[MarkJerling]

hope a little bike repair counts, too

I was going to say "She can tighten...." but then realised that may be taken the wrong way. So, instead I'll say "She can work on my bike any time".

[clackers]

hope a little bike repair counts, too

Nice tones, Bromberger!


The mechanics at my local bike shops sure don't look like her, it's safe to say.


She might want to invest in a Quick Release skewer, though ... from her expression, she seems to be over that spanner and axle.


My rides are below (all taken with a little 1" sensor compact, I'm afraid).

1. $600 generic Chinese carbon dually frame,
2. Custom made steel cyclocross bike I do everything on from touring, commuting to winter road stuff. Here it's on its way up to Mt Hotham at 1800m.
3. Generic frame roadie with 38/50 carbon wheels

[mattb123]

Is your MTB a Scott Spark? I think I have the same frame but mine is made in the same factory by the Chinese and they don't paint or put any stickers on it and then they sell it for a grand less than a Scott. But the frames look almost identical besides the finish. Love mine! Here's a self portrait with it.


Here's my fixie. The frame is a 1971 Peugeot. I wouldn't have picked those rims but I got it as a gift. They have now faded to a nice pink which I'm sure amuses the rednecks around here. Good thing I'm comfortable with my sexuality.


I don't think I have a photo of the Roubaix, I'll have to take one sometime.

[clackers]

Is your MTB a Scott Spark? I think I have the same frame but mine is made in the same factory by the Chinese and they don't paint or put any stickers on it and then they sell it for a grand less than a Scott. But the frames look almost identical besides the finish. Love mine! Here's a self portrait with it.

You've made my day, Matt!

We probably have the same frames out of the same factory.

I got mine through Hong-Fu or Deng-Fu or whatever they were calling themselves.

It has not snapped in two during three years despite my pessimism for something so cheap. Everything was organized (including the paint job) by messaging with some English-speaking sales staff who weren't all that cluey about bikes, so I'm glad it all worked out.

Truth is, our bikes probably are Scott Sparks. The factory likely made them but did not destroy the jigs/molds as required by the Scott contract, or they made batches for Scott during the day and others for themselves during the night. The workforce (and it is a skilled job, laying down carbon strips) would have been the same people.

As for the fixie, that's a real looker!

---

Last edited by clackers; 04-14-2016 at 05:25 PM.

[RichardS]

And naturally instead of helping the poor gentleman you congratulated yourself on the phone footage you took for your 'Bike Fails' YouTube channel.

I wish

Regards,
Richard.

---------- Post added 15-04-16 at 10:37 ----------

Very nice, Mark, but no Di2, so how do you hold your head high at the latte session afterwards with the rest of the bunch?

Agreed. It looks good. It doesn't matter what you've got, there's always going to be someone who will upstage you. One of my friends had this happen to him a few years ago. He stopped for a cappuccino after a Beach Road ride and was mildly congratulating himself that he had the best wheels there. That was until he met a guy who rode with a paid mechanic so that he didn't have to worry about things like punctures.

This was his ride in 2012

[MarkJerling]

Agreed. It looks good. It doesn't matter what you've got, there's always going to be someone who will upstage you. One of my friends had this happen to him a few years ago. He stopped for a cappuccino after a Beach Road ride and was mildly congratulating himself that he had the best wheels there. That was until he met a guy who rode with a paid mechanic so that he didn't have to worry about things like punctures.

This was his ride in 2012

That's a nice looking bike!
Here someone riding with his own paid mechanic would get quite a few odd looks! (Unless the paid mechanic looked a bit like the lovely young lass a few posts back!)

[clackers]

That was until he met a guy who rode with a paid mechanic so that he didn't have to worry about things like punctures.

This was his ride in 2012

Nice, I think only the top Pinarellos are actually made in Italy these days.

I like the idea of your guy turning up to a shop bunch ride followed by his own Subaru support car, dispensing gels, cans of coke, full spare Pinny on the roof, mechanic hanging out the window spraying lube on the chain as they go down the road, yelling 'Allez, Allez!" randomly, etc.

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Last edited by clackers; 04-14-2016 at 06:58 PM.

[MarkJerling]

I like the idea of your guy turning up to a shop bunch ride followed by his own Subaru support car, dispensing gels, cans of coke, full spare Pinny on the roof, mechanic hanging out the window spraying lube on the chain as they go down the road, yelling 'Allez, allez!" randomly, etc.

While that might work in Melbourne, here I suspect it will be met with words I cannot repeat on a family friendly forum.

[clackers]

While that might work in Melbourne, here I suspect it will be met with words I cannot repeat on a family friendly forum.

That's the advantage you have as moderator, now, Mark, you can do a profanity and then ban yourself, all within seconds.

[MarkJerling]

Too many hats!

[MarkJerling]

Nice tones, Bromberger!
My rides are below (all taken with a little 1" sensor compact, I'm afraid).
1. $600 generic Chinese carbon dually frame,
2. Custom made steel cyclocross bike I do everything on from touring, commuting to winter road stuff
3. Generic frame roadie with 38/50 carbon wheels

Was that $600 for the frame or $600 for the whole thing? Looks good!

[RichardS]

Nice, I think only the top Pinarellos are actually made in Italy these days.

I like the idea of your guy turning up to a shop bunch ride followed by his own Subaru support car, dispensing gels, cans of coke, full spare Pinny on the roof, mechanic hanging out the window spraying lube on the chain as they go down the road, yelling 'Allez, Allez!" randomly, etc.

He's had a few nice bikes. I can remember 3 C50s, each with full Record groupset and Hyperon Ultra wheels, a couple of Time bikes and then the Pinarello. Knowing him, it would be a Porsche, not a Subaru. He's not short of a quid.

Regards,
Richard.

[stevebrot]

I like the idea of your guy turning up to a shop bunch ride followed by his own Subaru support car, dispensing gels, cans of coke, full spare Pinny on the roof, mechanic hanging out the window spraying lube on the chain as they go down the road, yelling 'Allez, Allez!" randomly, etc.

We don't have much bike snobbery around here, though I do remember my first exposure to exotic gear back in the early 1990s. I was just starting an easy century in Orange County, California and was very surprised to see a rider about 100 feet ahead of me suddenly "go to ground". This was in the early days of carbon fiber frames and his very pricey ride failed catastrophically in the first 1/4 mile of the ride...top and down tubes simultaneously snapped. Sad day

BTW...I ride low class, off the shelf bikes...

- 1990 Specialized Rockhopper Comp...running fat slicks for city use
- 2000 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR XC (does not get used much anymore tons of fun for XC)
- 2001 LeMond Buenos Aires (Reynolds steel is real...mostly 105 mix with Rolf wheelset and other nice stuff...Lemon(d) yellow retro paint job)

No bike porn


Steve

[clackers]

Was that $600 for the frame or $600 for the whole thing? Looks good!

$600 frame it was back then, another $60 for the glossy paint job.

Not much of the extra money you can put into a road bike makes you perform any better IMHO, but it's certainly true for MTBs.

I went from a hardtail to dually and can never go back, despite the extra cost.

A seat post that drops and pops back at the touch of a button for descending can cost $500, for instance.

[clackers]

- 1990 Specialized Rockhopper Comp...running fat slicks for city use
- 2000 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR XC (does not get used much anymore tons of fun for XC)
- 2001 LeMond Buenos Aires (Reynolds steel is real...mostly 105 mix with Rolf wheelset and other nice stuff...Lemon(d) yellow retro paint job)

No bike porn


Steve

The Stumpjumper is a legend. Your roadie's nice - I have 105 on mine, too.

You must get the FA35 and Helios 44 out and take pics of the beasts!