there's also a prison in co antrim, long kesh, known as "the kesh"

gaiters. almost like spats

__________________
they made soup out of my research turtles.

photo opportunity!

i think they pulled it down. and before that they changed it's name to maze prison. it housed all the paramilitaries in the h blocks.

__________________
they made soup out of my research turtles.

Maze prison was once Kesh? But it's all famous and everything. Woot!

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

it also means don't cut your hair in punjabi

how many gears do you think you actually need on a bike? i say 6 max, not 21

__________________
they made soup out of my research turtles.

I like 21. 24 is alright. This is because generally I live and bike in a really flat city, and I like the lowest gear possible 4 maximum speeds. And surely the lowest gear of 24 is lower than the lowest of 18? Or am I being all Spinal-tappy about that?

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

i need the extremes, i'd just get rid of most of the inbetween ones

__________________
they made soup out of my research turtles.

But... the nuances.

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

I ride my bike to work when it’s not raining for over a year now, and I am proud to announce I lost over 20 pounds just by riding a bicycle 30- 45 minutes 4 to 5 days a week. I take more vacations with the money I save by not purchasing expensive gas.

P.S. I forgot to mention I still eat the same amount of food and I think I may eat a little more because of all the calories burnt while riding...

I really want to get a bike to go to work because its doing me in catching two buses! But I daren't. My boyfriends always telling me how a car has got too close to him and he has fallen off and stuff. But then again he can also eat bananas while riding his bike which always impresses me.

I was riding there everyday for awhile, til some cunt decide to fuck up my bike

__________________
Juices like wine, like the blood in the sands.

Ive been riding my bike to work for a couple of months now. I dont ride it if I work a late shift or if its raining though. However when I work an early shift (7am-3pm) and I have got a lift in, and have to walk home I get really annoyed because I know that my bike is quicker. At first I found riding my bike really hard but its easier and I am toning up now so I am a lot happier.

__________________
"I'm getting fucking tired of you fucks" - Trent Reznor - toronto 1994

I am the hate you try to hide and I control you - Mr Self-Destruct.

help me pick please

which kind of bike should i get

one of these "commuter" bikes. without the faggy handlebars. this is like a mountain bike except thinner body and tires. shock absorbers in the front. i tried it out, was a lot of fun going over bumps and jumping curbs, but it felt sort of sluggish also. "This is the ultimate urban explorer."

or

not as pot hole/curb friendly but cuter and probably a lot faster and less matronly than the commuter bike.

I would suggest that you get the first one..thin tires make riding easier.

__________________
"I'm getting fucking tired of you fucks" - Trent Reznor - toronto 1994

I am the hate you try to hide and I control you - Mr Self-Destruct.

but the second one has thinner tires, like a proper racing bike. the first one is more of a hybrid between mountain bike tires and racing bike tires. ill be riding through nyc so the roads are mad shitty

Get the first one. And be careful on the NYC streets

Don't get either of those. Get a standard cross-country mountain bike and strip it down, and change the tyres over.

Commuter bikes are just shit unless you're 50 and enjoy cruising around with a stupid little basket, or live in the netherlands where you don't need to dodge idiot van drivers.

Mountain bikes have a much more "athletic" riding position, which gives some of the ride response of a road bike, but the smaller wheels and lower gearing let you accelerate faster from traffic lights. Mountain bike wheels are generally a whole lot tougher, and there are a much better range of tyres available.

First off, straight-up road bike tyres are gonna be totally useless in any urban environment. They're useless for things like braking when lorries pull out in front of you. They don't grip much at all in the wet. My personal tyre of choice is the Specialised Hemisphere - it's a 1.95" width tyre (mountain bike standard), but has a grooved tread pattern, so it rolls really fast, but also has enough grip for practical use around town. It's also tough as hell, so you can quite happily ride it over broken glass without having to worry too much. I used to use Continental Top-Slicks, which were light and fast road tyres, but they ended up all ripped up just from the general cut-and-thrust of city riding.

Best move to make is to strip down your gearing as well - I tend to find for city riding, a single 42-tooth chainring with an 11-32 wide-range cassette gives a pretty good spread of gears to work with. The single front chainring means you can get rid of one gear shifter, have a lot less maintenance and drag due to the improved chainline, and it's easier to keep your trousers out of trouble too.

Oh, and for fuck's sake, don't get anything with a "suspension seatpost" or a sprung saddle.

The ideal model varies from person to person, but I've built my city bike just as I see perfect from years of riding around, but obviously this varies between people and cities. Check out the Cannondale Bad Boy as a good starting point.

I want one of these!