#31
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Mark Weaver wrote:
... I bought one of those for my kid. Heck of a deal, IMHO. Frame seems fine, components are the same as on low end LBS bikes. My kid (like a lot of 13-year-olds) doesn't take care of things very well, leaves the bike out in the rain, often forgets to take a lock, etc, so I was happy to be able to get a pretty decent bike for such a small sum.... When I was 13, my bicycle was a Peugeot P-8 purchased new from Andrew Muzi/Yellow Jersey that cost ~$260 (IIRC). This was a small fortune (for me), and you can be assured I took care of it. When I outgrew it in my late teens, I passed it on to a relative who commuted on it for 10+ years, until it was destroyed by a pick-up truck driver running a stop sign. Otherwise, I expect it would still be in use 2+ decades later. This was the low-end of the Peugeot range, but the ride, handling, weight, braking and shifting performance made it much more enjoyable to ride than the ~$80 hardware store "10-speed" it replaced. -- Tom Sherman - Near Rock Island |
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#32
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PSB wrote:
Ron Hardin wrote: I generally get 6 years before that happens, and the current one looks to be going strong for more years yet. I was hoping you would ring in Ron. The thing about the Huffy I was looking at has knobby tires. The Schwinn didn't have knobbies. What do you recommend Ron, knobbies or slicks? Thanks. Rolling resistance comes from distortion of the tire and the surface. A steel wheel on a steel rail has the least rolling resistance. Knobby tires have significantlly greater rolling resistance than a smooth tire. Likewise high pressure tires have less rolling resistance than soft tires. The most important thing is to get a bike that fits. If it has knobby tires, change them to something smoother. I love Avocet Cross tires 700x35 for general purpose riding and touring. The inverted tread has low rolling resistance on a smooth surface, and has some grip on dirt roads and paths. They are a little bit on the expensive side though. If you are commuting, you do not want knobbies, unless you are purposely trying to increase your calorie burn. Oliver -- Cheers! OliverS When replying personally, remove "_nospam_" "When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." HG Wells |
#33
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Tom Keats wrote:
In article , "Pat" writes: But I'm beginning to suspect this is a troll, given the recent remark from the original poster regarding knobby vs slick tires for a "commute" bike. --Mike Jacoubowsky I agree: it's a troll. He wanted to start a flame war, that's all. In which case, I'd recommend the knobbies. Big, fat, plushie, aggressively-treaded ones. Steel rims are a must. Much stronger and so shiny |
#34
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Mark Weaver wrote:
I bought one of those for my kid. Heck of a deal, IMHO. Frame seems fine, components are the same as on low end LBS bikes. My kid (like a lot of 13-year-olds) doesn't take care of things very well, leaves the bike out in the rain, often forgets to take a lock, etc, so I was happy to be able to get a pretty decent bike for such a small sum.... Tom Sherman wrote: When I was 13, my bicycle was a Peugeot P-8 purchased new from Andrew Muzi/Yellow Jersey that cost ~$260 (IIRC). This was a small fortune (for me), and you can be assured I took care of it. When I outgrew it in my late teens, I passed it on to a relative who commuted on it for 10+ years, until it was destroyed by a pick-up truck driver running a stop sign. Otherwise, I expect it would still be in use 2+ decades later. This was the low-end of the Peugeot range, but the ride, handling, weight, braking and shifting performance made it much more enjoyable to ride than the ~$80 hardware store "10-speed" it replaced. That series was robotically fillet brazed and successfully sold in good volume at $199 to $259 - a price where European lugged frames were prohibitively expensive at the time. (Production later moved to ProCycle Canada) These are sought out by the thrift store cognoscenti. Their unfiled joints don't look all that sharp but since Peugeot used a heavier down tube and a much lighter top tube , combined with a classic geometry, the handling and 'road feel' are exceptional. A 'category killer' new at $259 and once again among the '$20 used ten speeds'. -- Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April, 1971 |
#35
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A Muzi left his web site link, and I wandered over to his
photo of the day. http://www.yellowjersey.org/daily.html It's quite the winter cycling photo! (because this may not be the picture at some later point, I will describe it: an upside-down iron is substituted for the saddle. The iron is connected to an auto battery, which is where the rack trunk would be on my bike.) |
#36
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In article ,
OliverS writes: Rolling resistance comes from distortion of the tire and the surface. A steel wheel on a steel rail has the least rolling resistance. Knobby tires have significantlly greater rolling resistance than a smooth tire. Likewise high pressure tires have less rolling resistance than soft tires. The most important thing is to get a bike that fits. If it has knobby tires, change them to something smoother. I love Avocet Cross tires 700x35 for general purpose riding and touring. The inverted tread has low rolling resistance on a smooth surface, and has some grip on dirt roads and paths. They are a little bit on the expensive side though. If you are commuting, you do not want knobbies, unless you are purposely trying to increase your calorie burn. Knobbies do make a pleasing 'buzz' on asphalt. Sure, they'll slow ya down and (heaven forbid) allow other riders to pass ya sometimes. But if you don't care, it doesn't matter. And there may be some shortcut scenarios where knobbies come in handy. Even in urban environs. One of the worst thing about knobbies is not being able to run a sidewall generator on them. They can interfere with fenders, too, on a commuter bike. cheers, Tom -- -- Nothing is safe from me. Above address is just a spam midden. I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca |
#38
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In article ,
Ryan Cousineau writes: Knobbies do make a pleasing 'buzz' on asphalt. Sure, they'll slow ya down and (heaven forbid) allow other riders to pass ya sometimes. But if you don't care, it doesn't matter. And there may be some shortcut scenarios where knobbies come in handy. Even in urban environs. But slicks are soo much nicer to ride on! And better cornering grip. And better wet-pavement grip. I agree so much, I opt for slicks, myself. All I'm saying is knobbies aren't totally unusable on pavement. I have a set of Tioga City Slickers, which are pretty cheap, available at MEC, and they even have gumwalls to satisfy the purists. The tread is a minimalist road pattern. I finally parted ways with my Cheng Shins, after 8-10K kilometers. I went looking for a new pair of the same, but ended up instead with IRC Metros, from The Bike Doctor. $11.69 each. They at least look similar to the Cheng Shins. .... About the only urban surface a knobby can traverse that a slick cannot is a muddy slope long enough that you can't just power through by accelerating before you hit the hill. That's a pretty rare thing, even when making shortcuts. IME knobbies traverse wet, grassy fields better than slicks, which can go kind of sidewindery. But there might be the matter of divots. cheers, Tom -- -- Nothing is safe from me. Above address is just a spam midden. I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca |
#39
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Tom Keats wrote:
I finally parted ways with my Cheng Shins, after 8-10K kilometers. I went looking for a new pair of the same, but ended up instead with IRC Metros, from The Bike Doctor. $11.69 each. They at least look similar to the Cheng Shins. Cheng Shin makes the sturdiest, longest lasting tire I've ever seen. They have amazingly high rolling drag, however. You go 10% faster with anything else. -- Ron Hardin On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk. |
#40
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In article ,
Ron Hardin writes: Tom Keats wrote: I finally parted ways with my Cheng Shins, after 8-10K kilometers. I went looking for a new pair of the same, but ended up instead with IRC Metros, from The Bike Doctor. $11.69 each. They at least look similar to the Cheng Shins. Cheng Shin makes the sturdiest, longest lasting tire I've ever seen. They have amazingly high rolling drag, however. You go 10% faster with anything else. I noticed that effect too, but over time it seemed to diminish. I wonder if there's a break-in period for those things. And I never was totally confident with their cornering. But I sure got a lot of good use out of them. If it wasn't for the gash in the rear one, I'd still be using them. I'm keeping the front one on standby in the basement shop as a spare. cheers, Tom -- -- Nothing is safe from me. Above address is just a spam midden. I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca |
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