Bicycle Forum

[esoxlucius]

I hear you on the appeal of shorter rides. I'm thinking my randonneur days may be behind me, though I do like the full-body work out that a 8-9 hour ride provides.

The geometry on your bike must be really relaxed to do those sort of hours. Not to mention a top notch comfy seat and extra padded shorts (with chamois cream?). Do you have several cafe stops during the rides to fuel up the body and loosen those muscles back up too?

Honestly, I can't imagine being in the saddle for that length of time, kudos to you.

 

[stratos]

Below are photos of my two bikes; I have a light-weight Selle Anatomica seat on my commuter, and a Terry saddle (Men's Liberator Y) on my road bike. I have spent a small fortune on saddles over the years and am so happy to have discovered the Terry Liberator Y saddle. It is an excellent saddle for long distances. https://www.terrybicycles.com/Liberator-Y

I've also attached a photo from the start of the last PBP (Paris Brest Paris) in 2019; It is held every four years, meaning next year is a PBP year https://www.paris-brest-paris.org/index2.php?lang=en&cat=accueil&page=edito

For serious long distance cyclists, the PBP is kind of our Olympics. The average age of participants is around 50, which shows that long distance cycling is popular with older guys. We have control stops every 50-75 Km where we can eat food and stretch our legs. It's a fantastic and magical experience that is not beyond the ability of most cyclists. It just takes discipline in your cycle training to prepare.

 

[FJB]

I have always been a commuter biker (home to work and back) except for some interruptions when conditions didn’t allow, including a city that sucked for that. My current commute is 9.2 miles one way, but since the pandemic, it has been reduced to 2-3 days per week, versus everyday. I also occasionally still do longer rides, such as the annual cancer ride. This years Bike-a-thon is fast approaching (mid June) and my daughter and I have been doing it for some years. My wife drops us at the start in Philly, and drives down to Atlantic City, has a beach day, and brings us back at the end. Gearing up for that one!

 

[Ulu]

Since I am old and only looking for exercise, I don’t need to race or ride fast. Right now I have a 24 lb bike

and this 45 lb bike.

I only need to ride the 45 lb bike (on knobbies!) half as far.

But even so it was more enjoyable once lightened.


You can see that those tourist bars went from the black bike to the silver bike. The black bike got the flat bars and I raised the seat.

The silver bike is going to get a banana seat and a sissy bar. Initially it’s going to be a typical Schwinn style seat made in China by Lowrider. Later I’m going to build an upscaled seat.

I am not riding enough to wear myself out but I am going enough to improve the condition of my arthritic knees ankles and hips. This is proved to be a big asset in the way I feel.

 

[Ulu]

Lightened more with the alloy elliptical cogset and pedals:

Even more, with a smaller (26”) front wheel but I think I should’ve gone up to a 29. It was better with the 700 C

 

[esoxlucius]

and this 45 lb bike.

Wow, if I had a 45lb bike the first modification i'd be carrying out.......is to add an engine!! Lol.

My lightest racer is a tad over 6kg, which puts it around the 13lb mark.

Yours is a nice looking bike actually, it's something I could ride around on if I was just out for a casual short, and very flat ride with my little lad.

 

[Ulu]

It’s getting more finished, with stingray eliminator handlebars, fat white-wall street tire in back and a white stripe skinny tire upfront.

No more knobby tires! Yippee! And you can see it got a Schwinn stingray replica seat. This will really be too small for me, and I bought it as a model to make a slightly larger version for me.

The 26 inch wheel was very short and instead I used a silver hub 700 cm wheel from the Manhattan bike.

It got a new used wheel in ugly black because it’s an ugly black bike.

But the silver bike got more silver gear because I like silver better. These are the Shimano Bio-pace chain rings & arms from a centurion Accordo frame that I bought for parts. Also the rebuilt rat trap pedals from the Manhattan.


I bought those fog lights for five dollars at a NAPA store discount table 35 years ago. The chrome wasn’t good enough to put on my motorcycle or car but they were nice enough for a bicycle and they have been boxed up all these years so they still shine.

 

[esoxlucius]

Fantastic Ulu . You take the word "tinkering" to a whole new dimension, lol. I have a feeling your creations will soon blurry the lines between bicycle and motorbike!

 

[Ulu]

The ‘goose didn’t come down off the rack ‘til 00:45 PDT.

At 1AM I rode it down to the corner and back. Maybe 200 yards each way. I guess I really wanted to ride it.


I was preparing a more elaborate sissy bar when I found out that I was out of gas and could not weld. It was too late to go to the welding shop and so I fabricated up another sissy bar (that I didn’t have to weld) from the longest piece of 1/2” tube that I had left.

It was going very well and when I got to the last bends I kinked the tubing.

At that point I said screw it, I will just upholster the thing, and I hammer whipped it on the anvil until I had a shape that would work. I covered up my hammer marks with some black and white vinyl purse straps, donated by my wife.

This will not do for long. The seat is too far forward. It is also too small and doesn’t have much padding in it.

 

[Ulu]

Well I took this monster out and I rode it today and I weighed it. According to the specifications to stock mongoose weighs 45 pounds, and this one now weighs 45 pounds and 12oz.

Most of the weight that I added was saved by removing the huge front tire.

Having worked until the wee hours, I still managed to get up this morning and take my wife out bicycle riding before it got hot.

She took some fuzzy photographs of me so you can see that the riding position is not ideal. Seat and sissy bar are going to go on a kiddy bike and I am going to make some upscale manly sized replicas for this bicycle.