is anyone into bikes?

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I wish I had done more research and discovered these line of bikes lucky his Henry Ford mindset " any colour as long" is a rather attractive one. And at rrp it's A$ 400 cheaper than the Kona it's a bargain , though I would imagine their not likely to sell this brand considerably under rrp ? Than again perhaps they would nobody buys these types of bikes any more

www.gios.it/ -

What do yah think?

Lovely. I'd be getting one of the Steel ones myself, probably the Vintage Veloce (down tube shifters on the Vintage look good but I don't like to use them).

I broke my promise to myself not to post on this forum but I saw this thread.

Yes, I do bike quite a bit. It's been a powerful socialization tool and a positive way to burn off the aspie doldrums. I'm heavily involved in the local bike parties and I do serious rides - spandex and all once weekly. I have only one steed - a LeMond Reno which I upgraded to SRAM Rival brakes, Shimano Ultegra crank from a flexy OEM Bontrager and recently a Brooks B17 Narrow saddle. I want to get a Surly Cross-Check or Long Haul Trucker with either Shimano 105/Ultegra for the Cross-Check or a Deore XT/105 hybrid or SRAM Rival with barcons for the LHT and eventually a carbon fiber bike like a Cervelo. I'll keep the LeMond for sentimental value. When I get the Surly, it will be a daily commuter and the carbon fiber rig will be a garage queen.

Consider the Pacer too, theres a local guy, a very competitive rider and he set his best time up a local benchmark hillclimb on one.

I ride my bike everyday. There aren't any places to ride out here, so I just ride around my neighborhood. It's good exercise.

I would love to ride one for the environment as well as the freedom. But where I live, there's a lot of dogs, cramped area and basically high risk of theft, it's making me reluctant to ride bikes here unless I rent one at a park or something. Plus, I want a geared one, (5 speed minimum) but my parents seemed to discourage me from geared bikes. I don't know why geared bikes fascinate me more than just the boring one speeders...

I kind of almost got into bikes. It's when I started getting fat again. I bought a bike and wanted to upgrade it by getting the suspension shocks for the front and the aftermarket brakes and whatnot. It was a very cheap wal mart bike so it didn't last long.

See, back then, I was really into Star Trek and All Good Things just aired and I wanted to make my bike like the future Enterprise with all the new and nifty things on it.

When I got thin before, it was largely due to me riding around everywhere, an average of 20 miles a day. There was one time I peddled 42 miles in a day. I got home and my arms were brown.

A year or two back I was riding to and from work. It was good I was really fit and saving on petrol. Part of it was that we only had one car which meant it was bike or bus, and I don't like bussing. Now I'm lazy and drive.

I have been road riding and racing for around 9 years now.
I used to obsess over the bike/equipment when I first started riding, but I really dont care anymore about what bike I use (training is what counts). I ride whatever I get threw my team, or whatever is the cheapest. To me, riding/racing is all about the challenges, being with friends and teammates, and the sense of accomplishing something

Live and breathe "the machine"
this here is my city/street/urban machine
Stumpy 29er a bit extraneous yes but whatever.
I trashed the lightweight rims that came with it so I relaced, tensioned, and trued the stock hubs to Velocity Blunts with quite a history of race victories, thefts, etc and so far they have been indestructible.
Rigid Carbon fork changed my urban game dramatically, but an easily swapped crown race allows me to change to a suspension fork in minutes when I get the call to hit Palo Duro Canyon up for crucial off road.


does any one here enjoy Hardcourt Bike Polo?
I wish it would catch on and start having leagues and such.


I also have an serially upgraded Specialized Allez that somehow has stood up to 3 years of taking a 290 pound Aspie with no friends to a 235 pound Aspie with some friends (right now it has SRAM Force on it) that I'm going to be racing soon in my first criterium, I've done several races but nothing that kept me in close contact the way a crit does.

Some of the nicest times in my life have been bike tours. Last one was 1400 miles down the Mississippi. Camping in old barns or copses of trees every night. Get to be all alone with something to do.

Now I live in rural area and town is 18 miles away ... I have the can't stay awake in a vibrating car AS thing going on, so biking is ractical necessity for me. So I bike in for groceries once a week. It's a nice ride, takes a little more than an hour.

I ride a 70s peugeot px10. If you ever go on tour, don't ride a french bike. Hard to find arts when it breaks down. If I could afford a surly or something, I would.

my bike died well the bottom bracket shredded the threads when the guys in the bike shop tried to take it out. I'll just get a new frame but it feels horrible knowing i will never ride my yellow beast again.

my girlfriend and i converted her spare racer into a single speed a week or so ago. was really easy and it rides really smooth. I think gears are still better for me. maybe i should try a fixie some time

some thoughts on biking-

most bikes don't fit my frame, so i had to get a modified giant [mfr's name] suede GX bike [x-long frame] that i still can barely fit on. my big feet still hit the front wheel on turns. i got the x-large seat and handlebars up high enough so i don't have to strain my back and wrists. i cannot lean forward like other more athletic bikers, my back and wrists just won't take it. the suede has a rudimentary front suspension and seat post shock thingy to take the sting out of the crappy roads out where i live. i keep getting flats on the rear tire, so i was told by the olympia bike shop [in the next county an hour's drive outside of hooterville where i live, as there are absolutely no bike shops in the whole of my home county] that i am a bit on the heavy and tall side [185# and 6'3"] to be riding a bike for exercise, IOW most bikes don't like [aren't designed for] people taller than 5'9" and 150# or so riding them- so my fat ass over the overtaxed rear tire, in combo with the crappy tire-puncturing roads [littered with roofers' nails, broken glass, sharp bits of misc. metal] out in the country, are at fault here. i don't know. why always the rear tire? i mean, it's got the police tire package, to no avail- after 7 flats i am sick and tired of it all. i'm ready to get one of those solid rear tires that cannot go flat. i never heard of anybody else with that kind of rotten luck.

thankfully, the suede is light enough to easily lift with one hand, which thankfully makes it easier to shove into the car to cart it to the bike repair place. everytime the suede is in the shop getting the rear tire fixed, i ride my giant hybrid electric, that thing is a blast going up the hills but it takes away a lot of my exercise, so i resist the temptation to turn on the juice, and pedal it manually as i do my suede, unless i am in a hurry to get back home before dusk. the hybrid is a heavy bike, tipping the scales at 60#. lifting it onto a bike rack is real work. i don't ride it too often, instead using my suede for regular exericse.i grunt and sweat up and down hill and dale, for 2 hours most days. it has gotten me back into my army shape, relatively taut and fit. but i hate the way most drivers out here don't give bikers like me any slack, i can't count the number of times i've been clipped by people's side mirrors, or gotten honked/brights flashed/cussed at/things thrown at me, just for minding my own business and riding my bike on the side of the road. what is wrong with these people?

i am not one of those pretty people with the perfectly symmetrical lance armstrong physique wearing those sexy form-fitting bike uniforms, so i go the opposite route, wearing a baggy net-shirt and baggy surgical scrubs to conceal my un-bike shape as well as avoiding constriction and insuring good cooling airflow around my body, as i sweat like a pig and need all the ventilation i can get. i wear well-padded and grippy shoes because my feet have slipped off the pedals in the past, resulting in crashes. crashes are no fun. anyways, my incentive for riding is not because it is fun but because it is the only exercise arthritis still allows me to do - i cannot swim laps or run miles anymore due to shoulder/knee/hip/ankle joint difficulties, but biking is low-impact on the joints so it is still a-ok. biking is the least offensive combined anaerobic/aerobic exercise available to me. i hate having to wear a @#$%&?! helmet, as having long hair and helmets don't mix too well. but helmets have kept my brains inside my skull when my head hit solid objects in the past. so i will just continue to deal with the sweat and the uncomfortably matted hair.

i wished i lived in a place that was bike-friendly.

Punctures..had loads of those, for either size of wheel (roadbike ie 700c and MTB ie 26") specialized armadillos are awesome for preventing punctures. Also for 26" size the Chen Shin Tyre (CST) Flat Fighter is also good and cheap, but heavier..thats what I use.

i'll have to remember to ask the bike shop about those tires. thanx for posting about 'em.