The biking thread

[Omnis]

I would have nope'd out and taken it to a bike shop much, much earlier. I commend your resilience.

Well, I know why people open bike shops and mobile bike mechanic businesses. By the time you do any kind of service on your fun little hobby, you've spent $200 and just wind up with every tool imaginable to fix ALL the bikes.

I love tinkering with stuff, but I like to approach things like an engineer. Show me the documentation, specs, and method, and I'll have fun with it like grown-up lego. I don't like doing things like a cuban mechanic, using whatever is at hand to shove a round peg through a square hole. Thank god for videos and resources from SRAM, Park Tool, and Performance Bicycle. Couldn't imagine doing any of this stuff from having to search randomly on the rest of the web. The problem with bike people is that more than half of them are dumber than a box of rocks. The ones smart enough to go online usually don't know what they're talking about despite their insistence otherwise. Most of the people with actually useful information or experience are too smart to bother with sharing their knowledge online. The rest are too busy having a circle jerk to Hambini videos. Combine this with all kinds of poorly named standards, a rat's nest of fitment compatibility and tooling interfaces, and it's no wonder that people have a hard time. The cheapest bike shops here charge $85/hour and some have several days of turnaround. Yeah, no thanks.

 

[Greycap]

I love tinkering with stuff, but I like to approach things like an engineer. Show me the documentation, specs, and method, and I'll have fun with it like grown-up lego.

Back when I did my first full MTB dismantling that's exactly what my mom said when she saw the pile of parts. "You're going to get that back together? Well all the Legos you had as a kid surely weren't for nothing." Lego, the best toy for kids ever if you ask me, and it clearly has its benefits later in life.

The problem with bike people is that more than half of them are dumber than a box of rocks. The ones smart enough to go online usually don't know what they're talking about despite their insistence otherwise. Most of the people with actually useful information or experience are too smart to bother with sharing their knowledge online. The rest are too busy having a circle jerk to Hambini videos.

I used to work at the LBS for a while and that's as accurate as it gets. People have no idea about what they're riding other than that it's expensive as hell. I've seen people with +5000€ bikes have their flat tyres changed at the shop because they don't know which way to hold a tyre lever. And have their brakes or gears adjusted there because a barrel adjuster has two ways too many to turn it. Either that, or they're too fine to dirty their hands doing something they can pay a grease monkey to do. I wouldn't dare call myself a biker when acting like that, then again there are guitarists that can't change strings and it certainly falls in the same category.

 

[Omnis]

Aaaaaand the BB30 spindle's not long enough. Really pissed off at this whole thing. I took off the preload adjuster and everything. Everything I bought, I double-checked that it was SPECIFICALLY made to fit XYZ, but if I try to torque the stupid thing the cranks don't even turn. The whole bike industry is a giant crock of ****, especially this BB30 "OH IT'S AN OPEN STANDARD DERP" Nothing standard about anything. It's all engineering half-measures to not get sued over BS patents and copyright.

 

[Omnis]

Gave the GXP BB a good cleaning and fit everything back up with the 48t chainring. Finally, everything in spec and fit perfectly. It's a really, really comfortable bike to ride and fits me great. The SMP saddle is awesome when the seatpost is at the right height. Only problem now is that with everything assembled properly, the knobblies of the WTBs are rubbing the electrical tape that I put as a precaution on my chainstays. I feel like this bike was some stoner "hey that sounds like a good idea" bad idea. Or just a shop's spare parts build. Guess I'm the dummy. But, hey, it was only a few hundred bucks and I have some sweet 29er wheels now to go with my BB30 crankset on my imaginary MTB.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Gave the GXP BB a good cleaning and fit everything back up with the 48t chainring. Finally, everything in spec and fit perfectly. It's a really, really comfortable bike to ride and fits me great. The SMP saddle is awesome when the seatpost is at the right height. Only problem now is that with everything assembled properly, the knobblies of the WTBs are rubbing the electrical tape that I put as a precaution on my chainstays. I feel like this bike was some stoner "hey that sounds like a good idea" bad idea. Or just a shop's spare parts build. Guess I'm the dummy. But, hey, it was only a few hundred bucks and I have some sweet 29er wheels now to go with my BB30 crankset on my imaginary MTB.

So see you at Grinduro next year?

 

[Omnis]

So see you at Grinduro next year?

If you can call me an Uber, I'm there. Just bought some WTB Byways in 700x44 for $60/pair (Hopefully they don't come used and all shredded up ) Also, whoever invented the slotted chainring bolt cup thingy should be shot. Thank God I had a nail clipper that fit the slot, because no flathead screwdriver is wide enough to fit across both slots. SRAM's old 5-bolt crankset uses hex sockets on the bolt (4mm) and the threaded cup (5mm). The new ones with the hidden bolt use these stupid slot ones, except for the hidden bolt which has the threaded sleeve fixed in place. It's like the engineering went backwards. Why not just make every hole use the same hidden bolt fastener? Why introduce a design that requires a special tool instead of one that everyone already has? (I guess everyone has nail clippers...)

 

[Greycap]

Those are just the "Shimano style bolts that need the weird special tool for holding the nut in place" that I mentioned earlier. It's the first time I've seen them on SRAM cranks, unless someone has DIYed it.

 

[Omnis]

Those are just the "Shimano style bolts that need the weird special tool for holding the nut in place" that I mentioned earlier. It's the first time I've seen them on SRAM cranks, unless someone has DIYed it.

Yeah, figures. It's an ebay special, after all.

Anyone see that massive Shimano Hollowtech II crank recall? Might be the biggest US Product Safety Commission takedown in history. 2 million cranks sold, just waiting to fail... and they've known about the problem for 12 years. Yikes. I'll happily deal with SRAM niggles as long as my crank and head sets stay intact

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Those are just the "Shimano style bolts that need the weird special tool for holding the nut in place" that I mentioned earlier. It's the first time I've seen them on SRAM cranks, unless someone has DIYed it.

This kind of stuff makes me dread working on bikes. With cars, you know that pretty much every part will be vehicle specific, which is better than hoping something might fit or breaking out the calipers to measure....

 

[Shaun]

Anyone see that massive Shimano Hollowtech II crank recall?

Not until you just mentioned it.

Going by this mine are affected and will have to be checked out.
Better get in contact with the bike builder I suppose.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

A friend of mine recently had a Shimano Ultegra crank fail...We decided that it must have been from their massive, bike-shredding power. I'll have to break the news...

 

[Shaun]

A friend of mine recently had a Shimano Ultegra crank fail...We decided that it must have been from their massive, bike-shredding power. I'll have to break the news...

It's definitely not massive power that would cause mine to fail.

 

[Greycap]

I'm pretty sure there aren't that many 2012 model year Specialized Cambers even in existence anymore, let alone in active use, and even fewer that have been this heavily modified. If any, that is. For the untrained eye it looks like what could very well be a factory build, I've always been satisfied with myself for keeping it looking boringly bone stock while being anything but. In fact the only original part is the frame, everything else has been changed at least once but in most cases a lot more.

 

[Omnis]

So I removed the brake pads and got 8 resin pads in a kit from Amazon for $8. One pad still had 3ish mm of material left, but the other was down to only about 1.5mm. Some chucklehead decided that it would be a good idea to spray paint the brake pads red. The insides of the calipers had all this red shmoo and particulate everywhere. Brake pad surfaces were trashed. No wonder I could say 3 Hail Marys before it stopped. So I cleaned everything out with brakleen and dawn degreaser. Replaced the rear pads, left the fronts for tomorrow. But now I can't get the pads to stop rubbing even with the adjuster backed all the way out. Something is wrong with these damn things. I also have been having some shifter issues and it's been behaving like a 9 or 10-speed, not going into all the gears. I broke out the derailleur hanger, and, surprise, it was a bit bent. Fixed that. Adjusted and indexed everything to the highest gear, then started climbing sprockets and realized that I didn't have enough chain to get from 3rd gear to 2nd gear. Even with the 36t on there, the chain would be a few links short and SUPER tight. Just can't win. I'm already $250 into parts and things to get this thing ridable. WTF do these guys smoke over there in Asheville? Was supposed to be a turnkey project, but here I am looking for brakesets that are just as expensive as the whole bike.

 

[Omnis]

3 people died in the local bike scene this week. Literally rode with this last guy on Sunday. He has one of the most wild bikes I've ever seen...



Sad.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I'm guessing vehicular collisions. Terrible.

I've finally sold my Giant Hybrid bike so I can figure out now what I want to replace it with a kind of townie, whatever bike

My list of wants:

Steel, relatively lightweight
Mech. disc brakes
Relaxed geometry with sloping top tube for standover clearance/flexibility
Flat bars
Clearance for 35mm tires (mostly for comfort and being able to run tubeless)
Relatively cheap
700c

I would honestly go for an older mountain bike but the tire size and brake type pushes me to newer bikes. The closest bike I can find to my list of wants is the Surly Preamble but I'd like to spend less money if possible. I've got a 700c tubeless disc wheelset that I use for a road setup on my Gravel bike, and being able to use those would be a big plus - they are pretty nice DT Swiss wheels. Maybe I pick up a Preamble frame only and build it from there?

 

[Omnis]

Sorry, I didn't elaborate because I didn't know, honestly. However, one I think was heart attack (older guy), one was breast cancer (the sunday ride was to support the husband and wife with breast cancer, but she died the day before), and this last guy I think they're now saying was suicide. I don't know any details, but if you look at his page he seemed to have a lot of demons and had a problem with cocaine and more recently alcohol addiction that he was struggling against. He used to be a big out of shape guy but lost a ton of weight and became a crit racing coach, looks like. Super fast though. I knew him by the wheels, lol. I'm wondering if he relapsed, or if he really just was depressed and pushed over the edge by recent events. Everyone I know that used to be a cocaine addict is dead. There's so much fentanyl and other stuff in the drugs now that one relapse is usually enough to kill. It's sad.
If there was ever a perfect storm of mental health calamity, it's a combination of depression, a past history of hard drug use, and a battle with alcohol addiction.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I can't decide if I love this or hate it.

Ironically, if I got this bike, I would be riding it to Larkspur pretty often, as that's where the ferry terminal is.

I wish they sold it as a frameset, because I have alternative ideas for the wheels/tires & drivetrain.

 

[Greycap]

The closest bike I can find to my list of wants is the Surly Preamble but I'd like to spend less money if possible.

To me that sounds like a Surly, yes, but a Lowside instead of a Preamble. Mainly because of the geometry and the top tube.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

To me that sounds like a Surly, yes, but a Lowside instead of a Preamble. Mainly because of the geometry and the top tube.

Yeah the lowside has caught my eye a few time. If it fits a 27.5 x 2.8, surely it could fit a 700c x 35? The single speed setup would seemingly align nicely with my idea for a 9 speed rear hub and belt drive too...

edit: Or maybe a mullet setup for the ultimate hipster bike

 

[Omnis]

Yeah the lowside has caught my eye a few time. If it fits a 27.5 x 2.8, surely it could fit a 700c x 35? The single speed setup would seemingly align nicely with my idea for a 9 speed rear hub and belt drive too...

edit: Or maybe a mullet setup for the ultimate hipster bike

Nah man you need a Rivendell or a Mone coaster brake if you want hipster cred.

Isn't the Kentfield or Fairfax ST more along the line of what you're after? VeloOrange also has their Pass Hunter frameset that takes 700x32 on sale. You could probably fit 35s into the latter.

 

[Greycap]

Yeah the lowside has caught my eye a few time. If it fits a 27.5 x 2.8, surely it could fit a 700c x 35?

More than easily, perhaps too much so when looks are considered. The 700C wheel is 622 mm so 311 "per side", a 650B is 584 mm so 292 mm, you'd lose 19 mm of clearance from the wheel but gain something like 35 mm from the tyre. The overall radius would be around 15 mm less... so actually pretty close to my own abomination that came with 29x2,3s but now has 700C 47s, in my case the radius went down ~10 mm. Doesn't even look stupid with the slender built frame.

And of course you could always go for, say, 38s with clearance not being a problem if comfort is desired.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

The shop across the street from my office happens to be a Surly dealer (which considering there are only 5 proper Surly dealers in the state, is quite the coincidence!) so I stopped in yesterday to take a look at a Lowside. I'm not sure about it...it feels a little cartoonish. The tires that come on it are HUGE and I think it would look pretty silly with smaller ones as @Greycap kind of alluded too. I wasn't feeling it, and its not exactly cheap either.

@Omnis The kentfield and fairfax bikes are nice but they are a little too ordinary for me. I want something a bit strange which is why the Larkspur caught my eye. It has the same tire issue though...I'm not likely to use this hypothetical bike for trails much so a 2+" tire seems like it would just be slow rolling.

Found some other options:

Hudski Doggler (City build): https://hudskibikes.com/products/doggler-city-hybrid-bike?variant=
Surly Bridgeclub: https://surlybikes.com/bikes/bridge_club
Konda Dr. Dew: https://www.konaworld.com/products/dr-dew-1

The Hudski definitely looks the coolest...but I'm not sure how I feel about the aluminum frame. The Bridgeclub is probably the closest to what I'm looking for overall...I wish I could get their complete build just without the wheelset!

edit 2: Wow, the Doggler is only 24lbs in the city build. That's barely more than my Ti gravel bike and 6lbs ligher than the Bridgeclub and a full 10lbs lighter than the Marin Larkspur. Aluminum definitely has its advantages.

 

[Greycap]

The tires that come on it are HUGE and I think it would look pretty silly with smaller ones as @Greycap kind of alluded too.

Case in point, I currently have my mom's old hybrid here for a drivetrain overhaul. It originally came with an XC Suntour fork (yes, one of those really crappy ones) that threw its oils out years ago. Since any kind of suspension is unnecessary for her use I replaced it with a Surly Krampus fork, it was the only available option with a bearable price tag and a tall enough axle to crown distance. The thing is that the Krampus is made to accommodate a 29x3.0 tyre and she's running it with 38s. There may be issues with that bike, but front tyre clearance definitely isn't one of them.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Can someone tell me why 90s mountain bikes have such weird stem & steerer tubes? The stems seem to go straight up and then extend out for miles. Is it that the headtubes on those old bikes are short? Or the top tube is short? Both? Why?

I really love the aesthetics of the old rigid triple triangle GT mountain bikes....all except the stem & handlebars which just look goofy as hell to me. I would love a 650b triple triangle steel commuter bike.

 

[Greycap]

Is it that the headtubes on those old bikes are short? Or the top tube is short? Both? Why?

Very short wheelbases, extremely steep head angles, bars narrower than 600 mm, 26" wheels, all translating to handling twitchy as hell unless there's a 130 mm or something stem to slow the steering down. And either no suspension or very little of it which keeps the front end stupidly low combined with the aforementioned 26" wheels, the steerer has to be tall to avoid having a saddle to bar drop comparable to TT road bikes.

And to think the guys did DH runs on those things.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Very short wheelbases, extremely steep head angles, bars narrower than 600 mm, 26" wheels, all translating to handling twitchy as hell unless there's a 130 mm or something stem to slow the steering down. And either no suspension or very little of it which keeps the front end stupidly low combined with the aforementioned 26" wheels, the steerer has to be tall to avoid having a saddle to bar drop comparable to TT road bikes.

And to think the guys did DH runs on those things.

That makes sense. It's kind of surprising to me that the frame geometry didn't evolve much (at least in mainstream MTBs) from the early 80s until like 2000...I guess mountain bike manufacturers were too busy figuring out how to make suspension work before they started to actually develop frame geo.

 

[Omnis]

Can someone tell me why 90s mountain bikes have such weird stem & steerer tubes? The stems seem to go straight up and then extend out for miles. Is it that the headtubes on those old bikes are short? Or the top tube is short? Both? Why?

I really love the aesthetics of the old rigid triple triangle GT mountain bikes....all except the stem & handlebars which just look goofy as hell to me. I would love a 650b triple triangle steel commuter bike.

Well, my uncle's vintage Cannondale has a quill stem. Short steerer tube is probably secondary to most early suspension being integrated into the steerer instead of the fork. Probably also a lot easier to weld up and QC with a hot vertex being less prone to warp coming off the jig compared to a long tube with two hotspots.

 

[SPhilli911]

Did my first organized biking event this past weekend at Lime Rock Park, which was a cool experience to ride around the track before exiting to surrounding roads. It was called the Lime Rock Park Epic, which consisted of 3 skill levels you can enter: The Epic at 78 miles, The Explorer at 53 miles and The Express at 18.5 miles.

I was in the 18.5 miler, which was basically an intro to gravel riding with a 4 mile gravel section and 1000ft elevation. This level ride wasn't timed or anything, just a semi casual ride on some scenic roads. Other than a few guys giving me a hard time for riding with flat pedals on my bike, I had a great time and will do more events like it. The weather was perfect, leaves changing colors and I got to be at my favorite race track with some buddies for a nice ride, good time.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Did my first organized biking event this past weekend at Lime Rock Park, which was a cool experience to ride around the track before exiting to surrounding roads. It was called the Lime Rock Park Epic, which consisted of 3 skill levels you can enter: The Epic at 78 miles, The Explorer at 53 miles and The Express at 18.5 miles.

I was in the 18.5 miler, which was basically an intro to gravel riding with a 4 mile gravel section and 1000ft elevation. This level ride wasn't timed or anything, just a semi casual ride on some scenic roads. Other than a few guys giving me a hard time for riding with flat pedals on my bike, I had a great time and will do more events like it. The weather was perfect, leaves changing colors and I got to be at my favorite race track with some buddies for a nice ride, good time.

Ha, my brother sent me a link to this event a few days ago (he lives in CT). Looks like a fun time. They need to do something like this at Laguna Seca which actually has a ton of trails around it.