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I started out with a Trek 850. And still sort of own it. I have passed it on to Sandy, who rides it occasionally. Since my bikes are commuter bikes, I have fenders, locks and lots of flashing LEDs.
Kona SexOne After a summer spent biking in Utah and a few rides down some of the mountains ( I was there for work, but I took my bike along), I really wanted to move on up to a bike with suspension, not just front forks but a Full Suspension bike. Since it now looked like I was really going to ride it as a commuter bike, and not have a car, so could justify the expense that way. ("Just think of all the money I am saving!"). I found a year-end clearance and a Kona Sex One ("Suspension EXperiment" for those of you who don't know!) on sale for $1499, marked down from $1899. So, I went for it. I rode it for the next 4 years until it was stolen.
1996? Kona SexOne (SuspensionEXperiment!) I really enjoyed this bike. But Saskatchewan winters are not kind to full suspension bikes. It almost made it through its first winter okay. Then the Marzochi forks blew their seals. I took it back. They replaced the seals, but told me they wouldn't do it again if I was going to ride it in winter. I was a little annoyed because I had told them that was what I planned to do with it. So, for the next winter, I bought some Q21R RockShox and swapped the Marzochi onto Sandy's bike. Not much chance of Sandy riding in winter. The RockShox were guarranteed to survive the winter. They didn't tell me that they did this by freezing up solid as soon as the temperature drops to zero. The elastomers lose all compressability when they get cold. This was not adequate. The whole reason I wanted a full suspension bike is that riding in winter is BUMPY. You are always going over rough stuff, especially when you are riding on sidewalks in the frozen footprints of pedestrians. So I spurged on a "winter kit" for the RockShox. Turned out this was designed for California winters, not Saskatchewan. They froze solid at about -5 degrees. Useless. So I spurged again, this time on some steel springs. Now we're talking. These actually worked reasonable well, although everything still gets REALLY stiff when the temperature drops to -40. But if I jumped on them, they still moved a bit. I will take what I can get. The center shock was another saga. It failed in the middle of the second winter. Hard to tell, because with a coil over you only lose the damping. And when it is really cold, everything is so stiff that lack of damping is unnoticeable. But when spring rolled around, the bike became dangerously bouncy. So, I went to buy a new center shock. BAD NEWS. They didn't make them anymore... But they did have the fancier Fox AirShock... No choice, only game in town. I searched the net for an alternative but no go. So, I switched to the airshock. Nice. But, then one fine winter day, I hit a bump, and the airshock lost all its air. Which meant that the back suspension collapsed totally, and the rear wheel wedged up solidly against the frame. Walked home and took it back to my bike shope where they said "Hmmmm" and pumped up the air shock again (just so you don't think I am a total idiot, this requires a special pump). To my surprise, it held air and continued to work fine throughout the summer. Now in winter, I swap back to the already shot coil over and everyone is happy. Then one spring, about a month after I had swapped back to the air shock, some morons came by and stripped the bike. Just a few things ($400!) but including the center shock. I lock the bike up pretty well with a cable looping through everything in addition to a big U-Bolt Kryptonite through the frame. Idiots. There is no way on earth they could have a bike that would fit that shock. Probably just threw it in the river. So, back to the store, buy a yet another new shock and the other bits. The next time they stole the whole bike. :-( Oh well, at that point in time, I was already starting to think about upgrading/replacing it anyways. I was just about to spend a few hundred dollars getting all the bearings replaced, so it could have been worse. Marin Rock Springs: The insurance money helped me buy a Marin Rock Springs. Riding my bike to work everyday leaves it sort of exposed. We have a compound we can lock our bikes in, but it is too isolated to be really safe. With the insurance money, I bought the same sort of bike again. The technological advances make it a much better bike than my old one.
2000 Marin Rock Springs This time I had a better idea of the kind of bike that might survive a Saskatchewan winter. No airshocks. I made sure that the center shock was a coil-over, which at least when it fails only loses its damping, and doesn't collapse. This model also has adjustable damping, so I should be able to back it off so it doesn't self distruct when the oil turn to the consistency of peanut butter in -40. And the front fork is an oil bath, which the bike store assured me wouldn't have a problem. But, it lost all its oil last winter anyways, to the surprise of everyone. It has been fixed under warranty... We'll see what happens on the bike's second winter. My Marin Rock Springs has 5 inches (!!!) of travel front and rear. It makes it a little spooky going through technical stuff when the front end drops way down and changes the geometry of the whole bike. Hopping over railway tracks is also not for the light-hearted. You can't go straight over the tracks, because your rear wheel drops off the first track at the same time as you are trying to hop the front wheel over. So, you have to go diagonally, hoping you don't slide on the frosty rails. Hopping the front wheel over the first rail is easy, but then as you hop the rear wheel over the same rail, the front shock compresses and dives, and the back wheel unloads, greatly exagerating the weight transfer. Frequently the back wheel goes way higher than I intended. On a bad day it goes too high, or the front wheel decides to catch in the notch between railway ties and everything stops (but me) and I slowly and gracefully go over the handlebars and crash headfirst into sharp gravel. I fall pretty well (lots of practice!) but out of five crashes so far, I shed blood three times. Hmmm, you would think that the suspension would help for things like this. But then, I am the only one I ever see crossing these railway tracks on bike, everyone else walks.
The rails, my nemesis! FLASHING LEDs I swear by flashing LEDS and ride with them both front and rear. You just can't beat 200 hours on one set of batteries. I like the concept of a light you turn on all the time, even when it is only dusk and not really worth wasting batteries. If (when?) a car hits me, I DO NOT want it to be because he didn't see me. I actually have two red flashing LEDs on my backside. One mounted to the bike, and one attached to my backpack. I always turn both of them on. I still use them even though I have very little contact with cars; most of my cycling is now across open fields and bike paths. And I now need a real bike light now. For 3 months of the year, it is dark both going and returning from work. When I just cycled in town, I was able to rely on flashing LEDs and street lighting to keep me safe. Now I can't even find my bike trail through the field grass without a real light. NightHawk Pro Bike Light I bought a NiteHawk Pro. It contains 10 Watt spot beam, and a 20Watt flood. Power is provided by a lead acid battery bottle. Can you say HEAVY? I use the helmet mount almost exclusively, keeping the battery in the top lid of my backpack. Works really well, especially because the battery really doesn't have time to get real cold. I hear that a cold battery will only last half as long as a warm one. And from starting cars in the cold here, I know that it it true. But, using the 10 Watt bulb, I have to recharge once or twice a week, so it isn't much of a hassle. Highly recommended, although I have yet to find a bottle cage that can take the weight of the battery bottle. I don't use it much but when I do, I wrap the whole thing around with some of the big velcro fasteners that came with the kit. It is fun to be able to flick on my high and low beams with the handlebar mounted switches! |
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Email me! warren.long@shaw.ca Click on photos with a border for a bigger one! ******* |