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PaperclipPerfector  12d ago (text post)   2321 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 19, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Two months ago I decided to take up bicycling. Thanks for the advice everyone. After determining that as my learned friend @MollieTheMare indicated, the Pacific mountain bike I'd come into was kind of a piece of shit, I went hunting around for other bicycles I could borrow from people, and found myself with a menagerie of old bikes that had been sitting in garages for years or decades now sitting in my garage and being fixed up and ridden around my neighborhood. I've got a 90s Trek hybrid for girls, a 2012ish Trek hybrid for men, a remake Schwinn cruiser, and a Jamis road bike from the 2000s that I quite like but have to keep fiddling with to make work for me because it's actually the wrong size. Eventually I'm going to return all but maybe one of them to their original owners. I'm still kind of figuring out what exactly I like/want/need in a bike, and how to go about finding it.

So cycling mottizens, consider this the "What are you riding?" thread, or the "What bike would you advise someone to buy?" thread. I'm curious what the fine people of this place think is a good bike.

found myself with a menagerie of old bikes that had been sitting in garages for years or decades now sitting in my garage and being fixed up and ridden around my neighborhood.

Based.

Sounds like he took up a bike mechanic hobby.

Pretty much. It's like a lower stakes version of fixing up an old car, there's something satisfying about getting it rolling, but without the specialization. This is actually one of my first experiments in using chatgpt to educate myself on something, which I guess is really part of the fun of the experience, and appropriate given the low stakes involved.

Beware - Bike Wrenching has completely supplanted doing work on my car. It was the same sense of pride and accomplishment with 1/10 the cost, risk, and mess. I even wax my chains now which almost eliminates the sort of hyper-staining gunk that's inherent to most shade-tree hobbies.

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