Cycling

snowhiker

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I'm having bike repair woes.

1) The tire pump I ordered doesn't work. I attach pump to valve but when I press pump handle down I can hear escape from bottom of pump and tire loses air.

I took a 40 mile drive to the nearest REI to return the defective bike pump and ended up buying this floor pump (tall version/black color) instead. $65 vs $40 but all metal tube and chuck construction with a wooden handle. Gauge is a bit larger as well. Bike still in shop getting overhauled. Guess I'll have to wait till next weekend to take my first bike ride in years.
 

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I took a 40 mile drive to the nearest REI to return the defective bike pump and ended up buying this floor pump (tall version/black color) instead. $65 vs $40 but all metal tube and chuck construction with a wooden handle. Gauge is a bit larger as well. Bike still in shop getting overhauled. Guess I'll have to wait till next weekend to take my first bike ride in years.
I have the exact same model. I love it.
 

snowhiker

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My bike is still in the shop. Going on two weeks now. Went into shop to get an update. Rear 7-speed shifter installed. Hubs/BB/Headset overhauled. New cables/housings. Still waiting on brake pads. Can't believe they are that old that they can't order replacement parts in a timely fashion. I was told their distributors don't carry the fork/elastomer refresher kit so they'd have to buy a retail kit for $200 so I told them to not do that repair. I'll further research options for that in the future if I ever decide to take bike off road. I was told it shouldn't be another week for brake pads. We'll see if that's true.
 

Howell

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Dr says my primary cardio should be on a bike (our at least not running) so I'm on the hunt. My old bike I purposely built small but the old body can't take it anymore.
 

LunarMist

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Dr says my primary cardio should be on a bike (our at least not running) so I'm on the hunt. My old bike I purposely built small but the old body can't take it anymore.

I rotate on the stationary machine.
 

LunarMist

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I recall some 'riding' with Susie but she was not lazy. :D
 

LunarMist

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I have been informed that the exercise is called spinning, which is also strange.
 

snowhiker

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I have been informed that the exercise is called spinning, which is also strange.

I'm sure you are familiar with the phrase, "Just spinning your wheels"? It means to work at something but not get anything done. Well if you are on a stationary bike you are doing work but not going anywhere. So "spinning" would seem to be a perfect description of said activity?
 

LunarMist

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I'm sure you are familiar with the phrase, "Just spinning your wheels"? It means to work at something but not get anything done. Well if you are on a stationary bike you are doing work but not going anywhere. So "spinning" would seem to be a perfect description of said activity?

There is some kind of inductive force on the wheel, like an alternator or generator under load.
I thought rotating was close enough. :lol:
 

snowhiker

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I was told it shouldn't be another week for brake pads. We'll see if that's true.

/sigh

More bike repair woes! :( Well it took another week to get brake pads in and installed. Bike all "repaired" for $110. Well not really.

Problem 1) They replaced the chain. Fine. It was 20 years old. New chain is WAY too long. The only usable low gear is small chain-ring and the largest cog. Second largest cog and the derailleur was dragging on the cogs. WTF. When I shift into big chain-ring, big cog, the derailleur was only perpendicular to ground. The derailleur can be angled up to 45 degrees or so. The chain can be shorter with proper angle on derailleur. The old chain worked big/big and small/small, now I know those aren't optimal but it worked. Two techs at shop didn't agree with me. He shortened the chain while I was waiting but he took TOO much out and big/big was too short now. I don't want to shift into big/big and break chain or derailleur. I think he realized he took too much out and didn't want me 5' away talking/eyeballing him while he fixed things. He told me to come back tomorrow to pick up bike.

If big/big still won't work after they "fix" things I'm just going to go to another bike shop and get another chain. Total bullshit.

Problem 2) I wanted the rear shifter replaced as it no longer worked. They replaced the rear shifter and it works great. The problem is they also replaced the front shifter, which worked fine, with an INFERIOR part and threw away my old Deore LX front shifter. WTF. The old front shifter was an indexed shifter but you could press the levers a bit to trim the derailleur to eliminate any chain scrap. Can't do that with new shifter. WTF.

The only small consolation was when they rang up my total they forget to include the $40 for the rear shifter, which works great. So I guess it's a wash as far as shifters go. Replaced non-working rear shifter for working one, but replaced good front shifter with lower quality one. I'll have to look into getting a friction front shifter so I can trim the derailleur to prevent scraping since shifting the front will be something I rarely do anyways.

/sigh
 

jtr1962

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For what it's worth I rarely use the big chainring. I have 53/42 in front and 11-25 10-speed cogs in back. That works out fine for most riding keeping it on the 42 tooth chainring. Only time I might want to go on the big chainring is when I'm sustaining over 30 mph. That doesn't happen too often these days. 42-11 works fine up to about 26 mph at my normal cadence, and it's good for quick bursts up to maybe 35 mph or so.

Let's hope the bike finally works tomorrow. Your experience is one reason why I learned to do all my own repairs a long time ago. I had a good local bike shop in the 1980s but both owners died. I heard horror stories from people dealing with most other bike shops. Thankfully, the owners and some reading/practice taught me enough about basic bike repairs so I could get by on mail-order parts from that time forwards. The biggest regular repair by far was fixing flats. That ended once I went to airless tires about 8 years ago. Anyway, I'm glad to see you're getting back into riding. It's good exercise and it's great to clear the mind.
 

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I had a few years when I didn't ride bikes very much. One year I started riding like crazy, because we only have like 3 months of summer and got an injury. In early 2019 we got a dog, during the pandemic I got too fat for cycling clothes.
But a while I bought an indoor trainer (Kickr V5) and have taken it up again.
It's actually quite fun, I use the Rouvy app which uses filmed routes and supposedly authentic undulation.

Is anyone else riding indoors or outdoors these days?
 

jtr1962

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Is anyone else riding indoors or outdoors these days?
I rode 2,500 miles last year. I might have ridden more if not for my rides being limited to 1 to 1.5 hours (the most I felt comfortable leaving my mother alone). I'll see if I can get back to my old normal of 3,000 to 4,000 miles a year this year or next.
 

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That is still very good, I hope you get back into your normal routine.
I managed to ride 5000 km last year, up from previous years of 1500-1600 km.

For me, riding outdoor is still the best when the weather lets me, great way to let the thoughts wander and enjoy the local scenery in 3D. 🙂
 
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ddrueding

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I have an indoor exercise bike that I use almost frequently enough to feel ok about it. My proper road bike sustained some damage on the move over, and I haven't bothered to get it fixed yet. Perhaps this is the time before spring arrives....
 
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