What are you looking to accomplish with your bike?

Just something I can ride around town

yeah the counterstrike tags weren't doing it for me anymore :P
good thing about riding 250k on a bike is you know exactly what you need to change lol going to pick up some wheels, pedals, handlebars, stem, and saddle (got very dirty and stained from rain) bye bye paycheque!

post ride pic

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...617_173933.jpg

wow. Replacing the entire cockpit? How were you feeling on the road?

No pics here just yet. Can't find my camera.

What type of shoe/pedal combo would you guys recommend for a beginner? I intend on doing 10-20km to start. I wouldn't mind spending a bit more on something decent instead of cheaping out in the beginning and having to upgrade shortly after.

proportions are great, upper body is 100% fine post ride but things that bothered me were:

bars: i'm a fan of the classic bend with a compact-ish drop, the stock bars have a weird "egro" angle to them that my wrists didn't like too much
pedals: looking at something with a wider platform, maybe the 105's
stem: current thing is a clunker and more importantly it's ugly :fullofwin:

how'd you like the camp? i beasted two plates of food, thought i'd help myself to a few beers and passed the f out by 8pm LOL

Hopefully this weekend I'll get out for a nice ride and snap a pretty picture of it. It's always a toss up on nice days between the the bicycle and the new motorcycle :lol

heading up to squamish this wednesday if anyone else is feeling adventurous!

I also passed out at 8. But I beasted two plates of food for breakfast instead of dinner haha. Took my sweet-ass time getting ready in the morning and ended up leaving at 8am, an hour after the big group. But we rode like the wind in the morning, and caught up with a bunch of teammates who had left at 7 and ended up riding into the finish with them.

Camp was muddy as fuck :( .

Do you plan on going clipless right away?

I don't know much about bikes other than how to ride one.
But what do u guys think of this one? I'll mainly be using this for getting from point a-b.
http://www.revscene.net/forums/66981...ml#post7952609

For $85, hard to go wrong.

But eww...disc brakes. :fuckthatshit: :heckno:

RESN - your PM box is full.

Hi guys. Just wondering where is a good place to shop for road shoes. The pedals I have are SPD compatible. Thanks in advance fellow cyclists.

SO. How come cyclists in Vancouver bike on the street as opposed to the sidewalk?
The safety of the pedestrians is not endagered( unless its a hipster biker). Or if they are going to share the road, they should abide by the same rules as cars, either that or all bikes should be mandatory fit with Avid code's

I will GIVE you 85$ if you tell me how a V brake is better.

Where have you been where people bike on the sidewalk (Besides children)?

Less maintenance, headaches and weight.

In dry condition, with clean rims and good pads a decent v brake actually has better stopping power than mechanical disc brake, since both left and right pad contact the rim at the same time(if tuned properly).
For a mechanical disc brake, the moving pad needs to "bend" the rotor into the non moving pad resulting in energy loss. And on a lower end mechanical disc brake+ lock end fork combo, the disc tab usually are not welded perfectly stright, resulting in the pad hitting the rotor at an angle, and again resulting in loss of power and efficiency.
My "street" bike is still running Avid SD Ultimate Vees on the rear with a hydraulic disc on the front for the modulation.

Pmed you with my number

Europe, All of Europe to be more exact.

I'm just amazed how a person without a helmet can bike on the street with cars when there is a big chance of you getting hit by your mistake or a drivers mistake. Its much safer on the sidewalk, sure if there are too many pedestrians and you are overwhelemed, then you should hop of and roll on the street.
I guess my main problem is seeing EMPTY sidewalks and bikers killing traffic by going on the street, ( most of the time with no helmet)

First off, avid ultimates are roughly 10 times better than your average v brake set.

I have been biking for 10 years, my main Specs are Downhill and Trials riding, i had avid ultimates like you and i changed them for Avid Code's, they have literrally saved my life on 2 different ocasions while biking through europe, where its a bit crowded. I do agree that most disc brakes are in general gardbage and not as responsive as a ultimate v brake but then again, the ultimates cost 200$ per set, so thats almost as much as a set of Avid Codes which are brilliant and have massive stopping power.
The main reason why i like disc's is that in boh trials and DH, bent rims are as casual as inflating my tires. With v brakes i would be stranded in most cases. And if it rains discs have the upper hand.

Ultimately its all about the rider, brakes are important but more so for newer riders who dont have developed reflexes. I've seen this shit first hand when a woman bikin on a city bike with obviously shit brakes went face first into the door of a civic, some will argue that its the Civic's fault but from my point of view its 100% the riders fault for having shitty reflexes ( BTW the Honda door fell of its hinge :)))

Riding downtown today, almost got doored by some woman in her Car2Go Smart car. Rode around the door then turned and gave her the death stare. :lawl:

Then later on riding on the Canada Line bike/pedestrian bridge, near the bottom of the Richmond side theres like 2 steep turns, had a little bit too much fun and locked up the front. Hydraulic disks + Semi slick street tire = :okay:

Only a couple cuts and bruises though :thumbs:

I was leaning towards a hybrid pedal but usually when you want the best of both worlds you end up getting the worst of both worlds.

After doing some researching for bikes I think I'm pretty set on the Giant Defy 1. Has anyone seen this bike for less than $1299? I've been calling around different stores and that seems to be the lowest price in town.

Thanks!

Shimano A530 is probably the best hybrid clipless pedal available. You can probably swap the stock pedals and get a good deal on the 530's when you buy your bike. You've probably called Different Bikes, but I recommend them for good pricing and service and they'll take care of the pedal swap no problems and set you up.

Most mechanical disc brakes are not very good, and in some cases a good v-brake will out perform them (but only in the dry and only if the wheel is true), noticed I said a good v-brake. Not all v-brakes are SD-Ultimates, just like not all mech disc brakes are Avid BB7's which are on par with many hydraulic systems and head and shoulders above the SD-Ultimates any day of the week performance wise.

Van M5: for somebody who has been riding for as long as you say, you seem clueless about cycling on the road. Commuters riding on sidewalks not dangerous? C'mon. Asking cyclists to hop on and off the sidewalk and roads? Give me a break. There's enough good cycling designed routes and streets in the city that cyclists don't need to clog up nor risk their own safety in high traffic arterial routes. Letting cyclists ride on the sidewalk beause they have no helmets -- you realize its against the law to ride with no helmet right? Suggesting commuters use Avid Code's for street riding...yeah really have nothing to say to that. Hope those riders have helmets when they accidentally launch themselves over the handlebars stopping from 20km/h. If you ever ride on the street, I have a pretty good idea the type of rider you would look like...