I'm curious. How many of us here are cyclists?

Denon Frank

Does riding the wife count?

zane77

Upper 40's here today got the road bike out for a couple of hours. Nice to be outside instead of spinning on the trainer. Lot's of sand and gravel on the road yet, pretty soon they'll have that cleaned up and it won't be quite so slippery!

Rivrrat

I'm a bit surprised there's as many of here as there are.

FRCN

I am. Since senior year in high school-37 years ago.

squeeb

Even former Tour riders get hit on the road. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/cycling/2013/03/11/former-cyclist-laurent-jalabert-hurt-in-car-accident/1978783/

Reminds me of a time going down the road by myself about 20 mph and I see a Buick (think age) coming the other way with the left turn signal on. I slow up as it appears we will reach the intersection at the same time. I look for eye contact - nothing. I slow further then slam on the brakes as she turns in front of me. She would not have seen me until I hit her windshield - if then! The driver behind was just shaking her head. Fortunately it only cost me a new $50 tire.

pitdogg2

Does riding a Mirra pro in skate parks and street count
If so count me in.

jbooker82

For fun here. 2013 trek ds 8.3

madmax

I have a Trek 7.3 FX but don't ride much, just around the neighborhood now and then.

seabeerob213

pitdogg2 wrote: »

Does riding a Mirra pro in skate parks and street count
If so count me in.

agreed, does bmx count? i have a fully tricked out DK Kachinsky and when it was all new totalled over 1600

Toxis

First day in the 70's here and got out of work early enough to get an hour of pavement riding in. Well worth it. Wish I had more time. Trails need to dry out so I can get the MTB dirty.

tophatjohnny

Not by choice, but I am one!

gudnoyez

tophatjohnny wrote: »

Not by choice, but I am one!

Not by choice meaning you don't enjoy it, or not by choice as you have to force yourself to do it?

Rivrrat

I've been on the injured reserve list for a little over a week. I managed to crash my mountain bike in a sandy wash and gashed my calf on the chainring. Then to make things worse, Wednesday I dropped a 5lb piece of telcom eq from about 6' on my toe. That's not good when you ride with toe clips.

I think I'll try to ride tomorrow and see if I can go a day without hurting myself.

chefkungfu

Hey guys, I ride an '09 Cannondale Rize1. It's a 1x9 setup and weighs 21.5#'s! All carbon with a carbon lefty.
You guys can check out my profile on pinkbike.com, MTBR.com, & vintagecannondale.com for my other bikes if you want to.
FT

gdpeck

I've ridden bikes since I was a little kid. Have done a bit of mountain biking over the years, and recently decided to try road biking after talking with a lot of friends who ride. On Wednesday I bought the bike pictured below which is a 2013 Specialized Tarmac 4L Pro. Since taking this picture, I've added Speedplay Zero pedals. Yesterday I took my first real ride. 25 miles. It was a lot of fun and I'm excited to get better, farther, and faster.

[URL="[URL=http://s63.photobucket.com/user/gdpeck/media/bike pictures/bike1.jpg.html][IMG]http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h132/gdpeck/bike pictures/bike1.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

BlueFox

Only if it goes over 100 MPH, uphill! :cheesygrin:

http://techland.time.com/2013/05/24/nbd-rocket-bike-goes-163-mph/?hpt=hp_bn18

Poolgod69

I have a 203 EPX 303 Carbon Fiber which is Shimano Tiagra/105 components. Not sold in US anymore and they have essentially transitioned to all Mountain bikes in Australia. I also have a Cannondale Quick 4 hybrid which I ride about 20 miles daily her in Indy on the Monon trail.

VSchneider

gdpeck wrote: »

... 2013 Specialized Tarmac 4L Pro...

What a handsome bike!

My current ride is a Bianchi Via Nirone 7. Need to take better photos of the current setup before posting.
Also a Jamis Allegro flat bar wide(-ish) tire road hybrid for less than perfect conditions and lite cross duty.

gdpeck

VSchneider wrote: »

What a handsome bike!

My current ride is a Bianchi Via Nirone 7. Need to take better photos of the current setup before posting.
Also a Jamis Allegro flat bar wide(-ish) tire road hybrid for less than perfect conditions and lite cross duty.

Thank you!

I really think Bianchi's are beautiful bikes. I had an Impulso on my list of bikes to consider, but couldn't find one to test ride and didn't get good feelings from the dealer about when he could even get me one to purchase. I'm extremely happy with what I have, but really would like to own a Bianchi some day.

fatchowmein

I have a Giant OCR1 and an Iron Horse MKIII Trail full suspension mt bike. Love road riding but the drivers are more insane than ever and never paying attention. I don't ride road much anymore ever since my brother got hit from behind in full daylight while riding in a peloton on Saturday morning down a stretch of road heavily trafficked by cyclists. In fact, that driver had just gotten pulled over for speeding 10 min earlier. Wife freaks whenever I take my Giant out for a spin. Most days it sits in the trainer for tabata sprint training.

Lately, I'm just casually cruising around the neighborhood on the Iron Horse but I haven't gotten on it this year, yet.

Toxis

I'm insane but Saturday I'll be partaking in a 110 mile gravel grinder here in KS. I'm not up for the whole 200mi yet; next year though, next year it's on. Gotta have goals right? But let's see how I do Saturday...

Www.dirtykanza200.com

Rivrrat

That's a bit more than my old legs will let me do.

Right now my old Team Fuji road bike has developed a hitch in it's giddy-up that I figure is in the bottom bracket, so It's going to be redo the bottom bracket time for me.

chefkungfu

Here is my c-dale. 21.5#'s 1x9 setup. Carbon lefty and frame.

Syndil

Here's my ride:



'88 Schwinn Premis. Columbus Tenax frame, ~22 lbs. Not bad for vintage I'd say. Oh, I ditched the Aero I bars. Older photo.

bikezappa

Been riding bikes all my life and commuted to work for 45 years. Road solo across the US in 1998.
Keeps my type 1 diabetes under control and makes me smile and stay fit. Raced and coached for 15 years and made Cat2 classification.

Share the road.

cstmar01

Just went in the other day to look for a new ride. Looking at the Specalized line up Crave Expert. My old GT is starting to go and compared to the newer stuff the frame is getting heavy to lug around these days. Hopefully will have soon so can be out riding in the next few weeks.

treitz3

Yes, I am a cyclist. Used to be hardcore. Not for sport, just for fun. Back in the day, I would commute 68 miles a day and then go ride for a couple of hours down at the local park. I would hop on my bike and go from Springfield, VA and end up out at the George Washington National Forest. Same thing with Matthews, NC to Greensboro. Ridden up and down the coast of California [loved Black's Beach BTW *winks*] and all around the state of Washington. I rode my bicycle to all of my schools then to college. I have had touring bikes, BMX bikes, race bikes and mountain bikes and still have all of my bike tools to completely disassemble a bike and rebuild it from scratch. I have been clocked at 57 miles per hour on Hwy 74 here in Charlotte, NC. Been hit by a dozen or more vehicles throughout my travels, smacked the side of a van who did not stop at a stop sign @ around 40mph, been hit by three buses, shot at, beer bottles, rocks and books thrown at me, skinned [or shall I say "deskinned"] the entire left side of my leg and buttocks, ridden on plenty of iced over lakes, been 15' up in the air on a jump, racked myself countless times, rode so hard and long on one trip, my muscles ripped the skin on my quads......oh, some of the stories I could tell......250,000+ miles are on these legs. I'm sure you imagine what scenarios can happen riding all of those miles.....

I currently only have two bikes. An old school Cannondale Delta Killer-V [polished Aluminum] that has been completely customized and a Trek 4500 that the wife rides.

Share the Road.

Tom

bikezappa

Crashing. Yes we hate to remember those crashes.

treitz3

Oh, that reminds me. I had two crashes that still stick out in my mind. Not from vehicles crashing into me though. It's me crashing into something alive.

The first and most painful memory was when my buddy Jason and I were racing through our old neighborhood in Springfield, VA and we passed a dog that was just chilling on the sidewalk, unleashed. As we came around the corner [going downhill at a very fast clip] the dog could not decide which bike to chase after. He started going after Jason which put him into dangerously close proximity to me and when he got close to me, he changed course and I hit him at full speed right in the ribs. He changed directions so fast that I didn't really have time to hit the brakes. All I remember from that point was watching his body wrap around my front tire, his head hitting my front forks, then smacking the corner of the curb. I'll never forget the sound of that "crack". Of course at this point, I was already airborne and upside down. My memory stopped when I hit my head on the sidewalk. The next thing I know, I'm waking up in the hospital. I was OK, just a little bruised. The bike was totaled and we ended up locating the owner of the dog about a week later. Turned out that the dog had passed away three days after the accident from brain injuries.

The second one was at McAlpine Park down here in Charlotte. Two of my friends and I were flying down the paths on a beautiful Saturday afternoon when the paths opened up and cut through a field. On each side of this field was a soccer field and between each soccer field, there was about 200' of nothing but lawn. In front of us, we noticed a pack of people walking and started to warn them from far away that we were about to pass. Well, the people started to bunch together and make way for us to go around them but when they started doing this, a 4 year old girl freaked out and started running as fast as her little heart could make her run straight toward our path. I noticed her coming at a fast pace toward us but one of my buddies was off looking at the Geese that were off to our left. Unfortunately, he was off to my left so I literally hit him as I was hitting the brakes so hard I was doing a "reverse" pop-a-wheelie [if you will]. While my back tire was up in the air about 3 feet, I hit the girl. Luckily I was able to steer the front tire away from her body and used my free hand to grab the back of her shirt and carry her with me in the reverse pop-a-wheelie a couple of more feet until I was able to stop and put the rear end of the bike back on the ground.

Fortunately, the little girl was OK. She just hit her head on the brake lever of my handlebars as I was grabbing her shirt. I apologized profusely for hitting their little girl and I was somewhat expecting to get my arse whooped. The complete opposite happened. They thanked me. I couldn't believe my ears. They all agreed that we did the right thing by letting them all know that we were about to pass and that I [nor them] had control of the little girl when she unexpectedly darted off. They were also impressed on "how" I hit her, knowing full well that their was nothing I could have done at that time to prevent the collision. I felt really bad about this for weeks, even though the girl was OK.

Bikes can be dangerous too, which is why it is a law for cyclists to stay off the sidewalks.

Share the road.

Tom

bikezappa

Tom great stories and you are a great bike handler. The more crashes I have the more time I have to react.

Here is the tale of my worse bike crash.


I landed first on the right side of my head and was surprised by the loudness of the sound. I wasn’t going that fast on my bike. I was hurt but conscious and was happy to be able to move my feet and hands. The blood was everywhere on my face and shirt. I could hear many of the Canada geese in the pond near me all honking. The pain then hit me on the right shoulder, hip and chest. I started slowly writhing on my back on the bike path. I realized that at 7 in the morning there wouldn’t be many people out to help me. I sat up and tried to stop the blood squirting from my head. I saw my bike beside me, got up and picked it up and started to walk. I thought it was funny that the front wheel had goose feathers in the spokes. I noticed the bike was not damaged and even the wheels were true.

This particular day had started out warm with blue sky and no wind, perfect for my commute to work. I usually ride about 4 miles of my commute on the rail trail, a flat, straight, well-paved bike path that goes by woods and ponds. About 2 miles down the path, I noticed a Canada goose with about 5 little chicks following her on the right side of the path. For fun I thought I would give her a little brush by. As I passed all of the chicks the mother goose suddenly opened her wings and flew directly into my front wheel taking me down hard. I had no time to lay the bike down and slide on the paved path, which is the preferred method of landing during a crash. With any luck, this would have allowed the bike to absorb some of the impact. Instead I went over the bars and hit my head on the pavement.

While walking my bike and bleeding, I meet Brian. He said he had heard and then saw me go down. Bike paths are very straight when built on old railroad beds, like this one is. We walked a relatively short distance to his car and he loaded the bike in his trunk and me into the blanketed front seat and drove to the nearest hospital. I had eight broken ribs, a collapsed right lung, lacerated scalp and two breaks in my collarbone. The Canada goose won that day, but I’m going to serve goose pate at my next party to get her back.

I now will wear a helmet.