Dukester said:Commuting to work regularly for about a year now on my Schwinn Crisscross
(hybrid); it's worked fine for me, really well actually. I make it to work
in about 30 minutes - 7-8 miles depending on my route. I think I'm in
pretty good shape. Recently, a coworker came across an old Peugeot 12 speed
(I think a PG10) with 501 Reynolds tubing and gave it to me. The bike was
in the police impound forever supposedly and although it was covered in a
thick layer of dust, after cleaning it up, the gears & brakes worked
beautifully - no adjusting needed. I had to replace the tires that
dry-rotted. I had the wheels trued at the LBS.It is very lightweight compared to the Schwinn and so I thought "man, I'm
gonna FLY on this bike." Well, I was wrong. I rode it once on a 15 miler
from my house to the lake and it was awful. Just sluggish and I was truly
struggling. It was windy that day and I attributed the ride that was
supposed to be fun and wasn't to that (although it didn't make sense at the
time that it was rough both ways). A couple of days later I suited up and
decided to make the 7 mile commute to work on it. "I'm gonna FLY!" Again,
just awful. I was huffing the entire way - 48 minutes, what the ?? At one
point I thought I was going to have to get off and walk the bike. What is
the deal!? It does not coast very far when I stop pedalling, hardly at all
compared to my Schwinn. I tossed it off as a couple of bad riding days and
went back to the Schwinn...nope, no problem. I tried it one more time, same
thing.
I would say not coasting very far is a clue, something is not running
smooth, flip the bike over or mount it in a stand, and try hand turning
the wheels, to see if they are running smooth, maybe a bad or dry
bearing or hub......
W