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#1
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
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A proper bicycle for a tubie
On Jan 2, 3:01 pm, John Byrns wrote:
What sort of bicycle should I purchase? That is one of my three resolutions. Oh, definitely a bike made of tubes. If you're just taking up cycling, the thing is not to be a fashion victim, to give the racing bikes and the extreme offroad bikes a miss. You'll never be comfortable on them. What you want is a none too extreme bike on which you can sit comfortably, which won't give you back pains and knee pains etc. A Dutch city bike like mine http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/B...%20Smover.html would be ideal but the Stateside versions like the Electra Royal 8 are a bit pricey for a first bike. A dirty little secret is that you can make something very near. The Trek I'm showing is a pseudo city bike, unlike the Gazelle Toulouse elsewhere on my site which is the real thing. The Trek was made by taking a common Trek mountain bike frame (Navigator L300 as sold in the Benelux with internal hub gears) and dressing it up. That means you can buy a common and cheap Trek mountain bike frame and dress it up. In sequence: 1. Buy a Trek mountain bike with front suspension. 2. Throw off the uncomfortable saddle. Get a seat like my Cheeko 90 (called something else in the States) 3. Get a steering tube extension so that you can raise the handlebars several inches. If necessary get a short stem to bring the handlebars closer to you. 4. Get North Road or roadster type handlebars to replace the straight bars of the mountain bike. The seat, the steering tube extension, the shorter stem and the curved handlebars are all intended to help you sit straighter, so you'll be more comfortable on the bike. If you're not comfortable you'll hate it and soon give up cycling and your money will be wasted. If you want to get involved in cycling, and the design of your bike, in the same way as you are involved in tubes, you can, but it will cost twice as much as buying a common Trek mountain bike and adapting it: 1. Buy a Surly Karate Monkey frame and fork. 2. Shop German Ebay for a built rear wheel with a Shimano Alfine internal gear hub. 3. Shop German Ebay for a built front wheel with a Shimano Alfine hub dynamo. 2 & 3 are often offered as a set. Or just go straight to Poison Bikes and buy the wheels from them. Poison bikes also sells several alternative frames to the Karate Monkey, but in the States the KM is much cheaper than anything PM sells. 4. Shimano hub gear and hub dynamo wheelsets with the earlier than Alfine hub sets are now very cheap indeed. The premium 8 speed internal hub gearset is fabulously good (I have two). 5. For the rest of the parts, shop the discounters on the net. Shimano makes fabulously good parts at very attractive prices. Buy the cheapest Shimano part, try it out, and if you don't like it throw it off and get something better. 6. You can buy a box of tools but you don't need all that many tools to do your own work on a modern internal hub gear bike, just a few Allen Keys and less than a handful of specialist tools. A new custom-built bike is on its way to me from Germany; I hope to publish pictures to drool over by the week after next. Andre Jute http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/B...20CYCLING.html |
#2
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
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A proper bicycle for a tubie
I dream of a large wheel barrow with a big inflated tire and six red
haired physical therapists to pull it backwards, using a custom hitch which allows them to pull side by side, guaranteeing my view of traffic in front of them. A nice beanbag with a down comforter. I do have a fake down hypoalergenic unit, but, it makes my eyes water ... No audio required. I will just listen to them breathing ... Happy Ears! Al |
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