New toys for my bike

[rsayers]

Originally published at robsayers.com.

Ryan recently purchased a bike,  his is a comfort style bike like mine but a Schwinn.  After riding it on the trace a bit I immediately fell in love with those 700c tires.  Narrow and 85psi drops the rolling resistance and makes it go with less effort.

My first thought was to purchase a set of 700c wheels, but

Comments

Training wheels off?

[gothonprozac]

Killer man!! I would HIGHLY recommend as your next bike getting a 29er. I had one up here and cursed myself for not buying one when i wasn't in one of the hilliest cities in north america. They roll over anything, take less effort, and are designed for taller guys. If you didn't know the 700c rim measurement is the same as the 29er...so basically it's a 700c designed for the mountains!! I had a Mongoose Sambrosa and loved it except for the eccentric bottom bracket. My next bike will be an orbea 29er with moustache bars just so it doesn't kill me on the trail

Re: Training wheels off?

[rsayers]

I've read good things about the 29ers, as far as the next bike goes I'm torn between a balls fast roadie and a full suspension mtb.

Have you ridden a bike with moustache bars before? When deciding on new bars it was between that or the trekking bars. I had even considered drop bars briefly, but finally went with the trekkings just because they seemed to give the most hand positions, with one of those positions being pretty similar to the handlebars I have now. Either way it should be an improvement. Riding 90 miles with your hands in one position does not make for a happy back later on.

I'm actually planning a europe trip in the summer of 2010 that should take about a month. Busting ass now riding a lot and trying out different gear to get ready for that.

Re: Training wheels off?

[gothonprozac]

I love moustache bars. I have ridden a few bikes with them and at first i didn't like them because of the looks but after a few miles and the infinite hand positions i found my mind changed. You can grip tape them easily too which to me is more comfortable than bar end grips plus you can run just about any shifter you can imagine on them

Re: Training wheels off?

[rsayers]

handlebars and slicks just came in today, i should be putting those on in a bit. I went with tape instead of grips like a lot of people run. The nice thing is my existing brakes and twist shifters (which I hate) will swap right over.

The balls out MTB and roadie are further down the line, but I know I'll eventually want both.

I'm going to see how I like the 26" slicks for now, Giant sells my exact bike with 700c also, so swapping up is not going to be an issue.

I hear mixed opinions on disc brakes, what do you think about them? I like that I'll have less fade in the rain and wont have to deal with adjusting them all the time.

As far as the fork goes, my next purchase is actually going to be a rigid fork anyway, I was real hot to get a suspended fork when buying a bike because of the shitty roads but with 26" tires and the fact that you should be standing for bumps anyhow it has become more of a pain than a feature.