The Chatroom

<p>yeah i thought about something like that, but i'd be to worried about knocking them off or doing something stupid then running over them.</p>

<p>lol, yeah... They stay on really well though. They have earsocks that increase grip with your head when you sweat, so they won't slip off (kinda groos to think about, but really handy compared to regular plastic glasses which just fall off your face when you sweat).</p>

<p>interesting. I first need to divert my attention to a new set of wheels. Then find the $1,000 i'll need to get them so i can get back to racing in the spring!</p>

<p>wow... $500 a wheel... that's a lot of money...</p>

<p>yeah, well, these aren't exactly your average retail store bikes. Even low-level road bike that are race worthy start around $1,000-1,200. High-quality components (like wheels) are very very expensive. Sucks that I always seem to pick expensive sports.</p>

<p>yeah, I knew the bikes were expensive, I have some friends and family that are into cycling, but I never knew the wheels were $500 a pop... I mean, I know that TREK bikes can run upwards of $10,000, so I guess it makes sense that a wheel would cost $500... Why not, right? lol</p>

<p>yeah, top-of-the-line bikes run upwards of $5,000 to $8,000. The wheels i'm looking at are some of the best ... but of course there's way more expensive ones out there. My roomate for next year just bought new wheels and they were a solid $2250 a set. </p>

<p>TREK bikes themselves aren't really 10 grand. The only one that is is the Livestrong bike, and that's only expensive because lance signed it and it's limited edition. The bikes that are 10 grand are the totally custom non-big brand (not trek, cannondale, specalized). Lance's Trek is valued at $10,000 - but i'd really hesitate to call that a trek even. The discovery team had pretty much a custom bike team build all of their bikes then smack it with the trek label. You can't go out to your trek dealer expecting to find a similar bike. If you want to see an expensive (but magnificent) bike check out Colnago or Serotta or SE7EN cycles. One day, one day...</p>

<p>Also, I was surprised to see wheels for $500 a set my first time in a nice bike store. I thought they were crazy! Oh, I had no idea....</p>

<p>Yeah prices suprised me at first too! I have over two grand sunk into my bike now. Cove G-Spot, Marzocci Super T Pro, Bombshell 20mm thru-axle wheels, etc.</p>

<p>what wheels are you looking at gomestar?</p>

<p>i remember i was meeting with the Phys Ed director the other day and he had his lemond in his room and it was OK, it had 105, etc. on it, and we started talking bikes and he was like "yeaaa, it's pritty nice, i've sunk about 5 into it by now" and i was thinking wow, $5k until i looked at the non-carbon frame and 105 rear derailleur and it hit me that he meant 500. The conversation kind of died because i didn't want to look like some ******* rich kid with a $2500 bike. Note that I bought every cent of it with my own hard earned money and built almost all of it on my own time. but yea, it was funny.</p>

<p>i bought a pair of racing jackets for $27 shipped on ebay a few years ago for just that reason: I didn't want to break a $200 pair of glasses doing extreme sports</p>

<p>Just out of curiosity, where do you guys ride? I mean, I know there are a lot of trails in Ithaca, but where do you ride your road bikes? Do you go around campus? Downtown? I mean, it's pretty hilly up there (granted you have gears, but, those hills are almost vertical in some areas, lol). Are you allowed to ride on the track?</p>

<p>you don't like hills? wimp! just kidding. If you're not a cyclist you wouldn't have picked it up from my post, but i'm a freeride mountain biker. I like to jump off stuff and go downhill haha. there are a lot of road rides you can do.</p>

<p>This is from the cycling club: <a href="http://www.rso.cornell.edu/cycling/2005/riding/road/bikeroutes.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.rso.cornell.edu/cycling/2005/riding/road/bikeroutes.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>sparticus, are you on the cycling club? I race for Cornell. </p>

<p>I'm looking at two sets of wheels, either Mavic Ksyrium SSC SL's or (hopefully) Zipp 303's. I can get the Ksyrium's from glen swan (the team advisor) for $750 (typically they're just undre $900) and the Zipp's for around $1200 (and they're typically $1500). </p>

<p>Ithaca is wonderful for road and mountain biking, i do both. There's an abundance of trails, smooth roads, and tough mountain climbs. </p>

<p>For the mountain, i ride a Santa Cruz Superlight with a Fox F100R fork, a mix of XT and LX parts, shimano hydraulic disc brakes. My brother rides a Specialized Enduro Comp, more of a freestyle bike than my Santa Cruz is. </p>

<p>For the road stuff, i ride a Specialized Roubaix. It's a full carbon frame with ultegra parts group (except for the brakes, 105's). I put a white-carbon ITM stem on it in the fall. It just needs a new set of wheels! </p>

<p>Nice to know you're a fellow cyclist!!!</p>

<p>wow sweet bikes gomestar, I was looking for a bullit for a while. I don't ride for cornell cycling, I just happen to know about the routes on that site. Where are you from, there are awesome part swaps in the pennsylvaia lehigh valley velodrome. Hayes Hydraulics for $15 each? tell me that's not a good deal.</p>

<p>I don't have my bike up because It's really not practical for ithaca's hills. I'm thinking about building a more dirt jump/street (hardtail) bike over winter break for 2nd semester. We'll see.</p>

<p>i want to get into cycling this summer and next year(hopefully at cornell!). i have no clue about biking since my parents made me stop after i was ten and got hurt playing bike tag with friends. I had a huffy bike back then.</p>

<p>what are some good brand names for beginners?</p>

<p>

Damn...that sucks. I guess there aren't many motorcycles on campus then? </p>

<p>Also sparticus, would you know if its cheaper or whatever to keep a motor vehicle on campus during a summer semester? If I end up getting in, I'll probably do the engineering coops program which means I'd be there for at least one summer...and I'd like to have a bike or car there when there aren't many other people around and so I can head home whenever I want to.</p>

<p>sparticus - built a santa cruz chameleon! I think those are rad bikes, and frames are only in the $400's (not bad considering the next cheapest one is just under $1,000). My superlight is soooo nice. It's alot more versatile than i thought it'd be, and in the end it's just plain fun! I have both of my bikes on campus, and next year my apartment will be a bike haven (my roomate has a Cervelo TT bike, Cannondale R700, and an Orbea Onix ... nice nice stuff). </p>

<p>I'm from syracuse, an hour away from Cornell. That parts swap thing sounds interesting! I wouldn't mind scoring a few more sweet parts! I eventually want to put carbon stem/handlebars on my Superlight. Just low on cash!</p>

<p>Hopeful4Cornell - what type of riding are you looking to get into? Soon as i know this, i can give you a few recomendations.</p>

<p>lol, thanks Sparty... I (not having done any real cycling) can not even imagine scaling some of those hills. Props to you guys for having the balls to do so, lol. I'll stick with cars and motorcycles... They have engines :) :p haha, I'm more into the running/rollerblading workouts (wear a backpack with weights in it for extra resistance in your blading workouts, similar to biking up a hill).</p>

<p>Do you guys use a stationary bike to train, or do you run/blade, etc?</p>

<p>haha huffy :D</p>

<p>Look on <a href="http://www.mtbr.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.mtbr.com&lt;/a> classifieds for a second handbike.</p>

<p>You have do decide what kind of riding you want to do, too. And get a road bike, hardtail, or full suspension bike, accordingly. Go to a bikeshop and find your size. Mtn bikes are measured in inches (16, 18, 20, or similar) and road bikes are measured in CMs, and it has to do with the length of the frame tubing. Then you pick a budget. $700 will get you a pretty nice bike second hand for a great price. If that's too much then go to a shop and ask them for an "entry level bike for a serious cyclist" or something like that. Real brand names in no particular order of some of the good/major companies are: Trek, Specialized, Gary Fisher, Cannondale, GT, Schwinn, Raliegh, Kona, Santa Cruz, Rocky Mountain, Giant, Ellsworth, Foes, Klein, Balfa, Yeti, KHS, Turner, Azonic, iron horse. Some will be really pricy, some will have more inexpensive stuff. Some of the companies make crap bikes in addition to race worthy ones. Some only make nice ones. Trek for example makes some low end bikes, and also bikes for Lance armstrong. Foes and Ellsworth on the other end, only make bikes you probably can't afford.</p>

<p>You want comonent groups like Shinamo's Deore, LX, XT and XTR, not alivio and acera...if it's got a made up word for the name (except deore) it's fairly low quality. :)</p>

<p>some sites to look at for new bikes and parts:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.pricepoint.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.pricepoint.com&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.jensonusa.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.jensonusa.com&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.cambriabike.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.cambriabike.com&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.supergo.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.supergo.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>some bike community (including classifieds) sites:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.mtbr.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.mtbr.com&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.pinkbike.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.pinkbike.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>thanks a lot. will check up on those.</p>

<p>i'm way more up to date on the road bike stuff. For somebody whose looking for a great road bike at a nice price, i'd say go for a Trek 1000 or maybe a Specialized Allez. The Allez model is around $700, the base Roubaix is around $1300. If you're going to look at road bikes, look at components!!! Often, big companies use the same frames (like cannondale's CAAD8 models) but upgrade the parts. Shimano 105's are the best way to start off. Usually a road bike in the $1,000 range will have a mix of Tiagra and 105 parts. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, real bikes cost a bit more than the $200 wal-mart POS.</p>

<p>Yeah sorry gomestar, I probably left out a lot of roadie companies. Lightspeed makes both, but you can't afford them...hmm who else? I dunno...just just look around and you'll get an idea of what costs what and what is good.</p>