Messages

1

The Bike Shop / Re: Road touring gear? Touring advice?

« on: February 24, 2017, 03:24:47 PM »

one month later...

what sort of rack do you have? my surly nice rack is steel and doesn't flex "that" much, but with bags and basket loaded, it sure as hell feels as though it does. I think it's mostly the bags, but could imagine the rack swaying a slight amount. who knows. in any case, it usually takes me around fifteen minutes to get used to it and then it feels fine.

sram gear is deece. you might have to change out your shifters to get whatever new drivetrain stuff figured out. if you're using friction shifters and aren't snagging a new hub to fit more gears, chances are you'll be able to shift fine in friction mode. if you have more/less gears, then your indexing will be off so friction mode will be the default. In any case, I know more about mountain drivetrains than road. the shimano mountain 11 speed fits on normal mountain cassette hubs, whereas sram stuff does not. also, there is different pull ratios on some of sram's stuff and 11 speed shimano road things, so that's worth noting. If you're on the fairdale archer, then you probably don't use friction anyway so most the stuff above is moot.

if you're thinking about switching to a double/triple ring up front, then you miiiiight need to switch out your cranks. also, front derailleurs are super simple so you don't need to bounce on really expensive ones.

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The Bike Shop / Re: Road touring gear? Touring advice?

« on: January 30, 2017, 02:59:24 PM »

Hugh.'s suggestion on spares is spot on. Small rack related bolts and things are nice to have just in case. I've actually had one of my racks loosen and drop a bolt during some riding (all my bad for not tightening) and had to run off course to grab some spare bolts from a bike shop as a result. An extra cable might be nice too as they're super light and you can probably string them up anywhere.

I did the 650b conversion thing with my Trek 520. I have some 2" Schwalbe Big Bens in there and was only able to fit around 40mm tires on my 700c wheels. There are some pretty good deals on discarded stock wheelsets at places randombikeparts if you use googlefu well enough. It's nice to have both the 700c and 650b wheels available, but I haven't actually switched back to the 700c because the bigger tires feel pretty nice and I use my touring bike for nighttime cross-country and fireroad stuffs after work. I used the wider tires on my tour and never had an issue. If you're just buying new rims, you'll need new spokes to match but that's about it.

Low tire pressures feel awesome. However, 40MM to 50mmish isn't that huge of a change so make sure you keep your expectations in check. I only question whether or not my switch was worth it because now I'm building up a road/dirt tourer and ditching this setup to play with 27.5+ tires and those wheels where the reason I couldn't get the, "make them bigger" talk out of my head. That being said, riding what you have, or just doing small upgrades, is the best way to feel out what exactly you want/need so buying separate wheels wasn't exactly a waste (for me) because they still saw plenty of miles.

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The Bike Shop / Re: Road touring gear? Touring advice?

« on: December 14, 2016, 05:11:09 PM »

You can always make your own frame bag if you're handy with a sewing machine. I used a blackburn frame bag on my most recent tour (on long rides, I just use it to hold a hydration bladder) and I'm planning on building my own pack for my next trip this coming summer. My surly front rack is super strong. It's style does look a little clunky, but a large wald basket up front and panniers cover up the ugly real well.

I live in Santa Cruz and made a round trip to Yosemite and back over the summer. Definitely overpacked and could still fit everything into my two large arkel panniers and the wald basket I have lashed to the top of my rack. I brought a bivy even though my hennesy hammock has been screaming for use over the past few years. I think parks are starting to come down on hammock use, so it'd make sense to call ahead to be sure that you can wrap the things around trees. Then again, you can renegade camp anywhere out of sight/site so if you're counting on making do where ever you end up, a hammock could still work.

I spent a lot of time on pavement and think that you might want to consider finding some gravel roads worth riding around. One of my friends pulled a weekend 50 miler in Arroyo Seco over the summer, so that's an idea. Anyways, just keep it in mind. The largest tires that you can fit in your frame should be more than enough to deal with gravel roads / light xc mountain biking. I think those fairdales max out at 45mm or 50mm? Marin has some bikepacking trails/options worth googling. I'm planning on tandem camping with my lady out there once the rainy season comes to an end. Del Valle has camping in livermore that I've ridden to. It has some relatively serious elevation gain to go over in the last three miles, but the downhill after the climb is worth it. I've also ridden and camped at Joseph Grant in san jose / alum rock area. It also has some climbing on the way in. JG doesn't have a lake like Del Valle, so I'd rank that public campspot lower. New Brighton state beach in santa cruz always has some bicycle camping spots open, so you could always use that as a longer trip over the 17 if you want some more mileage without really going out of the way for destinations.

I can't remember which or what, but either state parks or national parks will always have bicycle-in/hike-in camping available and will not turn you away. It'd be worth calling whatever park you're looking for and ask about bicycle-in spots.

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The Bike Shop / Re: Advice needed

« on: February 18, 2016, 06:12:14 PM »

That frame can only fit up to 1.85" tires. I have no idea how you even fit 2.25" in there.

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The Lounge / Re: you bunce of old *****

« on: January 14, 2016, 02:08:19 PM »

Just turned 29. Still no savings to speak of because I'm choosing location over income. When will I learn? At least I get to ride something every day.

Dreading every single step towards the inevitable shift of emphasis from flexibility to income. ):

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The Bike Shop / Re: Thick grips.

« on: December 15, 2015, 01:28:35 PM »

Deluxe is making their grips again, they're pretty thick.

The shovelhands are the good word. My only gripe is that the outside edge of the grips taper off very slightly. Maybe only for a single CM or something. But that's a spot where I park my hands pretty often so it's worth noting.

Those Cult AK grips are actually a little bit thicker than the vans and share a similar level of comfort, too.

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The Bike Shop / Re: Euro/Interbike 2015

« on: September 21, 2015, 01:14:35 PM »

Subrosa did. http://sparkysdistribution.com/subrosa-4-peace-noster-bars.html

Damn, I slept on this. Good catch! Though it looks like a typo because it's so close. Maybe the v2 could be the 4peas bars if palmere ever leaves fiend.

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The Bike Shop / Re: Euro/Interbike 2015

« on: September 18, 2015, 12:42:15 PM »

I hear it only has 1.5 degree upsweep. Bummed. To be fair, this info was from some rando on the grams.

Why hasn't any company dropped the 4peace bars yet? rastafari jah feel or whatever.

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The Bike Shop / Re: Pedals

« on: September 11, 2015, 01:55:51 PM »

But then again how many pedal bodies have you been thru??

I've been running JC/PCs exclusively for a year and a half. I do a lot of pedal grinds (lucees, feebs, butchers, cranks, etc) pretty sloppy and end up replacing the bodies every four to six months. Sometimes sooner, but usually not. I usually keep the spares for just the grind side as I've kept the original tops on both pedals. I'll usually switch out the bottoms pretty early compared to most other people, but I like not grinding through allen heads.

Speaking of which, I put pins on the outside of my grind side of those pedals so that the metal slows down the rate of wear on the plastic. Got the idea on here. It helps keep me from going through the heads of pins that I actually do care about for taking sides apart.

In terms of plastic peg replacement schedule, I'll usually go through two sleeves on my back pleg before I start telling myself my pedals are looking worthy of a switch. Then I put it off for a month or something because mehhh.

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The Lounge / Re: Discussion: US 2016 Elections

« on: August 14, 2015, 01:25:07 PM »

condrbkr, you might want to check out this podcast. Dan Carlin shares some of your opinions about him being an outsider and that being a good thing. I can't remember if he says anything about the guy's policies (I am desperately afraid this guy has a chance to do anything besides disrupting the republican party) but it's pretty interesting stuff regardless: http://podbay.fm/show/155974141/e/1439016488?autostart=1

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The Bike Shop / Re: The "what the hell is Odyssey / Gspprt cooking up" thread.

« on: March 05, 2015, 05:25:13 PM »

What would a grindside mold look like? Have you thought about having Shapeways or something similar print it for you?

That'd be an awesome solution so long as it's a decent material for pedal grinds and all that. Honestly, I was just thinking of the normal pedal shape just a bit deeper. It probably doesn't make structural sense, but recessing the holes for the bolts a bit could have an added advantage too. It's just a huge bummer having to switch out pedal sides because you're starting to grind the allen heads unusable and there is still loads of material left untouched.

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The Bike Shop / Re: The "what the hell is Odyssey / Gspprt cooking up" thread.

« on: March 03, 2015, 11:49:08 AM »

still pipe dreaming that one day oddy will be able to justify and throw down enough money to make grindside molds for JC/PCs because we're all so tired of pulling those pins out when they get ground down. Not to mention switching the sides out a handful of times a year.

Also, that "we" should really just be an "I."

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The Bike Shop / Re: dh bike that rides like a bmx

« on: January 15, 2015, 05:06:09 PM »

Yeah. You just want a slopestyle bike with a good rear shock. I had an older transition bottle rocket ( when they were 5.5" ) and ran it ragged with both a 160mm fork and 180mm dualcrown. I ended up getting the rear shock pushed when I got the new fork and it road like a champ. Despite what you'd expect, the longer fork dropped the BB and slacked out the head tube making the thing feel amazing. Don't be afraid of the slacker bikes because they'll feel amazing at speed and in turns and you'll probably get into those things relatively fast if you start riding more. Even with the longer head tube, the bike was amazing on jump trails like the stuff in whistler.

Santa Cruz doesn't really have that much of the techier rocky stuff, but it still felt great up in the rock gardens of tahoe. All in all, something similar would be perfect for anywhere in the bay.

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The Bike Shop / Re: What did you do to your bike today? (v2)

« on: January 21, 2014, 04:58:35 PM »

Put a gyro and third peg on my bike.

prepare your barfcannons. I'm really into it, though.

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The Bike Shop / Re: What did you do to your bike today? (v2)

« on: May 06, 2013, 04:04:19 PM »

walked my mtb a mile up a trail called 'mile', finger checked if all my bolts were tight. one was kinda loose so i jam a twig in there and torqued it as hard as i could.
i guess it was hard enough to snap the bolt
rode down the hill but no sweet jumps
fuck, i cant believe my suspension relies on a fucking 5mm bolt. thats what i use to hold my fucking brake lever together, fuck

I also attempted to adjust my disc brakes and fucked the tiny thin brakepad spring. at least im learning to fuck it all up on something cheap.

actually it was gonna be my first time downhilling so i said fuck this and stopped walking, got bored and did a bolt check.

...took them like 5min just to walk up that part

You definitely need to ride up the fire road if it isn't your first time riding that trail. Hiking up is a good idea when you want to check out what you'll be rolling over, but riding up takes so much less effort. Also, there are different trails you can jump on up there. Crack is pretty cool and XXX is fun with tight turns and some sweet jump sections. I am also 100% sure you can guess where those trails start if you ride up the fireroad - one of them is marked on the ground, the other is sort of a no-brainer when you're looking for a steep forested chutes that drop into the top of mile.