I stood on my head.

I should've changed shoes, cleats left holes.

Most dwellars have upside-down viewpoints anyway...

Well, it's just crazy. It's right side up on my puter, but when I post it-it comes out upside down. I guess it works though.

Open in MS Paint, choose Image --> Flip/Rotate --> 180 degrees.

But, then it will be upside down on my computer? and load right side up here???

here ya go

Oh damn that would have been funny if you had. "I got drafted by Obama, and I was already in the army!"

Well, it would have been funny if you had done it and survived to post about it.

How is the body today?

Griff, I'm not going to lie. I'm a little dehydrated, and my left ankle is pretty sore. I have bone spurs and arthritis in the ankles...why I'm riding and not running any more. I'm very run down. My bike brain calculator says I burned 5,554 Kcals. Day off for sure. I think after some breakfast and coffee and lots of water I'll be fine and back on my 20 miles in the morning tomorrow.

Good man!

Guys, we had to put the money from taxes into family expenses and the bonus from my Uncle Sam fell through. I can't afford to buy a bike just yet.

Any of you old cyclists have a bike in the garage you would be willing to part with? I can't afford much and it will take me at least 20 months to save the money for the bike I want. I WILL NOT give up cycling for 20 months. I am using loaners right now and these guys will want their bikes back eventually. A friend of mine on post is letting me use a Cannondale Synapse from the Morale Welfare and Recreation department, I'm not sure how long this will last and I'm not complaining. I am currently putting 130 miles a week on the bike with a century a month. In the next week and 1/2 that will go up to 170 a week. What ever I get in the 20-25 month interim will have to stand up to at least that work load.

I'm also going to start shopping the pawn shops around the Fort Bragg area and see what I can find.

I don't have anything in my stable but if someone else does I'll gladly kick in for shipping. What is your height/inseam?

I have a 23" Trek I bought in 2007. It's a 520, I think. Only has about 300 miles on it. It's got a "chromoly" frame, so it's heavy, but really strong (and weldable), compared to racers.

It has been sitting unused since mid 2007, so it probably needs a tune-up, maybe new tires.

It retailed at $1,500. But I'd let it go for something like $700 + shipping, including all of the touring gear (front and rear panniers, handlebar bag, and misc stuff). I'll get some more details if you're at all interested.

Where do you measure from to get this number?

There is some difference based on manufacturer and frame style but generally that is center of crank to center of top tube. 23" means PW's legs are a lot longer than mine.

I have a beat up 18"? Cannondale on my trainer that might do in an emergency with a lot of work. Do you know anyone on base who can weld aluminum?

I'm 5'10" with a 29 inch inseam. 54cm seems to work pretty well for me. I've been shopping on craigs list and ebay. Mostly just wishful thinking right now. I'll ride this loaner until my friend needs it back, I've asked a few times and he always says "meh, when ever". Nice, I put another 38 on it today.

You must be half-way across the country by now.

A pic of the new bike. Great deal from a friend of mine, $900.00 Plus two sets of wheels. It's a cycle cross so I can put the off road tires on for the comute to work. Made the first comute tonight. 18.26 miles to the house. a little slow because I have to ride on the dirt shoulder for a while in some places. avg. 13.7 miles per hour. Not bad.

Sweet ride!

Good for you!

My friends, I am going to be riding in the Ride 2 Recovery Memorial Challange from 28 May-2 June. I will be riding more than 350 miles to raise money for the Ride 2 Recovery program. If you are willing and able please visit this site to donate to the cause. It's a great organization who helps in the mental and physical recovery of wounded veterans with cycling as the core activity. I have started the ball rolling with a $100.00 donation from our familiy. My goal is to raise $1,500.00 for the program this year.

Good luck sir. I applaud you for what you are doing.
If I was currently employes, I would donate to the cause.
Print out and bring a few of these with you... just in case.

I like that Classic, sure could use those. I forgot to add, PM me if you are willing and able to donate and I will send my full name.

O.K. I've dated around, I rode a few different bikes and I've finally tied the knot with the Giant Advanced Defy 3. Awesome bike!!! Wow, eats up the bumps on the road and is light. With these tires it weighs in at 19 lbs. I could prolly change out a few things from the tires to the pedals to loose more weight, but I really don't need to right now.

April 13th Greg LeMond will be at our local bookstore.

SWEET. I would love to meet a guy who was shot and then won the Tour...again.

regular.joe your tyres are too skinny.

The tires! What about the seat? It looks as comfortable as sitting on the thin end of an axe blade.

I wonder if he has a sense of humor? Maybe I could get him to autograph an empty birdshot shell. That would be so fucking cool. The venue where he is appearing is owned by my friends, I'll see if he's staying for dinner. Who knows what may happen after a few bottles of wine?

It's hard to tell from your picture, Joe, but the best and cheapest place to lose weight is your self. Your bike will be ten pounds lighter when you are. ;)

That used to crack us up at the shop. Some fat bastard would come in and start buying up fancy wheel sets and titanium doodads (shaving ounces) which we'd happily sell him, but maybe he should ride a heavier bike until he gets in shape and down to racing weight? Of course, now I'm the fat bastard... I felt stronger last weekend though. I'll be fast or blow up my heart trying.:cool:

Ask LeMond if he was the last clean winner of the Tour after you get some wine in him.

:still has no bike: :(

Here's a question for you weight weenies: why use titanium when aluminum is so much lighter?

because Brits don't call it titanum?

Oh yea, the bike is a tool to that end. I got very lucky with this bike, it's a 1900.00-2,000.00 bike, I bought it on consignment from the local shop for 1100.00. Couldn't pass it up, it just happens to be all carbon and pretty light. As far as the rider the bike can loose 20-30 lbs.

I really don't know, being a newb I've thought about this myself a few times in the last few months. I have come to the conclusion that you can make a pretty light alloy, and when you go down with the bike, because you will go down with the bike eventually....the frame will come out in better shape then a carbon or straight aluminum. I am prolly wrong, but it's what I've come up with on my own.

Everything you never needed to know about frame materials. This is from the perspective of a touring cyclist, but that doesn't change the physics.

Steel vs Titanium
Look at the chart again. You'll see that identical steel vs titanium frames would be about equal in strength, but that the titanium frame would be about half the weight and half the stiffness.

Such a frame would likely have a whippy feel due to the reduced stiffness, especially in loaded touring applications. To compensate, builders of titanium frames use somewhat larger diameter tubes to bring the stiffness more into line with what riders like. This tends to increase the weight a bit, but by making the walls of the larger tubes a bit thinner, they can compensate to some extent, and come up with a frame that is still lighter than a normal steel frame.

Steel vs Aluminum
The situation with aluminum is even more pronounced. The "identical" aluminum frame would be 1/3 as stiff as steel, roughly half as strong, and 1/3 the weight. Such a frame would be quite unsatisfactory. That's why aluminum frames generally have noticeably larger tubing diameters and thicker-walled tubing. This generally results with frames of quite adequate stiffness, still lighter than comparable steel ones.