Tai Lam on a Bike

The 2021 edition of the DJ Ripper is an aluminum bike. (There is a 2022 edition, but I think the blue variant of that model, which is set to black, doesn't look as good as the steel finish of the 2021 model.)

I had no idea what I was getting myself into, as I had only my steel adult bike from Target in high school as baseline for my bike experience.

The following are a loose collection of observations I've noticed from riding bikes. Also, when you are invited to test ride someone else's bike, or given bikes to borrow for a moment; you start to experience the differences between different bikes — much like driving different cars.

For now, we'll focus on aluminum bikes. (Maybe this will be true on other aluminum bikes — I won't find out until I can test others.)

At first, I thought that the sound of the brakes gave the DJ Ripper a similar sound to restorative brakes on a car or an e-bike. However, it took me almost 9 months to realize that the sound was because aluminum bikes will sound more hollow compared to steel bikes. For context, steel is the most basic alloy for bikes. Literally every “low” end bike in Target and similar department stores will be made of steel. You need to visit bike shops in order to see different base alloys, such as aluminum and titanium.

The downside to an aluminum bike is that they are more likely to be blown over in the wind.

Also, if there was a bike I would be leery of attempting to put a rear rack on, then this would be it. Not only is this still a bike life bike. It's be a bit unfair to ask a bike made for bike life to easily put on a rear rack for panniers and tag along bike trailers, and the weight distribution of already putting on multiple bike packs inside of the frame triangle and a handlebar bag is already poor and unbalanced.

(So, when compared to most other bikes, the geometry is tweaked for SE Bike models, which is a company known to make bikes broadly speaking for doing wheelies and combos. The DJ Ripper is not exactly the best model to do wheelies and combos on, but then again this bike really can't do most of those idiosyncratic things most SE Bikes are known for, such as being able to put on rear wheelie pegs.)

I'm still discovering what the experience of riding bikes made of aluminum alloys.