New To Bikeforums
05-31-20, 09:30 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
New To Bikeforums
Hey. I'm new to these forums but not necessarily to biking. I'm 57 and have been riding on and off since my mid 30's. I actually strated out with a couple inexpensive mountain bikes for the wife and I. Her's sort of sat in the basement and didn't get used much. I immedialtely bagan taking mine out into the 2,000 acre park near me and started to learn how to handle dirt roads and trails. I then started to get the upgrade bug and ended up replacing the fork, front derailleur, shifters, seatpost, handlebars, stem, grips, rims. I ended up with a pretty decent hardtail and was even starting to go on group rides with guys having bikes that were 3 times as expensive. In fact, on one such ride one of the guys said as much that even though my bike wasn't expensive I was more than able to keep up. So, the mountain bike in it's current iteration is the stock late 1990's Schwinn Mesa GSX frame, Marzocchi Bomber Z4 front fork, Shimano LX front and rear derailleurs/cranks/chainrings/rear cassette, Sun Rhino Lite rims, IRC Mythos tires, stock Tektro brakes, stock Schwinn seat and Titec handlebar, seatpost and stem. I also put Time ATAC Alium pedals on it. All the upgrades ultimately cost me as much as the original bike. But it's a bike I loved back then and still do.
My road bike is a little newer, but not by much. It's a Motobecane (made in Taiwan) that I bought off Bikesdirect.com. I liked it because it came with a complete Ultegra (27 speed back then) kit. Richey rims, bars, seatpost. I swapped out the stock seat when it started to crack and put a Specialized Phenom Expert saddle on it. Since I wasn't all that concerned about appearances and I wasn't interested in wearing different shoes for the same sport, I put Time ATAC Alium mountain bike pedals on the Motobecane as well.
I'm not only getting up in years but I'm also about 40 lbs overweight and out of shape. I haven't been riding the mountain bike in years. I made an attempt to get back on it two years ago, ended up going over the handlebars and while I didn't hurt my arms or head or upper body, somehow I really banged my lower legs up pretty bad. No more mountain biking for me, until I got back into some kind of shape. I'm about 3 weeks into trying to change that. I'm averaging about 50 miles a week at the moment. Good hills near me so I'll do about 1,300 ft of elevation gain in 20 miles. Hoping to tackle more elevation per mile as I get in better shape.
Looking forward to biking, chatting and losing some weight while getting myself fit.
My road bike is a little newer, but not by much. It's a Motobecane (made in Taiwan) that I bought off Bikesdirect.com. I liked it because it came with a complete Ultegra (27 speed back then) kit. Richey rims, bars, seatpost. I swapped out the stock seat when it started to crack and put a Specialized Phenom Expert saddle on it. Since I wasn't all that concerned about appearances and I wasn't interested in wearing different shoes for the same sport, I put Time ATAC Alium mountain bike pedals on the Motobecane as well.
I'm not only getting up in years but I'm also about 40 lbs overweight and out of shape. I haven't been riding the mountain bike in years. I made an attempt to get back on it two years ago, ended up going over the handlebars and while I didn't hurt my arms or head or upper body, somehow I really banged my lower legs up pretty bad. No more mountain biking for me, until I got back into some kind of shape. I'm about 3 weeks into trying to change that. I'm averaging about 50 miles a week at the moment. Good hills near me so I'll do about 1,300 ft of elevation gain in 20 miles. Hoping to tackle more elevation per mile as I get in better shape.
Looking forward to biking, chatting and losing some weight while getting myself fit.
Likes For MntnMan62:
05-31-20, 11:52 PM
#2
Junior Member
Hey. I'm new to these forums but not necessarily to biking. I'm 57 and have been riding on and off since my mid 30's. I actually strated out with a couple inexpensive mountain bikes for the wife and I. Her's sort of sat in the basement and didn't get used much. I immedialtely bagan taking mine out into the 2,000 acre park near me and started to learn how to handle dirt roads and trails. I then started to get the upgrade bug and ended up replacing the fork, front derailleur, shifters, seatpost, handlebars, stem, grips, rims. I ended up with a pretty decent hardtail and was even starting to go on group rides with guys having bikes that were 3 times as expensive. In fact, on one such ride one of the guys said as much that even though my bike wasn't expensive I was more than able to keep up. So, the mountain bike in it's current iteration is the stock late 1990's Schwinn Mesa GSX frame, Marzocchi Bomber Z4 front fork, Shimano LX front and rear derailleurs/cranks/chainrings/rear cassette, Sun Rhino Lite rims, IRC Mythos tires, stock Tektro brakes, stock Schwinn seat and Titec handlebar, seatpost and stem. I also put Time ATAC Alium pedals on it. All the upgrades ultimately cost me as much as the original bike. But it's a bike I loved back then and still do.
My road bike is a little newer, but not by much. It's a Motobecane (made in Taiwan) that I bought off Bikesdirect.com. I liked it because it came with a complete Ultegra (27 speed back then) kit. Richey rims, bars, seatpost. I swapped out the stock seat when it started to crack and put a Specialized Phenom Expert saddle on it. Since I wasn't all that concerned about appearances and I wasn't interested in wearing different shoes for the same sport, I put Time ATAC Alium mountain bike pedals on the Motobecane as well.
I'm not only getting up in years but I'm also about 40 lbs overweight and out of shape. I haven't been riding the mountain bike in years. I made an attempt to get back on it two years ago, ended up going over the handlebars and while I didn't hurt my arms or head or upper body, somehow I really banged my lower legs up pretty bad. No more mountain biking for me, until I got back into some kind of shape. I'm about 3 weeks into trying to change that. I'm averaging about 50 miles a week at the moment. Good hills near me so I'll do about 1,300 ft of elevation gain in 20 miles. Hoping to tackle more elevation per mile as I get in better shape.
Looking forward to biking, chatting and losing some weight while getting myself fit.
My road bike is a little newer, but not by much. It's a Motobecane (made in Taiwan) that I bought off Bikesdirect.com. I liked it because it came with a complete Ultegra (27 speed back then) kit. Richey rims, bars, seatpost. I swapped out the stock seat when it started to crack and put a Specialized Phenom Expert saddle on it. Since I wasn't all that concerned about appearances and I wasn't interested in wearing different shoes for the same sport, I put Time ATAC Alium mountain bike pedals on the Motobecane as well.
I'm not only getting up in years but I'm also about 40 lbs overweight and out of shape. I haven't been riding the mountain bike in years. I made an attempt to get back on it two years ago, ended up going over the handlebars and while I didn't hurt my arms or head or upper body, somehow I really banged my lower legs up pretty bad. No more mountain biking for me, until I got back into some kind of shape. I'm about 3 weeks into trying to change that. I'm averaging about 50 miles a week at the moment. Good hills near me so I'll do about 1,300 ft of elevation gain in 20 miles. Hoping to tackle more elevation per mile as I get in better shape.
Looking forward to biking, chatting and losing some weight while getting myself fit.
