m42b32 Posted August 31, 2022 Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 Free is the best price! I can understand the noodley feeling especially coming from a MTB, road bikes have always felt a little fragile in comparison to me. I recently got a bug to rebuild my old Trek 560 into something I'd get some good use out of as I hadn't ridden it in years. I live within a mile of the bugline trail network and decided it would be silly not to have a bike path cruiser. Between parts I had kicking around and a few smaller bits I needed to buy I think it came out awesome for not much money. Got it out for a ride this morning and it's fantastic. 28c tires (frame won't allow anything bigger) and wide-ish flat bars are super comfortable and I've always been a single speed fan so it's fun to have one of those again too. HipMF 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patsbimmer1 Posted August 31, 2022 Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 We got my wife into a new(used) bike recently to replace her 20+ old Ross mountain bike that her mom bought used before she went to college. Needless to say, big upgrade for her. She's put a few miles on it with and without pulling our bike trailer on gravel trails and it's a huge difference for her. Roughly 20lbs lighter than her old bike with an actual functioning front shock AND disc brakes. It's got me itching to replace my 2001 GT Aggressor 1.0... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HipMF Posted September 7, 2022 Report Share Posted September 7, 2022 I went mountain biking for the first time in ~5 years this past weekend. A ton of fun, but I question whether it's even worth investing in a new bike at my age. They are not cheap... In other news... Woo! Aww. Rolled over 1000 miles, but no fireworks or prizes. Nothing much else to report. Haven't had any more issues. Bike is sill holding together and is still fun to ride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P_Roloff Posted June 24, 2023 Report Share Posted June 24, 2023 Reviving this thread! Finally replaced my old Trek 3700 hybrid (ridden hard and like 4 sizes too small) with a still slightly small 2009 Trek 1.2. I’ve wanted a road bike for awhile now for the rail trails around here, and combined with a really nice 4-bike Thule hitch mount carrier (FB marketplace score for $80), I’m now set to get some miles done. For $350 for the bike, I’m pretty happy. Shifts smooth, rides nicely, really clean for the age, it seems well taken care of and hard to beat for the cost. Even has a carbon front fork! Brakes kinda suck though (common complaint when it was new) so I’ll probably toss some more aggressive pads on it and see what that does. I put Kool Stop’s on the afrementioned hybrid and it went from mushy to tossing me over the bars if I wasn’t careful, so we’ll see if that does it. I mentioned it elsewhere, but I’m also thinking I’m going to sell the e28 (zero time to use it or wrench on it) and dump the funds into a hardtail MTB, likely a Trek Roscoe 8. I’d like to go new on that to save the hassle of buying someone’s abused or worn out stuff. If anyone has any alternative recs to that bike, I’m all ears. I’m definitely a noob when it comes to bikes but I’d love to learn more. m42b32 and B C 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B C Posted June 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2023 Let’s take a ride on the bugline trail and water balloon JOEBD2’s house 👍 Cant go wrong with Trek. Don’t overlook Giant or Marin as good budget options. As the worlds largest bike frame producer Giant makes frames for Trek and many others. They usually end up having slightly higher end components at the same pricepoint. W&S has become a Giant dealer within the last few years so they are easy to come by. Checkout www.99spokes.com it has a great comparison tool which helps you understand where on the totem pole certain components rank. P_Roloff and m42b32 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted June 26, 2023 Report Share Posted June 26, 2023 Nick pick up on the road bike! A pad swap will probably make a huge difference in braking, kool stops have been my go to for rim brakes. I'd say the roscoe 8 would be a great hardtail, solid component set and good geometry. One of those would be more than capable enough for just about every trail in the area. I have Sram eagle drivetrains on both of my MTBs (GX on the trail bike, NX on the fat bike) and have zero complaints, they are a little fiddly to set up once dialed in I think it works really well. Since basically every bike shop around here is a trek dealer you could definitely go take a test ride on one and see how you like it! They might even do demos where you could take one out to a trail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted June 26, 2023 Report Share Posted June 26, 2023 On 6/24/2023 at 10:17 PM, B C said: Let’s take a ride on the bugline trail and water balloon JOEBD2’s house 👍 Make sure to aim for the bushes by the front porch, they could use a good water! P_Roloff 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P_Roloff Posted June 26, 2023 Report Share Posted June 26, 2023 2 hours ago, m42b32 said: Nick pick up on the road bike! A pad swap will probably make a huge difference in braking, kool stops have been my go to for rim brakes. I'd say the roscoe 8 would be a great hardtail, solid component set and good geometry. One of those would be more than capable enough for just about every trail in the area. I have Sram eagle drivetrains on both of my MTBs (GX on the trail bike, NX on the fat bike) and have zero complaints, they are a little fiddly to set up once dialed in I think it works really well. Since basically every bike shop around here is a trek dealer you could definitely go take a test ride on one and see how you like it! They might even do demos where you could take one out to a trail. Thanks! Yep, putting my order in today. My first real ride over the weekend exposed how not great they were. No panic stops needed but I don’t want to have to rely on them as they currently sit. That’s kinda what I’m thinking, it’ll be a good chassis to grow into as far as ability while still keeping it reasonable as far as price. Were your eagle setups problematic out of the box or is it more of a wear over time issue that they can be fiddly with? I stopped at wheel and sprocket the other day and they said they can order one in for me anytime when I want to test ride, so once the e28 is running and ready to get gone I’ll have them bring one in. I did see a 2020 X-Caliber 8 for $800 on marketplace this morning though, which is tempting 😂 I think I want the Roscoe geometry though m42b32 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted June 26, 2023 Report Share Posted June 26, 2023 1 hour ago, P_Roloff said: Thanks! Yep, putting my order in today. My first real ride over the weekend exposed how not great they were. No panic stops needed but I don’t want to have to rely on them as they currently sit. That’s kinda what I’m thinking, it’ll be a good chassis to grow into as far as ability while still keeping it reasonable as far as price. Were your eagle setups problematic out of the box or is it more of a wear over time issue that they can be fiddly with? I stopped at wheel and sprocket the other day and they said they can order one in for me anytime when I want to test ride, so once the e28 is running and ready to get gone I’ll have them bring one in. I did see a 2020 X-Caliber 8 for $800 on marketplace this morning though, which is tempting 😂 I think I want the Roscoe geometry though I think the fiddly setup is more a comment on 12 speed drivetrains than a specific brand, it just means less spacing between each gear so it takes less misalignment to cause a problem. That being said, having the huge range of ratios on a 1x drivetrain FAR outweighs any downsides. I don't have any experience with shimano MTB drivetrains but I've been completely happy with eagle after ~5 seasons of using it in various forms. 99spokes.com has some great comparison tools like @B C mentioned, you can visualize the frame geometry differences between the Roscoe and X-Caliber: It really depends on what type of riding you want to do. If you're plan is to get into racing or cranking out a lot of mileage on smoother trails the X-caliber would be the right choice, but if your interest is casual riding for fun the Roscoe would be a better fit. If it were me, I'd definitely go Roscoe between the two. The more modern geometry (slacker head tube, steeper seat tube, etc.) will be generally a lot more stable and confidence inspiring, it'll be more forgiving of questionable line choices too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted July 25 Report Share Posted July 25 I've been playing with old bikes again. This time it is a 1990 Diamondback Ascent EX with an awesome candle smoke and purple pearl paintjob that I got for free from a friend. Basically every component on it was completely trashed but the frame and fork polished up nicely. After a bit of scope creep I rebuilt it into a nice cafe cruiser that's really fun to ride. HipMF 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HipMF Posted August 7 Report Share Posted August 7 Looks good. Jealous of those rackmounts on the forklegs. Not a super-rare feature, but not super-common either. m42b32 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted August 7 Report Share Posted August 7 18 minutes ago, HipMF said: Looks good. Jealous of those rackmounts on the forklegs. Not a super-rare feature, but not super-common either. Thanks! Yeah I was excited to find those on the fork when I picked up the frame, that basically made the decision for me to put a front rack on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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