Walk On Your Life

Posts Tagged ‘bike’

About a year ago I purchased an entry level hardtail mountain bike. At the time I did not want to spend a lot of money and I did not want poor quality. So I purchase a bike that had a good frame and basic components.

After riding for a year I have decided that I want to improve the comfort and control of my bike on the trail. Therefore I made the decision to upgrade my front suspension fork on my hardtail mountain bike.

My initial research concluded that there are a lot of different brands, types and sizes forks on the market so I conceded knew I needed help. After all, suspension forks are expensive and I didn’t want to waste my money.

After talking to different rides, employees at a few bike shops, reading article and posting questions online I put together a couple of bullet points to consider when buying a front suspension fork.

Determine if your bike has the geometry to support a suspension fork. If it does have the correct geometry try to determine the maximum height fork it can accommodate. I almost bought a fork with 160mm of travel but the seller convinced me not to buy it because he believed my bike did not have the correct geometry. After checking with the factory I determined that he was correct.

Mountain bike components are designed to withstand more abuse and extreme riding conditions. These components are heavier, sometime larger and more durable then road bike components. Sometime you are riding on dirt, rock, or in water, etc and the components need to be durable enough so they can withstand abusive treatment.

It just so happened that my rear derailleur broke on my full suspension mountain bike. I was riding a down hill trail and lost control of my bike. The rear of the bike ended up hitting the face of a rock and I was left with a mangled rear derailleur. So I looked at the positive side of the accident and said to myself now is the time to upgrade.

I could find new or near new parts on Bike Servant which is a mountain bike classifieds website and lists mountain bikes for sale, bike parts and race events but I was in the car with my bike so I decided to go to the store.

On the way home from the trail I stopped at my local bike store to buy a new derailleur so I can resume riding as quickly as possible. I told the bike shop guy my situation and she asked me which aftermarket Shimano derailleur I wanted to buy. Not knowing anything about the different categories in the Shimano product line I asked for help and this is what she relayed to me.

For most of us, well-intentioned but casual bike riders who secretly believe we might be Lance Armstrong’s heir if we only had a few more hours a day to spend on our bicycles, buying a new road bike is tantamount to buying a road bike frame. The frame is what we’re thinking of, something new and shiny and colorful, something we suspect even car drivers envy when they see us flash through the snarl of traffic. Truly, a road bike frame is a beautiful thing and part of the reason we love bicycling.

When you have the good fortune to be looking at new bicycles, though, you definitely want to look at a few elements besides the color of a road bike frame. Face it. When you’re on your way back home from a long Sunday ride and you’re riding your thirty-fifth mile smack into a stiff headwind, the fact that your frame is cobalt blue or even Bianchi green is not going to help you. The length of your seat tube is going to help you and the length of your top tube and even the angle of the three main tubes all put together is going to help (or hinder) you, but color is not.

At one time you could only buy cycling equipment at your local cycle shop, if they had what you wanted or you had to hope they could order it and then you would have to wait for it to come and hope it was the right size, colour or price. Then cycling magazines started to have adverts for the bigger stores and you could post off a cheque and wait for your prized article to arrive. Now things could not be easier, your at home watching the Tour de France on television, you see you hero attack on the mountainous slopes of Alpe-d’Huez, what are those sexy carbon cranks he’s using? They look like FSA or are they Campagnolo, they could be Stella Azurra, which are they? How much will they cost? Where can I get them? Well, get on the Web, put the name of that most wanted item into your search engine and see what it comes up with. The next move can be nearly as exciting as riding your bike up the mountains, that’s making comparisons of all the equipment, something you probably wont be able to do at your local cycle shop and then ordering it online, the worst bit is waiting for it to arrive.