So - update. Went to the bike store, asked lots of questions, realized that every one of their bikes “comes with” a whole lot of accessories, and that, actually, I would use most of them. Call me silly, but I’ve had a computer on every bike I’ve had as an adult and think it is just the neatest thing ever. Of course, this package isn’t free, and of course, the man just put a thousand other questions in my mind; he convinced me to go the hybrid route, rather than a full-on road bike, but then he showed me similar bikes in a couple other lines (Cannondale Bad Boy and… something else) and I froze. This week, I’ve decided to go back and get the 7.3.
I also happen to have bid on a bike on eBay in the meantime, I fell in love with a really cute road bike. But it doesn’t end for another couple days, and if I win it, I win it, and I’ll resell on Craigslist later if I need to. If nothing else, it’s really cute. (worst reason ever to buy a bike.)
Hopefully will be bicycled up by this evening! And maybe it’ll quit storming across the South!
Well yea, the bike shop is going to try to sell accessories. That doesn’t mean they are ripping you off. The margin on bikes isn’t that great. That’s why markdowns aren’t that spectacular on bikes unless they are just trying to get rid of inventory. With the internet it’s pretty easy to find out what you should be paying for a bike. Even if you pay full retail the shop isn’t making a huge profit (they do have overhead, you know). There is a better margin on service, clothing and accessories. That’s OK, they have to stay in business. If they just sold bikes they would probably starve. Buying cheap by mail order may seem like a deal but in the end it’s probably not. Yes, I will buy some parts and accessories by mail order if they are deeply discounted but I don’t think I would ever buy a bike that way. I want that bike to be connected to a local shop.
Oh, I meant that in the opposite way - I justified the price difference to myself because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of installing all those accessories and paying full retail for them when I could get them at a small discount, and installed. And because the
Picked up the 7.3 last night - all they had was white, which was less than ideal, but they said it’d be a couple weeks to get one of the other colors in.
I’ve put about 25 miles on it in the meantime (went on a 20-mile ride today, which is about 4-5 times what I’ve ever done in one go), and am generally satisfied with it. The saddle is gonna take some getting used to - the previous one, being a ladies’ bike, had a huge, plush one.
There are a couple of gears that I get a rattling noise when I use, so I’ll get that checked out at my new-bike-tuneup, it’s rubbing against the front derailleur. I realize that the bike doesn’t like being in extreme gears on both cogs at once, but this is the middle gear on the chainring. Maybe I’ll tackle that after dinner. And there’s grease that keeps showing up on the chainstay - any ideas on that? The chain doesn’t seem to rub on it, so I’ll just monitor it.
Anyway, followup question to all of this - clipless pedals/toe cages - pros/cons? My roommate, who is my source on all things bicycle, is terrified of them, but after seeing that everyone and their mama apparently handles them just fine on the (paved) bike trail I went on today, maybe they’re not so bad? I mean, special shoes for my commute would be ridiculous, but it might not be so bad for being out and about.
I couldn’t figure out if other variables were controlled for but I highly doubt this. I currently have a mountain bike with 29" wheels and there is significantly more rolling resistance (subjectively of course) than with the racing bike I previously owned. However the racing bike used much higher tire pressure so I doubt that there was enough sidewall deflection to overcome the reduced friction from having a narrower cross section.
Anyway, for a 2 mile commute, I would go with a full suspension mountain bike (front and rear suspension). Yes the bike will be much heavier but if you’re worried about weight, then unless you have negative BMI (j/k) then you are probably better off looking to shave it off of your own body rather than the bike.
Plus the wide knobby tires on a mountain bike can make transient road hazards like sewer grates and potholes easier and safer to navigate.
The suggestion for disk brakes is a very good one. If your wheels are ever out of true, you will still be able to ride safely. Plus there is the additional stopping power.
OK, sounds like the 7.3 was a good choice for you. Trek bikes are fine. I say that even thought the one with the frame failure was a Trek. Most of the major brands out there are excellent bikes. Bike manufacturers are frame builders that build to a standard and then put components on them of a greater or lesser quality. That is a good thing. You can always upgrade. Stay away from the frame builders that want to distinguish their product by establishing their own standards. You are asking for pain and suffering down the road. Problem is, there is more of this cropping up. I learned my lesson on a long tour. Standardization is a blessing.
Sounds like you need some tweaking of the derailleurs. The shop will do that in 10 minutes with no hassle. They almost expect you to show up for a fine tune. Cables stretch, things operate different under load than they do when new on the bike stand. No big deal. The experience actually gives you a chance to establish a better relationship with the shop. The message they will get is that you are riding the bike and want it to be right. That’s a positive message. If they react any different then you have probably found one of the few bike shops that are disreputable.
The chain: Hmmm. New chains don’t need lubrication for about 500 miles. They come from the factory lubricated. Sounds like the wrench (bike mechanic) lubed the chain before it was delivered which isn’t necessary. Use some WD40 to clean the mess. WD40 is for cleaning. Chain lube is for lubrication (and use sparingly). Don’t use WD40 for lubrication. I won’t start an argument on chain lubrication because, in the bike world, that is worse than an argument on religion or politics.
Pedals: Clipless pedals are the way to go. (Clipless is a bad nomenclature.) They are much more efficient, they just take some getting used to. Yes, when you are starting out with them you will fall once or twice. After that you will be glad you went through your learning curve. My wife was dead afraid of clipless pedals but now she is fine. Just stay away from “road” shoes or pedals. Go with a mountain bike shoe (that may look like a road shoe) so that you can walk in the damn things. Road shoes are for racers and nobody else. I recommend Crank Brothers pedals because they are the easiest to get in and out of.
Anyway, congratulations and good luck. Enjoy your bike!
Clipless (the metal “toe clip” is gone, thus “-less”) pedals are intimidating at first, but once you you are past the “Ok, I’m coming to a stop now, so I better twist my heel outwards so as to remove my foot” -stage and develop the “clip out” instinct, they are the cat’s meow.
Personally, I’m a fairly aggressive cross-country mountain bike rider and I usually have a solid crash every ride or two. My clip-out reflex is so strong that I will literally clip-out while flying through the air, mid-crash. I’ve done that and then landed on my feet. The point being that once you develop the instinct, it’s gravy.
DO NOT get set up for clipless pedals at the bike shop and then attempt to ride home. This can be a dangerous, frustrating, and humiliating experience.
Take your new setup to the park and ride around on the grass or on paths with grass on the side. Take it easy. Take your time. Fall over on the grass at slow speed. Practice clipping in and out over and over again. The sooner you develop the new reflex, the better.
I second the recommendation for mountain bike pedals/cleats/shoes over a road setup.
Road shoes have a triangular three-hole pattern on the bottom which accepts a three-hole road cleat for a road pedal. While this style offers a rock-solid pedaling platform, the shoe/cleat combo is murder to walk on, for both you and your cleats as the cleats tend to be large and completely exposed on the bottom of the shoe.
Mountain shoes have a small two-hole pattern where the mounting holes run in channels. Typically, you will see two small channels cut into the bottom of the shoe under the ball of the foot with a sliding metal plate underneath, with two mounting holes in the plate running in each channel. You actually only need to use one hole in each channel, your choice.
Typically, the cleats for mountain pedals are much smaller than the cleats on road shoes, and often they are recessed in the shoe by virtue of the surrounding shoe tread. They expect you to walk a bit in these shoes because in mountain biking riders are often off the bike and dealing with steep, muddy hills and difficult terrain, etc.
As mountain bike shoes rise in price, they tend to move away from comfy, rugged, durable shoes with plenty of tread and approach the functionality of road shoes because the people who buy them tend to be racers or performance-oriented riders. The most expensive mountain shoes are very much like road shoes and you definitely don’t want to be stomping through the mud in them. This progression is a good thing because it lets you pick the functionality and form you desire, albeit at the appropriate price.
Occasionally, you will find a shoe you like that has both mounting patterns on the shoe: A triangular three-hole pattern containing two channels. Not very common, though.
Crank Bros. is an excellent place to look for mountain pedals because they offer several different models with a progressive amount of supportive platform surrounding the clip mechanism, and further additional models within each of those categories where choices are based on the materials used to make the pedal. So, tons of options.
Don’t let them charge you for the cleats if you are getting pedals. They should come with the pedals (not the shoes).
Shimano has an excellent range of mountain shoes and offers superb construction. Highly recommended.
Owning and having ridden both mountain bikes and road bikes on the road, the flaw in this reasoning is
My mountain bikes I keep at 40-45 PSI, my road bike I keep at 105 PSI. Purely subjectively my road bike is so much easier rolling on pavement.
I still recall my first ride on my then new C-Dale road bike. It was so effortless to get up to speed. Just a pleasure to ride. Still is, but I ride my Trek more these days.
Oh, and to the OP, congrats on the new bike, ride and enjoy.
Ok - I’ll have to start doin’ my research on the pedals. And figure out what kind are on my roommate’s bike; hers are flat on one side and can accept shoes on the other, and she has been looking to buy some new pedals, and maybe we can work out a swap.
Something to get over the fact that I just spent almost a month’s net pay on a bike!
No question, this is why road bike tires have some much lower rolling resistance. And why it’s so important to use a floor pump with built-in pressure gauge nearly every time you ride. Keep the tires fully inflated for each ride. The higher the pressure the more you lose when the bike just sits.
Just as a counter-example, I have old-school toeclips rather than clipless pedals. Basically, since most of my rides are doing errands or whatever, rather than long rides, it’s not worth having to wear special shoes all the time (who wants to be wearing bike shoes at the bar all night?). Up to your particular rides, though.
I don’t see how this contradicts what I posted. What I tried to say is, given the same tire pressure, a wider tire has less rolling resistance. But obviously you can’t run a fat MTB tire at the same pressure as a narrow road tire, which is why road tires are faster.
However, if you’re comparing 700x23 (typical for a true “road bike”) vs. 700x28 (too wide for many road bike frames, but reasonable for hybrids and cyclocross bikes), they can both be run at or close to 100 psi. In this case, the wider tire has less rolling resistance and more comfortable. You give up a tiny bit in weight and air resistance, but that’s it.
I disagree - there’s no need for suspension on a commuting bike, it’s just one more thing (or two) that needs to be maintained and can potentially break down. Also, good suspension is expensive, and cheap suspension is worse than nothing.
As for clipless pedals - I prefer them (and use them even for my 3-mile commute), and they aren’t very difficult or dangerous once you get used to them.
When I first got clipless pedals, I spent about half an hour practicing clipping in/out of them while stopped, with a fence or bar nearby to support myself. I practiced until it became automatic, and only then did I try riding with them. That really paid off; I had no fear, and I never had a single accident/fall caused by the pedals.
My personal preference is for Speedplay Frog pedals, combined with clipless-compatible sandals. Sandals are a lot more comfortable than shoes, especially in summer.
Not to mention suspension is incredibly inefficient for 95% of commuter riding. Yes, it’s lovely when you hit the occasional hazard, but it’s crap the rest of the time. Big-tread MTB tires can be actively hazardous on pavement, those knobs get wonky on turns when you’re on concrete.
Learn to pick your weight up off your seat for the bumps and you’ll be fine.
I rode with Speedplay Frogs MTB and loved them. (I don’t ride far enough to bother these days.) I did have the required “fall down in front of a gazillion people” incident at a big race (and I wasn’t even racing, just toodling around waiting for the sig0).
Get some clipless, go out to the park and practice until you quit falling down all the time. You’ll love them once you get used to them.
I’ve seen the pedals that you mentioned (roomie’s) but can’t remember what they’re called. Could be a good choice for a commuter bike, when you might want to hop on for a short ride somewhere and don’t want to bother with the shoes.
I’ve got Crank Brothers, either Smartys or Candies, on my MTB. They have the Egg Beater middle to clip into, but they also have a small platform in case you don’t want to clip in or can’t clip in. I run the normal Egg Beaters on my road bike.
I had a similar commute to university for years. I had a walmart bike, where I swapped out the mountain bike wheels for road wheels, and took out the aluminum casing they use in the pedal shaft (well, my grandpa told me to do it; he says those cheapo bikes use those rings to save money on ball bearings). Runs fine. It’s his bike now, since I bought myself a hybrid bike with a nice light aluminum frame and a trigger gear shifter. It was under $500, built here in the city, and rides like a dream.
Yeah, especially since he is only going 2 miles. You could pretty much use a skateboard for a 2 mile commute.
My normal commute is 25 miles each way (with some hills), and I use my fixed gear 700x23 aluminum frame road bike with toe clips. Dead reliable, and I only have to lube the chain occasionally. Get a bike that fits, and that"s about all you need.
