Trek / Bianchi story

"jj" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 02:46:12 -0400, Chris BeHanna
wrote:

Hear ****in' hear, and a hearty a-men.

My wife has a 7100FX. It's what she wanted to replace her old Schwinn
Worldsport (which now hangs upside-down from the rafters--I can't bear
to toss it, as it's a pre-X-mart Schwinn, with a real crank and all
that--and would you believe *tubulars*?!?). She has shoulder problems,
and wanted the upright seating position, and liked the suspension
seatpost, the cushy saddle, and the suspension forks. She also likes
the twist-grip shifters.

As you know, 'looking cushy and comfortable' isn't the same as 'feeling
comfortable', though the dealers would have us think otherwise. Add in
10lbs of faux suspension - ah, comfort... (not!). ;-)

Riding my hybrid is torture on the wrists and arms after 15 miles, though
I
can work through it. One hand position and it's all wrong, imo g.

Plus, I swear, I'm much more upright on the drop bar roadie on the hoods
and certainly on tops near the stem than the supposed 'upright, relaxed
geometry' hybrid. My hands are closer together on the roadie, but I'm able
to get more stretched out just by bending the arms. I still think I have
some minor adjustment to do since I end up more on the nose of the saddle
than sitting on the back, but I'm hoping the body will adjust as time goes
on. Nothing's painful. Knees, the most important part not to have pain are
perfect, so I'm loathe to change anything.

I have a wide Nitto Noodle Bar on my Gunnar, and I also own a flat bar Ibex
road bike. I use the flat bar bike to run errands and do shopping, so I'm
not on it for really long periods of time. My hands get numb after about 20
minutes on it, and I have to shake them to regain feeling. When my hands get
numb on the Gunnar, I just move to another position.

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 00:14:05 GMT, "Gooserider"
wrote:


"Mike Jacoubowsky" wrote in message
t...
Ok, sorry, Mike, wrong term. He cut off the steering tube short. Like
this:

http://www.bicyclemotor.com/techhelp...orktosize.html

My understanding is they come long and you fit it and then cut to the
desired length and use spacers as needed. If he'd have left it long and
used more spacers, it would have been a better fit for me.

jj

JJ: Routinely cutting down fork columns doesn't make sense to me. If
someone doesn't want the stem so high, they can first reverse the stem (so
it point level or perhaps even down, instead of up), and if that's still
not enough, they can move spacers from the bottom to the top. This might
not look as pretty, but it gives you a lot more flexibility down the road
since once you cut a fork, you can't make it taller (aside from putting on
adapter pieces).

When I bought my Gunnar, I had to specify to the wrench that I wanted my
bars the same height as my saddle. He wanted to cut the steer tube and fit
the bike with a riser stem(if that's the right term). I insisted I wanted
him to use spacers and a straight stem, which gives me more flexibility to
change position. He did it, but kind of begrudgingly. I have 8 spacers and
it's very comfortable. It's a semi compact frame so I have about 1.5
handfuls of seatpost showing also. It looks good, though.

Yep. There ya go. Unless you're standing there tapping your hand with a
baseball bat they seem compelled to want cut off the steering stem and use
a riser stem. g

Jeeze, it's less work for them to do it the way we wanted - very tedious to
have to put it in a vice, measure and file it, no? You'd think they got a
bonus for using less spacers, lol.

jj

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 00:16:39 GMT, "Gooserider"
wrote:

Plus, I swear, I'm much more upright on the drop bar roadie on the hoods
and certainly on tops near the stem than the supposed 'upright, relaxed
geometry' hybrid. My hands are closer together on the roadie, but I'm able
to get more stretched out just by bending the arms. I still think I have
some minor adjustment to do since I end up more on the nose of the saddle
than sitting on the back, but I'm hoping the body will adjust as time goes
on. Nothing's painful. Knees, the most important part not to have pain are
perfect, so I'm loathe to change anything.

I have a wide Nitto Noodle Bar on my Gunnar, and I also own a flat bar Ibex
road bike. I use the flat bar bike to run errands and do shopping, so I'm
not on it for really long periods of time. My hands get numb after about 20
minutes on it, and I have to shake them to regain feeling. When my hands get
numb on the Gunnar, I just move to another position.

As I mentioned before, it's not the 'upright position' that I needed when I
realized I needed to get a road bike. It's the 'stretched out position'
that I needed. On the straight bar bike the handle bars seemed too low at
first then too close to me. I kept wanting to take a thumbless grip - then
I realized I needed the bar moved 'forward' and the current straight bar
bike wasn't going to do it for me. When I got on the road bike, my first
feeling was 'ah-h-h, that feels good', wrt the reach, height and position.

It was only later that I realized how the wider hand positions on the
straight bar bike was cambering my wrists to an unnatural degree, and the
wider grip made my torso lean over more (just like wide grip pushups). What
I need to do is get a Nitto bar for the straight bar bike if I can figure
out if the controls and stuff will transfer over without too much trouble.

jj

Jeeze, it's less work for them to do it the way we wanted - very tedious
to
have to put it in a vice, measure and file it, no? You'd think they got a
bonus for using less spacers, lol.

No, the only bonus we get is for stealing valve caps. At least that's what
customers seem to think; amazing how many believe we're intentionally trying
to remove them for economic benefit of some sort. Must be a huge black
market somewhere for valve caps, and everyone knows about it but me.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 04:07:18 GMT, "Mike Jacoubowsky"
wrote:

Jeeze, it's less work for them to do it the way we wanted - very tedious
to
have to put it in a vice, measure and file it, no? You'd think they got a
bonus for using less spacers, lol.

No, the only bonus we get is for stealing valve caps. At least that's what
customers seem to think; amazing how many believe we're intentionally trying
to remove them for economic benefit of some sort. Must be a huge black
market somewhere for valve caps, and everyone knows about it but me.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com


LOL. Yeah it must be true, b/c when I went in to pick up my bike both valve
caps were missing and I know they were on the bike when I left it. However
the shop had a big jar full of them and they gave me several.

BTW, you and your shop are excepted from all negative comments - you guys
are the best. ;-)

jj

"Gooserider" wrote in message
m...

wrote in message
ups.com...
No taiwan frame or bike is anywhere near the quality and feel of a good
italian or American.

I must disagree. I have a Gunnar Sport and a Schwinn Peloton. Both are
steel, the Gunnar is True Temper OX2, and the Schwinn is Reynolds 853. The
Gunnar is sport touring geometry, and the Schwinn is racer boy. Both are
totally comfortable, both feel great, and the weld quality on the Schwinn
is almost as good as the Gunnar, but I got the Schwinn frame for a hundred
bucks new on eBay. The Gunnar frame was ten times that.
I probably should have mentioned that the Gunnar is American made and the
Schwinn is Taiwanese. D'oh!

~R wrote:

The FX series does not have suspension forks, twist grip
shifters or a cushy seat. It also start at 7200. I think your
woman has a 7100 Multitrack, the same as my woman has. And that
bike has very dofferent geometry than the FX. Yes, it is a
torture device! The FX bikes are nicer in my opinion. At least
for my purposes.
~Rob

: [...Chris BeHanna goes off on the ways he hates his wife's hybrid...]

You are correct. It is a 7100 Multitrack. I have sworn never to ride
the thing again, beyond perhaps "does it work right" after I've done
some maintenance to it.

--
Chris BeHanna
'03 Specialized Allez Elite 27
'04 Specialized Hardrock Pro Disc

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