None of the above - Any cyclists?

Discussion in 'Cars, Motorcycles, Boats, Airplanes Talk' started by yotacowboy, Jan 2, 2017.

  1. ergopower

    ergopower Friend

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    I sold a bunch of those in the summer of 1977 when I worked in a bike shop. They were shit, a mix of horrible parts from French manufacturers like Simplex, Mafac, TA, I forget who else. If you threw a leg over any modern road bike that had at least 105/Veloce/Rival and good wheels and tires you would not believe the difference
     
  2. Solrighal

    Solrighal Facebook Friend

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    Part of my job is to look after my bosses bikes and in return I can ride them whenever he's not in the country, which is a lot of the time. I use his Giant Full-E+ Pro to commute to & from work. That's 16 miles per day on a bumpy canal towpath, something I'd find unbearable on my own bike but on a full-sus electric bike it's a real hoot.

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    Last edited: May 12, 2018
  3. pedalhead

    pedalhead Friend

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    Ok, bike tarts, your input please! This is a purely superficial question, so apologies for that, but I've been meaning to prettify my old Lemond Victoire for ages now. I think it looks a bit too busy & I want to tone it down a bit so the lovely carbon/Ti frame stands out a bit more.

    Whaddya reckon...black seatpost? Black stem? I really like the way the wheels ride but I wonder if they're a bit much (visually) for this bike. I'm also thinking of de-stickering the forks if it's possible to do so.

    Any thoughts please? Cheers!

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  4. crazychile

    crazychile Eastern Iowa's Spiciest Pepper

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    Slap a black Brooks on 'er and call it good!


    Seriously though, I think a black seatpost would be a nice compliment. I don't usually mess much with rims. Mine always end up silver on the edges after a few hundred miles of braking anyway. Those rims look just fine.
     
  5. JustAnotherRando

    JustAnotherRando My other bike is a Ferrari

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    Black seatpost would work. I don't think a black stem would make much difference. Personally though, I think that if wanted to tone it down to emphasise the materials, the big Lemond logos are the most distracting aspects of the bike, not sure you could (or would want) to cover those up? My bikes are as sparse as possible on logos, to the extent that my last two frames were bare Ti or totally repainted Al, and I did stuff like buff out the Shimano logos from the cranks.

    The fork stickers could go.

    That's just me though. Not sure you should be taking bike fashion advice from someone with my avatar.
     
  6. pedalhead

    pedalhead Friend

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    Cheers chaps, and lol @JustAnotherRando :) . Yeah the Lemond logos are pretty loud but part of the design really. Black seat post definitely sounds like a place to start. I've got a bare Ti MTB...very stealth, and it's nice not to worry about scratching the finish as I do on most of my other bikes.
     
  7. bobboxbody

    bobboxbody Friend

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    I think it would look great with all black components, but a bit spendy for cosmetic changes to what are already nice parts. Don't let that stop you though. There's a black Dura-Ace groupset evidently, add a black seatpost, stem, levers, and wheels, and you'll be super stealth.

    Edit: It's likely to be fairly difficult to remove decals without hurting the finish on the frame, and don't think it's necessary anyway.

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  8. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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  9. ergopower

    ergopower Friend

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    Count me in the camp that thinks the retro paneled decals are incongruent with the vibe of the bike. Removing decals is tricky, but there are shops about that can do this cleanly. Here is your frame in red instead of bare titanium, I think a simple decal on the down tube only in white or black would be a great look. And I think the silver seatpin and stem would look just fine with the simplified frame.
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    There's a UK shop that has a big selection of LeMond decals, they'd probably be able to tell you how to remove the old or who could do a clean job.
    http://www.wanit.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d21.html

    Oops, went back to see where in the UK, and see they moved to France. Because Brexit?
     
  10. pedalhead

    pedalhead Friend

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    Yeah, those dark Dura-Ace bits would look sweet.

    Thanks, really enjoyed reading that. I commented and posted a picture of my LeMond :).

    Ugh, don't get me started on Brexit, angry remainer here. Perhaps weirdly, I don't mind the LeMond decals. I think it's a case of tying in the colour scheme of the rest of the bike with them...white & black basically I reckon. Cheers for looking into it for me :).
     
  11. JustAnotherRando

    JustAnotherRando My other bike is a Ferrari

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    Come on, you just have to get Huffy stickers for you bike. You could then get a custom decal to go over the Reynolds one that reads "Irony".
     
  12. ergopower

    ergopower Friend

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    I blame Facebook
     
  13. ergopower

    ergopower Friend

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    Huffy stickers are easy to come by. They sponsored the 7Eleven team back in the day. Frames were actually made by Ben Serotta, and original team bikes and Serotta-built race replicas with Huffy badging are very collectible.
     
  14. loki993

    loki993 Facebook Friend

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    Yes I realized very quickly how expensive bikes are and it took me a while to sort of grasp what costs what, or what you get for you money. I still don't really understand why some of it costs so much, beyond the basics weight ,materials etc, but I don't know that I ever will completely. Like why does a decent fork cost 400+ bucks? And no I don't have to spend that but a lot of the ones that people say are good cost that or more.

    So a bit later I decided I wanted a mountain bike instead of a hybrid, basically get the bike for what id like to do with it. I got a NIB 2015 Fuji Nevada 26er with really good components on it for the price, Deore drivetrain, SLX shadow rear derailleur, shimano discs. The fork is probably just OK, its suntour XCR which I think is an air fork, but it's a hell of a lot better than I would have gotten on anything else in the price range, which from everything I read would have been borderline unusable. Basically looking at bikes for these few weeks with components like this it would have run 8 to 900 dollars. I paid 350 for it.

    My goal was to get something entry level, try it, then grab what I really want at the end of the season when they blow out the old models. Honestly though what what Im doing this bike could last me a very long time. So I may just wear it out. The only imitation, if you could call it that, is its got 26 inch wheels. If I need to move it I should be able to fairly easily I think
     
  15. ergopower

    ergopower Friend

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    I think that's a much smarter entry than a hybrid. 26" wheels are fine. Now figure out what you like. If it's trail riding, that bike will handle modest single track, maybe fairly technical single track if you develop the skills. If you're really drawn to technical trail riding and want to tackle really challenging stuff, then sure, you're eventually going to upgrade.

    If you find you like road riding as well, just setting out from home and putting in miles, you'll find out the limitations of a mountain bike for that - position is not very good for hour+ road rides, tires are crazy slow, handling is clumsy on the road, etc. You might then want to add a road bike to your stable so you can do both. Or if you're never on anything more than easy trails, you could do both with a gravel bike, just a road bike with room for tires that will handle moderate off-roading. But having a single bike, well that's sorta like having one set of headphones ;)

    As you've learned, building a bike up yourself from components gets expensive really quickly. You'll always do better buying a complete bike, but at the lower end there will be places where they snuck in some cheap parts to keep the cost down. Wheels most often, but also cranksets and brakes. $1,500 is around the point where you can find a good bike with few/no compromises. Or spend less, but figure you'll be doing some upgrading over time. Or go used.
     
  16. loki993

    loki993 Facebook Friend

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    Yeah I cant say never but I really dont think road biking is my thing. If Im doing anything mountain biking is far more in my wheelhouse.

    Yeah, it's got OEM Fuji Vera tera wheels and cheapish tires so that's one area. The hubs probably aren't great either, but to get that i'm up in that 1500 dollar range now because apparently wheels are mind bogglingly expensive too.

    Basically like your are saying though this is the perfect ride for me to figure out what I really like and what is available to be I don't even know what kind of courses we have a round here. And then I can go from there.
     
  17. ergopower

    ergopower Friend

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    Except here's where 26" wheels are a good thing - since all the cool kids have moved to 27.5" or 29", there are loads of 26" wheels around for cheap. You could probably get what used to be race-worthy 26s for a couple hundred bucks. Craigs or ask around at local bike shops. Throw on disks and a cassette (both easy to find cheap) and put aggressive trail tires on the good set and commuter-style tires on the OEM wheels for around the neighborhood, etc.
     
  18. loki993

    loki993 Facebook Friend

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    that exact thought crossed my mind...
     
  19. P-Car

    P-Car New

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    BIKE PORN!!!

    I guess I have one of those "cool kid" bikes?

    ;)


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    Here's my custom steel frame with carbon fork that I use on my trainer inside:

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    There's plenty of cyclists on SBAF from what I can tell.

    Ride on guys!
     
  20. jowls

    jowls Never shitposts (please) - Friend

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    So, anyone following le tour this year?
     

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