BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Things that go bump in the morning?

Would a crossover without knobby tires be fine? I'm a squirrel hill resident, but western side, and the only part of Frick I've been is by Blue Slide. That's really a crying shame, something I want to fix.

Any chance you might do this not early on a Friday evening but later on a Saturday night? Sabbath is my wind down for the week, but this would be a great way to start one.

on the jogging paths you'd do fine. but on the single track i think you'd struggle a lot with that bike.

So, another bike-appropriateness question, potentially a dumb one and/or one that has been answered previously: would this be doable on a 'cross bike, assuming that said bike had appropriate tires and stuff? I happen to be on my way to go investigate purchasing one to serve as a winter commuter, and I might as well play with it in the dirt eventually too...

Forecast for tonight is 62F and mostly cloudy, sounds perfect, especially to get some singletrack in prior to the so called "Frankenstorm" that's allegedly inbound.

OK, and veering slightly off the thread, pearmask, how big a problem for me would it be to hold off on the knobby tires for a while, like say, early December?

I'm looking to push my riding as far into winter as possible, but I'm also trying to make for this biking this pay for itself in gas/parking/insurance along the way.

That isn't as easy as it sounds since I live very close to work, have a reliable beater that I can't sell, and the insurance benefit from low mileage is trivial, and was parking uptown at a very cheap lot.

I figure I've got a little under 100$ a month to play with all told, I don't have any winter gear really at all, and I'm a little in the hole already.

Probably just buy some tires and ask the guys to change them when I do my next tune up? I just think this has to come after the good gloves or the cold will be too much for my hands.

In terms of winter commuting? I'm not very knowledgeable on the subject, as last winter was my first in Pittsburgh (and it was mild), but I'd think you'd be fine. I remember only wanting my studded tires for a couple of weeks in January, and otherwise I was riding with semi-slick 32mm tires. Some people on the board ride year-round on road tires and don't even bother with knobbies or studs, although I don't think I have the bike handling skills to do that on the snowiest or iciest days. Others here can probably offer you better advice (I think there's a thread from last year that we could resurrect, actually)

Side note: if you want to save some money, learn to do things like changing tires yourself. It's an easy, no-actual-mechanical-knowledge-required task. I learned at Free Ride, but I'm guessing you could learn it from YouTube videos, from a friend, etc. (hell, I'll teach you)

@byogman

+1 on the good gloves.

I ride all winter and don't have knobby tires. I spring for glove liners, good gloves, and mittens for over the gloves, though

Changing a tire is something you might want to learn yourself. It isn't very hard.

If you don't do the very simple stuff like that yourself, the staff in bike stores are likely to laugh about you behind your back and take advantage of you in other ways. (Some aspects of bike culture are damnably hard to change). Even if the manager/owner keeps his folks in line over stuff like that, (marginal, but possible. I suppose.) it's more incovenience to take you bike to the store than it is to change a tire, unless you live above the store or something. Then they will charge you for doing it.

Free Ride has adult mechanics drop in classes for $15. On Tuesday October 30 at 6:30 they are having a class in Tubes, tires, and fixing flats. Well worth it. Probably the last time they offer that class this year.

Or you could go on a volunteer day and tell them you want to get some experience fixing flats, and someone will probably show you how so you could do that as a volunteer activity. Or possibly volunteer some hours to pay for the class, although I don't know if they do that.

http://freeridepgh.org/resources/calendar/

Hah, looks like Mick and I were on exactly the same page

@pearmask

You are exceptionally perceptive!

Oh, and yes, like Mick suggested, you can "pay" for Free Ride classes with volunteer hours — it's either $15 or 2 volunteer hours. The tubes/tires/flats class is definitely worth it. It'll pay for itself in no time since you'll never need to pay a shop to fix a flat or change a tire again (and you'll save money on tubes, too, since they'll teach you how to patch and reuse them)

http://www.rei.com/event/44630/session/57865 -- there are still 20 spots available and it's free.

@Mick "the staff in bike stores are likely to laugh about you behind your back and take advantage of you in other ways."

I can do it on my own. I can ask bike shop to do it. I saw many times when someone asked to change a tire at BikePro South Hills and a couple times at Thick. Nobody laughed. At BikePro it's a norm to by a tire and ask to change. In all cases I saw it -- it was for free. Cashier called mechanic, the last one came out with tools and changed it in 2-3 minutes and put air.

a cross bike with knobby tires is fine at frick. you cant go quite as fast as you could on a mtb, but its still plenty of fun.

sweeet. well, i ordered one today, and it should be built up soonish once i make up my mind what kinds of shiny drivetrain thingies are going on it, so maybe i'll join you at one of these things in a couple weeks. and i'm sure i will make a fool of myself, and it will be great. are you going to keep this going through the winter?

That was fun! And I am usually miserable on any kind of fat tired bike.

+1^

yeah these won't stop just for a little snow. next week is going to be the last one at frick for a while. we are going to start carpooling to other ride locations since there is so much good riding around here. most likely we'll meet at thick between 6 and 6:30 and head out from there since half the riders are already there, its easy to get to AND they have a parking lot.