2018: A Year in Bicycles

Bikes
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Post your thoughts about what bike like was like for you in AD 2018. Highlights, lowlights, …midlights?

The good:
-did a few 200ks with Braden’s crew
-got into a semiregular habit of cranking out centuries on weekends with open time
-got my older road bike refurbished, set it up to be very fun for short rides
-set up a new cargo bike, loving the longjohn format so far
-enjoyed a lot of the articles published in Cycling Tips and Cycling About
-enjoyed good quality multimedia coverage of the Transcontinental
-NuTarck got me back to the poster’s life.

The bad:
-I did one 200k while recovering from food poisoning. It was hard.
-I still haven’t sold my old cargo bike
-minor but persistent position issues, or maybe I’m middle aged and my body hurts more now
-bike / part storage is still a total mess
-I kept riding up this cobblestone ramp I always fall on, kept falling on it.

The …???
-general sense of detachment from the bike industry and most popular bike culture
-some bike articles drafted, some media projects started, nothing finished.
-more motivated to practice yoga than ride bikes half the time

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Highlights:

  • went on longest ride in three years (25 miles lol)
  • excited to get out of bed and ride before work and on weekends
  • did two days on the Colorado Trail and shit that was hard but awesome
  • built my commuter into a bike that makes me forget about all my other bikes
  • sold a bunch of parts I would never use again
  • working in the industry again, in a much more healthy way than the first time

Lowlights:

  • missed the cutoff on selling one bike this year so it’s gonna have to wait til spring
  • I feel like I broke way more parts than normal this year
  • my fitness is total garbage

Midlights

  • don’t care cause having fun?
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Highlights:
Kids are riding well
Exploring local ‘trails’ with family that are more like flat pine needle covered derpy things I wouldn’t bother with on a mtn bike.
Took the drops and the shit fork off the Soma and like it a lot more now
Lowlights:
Didn’t get to bmx enough with the kids
Didn’t ride enough in summer, seemed like it was wet every weekend.
???:
Hardly had any projects going this year.
Don’t care about upgrading anything?
I think most of my personal bike time would be better spent at the gym next year

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4

I don’t think I’ve put on my bibs or clippy shoes all year. But I ride every day. Sold my bmc cross bike which i regret but I never rode it. Still have my road bike, will I ever ride it?? Feeling good about my flat pedal rim brake chill bikes though. And selling my parts stock and being less consumed by bikes and projects.

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5

At the beginning of the year, I had one fully functional bike and other bikes that I could get working if I swapped parts. At the end of the year, I have 6 fully functional bikes in my apartment. Not really sure if this is a HY or WTH.

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6

That’s a HY.

This year the kid learned to pedal bike, and I rode my fast bike once. I rode the xtracycyle about 100 miles total, or all the time around town. I need a sw8 hybrid.

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7

Yeah, but my apartment went from having a reasonable number of bikes in it to looking like a bike mess. Need storage solutions.

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8

Who is complaining?

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Ouch. That’s rough dude.

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I had an apartment like that and I shared it with my wife, so it’s not a problem unless you make it one.

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I figured you were making a joke about no one ever seeing the inside of my apartment except for me. Which is basically true for the last year.

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12

I had a pretty good 2018 In Bike. Built myself my first custom/dream bike. Did a few rides that were my longest ride ever. Getting read to take the aforementioned dream bike on a dream trip to Oaxaca to close out the year.

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13

Good: feeling as strong as ever right now, didn’t buy any new bikes because I’m feeling pretty satisfied with the bikes I have

Bad: don’t go on many/any long/non-commuting rides, might not beat last year’s mileage total (though it will be very close), feeling a little burned out on bike commuting at this point in the year

Undecided: kinda want to build a new bike but I think that’s just a function of being bored and wishing I’d engage in some retail therapy

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14

For me:

Good:

  1. built a fat tire (forcvo “fat”; 650×47b) bike that doesn’t feel like I’m climbing into a monster truck when I ride it.
  2. started reading tarck again.

Bad:

  1. depression and trying to nail down medications for high blood pressure did a horrible number on my desire for randonerdery this year, and now I’m woefully out of shape so it’s going to be clawing my way out of a really deep hole from next month on.
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15

I am glad you did!

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16

i did not have a great year in bike
i did get reasonably fit and fast and the few cyclocross races i managed to do were successful and fun
other than that i worked and traveled (for work) WAY too much and had minimal desire to ride during the rare times I was home
but it worked and now i am kind of one of the bosses so hopefully next year i can ride more!

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17

I rode pelotonia again. Did the 200 miler and raised a lot of money for cancer. Which is hy.

Didn’t ride as much as I wanted but still did a few k.

Back into frame building and ramping up my shop to be a notch more professional. Adding tools as I need them because I have a job that lets me afford that big money pit that is framebuilding.

Started talking to an engineer about designing a full suspension bike and fab methods. Expect more on that in 2020

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18

Highlight:
Got off grid ditherer built
Rode a series

Lowlight:
Dnfd a 200 and a 400
Don’t have all the money I want to spend on a calfee

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19

Good:
Won a gravel race
Did a 300k
Made new bike friends and went on a fun overnight to Chattanooga
Rode 25% of the roads inside the perimeter of Atlanta

Bad:
Missed a quarter of my race season due to severe depression
Destroyed 3 of the 6 tubeless tires I purchased this year due to pinch flats
Lost a bike friend who moved away
Giro shoes disintegrated 2 weeks after warranty period expired

WTH:
Getting laid off from my office job made me want to ride less???

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20

wut.

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