My new ride.

Heinz Doofenshmirtz · **on:** January 25, 2014, 03:57:34 AM

Hi everyone! Just dropping in for a quick visit to say hi and to let you all know I'm doing alright.

Still going through some tough times, but life is on an upswing for me...

I'm still working at the bike shop, but will be giving notice there in the next week or so, as I have just been hired as a psychology content developer for Cengage Learning in San Francisco. They are one of the biggest college textbook publishers in the business, and I'll be a developer for their ancillary online learning system that accompanies their textbook products. I'll be starting some time next month; not sure exactly when, but I should be hearing from them early next week to make arrangements to sign my contract, get my office space, etc. I'll miss my bike shop job, but I'll be making a MUCH better salary with Cengage.

That said, on to the real reason for this post... my new ride! I took advantage of my employee discount with Performance, and bought myself a new all-purpose/commuter bike, a 2014 Fuji Sportif 1.1! It's awesome! Here she is...

Way faster than my old Specialized Sirrus hybrid city bike... a couple of lbs lighter, and with the drop bars and STI shifters she's much more nimble in traffic and I can fit through spaces I couldn't fit with my old flat bars... The MSRP is just over $1400, but I got her for only $750.

Have some new rims on order (WTB Frequency i19) and will be ordering some SRAM X.9 hubs to build up into a set of lighter, higher performance wheels. Also going to upgrade the Avid BB5 Road brakes she has to the newer BB7S Road as well. Overall I'll save another 3/4 of a lb, most of it in the wheels.

Anyway, just wanted to say hi, and to let you guys know I'll be stopping by a bit more often now that life is settling down some for me. Also, if Grant is interested, I know a lot of you are brothers in cycling, so maybe we should have a dedicated cycling forum? I'll be happy to contribute advice when I can if it happens. Heck, even if it doesn't, I'll do my best to help out with any cycling related questions anyone might have.

TTYL!

captain spaulding · **Reply #1 on:** January 25, 2014, 04:06:08 AM

Hey buddy! Glad to hear your doing alright.

Congrats on getting hired to the new position. Extra income is always a good thing.

Thats a pretty sweet bike you picked up!!

Zed · **Reply #2 on:** January 25, 2014, 04:16:29 AM

Very nice mate glad things are getting better and very nice bike

I'm up for a bicycle section

Mike, Lord of the Spammers! · **Reply #3 on:** January 25, 2014, 09:57:15 AM

Nice ride there mate

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

kirk13 · **Reply #4 on:** January 25, 2014, 09:59:31 AM

Heinz! Great to see you,and great news about the new job mate!

As for the ride,I'm not one for road bikes,but she is pretty

Gareth · **Reply #5 on:** January 25, 2014, 12:10:51 PM

Good to hear from you mate.

Congratulations on the new job, and the new ride.

enki_ck · **Reply #6 on:** January 25, 2014, 02:45:15 PM

Nice to hear from you again.

Glad the things are looking up. Cool bike too.

Taxi Dad · **Reply #7 on:** January 25, 2014, 02:51:22 PM

Heinz mate !!!!! good to know you're still out there

Mr. Whippy · **Reply #8 on:** January 25, 2014, 02:55:53 PM

Heinz!

Hey man! You need to stop in way more. I have bike questions.

Here's what I'm looking for:

1. I'm looking for a bike for commuting. It doesn't have to be fast, but it has to be able to handle rough road shoulders, broken pavement and edge of road rumble strips.

2. There are 2 fairly significant hills on my commute so it has to gear down low enough that I can climb them without having to stand and grind a too big lowest gear. I don't mind standing and spinning, but I don't like having to weave the bike side to side in traffic.

3. I don't want mountain bike tires, I prefer to have less rolling friction, since the commute is 22 miles one way (44 miles round trip)

4. I'd like to stay at or under the $1000 mark.

What do you have that fits that?

microbe · **Reply #9 on:** January 25, 2014, 03:17:03 PM

nice wheels!

Chako · **Reply #10 on:** January 25, 2014, 03:22:30 PM

Nice bicycle...and happy to hear your working back in your field and at a higher wage.

sawman · **Reply #11 on:** January 25, 2014, 03:32:18 PM

Heinz, this is wonderful news! It's so good to hear from you and I'm glad to hear about your new job.

ducttapetech · **Reply #12 on:** January 25, 2014, 05:22:22 PM

Glad that thing are moving up for you. Nice ride btw!

Lynn LeFey · **Reply #13 on:** January 26, 2014, 10:00:33 PM

First, hey Heinz! We miss you around here. come back more often, please.

Second, nice bike! I'm unfortunately to the place where i need a much more upright sitting position for my bike. A wide A$$ seat doesn't hurt either.

Third, very cool to hear about the new position. I hope you find it a great experience. And I hope the extra funds leads you around to having more time for online activity, and back to my first point.

Higgins617 · **Reply #14 on:** January 26, 2014, 10:07:41 PM

Mr. Whippy, I'm personally a fan of Giant bikes and I think the Roam series would fit your needs pretty well. The top end model the 0 has very solid components and comes in at below your budget range.

PTRSAK · **Reply #15 on:** January 26, 2014, 10:25:51 PM

Welcome back and I'm glad to hear of the upswing.
Look forward to you being a regular presence again.

Heinz Doofenshmirtz · **Reply #16 on:** January 27, 2014, 02:50:54 AM

Hi everyone, thanks for all your kind words; it's nice to be around again. I'll definitely be stopping by more often.

Nate, right now I'm most familiar with the bikes that Performance carries, so my first recommendation would be for a Fuji Absolute. They make several variations and their nomenclature system differentiates them by number, with lower numbers being higher end. Typically the frame is the same for all the variations of a model line, with the componentry making the difference between the variations.

Here's the variation of the Absolute I'll recommend:
http://www.fujibikes.com/bike/details/absolute-15

It has a triple chainring crank so it's got a very low gear range, 700c wheels with road tires so it will ride smooth and fast, and has enough clearance you can run larger diameter tires at a lower pressure for more comfort. It also has rack mounts so you can put a rack on for panniers and also a set of fenders too. That said, Trek and Specialized also both have similar models; look at the Specialized Sirrus or Crosstrail, or the Trek FX series. They all are what are now called "flat bar road bikes" (instead of hybrid) because they're basically road bikes with a more relaxed geometry for comfort and a mt. bike style bar and controls.

If you're interested in a bike with a drop bar, I'd suggest you look at most any cyclocross bike... they're basically road bikes that are specialized for off-road riding, so they have more relaxed geometry but also can run fatter knobby tires for riding in the rough stuff. Many usually also come with mounts for racks and fenders. Many also have disc brakes which makes them great commuters because the discs work very well for hauling loads and dealing with rain and mud, etc. However, they're a fairly small niche in the bike market, so prices for them tend to be higher. Fuji's entry level crosser is called the Feather CX 1.3 and has an MSRP of $1K so you should be able to find one for around $900 on the floor. I built one for a special order a couple of weeks ago, and they're nice bikes for the money.
http://www.fujibikes.com/bike/details/feather-cx-13

jerseydevil · **Reply #17 on:** January 27, 2014, 03:10:51 AM

Paul! Great to see you around!

Glad to hear that things are looking up.

Aloha · **Reply #18 on:** January 27, 2014, 04:49:55 AM

killer looking bike. SO glad to hear about your new job and looking forward to seeing more of you around here.

ToolJoe · **Reply #19 on:** January 28, 2014, 02:55:50 PM

Glad to see your back in the fold Heinz. Fuji makes fantastic bikes. I have had three or four of them in the past and I never had a single issue with them.

Mr. Whippy · **Reply #20 on:** January 28, 2014, 04:33:16 PM

Quote from: Heinz Doofenshmirtz on January 27, 2014, 02:50:54 AM

Hi everyone, thanks for all your kind words; it's nice to be around again. I'll definitely be stopping by more often.

Nate, right now I'm most familiar with the bikes that Performance carries, so my first recommendation would be for a Fuji Absolute. They make several variations and their nomenclature system differentiates them by number, with lower numbers being higher end. Typically the frame is the same for all the variations of a model line, with the componentry making the difference between the variations.

Here's the variation of the Absolute I'll recommend:
http://www.fujibikes.com/bike/details/absolute-15

It has a triple chainring crank so it's got a very low gear range, 700c wheels with road tires so it will ride smooth and fast, and has enough clearance you can run larger diameter tires at a lower pressure for more comfort. It also has rack mounts so you can put a rack on for panniers and also a set of fenders too. That said, Trek and Specialized also both have similar models; look at the Specialized Sirrus or Crosstrail, or the Trek FX series. They all are what are now called "flat bar road bikes" (instead of hybrid) because they're basically road bikes with a more relaxed geometry for comfort and a mt. bike style bar and controls.

If you're interested in a bike with a drop bar, I'd suggest you look at most any cyclocross bike... they're basically road bikes that are specialized for off-road riding, so they have more relaxed geometry but also can run fatter knobby tires for riding in the rough stuff. Many usually also come with mounts for racks and fenders. Many also have disc brakes which makes them great commuters because the discs work very well for hauling loads and dealing with rain and mud, etc. However, they're a fairly small niche in the bike market, so prices for them tend to be higher. Fuji's entry level crosser is called the Feather CX 1.3 and has an MSRP of $1K so you should be able to find one for around $900 on the floor. I built one for a special order a couple of weeks ago, and they're nice bikes for the money.
http://www.fujibikes.com/bike/details/feather-cx-13

Thanks Heinz!

It's been several years since I've looked at bikes and the old divisions have exploded so it's good to hear where to look and what to watch for.

lowtech · **Reply #21 on:** January 29, 2014, 08:14:14 PM

Except: Good to see you! Nice bike.

Grant Lamontagne · **Reply #22 on:** January 30, 2014, 12:54:24 PM

Good to have you back amigo, and even better to hear that things are going well for you. I'll admit to having been more than a bit concerned when your life plan was to wander off into the woods and live off the land.

Quote from: Heinz Doofenshmirtz on January 25, 2014, 03:57:34 AM

Also, if Grant is interested, I know a lot of you are brothers in cycling, so maybe we should have a dedicated cycling forum? I'll be happy to contribute advice when I can if it happens. Heck, even if it doesn't, I'll do my best to help out with any cycling related questions anyone might have.

TTYL!

Just so you know, a bit of MTO trivia for you, the Outdoor Forum actually started off as a Cycling Forum but rarely got much traffic. I'd hoped to bring in some info about all of the cycling tools that are available, but it never ended up going anywhere.

Then I started sharing more and more of my kayaking adventures and I figured it made more sense to have a general outdoors section that would encompass cycling, hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, camping and so on, so we changed it to the Outdoor Edge.

Def

Heinz Doofenshmirtz · **Reply #23 on:** January 31, 2014, 05:07:55 AM

Hey guys... thanks again for all your kinds words!

I'm going to be mostly participating in this forum and the break room once in a while.

I talked to the HR manager at Cengage today, and they're sending my hiring papers, etc. in the mail, and my first day will be Feb. 18th.

My salary is going to be more than what I had expected, so I splurged today and bought a new set of wheels for my new bike (her name is Penumbra, BTB). Got a pair of DT-Swiss 29er wheels; 370 disc hubs and 485D rims. I also bought a pair of WTB Team Frequency i19 29er rims last week; they're 90g less per rim, and the ERD on them is 1 mm less than the 485's, so I'm thinking I'll de-lace the 485's from the 370's and replace them with the i19's. (Yes, I'm being a weight-weenie!) I'm also going to get some red alloy spoke nipples for them too; I figure the red will look pretty sweet with the black rims and spokes...

Some of you may remember that in Feb. last year I had an interview for a FT tenure-track position at a place in Vermont called Norwich University. I didn't get the job of course, but I did end up losing big to TSA and some screener thief; I lost the Yeoman I made myself, and my Exec, and my CT-41, along with my Spydie Stretch 2.

A dark, dark day that was...

Well, I'm going to replace them in the next month or three, and will need someone to build a new Yeoman for me. Steve, or Robert, up to the task? PM me when you can. I also have a crazy idea to add a scissors/phillips layer to an orange Hunter XT...

Thanks for the info on my idea about a bike specific forum there Boss... How about someone just start a bike specific MT thread in here and you make it sticky? I picked up a nifty little tool at the shop a couple of weeks ago to fill out a smaller and lighter tool kit I carry with me now, instead of my full size behemoth. (I'll start a separate thread about it and post some pics.)

Anyway, it's nice to be back. I won't be participating as much as in the past, but I'm still glad to be able to stop in once in a while and chat. Thanks again to Nate, Nate, Chad, Lynn, Tom, Def, Chako, Enki, Kirk, Gareth, and everyone else! Your fellowship is much appreciated!

Namasté!

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