Bicycling

Last edited Wed Dec 10, 2014, 08:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Huffy is a good bike, but even when it was made in the USA it was considered low end. Today, only high end bikes are made in the USA. They are expensive, but in many ways worth it, ONCE YOU HAVE SOME TIME BIKING. Someone just starting to bike, will NOT see the advantages of those high end bikes, but once you have biked for a while you will see their advantages.

My advice is Bike and talk to other bikers. Look what you would like in a bike, discuss it here on DU, we all have opinions, some good, some bad, some idiotical, but the only way to tell the difference is to discuss the options.

I can make certain assumptions about you (while remembering the old saying about assume. i.e it makes an "ass" out of U and Me). First, it is mostly women who use the term "Angel", thus it is one of my assumptions. Many women get into biking not fully understanding that most bikes are designed for men AND the so call "Women" bikes were design for riding in a skirt not for women riding a bike.

The main problem for women and biking is that women have a different location of their center of gravity then men. Muscle weighs four times the same volume as fat and men have most of their muscle in their upper body, and thus their center of gravity is in the middle of their chest.

Women have the largest single muscle in the Human Body, the muscle to give birth. For this reason that muscle is the center of gravity of a woman. Breasts are made up of light weight fat, and the head is made up of even lighter weight neurons (Protected by a heavy brain case).

For a man, when he is on a conventional bike his center of gravity is right between the seat the the handlebars, he can become one with the bike. Women on a conventional bike (including a "Woman's bike&quot has her center of gravity hanging out on the seat, to keep her center of gravity close to the bike's center of gravity she has to sit more upright. This can be difficult for smaller women (under 5'6&quot for the wheels of the bike require the bike to be to LONG for a woman to sit upright. This is NOT a problem for short men for their center of gravity is still between the seat the the handlebars, but it is a problem for short women, they dislike having their center of gravity hanging out over the seat.

Terry, a female engineer, has been working on this for about 20 years. She has a line of expensive made for women bikes. Expensive as compared to a Huffy. On the other hand many women like them for their are design for women. One thing Terry did was shorten the frame, but to do that she had to go to two different size wheels on her bikes. A 26 inch wheel in the rear and a 24 inch wheel in the front. This difference in sizes permitted a shorter frame that permitted shorter women to sit more upward.

http://www.terrybicycles.com/?gclid=CjwKEAiA-5-kBRDylPG5096R8mASJABqEdm4rVsHOomBWQ_iVNHK4t392FqnfDrViWPUrsLlPFb4TxoCILjw_wcB

Now, Terry started with her Saddles for Women. Split Saddles have been used for Centuries on horses, Terry adopted it for women's (and later Men's) saddles. It is a HUGE improvement over previous saddles (with the exception of the Brook's and other Leather bicycle Saddles).

Her bikes are NOT cheap ($3000 and up) and until you are up to that level of biking NOT WORTH IT. On the other hand, Terry has a lot of accessories that many woman have found ideal for themselves so look at what she has. I just do NOT see anyone moving from a Huffy to a Terry, you will probably buy something in between first, but look at her stuff to get an idea of what the "Ideal" bike for women should be,

Terry's Bicycles:

http://georgenaterry.com/

Terry has her bike made by Waterford Bicycle. Waterford Bicycle started out as the Schwinn Paramount division, just before Schwinn went bankrupt in the early 1990s. The makers of the Paramount and one Schwinn heir purchased the plant and started to make Waterford Bicycles. They can NOT use the Schwinn name for that is now owned by the same company that owns the name for Paramount (and recently purchased Cannondale). Huffy, Schwinns and Cannondales are now all made in Taiwan by the same bicycle maker. Terry and Waterford are CUSTOM bicycle makers and are independent from the owners of the present name of Huffy, Schwinn and Cannondale and each other. Terry just has Waterford make her bikes to her specs.

http://waterfordbikes.com/w/

Now, Terry has had a huge influence not only in the high end bicycle market but also in the medium end of the market (through not much on the lower end, i.e. not at the level of Huffy, but some influence on Schwinn and Cannondale).

I bring up Terry as the premium woman bicycle maker. She use to sell a bike for around $850, which was cheap for her and in many ways a very good bike. I suspect she "dropped" it for it is WINTER and people do not think of bicycles till the spring.

Now, I check on my previous comments about woman bicycle and found that I did have a reference and it still works for Terry's Commuter, the Burlington, but on her more up to date site Terry says she is only making three bicycles and it is NOT named. I suspect I ended up on a custom only site of hers but she still is selling the Burlington:

http://www.terrybicycles.com/Bicycles/Ready-To-Ride-Commuter/Burlington



Now, I again mention that you need to ride for a while to see what you can do AND what you need. I suspect at least six month of riding and perferably ride for a year, then look at upgrading.

http://community.terrybicycles.com/wordpress/?_ga=1.6324795.820870758.1418254202#.VIjdgNLF-So

One more comment. Given women's geometry (I am male and I like seeing women's geometry) you may want to look into recumbent bicycle. Recumbents have several advantages:

1. They are superior on level ground and down hill.
2. A woman's center of gravity is below her when she is in a recumbent.

Recumbents have several disadvantages:

1. They are inferior going up hill and in most cases going up hill the the biggest obstruction to biking NOT going on level ground or going down hill,

2. If the recumbent has small wheels, the smaller wheels provide more road resistance that harder to peddle. This is NOT a problem with a recumbent with large conventional wheels, but then you have the problem of what to do when you come to a stop. It is NOT as easy to put your leg out to rest on when riding a recumbent then on a conventional bike.

3. Being lower to the ground, harder for drivers of automobiles to see (and this appears to be the main reason recumbents are banned in Europe).

Please note when Recumbents were introduced in the 1930s, one entered the Tour de France. That recumbent did great except on hills but had a hard time "tracking" conventional bikes. Such "Tracking" is done by bicycle teams in such events all the time, to give the team member designated by the team as the winner of that race the most time behind another team member. Thus the other team members act as win breaks for the designated rider so in the final push for the finish the designated rider is as fresh as he can be given he or she has traveled the whole race. The Recumbent thus did NOT win that bike race and Recumbents were banned from the Tour de France and other bike races afterward, mostly do to the fear that sooner or later the recumbent's superiority on level terrain will win the race. This is why recumbents were banned from racing, but the general European opposition to recumbents seems to be related to safety not racing. Please note Recumbents are NOT banned in Europe, but there is much more opposition to them in Europe then in the US.



http://www.bentrideronline.com/?tag=easy-racers

Now, do I ride a Recumbent? No, I stay with a Conventional bicycle. Do I buy a Waterford? No, I stay with a 20 year old Cannondale, which is more of a one step up from the Huffy then the bikes I mention above.

On the other hand, look at these bikes. Dismiss them as to expensive but then see WHY people are willing to pay for them and see if you can get what you need in a more inexpensive bike. Cannondale and Giant still have a reputation for being good bicycles (Schwinn was own by someone who just wanted to cash in the the name and did, so when the present owners obtain Schwinn's name there are having a rough time upgrading it to Cannondale or Giant Levels).

Trek makes several good bicycles and right now the premium American mass producer of Bicycles. They are heavy into Carbon Fiber right now for their top end bikes. Their lower level bikes are made in China, but they higer end are made in the USA. If you do upgrade it is your best choice to upgrade to.

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/

One last assumption. You use the term "Dark" which is generally used by people who prefer dark clothing. Since you just bought your bike, it does not look like you are in the Snow Belt (I am, and still riding my bicycle, but no one calls me sane). Thus I suspect you are biking. If you are wearing dark clothing, not a problem in most of the US at this time of year, but it is a problem some summer.

White reflects all light, Black absorbs all light. Everything else being equal, you will be cooler wearing white then black. When I was in the Army we were issued the then new BDU uniforms which had large patches of black. In the summer these patches just absorb the heat from the sun and we roasted in them. The army then issued us some "Hot Weather" BDUs, These were MUCH better then the regular BDU for their were thinner and made of 100% rip stop cotton, thus much cooler then the thicker 50% cotton, 50% Polyester (called 50/50 BDUs) of regular BDUs. On the other hand I purchased some 50/50 BDU that were 100% Tan/Khaki. These 50/50 TAN BDUs were almost as cool as the 100% Rip stop Cotton BDUs (though NOT as cool as 100% Ripstop Cotton that were also 100% Tan).

The reason for the Tan BDUs being cooler then the Regular issued BDUs was there were no Black to absorb all the rays from the Sun. During Desert Storm (which occurred AFTER I left the Service) the problem of BDUs and they colors came back even in regards to the 100% Ripstop cotton. Thus in the 1990s the US Army switch their Desert BDUs from a version that had black patches in the mix, to one without those black patches. This solved much of the problems with the BDUs when it came to the Iraq war of 2002. Later in that decade the Army came out with a new "Hot Weather" Uniform that used the colors of the later Desert BDUs but went back to 50/50 cotton/polyester material, though of a thinner grade then in regular Desert BDUs. replacing the last of the 100% Ripstop Cotton hot weather uniforms.

The Army claims the new 50/50 hot weather uniform is better then the old 100% Ripstop Cotton uniform. In one way it is better. The Army expects the new 50/50 hot weather uniform to last 18 months of hard use. The original 50/50 BDU was expected to last three years. The 18 months is do to the material being much thinner then the regular BDUs. The 100% ripstop cotton is still much cooler to wear than the 50/50 hot weather BDUs, for Cotton is the best material to absorb sweat. The main problem with 100% Ripstop is uniforms made up of that material would last about 3 months of heavy use. Cotton is a weak material compared to Polyester.

Thus in one way the new Hot Weather 50/50 BDUs are better, they will last a long longer then the 100% Ripstop Cotton uniforms, but you end up with a hotter uniform but one that seems cool enough for general issue.

In the summer I still use 100% Ripstop Cotton BDUs pants but ones that are 100% Tan/Khaki in color. The reason is simple the Color is an important factor when it comes to staying COOL but so is the material. I am willing to accept the fact that 100% ripstop cotton is weaker then 50/50 material, but since I do NOT plan to do any combat in the next few years, it is a excellent choice for biking.

Side Note #1: The US Army is converting from BDU uniforms to a newer "Army Combat Uniform" of ACU. The big difference is the patches used in the older BDUs are replaced by "digital pattern" camouflage. The material used in the uniform did not change. There are other changes, the bottom pockets of the "Jacket" (the shirt) were eliminated for under body armor they were useless (When I was in the Service, in hot weather I just wore a T-Shirt so I had BDU Jackets long after the pants were done), a small pocket was added to the bottom leg of the pants and the buttons on the hip pockets were replaced by Velcro (and I read recently the Army is going back to Buttons in that location, Velcro needs two hands to open, you could button and unbutton those buttons with one hand).

Side Note #2: Ripstop Cotton was developed during Vietnam. In Ripstop Cotton, every 1/4 inch runs a one thread of NYLON among the cotton threads. If you look closely at the uniforms you could see the 1/4 inch squares made by these threads of Nylon. The theory was if the cotton would start to tear (remember cotton is a weak fabric) the tear would STOP at these threads of Nylon. Thus the name Ripstop. To a degree this works quite well. The thin Cotton used in Ripstop Cotton left the soldier with a cooler uniform then any other material, all other things kept the same. The down side was it still was a weak uniform given the thinness of the Cotton and its inherent weakness (Jeans make up for this weakness of cotton by being very thick, but that thickness permits massive absorption of sweat or other form of water making such jeans heavy thus disliked in hot humid areas, to avoid this problem Ripstop cotton is a very thin material, not enough material to absorb to much water or sweat).

I bring this up for you use the term "Dark Angel" and I do recommend you do NOT wear black in hot weather. You will be able to bike a lot longer and it will be a more enjoyable ride if you are wearing light color clothing. The Army liked Khaki for decades for this reason (White was to hard to keep clean, Khaki was a nice compromise between hiding stains that would show up in white material AND the reflection of sunlight white provides).

I would recommend 100% Ripstop cotton, but it is hard to find AND remember it does NOT last that long when compared to other materials. Some people wear thin nylon clothing instead of Cotton. Nylon does NOT absorb water or sweat (its biggest disadvantage when compared to Cotton) but can be made quite thin, so sweat can be released to the Atmosphere as your ride. Many people like thin nylon in hot weather for that reason.

Stay away from Polyester in hot weather. Nylon is a thin flat material thus provides NO insulation. Polyester is a round material around a hole in the middle. That hole can and does provide Insulation capacity. In winter such insulation is something to want, but in summer something to avoid.

http://www.microlabgallery.com/ClothingFiberFile.aspx

I bring this up for I have seen to many people wearing Black and then complaining they were to hot. Your use of the term "Dark" puts me on edge for it sounds like you want to bike, but wearing BLACK in SUMMER can be a killer of that desire. In winter you may want to wear black, to absorb all the sunlight (and heat) you can, but in summer black is something to avoid.