I got a new bike. First race is in late February, can't really race my fixie/SS in a road race. I will, however, be taking my Langster to the velodrome this summer once road season is over.

So here's the new hotness. 2006 Fuji Team Pro, Ultegra/Dura-Ace mix, full carbon fiber frame and fork, weighs in at ~18lbs, about a pound and a half lighter than the Langster. I still have room to weight weenie it too, if I find the right deals. CF bars, stem, seat post, crank set, wheels. I'll have to find some REALLY good deals to make any of those purchases, but I got such a killer deal on this bike I might be able to find the budget later on in the season.













I like how you can see the CF weave through the decals, like in Fuji and Team Pro. It's the little touches.

F'n Texas! Get that junk outta here in the middle of December

I'm into this kinda weather this time of year, dreaming about having a nice pair of studded tires....


Seriously though, that's a nice looking bike. Fuji has some good looking stuff, I've always liked their road forks. I used to have a Cannondale six13 with full Dura Ace. Too rich for my commuter blood, I sold it after 305 miles.

This is my current road bike, which doesn't get ridden a whole lot, but it's old enough that I don't mind leaving it parked behind work, and it's also old enough that I don't mind letting it sit in the basement because depreciation can't make it worth any less than I paid for it. $50 for the frame/fork/headset, $100 for the Sram Rival 10, $75 wheels, $5 cranks, free seat, free post, $2.50 stem. That's the stuff I go for! haha

Quote from: tt_four on December 22, 2009, 08:48:19 PM
F'n Texas! Get that junk outta here in the middle of December

Today's high was in the 70s. I still didn't go out for a ride. :(I spent all day cleaning. Lame.

Quote from: tt_four on December 22, 2009, 08:48:19 PM
Seriously though, that's a nice looking bike. Fuji has some good looking stuff, I've always liked their road forks. I used to have a Cannondale six13 with full Dura Ace. Too rich for my commuter blood, I sold it after 305 miles.

Not bad for $700, eh?

Quote from: tt_four on December 22, 2009, 08:48:19 PM
This is my current road bike, which doesn't get ridden a whole lot, but it's old enough that I don't mind leaving it parked behind work, and it's also old enough that I don't mind letting it sit in the basement because depreciation can't make it worth any less than I paid for it. $50 for the frame/fork/headset, $100 for the Sram Rival 10, $75 wheels, $5 cranks, free seat, free post, $2.50 stem. That's the stuff I go for! haha

You got a Rival setup for $100? Holy crap! How are you liking the Double Tap? I'm a Shimano guy myself, but I haven't actually tried the SRAM stuff so I can't make any personal judgment except based off what I've read. The little bit I have ridden the Fuji, holy crap the Ultegra is NICE. Clean, quiet, quick shifts. Just a nice click click click. Also, your cranks look like the same ones I have. Truvativ Rouleur? I'm looking for a cheapy Ultegra crank to swap with, because I've read some bad reviews on these, and because I really don't like the chrome chain rings. Getting replacement chainrings would be more expensive than a barely-used Ultegra crank too, I think.

haha, I have a friend that used to work at cannondale, and he has no need to ride anything less than $7k bikes with full dura ace, so I usually got any of the random stuff he had. I think that six13 I had was probably about..... $750-800, just about all the parts came from him too. I do like shimano stuff more, but I hate their 10 speed, their shifters are way to big for my tastes, and I don't actually like how smooth they shift. The nicest shifters I've ever had were the DA 9 speed. I loved the solid click they gave you when you shift. You can barely feel these ones shift. I'm sure some people like that about them, but I didn't. I would've tried to trade these ones for some 9 speed stuff, but logically, I felt like I was going back a step by going to 9 speed after I had 10 speed, even if I did like it more, just being shallow I guess. If I had a choice I'd have campy stuff on the bike, but I'm really more of one for compatibility and easy to find parts, and never wanted to take the time to collect all the pieces.

The double tap is ok, once you get used to it it's all the same. It's nice being able to do anything with just the one lever, plus you can pull it in closer to the bar so you don't have to have your fingers extended to the lever to shift a lot. The one thing I don't like is that it doesn't have a half step when you're going from the large front ring to the smaller. People say you don't need it, but shimano shifters are way smoother because they have it, and it does make a big difference in being able to downshift any time you want and not worrying about if the chain will be rubbing. Otherwise if you really want to be in that half step, you have to downshift, then half shift back up a step. It's good though. They're comfortable, and I think they look a lot better than the shimano stuff, plus I can still use shimano cassettes or chains or any of that stuff if I need to. I also like that all the cables are under the bar tape, although the newer shimano 10 shifters finally put their shift cables under the bar tape as well.

I wouldn't mind some nicer cranks, but I got those ones for $5 out of a box at a bike swap. My friend gave me a new bottom bracket and the chainrings for free. I stick to the old look pedals so I can ride it in tennis shoes if I want to use it for commuting. Otherwise I'm not too picky about them, but if I had nicer shifters I'd definitely try to find some nicer cranks.

Here's my last one while the pictures are getting thrown around...

Yea, racing ... yea, so you put a GS motor bored to 569 with wiseco pistons and stuff 39mm CR carbs and race it.
Cool.
Buddha.

I thought of another benefit to riding fixed gear over the past couple weeks. The lack of brake pads.....

Riding in this miserable weather tears apart your brake pads like sandpaper to bare skin. If I replaced them timely I'd probably only get a couple weeks out of a set, but I usually just run them down until the metal is about to poke through. At the same time the pads get extra hard from being cold, plus if you ride for a while without using them the snow/mess will pile up behind them, and you've gotta pump them a couple times before they're clean enough to barely even stop you anyway. I'd love a winter bike with disc brakes on it, but I don't feel like buying any more bicycles.

Sorry to be off topic but does everyone kind of smile when they see something that was built in their hometown???

-Jessie

Yeah, not quite my home town, but it's still only 2 hours away. That's the reason that 90% of the bikes I've owned have been cannondales. Don't care as much now that they've laid off 2/3rds of their staff to ship the jobs overseas, but I usually buy used bikes anyway, so I can still get plenty of Bedford made cannondales.

At the same time, you think they're gonna change 2/3rds of their "Made in USA" stickers to "outsourced at the expense of Bedford" stickers? Doubt it.

I've finally cut it down to a reasonable 4 bikes, 3 of which are cannondales. The one that isn't is my fixed/single frame, and I hope to replace that with a cannondale frame at some point as well, althought fixed gears really work better being steel. I also want to find one of those mid 90's touring frames for some fenders and bar end shifters to ride in wet weather. I'd like to take the fenders off the cyclocross bike and keep that thing intended for fun. My wife only has 2 bikes, but one of them is a cannondale. The other is one of the old Schwinn Madison's that was made in Mississippi. Not as local, but still good enough for me, plus the prices of those old cannondale track frames are through the roof.

They'll probably do like my Diamondback that says "Designed in the USA" on a real big sticker on the seat tube.  You look real close and you'll find a little "Made in China" sticker on the bottom of the frame.

-Jessie

I used to always get yelled at by the owner of the last shop I worked at because I always made sure to leave the "made in China" stickers on all the headtubes of the raleigh and jamis bikes he sold. At least he didn't hear me talking up Cannondale's when they'd ask my opinion, because we didn't sell them, although the shop right across the street did. Haha

nice bikes ! my old-ish trek 5900 was made here, but i don't think any more of them are.

i'd like to braze a little, never was good at it, and make up a cool frame at some point.



i <3 bikes

Quote from: BaltimoreGS on January 08, 2010, 08:25:30 AM
Sorry to be off topic but does everyone kind of smile when they see something that was built in their hometown???

Definitely. Though neither of my bikes are built in the US. While my Langster was designed in the US, it was handmade in Taiwan (according to the sticker).

Quote from: tt_four on January 08, 2010, 11:07:04 AM
I've finally cut it down to a reasonable 4 bikes, 3 of which are cannondales. The one that isn't is my fixed/single frame, and I hope to replace that with a cannondale frame at some point as well, althought fixed gears really work better being steel.

I really REALLY want a Cannondale Lefty mountain bike. And I hear the Capos are pretty nice for fixed gears. As for the steel, my aluminum Langster is pretty damn nice. Light weight (<20lbs), handles great, and I don't really notice the road buzz because the carbon fork and seatpost absorb everything pretty nicely. If you get a chance to try a Langster, do so, they are quite nice, though a bit stale. They don't have the "fixie flavor" or whatever that a lot of people look for. The Langster is a bare bones SS/fixie and nothing else. It's not a style bike, it's just a get 'er done bike.

Quote from: ohgood on January 08, 2010, 06:09:35 PM
nice bikes ! my old-ish trek 5900 was made here, but i don't think any more of them are.

All the high end Treks are still made in the US, likewise with Specialized. Only the cheap-y mass produced frames are outsourced. I know that all the CF frames for Trek and Specialized are made in the US. There's not sticker on my Fuji, but I am assuming it was made in Japan. I could be wrong though.

Race season starts up pretty soon. Got a 100mi ride coming up on the 18th. First time I'll do a century, hopefully won't die.

Quote from: Alphamazing on January 09, 2010, 07:45:33 PM
I really REALLY want a Cannondale Lefty mountain bike. And I hear the Capos are pretty nice for fixed gears. As for the steel, my aluminum Langster is pretty damn nice. Light weight (<20lbs), handles great, and I don't really notice the road buzz because the carbon fork and seatpost absorb everything pretty nicely. If you get a chance to try a Langster, do so, they are quite nice, though a bit stale. They don't have the "fixie flavor" or whatever that a lot of people look for. The Langster is a bare bones SS/fixie and nothing else. It's not a style bike, it's just a get 'er done bike.

I do like the lefty mountain bikes, but I don't mountain bike enough to spend that much money on one. When I had a mountain bike, I used it about 3 times a summer, otherwise I just ride it on the street.

I'd like to replace mine with a capo, but I'd REALLY like to replace it with one of the Major Taylor frames from somewhere around 2001. They're pretty much the same exact thing as the capo, but they had red/grey or red/white/black paint jobs, and they were built up with really nice parts. They came with full dura ace groups and weighed absolutely nothing. The new paint jobs I think look awful.

I've had 2 langsters. I rode the one for a while, but sold it because it was too big. I did like it though. The other langster frame I had I never even built up. I just got a good deal on it, and resold it for more. I also had a Fuji Track Pro. That bike had a carbon fork, and it was the bike that made me hate aluminum fixed gears. It was heavy and felt like I got hit with a baseball bat every time I hit a tiny hole in the road. My pake is a cheap frame but it still rides really well.

I went back and forth on it for a little while, not sure if I wanted to let it go, but I think I decided I'm gonna sell my road bike. It's the blue and white one I posted above. Saving up for another motorcycle hasn't been as productive as I thought, and now that I work 1.7 miles from home it's usually not worth pulling out my road bike, let alone taking the time to put on some clipless shoes in hopes of actually saving some time getting to work. I browsed ebay to see what cannondales with Rival were going for, and I was decently surprised. I'm hoping I can get about $1000 out of it, plus a couple hundred out of the rest of the bike clutter sitting in my basement that I'm tired of seeing so I can get a jumpstart on saving. I'm tired of seeing some crazy deals go through craigslist lately and not having any money to jump on them.

That'll leave me with the fixed gear/single speed, the cyclocross bike with riser bars and slick tires that I usually ride, and the winter mountain bike. Someday if I work farther away from home I'll consider another road bike, but in the mean time it's just hanging out, and I'd really rather have a gsxr, buell, or 636r just hanging out instead. What do you guys think?? Alpha's profile says he hasn't been on since February, I wonder where he's been.

He comes and gos.  He's busy off learning how to be an engineer or some such sillyness.

Hey tt want to sell one of those road bikes?

this is my current ride. going to try and scrape togethr enough and get a road bike, and transplant this engine to it.

god u could get a real bike, vrooom, for the price of one of those people power pusher 

I dont have that option frank. , and as al gore harps about global warming, chevrolegs are the way to go

Quote from: frankieG on April 15, 2010, 12:54:08 PM
god u could get a real bike, vrooom, for the price of one of those people power pusher 

Your point?  I could have bought a friggin 1098 for what I have in my closet.  People make their own choices, regardless of whether you think those choices are sound.

Quote from: spc on April 19, 2010, 08:40:14 PM

Quote from: frankieG on April 15, 2010, 12:54:08 PM
god u could get a real bike, vrooom, for the price of one of those people power pusher 

Your point?  I could have bought a friggin 1098 for what I have in my closet.  People make their own choices, regardless of whether you think those choices are sound.

BINGO, you buy this item, ( insert item here) for you, not for anyone else. you buy it caue you wnat it. FWIW a competitive cyclist will usually have$$$ tied up in his or her bike. mainly because those things, can withstand FAR more abuse than your average rider anywhere. ( the normal consumer)these types of bikes are light, and dont use store grade componentry either. hence the cost. hell even pablo here IIRC has ridden competitively. i do in charity centuries and whatnot. whre tis not speed, BUT distance, ridden, and amount of money raised for teh ADA or whatever the charity beneficiary is. ive been volunteering wihtADA tour de cure, ( riding centuries mainly) SLOWLY lol, since 1995from my home in clinton, to chattanooga, or clinton area to harrogate tn, or such. the gist of this long winded ass post?, you spend $$ of what works for you, NOT what works for frnak or me or anyone ELSE, UNLESS youre buying it for them. frank this wasnt intended as a direct shot at you, just a long winded expy of things like this