yeah i figured that out once i got home...

too bad there isn't a bike path through the tunnel!

 

There is a path that runs down alongside under the bridge towards the otherside which I guess puts you closer to portsmouth, I made the mistake of pedaling down that hill once, when I got to the bottom there were about 10 homeless men looking at me with that "you gonna get raped" stare, cooking over a shopping card bbq. So I turned around and pedaled back up the hill as fast as I could.

 

are you talking IN the midtown tunnel, or under the berkley bridge (chesapeak side). if so - i did what you did. i saw a sign that said "path to downtown", assumed it meant to downtown portsmouth... even though its right next to the bridge path that took me FROM downtown norfolk (idiot, i know). so we followed it and luckily there was only 1 bum. but on the way back we made sure to roll through there at 15+. We could see the pavillion a couple hundred yards away but BAE SYSTEMS was inbetween.

 

I don't think that there is any toy made that is more dangerous than a department store full suspension bike. I always tell everyone who asks me about bikes and proceeds to talk about a bike they saw at walmart not to buy the springy ones. Seriously, if you are going to buy cheap crap, make sure it has as few bolts as possible on it. I have seen so many people pushing broken Pacific branded bikes (mongoose, pacific, next) out of trails with slumped shocks or broken wheels... If you are going to buy cheap, buy full rigid. Or better yet, go midway, they sell bikes at Dicks and Sports Authority that are only $250-$450 that are so much better than the ones at Walmart, they are still technically made by Pacific, Brands like Schwinn, GT, Diamondback, but they are made better. Stay away from bikes with Suntour Forks, or non branded forks. You can get a decent GT I-Drive for like $350. Or buy a good used Trek or Fisher bike, there are tons of them around.

 

Yeah, that is the path that I am talking about. I thought the same thing, that I could get to Downtown Portsmouth by going that way and maybe you can, but will never know.

 

Thats pretty funny......

 

yeah i didnt really want to keep the bike, nor did i care about it. I bought it from someone for $30 only to trash it. I just wanted to see how much I like mountain biking.

and now i like it a lot. I'm going to invest in a good quality bike.

how is GT though? I was looking at them last night at Performance Bicycles but didnt know much about them.

 

I was up there on Saturday looking at those GT I-Drives. GT is good, welds on the frames looked good. They also have the middle line of Shimano components (F/R Derailuers, Crank, shifters) and I believe they were equiped with Tektro disks, too.

Check out Contes. They carry Specialized bikes, talk to one of the techs and they should point you in the right path.

btw, does anyone know of a bike shop around here that carries KONA bikes in stock?

 

No one stocks Kona really. It is a high end brand. You won't really find Kona, or things like Santa Cruz, etc on shelves. Not around here anyway. Most stores will carry the larger brands. You will find several stores (Eastcoast Bikes, BikeBeat!) that carry Trek brands, which include Trek, Gary Fisher, Klein. Eastcoast can get a lot of bikes for test ride purposes as well, but they do not stock them. Then you will find Contes shops, and a few other shops that stock Specialized, Cannondale, and Giant bikes mostly. You "might" find a Kona in one of those shops, but not too likely.

 

Yeah, thats what I was told by a guy from Bike Beat!... just wanted to make sure I guess. Where is Eastcoast located?