New Bike Pics!

[bikerHen]

WOW! Love the "new" blue. Yep I agree, blue acessories. Why knobby tires? There are nice wide slicks, that are fine for pavement and dirt. I use Schwalbe Marathon Plus for loaded touring and dirt roads. These are heavy hard working tires, 1.75" wide, and are just about bullet proof. Just put Schwalbe Marathon's (no plus) on the bike for spring commuting. They are 1/4" narrower, take 100 psi and are quite a bit faster.

Don't stress to much about those bar end shifters. They scared me too. But now I just love'em. Practicing on the trainer is a great idea. The right shifter (rear cassette) is easy. It's indexed and will click up or down when you shift. The left side (front rings) is a little tricker. It's old school friction shifting and you have to learn to feel for the gears. Truth be told, I still look down when I'm shifting the front. bikerHen

[Catrin]

WOW! Love the "new" blue. Yep I agree, blue acessories. Why knobby tires? There are nice wide slicks, that are fine for pavement and dirt. I use Schwalbe Marathon Plus for loaded touring and dirt roads. These are heavy hard working tires, 1.75" wide, and are just about bullet proof. Just put Schwalbe Marathon's (no plus) on the bike for spring commuting. They are 1/4" narrower, take 100 psi and are quite a bit faster.

Don't stress to much about those bar end shifters. They scared me too. But now I just love'em. Practicing on the trainer is a great idea. The right shifter (rear cassette) is easy. It's indexed and will click up or down when you shift. The left side (front rings) is a little tricker. It's old school friction shifting and you have to learn to feel for the gears. Truth be told, I still look down when I'm shifting the front. bikerHen

Thanks for the tire tips - I want something that can do dirt and I was assuming that my tires wouldn't be so good at that since they are slick in the middle. The outer edges are more aggressive than my Trek's tires though. I am learning, so thanks for the tip.

I am assuming that it isn't hard to attach a water bottle cage, so will do that next weekend - and I want to find the right bar-tape. No, I don't NEED new bar tape, what is there is perfectly fine and new - but I WANT new bar tape in a light blue or blue/white. I have time to look around

OK, what IS friction shifting?

[OakLeaf]

Sweeeet.


Friction shifting is like playing a violin or a fretless bass. Except for lots easier. No indexing, you just push the lever until the derailleur shifts.

[bikerHen]

Basically with friction shifting you are controlling the movement of the front deraillure(sp). You lift the shifter up the chain moves to the bigger ring. Move it down, the chain moves to the smaller rings. It takes a few tries to get the feel of how far to move. There is lots of chain rattling going on, but that doesn't really hurt a thing. It's not that hard. You have an infinite number of possibilities for chain placement, which is a good thing. Just play with it tonight on the trainer and it will make more sense. The operative word here is play, have fun, take your time to learn and you'll love those nice big gears when you hit the road. bikerHen