Any cyclists out there?
- Thread starter jwyles90
- Start date
Feral Feline
Well-known member
It's a mix of standard and metric...
Silver Blues
Well-known member
Oof, sorry to hear this. Wishing you the best. I personally am not really into e-bikes but I really respect their integration into the mainstream because they get a lot of people out on bikes that otherwise wouldn't/couldn't - this is only a good thing!
Same, it's silly now that I have QR on what's ostensibly my MTB and thru-axles on my road bike, but that's life
road hub standards are at least a bit gentler than MTB standards...I'm a centerlock purist, but Project 321 has come up with a genius design for seamlessly accommodating both standards in one hub.
Yeah size labels are basically bullshit, you need to look at geometry tables to get a real picture of the fit. There are several good articles out there explaining how to interpret geometry tables (Link1 Link2) and a handy tool where you can make visual comparisons of different frame geometries (with a reasonably comprehensive database of frames!).
Also, geez Louise, what shop are you looking at that has these crazy low prices. Fucking exchange rate. Compare...
jwyles90
Well-known member
Good points about geometry and all that, I’ll keep an eye out for that as well!
And these are all just at some local bike shops around town here in Portland. I’m pretty sure the Aspero I posted is the previous model, but they don’t have a ton of info about it on their website so we’ll see when I go check it out
JohnnyCreepy
Well-known member
@jwyles90 just browsed bikepacking.com, saw this and considered it to be worth sharing: https://www.statebicycle.com/collec...ducts/4130-all-road-arroyo-lilac-12-speed-udh
Don’t have deeper knowledge about it, but price tag is a bargain for the specs.
Don’t have deeper knowledge about it, but price tag is a bargain for the specs.
Silver Blues
Well-known member
That's a good shout, the State frames are very nice - good place to get into a custom spec for a decent price. However, all the State-branded parts are just rebrands of other relatively well-known Asian OEMs, e.g. the State groupsets are just rebranded Sensah and the brakes are probably Zoom (although the calipers do look like older Juin Tech). These seem to be hit and miss (some people are perfectly happy with them and others are decidedly not).
joeyd
Well-known member
I haven't posted here for a while because I've been spending my free time on my bike (and I need to replenish my supply of pots and I've been putting it off because the exchange rate is bumming me out). I was pretty casual the last couple of summers with my fitness, not really doing much volume or intensity. I'm actually trying to stick to a training plan this year. A plan I've had to modify a few times because of some minor injuries. It seems to be largely working out.
Really hoping for a mild fire season to keep momentum going. Some heavy smoke might compel me to finish the guitar I was building and the half-populated boards I've got on the shelf by my desk though.
I think I've shared a picture of my bike here before. New this season are taller bars, a grippier front tire, and a fresh drive train (the old one wore out). This thing is hideously fast.
Really hoping for a mild fire season to keep momentum going. Some heavy smoke might compel me to finish the guitar I was building and the half-populated boards I've got on the shelf by my desk though.
I think I've shared a picture of my bike here before. New this season are taller bars, a grippier front tire, and a fresh drive train (the old one wore out). This thing is hideously fast.
comradehoser
Well-known member
Biker since my early teens; my first real DIY involvement. Worked a bit at a bike shop here as an assembly monkey.
I am definitely a "90s and before" steel kind of guy. I find the oversized bearing design of modern road bikes bulbous and hideous. Mostly commuting; dabbled in cyclocross racing and fixed gear riding. Love mountain biking too, but it's a thing to make it happen.
Mostly bike a Surly Big Dummy to lug the kid to school and back nowadays. I tacoed my derailleur hanger on my Miyata nine-fourteen road bike; Have a homebrew 69er Al-frame MTB, but popped the rear wheel spokes; my special edition Jamis Nova with 853 tubing got stolen. I really miss that one. Have a Proteus touring bike, but it needs brake levers. I have too many frames hanging around my basement.
I am definitely a "90s and before" steel kind of guy. I find the oversized bearing design of modern road bikes bulbous and hideous. Mostly commuting; dabbled in cyclocross racing and fixed gear riding. Love mountain biking too, but it's a thing to make it happen.
Mostly bike a Surly Big Dummy to lug the kid to school and back nowadays. I tacoed my derailleur hanger on my Miyata nine-fourteen road bike; Have a homebrew 69er Al-frame MTB, but popped the rear wheel spokes; my special edition Jamis Nova with 853 tubing got stolen. I really miss that one. Have a Proteus touring bike, but it needs brake levers. I have too many frames hanging around my basement.
comradehoser
Well-known member
I see this every day. I want to stop them and preach. But, it's also how I know who is riding an electric bike. 100% accuracy. Actual bikers tend to have the saddle too high.
comradehoser
Well-known member
Fenders optional in the rain only if you want whatever is on the road up your crack and in your face/mouth. Fenders are prerequisite to riding in the rain in any kind of sustainable way, to me. And riding in the rain is hella fun!
Feral Feline
Well-known member
I'm well-acquainted with wet-coast riding; I lived in Vancouver for about a decade and biking was my sole mode of transportation (and sole entertainment).
Commuting from East Van to Fraser River's George Massey Tunnel and back every day; in the summer every Wednesday I was riding from work by the tunnel to Grouse Mountain to teach MTBing and then riding home to East Van... rain, shine (once in a blue moon)... and then training and racing on top of that.
Went to meet up a regular Sunday ungodley early-morning road-training session and nobody showed up 'cause it was raining too hard. On the way home I bumped into one of the cat1 guys, late on his way to the coffee-shop meeting point, told him nobody showed — he said "Well, let's go!" So like an idiot I did. Fastest training ride I've ever done, out to PoCo and back, hardly ever had to pull, was just barely able to hang on to this guy's back wheel (did I mention he was one of the more successful cat1 riders?). When I finally got home about half-noon, I showered and went to bed and slept 'til about 8pm.
One extremely brisk February morning I rode to work and when I arrived at the business park next to the Massey tunnel I could no longer feel the little feller... at all.
Nobody was at work yet, but someone hadn't locked the front doors (thank Godot) so I went up the stairwell to the upper office entrance (locked) and proceeded to warm up my little icicle-appendage ... and entered a world of pain I'd never known before and not again since.
jwyles90
Well-known member
I'll take riding in the rain over riding in the wind any day of the week
jwyles90
Well-known member
Cheeky little update, wound up taking this home today
I went into another bike shop yesterday to test ride a few, this one included. I tried out a Jamis Renegade, and another steel framed 650b type ride. They were all awesome bikes, but I knew almost immediately once I hopped on the Cervelo that it was the one I'd been looking for. It might be a little more limited in terms of mounting options and all that, but I don't really do a ton of bike-packing at the moment, so that wasn't a deal breaker for me. It just felt great to ride on, and I could really dig into it and felt the bike respond to whatever I was putting out. To me, at least, it felt like that combo of 'all-road' and just 'straight up road" that I'd been on the hunt for.
I took her for a spin on a 15-mile loop through Portland that I do pretty regularly and it was a BLAST. Super smooth, stable on descents and inclines felt way easier to tackle than my previous ride. Never felt like I had to work too hard to get going or to maintain my speed. Even managed to hop onto a few little gravel paths here and there which was a lot of fun. We're finally getting warm, sunny days here (it topped 80 degrees for the first time since September today), so I can't wait to take her out again very very soon.
Thanks everyone for responding to this initial post and for the awesome conversations about bikes that we've been having!
I went into another bike shop yesterday to test ride a few, this one included. I tried out a Jamis Renegade, and another steel framed 650b type ride. They were all awesome bikes, but I knew almost immediately once I hopped on the Cervelo that it was the one I'd been looking for. It might be a little more limited in terms of mounting options and all that, but I don't really do a ton of bike-packing at the moment, so that wasn't a deal breaker for me. It just felt great to ride on, and I could really dig into it and felt the bike respond to whatever I was putting out. To me, at least, it felt like that combo of 'all-road' and just 'straight up road" that I'd been on the hunt for.
I took her for a spin on a 15-mile loop through Portland that I do pretty regularly and it was a BLAST. Super smooth, stable on descents and inclines felt way easier to tackle than my previous ride. Never felt like I had to work too hard to get going or to maintain my speed. Even managed to hop onto a few little gravel paths here and there which was a lot of fun. We're finally getting warm, sunny days here (it topped 80 degrees for the first time since September today), so I can't wait to take her out again very very soon.
Thanks everyone for responding to this initial post and for the awesome conversations about bikes that we've been having!
joeyd
Well-known member
This is rad. Are you going to keep the flat pedals?
How common is a higher stack height becoming in road cycling? It seems to finally be taking off in mountain biking. I've got like 30mm of spacers under my (50mm rise) bars. I'm finally not having back pain. I've got a ten year old CC bike that I never ride. It fits me from the waist down. Decent pedalling position for my legs, the correct size frame for my body, but the front is sooooo low. Super uncomfortable.
Bike related: I saw a bear and two cubs on my bike ride today. Then I did a jump. 10/10
Silver Blues
Well-known member
Definitely becoming more and more common for exactly this reason! Glad for it too, the low stack didn't work for me either, I've got 30 under right now too which is a touch racier. Might go to 35 (I can go as high as 50 with how I cut my steerer which would be approaching bars even with saddle).
Ooh the sale photo didn't do this colour justice, this is very nice! It's the GRX600 model, right?
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JohnnyCreepy
Well-known member
Feral Feline
Well-known member
Either is horrible in the extreme, but yeah, I'll take rain over wind.
So here's another long-winded story I'll try to keep breezy & brief.
Six guys on MTBs touring through northern Pakistan into China, and at the point of the trip described below, we were behind schedule.
Nearing the end of a miserable grey day battling a headwind, two of the troupe wanted to stay at some Uyghur yurts, but it was vetoed out of the need to put in extra kilometres and get back on schedule. Mother Nature was adamantly not on our side — the wind was blowing hard and as we reached a three-valley gap (not to be confused with Three Valley Gap on the Trans Can in BC) the wind blew ever harder as we wended our way along a mountainside's foot. We passed by a spot where we could camp, but decided to push on, climbing up from the valley floor.
Came around a sharp corner and the other valley basically formed a wind tunnel, a steady blast head on. Between a 5–7% gradient and the wind, there was no more moving forward with full panniers, not even in granny gear — I gave it my all, stood up onto the pedals, determined, but the wind forced me into a track-stand. We accepted defeat and turned around the tailwind and gravity putting us back on the valley floor in no time.
Setting up the tents, one of the flies took flight, a Flash sprint across boggy-strips between leaped-over rivulets I caught the fly before it went into the river. At that point, I wished I'd voted yes to the yurts we'd passed earlier in the evening.
TLDR — headwind so strong that standing on the pedals wouldn't budge the bike.
That trip's a long time ago, all my pics were taken on slide film with a Minolta X700 — decent digital cameras were like 3000 bucks — only big-time newspaper photogs had them. Here's a pic from a better day on that trip, the two Canucks together at a monument to the Chinese workers who helped build the roads and bridges on the Pakistan side of the border. We both set up our cameras, but this must be my buddy's 'cause I don't recall having scanned my slide for this particular moment. I'm the handsome one.
jwyles90
Well-known member
So the shop that I bought the bike from just threw those on for me. I will probably swap them out for the clip in style pedals at some point, but the flats are actually not too bad for now. I generally use the toe cage style, but I've been curious about the clip in style for a bit now.
Thanks! I really love the way it looks, that light blue is reaaaal nice in person. And yea, as far as I can tell it is. I was thinking about potentially swapping out the tires for something a little less grippy/more slick for paved roads, but honestly it felt just as quick as my old road bike, and waaay more comfortable so I will probably keep the tires as they are for the time being.
joeyd
Well-known member
I'm a big flat pedal fan. When I was trying to learn how to ride a bike with clipless pedals I kept falling over at traffic lights. A bunch of times in front of people I knew. One time I fell over so slowly my wife had time to ask me what I was doing. I just panicked and forgot to twist my foot out. Some people seem to pick up the unclipping motion/reflex really quickly (not me). I see the benefits - consistent, locked-in foot position, applying power on the up-stroke - but I couldn't get habituated. You'll probably have no issues if you're used to toe-clips.
I have trouble wrapping my head around the tire choices and pressures common in road cycling. The comfort from a slightly more aggressive tire tread and lower PSI (I ran 40ish) was so much more preferable to the marginal performance gain. And it didn't feel as hostile to my joints.