Bicycling

Pretty much all bikes come with no pedals or toeclips. Why put something useful on a bike from the get go when they can sell you upgrades.

Also for most local bike shops the "I will buy this bike if you throw in these pedals" will usually work.

Most lower end price points are going to come with pedals. Its the pricier stuff that assumes you are going to have your own pedal preference.

fifey_sl said:

What's the battery life like? I just bought a gopro last night online and now I'm reading up about it and it's saying that the most you can get out of a battery is 2 hours(video or timelapse) which sounds like a complete piece of shit. I guess they have an external battery pack that lets you get up to 5 hours of recording but that's still pretty lackluster.

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I've got an old GoPro HeroHD or something like that, had it since 2010 I think. I just bought a spare battery so I could make sure I wouldn't run out of battery power halfway through a mechanized skiing day. Each battery lasts for about 2-3 hours of filming, but it depends on what mode you're recording in as well (higher framerate and resolution will result in shorter battery life). I've heard the newest ones have less battery life than the older ones, if only because they have much higher resolution and frame rate modes. Trust me, after the novelty wears off, 95% of what you capture on it you'll just end up deleting anyways.

fifey_sl said:

Yeah I assumed I'd need to buy the handlebar mount. Pretty pumped to get it next week, got a gopro hero3+ silver for 199 from some coupon my roommate had.

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Don't mount to your handlebar, it'll be herky jerky as all hell. Helmet mounts are where it's at, IMO, as it'll be a much stabler, clearer picture. Even a chest mount when biking sucks, as your perspective between standing up and sitting will change drastically. Although I guess it all depends on what you're trying to record. I find for downhill mountain biking and skiing that a helmet mount is by far the best.

For someone who is 6'4", 210lbs and just looking for a decent mountain bike for the trails around my house, anyone got a suggestion? It could be a fucking Huffy for all I care as long is it will support my big ass.

Eomer_sl said:

Don't mount to your handlebar, it'll be herky jerky as all hell. Helmet mounts are where it's at, IMO, as it'll be a much stabler, clearer picture. Even a chest mount when biking sucks, as your perspective between standing up and sitting will change drastically. Although I guess it all depends on what you're trying to record. I find for downhill mountain biking and skiing that a helmet mount is by far the best.

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Yeah you don't realize how constantly that handlebar is moving until you see the camera's perspective afterwords. That "under the seat pointing rearwards" style actually seems the most stable to me but its a less desirable vantage point in many ways than the first person point of view.

Wuyley_sl said:

For someone who is 6'4", 210lbs and just looking for a decent mountain bike for the trails around my house, anyone got a suggestion? It could be a fucking Huffy for all I care as long is it will support my big ass.

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I remember you posting in the thread before, but don't recall what if anything you ended up getting. Might help to know where you're coming from, do you have a specific bike that hasn't held up to the rigors of trail riding?

As a guy who's 6'3" and then some and runs from 180-200 pounds, the biggest weak link in lower end mountain bikes in my experience are the cheap budget mass produced wheelsets. They just won't take well to a 200+ dude bouncing on them off-road.

But, like, don't buy a department store bike, get a bike shop style bike even if buying online.

I'm 6'2", 220 lbs. and got a Trek X-Caliber 8 back in January. Loving the bike so far and the frame has a lifetime warranty. I got it for around $900+ tax and was able to finance through Trek at 0% for 12 months, so all in all I think it was a great deal.

All of my riding is gonna be road/track filming, so it's not as shaky as a MTB.

I'm thinking of the chainstay mount angle, seen a couple videos with it and it seems decent enough. Plus for track, you can see the legs winding up.

Also, they said 5-7 shipping days but it shipped Monday and going to be here tomorrow.

after cough cough 30 years of not owning a bike, and having 3 kids that can ride needing new bikes (wife does not ride bikes-EVER) for them i got 3 mongoose bikes- 2 bmx bikes for 90 bucks- and my son i got a 24" ledge 2.1 mtb bike for 130.

personally, i got a inexpensive mtb from walmart (genesis v2100 for $170- i know i should get better, but this is just me getting something to ride initially) yesterday- damn shit has changed SO much, yet remains similar enough that i recognize it all and remember what goes where, why. came with shimano tourney gears/brakes-front being a disc brake and the new shifting lever setup is sweet. assembled the bike (got it delivered) in about 30 minutes me screwing things together( left front brake cable came loose and it took me ~10 minutes to get it back on and adjusted correctly). frame is probably 1-2" too big for me since i am relatively short(5'9), with shot legs(28" inseam) but i can deal with the frame being just a bit large(can stand up fine, just the top bar is a bit too high to be..comfy if i gotta come off the seat.)

my plan over the spring/summer is several biking trips through some of the area bikeway's/parks with the kids. bradley palmer state park, harold parker state park, the peabody bike trail from the west peabody park to middleton & other places on the weekends. got a 3 bike carrier to attach to the minivan and will toss one of the 20" bikes in the back of the minivan.

nabbed a few bike maintenance books for my tablet.

wish me luck

I just craiglisted my ass off and picked up a great Giant 6061 aluminum for 150.00, shit looks and rides like a brand new bike. Fuck buying new wally world bikes...

Being the super casual (also cheap) person that I am I bought this today for 25 buck - a Fuji Pulsar. Now I can flip the girls Schwinn I rode last year.



I did a little riding today and I'm weak as a kitten. Next winter I'll have to make it a point to try and stay in shape. It's embarrassing.

Araysar_sl said:

i'm 6'0 and weigh 170 lbs or so

my bike got stolen at the end of last summer so i didnt bother buying a replacement until now. i just want a fast decent road bike, something i wont be too pissed off about if it gets jacked, so i dont want to spend more than $250.

so....

so are any of these a good choice or are they all a piece of shit?

chicago bicycles - by owner classifieds - craigslist

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That Schwinn traveler is about your size and doesn't look like its in too shitty of shape, might be worth making an offer if you like it. The whole U lock and generator lights are pretty goofy looking but whatever. You'd have to get used to downtube shifters and I'd ditch the foam grips and go with bar tape.

Look for stuff around 58cm/19"/"large" for your height.

Some of those ads....wow. "This is a tall frame 26" inch (66cm). Good for someone 5'9 and up." I'd like to see someone 5'9" on a 66cm frame. There's a bunch of tall ass bikes on there, must be the price range.

Araysar_sl said:

i'm 6'0 and weigh 170 lbs or so

my bike got stolen at the end of last summer so i didnt bother buying a replacement until now. i just want a fast decent road bike, something i wont be too pissed off about if it gets jacked, so i dont want to spend more than $250.

so....

so are any of these a good choice or are they all a piece of shit?

chicago bicycles - by owner classifieds - craigslist

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Motobecane Super Mirage

That one seems like a decent deal. Suntour components and at least a 3 piece non-cottered crankset so it's not the bottom of the barrel for that era, plus I always like Motobecanes. It's hard for me to judge other cities because here in Portland, a bike like that will fetch 250-300 bucks probably since the resale market is insane.

update on my first foray with the maniacs i call my kids.

nabbed 3 bottle clip brackets for the kids bikes and put them on their handlebars- kids like em-i installed the bottle bracket in the slot for it built into my bike
got a 3 bike carrier for my minivan allen sports 103mb(nb sometihng like that)(38 bucks). worked fine, although my older son's 24" mtb won't fit. the bmx and my bike fit fine
overall the trip went well (we only did 5 miles). we drove to the park, some of their friends were playing in the play area so they all went over there for the 10 minutes it took me to unload and reattach a wheel (so the 24" bike would fit in the back) loaded their water bottles and went off on the bike trail - all the kids had fun and want to do it again. we went slower than i thought we would but speed will come in time so i "spun" rode most of the trip to do high rpm with light resistance.

wife was freaking out because we would have to cross a few streets on the trail(and she had to work) but seriously, a car would see us approaching and bam, stopped traffic as we crossed.
Independance Trailwayis the area, we went almost all the way from the lt ross trailhead to the end @ the ipswich river trailhead. it's all paved.

there is another railtrail near there which we will try later on try that one in the upcoming weeks as we build stamina-Danvers Rail Trail, Danvers MA 01923it's 9 miles roughly long if you start at the end in peabody, officially its 5.1 from danvers line to end.

also going to do some state park trails too as we go along and progress.

oh i thought this was funny- saw 2 other of the exact model of my bike at the park when we were leaving. it's mail order only(ya walmart but it's a decent starter bike) and both looked like they were used a lot.