TheLizard

Nah, I just don't like them. And it's hard to find a bike like I want to ride that doesn't have the drop bars. I like gravel bikes because I'm always riding on mixed terrain (asphalt, broken, poorly maintained asphalt, and crushed gravel mostly). Most gravel bikes around here have the drop bars, which I hate.

When I decided I didn't want to ride that bike any more because of the drop bars, I sold it cheap. I'm sure the guy that bought it wouldn't have considered a bike with a flat bar. Cheap worked. I sold it less than 3 hours after I posted it for sale.

grizzly907la

Fried Chicken is always a great motivator!

CargoDane

You can ride other types of bikes on gravel and poor roads. A "Gravel Bike" is a road bike adjusted a little bit to have a more relaxed headtube etc. and the ability to take wider tyres. So it's no wonder you can't find many without drop bars: They are just a more rugged version of a road bike.

Look at other bikes and just choose the tyres correctly, and voila; You will have a bike that can do gravel. It can be a longish MTB, a "trekking" bike, a mixte, or whatever else.

​​​​​​​In other words: It is called a "gravel bike" as opposed to the "road bike" it is derived from. However, those bikes aren't the only ones that can ride perfectly well on gravel. It's for a particular type of gravel riding and for a particular type of rider.

rsbob 

Really enjoy Bob Roll’s description of racing in the mountains during TdF. “Suffering like a dog” and “bone crushing pain” are two of my faves. If Bob ever tours go see him. His stories are absolutely hysterical.

layli

I totally agree with the above statement - it sounds like you have a very uncomfortable bike! Cycling should not be torture no matter what kind of bike you are on - I have a race bike, a touring rig and a cyclocross bike and I can easily ride 30 miles on any of them and still finish with a smile on my face. Sounds like you and your bike are not well matched :-( but don’t let that put you off. If your bike is comfortable you will definitely enjoy the scenery because you won’t be thinking about painful body parts!

BEC111

The bike does make a difference. I’m a senior and when I restarted riding after more than 50 years I had the same reaction. Wanted to ride but didn’t love the riding. I solved it by getting a Specialized Turbo Levo SL pedal assist ebike. It took at least 20 years off my legs. Riding is so much fun. And I get great exercise. My cardiologist says the bike is my medicine. Blood pressure down, rhythm steady.

The bike cost a lot, but boy was it worth it.

Slightspeed

I ride for fun. If it stops being fun, I'll stop riding. So far it's been 60 years of fun.

grizzly907la

Cycling is a tonic for the body and soul. I rode my bike from the train station to the VA less than a week after getting out of the hospital, and after having a heart attack! Cycling (put putting around really,) saved my bacon from said heart attack and the complications that developed.

TheLizard

I guess I have a weird preference in bikes, at least for commuting and long rides, which is most of my riding. I'm riding a modified MTB now, with, yes, smaller all-terrain tires, modified stem, rack, etc.

What I'd really like to find is a bike with disc brakes, 700c wheels, and a flat bar. I'll find one I like eventually. Might end up buying a new one that I can upgrade components on over time.

CargoDane

Hehe, speaking of "weird" choices:
I prefer my cargo bikes, and especially my Omnium cargo. It's great on gravel despite its small front wheel. I think it's great on loose stuff because the length means it is very stable at speed. And even when the front moves a bit, say, after hitting a bump or stone it takes more to make me fall than it would on a shorter bike.
I currently run a 26" Naches Pass 1.8" tyre at the back, and a 20" Billy Bonkers 2.0" tyre on the front. The front will be swapped out to a DTH when they're available again in the width I want.

For handlebars, I have a 0 degree upsweep and 30 degree backsweep riser/flat bar - originally at 800 mm but now cut down to 705mm.

BlazingPedals

Is the saddle the problem? Would you rather sit in a real seat, or maybe lie down while pedaling? This is not a rhetorical question (see my avatar.)

Germany_chris

We all have things we like and things we don't, I don't enjoy running so I don't do it

Germany_chris

I don't ride a bike to get fit, get faster, burn calories or any such thing. I ride a bike because most of the time it's more convenient than driving, I get to see stuff, maybe a little fresh air and de stress.

kurtb

I adore bicycling, but only because I don't ride for the enjoyment. I ride to do something, to get to work, primarily, also to get groceries or visit. During my commute, in which I used to be a caged animal in a car or train, I've found enjoyment of the details of life between hither and yon, I've gotten my exercise, I've stopped this portion of my environmental destruction of the planet and use of oil. I've found winter is an invigorating season, not a hibernation, that rain and heat can be managed with thought. I've become continuously tangibly engaged in the world. But do I ride for the enjoyment? No, it's a byproduct of the complex interactions. I'll enjoy weekend joy rides sometimes, but they are bit contrived in my world view, as I'm not that fast or visually based, so can't win or be awed easily.

Herzlos

Did you consider replacing the drop bar with a flat one? If you loved the rest of the bike but not the bars, the bike police won't come and get you for changing it.
There's companies here that provide the same bikes in flat/drop variants.

TheLizard

I used to enjoy running, but my knees started to deteriorate and I got so I couldn't run without pain. I'm told it's arthritis. In my hips too.

Then I got into weight lifting and strength training. Did that for a few years, but hurt my back. After the third time doing that (yes, being very careful, working with a trainer, using a weight belt and everything), I had to give up on that as well. Apparently I also suffer from Cervical degenerative disc disease.

I got into kayaking after that, since I live pretty close to the river. That was fun for a while, but I just didn't like being in the water when it's cold, and I found I wasn't going very much because of the time to load-in and load-out and coordinating with other folks if I wanted to put in up river and ride down to another spot.

That was when I got the idea for cycling. Sold my kayak and started looking for a bike. I bought used bikes, tried them out, learned to fix and adjust them, and went through several figuring out what was comfortable. I also found that I REALLY enjoy working on bikes. They are nice little bits of engineering, and you can do a lot of work on a bike without spending tons of money on parts and tools. And I like the whole idea of having transportation that doesn't require a gasoline engine. I commute to work and on trips and sometimes just go riding to ride. I've been to the river a lot more times than I did on the kayak, there are some really nice bike trails there too!

So, yea, I do it for exercise, but also for commuting, entertainment, and general fun. And I've always got a project bike I'm working on.

It did take me quite a while to develop some "biking legs", like months, and I still get that bit of leg strain around miles 2-4, but it goes away after that. Love being out on the bike. I go all over town on it!

Lawrence Rhodes

Try doing utilitarian chores with the bike for a while. I enjoy riding recumbent. Much more comfortable. I hardly ever ride for "fun". Sounds like you need a better fit on your bicycle.

Lawrence Rhodes

Penny... what's happened to you after the Big Bang? Seriously, recumbent may be for you as it seems you have a fitment problem.

Maelochs

Sorry, such a bike simply does not exist.
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/fa...dvanced-1-2021 https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/bikes-fastroad-sl

TheLizard

Yes, of course. The problem is, it's not an easy conversion. It's not just the handlebar, you can't use the shifters on the flat bar, so you have to change those out. And most of the time you've got derailleurs that don't work right with flat bar shifters so would also possibly require changing out. It would be great to find a project bike that needed a lot of work anyway and do that conversion, but that's hard to find with a disc brake frame.

I haven't seen anything like that around here. We have a few shops, one that sells Trek and a few others, one that sells Giant, and another that sells Kona and Marin. But I've never seen them offer a model of bike with drop bar / flat bar as variants.

Trek actually does have some models that are close. Most of their hybrids are like that such as the Dual Sport, the FX models and the Verve. I'll probably end up buying one of those at some point and just upgrading components.

woodshed

I feel bad for you. You post as though you are requesting help and assistance in "feeling" better about getting into biking. All of us have happily shared our experiences, shared how we do things to make our riding more enjoyable, offer help to see if we can assist you in adjusting your bike, offering suggestions about riding frequency, ride length, changing up rides to allow for recuperation, etc, but after scrolling through each of your replies, I see that you have no real interest in making your riding experience more enjoyable.

You state that you bought an inexpensive bike, a 3 speed bike (one that most of us would not have purchased). You made your adjustments to fit yourself to the bike with no outside help. You chose a route that you will follow, whether or not it is a good route to build up your stamina, hold your interest, or even be safe on as a novice. When offered advice, which we all thought you were requesting, you reject all the advice immediately, by refuting what we offered as potential ideas.

So I say, endure the pain, endure the route that you don't care for, hope that you don't harm your body by overexerting on a ride that may be too hard to ride each day. Maybe you will get to a point that you might enjoy it, but that will be a mental choice, not necessarily a physical one. But that doesn't seem too likely, as evidenced by your replies. But I wish you well, as biking can be a great lifelong hobby, stress reliever, way to stay in shape. I have enjoyed it for 65+ years.

But don't close this thread. The rest of us are picking up new ideas of how to improve our rides, we are enjoying interacting by offering our own ideas, and enjoying the camaraderie of visiting as a part of the biking community. Great thread!!

TheLizard

... and a front suspension fork.

Yea, they exist. Never bought a new bike before. It scares me.

Maelochs

Suspension forks tend to be liabilities on pavement .... or even gravel, unless you ride very rutted fire trails or try mild single-track. Fat tires are much better at absorbing bumps, and don't weigh so much.

Most bikes with front shocks either have cheap forks, or you pay a lot for a little bit of cushion .... pay in weight, lost efficiency, and money.

But they are out there. Every manufacturer makes them.

Nothing wrong with buying a new bike. Just be smart. Take your time, test a lot, make exactly sure what size you need, and what you want to do with the bike. Do all the research on the models you like and the competitors' versions so the salespeople cannot take advantage of you.

Fear is mental. That doesn't mean you can easily think it away, but you can do all the thinking which makes it more manageable.

Best part of a new bike, is free tune-ups (usually for a year, longer if you negotiate) and new parts .... generally everything will work and keep working for many years to come.

Maelochs

One benefit is that flat-bar shifters can be had for not very much money at all, and a lot of them are compatible with road or MTB drivetrains. Depending on what you get, you might need a ew front derailleur, or maybe not. Rear derailleurs, at least Shimano, work well up to nine-speed with road or MTB shifters as far as know (I have an MTB derailleur attached to a Micronew shifter on the vintage Cannondale.)

Also, Microshift and its clones/subsidiaries make a ton of good, inexpensive shifters and derailleurs ....

You seem to want to make this harder than it needs to be. Not the best plan of action ....

Whatever .... this is just bicycling, not performing heart surgery while doing rocket science. You will figure it out.

TheLizard

There's a small single-track on my commute, and several near the river where I ride for entertainment. But importantly, the pavement around here is awful, and the sidewalks are worse. The suspension fork has worked well for me so far. I'm not interested in running fat tires, prefer something around 1.5", with a bit of side traction, is perfect for the routes I'm usually on.

Yea, no problem taking my time - been doing that for a long time LOL. I keep checking out the Trek Dual Sport and FX models. I like the frame on the FX better, just not sure if it's going to get me through the crappy surfaces I'm on a lot.

Nothing is perfect of course. I'm sure whatever I end up with I'll be tweaking it a lot. Already did that with my current main ride, which is a 2001 Trek 8000. It's a FUN ride. My real fear is I'll buy a new bike, and won't like it as much.