bicicletas

[Joker]

On 6/30/2020 at 6:03 PM, metronome said:

Good shout.  I'll take it off and give it a once over with a good flash light.  

Are your wheels set up to run tubeless tires? I switched over to tubeless tires a couple years ago and have never looked back. Just last week I ran over some glass I didn't see and the tire started spraying sealant, and within seconds sealed the hole. A few pumps of air to top the tire off and I was back on my way. Less than three minutes. If I had to change a tube I would have been held up way longer, and we all know the struggle is real when trying to get a road tire mounted on a rim without one of these handy. Although I did get one of these last year for on-ride emergencies (if for some reason I need to insert a tube into my tubeless tire) and it works like a charm. Anyway, if you can go tubeless with your current rim set up, I'd recommend it. Are you still running those 3T Discus wheels? I think you can convert them to tubeless pretty easily with tubeless rim tape and some valves. 

 

On my gravel/CX bike (which I'm riding more than my race bike, right now) I'm running Donnelly CDG tires with Stan's Sealant. I'm able to ride the tires at a lower pressure (usually 65-70psi) and it makes my ride feel like a Cadillac. So smooth. 

[Hua Guofang]

As @Jokersays, tubeless is definitely the way to go.

 

Also sounds like beading the tyre onto the rim is a hell of a lot easier on MTB than road/gravel bikes.

[Joker]

Yeah, beading a MTB tire is sooooo easy. Don’t even need tools. 

[metronome]

I bead my tires by hand because I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.

@Jokertbh I've found tubeless intimidating but I may just end up giving it a shot.  I wanted to splurge and buy myself some carbon hoops and figured I'd go tubeless with those from the get go but you've got me thinking now.

[Joker]

On 7/10/2020 at 5:50 PM, metronome said:

I bead my tires by hand because I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.

@Jokertbh I've found tubeless intimidating but I may just end up giving it a shot.  I wanted to splurge and buy myself some carbon hoops and figured I'd go tubeless with those from the get go but you've got me thinking now.

I was intimidated by going tubeless as well, and denied for a few years. But back in 2017 I had this gravel race coming up and I knew there would be a lot of small lava rock gravel sections and I was worries I'd end up on the side of the course fixing flat, after flat, after flat, and I didn't want to carry several spare tubes and Co2. So I did some research and saw how easy setting wheels up tubeless looked, then bought some tubeless valve stems (wheels and tires were already set up for tubeless), Stan's Sealant, and in less than half an hour my ride was set up tubeless. It was that easy. I will admit that those first few rides I kept waiting for my tires to deflate or burp really easily, but it never happened. 

 

Now... the hardest part of going tubeless is pumping up the tire. If you have a regular pump it can be done (I used a regular pump for my first two tubeless set ups) but I won't lie - it was the most time consuming and frustrating part of the set up. I eventually got smart and bought a high volume floor pump. It was fucking expensive for a pump but it makes pumping up tubeless tires a breeze. 

[metronome]

I ended up buying that tire bead jack you recommended in your earlier post.  I took my bike out for a quick zip the other night and it felt pretty good but I don't have any spare tubes atm (coming with the bead jack) so I'm hesitant to try and do a long ride until I have all that sorted.  

 

I was doing a little more reading and my wheels are tubeless ready, and because of that the clearances can be tighter when remounting ... and Conti's are notoriously tight/not stretchy.  I think I'll end up going tubeless, if not this season then definitely for the start of the next outdoor riding season.  Cheers @Joker

[metronome]

5 years is a pretty good run! 

[KILZ FILLZ]

Fred likes to eat his meals on wheels

 

 

[ndv]

^^  Yabba dabba dooo

[metronome]

Ahhh fuck that's a bummer man.

[abrasivesaint]

Whats some effective yet cheap ways to lighten up my commuter bike. Bars, seat, that type of shit? Would it really even make that much of a difference?  

[Joker]

52 minutes ago, abrasivesaint said:

Whats some effective yet cheap ways to lighten up my commuter bike. Bars, seat, that type of shit? Would it really even make that much of a difference?  

If you're just looking to make the bike lighter for the sake of a lighter bike - lighter components will lighten up the bike a bit, but not a lot. I mean, you're looking at grams per component. That could add up to a pound or two if you change out everything... maybe even three pounds, but you'd have to switch out all the components, and your wheels. All of that can get quite expensive, really quickly. 

 

If you're just looking to make the bike lighter for the sake of getting up hills easier/quicker - the cheapest way is to lose body weight. That cost you nothing, literally. 

[Joker]

For the last three years I've been designing custom paint options for SAGE Titanium customers. Definitely fun to work with customers to come up with something they love and are excited to ride. Here's just a few...

 

 

[KILZ FILLZ]

I made this

[Dirty_habiT]

@Jokerthose bikes look really good!  That's really awesome that you get to work on stuff like that.

[Dirty_habiT]

On 9/11/2020 at 8:54 AM, abrasivesaint said:

Whats some effective yet cheap ways to lighten up my commuter bike. Bars, seat, that type of shit? Would it really even make that much of a difference?  

Those would all be good starts.  One thing to consider is to think of the difference between weight that is being carried and weight that you must "move" to propel yourself forward.  I'm butchering the shit out of the terms/explanation of that so if someone knows the right way to say it, and could correct me, that'd be good.

 

Pedals, cranks, chain, sprockets, wheels.  I think those things are all your "rotational" items that, if lightened, will make it feel like you have to do "less work" to make the bike accelerate and less work to keep the bike moving once it's at a certain speed.

 

Things can get spendy quick and I would recommend against certain carbon parts, like handlebars.  If, for some reason they break, they can really fuck you up... like bad.  Not that other carbon parts can't, but in particular, I'm afraid of carbon handlebars.  Many people use them without problem.

 

If your bike has already light handlebars you could always cut some off the ends of them after figuring out where on the handlebars your hands naturally go (probably exactly shoulder width apart).  Light wheels make a huge difference but also will damage easily hitting things like potholes or curbs, or w/e.

 

I would also cut your seat post if it's long... because there's probably a lot of meat on it that i going down inside the frame of the bike that doesn't need to be there and isn't really providing that much extra strength past what the seat post clamp and a few inches of the seat tube are already providing.

[Dirty_habiT]

On 8/14/2020 at 10:57 PM, nicklesndimes said:

made a stop on my bike early yesterday afternoon, and as i headed toward the bike rack to unlock my bike to get to an appointment that i had i heard the dreaded hiss of air seeping from my front tire...would have been late to my appointment had i not taken the chance at riding on the flat tire(carefully, of course..) for a somewhat considerable distance. sure enough, i bent the rim a bit. went out today and got a spoke wrench at the LBS, only to make it worse(this was my first attempt at truing a rim). so now tomorrow i am going to have to drag that wheel across town and drop it off to get professionally trued.

 

but at least i own the tool to do it now, so with further learning maybe i can use it at a later date and save myself the fee of getting it done at the LBS. one this is for sure: late for an appointment or not, i am not riding on a flat ever again.

Props on truing your own wheels.  That's one of the things that can make owning a bike WAY better.... the ability to fix tweaked rims and keep your spokes tight/straight all the time.

[Elena Delle Donne]

self-promotion! my 1986 panasonic touring deluxe build. bought this last year, had planned to bike cross country on it this summer but coronavirus cancelled those plans. 

 

it came to me in meh shape and it's a well built if not particularly valuable bike so i scrapped many of the parts and built it up. 

 

drivetrain: the rear drops were already stretched, like someone had planned to do this, so i fit an 11-speed cassette in the rear. has a white industries VBC crankset thats 46/30 for loaded touring. lots of low gear range even if i'm not gonna win any flatland races. i kept the downtube shifters for now (long arms) but am debating whether to move to brifters or bar ends at some point. 

 

wheels: handbuilt by a local shop. velo orange grand cru hubs and 36h RAID box section rims, strong and functional. heavy! but it's a heavy bike, so whatever. thickslicks only because the roads on my commute are so packed with glass and plastic that i flat out 3x/month on anything that's not these or gatorskins. (i'm about to replace these and haven't even had them for a year. my commute is 30 miles round trip, so they really go through it.) 

 

brakes: kept the original cantilever brakes, swapped for kool stop pads. i am tempted to get those pretty and eye-wateringly expensive paul cantilever brakes because i am stupid but should prob just get calipers. 

 

bars: one of the FSA gravel bars with a little bit of spread. i got a bike fitting and the fitter put me on these, so while i don't remember the specifics, they feel so good. bike fittings: worth it if you really ride a lot. (i have to re-wrap my handlebars, i know they look bad, be nice!)

 

Edited September 28, 2020 by Elena Delle Donne

[Elena Delle Donne]

the original paint is good from far but far from good. i have a velocals decal set and am torn between having it stripped and powdercoated:

 

- an orange-y adobe brown

- metallic copper 

 

if you have opinions, by all means. i'm keeping mech a mix of black and chrome, more black though. 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2020 by Elena Delle Donne

[Elena Delle Donne]

On 9/11/2020 at 11:03 AM, Joker said:

For the last three years I've been designing custom paint options for SAGE Titanium customers. Definitely fun to work with customers to come up with something they love and are excited to ride. Here's just a few...

 

 

😍😍😍

i hope you're still doing this by the time i buy a ti bike. so pretty 

[Joker]

32 minutes ago, Elena Delle Donne said:

wheels: handbuilt by a local shop. velo orange grand cru hubs and 36h RAID box section rims, strong and functional. heavy! but it's a heavy bike, so whatever. thickslicks only because the roads on my commute are so packed with glass and plastic that i flat out 3x/month on anything that's not these or gatorskins. (i'm about to replace these and haven't even had them for a year. my commute is 30 miles round trip, so they really go through it.) 

 

brakes: kept the original cantilever brakes, swapped for kool stop pads. i am tempted to get those pretty and eye-wateringly expensive paul cantilever brakes because i am stupid but should prob just get calipers. 

 

 

Punctures: I've already wrote about my praise for tubeless wheels/tires in this thread but I'll reiterate - if you can afford it, go with tubeless wheels and tires. About three years ago I switched my CX/Gravel/Winter Training bike over to tubeless wheels/tires and I haven't had a puncture, since. Three years. Gravel, single track, lava rock, and all the muck/glass/sharp shit in the roads, too. There's definitely cuts and bits in my tires but the sealant immediately sealed the punctures. So quickly, I never even knew it happened. I've gone through several real tires and one front tire only due to prolonged wear. There's even plugs you can buy for larger cuts that the sealant can't close, but that's fairly rare.On the weekly Sunday group ride I attend, the only time we've had to stop for flats in the last five years is due to punctures on regular tires/tubes. So yeah... I highly praise the tubeless set-up. 

 

Brakes: this'll save you $120:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/USED-PAUL-COMPONENTS-TOURING-CANTIVLIVER-SET-IN-BLACK/284020872681?hash=item4220f695e9:g:ZsoAAOSwcjdfam7j

 

Not sure where you're located but if there is a local racing scene, especially a big CX racing scene, chances are there's someone local with a set of Paul's cantilever brakes they're desperately trying to get rid of because they've upgraded to a bike with disc brakes. If there is a local racing scene then there's probably a group chat you can join, and those always have a For Sale section where you can look for used parts for cheap (and usually haggle for a lower price), or you can post that you're looking for used Paul's cantis. There's possibly a once or twice a year Bike Swap event, too. They have them where I live and lots of folks set up shop with stuff they're trying to sell for cheap. And there's always Craigslist. 

[Elena Delle Donne]

1 hour ago, Joker said:

Punctures: I've already wrote about my praise for tubeless wheels/tires in this thread but I'll reiterate - if you can afford it, go with tubeless wheels and tires. About three years ago I switched my CX/Gravel/Winter Training bike over to tubeless wheels/tires and I haven't had a puncture, since. Three years. Gravel, single track, lava rock, and all the muck/glass/sharp shit in the roads, too. There's definitely cuts and bits in my tires but the sealant immediately sealed the punctures. So quickly, I never even knew it happened. I've gone through several real tires and one front tire only due to prolonged wear. There's even plugs you can buy for larger cuts that the sealant can't close, but that's fairly rare.On the weekly Sunday group ride I attend, the only time we've had to stop for flats in the last five years is due to punctures on regular tires/tubes. So yeah... I highly praise the tubeless set-up. 

 

Brakes: this'll save you $120:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/USED-PAUL-COMPONENTS-TOURING-CANTIVLIVER-SET-IN-BLACK/284020872681?hash=item4220f695e9:g:ZsoAAOSwcjdfam7j

 

Not sure where you're located but if there is a local racing scene, especially a big CX racing scene, chances are there's someone local with a set of Paul's cantilever brakes they're desperately trying to get rid of because they've upgraded to a bike with disc brakes. If there is a local racing scene then there's probably a group chat you can join, and those always have a For Sale section where you can look for used parts for cheap (and usually haggle for a lower price), or you can post that you're looking for used Paul's cantis. There's possibly a once or twice a year Bike Swap event, too. They have them where I live and lots of folks set up shop with stuff they're trying to sell for cheap. And there's always Craigslist. 

you're a legend, thanks for this. i've been intimidated by tubeless for a minute but when it comes time to switch i'll make it! i want to ride gravel on this thing and every time i do i just get killed by pinch flats 

 

and good looks on the tips on used cantis, i'll probably go the ebay route. i'm in dc so we definitely have cyclocross here somewhere? but i'm not really big in The Scene so idk where they are. 

[ndv]

2 hours ago, Elena Delle Donne said:

😍😍😍

i hope you're still doing this by the time i buy a ti bike. so pretty 

That last one tho!  Straight fire.

[Elena Delle Donne]

joker sold me on tubeless but instead of buying new wheels at this time: anyone have recommendations for new tires? my thickslicks are near the end of their lives. i can run up to 700x36, probably, and run through all the road debris that can ruin a tire 

[metronome]

Gatorskins are the de-facto tough tire for anything 23-28mm wide.  I have zero insight on a wider cross style tire though, there is probably something better or more suited to your bike out there.

[ndv]

Customer is in the process of restoring a bike and wanted the logos engraved over the preexisting logos followed by a yellow paint fill to match the bike.  I am guessing yellow because of Tour de France?

 

Anyhow, never heard of the brand until now, and man are they expensive. 

Edited October 8, 2020 by ndv

[ndv]

[metronome]

Campagnolo is old school cool.  And the guy who won the TdF this year did so on a Campy groupset.

[KILZ FILLZ]

[KILZ FILLZ]

Campy ftw