If FEMA had the bicycles, would it fund Hustler's manlet bib?
#2042
Maybe one of these days, Andrew. Kinda funny that the last time we met we were swapping diffs and now we could meet up and partake in our mutual new hobby. Cool.
Just ordered shifters, cables, compact bars, cassette, and tape. Operation modernize is underway.
BTW, do I need to take the crank out to paint? The thingy says "do not disassemble" and I'm skeered.
Just ordered shifters, cables, compact bars, cassette, and tape. Operation modernize is underway.
BTW, do I need to take the crank out to paint? The thingy says "do not disassemble" and I'm skeered.
#2047
Tour de Franzia
Thread Starter
iTrader: (6)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Republic of Dallas
Posts: 29,085
Total Cats: 375
Today's ride hurt, lol. 3 flats, pedaled half of the way solo, did about 22 miles of gravel out of 60.
Bike Ride Profile | Hell of the North Texas Short near Sanger | Times and Records | Strava
lol @ heart rate
Bike Ride Profile | Hell of the North Texas Short near Sanger | Times and Records | Strava
lol @ heart rate
#2049
- High performance tires ride far better than heavier, more puncture resistant tires. When you are doing a lot of 2-5hr rides, ride quality starts to become a big deal.
-Thinner, more flexible high performance tires roll and accelerate a lot faster. When you ride alone, one only needs to accelerate as hard or sustain a speed as you feel like. When riding in a group, you need to accelerate or cruise to match the next weakest rider to stay in the draft. Losing the draft isn't an option unless you like getting up early to met a group just to get dropped on the first hill or mild acceleration. So you find ways not to waste precious watts. High performance tires help a bunch here.
On a city bike one typically wants, in order of importance (roughly)
-Cheap
-Puncture resistance
-Tread life
-Grip
-Rolling resistance
-Ride quality
I liked the Specialized Armadillo's for city bikes. Hard as rocks and ride like absolute **** but ballistic strength casing makes punctures all but impossible.
On a high performance road bike (roughly)
-Rolling resistance
-Ride quality
-Grip
-Tread life
-Puncture resistance
-Cheap
That said, I get very few flats. When I was riding 10k miles a year I'd get only 2-3 flats a year running paper thin 230g race tires and 60g tubes. Maybe 8k of those 10k miles were outside city limits on back roads with a 12" wide shoulder so we're often riding where the cars have picked up all the junk.
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#2050
Tour de Franzia
Thread Starter
iTrader: (6)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Republic of Dallas
Posts: 29,085
Total Cats: 375
I was on gravel at 80psi. I switched to road pressure after that and didn't have a problem. I was on Gatorskins, for the record. I'll probably be on Challenge rubber for the gravel stuff.
#2052
Tubeless for road bikes is still nascent. I fiddled with a conversion for a while but wasn't comfortable with a non-locking bead. On an MTB, you're going slower and a leaking tire tends to burp, giving you some warning. The thought of a 110psi road tire suddenly losing half it's pressure while cranked over in a 30mph turn kept me from experimenting further.
Last I checked, Mavic had one rim model, Hutchinson had one tire model. Both heavy and expensive. I'll wait until the tech is a little further along. For now, carbon clinchers are the easiest to live with, ride best and provide the best strength to weight ratio.
Last I checked, Mavic had one rim model, Hutchinson had one tire model. Both heavy and expensive. I'll wait until the tech is a little further along. For now, carbon clinchers are the easiest to live with, ride best and provide the best strength to weight ratio.
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#2053
Former Vendor
iTrader: (31)
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Posts: 15,442
Total Cats: 2,103
Distance depends on whether the terrain is well-suited to the FG or not. The CAAD is a racey frame but the Dolan makes it look like a touring bike. No bottle cages on the Dolan either, so I'm either putting bottles in the jersey or keeping the rides short. I've only got 75" of gear on the FG right now, too, so it's a little tiring to ride on flat ground. Going back up to ~81 or even a little higher than that would help a lot, but I'm purposely keeping it geared down. So as they sit, I wouldn't want to do more than about 50 miles on the Dolan, with a carefully planned route. I'm doing 110 with 10k of climb later this week on the CAAD.
#2054
That's the right idea if one is riding a FG for training purposes. Running out of gear virtually everywhere forces you to gain economy at higher cadences. That economy translates to every aspect of your fitness. That it messes with the minds of other riders when they're starting to suffer on a 20spd and you're hanging on an FG is a nice bonus.
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#2055
Tour de Franzia
Thread Starter
iTrader: (6)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Republic of Dallas
Posts: 29,085
Total Cats: 375
Tubeless for road bikes is still nascent. I fiddled with a conversion for a while but wasn't comfortable with a non-locking bead. On an MTB, you're going slower and a leaking tire tends to burp, giving you some warning. The thought of a 110psi road tire suddenly losing half it's pressure while cranked over in a 30mph turn kept me from experimenting further.
Last I checked, Mavic had one rim model, Hutchinson had one tire model. Both heavy and expensive. I'll wait until the tech is a little further along. For now, carbon clinchers are the easiest to live with, ride best and provide the best strength to weight ratio.
Last I checked, Mavic had one rim model, Hutchinson had one tire model. Both heavy and expensive. I'll wait until the tech is a little further along. For now, carbon clinchers are the easiest to live with, ride best and provide the best strength to weight ratio.
#2059
I think that the tapered head tube is worth looking at. Cross bikes take a beating and the front end should be a lot more rigid on the Trek.
However, the Cannondale will hold it's value better since they have been making the same bike for 15 years (but not in the same country) and people still want them.
Don't underestimate the ability of a fork to transform a bike.
My true recommendation is, if you aren't racing, to buy a set of big tires and ride your road bike or buy a moutain bike.
However, the Cannondale will hold it's value better since they have been making the same bike for 15 years (but not in the same country) and people still want them.
Don't underestimate the ability of a fork to transform a bike.
My true recommendation is, if you aren't racing, to buy a set of big tires and ride your road bike or buy a moutain bike.
#2060
I think that the tapered head tube is worth looking at. Cross bikes take a beating and the front end should be a lot more rigid on the Trek.
However, the Cannondale will hold it's value better since they have been making the same bike for 15 years (but not in the same country) and people still want them.
Don't underestimate the ability of a fork to transform a bike.
My true recommendation is, if you aren't racing, to buy a set of big tires and ride your road bike or buy a moutain bike.
However, the Cannondale will hold it's value better since they have been making the same bike for 15 years (but not in the same country) and people still want them.
Don't underestimate the ability of a fork to transform a bike.
My true recommendation is, if you aren't racing, to buy a set of big tires and ride your road bike or buy a moutain bike.