So I have two bicycles. The first is a Jamis Quest, a steel frame road bike I originally got for commuting.
My current job has no commute (I work out of my home office, so the Quest has been languishing in my garage. It’s a sweet ride, for a steel frame bike, with carbon forks, 28mm tires and Shimano 105 components throughout.
I still ride, though, 20-25 miles 5-6 days a week. Given that I have a middle-aged back, with middle-aged back problems, I was looking for something to soften road vibration and impacts. So I splurged and got a [ur=http://improbableinsights.com/?p=206]Trek Domane 5.2.
I love this bike. I’ve ridden up to 36 miles in single rides, and it does everything I want it to. Handling is quick, for an endurance bike, it climbs well and it soaks up road vibrations like I wanted. The “Isospeed Decoupler,” which adds a little hinge bearing that isolates the seat tube from the rest of the frame. The seat tube can sway as you ride over bumps, soaking up road shock. It works amazingly well. I’m ten months into this bike, and will likely keep it for several more years.
Anybody know of a good noseless saddle for long rides? I’ve been using this one for a while now and I love the way it flexes as my legs move but it has virtually no padding at all. I’d like something a bit more comfortable but not horribly expensive to put on a hybrid I picked up used a few years ago.
My first noseless was similar to that. My problem with it was that I felt like my legs didn’t have their full range of motion unless I was sitting on the edge of the seat. It was pretty comfortable but I never tested it on long rides.
Some of the options out there are downright weird and I can’t tell how awkward or uncomfortable they’ll be on long rides. I was thinking padded biking shorts might help but they seem to be padded in the wrong places. I’m starting to wonder if I need to try to add my own padding to the seat.
I ride about 20 miles a day with longer rides when I have time. The Hobson is great for an hour or so but then starts to get a bit uncomfortable.
Ugh. Noseless seats. I tried several when I first got back into riding after a twenty year hiatus, about six years ago. I could never warm up to them, and went back to a traditional brooks B17.
Have you thought about split saddles, rather than noseless? Or if prostate issues are really a major factor, maybe a recumbent?
My wife and I want to get a couple of bikes, first just to toodle around town (very small town!) then maybe a bit longer rides once we get into bicycle shape. We’re not young any longer and my wife is working on losing some weight, fwiw.
So any specific advice on what bikes we should look for? And anything else we should buy in terms of add-ons to make it better? Would like to not spend a ton- up here in the upper mid west our biking season is not very long!
Thanks.
Well, you can always get a trainer for riding in winter.
You need to know two things: budget and how you plan on riding.
For a first bike, you probably should budget $800 or so. Much cheaper than that, and bikes get heavy and unresponsive, and you don’t ride them. OTOH, if you can find good used bikes for less, go for it.
If you’re going to stick on roads, don’t get a mountain bike and vice versa. Are your roads all paved, or do you need to deal with gravel?
Once you figure a budget, go to a bike shop, tell them your budget and what you plan on riding, and see what they recommend. A good shop
will help you maximize your budget, and if you’re clear about how much you want to spend, not push you to higher priced stuff.
This article is pretty helpful and covers a lot of the stuff you should think about.
I tell you something, when a city is designed around bicycling it is like night and day. I live in Davis Ca (Bike capital of the USA apparently and home to the bicycling hall of fame). I hear over 30% of the people that live here use bikes as their primary mode of transportation (there are actually bike traffic jams sometimes ) . It’s awesome, dedicated bike lanes everywhere (a lot physically separate from the street), bike stands to lock your bike everywhere (I think it is an ordinance or something), free bike repair stations. I bought a Yuba long tail bike and take my kids around everywhere and use it to commute and shop. Thinking of getting rid of my car. It was really eye opening to see what can be done when people put effort into making it easy to bike.
That sounds amazing. Over the last several years we have had lots of investment in cycling infrastructure. It’s improving over time, but we are decades away from that utopia! Mind you, riding on the road still has its place.
The downside, of course, is the 110 degree heat ;-)
My daughter lives in Davis, having just gotten a job at the Davis Enterprise. She rides her bike frequently, and extols the virtues of the Davis bike infrastructure. Part of it is the UC Davis influence, of course. But she does complain a lot about the heat.
The area around UC Santa Barbara is like that, too – lots of dedicated bike trails, and where there aren’t, lots of good bike lanes.
Here in Silicon Valley, the situation is gradually improving, though Palo Alto has some of the terrible-est bike lanes I’ve ridden on – full of potholes, junk and overall poorly maintained. As soon as I cross into Mountain View, the bike lanes become noticeably better.
I got my Trek Assist bike and have had it about a week now. It’s awesome. I typically have it turned off for a little over half of my commute but when I get to the hilly part I turn it on and it really helps me up the hills. It’s great to get the hills over with fast and still feel the effort, since I still have to pedal, but not feel too tired. And when I go down the long hills I put it in regenerative braking mode and recharge the battery while slowing my descent without having to use the handbrakes. In the one week I’ve had it I’ve used it every day to commute, vs. about biking about half the time otherwise.
Now I just have to wait and see how long this thing lasts since it has an array of lithium batteries and some kind of motor mounted on the wheel. The expected life of the batteries is at least 600 charges with 800 being a reasonable number, according to what I’ve read. It looks like I need to charge 2-3 times a week based on usage. I seem to be getting 20-30 miles per charge.
Good tips. My sister in law and husband just got the Giant Escape (men) and Alight (women) for around $450. They look nice, aluminum so not too heavy, and so far are very happy with them. Though I admit I don’t know much about the longevity (Case are you familiar?). So you might do a bit better than $800. Here is a link: http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bikes/model/alight.2.2015/18611/76023/
They had told the bike shop owner 80/20 for pavement/trail and it seems like a good bike at that mix.
Mark that is very interesting, and congrats for making the real leap from talk to walk. If it’s a lithium battery, the depth of discharge greatly affects its lifespan. In other words, charge it after each use.
Giants are generally pretty good. I owned a 2005 Giant OCR1, an aluminum frame road bike with a relatively high end drive train. In ran like a tank for years. My general problem with aluminum frames is how it transmits every little bump and vibration from the road right into my back, particularly on longer rides. But a younger body probably won’t feel it as much.
If they start riding much over 20 miles a ride, they might want something higher end. But those should do well for starter bikes.
Thanks for that advice. I thought it was the opposite and better to fully drain the battery before recharging. I have no problem charging it every night.
