This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Didn’t mean to come off as wanting a magical bike. I fully understand I will need to make sacrifices and in an ideal world with unlimited money and storage space, I would have a bike for each occasion. I’m on a budget (wife is a teacher who got laid off due to proposed cuts to education, and business has been really difficult for me with the SIP) so I’d like to check the right boxes rather than checking all of them.I would suggest that anyone who wants the mythical do-it-all bike go with a steel 1X gravel bike. No, it can't do it all, but in general, depending on the type, it can do 95% of what we want/need it to do.
Kona Rove ST (what I have) and Surly Straggler come to mind as somewhat affordable, excellent optios
The Trek FX would be great for this. The choices out there now are overwhelming with a type of bike available for seemingly every specific ride. It's stupid. Don't sell a ride with the kids short. It probably won't get your heart racing and you won't be climbing monster hills but you'll get some work in and be spending time with the kids.
You too? I keep hearing about the gravel revolution but I don't get it. Maybe you can help me understand. I have 3 bikes now, all Trek. A Domane, a FX Sport and a Marlin. All have their place but I look at a gravel bike and think, if I slap some wider tires on the FX, WALA! Gravel bike! What am I missing?Guy in the cube next to me is a rider and he buys all his stuff from BD, loves them. Some assembly required though so if you aren't mechanically inclined, might be a challenge but overall i think they are pretty straightforward. All three of my bikes have required some assembly and it's not been a problem although they didn't come from BD, I assume they are similar.
Probably nothing. But I'm a roadie. My S5 will literally take a max of 24mms tires. Designed to be narrow. My TT bike ain't gonna do it, either.
I've got a few bikes from BD, mostly beach cruisers, but they have held up well. I do have a Motobecane hybrid that is probably 15 years old at this point that is still great.
Yep. That's forced some of us to hit the used market. Most are aware of the market conditions and you're seeing offers for used bikes at new bike prices. Occasionally you'll find someone asleep at the switch and offering at bicycle blue book value.
I've purchased 2 MTBs from BikesDirect. Both were easy to hook up... anything you don't know how to do is something you should learn anyway, and Youtube knows everything.
IMO a full suspension MTB is overkill. It's more complex (more parts to fail) and more expensive, and I don't see the advantage. A buddy and I bought MTBs at the same time. He bought a full suspension, I bought a hardtail. On the trails near us (very nice singletracks, but not many rocky or dropoff spots), he had no advantage and wished he hadn't spent the money. We took a couple of trips up to Copper Harbor (silver level ride center), which was very rocky with notable dropoffs, and by the end he was just more annoyed at his purchase since our hardtails did perfectly fine. Maybe if you live in Colorado or are quite overweight and worried about saddle soreness, I could see it, but for most, it just doesn't seem to offer any real advantages to get full suspension.
Motobecane and Gravity have been good in my experience, I've never tried Windsor.
I’ve got a buddy who has a nice little side gig buying and selling bikes. Some he fixes up, some he manages to flip with a nice profit within hours or days of buying. I imagine he’s cleaning up right now.
Both my bikes are 1x11. I see no reason to have a double chainring up front. The 1x11 has nearly as wide of gear range and is plenty wide enough for 99% of riders. The simplicity is nice.
I think you can only get a max tire of 38mm on that bike though, right?
Exactly. It makes things so much simpler without any real loss in capability. No more having to coordinate between the two derailleurs. I see no reason not to go this route.
This is what was recommended to me by a friend's brother who works at a local-ish bike shop. I definitely want to support that local shop anyway, so nice to see his recommendation being endorsed by you as well.
Larger tire size is a big draw of the gravel bike. 38/39 doesn't really cut it for some offraoding stuff
Thanks, I’m lost when it comes to sizing bike tires. I’d like to put bigger/wider tires on the FX since I’m still riding on the road slicks it came on. Want something with some tread on them for rain and the rough roads around here. Just have no idea how to size it so I don’t buy something that has no hope of fitting the existing rims.
I have inlaws in Boise... I looked into the trails there, and they're incredible. Gold-level Ride Center per IMBA.
We're transitioning from NYC to Boise and they've got a lot of trails as well as riverside paths. I'm looking forward to going through this thread and finding the right bikes for the two of us.
Thanks and I appreciate your input on this page alone. We've driven around the foothills and the trails look incredible. I've never really done much trail riding but its definitely going to be my exercise of choice. My wife is a gym rat and likes running too but is deathly afraid of snakes so that will take a little longer for her...lol
How old is the kid? I like the front ones, but once they get a certain size, it is impossible to pedal. Wouldn't worry too much about the handling. So if you have the cash, you may want the front one now, then sell it and get a rear one once the kid gets to a certain size
2.5 yr old...weighs about 30 pounds. The front mount option i linked says ages 2-6 and up to 110 pounds. Any idea how big/old you can use to?
110 pounds! That is one giant 6 year old. Holy ####
These ones rock. If your kid can't hold on and falls off - you know, Rule 5.gump said:
I was looking at those...glad to hear...i think that's Stage 2, like Moops says, when he gets older.
Our boys are two years apart. I have managed some werid ### configurations getting them on my bike.
Help me understand why you would do this or the benefit from this other than not having to worry about going from the big ring to the small one? I would have never even considered this before. Is this kinda common or no?
Most people find that they rarely use their front derailleur. An deven if they do, the new wide range 11 speed cassetes give you nearly the same gear range without having to worry about shifting two derailleurs. It's not a huge deal, I get that, but simplicity is a good thing. Same reason why you rarely see triple fronts anymore. Kind of a natural progression.
