The biking thread

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Speaking of stems, in a way. WARNING: RANT INCOMING after a bit of an intro.

This thread has more common sense among the handful of us here than I've seen combined elsewhere during my biking "career" that is more than a decade long now. And nothing else shows it better than anything related to bike fit, for example @Omnis above wondering about swapping the cranks for longer ones and nobody said anything before seeing how it actually turns out. Which is exactly how it should go, nobody else can know if it works or not.

The know-it-all people, the so called serious bikers, take the Velominati mindset without any of the humour, turn it up to 11, and apply it religiously. Especially when bike fit is considered. I've heard the "if you're between two frame sizes, always pick the smaller one" so many times that I may just punch the next besserwisser using it smack in the middle of their face without any hesitation. They don't know such a thing as a frame too small, even in cases when it results in an abomination that needs a stem something like 30 mm longer than the geometry was designed around and a set back seatpost with the saddle pushed all the way back. The resulting bike steers like a rigid truck due to the overly long stem, is very prone to OTBing as the bar is far further forward than what the head angle was designed for, and the hip/knee section is probably all out of whack due to the saddle being several centimetres too far back just to have enough room between it and the bars.

Another thing that I again recently came across, and that actually sparked this post, is crank length. Read any article about it and the conclusion is always the same: the shorter the better. It's funny how no bike company puts 160 mm cranks on size L frames even though they apparently work best for everyone. Oh hell no they don't, I wouldn't put such ones on anything other than a kids' bike. They may work for someone who always rides at 120 rpm but that's about it. And crank length is, at least for me, one of the biggest things in how the bike performs. It's happened often enough now that it's not a coincidence, I'll try a bike and it doesn't seem to be moving like it should, and it turns out that it has 170 mm cranks. I had an otherwise pretty good cyclocross bike of my own for a while that wasn't any faster than a lightweight XC hardtail and it always felt like I just couldn't get the power down - 170 mm cranks. Tried a friend's enduro rig recently, absolutely no forward propelling power even when out of the saddle - 165 mm cranks. The difference to my preferred 175 mm isn't much in numbers, but it's very noticable.

Putting those two paragraphs into reality, my own bike is probably built all wrong according to the experts. I'm a bit on the short side but have longer than average legs, height 173 cm with an 80 cm inseam. They'd put me on an S/15,5" frame with 165 mm cranks in an instant with absolutely no objections, in reality I ride an M/17,5" with a pretty long 430 mm reach, a 60 mm stem, a zero offset seatpost with the saddle well forward to feel like I'm pedalling a bike and not a go-kart, and 175 mm cranks. The smaller frame would probably require at least an 80 if not 90 mm stem which would throw agility out of the window, the shorter cranks would force the saddle another 10 mm higher which would raise the CoG and move it forward, neither of which is good for handling. But it would be CORRECT.

Ok, but how about 135mm cranks?

 

[Greycap]

There's a reason why nobody builds a V8 with a 4" bore and a 2" stroke but expects it to make normal big block power without doubling the revs, I'd say. The same reason applies here with the main difference being that cyclists seem to be happy running at the redline all the time or going nowhere, whereas it wouldn't very desirable in a car.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

So manuals are hard. Spent about an hour this morning trying to get something resembling one. I managed to get the bike up to the balance point (and then immediately back down) maybe 2 or 3 times (out of probably 100 attempts) but its hard work. I think without the rebound of a suspended fork, it's a bit tougher but I think I'll get it at some point. My goal was to get the bike up high enough to "fall" off the back, but I just couldn't get it to happen. I would start with wheelies but my 32/15 combo just isn't low enough for me to put enough torque to the back tire for it to happen - I mean a typical contemporary mtb might be as low as 30/52! I also chose a relatively draggy section of grass to practice on. I think a hardpack dirt surface would be better.

I did work on some other skills with better luck. My bunny hops are doing a lot better than they used to, my track stands are getting much better, and I'm riding down steeper inclines with a ton more confidence than I have on my gravel bike. The manual is the trick/skill that I just really want to be able to do. I'm having a blast riding with flat pedals again though - the freedom of movement is just great.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

So manuals are hard. Spent about an hour this morning trying to get something resembling one. I managed to get the bike up to the balance point (and then immediately back down) maybe 2 or 3 times (out of probably 100 attempts) but its hard work. I think without the rebound of a suspended fork, it's a bit tougher but I think I'll get it at some point. My goal was to get the bike up high enough to "fall" off the back, but I just couldn't get it to happen. I would start with wheelies but my 32/15 combo just isn't low enough for me to put enough torque to the back tire for it to happen - I mean a typical contemporary mtb might be as low as 30/52! I also chose a relatively draggy section of grass to practice on. I think a hardpack dirt surface would be better.

I did work on some other skills with better luck. My bunny hops are doing a lot better than they used to, my track stands are getting much better, and I'm riding down steeper inclines with a ton more confidence than I have on my gravel bike. The manual is the trick/skill that I just really want to be able to do. I'm having a blast riding with flat pedals again though - the freedom of movement is just great.

Quoting myself here because I was, happily, wrong. After not making much manual progress, I tried harder on the wheelie front. With my saddle slammed and my weight back as far as I could manage while still pedaling...I wheelied! At first it was the typical "whoaaa buddy" and the front wheel would slam back down, but I kept at it, and I was able to raise the front up and over the balance point and fall off the back (on my feet). I managed to properly ride a wheelie for maybe 3-4 pedal rotations for maybe 10ft or so? Its definitely hard work with that gear ratio, as I have to basically put a max effort into the first pedal stroke to get the weight to shift, but once its up, its a little easier to pedal. Started to work the rear brake into the equation, but I had to call it quits for the day. I think I may try a 17t rear cog because I think it would be funner at low speeds. The bike really does not need an 11 speed drivetrain...I'm kind of thinking a 3 speed internal hub might be fun...if only they weren't so heavy.

 

[Greycap]

Gearing is always a problem when speccing a new bike or making changes to an old one. I've now been thinking about options for the pool donut mobile errr fatbike, it's not quite clear yet what will be the fate of the cranks and it'll decide the chainring situation.

If the existing cranks are still serviceable I'll probably get a 32T chainring and a 12-32 cassette and call it a day, it sounds like pretty high gearing for a fatbike yes but for the record I run the daily driver MTB with a 32T and 11-28 all year round. Including during the last few days when there has been about three inches of unploughed snow on the roads and it digs in far worse than the fatty would. On the other hand if I'll need new cranks then it allows for a direct mount chainring and in that case a 30T or even a 28T might be on the cards. In any case I'll want a close-ish cassette to avoid huge cadence jumps, many wide range offerings have the dreaded 15-18 shift for example.

 

[Omnis]

Froomey put up his vid with his Miami trip. They took him to the gravel after they did the annual Best Buddies ride. I love Mack Cycle but you need to have so much money to do anything with them, and the BB ride is only for people who have both gobs of money and incredible fitness. Those guys are fast af.

 

[Solo]

Treated myself to a new set of wheels for Christmas, in combination with the 38cm Zipp aero bars (replacing the standard round 42cm bars) I fitted earlier in 2023 my TCR is getting pretty aero.

New wheels are Roval Rapide CL IIs (51mm front 60mm rear), with 28mm GP5000TRs tyres and an 11-30 cassette. Couldn’t justify the extra £1000 for the CLX IIs. These replace the standard Giant SLR1 42mm on 25mm GP5000TRs that I was running before.
Terrible photos of the before and after below:



First riding impressions have had to wait though due to the awful wind and rain for the past few weeks in the UK!

 

[David]

When I moved to Texas almost 9 years ago I pretty much parked my road bike in the garage for good. The roads around me are no place for anyone on a bike unless you have a death wish and even if you drive out a ways you end up on "back roads" with 70mph speed limits and shoulders covered in crap from all the trucks coming and going from quarries and construction work around here. So if I'm gonna have to load up a bike and drive somewhere to ride anyway I figured it would be more fun to go mountain biking.

But before just jumping into that I wanted to make sure I started getting my legs back in shape first so I got the road bike tuned up and ordered a smart trainer to mount it on at home. I've had a lot of fun and done over 600 miles on Zwift since late October. Finally starting to see my average power climb even over longer rides.

While I was back on the east coast with family for the holidays I hit up a few bike stores with my dad and came across a screaming deal on a new Trek mountain bike. 50% off the original msrp which was still a huge discount off the lower price Trek has on these now. Way overkill for my current skill level since I haven’t been on a moving bike in quite a few years but I’m looking forward to getting back into it

Fuel EX 9.8 GX AXS Gen6

Already got a few rides in over the holiday with my dad before returning to Texas. So far so good and the bike feels great. It should be a very fun year.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

When I moved to Texas almost 9 years ago I pretty much parked my road bike in the garage for good. The roads around me are no place for anyone on a bike unless you have a death wish and even if you drive out a ways you end up on "back roads" with 70mph speed limits and shoulders covered in crap from all the trucks coming and going from quarries and construction work around here. So if I'm gonna have to load up a bike and drive somewhere to ride anyway I figured it would be more fun to go mountain biking.

But before just jumping into that I wanted to make sure I started getting my legs back in shape first so I got the road bike tuned up and ordered a smart trainer to mount it on at home. I've had a lot of fun and done over 600 miles on Zwift since late October. Finally starting to see my average power climb even over longer rides.

View attachment 1316265

While I was back on the east coast with family for the holidays I hit up a few bike stores with my dad and came across a screaming deal on a new Trek mountain bike. 50% off the original msrp which was still a huge discount off the lower price Trek has on these now. Way overkill for my current skill level since I haven’t been on a moving bike in quite a few years but I’m looking forward to getting back into it

Fuel EX 9.8 GX AXS Gen6

View attachment 1316266

Already got a few rides in over the holiday with my dad before returning to Texas. So far so good and the bike feels great. It should be a very fun year.

The MTB scene in Texas is pretty damn solid considering there aren't any...you know...mountains. I can think of at least half a dozen dedicated parks in DFW alone. That's a sweet bike.

 

[David]

The MTB scene in Texas is pretty damn solid considering there aren't any...you know...mountains. I can think of at least half a dozen dedicated parks in DFW alone. That's a sweet bike.

I'm down in the outskirts of San Antonio near the hill country so there's some decent stuff close by, and also some supposedly great stuff up around Marble Falls less than 2 hours away.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Motorist crosses centre line, hits 8 cyclists in Florida

@Omnis - Kinda down your ways. Hopefully you weren't with this group.

 

[Omnis]

Ouch. No, I don't know anyone that rides Trek. 6:45 AM is super early for me to even get to the beach and A1A. Most groups don't leave until 7am, but that's the weekend. That stretch of A1A sucks though. You only have a super skinny section of pavement to the right of the line, and it's not just that the road ends but it's like a rough and jagged cut-off 3-4 inch drop into the pine straw on the shoulder. If you drop a wheel off the side you are totally screwed, so you just have to ride in the lane and hope nobody clips you. That's terrifying that the car came across head-on like that though. You can't avoid that. The lady was probably an ossified drunk who fell asleep or something while driving to get her breakfast bottle of vodka tonic.

 

[Omnis]

Bout 2000 people showed up to the scene on A1A.



There's actual footage of the accident from the saddle camera of the lead cyclist in the group. ****ing disgusting, and it all happens before anyone can even react. So sad.

 

[Solo]

@Omnis - Alex Dowsett looks to be in your part of the world at the moment doing various club rides. I did a few club TTs against him this year and it’s scary seeing how fast a world tour pro is vs your average cyclist. For an 11 mile TT he was 4min 50s faster than me, both of us on road bikes and me in second place…

Had my first ride on the new weeks today, insert cliche about feeling fast here. Very happy with them and the wider tyres are definitely more comfortable. I’m running them tubeless again and it was so easy to set up without any special equipment. I’m running at 60psi for the 28mm tyres and it’s so much more comfortable than a similar pressure on the 25mm tyres I had previously

 

[Omnis]

Ziel is the Pas Normal Studios distributor or whatever. $$$. They're also super fast but were pleasant towards me when I went to the local crit last year. However, the girl who was a friend of a friend wound up blocking me on insta and wouldn't tell me anything about their group rides in person, and also ignored me during the Dolphins charity ride when I said hi, so I got the message there. All these places are like in Miami proper. I'm not. It'd be like traveling from Oxford to London just to ride a bike.

I'm kind of over being involved in group rides and the cycling scene here. You come across like a stalker or something when you're trying to meet people but have no other friends involved. Most people are inconsiderate or just too fast, anyway. The language and culture barriers with most of the riders being spanish-speaking is also kinda eh.

The fact that our cycling community can play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but instead it's Three Degrees of Vehicular Manslaughter, where you've ridden with someone who's been run over by a car, is also a drag.

 

[Solo]

I'm kind of over being involved in group rides and the cycling scene here. You come across like a stalker or something when you're trying to meet people but have no other friends involved

This is a real shame, and the opposite to I’ve found here. Cycling in a group with a good cafe stop along the way has definitely improved my enjoyment of the sport.

 

[phillgt2002]

Hey, does anyone have any suggestions for a brand that makes high quality steel rims? I’m back on the saddle of the Guerciotti my dad gave me and I’m looking to do an overhaul and rim build.

I went to another bike shop yesterday to pick up some extra bits, and the worker there had nothing but great things to say about the bike. He was surprised to see an older bike with a complete, untampered Campagnolo Super Record groupset, and actually knew of the shop my dad had it built in in the 80s. He kept lamenting “NEVER let it out of your sight!”

@Eunos_Cosmo - from what I recall, you’re in the Bay Area. Do you remember a place called Talbots Toyland in San Mateo?

Anyways, here’s the bike after a cleaning and new tape. I also got some Sram cork tape to layer.

 

[Omnis]

H Plus Son Archetypes or SL42s

 

[phillgt2002]

H Plus Son Archetypes or SL42s

Thanks, this should be a good start. The shop I’m gonna go to is charging $90 to build the rims.

Do you have experience with H Plus Son? Just gonna do some research on them and get a consensus, I’m liking what’s here.

Edit: looking through their supplier sites, it doesn’t seem like they have anything that is just the rim and spokes with no hub included. I’ll be using the existing hub.

Edit 2: it didn’t cross my mind to look for such a thing on Amazon, but they do have a few on there.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Aren't those Aluminum wheels? If that's what you're looking for, maybe check out HiFi. USA made, I believe. Pretty popular with the guys riding around the PNW. FYI they sell all the components separately, if that's what you need.

 

[Omnis]

Yeah, they’re aluminum. I was under the impression that that’s what he meant. Didn’t know if they even make steel wheels and why you’d want them.
If you’re using the same hubs, why do you need new rims? Are they damaged? Typically you buy hoops and spokes separately if you’re having them built. The spokes to get are Sapim CX Ray. Don’t cheap out.

When I was doing my track bike research H plus Son was a brand that kept coming up. If anyone at the velodrome had wheels that weren’t carbon or unbranded, they were h plus son or bontrager

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Yeah, they’re aluminum. I was under the impression that that’s what he meant. Didn’t know if they even make steel wheels and why you’d want them.
If you’re using the same hubs, why do you need new rims? Are they damaged? Typically you buy hoops and spokes separately if you’re having them built. The spokes to get are Sapim CX Ray. Don’t cheap out.

When I was doing my track bike research H plus Son was a brand that kept coming up. If anyone at the velodrome had wheels that weren’t carbon or unbranded, they were h plus son or bontrager

My Mavic Aksium's have like 20k miles on them and the braking surface is....iffy. I can understand why you would replace the rims but re-use the hubs.

 

[phillgt2002]

@Omnis @Eunos_Cosmo - yeah, I meant aluminum.

I’ve always been told that since the hubs are a little difficult to find and are original to the bike, I should get rims built using them instead of replacing. I’ve had them checked out and they’re still good.

As for the condition of the rims, the rear is the concern. I primarily ride in the city, where I’m at and where I’ve been is pretty rough with potholes, etc, so it has honestly left me having to do more maintenance than usual.

I hit a bump while on a ride and it bent the rear wheel, nothing a true can do, it can minimize the impact it has on ridership, but it will still be noticeable. I took it to the LBS and they said they could try to true it, but I honestly think it’s time for a complete upgrade.

The rim options you guys suggest are great, I’ll keep them in mind. I’m gonna set up an appointment soon and I’ll mention them.

 

[Omnis]

@Omnis @Eunos_Cosmo - yeah, I meant aluminum.

I’ve always been told that since the hubs are a little difficult to find and are original to the bike, I should get rims built using them instead of replacing. I’ve had them checked out and they’re still good.

As for the condition of the rims, the rear is the concern. I primarily ride in the city, where I’m at and where I’ve been is pretty rough with potholes, etc, so it has honestly left me having to do more maintenance than usual.

I hit a bump while on a ride and it bent the rear wheel, nothing a true can do, it can minimize the impact it has on ridership, but it will still be noticeable. I took it to the LBS and they said they could try to true it, but I honestly think it’s time for a complete upgrade.

The rim options you guys suggest are great, I’ll keep them in mind. I’m gonna set up an appointment soon and I’ll mention them.

Just get a whole different wheelset on ebay or something and save the originals for show or resale with the bike. Think of it like winter wheels for your car lol

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Did some fun single speeding today. Been getting a lot of rain recently, so it got pretty muddy. Pictured here at the front door of a disused ammunition bunker at Hamilton Field, a former air force base decommissioned in 1974 and more recently transitioned into a wetland and bird sanctuary. It's a weird place and full of some weird activity.

My front wheel has a bit of an issue. I had to use a conversion kit to run 12mm through axles (to fit the hub) with the fork which was designed for a 15mm axle. The converter works...mostly. The problem is that there is a rubber grommet that secures one side of the converter into the fork. I think there is a bit of flex with the grommet so the result is that even with the axle & nut properly torqued down, there is a bit of movement when there is an axial load on the wheel, such as when cornering. This is causing the brake rotor to rub inside the caliper during cornering. I tightened the wheel nut a bit more (11nm) which is about all I'm willing to torque down various carbon components to. This helped a bit, but I think I need to eventually get a 100m, 15mm, 27.5 wheel. I think that combo is pretty rare, unfortunately. Most 27.5 wheels now are boost spacing.

 

[Greycap]

[...] I think I need to eventually get a 100m, 15mm, 27.5 wheel. [...]

Take full advantage of the situation and don't get a boring all black wheel like those of us with no playfulness - including me because serious business etc. - would do. That bike looks like it's screaming for a colour matched (yet mismatched as far as the wheelset is considered) rim, white might work as the frame decals are white.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Take full advantage of the situation and don't get a boring all black wheel like those of us with no playfulness - including me because serious business etc. - would do. That bike looks like it's screaming for a colour matched (yet mismatched as far as the wheelset is considered) rim, white might work as the frame decals are white.

Not a bad idea. I do like the HiFi bare bones wheelset...but they only sell them in pairs.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Anyone have experience with sliding horizontal rear dropouts on a single speed bike?

The rear end of my bike has developed a nasty creak. At first I thought it might be too much chain tension putting eccentric load on the BB. But the chain isn't that tight. When the bike is sitting stationary and I push down on the center of the chain, I can hear a loud creak coming from somewhere around the sliding dropouts.

Mine are similar to this setup, except I don't have the brass thumb nuts for the adjuster screw. My order of tightening was to set the chain tension with the adjuster screw and then tighten down the "clamping" bolts, and then tighten the adjust screw down again afterwards. Something seems to have loosened up somehow.

edit: My through axle was loose

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Looks like Red Bull is buying a majority ownership stake in Bora and they will be the title sponsor as soon as this year's TdF. Other points: They might try to poach Wout & Remco.

I would love to see a TdF squad built around Wout & Remco as a kind of Super Rouleur duo that runs up the margins on the "easy" stages and limits the gap in the mountains. I wonder if it could ever work. You'd have to run every stage like a classic...definitely not an easy task.

 

[Greycap]

Holy heck I'll be high as a kite on caffeine if they keep the Specialized bikes, seeing that I already like Red Bull and own a small Specialized fleet. Chances are I'll learn to fly with my ears or something.