AustinBike

I was in Bentonville last week and I'm not saying I was busy this week, but because of the weather outlook I have only halfway assembled my bike, even though I was home on Sunday night. Might actually finish it up this weekend. No rush since there is nowhere to ride it. I just had it in the shop for brakes/suspension and did the drivetrain myself. May bring it back to the shop for the dropper. Mack Turtle, do you kids service droppers? What's the typical price. Mine drops well but does not go back up easily, typically need to grab it with my crotch (the anti-trump move) and pull it back up.

It only works if it has a clearcoat on top. My Hammerhead (Titus) did not and looked awesome for the first week, then never again. My current Niner has the clearcoat and it looks better - when I bother to wash it. Which is rare, only after I ride really muddy trails 😉

Just got back from a trip where 8 people rode for 4 days straight. 7 without earbuds and one with. What is wrong with earbuds? Good god I do not have enough time to outline all of it, including not being able to communicate with that person and also having that person get lost (and blowing ~45mins of our time on the ride looking for/waiting for him) because he was licking around with his phone. If wearing earbuds has minimal impact it would be fine, but as someone else pointed out, when you can't hear those around you, the problem moves from "your problem" to "our problem" and that is where it all breaks down. It's like saying what's wrong with swinging my arms indiscriminately? It's fine if you are by yourself in your living and nobody else is around, but it becomes problematic when you are in an elevator or coffee shop with other people around. Earbuds are great for immersing into your own world, I love them for buses, airplanes and other situations. But if you are in an environment where you will need to interact and communicate with others - often quickly - then they are best left behind. There are few consequences of earbuds on a bus (other than probably missing your stop) but the penalty of earbuds on a trail can be high - not only for you, but for the rest of us. Biking on public trails is a group activity, even if you are riding alone. None of us has our own private trails, we need to be cognizant of others.

Yeah, but catch a squirrel in one and it is more fun than a frog in a glass of milk.

And as long as we are talking about the weight of the bike, ponder this: if you are a couple of pounds over yourself, dropping the weight on you is both more cost effective and healthier for you in the long run. I used to weigh ~195 and at my peak, after the typical 2 week overseas business trip, I could get as high as 210. Then I did something about it. I now weigh ~160, so I dropped the equivalent of two slick carbon hardtails. The weight you have to push on your bike is not the weight of the bike, it is the bike, your equipment and you. You might be able to shave a pound or a pound and a half off the bike, but that gets pretty expensive. Way easier to work at dropping 5-10. The overall net benefit is much greater and the cost is a lot lower.

Get a narrow-wide chainring (~$35) and drop the other rings, front derailleur and front shifter. I did that years ago and swapped a 3X9 for a 1x9. Rode that for a couple years then jumped to a 1x10. 1x9 will cover 90-95% of what you ride here.

And I believe that anyone that did not take driver's ed in Chicago in the winter also has poor driving skills 😉 The reality is that it is all about being open to learn, and that was my point on the FS - if you never had to ride a HT (especially in places like city park) you missed out on some important life lessons.

Yeah, I was stuck going to catholic school and Sister Anne Stephanie was my high school English teacher. And she hammered home grammar and diagramming sentences. I thought I was going to die and that it was the worst thing to spend my time doing. Fast forward 35 years into the future and I was in marketing. I was an industry analyst. I was writing articles in national technology and business publications. When I submitted something to my editor he would always comment on my work vs. the other analysts. Because I understood how grammar worked. Apply that to riding and a HT SS is like a nun, helping reinforce how things should work and keeping you from being lazy. This is why I appreciate having multiple bikes to ride. You learn from all of these.

On my FS I can be sloppy, not pay attention to the line. Not pay attention to my feet, my body, not have to move my body. I can be sitting down vs. standing. On my SS I have to pay attention, read the environment and "become one with the trail". Otherwise you spend all day off the bike.

Pretty much every summer I end up traveling to Europe, and when I rent a car it almost always has a standard transmission. It makes me more aware of how I am driving. When I get home I realize what a slug I am, paying far less attention to my driving. I don't race, I don't have it in me. But I find that when I got my latest FS bike, my skills basically flattened out or even regressed (I was more skilled on a 26" FS than a 29" FS.) I am not opposed to people having fun. Fun to me is being able to better clear a feature using my own skills and body vs. using the bike. I will ride the greenbelt for a few weeks on the SS, then hit it on the FS and it is like a shot of meth (I am assuming) because things I was just...about...to...clear on the SS get plowed over. There is fun to that. Variety is the spice of life. When your bike overrules all of the trails, where is the fun. At that point it is like being a drone pilot in a trailer 2000 miles away vs. being a pilot "in" the battle. FS mails it in. SS makes you work for it. Both are rewarding.

Let me try: A FS bike, especially one with lots of travel, allows you to just motor through anything. Add a 50T cassette on the back so you never have to crank hard to get up a climb or feature and you are pretty much assured that you are not building your skills. I have a FS but I spend most of my time on a steel SS hardtail and that SS kicks my ass. It reminds me of how much more I have to learn. On the FS I can just plow through anything, it is fun to ride, but there is little skill involved. When you have a 32x18 hardtail you learn a lot more about HOW to ride the bike because you are required to use some real skills.

Always wanted a Varsity, Schwinn was the hometown bike for those of us in Chicago. Saw one at a Frankenbike not too long ago and thought about buying it, but stupidly decided against it. Would love to have one. Ended up with a Ross back in the day because I could not afford the Schwinn. And I am sure I paid ~$100 for it in the early 80's. Schwinns were $150+ at the time.

Yeah, I have ridden every trail in Austin on a hardtail (with the exception of a couple of unmentionables). Get your skills, eclipse the bike and move on to the next. 1x is good if you find yourself messing with your gears a lot (for adjustment) but don't tend to shift that much for really high or really low ratios. A dropper is an investment that you might want to consider instead of a FS bike. But it is a luxury, not a necessity. Focus on your skills, not your bike.

Yeah, $1000 hammer to solve a $30 problem.

We were hit with some rain in central Austin in the middle of the night. I don't know how much, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw rain. Got back home and there were 12' bamboo stalks in my backyard so I can assume that we had a lot of rain in the past 2 weeks.

I typically use the frame, but have been known to be lazy and just hang the seat off the stand. It really comes down to what I am working on and how much movement I can withstand during the work. For anything complicated I will clip to the frame, but for simple derailleur adjustments just hanging by the seat is about what I would normally do out on the trail from a tree branch. I am adverse to clamping onto the stanchion simply because I am a crappy mechanic and that is something I do not want to mess up.

Typhoons sent me back to Austin a couple days early. Might try to get some training in before departing to Bentonville next week. Apparently everything here is wet, so will probably be hitting the streets with 40 pounds of pressure in my MTB tires. Maybe I'll put a brick or two in my camelbak.

3-4,000EUR for a frame? This helps make my point that the technology is overly expensive, this is an $800 hammer.

Fair point. The key for me is "what problem are you trying to solve"? If the problem you are trying to solve is the fragility of a derailleur, then there are already internal gears available that fit in a rear hub. These can be retrofitted onto almost any existing bike frame with little trouble (like Rohloff). Any change to gearing that limits the frame, geometry or suspension is a no-go in my book. This is not a better mousetrap, it is simply a different mousetrap. And if we are already catching mice today, it is hard to convince me that the extra cost and hassle of one of these is going to bring additional mouse carcasses to the game. 1X drive trains were a real game changer. 11-speed (and 12-speed) were significant evolutions - (just like 9-speed and 10-speed in the past). This is just different for the sake of being different, I don't see the problem that it is solving. Find me hydraulic brakes that never need adjusting/bleeding, and I will jump on that in a second, but adjusting a derailleur is something that is easy to do and only needs to be done once or twice a year. All of this work and cost to save me a few dollars? I have better uses for my money.

I find that 90% of the helmet sizing/comfort is tied to the strap placement/adjustment. This, to me, is why going to a shop is the way to go. I would never buy a helmet online unless I knew that it was the same model that I was currently wearing.

Yep, the bottom bracket is the most accused and the least convicted.

"unique designs to minimize maintenance" - as long as you have their special tools. What makes today's drivetrains valuable is that they are (relatively) simple to service with a few standard tools. Because they all generally work the same way users can do their own repairs. When you start building "better mousetraps" you are increasing the learning curve for both individuals and shops. Not everything needs to be revolutionary. In fact the best inventions are evolutionary as they improve the experience without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

I still don’t think you are getting it. You’ve gone from posting a random link to posting a random link with a “disclosure”. Why not post and make a statement about your thoughts. From Planes Trains and Automobiles: “Here’s an idea, when you tell a story have a point, it makes it so much better for the listener.”

I ride trails 3-4 times a week and ride the streets (singlespeed) on other days to maintain my fitness. And I do a LOT of yard work, typically 1 hour a day, sometimes 2 hours depending on the season.

I am now retired so I have plenty of time. I take my bikes to the shop for suspension and hydraulic brake work (always trust the pros over myself), but all the other stuff I do myself. Way more fun in the fall/winter/spring. Doing bike repairs in a 100F garage is no fun, even with fans.