Bikes

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petergunn

plywood violin
Eric said:
but I have to disagree on the cheap mtb ... it is an option but a cheap road bike will do you faster & better & with less effort. depends if you want to be hopping curbs all the time, but otherwise not. especially if you ride any distance.
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that's true...

my general experience with people i know biking in nyc is very few people are doing more than 6 miles a day

you will def get much more miles per pedel out of a cheap road bike, but you have to be pretty crafty to avoid potholes, etc. i replaced the knobbies on my mtn bike with hybrid tires, about 1 inch wide... i feel like for city riding that is the best choice...

i did this because i was messengering and had to do a lot of stop/starting, curb hopping, taxi dodging, pot hole avoiding, as well as the long commute to and from work... especially in snow and ice, road tires don't grip the road too well...

road bikes are great if you are biking from your suburban home to your suburban office, as my old man did when he was my age... (watch out for the train tracks!), but for city commuting, they are just not as versatile and manuervabile (sp) as a mtn bike....

my feeling is very few urban bike riders can really avoid hopping curbs and potholes...
 
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Eric

Mr Moraigero
yeah maybe my situation now is a special case: tokyo roads are very well kept up and there is not a pothole to be seen---in fact the situation is worse if you go out in the suburbs :)

lots of low driveway-like things too in the city, never really have to hop a full curb (half-curbs don't count---I hop them on slicks even down in the drops).

probably the kind of tires you choose will depend on your riding style and on what kind of obstacles you have to deal with. many people seem to swear by flat mtb-style bars for traffic--I am used to drops myself but when I ride my shopping bike with flat bars it is quite different. would never trade it out but sometimes I think about buying another bike.
 
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