I've owned two Cannondales. One 3.0 road and one MTB. The road was a trusted steed until a Buick did it in (with me on it). The MTB served me for 15 years and then went to a friend's son as a gift. It rode well until last year when the fork cracked. Since the frameset was 25 years old he decided to put it to rest and buy a new bike.

 

So that's what the problem is!

Just kiddin' with ya' Serotta. I still love ya !

 

Same comment my wife makes occasionally so you are in good company Frank.

Some minor good came of the accident. The kid that hit me was driving his Daddy's Buick. He bolted but my riding companion got the tag number. I have the cell numbers of many of the Deputies around these parts. We called one and thirty minutes later he called back with the suspect in custody. Only it wasn't the suspect. The kid drove straight home and didn't say a word to anyone, just parked the car. His Dad drove the Buick to the grocery store and was totally shocked when he was arrested and cuffed immediately. Eventually the riddle was solved and the Daddy took the Deputy to the house to arrest the kid. (There's more to the story, my brother happened to be in the same grocery store lot and almost got to the Father before the Deputy took control.)
Turns out the kid was a high school dropout. I agreed to drop all charges if he paid for my medical deductible, damages to the bike (and spandex), and finished his high school diploma in 2 years or less.

End result, I got a new bike, shorts, jersey, helmet, etc, and 12 stitches in my face, and the county now has a semi-educated delinquent, druggie on the loose!

 

I've actually got 3 bikes now for a variety of applications.

My dedicated off road bike is a Frankenstein built from a total of 5 bikes.
I'm pretty sure the front crank came off a children's bike due to the shorter crank lengths and small gears. Not sure what the tooth number is but the crank gear is smaller than the Schwinn mega gear in back. It doesn't have a derailleur because I got tired of it sucking up sticks and then crippling the bike out in the boondocks. It also has 3 inch velociraptor tires that nearly make the bike float in deep water. It is for my little fishing excursions that seem to take me through the worst possible places. The low gearing is great for climbing up rocks, crawling through mud and pushing through water and weeds. I've also put grease fittings in the rims because of how bad water and dirt can be for the bearings. I haven't had an issue with them since.


My second one is relatively stock. It is a Diamondback Outlook and has probably been the biggest headache to keep working but it does great on regular trails.

My third one is another one that I built from the ground up. Only cost about $25 and a bent rim. This is my commuting bike. It is also a fun bike with the 43 tooth front and 13 tooth rear. I'll be gearing it higher eventually because the top speed just isn't fast enough but it works for now.

 

Well the Cannondale is out, it's on national backorder until at least the middle of May. I'm now looking at the Trek 8.4DS. It is in the same category and will only run me about $50 more. From what I have read it also has hydro disk brakes vs cable disks and most of the parts (cranks, cassettes, etc) are the next level up Shimano. I wasn't able to confirm it with the guy I have been dealing with but hopefully this one isn't backoredred too.

 

I'm sure you are doing your homework on the hydraulics.

Here's a link that begins in 07, but the second page runs through to the present:

http://forums.mtbr.com/brake-time/hy...al-266254.html

 

If you need brake fluid to stop a bicycle, me thinks you were going too fast.

A buddy of mine has a frankenstein bike with no rear brake, in hard stops he puts his leg behind him like a dog peeing on a tree with his shoe on top the rear tire.

On one trip we got detoured on a downhill and the turns kept getting sharper and steeper.
I couldn't see him up ahead but I was riding through this awful smell of burning rubber.

For the record, the shoe got the worst of it. The tire not so much.

 

That was staring to sound like a 5.0 Vs EB thread. I'm not completely sold on even needing disk brakes on a bike, the rim squeezers have always stopped me just fine. The extra gears and better hardware is a real selling point to me. I'm not too worried about any extra maintenance for the brakes. The bike shop has free life time tune ups and I'm positive that I can do all the work in my garage if needed.

I do know that I have just about maxed out my current wheels. I rode 25 miles last night in 1:45 through ton of hills. I spent most of the time in my top 2 gears and was running that one as hard as it wanted to go. In July some friends are doing a ride across Iowa. This bike won't cut it for that.

 

Wookie,

If you are contemplating RAGBRAI you should really look at a true road bike. 700C high pressure tires, etc. That ride is taxing to say the least and you will feel much better about it if you can keep up with a larger group while expending the minimal amount of effort each day.

A nice 53 or 54 cm frame and a decent set of wheels will go far to making the ride more comfortable over the miles. The racer style drop bars will give you more choices for hand position during the hours in the saddle. A flat bar or flat bar with extensions will limit your positions and really begin to work on back and neck muscles.

It is my opinion to stay away from aluminum frames as they are traditionally less forgiving for longer rides. Carbon fiber, titanium or steel would be my choices, in that order.

I rode 600 miles in 4 days across NC from Tenn to the outer banks. We did 200 miles the last day. I rode a Titanium frame. I don't think I would have attemped it on either of my aluminum frames. If I do it again I will use carbon fiber.

 

Well... I did it, twice!

I went to the store to order the Trek 8.4DS. My plans were to use this one as is and keep an eye out for another set of wheels to mount light weight street tires for long rides. Once we figured out what size bike to get and had that sorted I asked the guy if they ever got in used road bikes. Since I was thinking about getting one to play with.

He said, "Yup, there's a good one right there." So for a couple hundred more I picked up this one Giant TCR Team ONCE. I think someone has made a few changes to it since I have three cogs up front and it should have two. It also has an adjustable front stem. Or the PO bought it as a frame only and built it themselves, I'm leaning more to this since the frame is spot onto that link but the hardware is not. It has very little wear and rides and shifts good. For the price paid I can ride it for a while and flog it on CL and not lose anything.

 

Let's bump this one back up...

Yesterday I did what was planned to be a 50 mile charity ride that turned into a 55 miler. It took me 3:45 to do it but I wasn't really pushing it at all. Most of the time I was talking trash with my friends that were riding with me. My used rack Giant TCR did just fine.



My Trek came in a while back and I've been racking up the miles on it too. I have the river trail around Little Rock (15.5 miles) down to less than an hour consistently on this one. It has a lot of tight areas with walkers so parts are pretty slow with lots of stops and starts. If anyone passes through LR hit me up for a ride around town. We have some pretty good trails here.



Anyone else been out on two wheels much lately?

 

I did a few 20-30 mile rides a few weeks ago. I am going to be adding clipless pedals soon which I am looking forward to. Look into Armadillo bikes tires, love them. No flats.

I also would like to find a nice Mountain bike to ride trails with. I love street riding, but sometimes the trails would be nice.