mix my metric and Imperial)