Bicycles...what kind do you have?

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Bacpacker said:
If you are sticking to trails a mountain bike or hybrid type would probably be better. Taking a road bike off road will be causing many flats for you to fix.
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A friend went from a mild off road bike to a hybrid, she likes it on road, but says in hind sight she should have kept the off road bike and just bought a plain road bike for road trips, because the hybrid is like a band aid , also tire selection is almost none existant for hers
 
I used to help with comms for large bike rides, 200 to 500 riders, 50 to 125 miles. I saw and hauled tons of bikes over those years that broke various stuff. But far and away was wheels and tires. Those road bikes tires would blow if you looked at them wrong, well technically tube. Lots of riders carried 2 or 3 spare tunes, the organizers would put a half dozen in our support trucks, and we'd still haul people in with flats.
That said anyone on a man bike or hybrid would be crying on some of the climbs they did.
Whats the saying "Pick the right tool for the job"
 
One of my kids as a b. scout took the canal trail over a few days. I’d love to do something like that. They camped. West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland.
Off road would probably be best for me. Will be checking out stuff online and in stores. Y’all are the best! Thank you.
 
If there is a local bike shop (LBS) near you it may be beneficial to stop in and let them know you're looking for a bike. Any good LBS employee will take the time to ask you lots of questions about how you plan to use the bike, where you plan to ride, what physical limitations you may have, accessories you may want, etc. and should be able to suggest a quality bike within your budget. Of course, having an idea of what you may want does help. This LINK is something I found online and does a pretty good job informing the reader of the different types of bikes available for sale at an LBS. I am not suggesting you purchase anything from this store chain, I just liked their easy to read bike descriptions.

Another good thing about an LBS, which was mentioned very early in this thread, is used bikes. Many local bike shops have quality used bikes that have been serviced and are a fraction of a new bike cost. A knowledgeable employee can also make recommendations as to what rack will best fit your bike and your car. My wife's hybrid is tough to fit on the hanging hitch rack as it has a step through frame. Buying the rack before you buy a bike may lead to awkward bike transportation if there is a unique bike frame, as seen in this photo I found online.
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Feel free to reach out with any questions. I ran a mountain bike club for middle school aged kids for twenty plus years so I may be able to help with any questions.
 
Fireman13 said:
If there is a local bike shop (LBS) near you it may be beneficial to stop in and let them know you're looking for a bike. Any good LBS employee will take the time to ask you lots of questions about how you plan to use the bike, where you plan to ride, what physical limitations you may have, accessories you may want, etc. and should be able to suggest a quality bike within your budget. Of course, having an idea of what you may want does help. This LINK is something I found online and does a pretty good job informing the reader of the different types of bikes available for sale at an LBS. I am not suggesting you purchase anything from this store chain, I just liked their easy to read bike descriptions.

Another good thing about an LBS, which was mentioned very early in this thread, is used bikes. Many local bike shops have quality used bikes that have been serviced and are a fraction of a new bike cost. A knowledgeable employee can also make recommendations as to what rack will best fit your bike and your car. My wife's hybrid is tough to fit on the hanging hitch rack as it has a step through frame. Buying the rack before you buy a bike may lead to awkward bike transportation if there is a unique bike frame, as seen in this photo I found online.
View attachment 124155

Feel free to reach out with any questions. I ran a mountain bike club for middle school aged kids for twenty plus years so I may be able to help with any questions.
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Wow, some great advice!!
 
cant wait for yard sale season to start again....so many good used bikes to be had.
I like the older quality mountain bikes that are cheap and so much better than the cheap new ones at the wal mart type stores. If you are going to mainly ride on road a set of better road or hybrid tires makes a difference in effort needed.
 
Amish Heart said:
I should really bring my bike to the farm because I don't ride it here. It's a Schwinn beachcomber, green, with a basket and a bell.
Been thinking I'll need a three wheeler soon.
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Ha! I have a Sun brand mint green adult tricycle. I love riding a bike but I don’t trust my balance anymore for a two wheeler.
 
Boy, that was a while when I wrote that. So we moved to the farm, and I brought that bike. Did get a three wheeler and it's a Schwinn and rides fine. The twin grandson took my beachcomber over to place that they were staying when he left here, and wouldn't bring it back. That was a great bike, and it irritates me when I drive thru town and see it leaning against their storage shed.
 
I'm still a bike fanatic. Used to race mtn bikes in my Prime. And always had the specialty tools and skills to do my own repairs and tunes (and for my friends bikes if they brought a six pack with them!). My two most expensive bikes were a Klein mantra and a cannon dale r900.

Anyway, bought a Chinese Amazon special ebike back in 2020. $640 total delivered. I'm impressed by the way basic bike quality has risen with the times. I have rode it almost daily for the friendly weather part of the year. And use it a lot especially on irrigation days. The "roads" around the farm are pretty rough, but the bike has held up very well.

Only had one major failure in the battery pack that was due to the excess vibration from the rough roads. It was a broken nickel bonding strip. Fixed after a couple hours of YouTube videos, A soldering iron and $20 of supplies. That's been a couple of years ago. Aside from wearing out a couple of tires and one chain, it's been excellent. Just basic tune ups. Brand name Ancheer.

On those long irrigation days, coming home, up hill, through the mud, against the wind, sun going down and tired, about a mile back; I really appreciate the help from the electric motor? Much of the rest of the time, I leave it off. I get about forty miles between charges. Takes 2-3 hours to charge. I like to maintain 60-90% charge, but once or twice a year go 100% charge to rebalance the cells. After about four years, the battery has barely degraded. Hard to put measure, but doesn't seem to last quite as long as it was new? And takes a little longer to recharge? 250 watts.

I will buy another if it wears out, but I don't like the newer versions as well. I prefer a metal can over the lithium ion power source between my legs! I prefer the frame design and components quality that they seemed to cut corners to reduce price on the newer versions?
 
winds-of-change said:
Ha! I have a Sun brand mint green adult tricycle. I love riding a bike but I don’t trust my balance anymore for a two wheeler.
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ClemKadiddlehopper said:
I have an electric bike as well. It's great for getting home when when I've over done it a tad. It also can't be beat on the hills. An electric three wheeler with a basket would be nice.
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When I first bought it, it was a single speed but I had gears put on it for getting up inclines. I didn’t know they had e bike tricycles.
 
winds-of-change said:
When I first bought it, it was a single speed but I had gears put on it for getting up inclines. I didn’t know they had e bike tricycles.
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I think folks should post pics of their 3-wheelers. :thumbs:
 
winds-of-change said:
When I first bought it, it was a single speed but I had gears put on it for getting up inclines. I didn’t know they had e bike tricycles.
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Yes, they do. Costco sold them them the year after we bought our two wheelers. The ship had already sailed, and I had to make due.
 
there are quite a few add on E bike kits out there , i found them when I was looking into regenerative braking.
 
My wife has a "K2 ZED" something-or-other. I have a Schwinn that is some kind of half-and-half mountain bike and street bike. The K2 is the better of the two.

We have a trailer hitch rack. It's one of the fancy ones that swings out, and from side to side so you can get the truck tailgate open while the rack is still installed. Holds four bikes. It's nice, but large and heavy. We don't ride the bikes very much any more. On the occasions that we do, we're more likely to just thrown them in the bed of the truck and secure (in a loose sense of the word) with bungee cords. Or in different vehicles (e.g. our van or mid-sized SUV) we'll have to take the front wheels off (easy with quick release hubs) to throw them inside those vehicles with their back seats folded down.

I would not buy our fancy heavy duty hitch mount rack again - unless we were avid bikers who had that mounted to the truck more often than unmounted. The truck gains a good 2 to 2-1/2 feet in length with the rack installed. And being a four door truck, it is already fairly long. That being said, once mounted it is trivially easy to put the bikes on it. A smaller, lighter duty rack that only holds two bikes would be more convenient. Unless, of course, if you need to transport four bikes. Cheaper racks do tend to rattle around in the hitch from what I've seen. Ours fits in there tight and does not budge. Still, ours is overkill and I would buy cheaper next time if I were in the market.
 
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