The Get fit club!

[janneppi]

I've never had clipless pedals full stop. I'm going to learn to go clipless on my mountain bike as it has a much lower bar and far superior brakes. Once I've mastered using them on my mountain bike they will be switched to my road bike. I'd never even riden a road bike before I bought mine about a month ago so there was no way that I was going to go clipless straightaway on a bike with a racing position, high bar and really rubbish brakes. Don't think I fancy mountain biking clipless though. One X-ray after a fall this year was plenty enough for me.

Have the cliplesses been working for you?

Today I visited couple of bike shops to get an idea what the mtb market looks like. The first thing I saw was Salsa Mukluk with an old modded Marzocchi Shiver fork in place of a normal rigid fork. It was almost love at first sight.
Fortunately I can't justify the price of a fat tyre bike at the moment.

[GridGirl]

My transition to clipless cycling has mostly been fine. When I say mostly I actually mean apart from the two falls of epic comedy value that I had.

The first happened within 15 minutes of going clipless when the pedals were initially put on my mountain bike. I was rolling really slowly when I unclipped with my left leg and didnt think about what I was doing and tried to put my unclipped right leg on the ground. Shifting the balance of my weight meant that I just fell slowly sidewards onto the ground. This resulted in quite a nasty bruise on my upper arm where somehow the handlebars hit me.

The other fall occured when I was on holiday a couple of weeks ago about 90km into a 101km ride on my road bike. The road bike is a bit skittish and it was quite a windy day. I'd unclipped but then got a bit of a wobble on and fell to the side that my leg was still clipped in. So I was there laying in a pile on the floor in fits of laughter with my right leg still attached the the bike and me being unable to unclip it. The high bar also meant that my free leg wasnt able to get purchase on the floor to enable me to get up either. The other half had to get off his bike and physically lift me and the bike up.

So, apart the couple of falls clipless is brilliant. Its really helped increase my average speed and its particually helped to increase my speed going up hills. Although I dont have a lot of confidence going up very steep hills clipped in with both feet yet. On hills which have been marked more than 20% in gradient I have been unclipping one foot just incase. I think its better to be safe than sorry as I dont really want to end up in a heap on the floor again if my legs do give up and say they dont want to move because its too hard.

I'd never heard of Salsa Mukluk's before so I had to google them. Fat tyre bikes do look pretty cool. Do you know how the market for fat tyre bikes has been over the last few years? My other half bought his 2009 full suspension mountain bike for around £1800 but the equivalent 2012 bike now costs around £3,000. If fat tyre bikes are going up in price like mountain bikes have been going up in the UK it might be an idea to get a new bike sooner rather than later. Me and the other half stuck a deal last month which involved me buying him a Specialized Secteur Comp road bike in exchange for him buying me a mountain bike next year. I'm pretty sure I'm getting the best deal out of it though. We've been to the World Mountain Biking championships at Dalby Forest the last two years and it went from around 10% of riders using 29ers last year to around 90% using 29ers this year. All the big manufacturers appear to be bringing out mainsteam 29ers in their 2012 ranges. I have been wondering whether I should be a first mover and get a 29er but then again maybe I should leave other people to test the waters and stick with a standard bike. I've seen a few mens 29ers in cycling shops and they do look huge.

[janneppi]

My transition to clipless cycling has mostly been fine. When I say mostly I actually mean apart from the two falls of epic comedy value that I had.

It takes a bit of muscle memory to unclip always on the same side, but eventually you'll be able to unclip when going over the handlebar at hight speeds(not recommended). Last time I didn't manage a proper unclipping was when I tried to wheelie a large water puddle but fell on my arse into the water.

I'd never heard of Salsa Mukluk's before so I had to google them. Fat tyre bikes do look pretty cool. Do you know how the market for fat tyre bikes has been over the last few years?

They are getting slighty popular, at the moment there are maybe 50 in Finland, but every single on of the 30 or so frames the shop was getting was already sold and they have to get more airlifted.

My other half bought his 2009 full suspension mountain bike for around £1800 but the equivalent 2012 bike now costs around £3,000. If fat tyre bikes are going up in price like mountain bikes have been going up in the UK it might be an idea to get a new bike sooner rather than later. Me and the other half stuck a deal last month which involved me buying him a Specialized Secteur Comp road bike in exchange for him buying me a mountain bike next year. I'm pretty sure I'm getting the best deal out of it though. We've been to the World Mountain Biking championships at Dalby Forest the last two years and it went from around 10% of riders using 29ers last year to around 90% using 29ers this year. All the big manufacturers appear to be bringing out mainsteam 29ers in their 2012 ranges. I have been wondering whether I should be a first mover and get a 29er but then again maybe I should leave other people to test the waters and stick with a standard bike. I've seen a few mens 29ers in cycling shops and they do look huge.

The shop owner's Salsa was around 3000 Eur
On one in UK are building a prototype at the moment which should be on the affordable side.

Most expensive thing on the bikes are the wheels, mostly due to lack of manufacturers.

At the moment i'm looking into either these fat lolz machines or maybe a 29" hardtail built for all mountain use. (unless a suitable 26" hardtail finds itself into my flat). I wouldn't get a 29" bike unless I was as tall as I am, I'm 187cm and it's about 50/50 which is better for me. IMO If you are short, stick to 26" bikes

[janneppi]

First I thought to put this in the AFFrina thread , but my new family members is a bit more important than some kid.

I finally found the bike that I was looking for for months. it's not a hardtail as my previous post would have indicated, but few hours on a borrowed Specialized full suspension bike brougth me back to my senses.

Here's the family portrait.

Erin on the wall and Jonna on the floor. :

The road bike will move to handle work commuting duties and the tractor will be the fun time happy machine.

[pino]

About time to use those bikes Janne...you really need it :

[Uneven Treatment]

Holy crap.. well thats a complete mind bender. I started this thread years ago.

I think I stopped posting soon after. Weird to see my old login here literally years later. Very top of the chit chat forum too.

Err.. so how'd it go. Anyone lose any weight? I cetainly didn't. lol.

[tfp]

First I thought to put this in the AFFrina thread , but my new family members is a bit more important than some kid.

I finally found the bike that I was looking for for months. it's not a hardtail as my previous post would have indicated, but few hours on a borrowed Specialized full suspension bike brougth me back to my senses.

Here's the family portrait.

Erin on the wall and Jonna on the floor. :

The road bike will move to handle work commuting duties and the tractor will be the fun time happy machine.

Nice! The front forks on Jonna look exactly the same as my Kona

[janneppi]

Thanks.
Fork is a 160mm 36 Float, the bike is a bit over a year old, with very little use by the original owner. I could have done without the Hope brakes or the Cane Creak rear shock, but I'm not complaining, i just need to put a slightly longer stem and switch to a less ridiculous handle bar(current is 760mm wide) and it's pretty much perfect. All I need now is the snow to melt so i can actually use it in the woods.

[tfp]

Thanks.
Fork is a 160mm 36 Float, the bike is a bit over a year old, with very little use by the original owner. I could have done without the Hope brakes or the Cane Creak rear shock, but I'm not complaining, i just need to put a slightly longer stem and switch to a less ridiculous handle bar(current is 760mm wide) and it's pretty much perfect. All I need now is the snow to melt so i can actually use it in the woods.

We dont have so much of a problem with snow here I only had to stop the bike rides for two weeks until the snow was all gone!

I have Hope brakes on mine, I dont think they live up to the hype, theyre the only thing that has gone wrong with my mountain bike since I bought it. My mate has Hayes brakes on his and they work really well, but theres very little feel to them. Have you ever driven a new VW/Seat/Audi? A bit like the brakes on these cars, either on or off, nothing in between!

[GridGirl]

Is that an Orange bike? I would quite like an Orange Diva full suspension bike but I dont think my budget will stretch that far.