The UK-based Retro bike forum is pretty cool.
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/
There's a good amount of tech advice to be had there, and loads of old-school builds to salavate over. Decent classifides section, too, if you happen to be after some unobtainable part, (though shipping costs and pound/dollar exchange rate is a bit of a downer.)
The folk over there would totally be into your Alien, as well.
orphancars wrote:donalson wrote: I mod over at MTBR on the MTB side of stuff...I'll definitely check it out, Sir!
Go to "empty beer" and have fun - but not too much fun. 
In reply to Luke:
Retrobike is full of enablers.
I forgot how much fun my older bikes were.
Now, in addition to my Cannondale Gemini, I have a 1993 Trek 9000, a 1991 Univega Carbolite and a 1989 Offroad (now called Proflex, K2, out of business)
I'm also rocking a carbon fibre Girvin linkage fork on one of my bikes.
Stay far, far away.
Shawn
orphancars wrote: Tell me about the allure of the 29ers.........
Big wheels on bikes work like big wheels on monster trucks, they roll over everything more smoothly and therefore make you faster off road. You sacrifice a tiny bit of small-ring torque, and due to the increased wheel dimension, frame geometry has to be adjusted and you can have a bike that may handle wonkily - definitely a case by case basis depending on the mfr of said 29er. All in all i think its where the XC industry is going in the future, but downhill/freeride bikes will probably always use 26" wheels as they are slightly stronger since they keep the spokes short.
akamcfly wrote: Go to "empty beer" and have fun - but not too much fun.
Correction: eMpTy BeeR ...but that that someone here even knows that reference makes me chuckle... 
Although truth be told, mtbr was my first step into internet forums back in 1997... After a bunch of stupid bickering shortly before 9/11, many of the regulars there migrated to a different forum: www.ridemonkey.com Which is pretty good, but also more mtn bike oriented.
I haven't found a popular roadie-specific forum, although I haven't really looked. In my experience, roadies tend to group/ride together through a LBS.
Also talk to some LBS's and search out a more local/regional forum. For example, for the area near where I work we have mtbNJ.com which turned me on to some fun trails I can hit after work that I wouldn't have found otherwise.
Beware of the 29er kool-aid... 
right now, I'd say it's the mtb equivalent of driving a Miata if you've never done so...
Ian_F wrote: Although truth be told, mtbr was my first step into internet forums back in 1997... After a bunch of stupid bickering shortly before 9/11, many of the regulars there migrated to a different forum: www.ridemonkey.com Which is pretty good, but also more mtn bike oriented.
These things happen...
+1 for bikeforums.net. That is the best one I have come across so far. Me personally, I do quite a bit of road riding myself. I've been putting a Fuji Newest 2.0 through the ringer on all my rides the last couple years and have had a couple single speed project bikes around to tinker with (just bought a friends lightweight build w/ carbon fiber fork, aerobars, and campy components).
NIce to see so many cyclists on here. Somehow the 2 do go together.
29s? Well, I'm currently building up a Niner brand single speed (ninerbikes.com) I test rode one and it was just a completely different experience to the same old trails. What fcf said earlier is true - they roll over stuff better. So much so that I'm going from a 26" dual sus to a 29" full rigid. Of course, I admit that's half because of Niner's sexy carbon front fork - another story altogether.
In true grm fashion, my road bike is a parts mongrel with a house-brand frame, used Campagnolo Chorus shifters and derailleurs with a sneaky mechanism to use Shimano hubs and rear cassette. It works well and let me build a bike for $700 or so that would cost $2k if bought as a unit. The new 29er is also sporting a lot of used parts to keep the cost down.
In the end, bikes are like cars. (Cars are like bikes?) If you're a good pilot, you can perform with smart budget equipment, but the best money can buy won't help a bad pilot. Lance can still whip yo ace on a Huffy.
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