AustinBike

Yesterday, demoing the latest Ripley "Wow, I like this bike, just don't know if it is THE one...someone send me a sign" <Starts pouring> Later, at the brewery... "Yeah, I liked it, just not sure if it is the one, I really need a sign" <Literally a goddamn rainbow appears> One last jaunt on the greenbelt this morning... "Starting to warm up to this bike, I just wish I knew if it was the right one, I need a sign" <Starts raining again> I just wish I knew for sure...

Will keep that in mind. Heading out of town for a couple weeks, so all of the bike demo fury started and ended pretty quick. One down, several more to go.

That is an interesting bike. The price is right, but the travel is only 120mm on the fork with the only dealer being out in Dripping Springs. Will add it to the rotation and see what happens.

Got in 10 miles at WC (started at 3). We got off the trail when it started raining but we were all the way in the back. A bit slippery, but the ground was so try that it was not turning to mud. My guess is that it should be ok today, but someone should give it a visual before we say good to ride.

OK, did a Ripley demo last night at WC before the rain hit, but the real test will be today (gonna hit the greenbelt). Initial thoughts are that this thing is smooth and sweet. I liked it, but the one nagging feeling was that the seat tube angle seemed too steep. It felt like I was sitting on top of the crank instead of sitting more towards the rear wheel. In beer conversations after the ride it became apparent that 76deg seat tube angle is the new black and everyone is heading in that direction. Oddly, that puts the Stumpjumper back on the front burner and pushes the Tallboy to the back. Truth be told, a 76deg seat tube angle is not the worst thing in the world, I could live with that if I had to, but it was not that 110% fit like a glove ride. The cockpit felt a little cramped so I pulled the 35mm stem and put on a 70mm stem. Instant difference. Here's the impact: slow speed steep climbing, where you need a lot of torque and tend to stand, is easier with a longer stem. The shorter stem is better for longer, sustained climbing where you are actually seated most of the time (or have enough speed that when you stand for the last few cranks it still feels stable.) An immediate stand at the start of a climb with a 35mm stem is really noodly. As a bonus on the Stumpjumper, it has the 51mm offset for the fork and comes with a Fox 34 standard (and I could hold on to my Pike as a backup). It is becoming more interesting as I think about it. More bikes to try, more riding to get done.

You will see it tonight. Gonna do an easy ride on the trails and then give it a harder workout on the greenbelt tomorrow morning. Had to adjust the stem, a 35mm stem does not feel right for me. Put on a 70 and it is much better. More to come, stay tuned.

*Technically* he does not have a demo right now....

Medium will be too small, I am a large. 11-speed is actually preferred, for the most part 10-speed works fine here. Mostly concerned that 12-speed is diminishing returns (1 more gear but more finicky to adjust and more prone to damage.)

Yeah, far be it for me to overcomplicate the process. Going to try to ride a few, but if I happen across a killer deal, I could pull the trigger today. Because I can't compare the total discounted price until I have actual quotes, I am going off of list to list comparisons, but the final number will require a little more work. But the two top bikes (on paper) are the Ripley and the Tallboy. The new Tallboy is not available yet. Both at list are identical for the most part.

Awesome, will add them to my list and report back next week.

Because I am bad at math, I can't figure out if running the fork at 140mm instead of 130mm makes the problem better or worse. Because I'd take it up 10mm to fix something but would be hesitant to take it down to 120 because 130mm seems to be my sweet spot.

What you will find about sleep as you get older is that the wakeup time is anchored in stone. If you want to impact your total sleep time, you need to work on starting earlier.

Yeah, I used to ride my Ross 10-speed to work every day in Chicago as a teenager, including all winter when temps at 6am were often -20F. Here people bitch that anything under 55 is too cold to ride. My Austin record is 28F for a ride to work.

And as quickly as our plans departed, we now suddenly are planning to hit Santa Fe, leaving on Thursday morning. Taking our urban bikes (wife's in a Townie cruiser). Any tips on town lake-style riding? Crushed granite or paved, no gravel grinding. I see the Santa Fe River Trail and the Santa Fe Rail Trail as good options so far. Will probably be hauling a dog in a trailer as well. Also, any food/beer recommendations, especially dog-friendly would be appreciated. In case you are wondering, Low 70's during the day, upper 40's and low 50's at night. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I had a Hammerhead (the old Titus) and that was a killer bike, loved the rear linkage. Pivot is the legacy of Titus, but they just are not as affordable as some of the other competitive bikes in the market.

In the world of not sweating the offset, I took a look at how Niner positions offsets for my current Rip9: "The trail bikes like RIP 9 and JET 9 do well with 44mm offset. It’s best to find out your current fork offset and use the same for your new fork." So they recommend a 44mm offset and I have been riding 51mm Pikes for the past year with no issue. My guess is that this would not be an issue for me, I am not a princess, I probably won't notice the pea.

The Trail 429 would be a consideration, I have a friend with one and I might borrow it in the next week or two. The switchblade has 160mm of travel, far more than I need. 130 is the sweet spot, 140 is acceptable, but comes with some tradeoffs. What turned me off about the Pivots is the price. Looking at a Ripley, the baseline lowest config is $4100. The Switchblade is $6,699. I realize that those are list prices and that it comes down to the discount, but I am thinking that I am in the $4-4,500 range and $5K if something REEEEEEAAAAALLLLYYY sweet happened to fall into my lap. Looking at the price of Pivots, I'd rather look at the Ibis, which is a very respectable bike and put the rest into my next vacation. If this were the only bike I owned and would ever own, I could make the argument for spending a little more because of the amount of riding that I do. But I already have an (expensive) steel single speed, a hardtail (that I will be selling) and an urban bike, so it is harder to justify the big price tag. Especially for a guy that does not need a big air 160mm bike. I have a friend that rides one, they are sweet.

It should have been "As I posted earlier..." Don't mock the German unless you do it properly. And with that being said, I'm tempted to take the risk on the 51mm offset and see how it does. Honestly, I do not have the finesse that some do and I might not notice the difference. If I end up having to get a new fork, the difference is really only whatever price I get as part of a larger build vs. the cost of buying it on the market. Everything else remains the same, so the risk is minimal. Got sidetracked with some consulting work today, but hitting some shops starting tomorrow morning.

I believe it is a 51mm offset. The box had WHT51 on it but after a little googling, that is a White fork with 51mm offset, mine is black.

On one hand I like the idea of connecting the north and south trail. On the other hand I don't like losing 250-254 without getting something in return. Oh, yeah, and the ramps will be ramps, someone is going to get hurt there.

These are all very good pieces of input. Neo are pretty much out of the running now. Will be doing a little more research on the Pike offset vs. new fork. That is a minimum of $500 savings (if I sold the pike) and that could really do a nice job on wheel upgrades. I like to hear that 11-speed is easier to dial in than 12. I was a 9-speed fan for a long time, only went to 10-speed to get beyond a 32 in the rear.

Do you have a map? I remember a section towards the end (when running counterclockwise) that used to take you across and dump you by the east fenceline area. Is that part of that?

Opinions, yeah, you all have them. I'm starting the process and instead of spamming the board and spinning off a million different threads, I'll consolidate here. Interested in your thoughts on the following: 1. Buying a fully configured bike vs. building? Knowing that my credit card gives me extra warranty is it worth buying a full bike all in one shot? I could buy the components ala carte and build one up, but is there a benefit from a warranty perspective? (My shop warranty experience has been mixed....) 2. Anyone ever buy from Competitive Cyclist? Wondering if I could get a frame with headset and bottom bracket installed. I could do the BB easily but I don't have a headset press. Would love them shipped to me ready to go. 3. Should I keep my 6-month old Pike boost fork since it is already at 130mm (my preferred travel) or sell it and just get a new fork with the bike? Any benefit on getting the fork matched to the frame or is this stuff all pretty compatible (thinking primarily about offset.) Would rather save the money and put it towards better wheels (see #4). 4. Anyone use Stan's Neo hubs? I know I want Arch MK3 rims, King hubs would be nice, but very expensive, DT Swiss would be my preferred, but Stan's wheels with Neo seem attractively priced and easy to acquire. Worth it? 5. 11-speed vs. 12-speed? I just upgraded my Niner to 11-speed about 2 months ago so I have a brand new drive train. Does it make sense to transfer this over? I unfortunately made a ton of upgrades to my bike recently and would like to salvage that. Is 11-speed going to stick around as long as 10-speed did or is it going to disappear quickly (have not watched the trajectory that 12-speed components might be coming down.) I am guessing I will return to add more questions to this as things progress.

I plan on being there. Apparently I don't need a cooler, I'll just keep my beer in the back of my car.

Yeah, I used your tool, it is very cool. Have some definite UI points that we should talk about over a beer some Tuesday night. https://cyclingbuilder.com/user/AustinBike/saved/#view=968TwP Since I have a Pike boost and pedals, It looks like I could build up a Ripley for ~$1600-2000 + frame cost. Considering my budget is ~$4K this could be a real good option. Heading down to talk to Wes today about the bike, might even demo one. I think Abrams is right that the Ripmo is more bike than I can handle, it's just not me.