The Surly would make a great platform. Higher likelihood that some of those parts will fit that frame…compared to more modern offerings anyways.
I had a jonesin’ for a Surly back when singlespeeds/fixies were all the rage.
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basscyclist thread picture thread
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The Surly would make a great platform. Higher likelihood that some of those parts will fit that frame…compared to more modern offerings anyways.
I had a jonesin’ for a Surly back when singlespeeds/fixies were all the rage.
Yeah, it was funny to watch that when I'd been riding fixed gear since 1982.
Biggest thing to watch out for on fixed gear is to get short enough cranks. The current fad for overlong cranks is probably just a minor inconvenience if you've got a freewheel but it can spill you on a fixed if you catch a pedal.
Half a kilometre….a third of a mile.
Feels like half a century compared to when I take that route on my carbon fibre De Rosa!
Definitely not about to go fixie. Hills exist up here. I thought they were cool at first but I really like my multiple gears - I think it's worth the "extra" maintenance, which just amounts to eyeballing the chain line every time I take the rear wheel off and adjusting the thing while spinning the wheel and shifting gears.
Late to the party here...
Main bike is a Litespeed Firenze with straight gauge Ti tube and full Ultegra set up. I changed the front end to a SRAM compact chain ring and derailleur.
Also have an ancient (I got it used in '91) Trek 420. Chromoly steel frame, down tube shifters, triple Shimano Bio-Pace chain rings. I put fenders, GatorSkins, and racks for commuting.
Main bike is a Litespeed Firenze with straight gauge Ti tube and full Ultegra set up. I changed the front end to a SRAM compact chain ring and derailleur.
Also have an ancient (I got it used in '91) Trek 420. Chromoly steel frame, down tube shifters, triple Shimano Bio-Pace chain rings. I put fenders, GatorSkins, and racks for commuting.
New ride. Orbea Rise M-LTD. eMTB. about 39 lbs. Handles a lot like my old Devinci Django. So far my only concern is the Fox Transfer dropper post. Seems kinda sluggish in comparison to my old Reverb.
Nailed that 2 turns of the micro adjuster at the actuator and thr Fox is butt spankin' fast. Yippee
motor is tuned for low assist and improved battery life. The battery is small. Seems like about 4 hours of normal trail riding. There is an extender but I doubt I'll need that...
Nailed that 2 turns of the micro adjuster at the actuator and thr Fox is butt spankin' fast. Yippee
motor is tuned for low assist and improved battery life. The battery is small. Seems like about 4 hours of normal trail riding. There is an extender but I doubt I'll need that...
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Geometry thoughts based on... well, some fitting sessions and a little reading. Definately room for improvement here.
Longer wheel base usually means more stability. What you want at the end of a century ride ... being able to relax a bit not to have to pay much attention to the bike ...
Shorter wheel base - quicker handling. Just what you want for the quick, racy, after work get out and scream mode.
There are three major components of wheel base. Chain stay length, effective top tube length slack angle from the head tube and fork.
Shorter rear chain stay is generally better for climbing.
Top tube length is of course a major component of fit. Longer reach is an item of comfort/discomfort in fitting... 20 lbs ago I wanted to lay out on the bike more. After putting on a few pounds and having some disk related lower back issues... I'm more upright these days. So shorter reach is more comfortable for me.
Slack angle ... steeper angle, front wheel closer to the down tube, quicker handling, less stable. Better climbing performance (I think anyway). Slacker angle, the front wheel further out, better stability particularly descending. On a mountain bike, downhill bikes tend towards slack angles. Trail bikes tend steeper. As I am primarily a trail rider, steeper it is for me.
Fit and intended use are everything...
Longer wheel base usually means more stability. What you want at the end of a century ride ... being able to relax a bit not to have to pay much attention to the bike ...
Shorter wheel base - quicker handling. Just what you want for the quick, racy, after work get out and scream mode.
There are three major components of wheel base. Chain stay length, effective top tube length slack angle from the head tube and fork.
Shorter rear chain stay is generally better for climbing.
Top tube length is of course a major component of fit. Longer reach is an item of comfort/discomfort in fitting... 20 lbs ago I wanted to lay out on the bike more. After putting on a few pounds and having some disk related lower back issues... I'm more upright these days. So shorter reach is more comfortable for me.
Slack angle ... steeper angle, front wheel closer to the down tube, quicker handling, less stable. Better climbing performance (I think anyway). Slacker angle, the front wheel further out, better stability particularly descending. On a mountain bike, downhill bikes tend towards slack angles. Trail bikes tend steeper. As I am primarily a trail rider, steeper it is for me.
Fit and intended use are everything...
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Out for a spring ride today. Came across a bit of ice down by the river….
Nice ride! The price tag on Orbea's site gave me chest pains.
I was going to say, it's a weird universe where a Reverb is better than a Transfer...As for geo, there's been a trend in trail-enduro bikes towards slack head angles but that's also balanced by steepening seat tube angles, which is facilitated by dropper posts. The reason your front end gets all wandery with a slack HA is that it's harder to weight the contact patch as it's literally further away from the centre of the bike. Steepening the seat tube solves that problem by biasing your weight forward when seated as in climbing. That position sucks for steep descents but when you drop the seat out of the way you can maintain that nice central riding position and take advantage of the slacker head angle for descending. That bike is I'd say pretty much mid pack for trail bike geo. I'd be inclined to bias a little slacker but that said, my Troy's geo is similar and it is perfectly at home on very rowdy descents.
Now if I could find some hubs that weren't made of cheese I'd be all set. I've had a bit of a saga with a Raceface Trace hub (made by formula). I gotta say, RF's customer service has been top notch, they have sent me warranty replacements for warranty replacements for a hub that was out of the warranty period in the first place but I'm getting fed up with rebuidling the thing every couple of months. Well, at least going inside hubs holds no fear for me now and who needs a bearing press?
Shredded a freehub body bearing. They sent me a new FH body. Then I cracked the internal axle (known issue). In fixing that, I found out that 2 out of 3 pawls were broken so they're sending me yet another FH body plus spare pawls. I'm going to retire the wheel and replace it with something with a Hope hub in it.
@Mark Reccord
Chest pains... me too... XT bikes were not available in Aluminum or Carbon. I would have taken either. So the choice was SLX and death by a thousand incremental upgrades or gulp and XTR... and it is offset about 50% by the 2 bikes I'll sell off ... the laying down of plastic was a little surreal I'll grant.
and yeah I was expecting more from a Kashima Transfer... happily it seems sorted now.
Nice ride! The price tag on Orbea's site gave me chest pains.
Chest pains... me too... XT bikes were not available in Aluminum or Carbon. I would have taken either. So the choice was SLX and death by a thousand incremental upgrades or gulp and XTR... and it is offset about 50% by the 2 bikes I'll sell off ... the laying down of plastic was a little surreal I'll grant.
and yeah I was expecting more from a Kashima Transfer... happily it seems sorted now.
Another ride on the new eMTB. Riding in the ECO setting ... just enough boost to get me up a climb that used to take a couple of stops. Lot's of steep switch backs and significantly for me - no new knee pain! Arthritis sucks... I really recommend avoiding it if possible ;-)
How often do you guys change out tires?
I'm asking because I pumped my tires up to about 60 psi and noticed some cracking in the rubber right down to the threads underneath, when inflated that high at least, at 30-40psi the threads were invisible. I've never had a flat, they've got plenty of tread, and they handle fine as far as I can tell. This is also just on the rear tire, the front one is fine.
Should I just deflate the tires a bit or just replace them? And if I replace them, would it be okay to just replace the rear one?
I'm asking because I pumped my tires up to about 60 psi and noticed some cracking in the rubber right down to the threads underneath, when inflated that high at least, at 30-40psi the threads were invisible. I've never had a flat, they've got plenty of tread, and they handle fine as far as I can tell. This is also just on the rear tire, the front one is fine.
Should I just deflate the tires a bit or just replace them? And if I replace them, would it be okay to just replace the rear one?
What I use depends on wich bike and what conditions
Fat bike and commuter = summer and winter tires
MTB = multiple choices from full mud to slick
City and road bike = when they are done
what you can do is flip the front to the back and vice versa
Fat bike and commuter = summer and winter tires
MTB = multiple choices from full mud to slick
City and road bike = when they are done
what you can do is flip the front to the back and vice versa
