New bikes

[Fenlason]

After a few of my races last year, I said I would never race them again on a hard tail. Well right now I am unsure if I can race any more or not [or if I should or not]
My meniscus knee pain had gotten pretty bad in both knees. The right one locking up at night. I would wake up screaming and unable to move it. I figured it was finally time for surgery. Well in doing the surgery they found I had arthritis pretty bad. I have an area on.. in my right knee that there is no more cartilage I am down to bone.

They say keeping active is the best thing, and biking is one of the best activities for this.. so I keep at it. I am not sure racing, especially 24 hour stuff is the best thing though. In the past my mindset does not let me race… "just for fun". I was pretty depressed for some time because of all this. As recent as last August's 24 hour race I was pain free [until my crash anyways]

While I can't say I am pain free, it seems as if most days I can function fairly well. They seem to feel better when I bike a lot vs not biking as much.

So whether I race or not, have a full suspension bike should be easier on the knees, compared to a hard tail.

Before, when I was still going to be racing I have picked out a Specialized Epic Marathon. Since then the idea of their Camber came into mind. Racy without being a full fledge race bike, or maybe once could describe it as a playful race bike. I was going to get my wife and I each one. Well… they had sold out of my wife's size. So I looked back at the Epic.

The Epic is considered twitchy by some, but I am old school and used to racier bikes, and it will be a bit more stable than our last new race bikes, the Cannondale 29er Flash.

So I have the Marathon coming and my wife has the expert. While mine has a Sram drivetrain, and her's the Shimano, the primary difference is mine will be a bit stiffer at the Bottom Bracket. My wife at 100 pounds will find the expert stiff enough. My frame materials will be a little lighter than hers, but her smaller frame size should easily make up that difference.

[PodKiDo]

Definitely keep moving, but also look into stem cell joint therapy.
This site is a place to start: http://www.bluetail.org

[the other side]

This is a pic of my daughters X-Mas present from Dec. 2013!

[Fenlason]

This is a pic of my daughters X-Mas present from Dec. 2013!

an older Schwinn?

[Fenlason]

Definitely keep moving, but also look into stem cell joint therapy.
This site is a place to start: http://www.bluetail.org

Thanks for the tip.. I will look into it.

[the other side]

We were told it is a 1975. My daughter is handicapped. She is now 31 yrs old. She has never been able to ride a bike. I got the idea of a 3 wheeler from a guy I saw riding one (he was handicapped as well). I went online and to the stores. Every where I asked said they couldn't get one, let alone one in a 3 speed. One day my husband was driving passed a pawn shop and saw it sitting outside. He went in and asked about it. It was not only a Schwinn, but a 3 speed, AND it was BLUE (her favorite color). It was meant to be!!!
They were asking $350. My husband offered $250. The guy called the owner (it was on consignment I guess) and he probably wanted the money because it was RIGHT before X-Mas. He brought it home and hid it in the shed for a couple of days and we snuck it in by the tree X-mas eve. The last thing my daughter heard was we couldn't find a store that could order one. I told her that maybe in the spring someone could get her one. She tried it out. SUCCESS... She can control it. We haven't tried a hill yet though.

[Fenlason]

We were told it is a 1975. My daughter is handicapped. She is now 31 yrs old. She has never been able to ride a bike. I got the idea of a 3 wheeler from a guy I saw riding one (he was handicapped as well). I went online and to the stores. Every where I asked said they couldn't get one, let alone one in a 3 speed. One day my husband was driving passed a pawn shop and saw it sitting outside. He went in and asked about it. It was not only a Schwinn, but a 3 speed, AND it was BLUE (her favorite color). It was meant to be!!!
They were asking $350. My husband offered $250. The guy called the owner (it was on consignment I guess) and he probably wanted the money because it was RIGHT before X-Mas. He brought it home and hid it in the shed for a couple of days and we snuck it in by the tree X-mas eve. The last thing my daughter heard was we couldn't find a store that could order one. I told her that maybe in the spring someone could get her one. She tried it out. SUCCESS... She can control it. We haven't tried a hill yet though.

That should make a good bike for her. We get a few requests a year for them.. and sell one from time to time. What we can get now is more money than most of our customers want to spend, and as you note.. hills. We are pretty hilly here.

If you find it too difficult on the hills the overall gearing can be reduced, by putting on a smaller chainring up front, or a bigger cog on the rear.

[the other side]

My older daughter just bought a place in Reston VA. In that neighborhood they have trails running all around the area. Those trails are what made me think about how to get Amber on a bike.

You said, "We get a few requests a year for them". Are you in the business? If so, was $250. an OK deal? I don't think it was a steal, but I think it was cheaper than what I was finding in the stores. And I figured you can't go wrong with an older model Schwinn vs. some generic cheap thing that costs a fortune for what it is.

[Fenlason]

My older daughter just bought a place in Reston VA. In that neighborhood they have trails running all around the area. Those trails are what made me think about how to get Amber on a bike.

You said, "We get a few requests a year for them". Are you in the business? If so, was $250. an OK deal? I don't think it was a steal, but I think it was cheaper than what I was finding in the stores. And I figured you can't go wrong with an older model Schwinn vs. some generic cheap thing that costs a fortune for what it is.

Yes I have worked in bicycle shops for hmm 31+ years. I am more a mechanic now and not on the sales floor much, but yeah off hand I would say it is a fair price. As you said not a steal.. but good. There are still some of these sold under the Schwinn name, but the company went through bankruptcy some years ago.. and the name was purchased by someone. The bikes now are cheap department store product.

[the other side]

It's good when you can be reassured that what you did was good!

[Fenlason]

We finally got our new bikes in. Man they look great in person. We are at the tail end of winter riding, heading into Mud season, so it will be a little while before we get to use them. We will for the most part run them the way they came, doing only a few upgrades. Often the stem, handle bar and seat post are good upgrade places. While building them, I found the stems to be quite light, and found I would have to spend quite a bit, to only save a little weight. I think each bike's stock stem fits us well also, so the stems will probably stay. My bike is a little longer reach than my Cannondale was, yet that felt a little short, I will start out staying with the stock stem.. and see how it feels. My bike comes with a nice S-works carbon bar, but my wife's has a cheaper aluminum bar. We already have spare carbon bars on hand. So her's will be upgraded.

Our seat posts are really fairly nice, but we can save 100-150 grams in going to a better one. Also by going to carbon we will gain a little comfort. Seat we will have to wait and see on fit. I had just purchased a new seat.. that might fit me better than what came stock on my bike. My stock seat might fit Laurie well, and it would be a little lighter than her stock one.

Tires will be a biggie for us. It came with some light tires, but their tread is more of a dry hard pack conditions. We will want more tread, and maybe a bit more air volume.

[Fenlason]

The bikes are mostly ready. I haven't been in much of a hurry because we still have a bit of snow out there. We did get to ride them this weekend though, a friend got us access to a hockey arena with astro turf. Our seat posts and seats are on. The seat posts were probably on the extravagant side. We did not save all that much weight. We did get better seat clamps, mine has a great adjustment range, and will give longer life to the seat. While both will offer some comfort mine is specifically designed for that also. I had to get special bar end plugs in order to put bar ends on my bike. {yes I still use bar ends] I have my new tires on and set up tubeless. They are Continental X-Kings, they are listed as a 2.4, but are small for their stated size We had these in stock so I knew that ahead of time. [They are more like a 2.2] They were a bit of work to seal up. They mounted easily tubeless, but the tires were very porous. It took some time to get them air tight. I was going to use an some tires I have on hand on Laurie's bike but decided to order new ones, and I got those ordered yesterday. She is going to try Specialized S-Works Captains.

[Fenlason]

We finally got out on the dirt on the new bikes. It was our first dirt ride of the season, and of course our first ride on the new bikes. It of course will take a little while to get our full skills back. It also takes a little bit for the brakes and suspension to brake in, and to fine tune our fit. The suspension also has a lot of personal preference "adjustments".

I think the handling will be pretty sweet. Some people consider these bikes twitch race bikes. They are quick handling, but are really quite stable compared to our even quicker handling Cannondale Hard tails. The climbing traction seems to be a huge improvement to the Cannondale. [which I think is just the primary difference between a hard tail vs a full suspension. I love climbing tough technical climbs, and was pretty good at it on the Cannondale, so I can't wait to really test these out.

For some reason I like the looks of Laurie's tires better, yet on my first ride I have no complaints at all on the Conti's I purchased. I would like to compare the weights, and rolling resistance of the 2.

[Fenlason]

I ended up replacing my Contis with the same tires I put on Laurie's. The Conti's I had apparently don't make a good tubeless tire. Conti's make good tires and good tubeless.. it's just the ones i used were not made to be tubeless.. and just didn't like to be tubeless. Mostly because they were sooo porous. I ended up cutting one pretty badly.. [that just sometimes happens.. and Laurie cut one of her's also… just bad luck I think]

Overall I have been happy with the bike. It does not feel like a favorite pair of old sneakers yet, and I think that is just time. I did alter my position some, and put on a longer stem, but the bike feels so much different than the Cannondale and it will never feel the same. For a while when I got back on the Cannondale it felt "ahh". I am in that in between spot right at the moment. I can ride both.. they both feel good, but neither feels like "home".

The Cannondale is quicker handling, and feels faster, being lighter and a hard tail. Yet I am sure there are places the Epic is actually faster. I do plan on doing some back to back comparisons of the 2.. actual timed comparisons.
One thing I would of course notice.. getting back on the Cannondale is it did not take to long to feel the harshness of the hard tail [even though it is relatively comfortable for a hard tail] I did end up purchasing a short travel Thudbuster suspension seat post for it. That made a huge difference. It allows you to stay seated in the little chattery stuff, and not get beat up.

[Wolffarmer]

This is a pic of my daughters X-Mas present from Dec. 2013!

The near perfect Burning Man bike for older folks at Burning Man. Last year one of my camp mates had one like this. She made all the ice runs for us. Some suspension would have been nice as the "road" get pretty pot holey after a few days.

Randy