Unless you follow the bike industry you might not be aware that the market for bicycles is in free fall. Demand went through the roof during the pandemic when everyone thought they would become cyclists. Supply lagged then it caught up just as demand began to evaporate. Today companies are going bankrupt and high end bike companies are having buy one get one free sales.
In other words it is a buyers market and if you are considering buying a new bike The most affected parts of the industry are for mid to high end bikes. You will find the biggest savings for bikes in the $2000 and up range.
For a lot of people that’s too much money for a hobby. The consideration is that this hobby will get you to more places than walking and give you a much better workout than driving there. Finally consider that a bettter quality bike is going to last ten years or more. My friend has a mountain bike from 1997 that still rides fine.
My advice is to goto your local bike shop and talk with them about what kind of riding you want to do. Unless you are mechanically inclined I don’t suggest ordering online. A good local shop will talk you through the styles and brands of bikes they sell.
Take your time and let them chase you for the sale.
In December I had a new bike day but that bike was a bit too small and there were no larger sizes in stock. I returned it and then focused on rafting in Mexico and snowboarding for the winter. I kept looking at used bikes online, but nothing was inspiring me to spend over $3k on a full suspension bike.
So I started considering a hardtail. I’ve always owned hardtail mountain bikes and have never had an issue keeping up. I like the simplicity of a hardtail as there are fewer parts to maintain. I also don’t need to really go any faster downhill than I already go. A crash at faster speeds just means you are looking at a larger hospital bill.
Then I saw the Canyon Stoic. Canyon is the manufacturer of the bike I returned in December. They make a lot of full suspension bikes and a couple of hardtail maintain bikes. The Stoic is a hardtail that is meant to ride the same trails as full suspension bikes. It’s geometry is similar to a full suspension bike just without the rear shock.
At $2k it’s not a cheap bike but it is also not anywhere near the most expensive. I could have bought 2.5 of these for what the December bike cost. Its aluminum frame is indestructible and the components are good quality. It also comes it a very nice green and the Stoic name is kinda badass.
I have been able to take it out on the trails 2 times now and this thing is like a cruise missile. The wheels are 29″ which is considerably larger than the 26″ wheels on my old bike. They roll over everything with much less effort. The suspension fork has 140mm of travel which is probably double the 25 year old fork on my old bike too. It just eats the bumps up and lets me stay focused on what is coming up.
I do my best to practice non-attachment but in this case I love my new bike.
It is getting warmer here in southwest Colorado, but the winds have arrived too. It may be 52℉ but the windchill makes it feel like 30℉. So I am ready to ride my bikes, but it’s just a bit on the cold side still.
In the meantime I am binging on Youtube videos about riding my bikes. I have a new bike arriving later this week, which I am pretty excited about. It is going to be a great riding season this year. We have a new/used travel trailer that lets us bring the dogs on camping trips, and gives us the comforts of a show and toilet in the woods.
One thing I want to work on this year is more advanced bike handling skills. I am a strong rider, but I never learned to wheelie, endo, track stand, or take jumps well. My new bike has modern geometry made for riding advanced skills. This makes the bike more stable and capable. I am also gonna get knee and elbow pads cause crashes will probably happen. 🤣
The table hop thing will probably not be attempted anytime soon by me.
I am a little kid on Christmas morning. The anticipation has been building for days and years. Technically yesterday was new bike day as that is when FedEx delivered my Canyon Spectral 29 CF 8. This is my first new-new bike in 15 years and my excitement is well beyond 9000!
My coworker had a new bike day a few days ago and got a sweet road bike. I had to bite my tongue about getting my bike for fear of jinxing the delivery, but FedEx was on time!
Wus in here?
Canyon is a direct to consumer bike company. This means that they sell their bikes directly to you from their website. There is no bike shop selling Canyon bikes, anywhere. This allows them to save costs and give us lower prices, but it also means that you need to do some assembling of the bike once it arrives.
Putting your Canyon Bike together
I was able to assemble my bike during my lunch break and even got a quick ride down the drive way. Everything went pretty smoothly together with solid instructions provided. There was an omission of attaching the dropper post lever to the front brake handle but I figured it out.
Most safe.
First impressions are that this bike is a missile and it is ready to launch me down some trails! There are a lot of reviews on this bike that go into detail about the head angle and progressive suspension. Considering I am coming from a mountain bike that was built in 1997 this thing is basically an alien spaceship.
The only things familiar to me are the grips, seat, and pedals. The rest of the bike is totally different from anything I have ever owned. The main areas I need to get familiar with are the suspension and the hydraulic brakes. Both of these are very advanced technology to me and require training to understand better. The brakes are pretty much good to go for now but the suspension needs to be adjusted to my weight and riding style.
Put a fork in it!
Naturally it snowed all night so I guess it’s time to get some snow riding in!
Kate and I hosted our 3rd group bike ride this Sunday at Chicken Creek Nordic Center in Mancos, CO. We started hosting these rides as a way to promote the monthly Sunday brunch at our local brewery. It has turned into way more fun than I had anticipated.
The original idea came up this spring when we were at the brewery for Sunday brunch and we were the only people there. We love our brewery because its a great place to meetup with folks and the owners, Kathy and Dwayne, are just great people. I suggested that we organize a group bike ride before brunch. That way everyone gets some exercise and then we go fill our faces.
The first ride was the first Sunday of June and we had a nice turnout of people. Most of them I had never met before. We chose the Nordic center as a meeting place as it is just a few miles outside of town and the trails are pretty easy for anyone to ride on. I got yelled at a few times for not stopping enough but we all had a good time.
This group ride is specifically called a no-drop ride. That means that we wait for everyone at regular intervals. For regular bike riders these types of rides are slow and boring. The good news is that they don’t have to ride with us on these rides. 😛 The goal of a no-drop ride is to make everyone feel welcome regardless of their capabilities.
Our technique for pulling a no-drop ride off is that I lead the ride on the route, and Kate brings up the rear. I then make sure to ride at a reasonable pace so that its fun for the faster riders and stop at the top of any climb. If anyone complains about us going too slow I let them know they can keep going. So far everyone has been really cool though.
There are moments on these rides when I think about how I could be riding much faster and when I was younger I would have pushed to go faster. Then I remember that the point of these rides is to encourage more people to get on their bikes and have fun. The best thing I can do is ride easy and have fun. So I talk to the other riders the whole time. This does 2 things: 1 it helps me get to know everyone, and 2 it makes me ride slow enough that I can talk.
We ended up riding just over 6 miles on a variety of terrain from single track to dirt roads and everyone did the entire route. No one crashed and there were no tears. Also this group was made up of all new riders to the group. Its pretty cool that each ride we have done the groups have been all new people. Hopefully we will get everyone who has been at separate rides on the next one and have a huge group ride.
Brunch was great and this time we were able to combine tables to have everyone sit and eat together. Feels good man. 🤠
It has been a while since I got a new bike. The mountain bike I have been riding is a 1997 custom titanium frame shredder that was gifted to me by a friend a few years ago. Before that it had been at least 5 years since I bought a bike.
The titanium bike is a great bike and I have been riding it everywhere. On the roads and trails around our home in Colorado and on our 5 day tour of southern Arizona this last March. My main gripe is that it has large knobby mountain bike tires that are slow and wear out faster on asphalt.
For at least a year I have considered buying a road bike. Buying new right now is very difficult as global supplies are still constrained due to the shut down last year, and demand has been through the roof as people turned to cycling while their gyms closed.
I would peruse Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace somewhat regularly. The issue with buying used is a 3 fold problem:
Is the price in my budget?
Is the bike the right size for me?
Is it close enough for me to go and test it out?
Again and again I would find 1 or 2 matches but never all 3.
Then this ad came up on Craigslist:
Craigslist is still one of my favorite site on the Internet
The price was close to my $1000 budget. The size is in my range at 58cm. The location is within an hour drive of my home. Oh and this Trek Damone is like a $5000 bike brand new!
I contacted the seller and it was a retired gentleman who had not ridden the bike in about 5 years. It had been stored in his garage. Also he was willing to meet me halfway to test it out.
The key to testing a bike is knowing what to look for. If you don’t know how to repair and maintain a bike I recommend either bringing someone knowledgable with you, or arranging to meet near a local bike shop and having a mechanic take a look.
The key things to look for are cracks in the frame. Specifically at the high stress points: bottom bracket, headtube, seattube, and rear and front dropouts. If there are any cracks you should be concerned and probably pass on the bike.
After that you should get on the bike and ride it around. A parking lot is great for this. Make sure to adjust the seat so you are at least comfortable. Then shift through all the gears a number of times. You want to see if there are any issues with the drivetrain.
Again this is where knowing what to look for or having someone who knows what to look for will be critical. There are a lot of components to consider: chain, crank, bottom bracket, freewheel, cassette, and front and rear derailleurs. Some issues can be easy to correct like deralliure adjustments. Others will be costly like replacing the bottom bracket.
Test the brakes, don’t skid the tires but practice how effective the brakes are. Take a look at the tires as they spin. Are they straight and true?
In the end this bike passed all tests with flying colors. I made an offer lower than his asking price and he agreed. He also threw in the original set of wheels and a number of other things that made it an even better deal. The wheels that I am running on it now are pretty major upgrades and make the bike even lighter and faster!
Damone is a cool name but since I am gonna be jammin on this bike it has been named Jamone. Silly I know but I also ride with flat pedals which should tell everyone I am not taking things too seriously.
When you buy a used bike you should plan on replacing the tires right away. In this case the tires were cracked and that can be a serious health hazard if one decides to blow out at 30MPH. So I bought some new tires and also replaced the bar tape and pedals.
So far I have put 150 miles on the bike and its like riding on a cloud. We have a bike challenge happening at work at the moment and it is a perfect match for trying to put as many miles/kms on the board as possible.
In the last few years the term Bikepacking has risen in popularity as bike manufacturers have focused on a subset of Bike Touring. Bike Touring is the practice of riding for the joy of riding as opposed to sport, commuting, or exercise. At least that is the Wikipedia definition. For most people who do Bike Touring it means bicycling for multiple days in a self sustained manner.
Bikepacking takes that concept and applies it to more rough terrain. This video covers the differences between what are sold as Bikepacking bikes vs Touring bikes:
One aspect of Bikepacking that is bleeding into Bike Touring is the use of on frame bags rather than traditional panniers. On frame bags are more aerodynamic and have a better center of gravity. While they cannot hold as much gear that means they are lighter too.
Kate and I will be doing a multiday bikepack trip for our 10th wedding anniversary in March. Since my bike does not have mounts for racks I am investigating bikepacking frame bags to carry our tent and sleeping gear. We haven’t done a multiday trip since 2017 when we did the San Juan Skyway and are excited to hit to road again.
Electric bikes are really cool and I think that it if gets you into biking for exercise then it is good. Personally these bikes are very expensive and when the battery dies you now have a really heavy bicycle. For $2k you can get a low end electric bike or a really solid non-electric bike. The non-electric bike will last longer and never runs out of batteries.
For someone with a disability these bikes are life changing. They can ride places they could not have before. This is truly amazing and is who I think should be considering an electric bike.
For someone who wants to exercise more I do not recommend an electric bike. This is going to reduce the effectiveness of the workouts and require more time spent exercising. Just get a regular old heavy bike and it will get you into shape quickly. 4 week of 3 rides a week at 30 to 60 minutes at a talking pace and you will improve your fitness, guaranteed.
For someone who needs a bike for commuting this is a tough decision. An electric bike is a huge improvement over an internal combustion car. If that is your option then get the electric bike. If an electric bike is replacing a non-electric bike cause you are lazy then you may want to explore the lazy part there. Do you need to eat better, wear better cycling clothing, or get more sleep? One or all of those things can make cycling more enjoyable.
Personally I know that an ebike would not benefit me as much as a non-electric bike does. I can ride just about anywhere I need to already. If I need to carry more supplies than I can comfortably carry on my bike then I probably need my car.
However I realize I am a bit of an outlier. I wish I wasn’t but this is the USA and while everyone talks about exercise, most do not. If an ebike gets more people out of the house then that is a plus for them. It also means that there is potentially one less car on road if they run an errand.
This last weekend we had a heat wave pass through the area. Temperatures were above 90F for at least 5 days straight. Yesterday was by far the warmest day of the heat wave. Then, just as the sun was setting, we had a few small rainstorms roll in.
Today was cloudy and a little stormy all day. It was glorious. The air cooled and the sun was obscured by the clouds. The Monsoon season has begun, and it could not have come at a better time for the area.
After work ended Kate mentioned going for a bike ride and I was game. There were storm clouds all around but it still felt like we weren’t gonna get poured on. We got a good 45 minute ride in and then I rode fenceline backwards for the first time. It is also a lot of fun!
Today marks the first time I have seen a rattlesnake on our land. It was more than 500 feet from where we live and spend most of our time. I am not thinking about relocating it but it is a good reminder that we have company out here.
The great news is that rattlesnakes love rodents and help keep their population in check. The other good news is that I have a name for the area I saw it in: Rattlesnake Alley.
In other news that fenceline trail is ready for riding. Total lap length from the new cabin entrance is 0.82 miles. I ran a few laps this afternoon and am getting in just under 5 minute laps. Riding it has helped me see a few things I can adjust to make the ride a little nicer. Overall I am very happy with the trail. It can be ridden by anyone but is still challenging enough to be a workout.
