That’s been the challenge of the last two rides I did. Having to/getting to try out a new set up with the rentals. They’ve both been nice bikes and I travel with my pedals to clip in, but I REALLY like my own bike. I have a ride in N. Ga next weekend, but will be driving up and bringing my bike with me.
Yeah, 6 mm is a lot of space to make up. I find if I'm out more than 2-3 mm I definitely notice it. Same goes with shoe/clip angles.
I recently started getting back into cycling again and found myself stumbling across old school BMX bikes. I started to get the nostalgia itch and looked into buying one. But damn....I didn't realize those bikes (GT, Haro, Diamond Back, Redlines, etc.) are going for in the thousands ! Lol
Glorious fall/autumn pics. It was a nice sunny, not too hot Spring day so I took the bike out for a ride. This sounds a little silly... I noticed my riding stance is different when riding the exercise bike. My legs are more flared out on the exercise bike.
And now you understand Q-factor. It’s a function of how your legs and feet align based on how far apart your pedals are from one another when you add together the width from the bottom bracket, the chainrings, the cranks, and the pedal axles. The more stuff going on down in the BB cluster, the wider apart your feet will be, and it can feel radically different between bikes.
We normally keep our bikes in the house, but they take up a lot of space during the winter. Our building technically has a bike storage room for owners down in the basement, but that was basically a Jenga tower of unused 30 year old stuff stashed in a pile by other folks who don’t use them. Wife had the genius idea of reworking it with vertical hanging racks to make it more navigable, so we spent last night installing studs and hooks and rearranging everything down there. More space, easier to access, and we don’t have to worry about people less pathologically obsessive about theirs scratching ours. A few more things to do (like installing hooks for helmet storage on that bit traversing the brick), but not bad for an afternoon’s work.
I have the same set up in our garage, however, apparently, I'm the only one strong enough to get them down...
Ahoy, bike goons - Wondering if any of you have experience with travel cases. We’re headed to Japan in July, and need a way to get ‘em there. Between hoping to dodge oversized baggage fees and the size of Japanese cars, I’m thinking these ones from Orucase (plus a shitload of pipe insulation for frame protection) may be the ones we’re gonna pull the trigger on, but figured I’d tap y’all for any wisdom before dropping the cash. B2
I'm no help sorry. Dropped in to say have a great Japan holiday. (Yes, I clicked the link, saw the price & had a mild cardiac arrest. Only to find out the frame protection kit was additional cost. Heart skipped a beat)
It is a hard calculus for sure. I looked into buying a travel case this past year since I flew to a couple of rides in the US. It was definitely cheaper for me to rent at the destination (and that also avoided the risk of rough baggage handlers/travel damage). That probably isn’t practical for a long term stay, but have you considered just buying in Japan and selling when you leave?
Thanks, man. Should be a blast. Spending a couple days with family in Ebina, riding to Tokyo and exploring the city for a few days, then out to the countryside. Two weeks total with only the vague outline of a plan so far. Yeah, we considered rental and purchase options, but bringing our own is part of the adventure. Rental’s tough because I’m taller than 99% of the population, and purchase rules are weird there anyway - have to register the bikes with the police, possibly insure them, and do a title transfer at point of resale. Rules are apparently laxer on a tourist visa with your own bike.
Weird ideas, but can you have your family pick up a bike for you guys? Then possibly sell it when you leave or let them use it and then you have for when you visit? Another idea is to ship your bike to your family, and have them ship it back after you leave?
We looked into pre-shipping them. Getting them out there was manageable, but the cost to get them BACK here was eye-watering. There’s a company called BikeFlights that does exactly that, but it’ll be significantly cheaper to bring ‘em on the plane with us. Plus, having the cases opens up opportunities to drag them other places on future vacations (New Zealand is on the list to do some epic XC riding).
Was thinking about this the other day. Would you need to buy 2 bike carry cases (one per bike) & hence double the cost or can you shove 2 bikes inside?
