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Windosr Tourist Bike Revisiited
I had recently discussed getting a Windsor Toruist bike on this newsgroup a
while back. here are some photos that I took of the one that I got. http://earlwbollinger.buzznet.com/user/?id=866856 The bike actually turned out pretty good. I am sure I could probably get a $2,000 bike that is a lot better, but in January your choices are incredibly limited. When I went around to the local LBS's there just weren't any touring bikes available, although one shop had some 20-30 year old touring bikes that looked really nice still. One store had a Trek 520 in a window sporting goods display, but it was the wrong size. One problem is that if you are mechanically challenged, you will have trouble, as there are no instructions on how to assemble and adjust the bike. You really need some real bike tools to put it together with, you cannot use a crescent wrench and a pair of pliers, plus you need a cable cutter tool as well. it uses metric screws with allen hex sockets for everything. Now you can go to several websites for generic information on assembly, and so on. At our local Half Price Bookstore they had several bike books on repair and maintenance as well, but these were older bike books though. Buying a more modern book through Amazon.com is probably a good idea. Basically, some of the local LBS's may not want to work on the bike at all, so you may have problems there. Some LBS's will work on it, but on a low priority basis.Their own customers come first. In any case you would have to pay house rates for working on it. The stock seat actually was surprisingly comfortable, but I changed it out for my Brooks Seat, as it fits me even more. The stock Zoom headstem was very nice but was still too short for me, so I put in a Zoom adjustable headstem instead. I rode the bike for five miles with the stock headstem and decided it was just too short for me. I guess that comes with being an old guy nowadays. I also added some cool carbon fibre look fenders and a kickstand. Putting on lights and a bike computer is typical too. The stock tires worked amazingly well, they are a more univeral tread, but when I rode the bike today, it had just finished raining and was still having a bit of a drizzle and the roads and bike trails were all wet and puddles were evewrywhere. Somedays I really I love fenders. Like normal I am the only one that seems to be out riding again. I did see a couple of joggers though. The bike uses Shimano Deore deraileurs and they worked very nicely, but they don't shift quite as good as the ones on my Raleigh bike. But that maybe because I am not used to the Shimano STI style brake/shifters yet. The bike has Shimano Tiagra Flight Deck brake shifters which look like the Shimano STI models. You can get the rear gear shifter to actually shift or jump two gears, but it does this so smoothly, that I don't know if this is by design or not. the Shimano instructions talk like it is normal, just don't move the shifting arm so much etc. The crankset is a TruVativ brand, and it has bolt on chainrings, so I expect it should be fairly easy to get new chainrings later. Currently the bike has 52/42/30 chainrings which are what you would normally see on a road bike, but for loaded touring or commuting, putting on MTB chainrings would be better. The wheels are the typical low cost ones but they are pretty nice still. But you may want to true them up more as they are off slightly in my case. This isn't a big deal, but it does take some patience and time to do it up proper. I had looked at some $1200 to $1600 road bikes earlier and their wheels weren't trued up any better either. The luggage rack that came with the bike was pretty good, it was no problem installing. With the fenders and all I did need to go to my local hardware store and get some more stainless steel 5mm allen cap and socket head screws and as I was short. The fenders did not come with any screws I must say that you need to double check the rear quick release skewer as on my bike it was just snugged down some, it needed to be tightened up more. Plus double check all the other screws and bolts as well. I did notice that the distance between the two pedals is more narrow than on my Raliegh bike which has a wider pedal stance. The stock pedals are typical cage pedals with straps, you may want to change them out for your favorite type. The stock pedals were tight at first but after twenty miles or so they loosened up nicely and work OK now. Oh yeah, the little sticker on the head of the frame says it is "Made in Taiwan", but with all the internationalization nowadays, who knows where all the parts really come from. Anyway the parts are look pretty good, so one could buy the bike just to get all th parts to use on some other more fancy carbon fibre or aluminum frame. I guess all I can say is that it works, what more could one want. |
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On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 18:51:16 -0600, Earl Bollinger wrote:
The bike actually turned out pretty good Hey thanks a lot for the follow up. Most of us cheapskates that post around here aren't discouraged by a little minor wrenching to save a few hundred bucks. :P How's the ride? Does it track nicely and does the frame seem straight? The choice of a 52 big ring does strike me as the only major bad design decision from what you've mentioned, a 48 probably would have been a better choice--but with the amount of gearing we have these days--not a big issue for most riders. Perhaps it's just me, but I do find it odd that it, and well, most touring bikes in the US come sans fenders. Fenders are a must for most tourers and can be a real pita to install if you're not fender whiz like some of us. :P From where did you end up buying it? |
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"maxo" wrote in message
news On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 18:51:16 -0600, Earl Bollinger wrote: The bike actually turned out pretty good Hey thanks a lot for the follow up. Most of us cheapskates that post around here aren't discouraged by a little minor wrenching to save a few hundred bucks. :P How's the ride? Does it track nicely and does the frame seem straight? The choice of a 52 big ring does strike me as the only major bad design decision from what you've mentioned, a 48 probably would have been a better choice--but with the amount of gearing we have these days--not a big issue for most riders. Perhaps it's just me, but I do find it odd that it, and well, most touring bikes in the US come sans fenders. Fenders are a must for most tourers and can be a real pita to install if you're not fender whiz like some of us. :P From where did you end up buying it? The bike tracks real well, no problems with handling. The steel frame seems to flex just right for handling the minor bumps and such. I had it up to 25.7 mph on a downhill stretch and it did nothing bad. I haven't tried a really steep road yet, where I have to stand on the pegs and really power up the hill. So I don't know if and crankset to pedals to frame flex in a higher power situation will be a problem. There is a one mile long uphill stretch near my home, but I didn't have to go all the way down to the lowest gear to get up the hill. But it is fun to climb the hill and zoom down it fast. With 27 speeds there is some overlap from the different gear ratios so you don't really get 27 different speeds, but it does have a rich range of gear ratios with the 11-32t cassette. The highest ratio with a 52 chainring and a 11 tooth rear sprocket is really optimistic. That would call for a really long steep hill with a tailwind. With a cadence of 80 that would yield about a 31-32 mph speed. The fenders I got a pretty neat, but they come with no screws, so you'll need to get some. The fenders have an emergency snap out feature; should a large stick get sucked up into the wheel, the fender supports are supposed to pop out, helping to avoid a nasty crash. But they snapped in pretty hard, so I don't know if they'll snap out if it ever happens. I discovered the wonders of plastic ZIP Ties for mounting the rear fender, where I used two Zip Ties to hold it onto the bike. It works so well, I think one could use ZIP Ties completely for this model type of fender, but i did use 5mm screws on the fender supports. I had a long 5mm bolt and nut already so I used it on the front fender instead of a ZIP tie. The bike I bought is the 54cm size model, and the 31 inch standover height is accurate, as I can barely stand over it. I thought about the 58cm size (32.5 inch standover) but I was afraid it might be too tall for me. I want to use the bike for long distance commuting to work once a week or month of so (Friday casual days). Thus with all the stop lights and street crossings I felt the bigger 58cm size would have been a problem. Since I have to ride about 30 miles one way precludes from doing commuting too often, although maybe they'll let me work at home some in the future. I bought the bike off an Ebay auction where the Ebay seller had the same name as http://www.bikesdirect.com. The shipping was incredibly fast, more like 2 day express for me. I assume if you live farther away it would take longer, The bike was packed well, and it had all the parts included. Be extremely careful cutting the zip ties and plastic to get the bike apart, it is easy to accididentally cut something you shouldn't. There is a small box inside with all the extra stuff included, pedals, head quill stem, etc. The bike is not a department store model where a crescent wrench and a pair of pliers and screwdriver is all you need, you really need some bike specific tools for assembly. You need something that can cut hard stainless steel cables such as a real bike cable cutter tool or use a dremel piano wire cuttoff disc, regular wire cutters will not work. You also need a good set of metric allen wrenches, not the cheap monkey brand ones either. A thin pedal wrench is needed as the regular metric wrench or crescent wrench is too wide. A good phillips screwdriver for adjsuting the deraileurs is nice too. A optional spoke wrench is need to true up the wheels more if you want to go that far. |
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Glad you like it. I like my Windsor Leeds.
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"Colorado Bicycler" wrote in message
oups.com... Glad you like it. I like my Windsor Leeds. Thanks, can you please tell us a little about your Windsor Leeds bike too. |
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From a previous post:
Colorado Bicycler Jan 11, 9:03 am show options Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.misc From: "Colorado Bicycler" - Find messages by this author Date: 11 Jan 2005 09:03:25 -0800 Local: Tues, Jan 11 2005 9:03 am Subject: New Windsor Tourist bikes on eBay Reply | Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Remove | Report Abuse - Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - maxo wrote: On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 14:36:11 +0000, Denver C. Fox wrote: I bought a brand new Windsor Leeds on EBay (from the then manufacturer - I don't know if Winsdor is still in business) I knew my size from past bikes, and felt I was not taking much of a chance at $290. Nice deal. It has been great general use bike, a nice looking bike, and has served its intended purpose well, which was to be an after-work riding bike that I could throw in my hatchback and hit the trails for about 1-1.5 hours, and also for a winter trainer. How did the fit and finish seem? Have the wheels stayed reasonably true? Does the paint and welds on the frame seem solid? Thanks, Max I bought a brand new Windsor Leeds on EBay (from the then manufacturer - I don't know if Winsdor is still in business) I knew my size from past bikes, and felt I was not taking much of a chance at $290. It has been great general use bike, a nice looking bike, and has served its intended purpose well, which was to be an after-work riding bike that I could throw in my hatchback and hit the trails for about 1-1.5 hours, and also for a winter trainer. You can see it as a trainer at http://members.aol.com/dnvrfox/wtroom.jpg It is Sora ======================================== Well, I have had folks come to me out of the blue and compliment me on the bike. The finish is adequate, to say the least. I weighed 240 pounds at the time with no structural problems, welds look solid. They are noticeable but not terrible. The front wheel was out of true, and I have not yet had it trued (need to do that, but it makes no difference on the trainer), but it has not gone any further out of true while I was doing trail riding on it. I used it as a loaner bike for a friend recently moved here without his bike who used to race, etc. He loved the bike. We went on several rides together, and he sure beat me up. Of course, he had 25 years advantage on me, as I am 65! I also have a Lemond BA and a Specialized HR. |
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Cool thanks.
"Colorado Bicycler" wrote in message oups.com... From a previous post: Colorado Bicycler Jan 11, 9:03 am show options Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.misc From: "Colorado Bicycler" - Find messages by this author Date: 11 Jan 2005 09:03:25 -0800 Local: Tues, Jan 11 2005 9:03 am Subject: New Windsor Tourist bikes on eBay Reply | Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Remove | Report Abuse - Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - maxo wrote: On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 14:36:11 +0000, Denver C. Fox wrote: I bought a brand new Windsor Leeds on EBay (from the then manufacturer - I don't know if Winsdor is still in business) I knew my size from past bikes, and felt I was not taking much of a chance at $290. Nice deal. It has been great general use bike, a nice looking bike, and has served its intended purpose well, which was to be an after-work riding bike that I could throw in my hatchback and hit the trails for about 1-1.5 hours, and also for a winter trainer. How did the fit and finish seem? Have the wheels stayed reasonably true? Does the paint and welds on the frame seem solid? Thanks, Max I bought a brand new Windsor Leeds on EBay (from the then manufacturer - I don't know if Winsdor is still in business) I knew my size from past bikes, and felt I was not taking much of a chance at $290. It has been great general use bike, a nice looking bike, and has served its intended purpose well, which was to be an after-work riding bike that I could throw in my hatchback and hit the trails for about 1-1.5 hours, and also for a winter trainer. You can see it as a trainer at http://members.aol.com/dnvrfox/wtroom.jpg It is Sora ======================================== Well, I have had folks come to me out of the blue and compliment me on the bike. The finish is adequate, to say the least. I weighed 240 pounds at the time with no structural problems, welds look solid. They are noticeable but not terrible. The front wheel was out of true, and I have not yet had it trued (need to do that, but it makes no difference on the trainer), but it has not gone any further out of true while I was doing trail riding on it. I used it as a loaner bike for a friend recently moved here without his bike who used to race, etc. He loved the bike. We went on several rides together, and he sure beat me up. Of course, he had 25 years advantage on me, as I am 65! I also have a Lemond BA and a Specialized HR. |
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I just got mine a couple of days ago and echo what you say.
I'm 6'1" and was agonizing whether to get the 58 or 64 cm size and boy am I glad I got the 58 as the fellow at BikesDirct recommended. Plenty big enough for me. I was disappointed with the generic instructions included that did not address the specifics of this bike well. For $590 delivered plus a couple of hours of your time to tweak the thing, I don't think you can beat the deal, though. The components are good quality at least. I do worry a bit about the cable guide that mounts under the bottom bracket as I'm not sure how easy it will be to replace when it wears out (plastic) and I am not crazy about having a hole there on a steel frame (rust). The frame looks to be good quality with decent welds. As you say, the rack is light and strong-looking. (Mine did come with mounting screws, by the way. They were in the paper box with the pedals, etc.) Say, what are the small S-shaped plastic piece and the J-shaped plastic tube with the clear tubing inside for? I've figured out the rest, but those two pieces puzzle me. I plan to add Freddy Fender fenders. Is that what you mounted? Looks like them. I'd also like to put on a chain-stay mounted kick-stand, but the spare spoke mounts may kibosh that idea. The lack of angle adjust on the seat is a little disappointing as is the lack of a quick-release for east seat height adjust. Heck, my $225 Mongoose had that! My only real reservation is the metal-flake green color of the thing is pretty darn ugly. I think I'm going to name this thing Godzilla in light of that. - GRL Earl Bollinger wrote: I had recently discussed getting a Windsor Toruist bike on this newsgroup a while back. here are some photos that I took of the one that I got. http://earlwbollinger.buzznet.com/user/?id=866856 The bike actually turned out pretty good. I am sure I could probably get a $2,000 bike that is a lot better, but in January your choices are incredibly limited. When I went around to the local LBS's there just weren't any touring bikes available, although one shop had some 20-30 year old touring bikes that looked really nice still. One store had a Trek 520 in a window sporting goods display, but it was the wrong size. One problem is that if you are mechanically challenged, you will have trouble, as there are no instructions on how to assemble and adjust the bike. You really need some real bike tools to put it together with, you cannot use a crescent wrench and a pair of pliers, plus you need a cable cutter tool as well. it uses metric screws with allen hex sockets for everything. Now you can go to several websites for generic information on assembly, and so on. At our local Half Price Bookstore they had several bike books on repair and maintenance as well, but these were older bike books though. Buying a more modern book through Amazon.com is probably a good idea. Basically, some of the local LBS's may not want to work on the bike at all, so you may have problems there. Some LBS's will work on it, but on a low priority basis.Their own customers come first. In any case you would have to pay house rates for working on it. The stock seat actually was surprisingly comfortable, but I changed it out for my Brooks Seat, as it fits me even more. The stock Zoom headstem was very nice but was still too short for me, so I put in a Zoom adjustable headstem instead. I rode the bike for five miles with the stock headstem and decided it was just too short for me. I guess that comes with being an old guy nowadays. I also added some cool carbon fibre look fenders and a kickstand. Putting on lights and a bike computer is typical too. The stock tires worked amazingly well, they are a more univeral tread, but when I rode the bike today, it had just finished raining and was still having a bit of a drizzle and the roads and bike trails were all wet and puddles were evewrywhere. Somedays I really I love fenders. Like normal I am the only one that seems to be out riding again. I did see a couple of joggers though. The bike uses Shimano Deore deraileurs and they worked very nicely, but they don't shift quite as good as the ones on my Raleigh bike. But that maybe because I am not used to the Shimano STI style brake/shifters yet. The bike has Shimano Tiagra Flight Deck brake shifters which look like the Shimano STI models. You can get the rear gear shifter to actually shift or jump two gears, but it does this so smoothly, that I don't know if this is by design or not. the Shimano instructions talk like it is normal, just don't move the shifting arm so much etc. The crankset is a TruVativ brand, and it has bolt on chainrings, so I expect it should be fairly easy to get new chainrings later. Currently the bike has 52/42/30 chainrings which are what you would normally see on a road bike, but for loaded touring or commuting, putting on MTB chainrings would be better. The wheels are the typical low cost ones but they are pretty nice still. But you may want to true them up more as they are off slightly in my case. This isn't a big deal, but it does take some patience and time to do it up proper. I had looked at some $1200 to $1600 road bikes earlier and their wheels weren't trued up any better either. The luggage rack that came with the bike was pretty good, it was no problem installing. With the fenders and all I did need to go to my local hardware store and get some more stainless steel 5mm allen cap and socket head screws and as I was short. The fenders did not come with any screws I must say that you need to double check the rear quick release skewer as on my bike it was just snugged down some, it needed to be tightened up more. Plus double check all the other screws and bolts as well. I did notice that the distance between the two pedals is more narrow than on my Raliegh bike which has a wider pedal stance. The stock pedals are typical cage pedals with straps, you may want to change them out for your favorite type. The stock pedals were tight at first but after twenty miles or so they loosened up nicely and work OK now. Oh yeah, the little sticker on the head of the frame says it is "Made in Taiwan", but with all the internationalization nowadays, who knows where all the parts really come from. Anyway the parts are look pretty good, so one could buy the bike just to get all th parts to use on some other more fancy carbon fibre or aluminum frame. I guess all I can say is that it works, what more could one want. |
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I put in a photo here of where the black angled tube like piece goes.
http://earlwbollinger-bicycles.buzznet.com/user/ The black angled thing is probably a optional item, but it goes on the front brake cable, between the cable end and the front steering tube mounted cable stop. At first I left it out but eventually on one of the hard to see promo photos of a Windsor Tourist, I figured it out where it went. If you have your handlebars way up high you may need it, but if they are low probably not. The "S" shaped metal clip looks to be a cable clip to help route the front cables more neatly. Beats me as to it's proper useage. I think when I talked about the screws earlier was that I had all the parts with the bike, nothing was missing, but the fenders I got, did not have any screws. So I ran short of screws mounting the fenders. But since the fenders aren't load bearing, a few black plastic zip ties will do the trick quite well too. My fenders had no brand or anything on them, but they look like nifty carbon fiber fenders though. I liked the metal flake forest green color myself. It isn't a racing bike so it looks sort of regal looking in this color. Theives may avoid it if it isn't a fancy racing bright color like you see on the fancier bikes nowadays. Yes I agree that an adjustable tilt angle on the seatpost would be nice. But the stock seat looks to fit it perfectly. So it is a simple cost savings feature on making the bike. But a different seat may not work out the same. As far as I can tell, from all the seat posts the local LBS's sell, no one ever keeps the stock seat post on any bike anyway. I am planning to get a nice carbon fiber seatpost myself later, or maybe a suspension seatpost instead. As in city ridning and commuting I have to ride on all sorts of surfaces anyway. Personally, I prefer to not have a quick release seat post. Theives, hullagins, and juveniles will all steal the seat and post just because they can. Nothing is worse than coming out of Walmart and you discover your safely locked bike is still there minus the seat and post, and you have to ride home for several milss without a seat. I had that happen on my MTB a long time ago. Do check the trash cans nearby and the shopping carts, as they might toss it away right after they remove it. My seat and post were in a shopping cart in the shopping cart parking area where the hulligans tossed it as they walked away. I put in one of those pocket knife like tools with a bunch of metric allen head wrenches in it into the seat bag. Thus if I really need to, I can readjust the seat while out riding around. But I find that after you get it setup you usually don't need to mess it it much afterwards. So carrying a couple of regular metric allen wrenches for the seat and seat post on a few rides, will usually get it done. Watch out for those stupid pliers like multi tools, absolutely nothing on the tool will fit anything on the bike. You only need to have a allen wrench for each of the different allen head screws on the bike, and a wrench to fit the pedals, and maybe a wrench for the kickstand if you put one on. Then a phillips screwdriver and maybe a flat head screwdriver (spoke nipples or deraileurs). A spoke wrench maybe handy too. Possibly a big wrench to fit the steering head nut but that would be pretty severe for emergency purposes. Of course you need a spare tube, two or three, three tire irons, a good tire pump. I would suggest both a CO2 charger, and a good tirepump too. A nice folding tire for radical emergencies is very handy too. Avoid those mini-pumps, they are almost totally useless. Use either a Topeak Morph pump, or one of the old style super long frame mount pumps (like a http://www.silcapompe.it/impero_en.htm, or a Zefal HPX, or a long Topeak or Blackburn frame pump), or better, actually carry along a real floor pump. The basic method to determine if a tire pump works is whether you can really use it or not to pump up a tire. I was going to give up and carry along a regular narrow style floor pump, until I discovered the Topeak morph pumps. The Topeak Morph pump expands out into a small floor pump and it has a small rubber tube, valve head and tire guage all built into a small compact package. Those little mini pumps just don't work for me, trying to hold the thing still on a tube valve without tearing out the tube valve and pumping like crazy for 10,000 strokes just kills me. Plus those fancy smart valve heads don't work as good as they sellers advertise, as you can't tell if you got it on the tube valve OK or not until you actually start to pump. "GRL" wrote in message ... I just got mine a couple of days ago and echo what you say. I'm 6'1" and was agonizing whether to get the 58 or 64 cm size and boy am I glad I got the 58 as the fellow at BikesDirct recommended. Plenty big enough for me. I was disappointed with the generic instructions included that did not address the specifics of this bike well. For $590 delivered plus a couple of hours of your time to tweak the thing, I don't think you can beat the deal, though. The components are good quality at least. I do worry a bit about the cable guide that mounts under the bottom bracket as I'm not sure how easy it will be to replace when it wears out (plastic) and I am not crazy about having a hole there on a steel frame (rust). The frame looks to be good quality with decent welds. As you say, the rack is light and strong-looking. (Mine did come with mounting screws, by the way. They were in the paper box with the pedals, etc.) Say, what are the small S-shaped plastic piece and the J-shaped plastic tube with the clear tubing inside for? I've figured out the rest, but those two pieces puzzle me. I plan to add Freddy Fender fenders. Is that what you mounted? Looks like them. I'd also like to put on a chain-stay mounted kick-stand, but the spare spoke mounts may kibosh that idea. The lack of angle adjust on the seat is a little disappointing as is the lack of a quick-release for east seat height adjust. Heck, my $225 Mongoose had that! My only real reservation is the metal-flake green color of the thing is pretty darn ugly. I think I'm going to name this thing Godzilla in light of that. - GRL Earl Bollinger wrote: I had recently discussed getting a Windsor Toruist bike on this newsgroup a while back. here are some photos that I took of the one that I got. http://earlwbollinger.buzznet.com/user/?id=866856 The bike actually turned out pretty good. I am sure I could probably get a $2,000 bike that is a lot better, but in January your choices are incredibly limited. When I went around to the local LBS's there just weren't any touring bikes available, although one shop had some 20-30 year old touring bikes that looked really nice still. One store had a Trek 520 in a window sporting goods display, but it was the wrong size. One problem is that if you are mechanically challenged, you will have trouble, as there are no instructions on how to assemble and adjust the bike. You really need some real bike tools to put it together with, you cannot use a crescent wrench and a pair of pliers, plus you need a cable cutter tool as well. it uses metric screws with allen hex sockets for everything. Now you can go to several websites for generic information on assembly, and so on. At our local Half Price Bookstore they had several bike books on repair and maintenance as well, but these were older bike books though. Buying a more modern book through Amazon.com is probably a good idea. Basically, some of the local LBS's may not want to work on the bike at all, so you may have problems there. Some LBS's will work on it, but on a low priority basis.Their own customers come first. In any case you would have to pay house rates for working on it. The stock seat actually was surprisingly comfortable, but I changed it out for my Brooks Seat, as it fits me even more. The stock Zoom headstem was very nice but was still too short for me, so I put in a Zoom adjustable headstem instead. I rode the bike for five miles with the stock headstem and decided it was just too short for me. I guess that comes with being an old guy nowadays. I also added some cool carbon fibre look fenders and a kickstand. Putting on lights and a bike computer is typical too. The stock tires worked amazingly well, they are a more univeral tread, but when I rode the bike today, it had just finished raining and was still having a bit of a drizzle and the roads and bike trails were all wet and puddles were evewrywhere. Somedays I really I love fenders. Like normal I am the only one that seems to be out riding again. I did see a couple of joggers though. The bike uses Shimano Deore deraileurs and they worked very nicely, but they don't shift quite as good as the ones on my Raleigh bike. But that maybe because I am not used to the Shimano STI style brake/shifters yet. The bike has Shimano Tiagra Flight Deck brake shifters which look like the Shimano STI models. You can get the rear gear shifter to actually shift or jump two gears, but it does this so smoothly, that I don't know if this is by design or not. the Shimano instructions talk like it is normal, just don't move the shifting arm so much etc. The crankset is a TruVativ brand, and it has bolt on chainrings, so I expect it should be fairly easy to get new chainrings later. Currently the bike has 52/42/30 chainrings which are what you would normally see on a road bike, but for loaded touring or commuting, putting on MTB chainrings would be better. The wheels are the typical low cost ones but they are pretty nice still. But you may want to true them up more as they are off slightly in my case. This isn't a big deal, but it does take some patience and time to do it up proper. I had looked at some $1200 to $1600 road bikes earlier and their wheels weren't trued up any better either. The luggage rack that came with the bike was pretty good, it was no problem installing. With the fenders and all I did need to go to my local hardware store and get some more stainless steel 5mm allen cap and socket head screws and as I was short. The fenders did not come with any screws I must say that you need to double check the rear quick release skewer as on my bike it was just snugged down some, it needed to be tightened up more. Plus double check all the other screws and bolts as well. I did notice that the distance between the two pedals is more narrow than on my Raliegh bike which has a wider pedal stance. The stock pedals are typical cage pedals with straps, you may want to change them out for your favorite type. The stock pedals were tight at first but after twenty miles or so they loosened up nicely and work OK now. Oh yeah, the little sticker on the head of the frame says it is "Made in Taiwan", but with all the internationalization nowadays, who knows where all the parts really come from. Anyway the parts are look pretty good, so one could buy the bike just to get all th parts to use on some other more fancy carbon fibre or aluminum frame. I guess all I can say is that it works, what more could one want. |
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On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 02:42:30 -0500, GRL wrote:
I just got mine a couple of days ago and echo what you say. I'm 6'1" and was agonizing whether to get the 58 or 64 cm size and boy am I glad I got the 58 as the fellow at BikesDirct recommended. Plenty big enough for me. That's a pretty big size spread. I'm about the same height and normally ride a 60 and would be perfect on a 59. I was disappointed with the generic instructions included that did not address the specifics of this bike well. Check the Shimano site for literature - or any other manufacturer parts used. And of course the Park tool site. Most of this technology is pretty generic. For $590 delivered plus a couple of hours of your time to tweak the thing, I don't think you can beat the deal, though. The components are good quality at least. I do worry a bit about the cable guide that mounts under the bottom bracket as I'm not sure how easy it will be to replace when it wears out (plastic) and I am not crazy about having a hole there on a steel frame (rust). That cable guide is probably the standard Shimano part that any bike store will have by the bag full. Very standard service part. There should be a drainage hole near the bottom of the bottom bracket for drainage. Water WILL get in, it always does and must be able to escape. The danger is in not having a hole. If you look on the bottom of classic era steel you'll find all manner of slots and clever cutouts down there. The frame looks to be good quality with decent welds. As you say, the rack is light and strong-looking. (Mine did come with mounting screws, by the way. They were in the paper box with the pedals, etc.) Say, what are the small S-shaped plastic piece and the J-shaped plastic tube with the clear tubing inside for? I've figured out the rest, but those two pieces puzzle me. I plan to add Freddy Fender fenders. Is that what you mounted? Looks like them. I'd also like to put on a chain-stay mounted kick-stand, but the spare spoke mounts may kibosh that idea. The lack of angle adjust on the seat is a little disappointing as is the lack of a quick-release for east seat height adjust. Heck, my $225 Mongoose had that! Non-adjustable seat post?!?! Now that is cheap. I didn't know they actually existed. My only real reservation is the metal-flake green color of the thing is pretty darn ugly. I think I'm going to name this thing Godzilla in light of that. Think of it as an executive cycle. Or Godzilla, whichever's more fun. Enjoy. Ron - GRL Earl Bollinger wrote: I had recently discussed getting a Windsor Toruist bike on this newsgroup a while back. here are some photos that I took of the one that I got. http://earlwbollinger.buzznet.com/user/?id=866856 The bike actually turned out pretty good. I am sure I could probably get a $2,000 bike that is a lot better, but in January your choices are incredibly limited. When I went around to the local LBS's there just weren't any touring bikes available, although one shop had some 20-30 year old touring bikes that looked really nice still. One store had a Trek 520 in a window sporting goods display, but it was the wrong size. One problem is that if you are mechanically challenged, you will have trouble, as there are no instructions on how to assemble and adjust the bike. You really need some real bike tools to put it together with, you cannot use a crescent wrench and a pair of pliers, plus you need a cable cutter tool as well. it uses metric screws with allen hex sockets for everything. Now you can go to several websites for generic information on assembly, and so on. At our local Half Price Bookstore they had several bike books on repair and maintenance as well, but these were older bike books though. Buying a more modern book through Amazon.com is probably a good idea. Basically, some of the local LBS's may not want to work on the bike at all, so you may have problems there. Some LBS's will work on it, but on a low priority basis.Their own customers come first. In any case you would have to pay house rates for working on it. The stock seat actually was surprisingly comfortable, but I changed it out for my Brooks Seat, as it fits me even more. The stock Zoom headstem was very nice but was still too short for me, so I put in a Zoom adjustable headstem instead. I rode the bike for five miles with the stock headstem and decided it was just too short for me. I guess that comes with being an old guy nowadays. I also added some cool carbon fibre look fenders and a kickstand. Putting on lights and a bike computer is typical too. The stock tires worked amazingly well, they are a more univeral tread, but when I rode the bike today, it had just finished raining and was still having a bit of a drizzle and the roads and bike trails were all wet and puddles were evewrywhere. Somedays I really I love fenders. Like normal I am the only one that seems to be out riding again. I did see a couple of joggers though. The bike uses Shimano Deore deraileurs and they worked very nicely, but they don't shift quite as good as the ones on my Raleigh bike. But that maybe because I am not used to the Shimano STI style brake/shifters yet. The bike has Shimano Tiagra Flight Deck brake shifters which look like the Shimano STI models. You can get the rear gear shifter to actually shift or jump two gears, but it does this so smoothly, that I don't know if this is by design or not. the Shimano instructions talk like it is normal, just don't move the shifting arm so much etc. The crankset is a TruVativ brand, and it has bolt on chainrings, so I expect it should be fairly easy to get new chainrings later. Currently the bike has 52/42/30 chainrings which are what you would normally see on a road bike, but for loaded touring or commuting, putting on MTB chainrings would be better. The wheels are the typical low cost ones but they are pretty nice still. But you may want to true them up more as they are off slightly in my case. This isn't a big deal, but it does take some patience and time to do it up proper. I had looked at some $1200 to $1600 road bikes earlier and their wheels weren't trued up any better either. The luggage rack that came with the bike was pretty good, it was no problem installing. With the fenders and all I did need to go to my local hardware store and get some more stainless steel 5mm allen cap and socket head screws and as I was short. The fenders did not come with any screws I must say that you need to double check the rear quick release skewer as on my bike it was just snugged down some, it needed to be tightened up more. Plus double check all the other screws and bolts as well. I did notice that the distance between the two pedals is more narrow than on my Raliegh bike which has a wider pedal stance. The stock pedals are typical cage pedals with straps, you may want to change them out for your favorite type. The stock pedals were tight at first but after twenty miles or so they loosened up nicely and work OK now. Oh yeah, the little sticker on the head of the frame says it is "Made in Taiwan", but with all the internationalization nowadays, who knows where all the parts really come from. Anyway the parts are look pretty good, so one could buy the bike just to get all th parts to use on some other more fancy carbon fibre or aluminum frame. I guess all I can say is that it works, what more could one want. |
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