Hey, I bought a bicycle

How exactly do you hold the handlebars on that?

I love clipless pedals (I use Speedplay on the road bike, Crank Brothers on the mountain bike) but never recommend them for casual riders. While I agree they’re not all that hard to learn, it only takes one tip-over at a stop light to discourage many people from getting on the bike. Also, the more specialized gear they have, the less likely new riders are to actually get out and ride.

If you want to stuff your bike into the back of a car or something, you’ll probably need to take the front wheel off.

  1. Put the front brake caliper into the loose position. I can’t tell what brake caliper you have on the front, but there’s probably a little lever on the front caliper that opens the brakes enough for the wheel to slip out. On some brakes, you actually have to disengage the brake cable from the caliper entirely. If you squeeze the caliper by hand, you can slip the cable out easily enough.

  2. Flip the quick release lever at the center of your wheel to the open position, and unscrew it a bit until the bolt is loose enough for the wheel to come off. (Don’t undo it all the way or else the whole thing will come apart and you’ll have to put washers and springs and the bolt back together.)

To put the wheel back on:

  1. Put the wheel back onto the bike.
  2. Flip the quick release lever into the closed position, and tighten the nut on the opposite side.
  3. Flip the release lever into the open position, and twist the nut another 1/4 to 1/2 turn.
  4. Flip the release lever back into the closed position. You should get some resistance now when you try to do this.
  5. Flip the lever on the brake caliper back to the closed position.

Ride away!

$10 for the first guy or gal to get us pics of Whitta in speedos.

Thanks for posting that link. My wife is interested in a bike, but she wants a commuter bike that isn’t too heavy/difficult to deal with. That bike is perfect - I like the video of the woman in the business suit riding it to mass transit, then from the station to work.

Foldable bikes have come a long way in the last 10 years. Wow.

All good advice, as a person of increasing years, I would recommend getting a gel cover for the seat, it makes it softer and bigger for our expanding and non-tight derrieres. (Actually, my butt’s not too bad, and it still gives out before my legs)

Gears, here’s the quick and dirty: Leave the front shifter (your left hand) on the middle chainring 90% of the time. That will suit you, just stay in a gear that feels like you are pedaling too fast. That’s the sweet spot of efficiency, around 90rpm, but it feels fast for some reason.

Otherwise, let me recommend a cable lock over a hard lock, they’re cheaper and easier to stow. Also, you’re sitting too low on the bike (probably) the seat has to be set pretty darn high, you want your leg just short of locked at the bottom of the stroke. Last, a frame bag with an allen wrench set, spare tube, patch kit, multitool, and if you start getting froggy jumping curbs, a spoke wrench.

H.

We have two Dahon Vitesse bikes-- they have Aluminum frames and great quality component sets. After folding, two of them fit in a compact car trunk.

$399 including shipping and tax.

With your hands? It’s a cruiser, so it’s not like you’re all hunched over like you’re on the third day of the Tour De France. You basically ride them with your back straight.

My ugly car is big enough to have a bike standing up inside - but I do need to take out a seat. So we have one of these instead:

It also holds a tram or baby carriage and folds away in the trunk when not in use.

My bike is a nice 21 gear Nishiki touringbike - while we don’t have anywhere near the hills of San Francisco the many gears do come in handy when I’m pulling this with my two kids:

When just riding alone, I mainly use the five gears on the middle ring.

I had one and then it was stolen.
Now I don’t have one.

madkevin, those are the gayest/awesome-est bikes EVER. If I was lucky enough to see you and your wife riding them, it’d be a tossup as to whether I’d die laughing or run over and high five you, you pimp!

Beautiful, just beautiful.

You should see my sister-in-law’s:

That’s right. It’s an official Hello Kitty bike. We went riding up at the University of Waterloo in the summer, and when we stopped for a drink she had a bunch of Asian students come up to her and very politely compliment her on her bike. The best part is the tires have the Hello Kitty logo on them, so when you ride through puddles it leaves little wet Hello Kitties everywhere.

I get a fair amount of compliments on my bike too - it really does look way better than that picture makes it look - but mostly from small boys or really old people.

These cruiser styles are getting a lot more popular, though. I can’t stress how motherfucking comfortable my bike is to ride - it’s much, much better than any mountain bike or twelve-speed I’ve ever had. It’s like riding on a gay-yet-awesome cloud.

That bike is hot! And no, I’m not Asian.

And it also discourages bike theft. What self respecting criminal is going to burgle a pink bike?

Speaking of gay bikes, here’s a picture I took of one I saw in Provincetown.

Re: clipless pedals: I wouldn’t recommend them to new cyclists, either, especially since a lot of people are resistant to buying special footwear for any activity. But if I would, I’d have them consider Shimano SPDs, which are still some of the easiest-to-use pedals available. Some models even have a big metal or plastic housing, which give you enough surface area to push the pedals with regular shoes.

One more tip: Install water bottle cages on your bikes ASAP, and get drinking.

Grats Gary.

All of the bike talk is tempting, but my bike will stay in the garage till spring. I’m digging those cruiser bikes though.

Thanks for all the advice so far!

Am taking my first real spin on it tomorrow, will let you know how I get on.

wobble

Someone mentioned gel seats earlier. As an alternative, you could buy a pair of padded shorts (some have gel inserts) for added comfort minus the enhanced sensation. If the idea of walking around in tight black lycra repulses you, you could try a pair of looser-fitting ‘Mountain Shorts’ which look much more hetero. These can get pricey, but Performance Bicycle sells them for $40 and less.

I’ve bought their house-brand stuff in the past, and they make some of the best biking shorts at any price.

No, I think the question was, how exactly do you hold the handlebars on this bike assuming you’re not a mutant freak with three elbow joints per arm?

Usually you hold the bars with your palms facing down. I can’t see how you do that on that bike. Do you have your palms facing each other, like on a racing bike?

My only advice in biking is to make sure you take care of your balls. Vulgar as it sounds, I’ve had many a biking session ruined by crappy seats. Alternating hangside is NOT a solution.

Seats matter oh so very much.