Been doing a lot of gravel/mountain bike workouts on my NordicTrack bike. It has me itching to get out on area Fire Roads when the weather gets better.

So, of course my Giant Escape 2 isn’t geared for that type of riding and I decided to buy a second bike geared for hills and thrills.

Salsa “Rangefinder” single 30T front sprocket and 10 speed (11T-48T) rear sprocket. Front suspension fork and a great range. Looking forward to a new riding experience.

back in the late 50's and 60's the Schwinn varsity 10 speed was the way to go. I always dreamed of upgrading someday to a Schwinn Continental.

NEW BIKE DAY!!!!

I love garage sales!

For $30 total I managed to scoop up a very cool Specialized BMX bike and a baby blue step over bar bike. The Specialized FatBoy has a beautiful paint job and is in surprisingly good shape. The ladies bike is also gorgeous.

My daughter has already claimed the Fat BoyGirl as her own. Maybe I’ll be able to convince her to race at our local BMX track.







I adjusted the seat and bars to my preferences in the pic below.



I love the paint on this baby and the white wall tires & white fenders.


And it has Maxxis tires front and back.

Dude, LUCKY!!!!
Would love to have that Fat Boy especially at that price.

Depending on the day and my mood, I ride:

2013 Specialized Tarmac Elite

1989 Specialized Rock Combo

1995 Specialized Rockhopper

1987 Diamondback Ascent

So glad to see the weather getting better!

Took my new Salsa Rangefinder for a 60 mile ride a couple weeks ago, absolutely loved it. From my house to the start of the Snohomish Co. Centennial trail (old railroad grade) was about 9.5 miles.

Rode the trail from start to finish, 30 miles and then the most direct route home, 20.5 miles backtracking for a portion of the trail.

4 hours 33 minutes moving, just 5 minutes of stop time. Pretty much non-stop except for taking a few pictures and drinking some water at the Red Barn. Averaged a little over 13 miles an hour, not bad for a 59 year old dude on a mountain bike



The bike:



Start of the trail in City of Snohomish:




End of trail, north of Arlington:




Apple Workout map:




Bike Computer:

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:

And it has Maxxis tires front and back.

I would have bought it just for the tires. I have been looking for a set of 20x1.75 Maxxis Holy Rollers for more than two years. No luck. I can find all kinds of fat, stupid, goofy tires (2.20) but finding a 1.75 is like finding a unicorn grazing in a field of four leaf clovers, watered by leprechauns.

Awesome score on the tires. The bike is just a kick ass extra.

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:

I would have bought it just for the tires. I have been looking for a set of 20x1.75 Maxxis Holy Rollers for more than two years. No luck. I can find all kinds of fat, stupid, goofy tires (2.20) but finding a 1.75 is like finding a unicorn grazing in a field of four leaf clovers, watered by leprechauns.

Awesome score on the tires. The bike is just a kick ass extra.

This one?

https://www.amazon.com/Maxxis-...-1-75/dp/B00188A28S/


Also, several Kenda tires on Amazon in 20x1.75 size. I had Kenda tires on a bike years ago and they seemed to work great.

911Boss, those are the ones. While they’re quite expensive, I think I will have to pull the trigger. The 2.20 tires I have are awful.

Thank you!

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
911Boss, those are the ones. While they’re quite expensive, I think I will have to pull the trigger. The 2.20 tires I have are awful.

Thank you!

Glad I am not the only one. I got the boy a We The People last year and have been looking for narrower tires but last could could find zero that weren’t over 2”.
Looks like availability may be coming back but rough at nearly $40 a tire they will likely have to wait.
Especially since his new Powell-Peralta is all he is riding at the moment.

$40 isn’t quite as bad as the $80+ you’re likely to pay at your local bike store for a medium/soft compound 27.5 Maxxis Ardent rear tire. You can save a few bucks buying online but not a lot.

For a home built electric mountain bike with a 40+ mph top speed on its own power it’s worth spending the $$$$ for decent rubber. It’s waaaay better than what motorcycle rubber will set ya back too.

What happens when you take the best building material for a bike, 4130 chromoly and add a small/obscure Canadian bike company that will still hand build a bike to your specs? They create a slack head angle monster of a bike built for 160mm of travel and the end result is arguably the most bad ass hardtail do anything bike ever made. It’s what the most bad ass BMX bikes want to be when they grow up.

Chromag’s Stylus in the “raw” meaning clearcoat paint sprayed over a bare chromo frame that shows off its gorgeous welds, heat marks and all.

I had to let three bikes go to fund this most recent bike build. I think it’ll be worth it.







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Cannondale Jekyll 600....Finally got a real MB after I graduated from Auburn. Still ride it to this day. It has gone through several sets of tires (always preferred Velociraptors), had a brake up grade to hydraulic discs, replaced the Fox rear shock and it seems to eat gaskets and o-rings on the Heady front shock. Other than that its still a great ride. Yes...bikes todays are much improved, better brakes, suspension, but their prices are a whole other level of stupid. At my age I probably buy a Honda XR650L for the money I would spend on a new MTB.

The new Scott Spark maintained a faster pace than my oversized chromoly bombproof hardtail. 250mm of travel total (front and back) > 160mm travel up front and zero travel out back. ESPECIALLY when paired to a VERY stiff chromoly frame that almost feels like riding an aluminum frame BMX bike hard.

I hit up a decent trail in Winston Salem NC. It was a brief ride because I didn’t have a lot of time but it was a blast. Fast and flowing with lots of drops, rocks and down hill sections along with brutal climbs.



The “short travel” 130mm front 120mm rear Spark didn’t even come close to bottoming out on the perimeter trail. I didn’t hit the jump sections but I think the Spark could handle it.



I recently sold off a Giant Anthem X29 that I bought cheap with a cracked suspension component that could only be sourced overseas at a loooooong lead time. My patience and ability to find things online really paid off! I’ll probably sell off my older Specialized Stumpjumper and pick up a Specialized Status 160 since it can handle quite a bit and it is MUCH more capable than both my Spark and Stumpjumper when it comes to being able to ride anywhere.

With the direct to your house shipping and minimal assembly this is one of THE best deals in the MTB world right now. I’ve seen videos of these being absolutely thrashed online without any issues.

Last Bike I rode, circa 1970's

I put in a low ball offer on a chromoly Soma Juice frame and to my shock the seller accepted my offer. Soma is a San Francisco based bike company but the frame was made in Taiwan.

These are pretty neat as they can accommodate plus size 29 inch tires up to 2.6 inches wide or 3 inches for 27.5 tires. It has more traditional geometry and doesn’t have the slack head angle that’s all the rage right now. I like that as I already have a few “progressive” geometry bikes and wanted to get something different.

The dropouts are removable and adjustable so it can run both thru axles and the older quick detach open dropouts. It can also be set up as a single speed thanks to the sliding dropouts.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to build it up as a trail bike, or convert it to an electric bike.

I got lucky to get one with both sets of drop outs, when you buy them they typically only come with one type and you have to order the other separately.

I emailed Soma a few months ago to inquire about a different model and received a detailed and helpful email the next day. They seem like a decent company as far as C/S and responding back quickly.

I picked up a gently used Marin Rift Zone last summer. I plan on replacing the rear shock with something a bit higher end but the rest of the bike is solid. I tested it out on the Bitterbush downhill trail in Lyons CO.

RyanP225,

That’s a good looking Marin! I’m quite fond of that brand and its chromoly adventure/bike packing hardtail, the Pine Mountain. It makes a hell of a base for a home built electric bike.

Keep an eye on Jenson’s website. They will run very good sales on shocks & forks fairly regularly.

I managed to pick up a Fox Factory racing 36 fork for a stupid good price during one of their sales. My LBS let me borrow the tool to install the Star nut. Cutting down and sizing the fork wasn’t hard at all. I haven’t swapped a rear shock but if you have a decent torque wrench it shouldn’t be hard at all.

Nice score for both of you. Makes me want to go ride, but the weather here is not on my side. Im a fair weather cyclist, and the weather isn’t nice enough.

New bike day was a couple months back.
This is a Lauf Anywhere gravel bike. The carbon frame is amazingly light and a blast to ride.