The biking thread

[W3H5]

Those have some good reviews and look awesome with the gum wall sides. 👍

 

[KungFury]

Is there anyone on here into old steel? When I was a kid I used to build up cromo bmx bikes of high quality and at the time simply accepted 4130 as what I wanted and never fled. 1980's redlines come to mind. Anyway...

I've been combing garage sales, flee markets, craigslist etc in search of cool vintage road bikes to mess around with. I've built a few over the past year or so and now find the different frame constructions fascinating. I started off with a trek 400 elance from the late 80's, perfect example of a reynolds 531 done right. The frame didn't float my boat so I built it up as a single speed with some entry level modern parts and sold it for a few hundred bucks, it's the guys daily commuter and he seems happy.

Moving on, I found a pristine '87 fuji sagres and wow. I knew nothing about the valite 4 quad butted tubing but decided to put some decent money into the bike with the intention of selling it. Shimano 105 5800 groupset, shimano r500 wheels and all that, so a middle of the road bike. Something about the frame though has me giddy with joy and it's my daily, light enough, stiff in the right places, smooth, comfortable. All that from a mid level 80's fuji.

After those two adventures I found an '83 centurion elite rs in my buddies back yard, it used to be another old mate of mine's so it was an insta gift. Damn thing was a mess but eventually I got it all together and on the road. It's too large for me as it's a standard 23" race geo thingo and my first rollings on tange 2. Lite frameset came in right at 6.5lbs with my fishing hanger scale(lol). High q tubing but I can't give the bike all it deserves simply because of size.

I've built a few gaspipes since then and actually enjoy riding on high ten if it's the right frame, such as a takara mixtie I built or even a heavier tankish univega mixtie I worked out for a gf. the takara('79 I think) tubing is labeled 1010 high ten and it's not all that heavy, lively ride tbh.

So now I'm in search mode for the 'best' steel for me and imo, I don't have enough experience with all the reynolds and columbias but I thought I knew all about the tange family until the other day when I ran across a '78 sekia 2500 gran tour. I've been itching to get it on the road and I'll prolly post up pics of all the build. But what in the world did I find? Tange dbl butted high ten, say what now? It's got me even more excited to give it a whirl. It's not that heavy either but defo nothing like the tange 1 or 2 I'm used to, maybe more like tange 4 weight wise but I've only owned forks in #4 trim so :dk:

The frame is around 53cm and weighs almost 8lbs with forks and headset. Here is a pic I found of this odd, at least to me, frame tubing from years gone by.

So if there are any steel heads around here, what's your go to pipe and any other note worthy experiences?

 

[Andrew R]

I envy your passion @KungFury. I know nothing about bikes but I had a breif fascination with 90's steel mountain bikes that still lingers. I've got all the parts for quite a nice '93 Kona CinderCone I need to work out how to put together one day in amongst a few other bikes. I'd love a nice quality 90's road bike too. You should throw some pictures up of your older bikes.

 

[W3H5]

All the bmxs I had as a kid were steel but other than that mostly aluminium.

These days I’d expect you’d need to look for specific steel frame as most are alloy or carbon or even titanium.

My mate had an old Raleigh road bike from the 80’s that I tried to by a few years ago but he wouldn’t sell it, that had a steel frame although it was still wasn’t too heavy.

 

[KungFury]

I envy your passion @KungFury. I know nothing about bikes but I had a breif fascination with 90's steel mountain bikes that still lingers. I've got all the parts for quite a nice '93 Kona CinderCone I need to work out how to put together one day in amongst a few other bikes. I'd love a nice quality 90's road bike too. You should throw some pictures up of your older bikes.

Cinder cone, small framed hardtail right? That should be a good project, get busy

I'll show you mine if you show me yours, pics as the build is in progress are always fun. So lets see, here is the centurion in it's current state, I've stolen somethings such as the really cool sugino as cranks, the SR seamless stem etc for other projects but one thing that worked out really nice is the drive train, cheapo sugino crankset with a short spindle to keep it real close to the frame, a 105 cassette, suntour lepree derailor which is awesome in every regard, and whatever chain I had around. It puts the power down smooth as silk.

I've been snapping some pics of the sekia build as I go so I'll get those up in a few as I'm quite proud of the wheels and the cockpit stuff.

 

[Shaun]

When done properly steel bikes are awesome, this is my barbers bike built by this guy here which happens to be not only close by but also the maker of some of the most desirable bikes in the world not just locally.
One day the plan is to get one of his Titanium bikes.

The time has come (ie summer) for some new tyres.
Decided this time to go completely different and everyone I speak to says these are the ducks guts, the internet agrees mostly.
Me thinks they look great and I can't wait to give them a test run tomorrow.

Vittoria Corsa G+.

View attachment 700519

A little update on the tyres ^^^

I've traveled 560km on them in the 2 weeks since fitting them and wow what a revelation. My previous Continentals were great for grip and in the wet but these are just as good but totally blow the Conti's away in comfort. I've got the pressures at 75 psi at the rear and 70 at the front like always and difference is incredible. They just soak up the bumps and the buzz off the road, no way I'm going back.

Fwiw it was my barber that pestered me about trying them as seen on his bike above he also uses them.

 

[KungFury]

Some pics of the sekai as I go, everything I completely strip down and rebuild, well the sun rim I had built some time back so just some polish and rubber for that one. I'll try and list what it all is; sakae custom road champion bars, hacked off, SR custom r stem, suntour index shifter, I think the levers are diacomp but could be that old U.S. brand I always forget the name of. Now for the wheels, Campagnolo Croce D'aune rear(front actually) hub is very nice, no freewheel on it(the shimano) yet as I"m just now building a suntour up, laced to a sun rim, cheapo kenda rubber, older shimano front(meaning rear) hub laced up on an araya 27 x 1 1/4, also kenda rubber. Front rim is a 700c and both are single wall alloy. Horrid pic of the frameset, '78 sekai grantour 2500, it's been an adventure trying to get a decent paintjob on it but I'm getting there.

pics in no particular order.

And here is the takara horizon, I'm very happy how it came out, the bars seem funny but looks are deceiving as it's comfy.

Oops, super big post

 

[KungFury]

A little update on the tyres

I too like the gum wall look of them 👍

I need to catch up on some of these newer tires and the tech behind them, I've been riding on armadillo elites which seem ok but not great.

 

[Andrew R]

Phwoar, that's a nice looking bike @KungFury.

I don't think I actually have any pictures on my phone anymore of my bike but these are all grabs from Google of the same bikes in same colours. Hardware might be different, that's where my ok knowledge ends.

Kona Cindercone Cone


1993 Diamondback Topanga


1993 Barracuda ATR2


This is the one I can't find an image of in the same colour, I think it's a late 80's Team Iboc Mongoose. Mine's yellow.


I need to bust out my book on maintenance and repair and get them all in decent order.

 

[KungFury]

This is what she looked like after her maiden voyage, well some stuff I already started stripping off because I am not happy with the paint job/decal whatever. I think I'll try some pearl white with a metal flake clear on top. Anyway, is a fun little ride, it's defo a touring bike so not all that sporty but super grounded and rolls right along. I like it but will not keep it, it needs some saddle bags and a bearded old dude to do it justice.

A fun one though, I'm always a stickler for the drive, this drive is nice with the custom freewheel, cyclone derailor, and those maxi's they are 165mm's, cool and I only ran a 52t ring. the back goes up to 28t so more of a city tourer if that is possible. Here are the pics.

I need to space out the freewheel a little, luckily an old bb nut works for that, otherwise it should hum right along. All sorts of final adjustments and so forth to come but that is the bike for all it's purpose.

 

[KungFury]

And here is my Fuji, the love of my roading life

Rolling on a bontrager race rear with an armadillo and a wtb chriscross whatever front with a vittoria ...

 

[Andrew R]

Oooo I do like that Fuji.

 

[KungFury]

Oooo I do like that Fuji.

Cheers.

Sorry the pic quality is poor, I can work on that but for now it might be fun to see the bike in stock form. This one is close 👍

 

[Small_Fryz]

Lovely bikes, but can you hold the camera still when you take a pic?

When I look at them I think I'm still drunk!

Or are you using 1980's cameras for authenticity?

 

[NINE_HUNDRED]

My Current MTB has a steel frame. There's few smaller UK companies that still use steel frames, not completely gone just yet!

Edit, apparently the lad got banned, never mind then!

 

[W3H5]

The ban hammer strikes again.

 

[TexRex]

The ban hammer strikes again.

Yeah...

One of my early bikes was a similar Valite, but with gussetted head and seat tube lugs and shifters on the gooseneck.

 

[W3H5]

Cycling buddy / colleague bought some 100% shades which I commented on, we talked about how it’s so rare to make this kind of purchase and how my Oakley’s need new lenses at $70 a go (half the price of a new pair) so we started discussing the ‘replicas’ (read: fake).

Message from the school office today said I had a delivery which I don’t remember ordering. Turns out he’d gone a bought me a set of Radar EV, just because he’s a nice chap and wanted to get me motivated to ride more since I’ve been a bit depressed lately.

Well please with the package: 5 lenses including a polarised one, head strap, neck line and all the other works.

Can’t believe how good they are for replicas because I’m sure he didn’t spunk $150 on shades just for me.

 

[Andrew R]

I've started riding to and from work this week. It's only a 6km trip each way but it's alright to start with, as I get fitter there is five or six different routes I can choose from.of varying distance and difficulty.

I've borrowed a mates Azzuri Voltri, it's my first experience with road bikes and it's taking some getting used to but I'm enjoying it, other than the sore butt from the seat. I'm going to try keep it for a month or so, make sure it's definitely something I will keep up, then start looking for my own bike. I've been reading places like the bikeradar forums and things to see what sort of commuters people are using and for my sub-$500 budget I'm hoping to get something secondhand like a Giant Defy with Shimano 105's. Something I can put slightly more forgiving tyres on, mudguards and a rear rack. Does anybody else have suggestions on bikes of similar spec/secondhand price range I may have overlooked?

 

[Bram Turismo]

So my local bike shop has a new employee, who also has airbrushing and designing skills. This week the owner has announced that they're starting with complete bike customization.

This is my current bike:

My new outfit for this season is going to be an all black Bioracer outfit with pink bands around the sleeves of the shirt, and sleeves of the bibshorts. So pretty much all black with some pink lines on the ends.

My idea was to pair the outfit and the bike. I love contrasting colours, but I also love the fast look of a black bike.
In terms of main colour I want a matt finish, and either black or a grey colour, like a RAL 7021 (left) or 7024 (right)

In terms of text I want to keep it minimalistic, but with a nice finish. I'm riding a Granville Sonic with a Campagnolo Chorus groupset. To keep it really simple, I was thinking of having GRANVILLE vertically down the toptube, and SONIC on the sides of the downtube. And then the logo of the bikeshop on the headtube.

Either I go really simple, and have them white, or I could be a little flashy and pair that colour to the colour of my outfit, which is RAL 4006:

It's a little daring, but somewhere I think it would look absolutely stunning. Some other colours I was thinking about for the letters is the colour of the spoke nipples, which is RAL 2001:

Or a Mclaren kind of bike, which would be combining black or very dark grey with Orange or red, kind of like the S-Works Venge Mclaren bike:

The outfit is determined already, so it's 100% certain that'll be black and pink. I've also yet to find a cool font for the GRANVILLE and SONIC logo's on the frame.

What do you guys think?

 

[W3H5]

I've started riding to and from work this week. It's only a 6km trip each way but it's alright to start with, as I get fitter there is five or six different routes I can choose from.of varying distance and difficulty.

I've borrowed a mates Azzuri Voltri, it's my first experience with road bikes and it's taking some getting used to but I'm enjoying it, other than the sore butt from the seat. I'm going to try keep it for a month or so, make sure it's definitely something I will keep up, then start looking for my own bike. I've been reading places like the bikeradar forums and things to see what sort of commuters people are using and for my sub-$500 budget I'm hoping to get something secondhand like a Giant Defy with Shimano 105's. Something I can put slightly more forgiving tyres on, mudguards and a rear rack. Does anybody else have suggestions on bikes of similar spec/secondhand price range I may have overlooked?

For a 6km ride you could manage with just about anything with 2 wheels and a saddle. The real benefit of 105 (to me) is the brakes are a massive jump from lower level sets. Other than that any chainset would do you ok as long as it’s got the right ratios, which most will have.

I commuted on a Giant road touring bike with low end components and quality 28c slicks but the bike was never an issue, it was getting to work sweaty and hot and getting motivated in the morning to bike rather than jumping on my motorcycle.

There’s plenty of good advice on motivation and what not on bikeradar, road.cc and the internet in general.

With £500 bucks for a commuter you might want to opt for a reasonable level MTB or gravel as you’ll get more comfort (although your ass will adjust and get used to the soreness), wider tyres (hence more comfort), robust geometry and more chance of having mud guard compatibility. A road bike might be overkill for a 6km commute unless you want to take up road riding as a hobby, to which some of us here would say “do it!”.

All in all the main thing is enjoyment and the benefit of cycling. I’ve commuted on a £20 junker* from the scrap heap that have been just as capable of a 30 mile round trip commute as the £1000 road bikes I was scalping (try silly commuter racing if you can).

* Beaters that cost next to nothing but got the job done well:

So my local bike shop has a new employee, who also has airbrushing and designing skills. This week the owner has announced that they're starting with complete bike customization.

This is my current bike:

My new outfit for this season is going to be an all black Bioracer outfit with pink bands around the sleeves of the shirt, and sleeves of the bibshorts. So pretty much all black with some pink lines on the ends.

My idea was to pair the outfit and the bike. I love contrasting colours, but I also love the fast look of a black bike.
In terms of main colour I want a matt finish, and either black or a grey colour, like a RAL 7021 (left) or 7024 (right)

In terms of text I want to keep it minimalistic, but with a nice finish. I'm riding a Granville Sonic with a Campagnolo Chorus groupset. To keep it really simple, I was thinking of having GRANVILLE vertically down the toptube, and SONIC on the sides of the downtube. And then the logo of the bikeshop on the headtube.

Either I go really simple, and have them white, or I could be a little flashy and pair that colour to the colour of my outfit, which is RAL 4006:

It's a little daring, but somewhere I think it would look absolutely stunning. Some other colours I was thinking about for the letters is the colour of the spoke nipples, which is RAL 2001:

Or a Mclaren kind of bike, which would be combining black or very dark grey with Orange or red, kind of like the S-Works Venge Mclaren bike:

The outfit is determined already, so it's 100% certain that'll be black and pink. I've also yet to find a cool font for the GRANVILLE and SONIC logo's on the frame.

What do you guys think?

Honestly, I like the sound of a black kit with highlights but the pink is very loud. The orange looks great and I think would be a nice little compliment to the grey/ black scheme. Can’t get over that pink though lol.

Can’t really say I have any fresh ideas about the logo and lettering but white on black is a timeless classic and will go with any other colour kit you might want in future. If you want minimal perhaps small logo lettering where a top tube bag would go or places like the seat stays or front fork arms might keep it from being too “decorated”. Like the idea of the shop logo on the head tube.

 

[Andrew R]

For a 6km ride you could manage with just about anything with 2 wheels and a saddle. The real benefit of 105 (to me) is the brakes are a massive jump from lower level sets. Other than that any chainset would do you ok as long as it’s got the right ratios, which most will have.

I commuted on a Giant road touring bike with low end components and quality 28c slicks but the bike was never an issue, it was getting to work sweaty and hot and getting motivated in the morning to bike rather than jumping on my motorcycle.

There’s plenty of good advice on motivation and what not on bikeradar, road.cc and the internet in general.

With £500 bucks for a commuter you might want to opt for a reasonable level MTB or gravel as you’ll get more comfort (although your ass will adjust and get used to the soreness), wider tyres (hence more comfort), robust geometry and more chance of having mud guard compatibility. A road bike might be overkill for a 6km commute unless you want to take up road riding as a hobby, to which some of us here would say “do it!”.

All in all the main thing is enjoyment and the benefit of cycling. I’ve commuted on a £20 junker* from the scrap heap that have been just as capable of a 30 mile round trip commute as the £1000 road bikes I was scalping (try silly commuter racing if you can).

* Beaters that cost next to nothing but got the job done well:
View attachment 726110 View attachment 726111

Yeah I'm about to start tidying up an old MTB and give that a few rides, also scored a 90's Apollo Concorde for $20 I have to go pick up, both of those will do the job for the mean time.

The reason for looking into a higher end bike (read entry level) are the options to vary my route as I get fitter, there's probably six different ways I can go to and from work with the longest being up around the 30km mark I'd imagine. I'll just use the Apollo and mountain bike to get familiar with working on and maintaining bikes until a nice Giant Defy pops up. The early Defy's have guard and rack provisions and from all reviews are a great bike for the price.

Glad to see the thread get a bump, I thought I'd killed it. Has everyone been riding much? I've had a lot of fun getting used to the road bike (aside from the sore ass) and have really been enjoying it up until we had bad weather and I got the flu. I've probably lost any fitness I gained but I should be back on the bike Tuesday. I got Strava so I can see my improvement but it hurts seeing how much faster some people are, some people aren't human.

 

[W3H5]

Yeah I'm about to start tidying up an old MTB and give that a few rides, also scored a 90's Apollo Concorde for $20 I have to go pick up, both of those will do the job for the mean time.

The reason for looking into a higher end bike (read entry level) are the options to vary my route as I get fitter, there's probably six different ways I can go to and from work with the longest being up around the 30km mark I'd imagine. I'll just use the Apollo and mountain bike to get familiar with working on and maintaining bikes until a nice Giant Defy pops up. The early Defy's have guard and rack provisions and from all reviews are a great bike for the price.

Glad to see the thread get a bump, I thought I'd killed it. Has everyone been riding much? I've had a lot of fun getting used to the road bike (aside from the sore ass) and have really been enjoying it up until we had bad weather and I got the flu. I've probably lost any fitness I gained but I should be back on the bike Tuesday. I got Strava so I can see my improvement but it hurts seeing how much faster some people are, some people aren't human.

I try to ride 30-40km every day for fitness, which is a building process which can rise and drop in the space of a week on or off the bike. I can get demotivated from month to month though.

Don’t beat yourself up over Strava, I got ex-pros riding my local mountains so have no chance at even halving their times and I’m in reasonable shape. Strava is the best way to benchmark yourself, think of it that way.

Mountain bikes, old or new, will be fine for a commute but if you really want to advance onto a half decent road bike work your way up to it. I was just watching GCN Tech and they were commenting on how some riders have bikes which are wasted on them because they can’t perform to the bike’s ability. If you do it the other way round and buy bikes as your fitness and skill level exceeds your current ride you’ll always be advancing in the right direction.

Took me 8 years on an entry level road bike before I realised it was under-capable for my usage and upgraded to something more versatile and higher spec’d (which as a bike that has racing pedigree, is still not top of the line). Once I start to push the limits of this one it’s only smaller component upgrades that will give me an edge, rather than the over all bike.

To be honest, in my mind, as long as you’re riding, be it a battered Flying Pigeon or a competition worthy racer, on commutes, for fitness or for leisure, it’s still riding a bike and that’s what counts. I ding my bell at everyone on two wheels, enthusiast or not. Because bikes are love, man!

Excuse the ramblings, I’m really high right now.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Honestly, I like the sound of a black kit with highlights but the pink is very loud. The orange looks great and I think would be a nice little compliment to the grey/ black scheme. Can’t get over that pink though lol.

Can’t really say I have any fresh ideas about the logo and lettering but white on black is a timeless classic and will go with any other colour kit you might want in future. If you want minimal perhaps small logo lettering where a top tube bag would go or places like the seat stays or front fork arms might keep it from being too “decorated”. Like the idea of the shop logo on the head tube.

Indeed, I liked the idea of a classic look. Hence why I chose black or grey as the base colour. What I also had in mind was to combine pink with Bianchi green. Though I might as well use Italian colours and have more style in that case. Right now I'm leaning a bit towards a dark grey matt base colour, and match the colour of the lettering to the colour of the spoke nipples, which is a dark orange.

 

[Boffin]

Hi All,

Around 6 months ago I decided to get back on the bike - roadies this time, coming from a naive stint on MTBs ~10years ago. I bought a BMC Roadmachine as it fitted my requirements of a carbon frame, disks and drops (I know I could ride with a lot less, but knowing myself like I do, I'm attracted to gadgets, so shelling out more for something I genuinely like will lead me to ride it more).

I love the thing to bits but I just don't ride it enough, may that be from overworking, fears of riding in traffic, inclement weather and just lacking free time.

Recently I have been looking at the prospect of putting it on a trainer and hooking it up to something like Zwift so that I can just pump out some mileage when convenient at home.

Upon further research, a lot of people online are suggesting that one should never use their 'good' bike on a trainer as tieing down the drops lead the frame to flex in ways it was perhaps not designed to do, which makes a lot of sense considering cf's ability to be designed to flex due to some directional forces and not others.

With all this though, of course any advertising material and paid review material (such as on GCN or BikeRadar) show trainers being fitted to the creme de la creme of bike offerings. I understand that these are mostly all press bikes that can afford to be somewhat damaged, but every professional cycling team also run them before stages for warm ups. Some manufacturer booklet warn against using them, BMC flat-out advises against them, yet their team also use them to warm up before stages.

Now I know professional teams can afford to replace a frame if one snaps, but just how bad are turbo/smart trainers for cf frame bikes?

Does anyone here run a cf frame bike on a trainer?

Does anyone know of any trainer that perhaps has been designed to move/flex in a way that reduces stress on the dropouts?

Should I even be worried of something like this in the first place?

Cheers

 

[Andrew R]

Seems like you should be following the advice of other mere mortals and getting another bike for the trainer instead of risking such a nice bike on something the manufacturer specifically advised against.

 

[Bram Turismo]

There is nothing wrong with fitting a carbon bike to a turbo trainer. I do it myself, every bike enthusiast and pro team do it. Only the rear is fitted to a turbo trainer, so if you snap your frame, it means you bought a frame that is unsafe for road use. Only make sure you follow the instructions with the turbo trainer and you're safe. Seriously, if you snap your frame on a turbo trainer, you are either the hulk or you ride the worst CF frame ever.

 

[NINE_HUNDRED]

Took the bike out today for the first time in ages, only ridden like 3 times this winter. Man, it felt like 10 years since I rode.. it was a struggle, got a good thigh pump though 👍

Cold and wet weather was my main excuse, got to get back into a routine with it though so I'm ready for the summer days

 

[Shaun]

Recently I have been looking at the prospect of putting it on a trainer and hooking it up to something like Zwift so that I can just pump out some mileage when convenient at home.

Have you ridden on a trainer before?
It's seriously one on the most boring things to do even with the likes of Zwift so it's something to think about.
I have one I'll sell if you're interested, hardly been used. I thought the same that it would be a good idea but it just sits there now doing nothing, honestly I'd rather just ride in the bad weather. As you're in Melbourne now you could try before you buy etc etc so if you're interested at all just let me know. 👍

@Bram Turismo black and pink is an excellent colour combination for clothing if you ask me, one of my favourites. 👍

 

[Boffin]

Seems like you should be following the advice of other mere mortals and getting another bike for the trainer instead of risking such a nice bike on something the manufacturer specifically advised against.

There is nothing wrong with fitting a carbon bike to a turbo trainer. I do it myself, every bike enthusiast and pro team do it. Only the rear is fitted to a turbo trainer, so if you snap your frame, it means you bought a frame that is unsafe for road use. Only make sure you follow the instructions with the turbo trainer and you're safe. Seriously, if you snap your frame on a turbo trainer, you are either the hulk or you ride the worst CF frame ever.

Thanks all for you input. I have also stumbled upon this (I'd hazard a guess at somewhat biased) link about it so there is certainly food for thought. Watching more yt vlogs and such, it doesn't really seem like anyone is shying away from carbon frames on the trainer so its the way I'm possibly leaning.

Edit: In saying that, the comments section below tells a different story..

Have you ridden on a trainer before?
It's seriously one on the most boring things to do even with the likes of Zwift so it's something to think about.
I have one I'll sell if you're interested, hardly been used. I thought the same that it would be a good idea but it just sits there now doing nothing, honestly I'd rather just ride in the bad weather. As you're in Melbourne now you could try before you buy etc etc so if you're interested at all just let me know. 👍

I would actually be rather interested in that, I'll shoot you a pm at some point about it. And no, I haven't yet had a go on one. I think it'd be a monotonous thing but I can see how things like Zwift might shift my thinking. The idea that something is a video game is always a decent carrot to lure me in.