i’ve been riding a crappy fixed gear conversation for two years. I ride it a lot. like, i don’t have a car anymore, a lot. and I use it to haul things like washers and dryers a lot. I like long rides, utilitarian designs, and a classic road bike style. the problem is, I don’t know shit about bikes. I mean, i’ve learned to work on them over the past couple years. I have a proper set of tools, but I was hit by a car, and my crappy schwinn traveler looks like a mangled mess of steel, and I don’t know where to go from here. I am interested in some day doing touring or centuries or something, or maybe taking up road biking, but I am not very competitive, even though I probably have reason to be. i’m pretty quick. I just happened to fall upon cycling a couple years ago as a runner who wanted to strengthen his legs up, but I uh… I stopped running, and grew a beard. I don’t know what happened exactly. I have like $800 to my name. where do i go from here. I kind of like the cross check and double cross. gears? no gears?
I almost posted this in bikeforums but I don’t have any interest in riding some neon crazy thing, though I do fancy the aesthetics of a nice classic ride. yes, this post is probably stupid.
If you got hit by a car, you should have a bunch of money coming your way when the dude’s insurance pays out, so you may want to hold off on buying a bike until you get the cash monies from that.
michigan is a no fault state. this means that my auto insurance in responsible for any medical bills, and lost wages, but as far as i know… that’s it. it’s crappy because it was a hit and run, and I have their name, license plate #, etc… but the only way any lawyer (i talked to 4) would pursue it is if I was disfigured or had life-long health issues as a result of the accident.
^Wow, that’s fucked up. But as far as a sturdy, utilitarian bike is concerned, I’ve been really happy with my Karate Monkey. Not really much available used, but tarck end w/ derailleur hanger is cool cos versatile and it’ll fit tires just about as fat as they make 'em for maximum smoothness.
EDIT: Also just noticed you mentioned touring and I’ve seen some pretty badass touring KM builds like this: http://www.dirtragmag.com/gal/data/500/bike.jpg
Thinking of doing my own touring build with woodchipper bars, barend shifters, racks, gears, etc soon. So fun as SS though… we’ll see.
yeah, i’ve been reading and apparently you are paying for the name with the surly. it appears to from the same factory as the mercier kilo wt which is much more affordable?
what are like the solid, well performing, not 100lbs road style steel frames out there that can handle fenders, racks, and all the goodies?
shiftgnar, that’s a good idea and I will look into that.
why the fuck would you have insurance if you don’t have a car.
and why the fuck were you hauling washers and dryers A LOT.
also, what kind of frame do you expect to get for less than $400 if you’re not scouring for something used.
also, i would like to pop you in the bare eye with a rubber band.