What style bike do you ride?
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- July
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That’s our new poll question on the right side of the page.
I’m writing now instead of getting ready for my Mid-Week Maintenance 24 mile WCC ride. The thunderstorms in the area make it too risky.
I’m a roady who owns a mountain bike and city bike. 95 percent of my riding is on hand-built Peter Dressen Chrome-Moly road frame vintage 1995. Peter built about 25 frames a year near Trexlertown, PA where he was a terrific track racer in the eighties. My friend John Eustace a former pro and good friend speced out the measurements. So it fits me perfectly which is the single most important element of buying a bike. It’s beat at this point with about 15,000 miles. It still has eight speeds with down-tube shifters. I prefer them to brake lever shifters. I changed out the cranks this year to Campy Centaur compacts, which I love for this terrain.
Why a road bike? Road riding just gives me a greater sense of freedom and sense of speed which started at age 13. Getting on my bike with a friend and exploring the countryside North of Philadelphia was a wonderful experience that has never left me. Racing on the road was also very satisfying, the competitiveness and strategy involved was addicting. In road racing you’re more or less with the leaders or out of the race. Now it’s more about being out there and riding with others. Sharing the road and conversation with people who have a common understanding. If I can pass on some advice and help someone new to the sport enjoy their experience – all the better.
My Ibis mountain bike is beautiful and every-time I ride it I feel bad that the bike is much better then my single-track riding skills. Never feel like I see much along the trail either. Then there’s the fear of breaking bones and not being able to ride my road bike when Spring comes.
I also have an old 1989 Schwinn mountain bike built up as a city commuter bike. That was perfect on the streets of Toronto.
Tell us about what you ride and why. Send us a photo to www.LoHud.com/snap and use the Cycling Central gallery. We’re ready to build a cycling only photo gallery for the site but need your photos.
Thanks for reading.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 6:02 PM by Randall Wolf. 
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I’ll have to get some better pictures this weekend, but like yourself, I have 3 bikes.
I started with the mountain bike, in 2006, after a long hiatus. Kona full-suspension mountain bike, with a lot of miles at Blue Mountain, Sprain and Stewart. I like the challenge of the mountain bike since the trails are always giving something different to you and bike handling and skills become so important even at low speeds.
Added a second Kona to fill in the hybrid category, and put on 700cx23 tires on cyclocross race rims with disc brakes. I use this bike to tow my daughter in her trailer. I realized that the 36lb bike wasn’t going to cut it on the 50 mile rides with a 65lb trailer in tow.
Just this year, added a Kuota Kredo as the dedicated road bike. I take the most pride in this as I built this up from a bare frame that I bought from the former Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada race team. Full Campagnolo, started with 53×41 cranks and a 11-23 cassette, got a 39 ring and have finally settled on a compact 50×34 and a 13-26 cassette after going after the Cherohala Challenge on June 21st.
This was the right decision for a 115 mile ride with 9,000 feet of elevation gain. Limits the top speed but the climbing is easier and I have one or two gears that I can keep in reserve.
http://www.smwbike.org/cherohala/ccMain.htm