Cyclists - Bike show and tell - show off your gear!

My wife's roader and hardtail (Specialized Jett):

 

Just about all the mountain bikers in my group started as roadies, myself included. But about the 4th time in a two month period I read about a biker getting killed on a road, doing what he was suppose to be doing, I was finished with road riding.

There are several advantages to mountain biking over road riding. Not getting killed is one of course. But the quoted statement above illustrates a major one to me. When I was road riding I would always be thinking about stuff. What I had to do at work etc. As well as constantly setting short term riding goals; "Just get to the top of that hill. Just get to that bridge. Make it to such and such intersection. etc etc" But when out on single track your brain does not have time for any of that thinking. The only thing you are thinking about is that 8" wide piece of dirt in front of you and how you really, really, want to stay on it!

I concur with the "find a group ride" advice. I've learned a lot from the folks I ride with. Learned both skills and equipment knowledge. I organize a weekly ride. We have 30-60 folks show up. We break it up into 3 to 5 groups based on abilities. Then we drink beer in the parking lot afterwards. Great fun.

I haven't given up golf, but I play way less than I use to. I got tired of coming home all pissed off after a bad round. I finally realized that I NEVER come home pissed off from a bike ride. I always feel GREAT after a ride. So I've cut back my golf. I either ride or do some sort of trail work five days a week.

 

I enjoy downhill mountain biking, but I don't do it that often, and certainly not often enough to warrant a dual-suspension bike. XC just isn't readily available here. At the coast we could ride from the house to a state park. (And our hardtails were perfect for that.)

ADD: If we move to, say, Bend in a few years, different story. I'd do both or all three.

Road kill is a distinct possibility. Now I have far more friends who've had monumental injuries mountain biking, but in that venture you do have to try really stupid it to kill yourself, and on the road it's just one idiot away. It's a risk I choose to take. Hell, two guys got killed two years ago in the freakin' Tour de Palm Springs.

Different strokes.

And good on you for being such an advocate for and supporter of your passion.

Like you my golf is down and has been for a few years. Nothing overtly planned. Though perhaps ironic given what I do for a living. Golf to me now is 100% a social pursuit, though at times I do go out and hoof it myself, but I can carry on a good conversation. lol But now most of my golf is events and planned getaways with friends, family or my wife. I'm never gonna get better than I am and frankly I don't frankly. My skill set doesn't define me and I can get around a pro-am or whatever if need be without totally doing a face-plant. So it's all about laughs, scenery and fun.

 

I hear you there and I live an a Deliverance type area where that can be a concern also. I had one pitbull not that long ago that took some careful diplomacy to deal with. When he saw me he hopped right off the front porch (of the mobile home btw) and darted to the edge of the yard and right through a perfect doggie sized hole in the fence without even breaking stride. I didn't have momentum and couldn't outrun him so I tried to slow down and talk to him but he kept a distance that said he might lunge at any moment and barked at me while I moved. He was right within reach of my back leg so I was afraid he might bite at it. I stopped and got off with the bike between us, continuing to talk to him but he just kept barking and backing away but if I tried to move he'd come in again. Eventually I just had to keep moving slowly while talking to him till he got tired and stopped keeping pace.

Mountain biking does not prevent getting killed. Not sure if you heard the news all the way in Austin, but we just lost one who was part of a FB group I'm in for Jack Brooks park. He had an accident on one of the biking features that ended up being fatal. Although road riding does come with its own set of dangers there are ways to mitigate them. I choose my routes carefully, ride only in places where I feel its safe and have a helmet mounted mirror to keep an eye on the traffic behind me.

Also remember: From a life expectancy standpoint its still safer to ride the road than ride the couch!

 

Most everyone I ride with has the Garmin radar unit.

 

The risk of injury mountain biking is WAY more than a road rider's. That is a fact. We've had several post ride discussions of past injuries that always makes me think of this scene from Jaws:

My list is:
-Stabbed with a punji stick/coat hanger tree branch stump (poor trail building) resulted in three external stitches (Doctor: "we don't want too many because when it starts to ooze we don't want it to explode) and two INTERNAL stitches. I didn't even know that was a thing. A very manly scar resulted.
-Separated shoulder
-Strained groin muscle. Handlebars caught a tree. Bike when one way, my leg went another.
-Three broken helmets. I preach that everyone should always wear one.
-Strained knee.
-More cuts and bruises than I can count.

I love it.

 

I really want one of those but they are so dang expensive! Plus I'd have to get a new head unit to take full advantage since mine is a Bryton. I also want to get a set of front/rear Cycliq cameras but that's another couple hundy.

 

Have had my Trek 4500 for about 13 years.


I live 3/4 of a mile from a park entrance with 12 miles of paved paths and over 10 miles of mountain bike trails, and ride it on both.

A few months ago I decided to invest in a cheap road bike so bought a relic that had been sitting in a garage for years and spent a couple hundred bucks updating it...


I ride solo since I like to go when I come home from work or early morning weekends.

 

OK, fess up, what did everyone name his/her bike(s)?????

 

Those Peugeots were really popular in the ‘70’s, I still see them around with the white frame. My brother just junked his from 1973.

 

Yep, classic steel. I had an Austro-Daimler back in the day that I sadly dumped to buy an Allez when first issued.

 

Yeah, not sure how old it is but when I took it into the bike shop the guy who helped me was ecstatic since he was from France.

 

One of the stops we make on a couple of our routes. Water, loos and a fruit bite or two:

 

I don't name my bikes but I have been calling my newest acquisition The Jolly Green Giant


Get it? Huh, do you? It's a Giant Trance. It's green. Oh never mind.

 

I think the Raleigh Record and Grand Prix were in the same era as those Peugeots. I owned a Raleigh Grand Prix 10-speed back in the early '70s. That was the only road bike that I ever owned, since I had a preference for mountain bikes. I actually sold that old Raleigh which only needed a new set of tires and brake pads when I moved into my new condo back in 2015.

 

@Johnzimbo Very nice combo of the Trek and vintage Peugeot! There has been one for sale in my area just like that one that I’ve been tempted by.

I’ve actually never named any of my inanimate objects since I was a kid which is interesting because I had a vivid imagination, imaginary friends with whole backstories and names for all my stuffed animals back them. Even when I was a serious trumpet player I never named any of my horns. Wonder why that is.

 

My first Z was "Warren," as in Zevon. The second was "Nightfury." When that one morphed into the current frame it became "Toothless." Terri's Vita is "Summer." Her Electra before that was "Fresa." And she'll be seeing Fresa in October at a charity ride as she sold it to a life-long friend.

 

This appears to be the only thread on VMB that discusses bicycles.

What about bicycling _in LV_?

I started road biking in 2008, and have taken my bike with me to Vegas a few times. I've gone on some club rides, ridden on the surprisingly nice bike trails along the 215 on the west and south sides of town, and ridden parts of the River Mountains Loop between Henderson and Lake Mead.

Planning to take a small group from our club in Phoenix next month, staying at Suncoast where we should be able to ride from the hotel to the bike paths and streets with bike lanes in the Summerlin area.

 

That sounds like a blast! I'd love to do that but since my wife isn't a cyclist and wouldn't dare be left out of a Vegas trip I don't know if I ever will.

 

Made a quick overnighter back to the old haunts and got in a ride to Surf this morning with some of the old riding gang ...