7
kiki
344d

Anyone into road bikes? What’s your ride?

My last ride was a custom-built Mayak fixed gear. Couple of facts about the geometry and the bike as a whole:
1. Even on 165mm cranks, the crank overlapped with the front wheel not by the pedal, but by the crank itself. Because it was a fixie, turning at a wrong moment could send you flying.
2. The stiffness was immeasurable. We’re talking Joe Biden at a kindergarten levels of stiff.
3. It was a rocket. You hop in, make two turns and boom, you’re half way across the street. When we raced with road bikes on urban endurance courses, they were WASTED by the end? Me though? Barely sweating.

This bike was a great metaphor for my personality. Awkward, unforgiving, rigid, chaotic, over the top, difficult, yet brilliant in a very narrow range of specific tasks. A true glass cannon.

Comments
  • 1
    I sold it in the end. Not because I wasn’t happy with it. I was, but my knees weren’t. I felt that converting it to a single speed bike would be an insult to it.
    My heart still skips a beat every time I turn.
  • 1
    That’s a really nice frame. Honestly will say it looks weird being a no brakes bike and looking that new. Gotta have some grunge there fs.
  • 1
    > "What’s your ride?"

    Don't get to ride as much as I would like, it's a Walmart Next brand my brother-in-law bought for me at a garage sale for $10 around 15 years ago. Always kept the chains tight, oiled, and tires always aired up+patched as necessary. Gears are still perfect.

    Our bike guy in the office liked to make fun because his $1,200 bike had all these carbon fiber 'this' and titanium 'that' stuff. So what if it's like riding on a cloud. It's OK I feel every bump and shake of the trail. It'll make me stronger, right?
  • 0
    my current ride of choice is a simson s53 alpha.

    my current ride of necessity is a generic car not worth mentioning, since it'd be irresponsible driving that bike during the winter - with all the salt unnecessarily thrown onto the streets, it'd rust away within instants.
  • 0
    Maybe slightly off-topic... My ride of choice is a LeaperKim Sherman S 😂
  • 1
    All my bikes were horrible. Dutchies like horrible bikes so it doesn't get stolen. My bikes were stolen, are stolen, exploded, forgot where parked, ended up in a canal
  • 2
    @retoor

    Well, considering my recent experience you can just take a random bike off the endless bike parkings xd. I mean, it's not that they are not secured, I've seen them just dropped on the floor xd.

    Truth be told, in Netherlands anything with two wheels will do. Hardly any slopes and small country. In my prime, would have been able to cross the whole country in 4 hours XD
  • 1
    That said, I always get mountain bikes, because where I live, there are slopes everywhere, and having a road bike is just suicide.

    Still, huge ass wheels so doesn't feel too bad while on roads, can easily pull sustained 30 kph on roads, and 10 kph on trails.
  • 0
    @CoreFusionX do you prefer 29” over 26”?
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