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I just watched that video before my baby-steps little ride around the neighbourhood, trying to get into commuting on my bike. Park Tools is great.The Excellent OP posted:99% of very casual riders you see out there have their seat too low. I find myself in a disagreement with every bit of advice I've been given in-person on this point - I agree with the OP. I'm taller than most people I know (6 foot 3 / 188 cm) and most of my height is in my legs (103 cm from the hip socket to my heel). My legs have always become rapidly uncomfortable when I have to sit for a long time without the space to extend my legs fully, like airplane seats or the backseat of typical car. When riding a bike I've always preferred being able to fully extend my knee without lifting myself from the seat, though not necessarily on every rotation of the pedals. Today, I rode about 2.5 km just around my local streets. I'm very gradually building up to commuting, which will be about 6 km with a 70 m rise at the work end, according to Google (the university sits on a hill, most of the town is pretty flat). Just my little zip around got my breathing and heart rate up, and my quads feel (very lightly) like they were not getting stretched out enough when I coasted. I'm going to raise my seat by a little bit for the next ride, but I know my wife is going to tell me to lower it. She is firmly of the opinion that a seat should be so low both feet can be nearly flat on the ground when stopped, the bike perfectly upright not leaning to either side. I would have uncomfortable legs pretty much immediately if I ride like that. Obviously, my bike, my body, my ride, but I'm just pre-emptively whinging on the internet about a very minor thing. Anybody else get contrary advice from loved ones?
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Sep 20, 2020 05:30
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I'm going to just play around with it and figure out what's comfortable. Watching the video Jamal posted, I just sit here thinking "No! I want a STRAIGHTER leg, not more knee flex. Straighter!". I only watched the first 5 minutes or so, and the narrator is tossing around numbers like 30 degrees as a knee angle that's probably close to what you want. Personally, I think I'll be more comfortable at 10 or even 5 degrees, I really like the feeling of straightening my leg. Basically, yes:marshalljim posted:ExecuDork, if you just get your seat in the ballpark and keep riding, you'll figure out what works over time. Seat height is about the easiest thing to experiment with. The point by Jesus WEP about hip movement is excellent. Something for me to watch out for in case my straight-leg thing is really some weird delusion. This brings me to the saddle. I saw some advice upthread about not getting one of those cushy gel covers for a saddle, in many cases a narrower saddle is going to be more comfortable. The saddle I got from the tip shop was not the saddle mounted on my frankenbike when I pulled it out of the back area, out of the spiderwebs (reminder:  so the spiders are a real concern) into the sunshine. That one was narrower and in OK shape but the shaft (dunno the proper name, the metal tube that fits almost-vertically into the bike frame) was very short and there was no way I could get it high enough. I found the saddle I have in a pile of miscellaneous parts in a decaying cardboard box. Anyway, like most of the rest of the bike I'll work with what I have until I hate it, then look for an upgrade. kimbo305 posted:This is the bike, right?: If bikes come larger than what I've got, they don't end up at the tip. I found the largest frame they had that was part of an assembled, complete bike. I was worried about this, but for my budget (as close to free as is at all possible), this is what was available. It feels OK, but I've never ridden an expensive bike and I've never tried to set things up better than "this doesn't feel bad" so I don't know what it might feel like with a very different geometry. Mostly, my riding a desk for 3 months of working from home (and more than a year of just walking, nothing more strenuous) and my resulting low cardiovascular fitness is what I feel when I ride the bike. Mauser posted:Man, I really have to be going up a solid hill at this point for me to even breathe out of my mouth. You're going to get there and start looking for longer routes home because that commute's gonna be cutting the fun short too soon.
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Sep 21, 2020 02:30
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Not anytime soon, but I'll try to remember for after the vacation I'm taking this week / weekend. There's still a lot of tuning and adjusting to happen on that bike, I'm in no hurry and it's currently a fun weekend thing to mess around with it. Before I can commute with it (besides the physical fitness), I need to pick up a good lock, some fenders, and a couple of other things. On the topic of locks, is a good U-lock still the standard? At home, the bike goes in the garage (locked, separate from house). At work, there's a bike rack in front of the building that's a set of four big steel bent tubes bolted into the concrete pad. So, not perfect but I think pretty good. The further away bike in this picture has been there for months. I suspect the owner left it there when most of us started working from home in late March / early April, and they just haven't come back for it yet. Spring time is just getting going here - the weather has been lovely for the past few days - but I know several people who do not bike in the "winter" here.  Bike rack by Martin Brummell, on Flickr
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Sep 21, 2020 04:13
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Zero VGS posted:Should I just have him preorder a $300 road bike from there which ship in a month, and grab fenders/rack from Amazon? Or is there a better place to source a bike at that budget? Seems like slim pickings on Craigslist right now. Around here (which is, I think, far from you but whatever) Facebook Marketplace is usually full of bikes for sale for well under $300. About $200 for something that *probably* fits CopperHound's very good list, and you might be able to get the seller to measure the frame for you. *** Here's my tip-shop frankenbike in current, entirely-rideable condition. Since we're talking about budgets, I think I'm into this for a grand total of around $250-$300 including all accessories and bike-specific tools.  My bike in current configuration by Martin Brummell, on FlickrYesterday was a day off for almost everyone at my university (because the Vice Chancellor AKA President AKA CEO has declared a budget crisis and is obsessed with "leave liability") so I rode my bike to the local bike shops and picked up - new pedals with open-sided simple plastic toe clips - fenders - a mirror - a U-lock (not pictured) Now I feel like I can actually commute! I am planning to make my first attempt on Friday. This morning I had my last session of a little exercise project I'm enrolled in, and I felt like doubling up on cardio would be a bad idea. Tomorrow I have a meeting earlier than I usually get to work so I don't want to gamble on how long it will take me to ride / walk up the hill. Excuses, excuses, but Friday is looking very good. \/\/\/\/ an excellent idea that I wish I'd thought of myself a few months ago when I got overwhelmed by the random weirdness on local FB / Gumtree. *squints at bad phone picture* "Why do they want $400 for that? And does that include the children's tricycle in the background? And the dog?" ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Oct 7, 2020 |
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Oct 7, 2020 02:24
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First bike commute in at least 11 years this morning. I made it about halfway up the hill at the end before I stopped for a rest (and got passed by somebody in better shape than me, but he at least gave me the nice Aussie "How ya goin', mate?" as he powered past). I'm stupidly happy to have taken this picture of my bike at the rack just outside my office. First bike commute for me in Armidale by Martin Brummell, on FlickrGoing home is going to extra fun. Not just because it's Friday and the weather is lovely, but also because my brakes + this hill are going to be
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Oct 9, 2020 00:04
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I survived the descent! I will take a different route home tomorrow, the way I went had an annoying re-climb after the long descent, and the bike lane is poorly maintained, full of debris and gravel. The bike path I took up is the better choice, even though it's a longer distance (slightly). My lack of access to the largest cog on the crank means I can't really take advantage of fast conditions. Am I correct in thinking that trail braking means trying to slowly reduce speed by dragging only the rear brake? I try not to do that anyway but I'd like to know more about why it's bad. EDIT- thanks very much for all the encouragement, everyone!
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Oct 11, 2020 10:14
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I am really, really happy that I finally got my poo poo together enough to commute by bike. Thanks again to everyone here. In honour of SomethingAwful.com, all the help that goons have given, and because I spend WAY too much time here procrastinating like mad, I picked up some novelty tire-valve caps:  Bike stuff by Martin Brummell, on FlickrAnd I detoured a bit on my morning commute to pick up some cheap gloves and a cheap water bottle with cage at Big W.  Bike stuff by Martin Brummell, on FlickrBig W is a department store. The bike section at the back of the store has mostly children's bikes but a few adult models, too. As is clear from this and several other threads, department-store brand bikes are the ones to avoid. So, I noted that Diamondback, the brand on my gloves, is also the brand of the $320 front-suspension "mountain" bikes at Big W. Shiny, red, disk brakes, but on my "do not buy" list for my plan to look for my next bike in second-hand market (FB and Gumtree).
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Oct 13, 2020 01:00
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Good to know, thanks. I've got a fair bit of thinking and planning to do in the next little while. I'm hoping to buy myself a "new to me" bike for a christmas present, but the choices are currently overwhelming. A quick look on Facebook marketplace shows almost nothing local, but possibly plenty of options in the bigger cities of Newcastle (1 million people, 3 hours drive away) and Sydney (5 million, 5 hours). And I don't have a car, complicating go-and-see plans. But I have months to work on this. I *think* I want a hardtail mountain bike, but beyond that I'm still coming up with stupid ideas.
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Oct 14, 2020 00:32
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I'm just starting to explore the local terrain. My commute is mostly on a multi-use path, lots of walkers/runners, dog-walkers, other bikes, etc. But it's pretty short - 6.5 km (about 4 miles) and there are reasonable alternatives on city streets running parallel for anyone wanting to go faster. So far, the drivers here seem pretty good about bikes, and talking with a few people I know who ride regularly, this town's roads are not bad. I've been told about the surroundings. There are some well-known rides in the sort of 40-80km range that are mostly on paved highway with good shoulder (though I've been warned about a hill with no shoulder on a rural highway). And there are several mountain bike trail networks within easy reach, including a little mtb park on campus and the "Pine Forest" about 10km from my house. Further away there's the edge of the New England Tablelands, a complex of national parks covering the complex terrain where this plateau I live on tumbles down towards the coast through temperate rain forest. There are gorges and parks and waterfalls galore within 50 km of me and I know a couple of people who like to tell me stories about eating poo poo on rocky, rooty trails.  Mountain bike trails on campus at UNE. by Martin Brummell, on FlickrThis is about 300m from my office, and seems like a great place to go when I've been spending too much time staring at numbers on my computer screen. So, yes, I want a hardtail for versatility. The less-than-optimal features of a hardtail for an urban-ish commute won't really hamper me on my modest commute, and I'm not planning on jumping into any really gnarly moutain biking any time soon. Plus I've always wanted a bike with compressy-bits on the front. EDIT: I guess the other option I'm considering is a gravel bike, which would do very well (I assume) on the many dirt roads and farm tracks around here but perhaps not so well on the mountain bike trails. Plus a gravel bike seems like the more expensive option, and I don't see many that look like that (drop bars, wide-ish tires) on the used market. One of the two LBS here sells Norco - which I like because I'm a Canadian living in Australia - and I've been eyeing the Norco Storm 5 but that's just a starting point. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Oct 15, 2020 |
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Oct 15, 2020 02:37
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Yeah, when I googled "Norco" the page was an interesting mix of bikes and dairy. I'll have to see if I can get a Norco (dairy) water-bottle to fit a bike. Or just clean out a chocolate-milk bottle and see if it fits. Y'know, get a bit meta. Magpies: yup! I've only had two interactions with them so far, in a week + 1/2 day of commuting. My first ride, I actually ran into a magpie. A juvenile was on the path, in a part with open-mesh fencing on both sides (the city was apparently doing something to the grass), with a mesh size big enough to allow a magpie through with its wings folded. This juvie didn't know how to smoothly dive through a fence like that and took off kinda slow, right across my path. I was slowing down so my front fork just brushed the tail feathers as it desperately tried to work the complex maneuver of landing on the horizontal wire, folding wings, and passing through. It never seemed to occur to the bird that it might be able to just climb high enough to clear the fence - it was only about a metre tall. The second was a more typical pair of swoops by an adult as I passed through its territory. It did not make contact, got within about 1 metre above me. I was also attacked by a duck. As I passed a family of Pacific Black Ducks the mom charged me, hissing. Again, no contact, no harm no A colleague has given up on riding this spring. She was attacked consistently at four places on her commute, and has decided to stay off the bike until December. I'm not worried, but I'm slightly masochistic when it comes to animal attacks, I'll probably show off with a goofy grin on my face to everyone any injuries I get from magpies. This morning my hatred of the hill was a little more than I expected, given how yesterday was a really good day both directions. Oh well. Metaphorical ups-and-downs are as much a part of my slowly improving fitness as the literal ups-and-downs.
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Oct 16, 2020 06:52
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Zonko_T.M. posted:Terrain: roads and dirt/gravel bike trails https://cycletraveloverload.com/best-gravel-bikes-under-1000-for-2021-budget-gravel-bikes/ First hit from a google search for "$1000 gravel bike disk brakes" Maybe that's a place to start? **** In other animal-attack news, I have now been swooped by magpies on two occassions. It feels like an Australian rite of passage. And that same momma duck charged me again but got nowhere near.
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Oct 20, 2020 04:10
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EvilJoven posted:It's not even officially fall yet and it's cold as poo poo I got snowed on at work the marshes are freezing over I just put the studded tires back in my bike and bought a second set of cobra fist pogies for my commuter because gently caress winter aaaaaagh. It's the same in Saskatoon, the leaves on the aspens and poplars turn yellow but they don't fall off until they're falling on snow, or if it hasn't snowed yet, falling into frozen puddles or onto frost-covered dead grass. Spring is worse, though. Just find some other place to be in April, the whole month is nothing but brown and grey and dogshit. EDIT: fall in northern Manitoba is just the afternoon of the Saturday of the second weekend in September. Sunday morning it's Early Winter. Further north, fall doesn't exist. It's just summer (12 C, sunny) directly to Early Winter (-5 C, cloudy). ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Oct 21, 2020 |
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Oct 21, 2020 04:03
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One of the things that I hated about bike commuting when I did it more than a decade ago was the small proportion of other riders who were just goddam idiots. I felt bad for being potentially included in the same group as (long rant deleted because irrelevant and poorly written). The awful minority of dicks attract a lot of attention, but I try to remember they're distinctly a minority. The good-enough riders outnumber them at least 10 to 1 (probably more like 50 to 1) but they're practically invisible because they don't try to turn themselves into hood ornaments. Anyway, yeah, don't be a dick. Also, please use your shift key, capitalisation makes words better. *** First commutes in the rain last night and this morning. My cheap plastic fenders are working well, no spray up my back or in my face. My brakes are ridiculous. Starting my descent yesterday, I felt like I had, in effect, no brakes at all. The wet steel rims and the half-worn-out (and only barely aligned) pads were ineffective. After they wiped most of the water off I actually had some braking power, but it was a little dicey. Disk brakes are a high priority for my next bike, even though this junkyard frankenbike is hardly a fair representative.
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Oct 22, 2020 00:46
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kimbo305 posted:For sure get some new pads. Always worth it. Yeah, my plan for this weekend is to spend some time with my bike on the stand. Priority 1 is the brakes, I've got everything I need to replace the cables so I'll do that for sure. The front brakes were a bit off this morning - one side was rubbing, the other was contacting the wheel rim too far towards the spokes (like, popping "under" the rim and just diving for the spokes) so I fiddled with them for 5 minutes. They're functional (and I absolutely learned to do the anticipation-wipe thing in the first 30 seconds of Wednesday's trip home), but need more adjustment fine-tuning anyway, and new pads make sense regardless. The chain drops off at least once per day, so I plan to puzzle over the derailleurs as well. I'll have put about 150km on the bike, according to my el-cheapo computer, in a touch over 2 weeks so a bit of maintenance seems like a good idea.
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Oct 23, 2020 04:05
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Last night's commute home was the real test of my new brake cables & pads (and, mainly, my ability to set them up and adjust them properly). It started raining about mid-day and never really stopped, culminating with a hail-and-fury storm lasting about 20 minutes, fortunately about 20 minutes after I got home. My ride was just some rain and an annoying headwind. I didn't even bring my rain jacket so I got soaked but the exertion kept me warm enough. If I'd dawdled, I would have needed to shelter under a bridge or something for the hail, it was nasty. My brakes worked fine, but this morning I had to adjust the rear pads because if I squeezed hard while moving, one pad would pop under the rim. It would not pop under if I was standing still, fiddling with the brakes, I had to be moving. That was a slightly unhappy surprise. Plenty of trees and major branches down today, including two completely across the path. Security was blocking access to the road to the sports complex on campus. I was walking my bike at that point this morning, because after 3 weeks I am still not close to conquering the hill this university perches atop. The security person said (imagine a strong Aussie accent) "That's a downhill bike, then, yeah?" and after my brain wrapped itself around the concept, I agreed. I'm the Local Legend for a segment of my (downward) commute - 300m of gravel path paralelling Elm street that starts with a gentle curve and ends with a narrow, rough-timber-top bridge with a central rail at each end (i.e., go slow) - and, occassionally, a duck on the railing. I guess I'm the only person who regularly risks that descent. XIII posted:Been a little over 3 years since I've taken anything but a bike to/from work. Gotta keep the streak!
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Oct 29, 2020 00:18
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kimbo305 posted:Have you spun the rear wheel to see if there’s a real high point somewhere? Having the entirety of the pad face miss the brake track seems off. I find adjusting brakes very fiddly. Tightening the nut on the bolt seems to cause all the parts to move a little, and I don't have enough hands to hold everything still and turn the wrench. This is obviously a matter of practice and attention, which is why I was able to solve this problem in 5 minutes standing in the driveway. Now, I feel like I have to move the lever a bit further than I'd like before the front brakes start to really grip, so this weekend I'll fiddle with them, too. The rear wheel is either not "true" or not seated exactly right in the frame. I pushed it as hard as I could into the frame - so the ends of the axel were as far into the C-shaped bracket as possible - and it's not far enough off that I feel it when riding. But if I hold it up and spin the rear wheel there is a distinct wobble, so I have to set the brake pads a couple of millimetres further out than I might prefer. This goes under the heading of "this bike is not worth getting tip-top" on my list of Things About My Bike.
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Oct 30, 2020 01:13
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Al2001 posted:You have cantilever brakes which are a pain to adjust and generally bad in many peoples' opinion. When I brought my first bike with cantis into the bike co-op, they advised me to take them off and replace with the cheapest v-brakes they had. It worked: much easier adjustabilility AND responsiveness. You need to replace the whole setup (incl. levers) though. Yup. That's the video I watched a couple of months ago when I first started working on this bike. If this beer I'm drinking doesn't completely steal my motivation, I will mess with my bike today. Otherwise tomorrow. I like weekends.
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Oct 31, 2020 05:31
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Here's my testimonial. In July I bought a non-rideable bike at the Tip Shop, the store beside the municipal waste disposal that rescues potentially-sellable items from the pit and sells them for a handwave, a shrug, and a pocketful of change. The new manager there says he used to race bikes and he wants to turn the Tip Shop into a place people can go to get parts for their old bike for cheap. I picked up a bike for me and a bike for my wife for $120, which is pretty much the maximum possible spend at the Tip Shop if you're not backing up a dumptruck and a bulldozer to the gate. Advice from goons in the various bike threads helped me get mine rideable - my wife's bike is still languishing in the garage with rotten tires and untested components. I replaced a few things and discovered, much like I had been assured, that much of basic bike maintenance and repair is quite simple and you don't need special tools for most of it. I got my bike rideable but not completely finished before the end of October and I started riding it every day to work.  Celebrating an avoided Day Zero by Martin Brummell, on FlickrMy commute is not long, about 6.5 km through municipal multi-use paths and then up the 70m hill the university perches on. That hill still kicks my rear end, every day I get off the bike and walk up the last, steepest part. Some day I'll be in the saddle the whole way, but not today. Just this bit of exercise has been a major improvement for me. I'm commuting, not training, and I'm not a particularly competitive person so I very rarely push myself higher than a 7 for exertion. I find the feeling of being out of breath with sore muscles distinctly uncomfortable and while I have access to a shower and I have spare clothes at work, I'd much rather just sit down and get to work when I get to work. People here and other places are quick to say that "it doesn't hurt less, you just go faster", and while that is certainly one possible approach, I have been (mostly) able to ramp down the pain but maintain the same overall speed. These days, I get off the bike on the hill when I feel like a 6, rather than a 7, and it's roughly at the same point. From a commuting point of view, this is very good for me. After a month of riding every work day (and a couple of fun rides on weekends), my junkyard frankenbike developed a problem that would cost more at a shop to fix than the bike is worth - basically, it needs an entire new drivetrain. When the shop called me to chat about this, I decided to buy a new bike. I had been thinking of a new-to-me, probably used, bike as a christmas present to myself but the used market here is awkward - it's a small city, far from major centres - and I don't have a car (that died at the end of July, a separate story of stupidity, mistakes, and regrets). So a new bike, after my decision was reinforced by the annoying bus service here. For a week I rode the bus again, just as I had back before I got my old bike rideable. Having experienced a month of the freedom of scheduling that a bike gave me, the one-per-hour municipal bus service was just no longer acceptable. I bought this last Friday, and rode it to work directly from the shop.  New bike. Norco Storm 5 by Martin Brummell, on Flickr(parked at the tree marking the spot I usually give up on the ascent and walk the rest of the way) Overall, I've been commuting by bike for 5 weeks, and I love it. I've spent a bit more than $1000 Australian dollars (about 0.73 to the greenback) on EVERYTHING bike related to this point, including a bunch of things that transfered over to the new bike like lights, lock, and helmet. I'll get my old bike rideable over the next little while and maybe get back to commuting on it and save the mountain bike for pure fun. However, I've been taking my MTB on the university's trail network, just the easy trails, and I've been really enjoying that 20 minutes of rocks and roots and tight twisty trails before I head home each day. Anyway, if you are considering biking to work or school I would certainly encourage you to start. What I did worked out very well for me, I was able to try this idea out for pretty cheap (old bike plus everything needed to ride it regularly ran to about $350 or $400 AUD, not all spent at once) and decide I liked it before spending more money on it.
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Nov 19, 2020 04:03
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Today is marks a milestone for my bike commute: I made it all the way to the top of the hill (70m, all in one big lump) without walking my bike at all. I took a couple of breaks, sure, but I got back on and pedalled up, not walked.  Full sunlight both directions every one of my 35 commutes so far, so I can't really contribute to light-chat. Other than to note I bought the second-cheapest bike lights I could find at KMart and both the front and rear provide the option of either steady-on (at multiple brightness levels) or flashing (again at multiple levels). I personally prefer steady for both front and rear but blinky lights don't bother me very much.
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Dec 3, 2020 00:08
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I have no idea if it's related to your specific issue or not, but DRINK THE WATER c'mon, you suspect out loud that you're dehydrated, by the time a person is willing to talk about it to strangers on the internet they're already loving parched. Drink the water.
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Dec 17, 2020 01:43
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Fitzy Fitz posted:First commute with my new trunk bag. Much nicer than a backpack! Fitzy Fitz posted:(bonus MTB that I don't feel like moving) How's your new bag treating you? I need to get my bag off my back, too humid here now for that nonsense.
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Jan 6, 2021 02:07
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You said you had trouble sleeping because of bike-theft anxiety. That's not going to abate at all unless you can roll over in bed and see your bike, nice and safe, every time that particular little thought demon pops up. There is a ton of different storage racks designed for small apartments, you're far from the first person to have this concern. As has been posted here, for example. Have a look around various bike shop websites and Amazon and the other usual places, and try something out. Protecting a floor is even easier, rubber mats with raised rims are not difficult to obtain.
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Jan 8, 2021 00:14
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100YrsofAttitude posted:Trying to think how a city council would justify the action and cost really. Cyclists do their part of the shouting, but they're usually a tiny minority in the winter and the really hardcore winter riders don't care about snow anyways, they just ride through it and brag about it later. From what I've seen. Snow clearing in Quebec City was amazing. They practically didn't let flakes hit the ground, and they turn sidewalks into vertical-walled canyons that can have walls more than 2m high (they hook up a huge snowblower to the PTO on a tractor and just go everywhere). I really appreciated the special rule they must have for the back-up beepers on those big vehicles. Normally, they'd be bleeping away, but in winter if they're clearing snow I guess they're allowed or required to turn off the beeper, so I don't have to listen to it at 4:00am. They can't do anything about the diesel engines roaring away, but eventually we'll have electric heavy trucks so one day they'll clear snow in eerie silence (except for rampant yelling in Quebecois slang, which is highly entertaining).
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Jan 11, 2021 00:58
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100YrsofAttitude posted:I really need to remember my phone has a camera so I can take a picture of Elegant George next time I see him. EG is a grey heron I see regularly on the way to work and it always cheers me up. I'm a Canadian nature lover and professional naturalist, living in Australia. Every goddam day I get a stupid grin because I see extremely-common stuff like gum trees (Eucalyptus) and parrots (so many parrots!). These things are boring to my Australian colleagues, but I have also seen an eastern water dragon a couple of times on my commute - I think the same individual - and before I started biking I saw a few echidnas a handful of times when I was coming home after dark. And the usual parent-duck hissing and charging me because they have chicks. Speaking of herons, there's a white-face heron that hunts in the ditch beside the MUP I ride on, when the ditch is full of water from recent rains. I've seen it enough times, I should give it a name - Elegant George is a good one, but obviously taken  alnilam posted:At my old commute i used to ride downhill next to a horse pasture and they used to race me along the fence sometimes That's great! Once, so far, a kangaroo (we have a couple of distinct mobs of Eastern Grey Kangaroos around) paced me on the other side of the fence, but only for a few hops, maybe 20 metres. And I've been swooped a couple of times by magpies. Australian magpies will aggressively defend their nest territories, an area of maybe 200 m around whatever tree they've chosen. I see other riders with zip-ties on their helmets as magpie-deterents but the stand-out encounter I had was the maggie that swooped in silently beside me, pacing me for a bit just off my right shoulder, then SCREAMED a challenge right in my ear. Worth noting, at least one human fatality caused by magpie has been confirmed: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-16/magpie-swooping-attack--man-dies-near-woonona/11515246
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Jan 24, 2021 07:46
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Bingemoose posted:So it really doesnt matter just find something that is comfortable and works? For me its a lot of miles on the highway and its cold as ef where I am. When I started bike-commuting, it had been more than 10 years since I'd owned a bike. I didn't know what I'd find uncomfortable or what might be a dealbreaker on a bike. So I found a partly-broken bike and fixed it up (wrenching on a bike is almost entirely a matter of using regular tools after watching a couple of youtube videos, I had no real trouble). After a month, that bike broke again, so I bought the cheapest "hardtail" mountainbike (front suspension, no rear suspension) I could find new locally, and I've been very happy with it. My commute is less than half of yours, and I'm never anywhere near to a fast road. I think leaving plenty of room (budget) for a future upgrade is the best plan. Get something "decent" for half your budget (I guess around $1K) and after riding it for a month, think about whether you'd like to upgrade to something lighter, or with a different geometry, or a different gear layout. All of the accessories - lights, helmet, lock, etc. - will transfer over, saving some money on an upgrade compared to a everything-new purchase.
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Jan 25, 2021 01:28
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I don't know what the French word for them is, but try looking for gaiters https://www.google.com/search?q=gai...iw=1920&bih=976 EDIT: I'm in Australia so this page of GIS results is full of advertisements for snake-resistant leg coverings. Which is hilarious. And, if you find something you really really want but it's not available in France, let me know and we can try to work something out that will probably involve silly shipping costs and months to get there. They were invented centuries ago before trousers were really a thing and everybody wore long socks and other random bits of fabric on their legs and yeah, getting that wet was uncomfortable. These days, lots of people who like to wear shorts in less-than-lovely weather put their gaiters on and keep their feet dry. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Feb 5, 2021 |
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Feb 5, 2021 01:45
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KozmoNaut posted:I did a bit of bicycle-related DIY, since I do 99% of my grocery shopping by bike these days. This is very cool and very relevant to me and my recently-installed pannier rack. I've just been strapping a gym bag I found at a thrift shop onto it, but bags that hang down the sides would be better. Now I have a real reason to browse Russian Etsy and eBay sellers! EDIT: and it's a Friday with no particular plans, just after payday, so the old standby of a bottle of wine, my credit card, and a bunch of open tabs is looking pretty good. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Mar 12, 2021 |
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Mar 12, 2021 00:53
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Head Bee Guy posted:a rack for the rear wheel (could this double as a fender? I've been meaning to get one for inclimate rides) and attach my backpack to it. I sometimes ride my MTB on the trails around here and the solid metal plate on the top of the rack does a good-enough job of keeping the mud and water off of my back. I had a duffle bag or overnight bag (whatever you want to call it, it's rectangular and has two small handles plus a detachable longer shoulder strap) that I'd picked up at a thrift store and I use that for larger loads, like bringing home some beer on Friday afternoons. My U-lock still lives in my backpack (it fits nicely in the water-bladder holder) and the straps are a good length - 1 metre.  New rack on my bike by Martin Brummell, on Flickr Bike rack by Martin Brummell, on Flickr Bike rack by Martin Brummell, on FlickrI moved the rear light to another part of the frame where it's actually visible when I'm carrying more than my empty, collapsed backpack. EDIT: I want proper panniers that hang down the sides, a full load on top of the rack makes the bike a bit unstable when I'm not riding it. It's fine once I'm moving, but it really wants to fall over when I'm trying to lock/unlock it or walk it around. Plus I have to swing my leg extra-high over the load to get on. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Mar 17, 2021 |
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Mar 17, 2021 00:13
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Literally Lewis Hamilton posted:Is that a cygolite? They make a rack adapter that is nice. Mine is not. Mine is the 2nd-cheapest USB-rechargeable rear light I could find at KMart 6 months ago. The front light is now an Amazon special after my KMart front light got wet and went bonkers (randomly on and off, button does nothing).
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Mar 17, 2021 03:20
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Today is 100 commutes by bike for me. I took the long way, and stopped many times for photos (and to rest my still-flabby self) 100 bicycle commutes by Martin Brummell, on Flickr 100 bicycle commutes by Martin Brummell, on Flickr 100 bicycle commutes by Martin Brummell, on Flickr 100 bicycle commutes by Martin Brummell, on Flickr 100 bicycle commutes by Martin Brummell, on FlickrGetting this screenshot off of my phone and into my Flickr stream was stupidly difficult for me. Presumably there's an easier way, but I don't know it.  Screenshot_20210414-095332~2 by Martin Brummell, on Flickr
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Apr 14, 2021 01:19
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Yesterday I dropped in on a colleague, a professor of soil science (can of worms: his research is on cotton in Australia) and happily noted the muddy MTB leaning against the bookshelves in his office (and we talked about camping and fishing). I've seen him on the local trails once or twice, I'm happy to see he's still hitting them. His clothes were clean (and his hair is short enough a helmet does basically nothing) but one of the nice things about academia, especially in a displine that includes Field Work (in literal fields), is I can rock into the office at whatever o'clock wearing pretty much anything and nobody will do more than raise an errant eyebrow. Also, my office is a cave in the basement and I never interact with other humans. I'm so lonely.... **** Busier than normal on the MUP this morning, I passed TWO other bikes. The second one said something at me as I passed, I said "on your right" and passed her on her right. I don't have any idea what she said, she might have been thanking me for the well-timed call, she might have recognised me and said hello, she might have been angry at me for some reason. It's kinda bugging me, I don't want to piss people off but I also don't want to stop to chat with random fellow-users of the path. Pretty much everybody here is friendly and polite. Dog-walkers get their dogs out of the way, small children are gently corralled, joggers and fellow cyclists wave or nod, and pretty much everybody will call a cheery "good morning!" or "how are ya?" as I pass. But it would only take one grumpy person to stick in my mind and maybe ruin my day. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 01:17 on May 11, 2021 |
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May 11, 2021 01:13
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Sooner or later I need to try drop bars, I've never ridden a bike with them but they're the clear choice if I decide I want to go faster. My frankenbike commuter has flat bars and so does my currrent hardtail, but the MTB is really wide. My hands are way out there. When I was riding my frankenbike I always thought the MTBs on the MUP looked rather silly with their wings spread out, but since November that's been me, sailing around with almost-straight elbows and an almost-straight back and just accepting that 30 km/h is my speed. But I'm also trying to improve my skill at very low speeds (like waiting at the point where the path crosses a road) just on general principles and the wide stance is helpful.
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May 12, 2021 01:36
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kimbo305 posted:If you just want to tempt fate, you can try: LOL. I am 100% certain that as soon as I attempt this, I'll eat poo poo hard enough to break my jaw. But yeah, I'll try out the narrower-grip idea sometime.
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May 12, 2021 03:19
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Invalido posted:Emergency car battery purchase going home from work. More weight than I cared for on the rack but it was alright, I went slow. As someone who has walked home from the auto parts store with a car battery more than once, I think your option would be MUCH more comfortable. Car batteries are loving heavy.
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May 13, 2021 00:59
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Leng posted:Also last night I finish writing the first draft of the Chinese text for the cycling book, and there is literally two lines about the mom character (me) going out on the e-bike and one of those lines is something to the effect of "be careful, watch out in front!"
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Jun 15, 2021 05:25
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This morning an adult, probably male, Eastern Grey Kangaroo paced me on the other side of the sheep-paddock fence as I rolled down a gentle hill at 25 kmh. He looked like he was exerting himself at a level equivalent to a brisk walk, and he could have easily jumped over the fence at any time. He stopped close to where the path I was on turned away from the fence. I don't know the top speed he's capable of, but it's clearly much, much faster than we were going. Watching a kangaroo at full speed is an under-appreciated perk of living in Australia, I've only seen it a few times, usually from the car, and they're impressive animals. I hope I see him on the way home, and again tomorrow.
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Jul 6, 2021 01:35
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Leng posted:It's now past 5 pm on the east coast of Australia, report back! Did you see Skippy and also did he beat you up? They're not like magpies. There's a confirmed record of magpies killing a man on a bicycle. My wife and I are wildlife carers (licensed and everything), we cared for a couple of orphaned Eastern Grey joeys in late 2019. The male of the pair once suddenly jumped from my chest, I was half-lounging in a comfy chair while bottle-feeding him. If you've ever seen those central propulsion toes up close you might be able to imagine what it feels like when even a small one pushes off and launches a 2-metre jump into a high-speed hop around the yard. Not even standing start, lying down start, and I had lovely bruises. The big guy I saw yesterday was probably 60 kg, the joey was about 5 kg. But I'm not in the habit of bottle feeding adult roos. Animal Friend posted:Going to assume ExecuDork has been knocked over by his roo mate and eaten by dropbears and bunyips Post/username combo
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Jul 7, 2021 03:36
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Leng posted:I have been seriously swooped at by a magpie riding the Georges River cycleway, they are aggressive birds and not to be messed with. But It doesn't say it in the article, but I suspect the victim was not wearing a helmet. He died of severe head injuries after crashing his bike. Keep your brain in a bin, please. There's a great picture of a maggie on TALLY-HO! approach in the linked article, along with some hilariously broken reasoning by members of the public. Blood filling your lungs is bad, yes. Blood filling your heart is normal and not a symptom of a heart attack.
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Jul 8, 2021 01:41
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at that article!
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I just upgraded to a proper pannier last week. My previous system was a pair of ratchet-straps, 1m long each, holding down a gym bag I picked up at a second-hand store about 6 months ago. The straps were apparently made for bikes, with a picture of a bicycle on the wrapper. They weren't proper lever-action ratchet straps, they're simpler, just a spring-loaded grippy metal tab. I had to really push them tight or my bag would flop around, too, but I could secure the bag well enough that I didn't worry about it falling off - with my computer inside and bouncing along a dirt track for part of my commute. I'd tie the long loose ends together if the bag was less than very full. I took these pictures for the new rear tire, but you can see the straps fairly well. I was using my little backpack that day for some reason, but I tie it down the same way. Click for bigger  New tyre by Martin Brummell, on Flickr New tyre by Martin Brummell, on Flickr
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Jul 13, 2021 01:51
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 07:21 |
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The Wiggly Wizard posted:Love to get honked and yelled at on my bike for absolutely nothing Then I deliberately put it out of my mind because I didn't want to spend all evening being mad about something trivial.
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Jul 15, 2021 02:46
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