SPORTS CENTER: What we watch and what we play

Well, since nobody's posting anything about bikes, I may as well. (part 1)

I'm an accidental cyclist. At one time I just wanted to ride my bike to get from point A to point B. But now, it seems like I can't get enough of them. When I was in college, I bought my first brand new bike (first one I purchased for myself-- my parents got me bikes when I was a kid). It was a Specialized Hard Rock GX from 1996/1997. It's pretty much like a stone-age bike by today's standards. I got it to go around the trails behind my college for light mountain biking. It was heavy and not really built for heavy mountain biking, but it did pretty well. I used it to do the 5-borough bike ride around New York City, where they closed down a bunch of roads all throughout the city and they let thousands of people through as if it were a tour. I also used it on a 100 mile Tour de Cure bike ride to raise money for diabetes. But it's not really a road bike so I was dying by the end of the day.

In grad school, I tried to take my old Specialized mountain biking but really decided that it wasn't made for real trail riding. I bought this:

It's a Schwinn Homegrown Special Comp. It's a great bike-- perfectly set up for cross-country style mountain biking on single track and some light downhill. I bought it from a woman who used to compete in mountainbike racing so it was really built for speed. It's about 20 pounds only, made of aluminum and has some pretty light components. Schwinn stopped making the bike at around 2000/2001 when they decided to concentrate on only mass market bikes so I'd have a hard time finding a replacement for the frame and the headset if they ever broke. But I really fell in love with biking and working on my bike.

Mountainbiking in Boulder, Colorado a couple of years ago (a friend on her bike-- I took the pics so nobody has a pic of me doing some boulder hopping):

Aspen forests in Winter Park, Colorado:

Here's my MTB group composed of students, and professionals - the Biking Gladiators - Davao del Norte.

I actually have not been mountainbiking in a while. I've been trying to build me efficiency pedaling on my road bike, which I got into shortly after I got into MTBing. After a bit of research, I bought my Bianchi. It's an all steel bike, which I prefer to aluminum bikes on pavement. They're so much smoother. Aluminum and Carbon Fiber are supposed to be more rigid and so while power transfer to the pedals is better, and they're much lighter, they're also not as gentle on the road. I got a Bianchi Veloce. I think this was a 2003 model-- the last year they made this model Bianchi in Italy. After this year, they shifted production to Taiwan and also changed the kind of steel they use. They only make the top of the line Bianchis in Italy now.



In the past year, I decided to take apart my original bike, the old Specialized MTB that was just taking up space in my garage, and did a bottom up rebuild. I wanted to turn it into a nice town bike. I took apart the derailleurs and converted it into a single speed bicycle that I can transform into a fixed gear bicycle if I ever feel like it. Part of this involved replacing the rear wheel and building it around what's called a flip-flop hub. Flip flop because it has a freewheel on one side for single speed riding and if I flip it around, it has a fixed gear (no freewheel).


So really, this bike only has one gear. I love the simplicity of it-- both in the mechanics and the aesthetics. Here's the hub I built:


But I haven't ever tried it as a fixed gear. I kind of like my freewheel.

So I guess this is the soft-tail bike?


I bought this around six years ago when I was still in high school. I also brought it to college since our dorm is more than 1km away from the classrooms. Unfortunately, the university roads go up and down a couple of hills so you're panting and sweaty by the time you get to class. I gave up and rode the tricycle:lol:

^^ looks identical with my cousin's bike.

here's my cycling buddy. i don't really like its brake system. pero ayos na rin...keysa wala. bought it almost 2 years ago.