Am I medium stupid, or monumentally stupid?

Mndsm said:

I am always ready to buy a car,finances aside.

hashtag GRM life

Here's my offer:  Free used Eastern Jane if you pay for shipping OR know someone who lives closer to you who will be going to the SCCA event at Palm Beach later today.  JG & Co. will be at the Palm Beach SCCA Time Trials this evening and I'm planning on going up to harass them. So maybe I can just bring the bike and hand it off to someone you can get it from.

The Jane is no lightweight bike, but neither are you and they're pretty big. I wouldn't ride it because I'm small.  It has 14 MM axles, 48 spoke wheels, new but old tires, gyro, and a hollow bolt so you can run the front brake cable through the head tube. Needs brakes, gyro cables, seat, and chain and you'll probably want wider taller bars. I'll look in my boxes of stuff left from the bike shop and see what I have to fill those needs. Paint was clear coat over bare metal, they looked cool new for a few months now it's "patina"? If you don't want it I'll finish it and throw it on CL now that I've dug it out of it's hibernation place.  I kept this around thinking friends from up north could ride with me when they came down for visits, but no one has come down for years.

[URL=http://s240.photobucket.com/user/NOTATA/media/BMX/20190604_120510_zpsttzf4n1c.jpg.html][/URL]

.

I rode several 20's as a kid but most tricks only consisted of wheelies and taking them off some sweet jumps. 

I got an entry level Eastern Growler 26 a couple years ago to sort of test the waters if its the kind of bike I want to tool around on.  Its been serving me well but I did figure out a few things. There's enough hills around me that the single speed is a struggle sometimes, Its usually fine by myself but it truly sucks with a kid in the bike trailer. For that reason alone I kind of want to upgrade to an SE OM Duro or something. I love the style of a bmx bike but having gears would be really nice for doing dad stuff. 

For now biking is a solo activity because my wife doesnt really enjoy it. (I need to sell her bike and find one that she actually is more comfortable riding) If I am going somewhere and not driving, I will ride a bike 100% of the time over walking because walking sucks. Once my kids get old enough I will probably be doing a lot of bike riding with them. 

On the other side of the coin theres a legit BMX track about 20 minutes from my house. That is something I think I would really like to get involved with, both volunteering and racing casually for fun. Not quite enough time currently due to family stuff but its always on my radar and Im always trolling craigslist for used 24" racing bikes.  

I'm leaving for PBIR soon. Put the bike in the truck. Will check this thread.

Just saw this. I unfortunately don't know anyone thats going to be there that I am aware of. Not sure what it would take to ship either. 

Rode my BMX tonight. 

Mndsm said:

Just saw this. I unfortunately don't know anyone thats going to be there that I am aware of. Not sure what it would take to ship either. 

Not surprised, attendance was sparse at best. Saw your post while I was there. It was pretty lame so I watched a couple sessions, talked to JG for a couple minutes and decided I'd rather spend my time going to HD to get pipe I need to fix a fence. I'm home already and it's 45 minutes each way to the track.

I can figure shipping if you think you might want the bike. I ship regularly.

This pic is somewhat relevant, and way too badass not to share. 

I was gonna do this livery in forza, but this is a picture from forza. 

I keep thinking that I'd like a 26 inch BMX bike. I should find a way to ride one. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

there's something that tickles my noodle about how you can't buy a 26" mountain bike anymore, and you can buy a 26" BMW bike.  Not that I rode BMX as a kid.

Also, I'm semi-interested in all this because a BMX-ish bike would be a small way to ride sighting laps at OneLap... but I really don't want to spend $1000 doing it, and I want to be able to 'hammer down' to get 4-5laps done, and I'm not sure that's really possible w/ a BMX frame?

Mndsm said:

First thing I can't seem to figure out, and will probably involve a trip to the LBS- top tube length. Nearest I can tell, I want a 21.5. Most head tube and rear triangle lengths seem to correlate to that, and big fat dudes need space.

Second, brakes. I came from a pre-brakeless era. I like brakes. I can still ride front brakes. I seem to be in the minority for that. Rear brakes are a dead given for me, I'd like to learn to manual a lot better, and whatever sort of rear balance tricks there are. Fronts- footjams and stuff are cool, but I suspect those are out of the question for me. Where and how I've broken my feet mean that if I happens to have healed, I am prone to breaking them again. Obviously this isn't a great plan to begin with, but that's why I started with medium stupid. Front brakes it is. I'd love to be able to work up to a whiplash/halflash line some day.

Next is- freecoaster vs. cassette. I've watched enough cassette riders to think that I am not capable of backpedaling if I learn to fakie without eating absolutely stupendous amounts of E36 M3. I'm already anticipating crashes. A LOT OF CRASHES. I wish to avoid as many as I can. What I cannot figure out is, what the benefit of a cassette would be. More direct drive? Weight? Steez points with the local skatepark kids ? I don't get it.

Next- BARS. This seems simple. Bars steer the bike, right? Right! HOWEVER- Jesus I have no idea. They all seem to be roughly the same. Last set of bars I owned was a set of 1994 GT 4 piece bars, that went on my 1994 Dyno Compe, That was about as stereotypical 90s as it could POSSIBLY be. What I do remeber about those bars is I seemed to have slightly more room for my knees. I rode a set of hoffman knee savers once or twice, and I liked them. I don't know if any of that makes a difference anymore- though I do prefer the look of 4 piece bars. Something mechanical about them appeals to me. And really, if I'm gonna eat E36 M3, I might as well look good doing it right?

Pegs- seems like the big deal here is sleeved or not. I'll likely run sleeves because I don't want to trash pegs and IF I ever try grind tricks, I want as much help as I can.

Now- the big one. Street Vs. Park.....I just don't know.  Will I probably be a "street" rider? Yeah, I don't see myself hitting box jumps and bowls and quarters any time soon. Maybe never. So, probably a street bike? The problem is, I like park bike features. I like brakes, I like pegs. These seem to be against the street bike code, but does it really matter? Who knows. I'll keep reading, trying to figure all this out. This game has changed a lot since you went to your nearest bike shop and got a 4 peg, layback post, kneesaving tank. 

 

How tall are you? I picked up BMX a few months ago after turning 30. I am 6'2". I ride a 21" Sunday Soundwave. Personally I find it fairly comfortable with 9.5" rise Animal Empire bars. I am running a cassette. I'd like to go a 21.25" frame though cause trying to do an x-up manual I have hit my knee once or twice and I'd like just a little more room. 

There are a few tricks that seem to be easier with a cassette (mostly stall tricks from what I understand), they seem to be more reliable and cheaper and they response is more immediate when turning the pedals. Also you get the cool cassette sound. I do want to build a coaster wheel soon though.

I'd just run rear brakes personally. My Odyssey Evo2s work well.

I agree with the post that says don't worry about pegs right now.

Street vs park. Meh don't overthink it. Most frames could handle either. But geometrywise, longer chainstays, lower BB heights, longer top tubes and slacker heat tube angles (like 74deg) are going to be more stable whereas the opposite is going to be more responsive. All that said most 21.5in frames that I know of are more trails type frames.

Are you buying a complete or building a custom?

Personally brands I like Odyssey/ Sunday for their warranty and customer service, Animal just cause they have an awesome team (and great grips and pedals) and FBM/S&M/Standard/Fit/Terrible One for high quality made in the USA parts.

sleepyhead the buffalo said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

there's something that tickles my noodle about how you can't buy a 26" mountain bike anymore, and you can buy a 26" BMW bike.  Not that I rode BMX as a kid.

Also, I'm semi-interested in all this because a BMX-ish bike would be a small way to ride sighting laps at OneLap... but I really don't want to spend $1000 doing it, and I want to be able to 'hammer down' to get 4-5laps done, and I'm not sure that's really possible w/ a BMX frame?

Single speed mtb with the right gearing could work. 

In reply to 93EXCivic :

I had a big old long reply typed up, and I berkeleyed it. So- to unberkeley it- 

6' tall, long reach. Wear a tall in most coats. 

Build vs. Buy- Ambivalent. I have the ability if not the tools to do both. Only thing I know for sure is I'm buying local. 

Thanks for the heads up on the brands, I knew there were several I was overlooking in my search. 

In reply to NOT A TA :

I appreciate the offer, I do however think I'm going to hold off for now. I'm still not 100% if this is even going to happen, and I'd rather not take up something that could be used by someone else. 

this happened. 

So, now for the details. It is a 2019 Subrosa Malum Park complete. Went out to Mr. Bikes and Boards at David Wallens behest. Original plan was to ask a lot of questions and either order a bike, or start the parts acquisition process. CLEARLY, that didn't happen. I forget the guy's name (sorry, I'm absolutely horseE36 M3 at names) EDIT- his name is Brian. but the dude that was there was super helpful. I explained that I was nearly 40, hadn't ridden in 25 years, and knew absolutely nothing about current bike stuff. The FIRST thing they did was hand me one of their own personal bikes, to give me kind of an idea what I was looking at. It was a deco frame, 9.5" bars, and was pretty well loaded up for a bike. It took a bit of getting used to, and let me tell you, the first thing I noticed was- man bikes have CHANGED. This whole super short rear triangle nearly vertical head tube geometry stuff is wild. SUPER twitchy, reminds me of when I rode MTB- I generally rode really short frames on purpose. The next thing I noticed was how WIDE bars are now. People seem to be running 30" uncut these days. I don't think I rode anything over a 27" way back when. This was a whole new world for me. What followed was nearly two hours of every question under the sun including why people choose two piece vs. 4 piece bars (Mostly style points it turns out ) how a freecoaster works- I didn't realize you had to pedal backwards to disengage, pedal forward to engage, and was generally really expensive and a pain in the ass to deal with. Also things like why people choose geometries (I rode a 21 with a 9.5 rise, and it felt GREAT, but I still bought the shorter bike with the shorter bars) what the component differences are between certain completes (The Salvatore XL was the other bike I rode) as well as the differences between building a custom bike, vs a complete. Given that I was looking to be SORT of budget minded- I ended up with the complete. I've done a lot of shopping around and I wanted to build a custom- but that got expensive a LOT faster than I wanted it to- and really, this made a lot more sense. Even if I don't end up riding it much, or at all, I can send it to my kid, and he can have the dopest bike on the block. 

Aaaand it's been raining non stop since I bought it- it actually rained as I was paying for it......including a tornado warning today! So I haven't ridden. At all. I have pretended to do barspins in the living room, so there is that. 

In reply to Mndsm :

Go old-school and work on some stationary flatland tricks. 

Ya, balance tricks if you're jonesin to play with the bike and you've got a little room inside.

Bike looks nice!

In reply to Mndsm :

Oh, and bonus points if you do a Gumby in your living room, but have to call the paramedics to get you unstuck. 

Or build a "manual" trainer.

Awesome new. Congratulations. 

Pete Gossett said:

In reply to Mndsm :

Oh, and bonus points if you do a Gumby in your living room, but have to call the paramedics to get you unstuck. 

Once I figure out what a gumby is.... I mean the bike is green. 

Edit- no berkeleyin way. I ain't that bendy. 

Pedalled some today. Things I am learning- Foot position is not the same as it is in MTB or road bike. I am used to riding extremely biasted toward the ball of my foot. Turns out, that's a great way to flat tire my shoe on my pegs. I've never had this problem before. Guess it's time to re-learn some stuff. I think for the interim as well, I am going to raise up my seat post some. I feel more stable when I can lock a knee onto it. This geometry is STILL kicking my ass. my bars are pretty low rise all things considered, and I know my frame is super short (it's a park frame, after all....) so it is twitchy as a Polk County hooker out of meth and welfare stamps. Also- I am so ridiculously out of shape it's not even funny. I pedalled to my mailbox and back and i was DONE. Still shopping for a helmet and some gloves at the very least, My hands are my livelihood. If i cook those, I'm done.