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I gave in to my own laziness and walked down to the LBS and bought a new inner tube and mildly-chunky MTB tire for the front wheel of my hardtail, after not doing anything about the flat I got last week. Whoever told me I'd be happy with the MTB front and commuter back layout when I replaced the worn-out rear tire was absolutely right. EDIT: What a lame way to start a new page. Tell me the length / difficulty / stupidity of your bike commute. Mine is a simple 6.5 km across flat, well-maintained municipal multi-use-path in a small city in a part of Australia that very rarely gets nasty weather of any kind, and I have to play in traffic only when crossing the medium-sized roads in town. My morning commute is uphill, very gently for 5 km then up about 70 m in the last part. I am an out-of-shape wuss and I have never made it all the way to work without stopping. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 04:21 on May 19, 2022 |
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May 19, 2022 04:12
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ExecuDork posted:Tell me the length / difficulty / stupidity of your bike commute. Mine is 17km of mostly empty and very safe MUP that is good enough that I can put the hammer down, with a few percent of quiet car streets and a few km where pedestrians are a bit detrimental to high speeds. One major intersection with lights. There are some significant hills too. The distance means I ride e-bikes almost exclusively which also saves me the need to shower when I get to work. When homeward bound I'll usually work up a good sweat though for health and fun. On really nice days I'll use my acoustic road bike and when errands demand cargo hauling I'll use a very old electrified bakfiets, but I mostly ride an e-converted MTB that I built specifically for my commute. It's pretty civilised with luggage rack, fenders, lights, kickstand and so on. Fat semi-slick tires and front shock lets me bomb down desire paths for fun and time saving, corner at speed on bad or dirty asphalt, bunny hop kerbs or run wide of the MUP altogether if pedestrians or something are in the way. Also they offer stellar brake performance compared to my road bike so good for safety. It's also a great bike in the winter when snow and ice is very much a thing where I live, though MUP upkeep in this regard is mostly excellent.
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May 19, 2022 05:49
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ExecuDork posted:
20km, separated bike path for 85% of it, super fuckin easy and great except a dash of hills.
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May 19, 2022 07:19
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Mine is only 2 miles, but it's all hills. There isn't a single moment that I'm not pumping up a hill or flying down one the entire way.
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May 19, 2022 14:22
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~2.5 miles almost completely flat, mostly through 1-way side streets. One stoplight at a stroad crossing and a handful of stop signs at thru residential streets, but going in to an early shift or coming home from a late one leaves them all a ghost town. The road conditions are starting to get crumbly in some spots, but it's still a smoother and much more direct ride than using the horrible "bike paths" (widened sidewalks) that the city put in with tons of concrete heaves, 1.5 inch drop curb transitions, blind driveways, blind turns into traffic, loose dogs, oblivious pedestrians, etc.
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May 19, 2022 14:39
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13 miles each way, Flushing to downtown Manhattan. "Bike lane", whatever that means in NY. I just want to mention I see a ton more highend electric kick-scooters this year, I am talking about the over $1k dual motor beef up variant.
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May 19, 2022 14:45
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I’m at 20 kms overall. Feels good to do 100km a week. I bike by the south-east border of Paris from Porte d’Italie and bike the southern border of the Bois of Vincennes before getting to work. It’s fairly lowkey, I have full bike path access and the worst I get are electric scooters. The paths aren’t in the best condition but better that than the road, where people are not careful. There’s one big hill and crossing the Seine isn’t flat but google tells me I climb some 60 meters but also go down some 45 or so. It’s manageable. And much faster than public transportation by a good 30 minutes. Weather is rather mild here. I ride in shorts all year round since it almost never drops to freezing and will rarely ride through rain since it’s sporadic enough to not get me. I change either way. Glad to know that mechanical bikes can be called acoustics. That’s what I use. I sort of want an electric to not have to bother with sweat but I appreciate the sport and ability to not have think twice about what I eat.
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May 19, 2022 15:05
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100YrsofAttitude posted:Glad to know that mechanical bikes can be called acoustics. That’s what I use. I sort of want an electric to not have to bother with sweat but I appreciate the sport and ability to not have think twice about what I eat. They really can't. It's just a weird goony thing.
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May 19, 2022 15:55
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They can, but at what cost 
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May 19, 2022 18:20
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bicievino posted:They really can't. It's just a weird goony thing. It’s such a nice term. I’m using it conséquences be damned.
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May 19, 2022 19:09
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I prefer "meat bike" thank you.
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May 19, 2022 19:15
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not technically commuting as I WFH, but this seemed to be the closest thing for basic errands like getting some groceries, does single speed make sense if I live in a relatively flat area (I'm in Minneapolis)? also i'm not sure what the difference is between single speed and fixed gear. i don't care about speed, just utility. if you have a single speed can the uh... tension (?) be adjusted? i.e. maybe I bike a while and want a bit more resistance at some point down the road
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May 19, 2022 19:28
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actionjackson posted:not technically commuting as I WFH, but this seemed to be the closest thing My work went permanent working from home option, so my commute is about 40ft down the hall  Single speed is great for flat areas, but you can't change the "resistance" on the fly because it's single speed. A fixed gear would mean that the pedals and rear wheel are linked so that when one turns, so does the other and vice versa. So this means for fixed gear that if you're moving you're going to be pedaling or at least keeping up with the movement of the pedals, and you can even apply pressure in reverse to slow down and stop. The alternative to a fixed gear would be a single speed with a freewheel that allows your pedals to remain stationary while the back wheel rolls. For a single speed bike, you can adjust the amount of force you need to apply on the pedals by replacing the chainring or the cog/freewheel in the back. The rear wheels I have are double sided so that you could put a different cog on either side, but to change gears I would need to remove the rear wheel and flip it. Single speed bikes are simpler to maintain due to having way fewer moving parts and lighter than the same frame with multiple speeds.
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May 19, 2022 19:45
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thanks, yeah I didn't mean while riding, just how it would be changed in general. replacing the chainring sounds good are there ways to cover the chain and such, like how it's fully enclosed on those dutch upright bikes? to protect it from the elements.
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May 19, 2022 20:11
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ExecuDork posted:Tell me the length / difficulty / stupidity of your bike commute. I have 9km of bike roads/paths, partly through the park and along a canal, and only 2 traffic lights. It's all smooth tarmac and flat, so no difficulty other than avoiding getting sweaty. Stupidity comes from people on de-restricted scooters going 70. Other than that it is very good: 
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May 19, 2022 21:01
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actionjackson posted:thanks, yeah I didn't mean while riding, just how it would be changed in general. replacing the chainring sounds good You would want to change the rear cog/freewheel because they're much cheaper and simpler to remove. And yeah chain guards work on single speeds, but someone else would have to tell us about how effective they are because I've never used one. I'm actually not sure if I've seen them on non-single speed bikes before. Heliosicle posted:I have 9km of bike roads/paths, partly through the park and along a canal, and only 2 traffic lights. It's all smooth tarmac and flat, so no difficulty other than avoiding getting sweaty. Stupidity comes from people on de-restricted scooters going 70. Other than that it is very good: 
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May 19, 2022 21:10
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100YrsofAttitude posted:Glad to know that mechanical bikes can be called acoustics. That’s what I use. I sort of want an electric to not have to bother with sweat but I appreciate the sport and ability to not have think twice about what I eat. Acceptable terminology. Get an ebike though, they're dope. stephenthinkpad posted:I prefer "meat bike" thank you. This is now the preferred term for acoustic bikes
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May 19, 2022 21:18
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Safety Dance posted:Acceptable terminology. Get an ebike though, they're dope. I will, the day I have the place to store one. I currently have to carry my bike up and down a tight staircase to the basement since I've never known a bike that wasn't stolen left anywhere remotely unsafe in Paris. And I'm not lugging an e-bike just yet. We're looking to move to a nice place in 2 years that'll have bike parking so that's probably when I'll upgrade. Heck, maybe I'll do such little effort I'll actually wear rain pants!
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May 19, 2022 21:44
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17 miles each way and 800/300 ft, but I only need to do it 1-2 times a week, so at most it's just a little more than my old 5 mile / 5 day commute. Includes about 6 miles of gravel trails and the rest is a crappy main road with a decent shoulder and 40mph traffic to my left.
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May 20, 2022 01:27
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stephenthinkpad posted:13 miles each way, Flushing to downtown Manhattan. "Bike lane", whatever that means in NY. I bomb Lexington + 2nd from 50-something on down to Brooklyn over Manhattan Bridge and I’m running into these high end scooters. They are often booking 20-25 and if I’m using the road bike we hang together like lovely bike messengers
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May 20, 2022 03:46
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Mauser posted:You would want to change the rear cog/freewheel because they're much cheaper and simpler to remove. I dunno, might be a push between a decent freewheel and a nice chainring. Cheap chainrings are probably more than the cheapest freewheel (that you wouldn’t want).
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May 20, 2022 04:20
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I used to do a good 35 mile commute each way but have since moved closer to work so now its either a 15 min bike ride or a 15 min car drive.
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May 20, 2022 04:36
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ExecuDork posted:
For now I'm only doing it one day a week, but I ride 14 miles each way in NYC. The most stressful part is in Brooklyn as I usually take the Hudson River Greenway in Manhattan (which makes the commute longer but much less stressful or dangerous).
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May 20, 2022 14:29
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SimonSays posted:My hauling best, not counting the times with a trailer: 12ft planks of poplar.
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May 20, 2022 14:32
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ExecuDork posted:Tell me the length / difficulty / stupidity of your bike commute. I haven't commuted by bike since I had a kid, but it used to be a relatively easy two miles across Manhattan on the 29th st bike lane, and then up 8th ave. 29th always has a couple blocks where the bike lane is blocked by construction or deliveries, and people keep parking in the 8th ave bike line since they started creating pedestrian areas. I'm very much looking to moving to Seattle, where my commute will be 4 miles of protected bike lane and multi-use path around Green Lake.
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May 20, 2022 17:03
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kimbo305 posted:I dunno, might be a push between a decent freewheel and a nice chainring. Cheap chainrings are probably more than the cheapest freewheel (that you wouldn’t want). Ah yeah, you're right. I was thinking about track/single speed cogs
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May 20, 2022 21:17
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Nice chainrings are so loving expensive 
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May 20, 2022 22:58
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bicievino posted:Nice chainrings are so loving expensive Technology took cheap chainrings away from you. Granted, technology also made front shifting way less miserable. Cycling is a land of contrasts.
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May 20, 2022 23:01
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At least with a single speed, you don't lose much from not having either a narrow-wide or a super shaped / ramped tooth profile.
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May 20, 2022 23:34
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kimbo305 posted:At least with a single speed, you don't lose much from not having either a narrow-wide or a super shaped / ramped tooth profile. I'm slow and have an overbite.
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May 20, 2022 23:43
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kimbo305 posted:At least with a single speed, you don't lose much from not having either a narrow-wide or a super shaped / ramped tooth profile. I've definitely spent more on a fixed gear chainring than I ever will on a narrow-wide or ramped/pinned one
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May 21, 2022 02:01
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ExecuDork posted:Tell me the length / difficulty / stupidity of your bike commute. This is not quite commuting Nirvana, but it's pretty good. It has improved a lot since I started, when there were no bike lanes in that mix.
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May 21, 2022 02:21
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last year was 7mi each way w/250ft climb in nyc, p much all sharrows with just a little bit of PBL at the end, but only on the way to work, 2x/week; 5mi each way/150ft climb all sharrows 4x/week i stopped biking while catsitting in december cuz it woulda been 14mi/500ft climb each way to both places (washington heights got HILLS), then had some health problems, then i moved, and i just haven’t started up again when i quit being lazy it’ll be 7mi each and 250ft climb 2x, 3mi each/flat 2x 6.5mi/flat 1x, and a circuitous 15mi round trip/flat 1x…all sharrows, all week, curse you nyc! 
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May 21, 2022 14:58
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100YrsofAttitude posted:Glad to know that mechanical bikes can be called acoustics. That’s what I use. I sort of want an electric to not have to bother with sweat but I appreciate the sport and ability to not have think twice about what I eat. You can always turn the assist off, too, if you want the exercise. Will generally be even better exercise as you'll be pushing a heavier bike. Anyone have a recommended commuter bike helmet with built-in light? I've got a Thousand helmet right now and I like the look and the loop for the lock, just curious for lighted options.
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May 22, 2022 20:29
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I buy usb rechargeable rear red light on aliexpress (they usually over state their battery capacity, so just look for one that proudly state the battery stat) and shoegoo it on a helmet. I have them on all 3 of my helmets.
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May 22, 2022 20:56
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Commuted to and from work for the first time today. Was dope. Going to ride the beat up junker I got cheap on gumtree for now. I like the idea of internal hubs and belt drives but have no way of trying one. Are the losses in efficiency that noticeable on a short and chill commute?
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May 24, 2022 08:07
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Pug Smugly posted:I like the idea of internal hubs and belt drives but have no way of trying one. Are the losses in efficiency that noticeable on a short and chill commute? I can't say much about belt drives since I have very limited experience but internal gears are fine unless you want every last bit of speed. Here's a graph from a guy who actually tested it (20 years ago) to put the transmission losses into perspective. Now imagine that the Y-axis starts at 0 and the difference is negligible for casual cycling IMO. Other factors than efficiency are probably more important for most commuters. 
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May 24, 2022 10:43
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Pug Smugly posted:Commuted to and from work for the first time today. Was dope. Excellent. Well done and congratulations. That's almost exactly how I got started, and while today I was immensely lazy and drove to work, I can still state truthfully that I commute by bike more than half the time.
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May 25, 2022 02:36
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Pug Smugly posted:Commuted to and from work for the first time today. Was dope. 
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May 25, 2022 03:29
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Pug Smugly posted:Commuted to and from work for the first time today. Was dope. If there was a loss of efficiency and your commute is short and you're not going fast, it will be in the 1-2 second range of efficiency losses.
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May 25, 2022 03:48
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