Big Bike Thread

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SkodaMart said:
I fancy a 29er hardtail, being 6'3" tall and over 200lbs.
What do people recommend? I am currently looking at the Marin Nail Trail, and I still have my eye on the On-One Scandal.
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I have been riding a fisher paragon 2010 and have enjoyed it a lot. Smooth bike - does what it says on the tin. Expensive though so be prepared to pay the 29er tax.
 
Thanks for the help so far folks, after taking a quick look at the link Siliconslave posted i can indeed confirm that it is a threadless system, so i am going to have a good read up on it and then have a crack tonight to see if i can sort it.

If not it can go into the bike shop and let them sort it and probably give it a general service.

Cheers again.
 
The rims aren't that huge, the tyres are a tiny bit narrower than my Maxxis High Rollers, but most importantly... they aren't inflated :D
Yeap, 203 both on front and back. I used to have 185 in the rear but changed it to 203 for France to help with dispersing the heat (ive actually seen brakepads on fire), but then could never be asked to change it back
 
icysniper said:
where do you lot buy most of your bike equipment/parts??
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I get a lot of roadie kit from PBK - Probike Kit. Get on their "Special Offers" email list, some of the offers and weekly specials they do are serious bargains.Other than that Chain Reaction, Edinburgh Bike Co-op, Wiggle, JE James, Parker International, Tredz etc. The Bay obviously as well. :D

I tend not to stick with one particular place, generally I'll search for what I'm looking for online and see who is doing it for the best price.
 
[DOD]Asprilla;16755214 said:
So was he, but nearly 20 years ago, when it was literally racing down a steep hill, not a technical course.
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It might not have been as tech, but took just as much skill.
There is a reason the same riders dominated year in year out!

btw: Possibly one of the hardest thing in downhill racing, no actually, in mountain bike riding - is big flat turns and corners.
Getting to hit them full speed and not lose traction is an art... never mind on the crap tyres they used to race back in the day.

icysniper said:
where do you lot buy most of your bike equipment/parts??
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Online
Chainreactioncycles
biketart
descent-gear
jejames
superstar
leisurelakes
wiggle

"Offline" my LBS
 
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MarkST said:
Talking of fixies, I'm in the market for one as I want to start riding to workmates houses instead of driving, does anybody have any experience and recommendations? I'm working on a budget of £500, thanks.
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Are you looking for drops or a flat bar? The most common ones you see are:

Charge Plug - £549
Specilized Langster - £449

Or you can go uber-tarty with something like a Foffa Prima

Something from Condor would also fit the bill, like a Pista, which is about £500. Also highly recommended are Persons like the Touche or Hanzo. The Hanzo is more in your price range.
 
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Supercow said:
Sorry but that is the most ridiculous notion I have ever heard.

NONE of the work is done by machinery.
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The uplift method does provide the bike with energy. It's basic physics, if you take something up a hill then you are giving it potential energy and when you release it that stored energy is converted to kinetic energy.
As i said, i am aware that downhill racers are very fit and do a lot of work during a race run. line choice, pumping and peddling all have an effect on the outcome of a race, which is why i said i disagree with sheldon's opinion.

edit: did a quick calculation and found that gee atherton on a supreme dh over the fort william course in a time of 4:35.7 would gain 1833watts from mavity. this will be a slight overestimation though because he will lose energy when he uses his brakes or at any uphill sections, bumps jumps etc. But to put it in context a Tour de France rider, whilst cruising in the peleton will be using around 250 watts. The 1833 watts from mavity is essentially given to the bike/rider by the uplift device.
 
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Not disagreeing with you disagreeing with his statement :)

I'm saying that the machinery providing most of the power, is horse manure.

He estimates that the race "starts/is measured from" the bottom of the hill, which it doesn't.
Yes mavity is "given" to the rider, but the fact remains it has no bearing on the race.

ps: the last time I raced a regional DH race, we all pushed to the top ;)

Yonks ago before me, these guys did too - so his statement was no less inaccurate 20 years ago than it is now
http://sonic.net/~ckelly/Seekay/repack.htm
 
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Sheldon Brown, the "legend that he is" was a purist at its worst.
His view of DH reflected the common wisdom in his generation of cyclists.

I quote: http://sonic.net/~ckelly/Seekay/repack.htm

"At the time downhill racing was slightly less illegal than armed robbery. We didn't have permission, we just had a hill and the hill had a steep road on it, and we had bikes made for riding on it, and we devised a timing system that worked, and since we weren't doing it for anyone else, we didn't care what they thought.

The regular bike racing world wanted nothing to do with downhill, but we did it anyway, but then it got out about what we were doing, so we formed our own organization and we called it NORBA, and we wrote rules that said downhill was peachy"
 
Supercow said:
I'm saying that the machinery providing most of the power, is horse manure.
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Supercow said:
Yes mavity is "given" to the rider
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The two are related. The machinery DOES give the bike most of its power because most of its power comes from mavity. The bike + rider have stored energy which is gained by travelling up the hill (regardless of how it was done - chairlift, truck or pushing the bike). The stored energy is converted into kinetic (motion) energy as the bike rolls down the hill.

It would be similar to using an electric bike on a flat course. The energy is stored up beforehand (charging the battery) and then converted to kinetic energy during the race. The only difference in downhill is that energy is stored in a different way (through using up energy to get the bike + rider to the top of the hill)

I didnt notice the bit where he said that the start is measured from the bottom of the hill - i only saw the glossary entry on downhill racing. That is clearly wrong.
 
Supercow said:
Sheldon Brown, the "legend that he is" was a purist at its worst.
His view of DH reflected the common wisdom in his generation of cyclists.
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Yes, as i have said before, i disagree with his opinion. I do agree with his facts though, in that most (but NOT all) of the energy used in a downhill race comes from mavity.
 
Just back from the shop. Bought a new road bike

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Love it :) very comfortable, no road buzz at all. Absolutely thrilled with it.

I have my MTB but I was only being able to get out 1 a week on my MTB (live in Manchester, have no car) so now I can ride MTB during my day off in the week and on Sunday on my road bike along with some evenings.
 
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