Joe's Trading Post
  • Home
  • Abandoned Travels
    • Abandonments >
      • 2014-2015 >
        • Mayo Urbex
        • Howey Mansion
        • Uncle James Farmhouse
        • Coffee Farmhouse 01
        • Barber Homestead
        • Fallout Shelter
      • 2013 >
        • CMX Construction
        • Orange House 01
        • Fertilizer Plant
        • Egg Plant
        • Box Plant
        • Ellaville Bridge Revisited
        • Gold Kist Farms Silos
        • Lafayette House 03
        • Columbia House 01
        • Columbia Barn 01
        • Cash's Towing
        • Coastal Revisited
        • Suwannee Shack
        • Hernando House 01
        • Lafayette House 02
        • Lafayette House 01 Revisited
        • Lafayette Chimney Revisited
        • Lafayette Quarry Revisited
        • Williston Urbex
        • Elljay Garage
      • 2012 >
        • Suwannee Barn 01
        • Coastal Service Center
        • Lafayette Quarry
        • Lafayette Chimney
        • Lafayette House 01
        • Lafayette Trailer 01
        • Ellaville
        • Gilcrest House 01
        • Georgia Quarry
        • Family Farmhouse
      • 2010-2011 >
        • Citrus Shack
        • Citrus House 01
        • Georgia House 01
        • Bahia Honda
    • Travels >
      • Italia >
        • Venezia
        • Firenze
        • Amalfi Coast
        • Roma (Coming Eventually)
      • France >
        • Catedral de Notre Dame
      • Cuba
      • United States >
        • Key Largo
        • Smoky Mountains
        • Jasper
        • Shenandoah National Park
        • Colorado 01
        • Colorado 02
        • High Shoals Falls
    • Nature >
      • Super Wolf Blood Moon
    • Water >
      • Blue Heron Bridge 04
      • Blue Heron Bridge 03
      • Ginnie Springs 02
      • Ginnie Springs 01
      • Ginnie Springs 03
      • Blue Heron Bridge 02
      • Blue Heron Bridge 01
  • Games
    • MTG Arena >
      • Arena Sleeve Gallery >
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery Home
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery 2023
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery 2022
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery 2021
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery 2020
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery 2019
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery 2017/2018
      • Arena Sleeve Quick Gallery
      • MTG Arena
      • My Arena Gameplay Data
    • Magic: The Gathering
    • Star Wars: Destiny
    • Diablo Immortal
    • Fallout 76
  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Energy Drinks
  • VATS Sucks
    • VATS Sucks Welcome
    • My Story
    • Troubleshooting Steps
    • VATS Help >
      • 1984-1985
      • 1986-1989 >
        • Passkey Ignition Switch
        • Start Enable Relay
        • VATS Cranking Fuel Enable Signal
        • Schematics
      • 1990 >
        • Start Enable Relay
        • VATS Fuel Enable Signal to ECM
        • Schematics
      • 1991 >
        • Schematics
      • 1992 >
        • Info
        • Schematics
      • 1993 >
        • Info
        • Schematics
      • 1994-1996
      • ZR1
  • Stuff
    • Cars
    • Budget Finds
    • News/Updates
    • Blahg
  • About

Blahg

Getting back into biking

4/24/2021

1 Comment

 
A couple of months back I decided it was time to start riding my bike again. I need to drop some pounds and keep active. Plus I really enjoy riding.

I have a few bikes I'll make future articles on, but the short story is  back in the early 2000's I had an old used 90's? Trek 800 MountainTrack mountain bike that I bought as my first real bike for $100 off Craigslist. I got the opportunity to take it on my first mountain bike trail sometime later on a very cool trail near Wetumpka, AL and absolutely loved it.
Picture
On the way back to where I was staying, I passed a bike shop and decided to check it out. They had this brand new 2008 Trek 3700 in red/white that was a huge upgrade over my old bike. I bought it for $350 and took it out on the same trail the next day. It was a night and day difference having a front shock and a beefier ride. I rode this bike on and off for many years then didn't ride for a long time.

Some years later I bought a really nice Motobecane 600HT from a buddy for $100. I got this for my wife to ride since it was fully loaded. She never road it, often complaining about the way it felt. I realized much later on that it was just too big for her, plus the top bar was too tall for her. She would be getting a newer one later.

Picture
Recently I decided to start riding again, so I picked a paved road path I could ride from my home and not have to drive anywhere. If I made it convenient, I would go more, I told myself. This was fun for a while. Then I wanted to go faster. I swapped my off road tires out for road bike skinnies. I immediately gained 2mph on my top end and it was a much easier feeling ride, rougher, but less resistance on the road.

Now, when I wanted to go on a mountain bike trail, I was stuck having to swap wheels with my old Trek 800, which had the same size wheels and had off road tires. The gearing was a bit different, so the chain slipped somewhat on the highest gears. The price of convenience.

Picture
A few weeks ago my buddy mentioned he had some bikes at our office that were not being used and he was thinking of selling them.  I took one home for the weekend and fell in love with it. I immediately bought it for $200. I'm now the owner of a 2012/2013? Fuji Police Patrol bike. It was hardly even used, basically brand new. This was quite the upgrade over my entry level Trek 3700.

At the same time, I also got the opportunity to ride the same buddy's brand new Himiway eBike. I was immediately hooked. I then found out I could buy the parts and build my own eBike. I decided that the Fuji would be the perfect bike for that. I could take it further on road trips, off road bike-packing and up in to the mountains on steeper rides without killing myself physically from exhaustion. Plus I could have a fun bike to cruise around in on full powered mode if I ever wanted to.

Picture
Picture
So after a week of heavy research on eBikes, I settled on a Bafang 750W mid-drive kit with color Bluetooth compatible computer and paired it with a 17.5AmpHour battery. The entire kit shipped with battery cost me $950 when all was said and done. As of this writing the motor kit came in today, but I'm still waiting on the battery coming in on the slow boat from China. I'll be writing a future article on the install process and first impressions. I am very excited for this, as I've always wanted to get into motorized bikes, and this most likely won't kill me with it's top speed of 28Mph.

So, back to my wife not having a proper bike. She said she would ride a bike more if it was more comfortable to her. Makes sense. I spent an entire week scouring Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, as well as local bike shops and even Amazon. I didn't want a cheap Walmart bike, so I was determined to find an older, but in good shape used higher end bike brand. After about a week of expanding my search radius, asking dozens of people to please measure the frame size, and getting dozens of "Sorry, It's already sold!" or finding out it was too small,  I finally found a nice Trek MultiTrack 700. It's from the late 90's in a nice high gloss metallic red that was in decent shape about an hour away from me. I made the 2 hour round trip and paid $125 for it. It's a little rusty in a few spots internally, but shifts and rides super smooth. It's a hybrid style with 700c wheels.

With a few adjustments of the seat, she was enjoying the more upright and smooth ride it offered her. She's so far clocked in 12 miles in the past couple days. She absolutely loves it.


Picture
So, I have a bunch of bikes now, and I'm really into riding again. I'll be posting up some of my more interesting adventures that I go on with some photos and write ups of the more  scenic, interesting or technical trails.

Thanks for reading! See you on the trails!
1 Comment

    Categories

    All
    Biking
    Budget
    Diablo Immortal
    Energy Drinks
    Fallout 76
    Food
    Free Games
    MTG
    MTG Arena
    PC
    Tabletop Provisions

    Archives

    August 2022
    February 2022
    August 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019

    RSS Feed

Copyright 2022
  • Home
  • Abandoned Travels
    • Abandonments >
      • 2014-2015 >
        • Mayo Urbex
        • Howey Mansion
        • Uncle James Farmhouse
        • Coffee Farmhouse 01
        • Barber Homestead
        • Fallout Shelter
      • 2013 >
        • CMX Construction
        • Orange House 01
        • Fertilizer Plant
        • Egg Plant
        • Box Plant
        • Ellaville Bridge Revisited
        • Gold Kist Farms Silos
        • Lafayette House 03
        • Columbia House 01
        • Columbia Barn 01
        • Cash's Towing
        • Coastal Revisited
        • Suwannee Shack
        • Hernando House 01
        • Lafayette House 02
        • Lafayette House 01 Revisited
        • Lafayette Chimney Revisited
        • Lafayette Quarry Revisited
        • Williston Urbex
        • Elljay Garage
      • 2012 >
        • Suwannee Barn 01
        • Coastal Service Center
        • Lafayette Quarry
        • Lafayette Chimney
        • Lafayette House 01
        • Lafayette Trailer 01
        • Ellaville
        • Gilcrest House 01
        • Georgia Quarry
        • Family Farmhouse
      • 2010-2011 >
        • Citrus Shack
        • Citrus House 01
        • Georgia House 01
        • Bahia Honda
    • Travels >
      • Italia >
        • Venezia
        • Firenze
        • Amalfi Coast
        • Roma (Coming Eventually)
      • France >
        • Catedral de Notre Dame
      • Cuba
      • United States >
        • Key Largo
        • Smoky Mountains
        • Jasper
        • Shenandoah National Park
        • Colorado 01
        • Colorado 02
        • High Shoals Falls
    • Nature >
      • Super Wolf Blood Moon
    • Water >
      • Blue Heron Bridge 04
      • Blue Heron Bridge 03
      • Ginnie Springs 02
      • Ginnie Springs 01
      • Ginnie Springs 03
      • Blue Heron Bridge 02
      • Blue Heron Bridge 01
  • Games
    • MTG Arena >
      • Arena Sleeve Gallery >
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery Home
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery 2023
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery 2022
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery 2021
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery 2020
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery 2019
        • Arena Sleeve Gallery 2017/2018
      • Arena Sleeve Quick Gallery
      • MTG Arena
      • My Arena Gameplay Data
    • Magic: The Gathering
    • Star Wars: Destiny
    • Diablo Immortal
    • Fallout 76
  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Energy Drinks
  • VATS Sucks
    • VATS Sucks Welcome
    • My Story
    • Troubleshooting Steps
    • VATS Help >
      • 1984-1985
      • 1986-1989 >
        • Passkey Ignition Switch
        • Start Enable Relay
        • VATS Cranking Fuel Enable Signal
        • Schematics
      • 1990 >
        • Start Enable Relay
        • VATS Fuel Enable Signal to ECM
        • Schematics
      • 1991 >
        • Schematics
      • 1992 >
        • Info
        • Schematics
      • 1993 >
        • Info
        • Schematics
      • 1994-1996
      • ZR1
  • Stuff
    • Cars
    • Budget Finds
    • News/Updates
    • Blahg
  • About