Summer is approaching (in the Northern hemisphere, anyways) and while I do still bike in the winter, I'm hyped for the nicer weather to go on more leisure rides rather than just commuting.

However, I'm lacking ideas and inspirations for spots to cycle to, so I was curious where everyone here likes to go on bike rides!

Had a crash on mountain bike back in January and couple ligaments snapped in the ankle, time for a fix and upgrade in a form of some braces there.

Hospital drugs were amazing. Woke up after only 3 hours of sleep but felt great, had a good core workout and even dug up my laptop to do some work I was excited to get on to. Somehow high as kite and brain on overdrive managed to solve a problem in backlog that's been stressing me out for some weeks already.

Got out later that day, and after a great lunch and some more legally obtained narcotics managed to get couple more hours of sleep in. Evening was some good slack and watching TV with wife.

Next day started strong, woke up very early but felt rested and after a cup of coffee a good short workout again. Sit-ups straight and lateral, push-ups, biceps, triceps.

Feels good right now, hoping to keep the motivation up going for the next 3+ months without mountain biking. How do you fellas keep up the spirits and motivation to keep training through injuries? Any fun stories to share? I'm probably going to spend a lot more time in Lemmy for a bit, might start spamming this comm too a bit ;)

Grabbed the bike for 80eur from a local online market with all original parts and swapped on some stuff found laying around at home like saddle, bars, Tioga levers, 10sp cassette and derailleur and pedals.

The fork is dead, probably crushed elastomers, otherwise runs like a beast. Currently planning to swap bigger tires (race king 2.2"), single chainring in front and probably a rigid fork, though haven't yet decided on that. Would be fun to repair the Marzocchi Zokes if I can find parts

My commute was 25 miles each way, 1400 feet (426m) of ascent each way, with no transit option. Last winter, a surprise blizzard rolled in during the week. My ride home took me 2.5 hours, rather than my usual 1:40, but I managed to stay upright the whole ride despite riding on slicks. Fixies and foul weather, better together!

TL;DR: this was my very first road bike, purchased new in 1986, and it came back to me twice.

I bought this new in 1986 after two problematic race seasons on an eighth-hand, hand-me-down Bianchi that fit me poorly. This was my first new bike ever. When I went away to college, I perma-loaned it to my best friend. When he went away to law school, he left it at his parents house, and his evil mother put it out at the curb as a freebie. @#%^&@%^@#$^% No, seriously, she was a horrible person and not just because of the bike.

Twenty years later, I set about trying to replace my lost first love. I had a bunch of alerts set on Craigslist. After about two years of patience, I got a notification for a Batavus Course in NYC; I lived in Portland OR. I contacted the seller, put down a deposit, and bought my plane ticket. I was doubly surprised to find that it was my same bike, same serial number. The bike was in need of some TLC with a lot of paint damage, but was otherwise straight and solid.

I stripped it down and sent it to get repainted with a triple-pearl white. I knew I was going to use Nokon cabling, so I had them color match the pinstriping to the new housing.

Other changes:

• Velo Orange 165mm triple crank
• Velo Orange Grand Cru mirror finish headset
• Velo Orange Grand Cru brakes
• Nitto Grand Randonneur 46cm handlebars

When I moved onto my sailboat in 2013, I sold the bike because I couldn't stand the idea of subjecting this bike to the salt air environment. The buyer fell in love immediately, and I was happy that my first love was going to a good home.

Cut to November 2024... the woman who bought the bike got in touch and asked if I wanted my bike back. ABSOLUTELY! It was again in rough shape and poorly maintained, but nothing that couldn't be fixed in an afternoon with a couple beers and some good music. I'm not letting it go this time.

My partner works in a bike shop, and I get to ride all of the top shelf bikes they have. None of them feel like this. I steadfastly believe that modern bikes do everything better, but something is missing. Taking the Batavus out for a sunny day fast ride, it's easy to understand how vintage sports cars are so popular. These old machines might not be the best at cornering, accelerating, and braking, but they just feel so connected and visceral. The Reynolds 501, definitely an entry level tubeset, is flexy, but in all the right places. It feels like love.

howdy everyone!

i’ve been trying to diversify my fitness routine, and i live in a bicycle town with lots of great trails (so they tell me). i’m wanting to get into gravel biking because i have too much to live for to get smashed by a car or modify my collar bone with a tree (jk y’all are cool i’m just a wuss).

one thing i really enjoy is the data part of my workouts, but i’m increasingly wary of putting my data into walled gardens like Apple Fitness or even Strava to a certain extent. and i have the technical know-how to store and curate my own data if needed (4 years as a professional Android developer and 15 years of programming experience). i’ve been advised to get a cycling computer, but many of my friends aren’t so technical and just grab whatever “Garmin” they can afford. and the folks at the shops will have little knowledge of underlying OS versions or chipsets or whatever.

so i wanted to reach out to the nerdiest cycling community i could think of and ask about it. i know gadgets in niche spaces can be kind of a wasteland in terms of open source or open API access or whatever, but is there such a device that’s hacker friendly? i don’t need another shitty smartphone strapped to my bike, but i also don’t want to miss any fun data collection features like power delivery (once i fully build out my kit; i’m building this out piecemeal).

any advice would be appreciated 🙏

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the help! I’ll probably be adding some more inexpensive ebikes that aren’t over $1000 because 90% of people won’t spend that much on an ebike.

I’ll also need to make the note at the top a bit more clear that bikes are 100% down to preference, and to an extent, e-bikes as well. I’ll also try to mention WHY each of my picks are the “best” since a lot of them seem to come out of thin air. (some of it is wirecutter picks, some are just ones popular on various different forums. I’ll try to make it more clear).

Maybe I could add a link to the source of each of my picks (e.g. to wirecutter, certain forums), maybe even a list of different ones sort of like a linktree but worse looking made using html. (if it’s a combination of a lot of reviews and discussion threads)

original message:

For over a year, I've been working on a project called "bestof", which is a product recommendation site detailing the "best" things in each and every category. I've recently included prices as well thanks to a suggestion from a comment. I'm also planning a high-contrast mode, because right now it's all just green.

I would like some feedback, specifically on the bike section. Are my picks terrible (most probably are), and if so, what else do you suggest? Do you have any feedback on the site as a whole?

Thanks for your help!

https://swarbler.github.io/bestof/vehicles/bike/ [DEAD LINK]

edit: I have migrated to codeberg, the old github pages link is dead.

https://sperchingbird.codeberg.page/bestof/vehicles/bike/

Snow Warrior is a love letter to the splendour of winter. It captures the beauty of a northern city through the eyes of a bicycle courier named Mariah. We see her ready herself and her bike for a gruelling day’s work of racing through the snow and traffic to get her deliveries into the hands of her customers.

In New York and other cities where congestion pricing policies, bike infrastructure projects, and car bans have been put in place, cyclists are finding the streets more welcoming.

Not a local but sharing the word since this is highly needed.

Today I revived My Summer Bike!

This one's a bit of a beast — a fixed gear touring gravel bike (?)
Cinelli Tutto frame, bought online in size M (I'm 5'8/172cm), and it needed a seat post with setback, a saddle with long rails scooted all the way back, and all the spacers to make it fit.
I guess I'm tall for Italian standards.

Mounted the widest tires it would take, the lightest rack I could find, and the bare minimum in accessories to make it kinda street legal.
It's the silliest bike I ever built, and it makes me smile every single time I ride it.

Ibis used to put this brake housing stop on some of their frames.

They also had a foot for a frame pump peg:

I wish more bike companies still had a sense of humor.

(Neither picture is mine.)