basscyclist thread picture thread

[John B jr]

Question for the roadies out there:
Disc brakes? Why are we being forced into them? You can't buy a halfway decent Road bike these days without discs. Watching the Dauphine this week and the peloton is split. They can probably handle the difference in a group fine. Add mixed skill and mixed breaking efficiency to an amateur sportive and it's asking for trouble. We've had more accidents and even deaths in sportives in the UK recently. That could be due to the increase in popularity since hipsters made cycling "cool" and we hosted the start of the Tour de France. Many middle aged guys on expensive bikes but no clue how to ride in a group. I saw it in the alps at the etape as I glided past a guy in full team Sky kit on a Pinarello Dogma and Zipp 808s. This was on a course with about 20 miles flat at the start and then 70 miles of nothing but climb and descent. Those wheels looked very heavy going up the Madeleine. I digress... point is, people buy what the manufacturers have and assume it must be the best if it's more expensive. Give me a 10 speed Cannondale frame with hand built wheels and manual gears and I can cope with anything. I don't want digital gears, I don't need 11 or 12 on the block and I certainly don't need disc brakes (which take much more maintenance than callipers). I have Ultegra brakes on my Six13 and it performs as well as I need it to. I've descended 20% gradients in the wet on 105 callipers, no sweat. My main beef is that the manufacturers (Shimano especially) are discontinuing higher end groups to force us into the next best thing. Case in point: I can no longer source 10 speed levers and would be forced to upgrade my whole group set if I ever need to replace a brake lever. I like cycling for its man powered simplicity. I have a frame that fits me like a glove and that I want to ride till I die. But if I'm forced to switch to discs at some point in the future due to lack of parts, I'll need to replace a perfectly good bike. Hopefully in 15 years a new breed of hipster will discover Millenium (pre-digital and disc) bikes and a whole new retro cycling boom will happen. Otherwise, bury me with my Cannondale Six13.
View attachment 3950428

Agreed. My 10-speed Zipp wheel from 2009 finally gave out and the shop I got it from carries 11-speed as the baseline. I gave my wife a cost estimate on modernizing. So now, my Ibis is hanging on the rack and I'm riding a heavier Tarmac with a so-so wheel set until I find a retro 10-speed or open my wallet for those dudes over at Wheelsmith. That said, 11th gear is pretty nice since these hills are not getting any flatter.

 

[Yonni]

I treated myself to Wheelsmith wheels about 4years ago. They're amazing. I guess they could be converted to disc at a cost. But I just don't want to. I think they're semi aero (38mm) Dura Ace hubs, and light (under 1300gm). Great climbing wheels, but it's the acceleration that I really love in these. It's so easy.

 

[John B jr]

I treated myself to Wheelsmith wheels about 4years ago. They're amazing. I guess they could be converted to disc at a cost. But I just don't want to. I think they're semi aero (38mm) Dura Ace hubs, and light (under 1300gm). Great climbing wheels, but it's the acceleration that I really love in these. It's so easy.

The Zipp hubs feel like I'm cheating. I let a teammate borrow just the front wheel. His description was that it rode like it was on glass. The drive train is Dura Ace and the rest are French or Italian parts. Mavic Ksyrium wheels would be a minimum spec for the bike and the non-disk options, even at that level, are pretty slim.

 

[srbbass]

Touring anyone? My wife and I just did a 3 day around CT and MA. My trusty Surly Long Haul Disc Trucker is a joy, heavy but a joy. Peace.

 

[fokof]

Question for the roadies out there:
Disc brakes?

Nope

Heavier , only time it really is an advantage is under heavy rain in a steep descent , or descending the Alpes , I don't know about you but personally , it doesn't happen in my reality.
And my bike is paid.....

If I change my road bike in the future , I probably won't have choice as it's gonna be standard but I don't see it as a must.
I must admit that I have hydraulic disk brakes on 5 of my other bikes.

 

[Yonni]

I've got hydraulic disc on my mtb and had cable discs in my commuter bike. I've had problems with both. The cable discs were always getting grit in the pistons. Admittedly they were cheap Altus ones. The mtb has had XT and XTR, both had to be replaced within a year. I think a jet wash did for the XTR but the XT just leak. They're more work than I want to do so it gets expensive and time consuming putting them into the shop. I like stuff I can do in 15 minutes myself and know it's done right. Maybe I'm a control freak. Maybe that's why I play bass?

 

[fdeck]

I have cable discs on one bike -- the one that I use for longer rides. The rest of the bikes are all caliper brakes. This is kind of interesting, because I talk to a lot of cyclists, ranging from folks who are just getting into cycling (maybe after giving it up when younger) to some really experienced riders.

I've had people tell me that when they tried disc brakes for the first time, the difference was so profound that they no longer feel safe on a rim brake bike, and think that maybe rim brakes should be outlawed. They're shocked that I haven't installed disc brakes on all of my bikes, and when I mention that my rim brakes work fine, they don't believe me.

One problem is that there are lots of bikes with really crappy brakes out there. I maintain my brakes. It's not really very much work at all, mainly a matter of noticing when they're going out of adjustment or need new pads. Getting the cables to route properly on linear pull brakes is tough with modern compact frames making them hard to keep centered. I don't have any bikes with linear pulls.

The Tektro cable discs work fine too. I've got a few thousand miles on them with no maintenance save for a couple clicks of the adjusters as the pads wear down.

 

[Yonni]

There is definitely a performance difference and I wouldn't tackle a lot of the off road stuff with as much confidence if I didn't have Discs on my mtb. When I upgraded from 105 to Ultegra callipers the difference was really noticeable in terms of response. Both stopped the bike but the new callipers seemed more sturdy and faster acting. Could have just been wear and tear of course. Which I guess is your point. Everything needs to be maintained to function at its best. I can do that fine with callipers. I seem to struggle with hydraulics.

 

[elgecko]

Touring anyone? My wife and I just did a 3 day around CT and MA. My trusty Surly Long Haul Disc Trucker is a joy, heavy but a joy. Peace.
View attachment 3954722
View attachment 3954720View attachment 3954714

I've been thinking of a getting a set of bikepacking bags for my hardtail MTB and giving bike camping a try. There are some cool trips I can do from my front door.

 

[John B jr]

Decisions, decisions. My wife (bless her heart) says, "John, you're working too hard, you should get a new mountain bike". She said that because I took old-red, a 2012 Trek 29er out in the mud and put it away wet. Three months later, that mud has transmogrified into a ceramic coating that she can't wash off. Fine, I like it that way. Even better, I'd like a new bike rather than maintaining/cleaning that one.

That has led me down a rabbit hole and I've come up with three candidates. Help me decide. I've narrowed it down to two local brands and an import. All of them are carbon-framed hard-tail 29ers.

First, is the IBIS DV9 with a SRAM GX Eagle (1x12 speed) kit. It's light, high-fiber (including the handlebar) and rolls on the fattest tires; 2.6 wide but not Maxxis, my preferred brand. The fork is a Fox Float Rhythm 34 GRIP with which is not much to write home about in the pantheon of Fox forks. I have an IBIS road bike so this would be a nice companion.


Second is the Santa Cruz Chameleon, also SRAM GX Eagle parts with a better FOX 34 Float Performance fork with 120mm of travel. It rolls on the same Maxxis Minions that I depend on for climbing and descending but they are a little narrower at 2.3". It comes in a beautiful shade of orange at this spec-level.


Finally, a really nice frame from the Spaniards over at Orbea. The top tube and seat stays are flat noodles. Refreshed for 2021, the Alma M25 is equipped with Shimano XT components and also has a lightweight Fox 32 Float SC Performance 100. So this one has narrower stanchion tubes and 20 mm less travel. The wheel set is DT Swiss rather than a house-brand. I think it's the lightest of the bunch but all are between 26 and 28 pounds.


My use case is that I ride 10-15 miles each way to get to the hills, most of which are pretty steep but well groomed. Some of them have 15 MPH speed limits so you really can't just bomb down them. At a little over $3K, these are, I'd have to say, moderately priced mountain bikes. Full suspension bikes of this ilk would be near the range of a 250cc dirt bike so hard-tail it is.

I'm pulling the trigger over the Labor Day Sale week-end. What do you think? One of these or is there another bike that I'm missing?

 

[DirtDog]

Decisions, decisions. My wife (bless her heart) says, "John, you're working too hard, you should get a new mountain bike". She said that because I took old-red, a 2012 Trek 29er out in the mud and put it away wet. Three months later, that mud has transmogrified into a ceramic coating that she can't wash off. Fine, I like it that way. Even better, I'd like a new bike rather than maintaining/cleaning that one.

That has led me down a rabbit hole and I've come up with three candidates. Help me decide. I've narrowed it down to two local brands and an import. All of them are carbon-framed hard-tail 29ers.

First, is the IBIS DV9 with a SRAM GX Eagle (1x12 speed) kit. It's light, high-fiber (including the handlebar) and rolls on the fattest tires; 2.6 wide but not Maxxis, my preferred brand. The fork is a Fox Float Rhythm 34 GRIP with which is not much to write home about in the pantheon of Fox forks. I have an IBIS road bike so this would be a nice companion.
View attachment 3960085

Second is the Santa Cruz Chameleon, also SRAM GX Eagle parts with a better FOX 34 Float Performance fork with 120mm of travel. It rolls on the same Maxxis Minions that I depend on for climbing and descending but they are a little narrower at 2.3". It comes in a beautiful shade of orange at this spec-level.
View attachment 3960090

Finally, a really nice frame from the Spaniards over at Orbea. The top tube and seat stays are flat noodles. Refreshed for 2021, the Alma M25 is equipped with Shimano XT components and also has a lightweight Fox 32 Float SC Performance 100. So this one has narrower stanchion tubes and 20 mm less travel. The wheel set is DT Swiss rather than a house-brand. I think it's the lightest of the bunch but all are between 26 and 28 pounds.
View attachment 3960117

My use case is that I ride 10-15 miles each way to get to the hills, most of which are pretty steep but well groomed. Some of them have 15 MPH speed limits so you really can't just bomb down them. At a little over $3K, these are, I'd have to say, moderately priced mountain bikes. Full suspension bikes of this ilk would be near the range of a 250cc dirt bike so hard-tail it is.

I'm pulling the trigger over the Labor Day Sale week-end. What do you think? One of these or is there another bike that I'm missing?

Out of those three, I like the Santa Cruz. Because I like Santa Cruz (I've got an older Superlight FS). And it's a sharp looking bike. It's crazy the pricing on FS mountain bikes are these days.

 

[John B jr]

Out of those three, I like the Santa Cruz. Because I like Santa Cruz (I've got an older Superlight FS). And it's a sharp looking bike. It's crazy the pricing on FS mountain bikes are these days.

Thanks double-D. Just going by the numbers, it's the closest geometry to my current rig which runs the old SRAM X9 group. In eight years, I've had one front-wheel wash-out and one ejection into the loam when the rear tire found a root sticking up. I was playing catch-up with my faster friends but I've learned to ride my own line now.

When I had a full-sus Cannondale, I could look at the washboard ruts on the downhill side of a hairpin and just rail the corner. It was almost too easy. The other two bikes come in white and the pros that are sponsored on those bikes are mostly ladies. NTTAWWT. They are only girl-bikes if you set them up that way. Light and easy to ride are the main concerns after price.

 

[DirtDog]

I guess it was a bit windy last night!

 

[John B jr]

For the record, I ordered the Orbea. The only upgrade I added was on the brakes. The price was the same as going to the more colorful Fox Factory fork. I may hop a few berms and manual over tracks and gaps but mostly, I'm careful on the descents. I'm not a Shimano snob and in fact, SRAM is very well represented on the top-of-the line bikes. While I loved my full-suspension bike when it came to landing those one-foot-high jumps, a rigid frame is more to my taste. I'll know better in December when the bike actually arrives at my local bike shop. Cupertino Bike shop sells rides for way more than $3500 and a few for less. So, it will be in good hands and will look more or less like this...

 

[DirtDog]

For the record, I ordered the Orbea. The only upgrade I added was on the brakes. The price was the same as going to the more colorful Fox Factory fork. I may hop a few berms and manual over tracks and gaps but mostly, I'm careful on the descents. I'm not a Shimano snob and in fact, SRAM is very well represented on the top-of-the line bikes. While I loved my full-suspension bike when it came to landing those one-foot-high jumps, a rigid frame is more to my taste. I'll know better in December when the bike actually arrives at my local bike shop. Cupertino Bike shop sells rides for way more than $3500 and a few for less. So, it will be in good hands and will look more or less like this...View attachment 3975007

Very sharp!

 

[John B jr]

Very sharp!

Thanks @DirtDog,

Some people (my wife!) will wonder why it comes without pedals. I'll have a pair of Candy 7s handy.

 

[DirtDog]

Getting deep into fall weather around here. Every ride feels like the last ride of the season. Been averaging 100-150km a week since May. Good ride today in 60F/15C weather. Stopped at the ruins of an old Victoria era mill.

 

[RNG1]

For the record, I ordered the Orbea. The only upgrade I added was on the brakes. The price was the same as going to the more colorful Fox Factory fork. I may hop a few berms and manual over tracks and gaps but mostly, I'm careful on the descents. I'm not a Shimano snob and in fact, SRAM is very well represented on the top-of-the line bikes. While I loved my full-suspension bike when it came to landing those one-foot-high jumps, a rigid frame is more to my taste. I'll know better in December when the bike actually arrives at my local bike shop. Cupertino Bike shop sells rides for way more than $3500 and a few for less. So, it will be in good hands and will look more or less like this...View attachment 3975007

Nice, I had an Orbea hardtail carbon and raced it XC for a season or 2 awhile back. It was a very stiff fast frame. My issue was for a 29r frame it wasn't sized well for me, the small was too small and the medium was more like a large so I never felt super comfortable in the really rocky techy stuff. But it was a quality frame and really light. Now that I'm "older" I've found my inner peace with a very light FS bike to help absorb a bit. Enjoy, and let us know what you think when you get it.

 

[John B jr]

Nice, I had an Orbea hardtail carbon and raced it XC for a season or 2 awhile back. It was a very stiff fast frame. My issue was for a 29r frame it wasn't sized well for me, the small was too small and the medium was more like a large so I never felt super comfortable in the really rocky techy stuff. But it was a quality frame and really light. Now that I'm "older" I've found my inner peace with a very light FS bike to help absorb a bit. Enjoy, and let us know what you think when you get it.

Glad to know that you found the Orbea frame to be stiff, @RNG1. Above all else, I want the bottom bracket to stay put. There's always some concern about buying something sight-unseen. A small frame with a longer-than-standard (80mm) stem and crank arms (175mm) has worked for me on other bikes.

With the supply chain interruptions and the number of people rediscovering cycling, the sellers are in the driver's seat. The three-month wait is down to two. Meanwhile, there was a recent night when my wife (and CFO) seemed a bit distant, cold enough to be noticeable but not something I wanted to probe right then.

Woke up the next morning to find the AmEx bill on the counter with a highlighter on the Orbea line item. Surprise! So, she breaks the ice like this. "You only have two hands, why did you buy another bass?" I told her that an Orbea is a mountain bike and all of a sudden, everything was just fine. To begin with, she encouraged me on it.

I should have left it at that. But no, I said that I was surprised that they charged the card for the full price with months to go before shipping. Sweetwater doesn't do that. Tesla doesn't. She flipped the bit right back to indignation. I had to agree. The upside is that the accessories I buy (pedals, computer, bottle cages, lights, etc.,) will be on the December billing cycle. I'm kidding myself thinking the CFO won't add it all up. As long as I can form a bond with the bike, it all works out in my favor.

So many words, recent image of outgoing bike required:

 

[RNG1]

Glad to know that you found the Orbea frame to be stiff, @RNG1. Above all else, I want the bottom bracket to stay put. There's always some concern about buying something sight-unseen. A small frame with a longer-than-standard (80mm) stem and crank arms (175mm) has worked for me on other bikes.

With the supply chain interruptions and the number of people rediscovering cycling, the sellers are in the driver's seat. The three-month wait is down to two. Meanwhile, there was a recent night when my wife (and CFO) seemed a bit distant, cold enough to be noticeable but not something I wanted to probe right then.

Woke up the next morning to find the AmEx bill on the counter with a highlighter on the Orbea line item. Surprise! So, she breaks the ice like this. "You only have two hands, why did you buy another bass?" I told her that an Orbea is a mountain bike and all of a sudden, everything was just fine. To begin with, she encouraged me on it.

I should have left it at that. But no, I said that I was surprised that they charged the card for the full price with months to go before shipping. Sweetwater doesn't do that. Tesla doesn't. She flipped the bit right back to indignation. I had to agree. The upside is that the accessories I buy (pedals, computer, bottle cages, lights, etc.,) will be on the December billing cycle. I'm kidding myself thinking the CFO won't add it all up. As long as I can form a bond with the bike, it all works out in my favor.

So many words, recent image of outgoing bike required:View attachment 4013016

Good luck and let me know how it works out for you.