Bicycles!

[Eye-Q]

My friend just came back to me. She has an old Elemnt, not a Bolt, but the app you have to use to get a decent amount of functionality is the same. Unfortunately there is no way to set up multiple bike profiles.

 

[DanRoM]

Thanks for the info, @Eye-Q!

 

[Redliner]

I much prefer to just have a go for my own well-being and fun, without the need of "sharing" any results. Also, the "freemium" business model tends to get on my nerves with constant advertisements for the paid features.

I'd like to track my progress, but just to know "Hey, I am not sucking as bad as before" and also some voice telling me how far I ran every 500 meters, but NOOOOOO.
You either get nothing or a detailed report of how many steps, how much CO2 I saved by not taking a car AND also how much CO2 I expelled, pace, elevation, bearing, windspeed, sector speed, KiloWatts generated, shoe lace wear, dog turds avoided, air temperature, humidity (both air and mine), kebab prices nearby and ETA for the closest bathroom.

 

[Blind_Io]

yup, that's fucked.
View attachment 3563789
I assume while putting that thing together someone must've conveniently forgotten to put some grease in there to prevent exactly that. yup. real nice. here i go complain to the importer of the damn australian thing again.

Looks like there's a part number there, you might be able to change that bearing yourself for find one with the same dimensions.

 

[eizbaer]

Yeah it should be a pretty standard part. Then again that Trainer is less than a year old and should really not be showing signs of wear like that after less than 5.000 km - so I’d much rather have the manufacturer deal with it
I did clean it out as best I could and put some grease in there, but the thing still squeaks (a little less than before but still). Have contacted the seller already, they say they’ll take a look and service it for free if I send it in. Still, if that same crap happens again a year down the line, ugh… oh well. Should’ve bought something more established I guess.

 

[eizbaer]

Thinking of my n+1 situation rationally for a bit… it might be prudent to go like @Eye-Q with a gravel machine and two sets of wheels, especially since the grail does now come in a very nice setup (rival etap xplr with power meter, well chosen wheels). It’s even sort of available maybe. But the available color is shit („sand“, yes it’s as boring as it sounds).

sooo… @Eye-Q how has your experience been, anything you wish you’d known before? Anything that’d make you buy something else next time round? How „weird“ is the handlebar in day to day use? that’s what weirds me out the most tbh…
in the end, mostly just a theoretical thought. I’d have the money, but I’m not sure another bike is sensible what with the small flat and the kid and whatnot. Also I could just ride my current bike a Bit more… ugh. I should not be looking at all the bike sites anymore, no no…

edit: why not have mah cake and eat it too yadda yadda… someone please sell me a Ridley Kanzo fast with rival axs pretty please? It’s fairly expensive, but not insanely so, so I don’t care. It has everything except a cool color, but at that price, the custom paint doesn’t really matter anymore (100 bucks is actually cheap). Mhmmmmm yeees

 

[Eye-Q]

sooo… @Eye-Q how has your experience been, anything you wish you’d known before?

To be honest, no, not really, I'm very happy with the Grail, even after more than 10tkm. A gravel bike is a go-everywhere-machine as long as you can handle it. If you want to ride in every weather I highly recommend mudguards, but there are those which can be clipped onto every bike. I have SKS Speedrockers which fit virtually every bike as long as the rear seatstays have enough clearance for them. The front ones are split mudguards so they don't have to fit between the tire and the fork.

How „weird“ is the handlebar in day to day use? that’s what weirds me out the most tbh…

I usually ride my cargo bike which has a flat bar (most of you carry around between one and four spare seats as well as an empty trunk/boot around when you drive your car so it's not as ridiculous as it sounds ) and use the gravel bike for the evening/weekend rides.
That said, dropbars are very versatile so you can always change positions, and since you already ride a road bike it's not even an adjustment, as long as you don't get dropbars with ridicoulous flare. Most complete bikes don't have such an extreme flare since they are tailored for everyone, and most don't like extremely flared bars.

 

[eizbaer]

Thanks, sincerely
regarding handlebars I was specifically thinking of the experience with the grail double bars. or Do you think they’re not noticeably different to regular drop bars? … tbh looking at the possible hand positions it seems like it. just more comfortable up Top because the built-in flex?
re dairying the cargo bike: sounds a lot less crazy than driving around 2 tons of steel, I agree

have put some bikes on closer watch. All of them ofc ridiculously expensive and, much worse, unavailable (which is probably a good thing): above-mentioned kanzo fast (sort of hesitant because only 1x possible, according to ritzelrechner.de it shouldn’t be, but I don’t trust it all), Scott addict gravel 20, airstreem gravel one… I also still have a soft spot for the 3t exploro race, but that’s even more expensive than the others. Ugh. Better buy a house with a large basement first

 

[Eye-Q]

regarding handlebars I was specifically thinking of the experience with the grail double bars. or Do you think they’re not noticeably different to regular drop bars? … tbh looking at the possible hand positions it seems like it. just more comfortable up Top because the built-in flex?

It is a bit more comfortable, yes, but obviously nothing like having even a suspension with short travel. Nowadays you can get suspension on gravel bikes as well (Canyon combines Shimano shifting with a SRAM suspension fork in the Grizl, but you can have SRAM shifting there as well), two years ago when I ordered the Grail it wasn't available. That said, I don't have any experience with suspension since I never had a bike with suspension.

Now that I'm thinking more about it: I would buy a bike with more attachment points for bottle cages or similar, that way I would be less dependent on petrol stations on Sundays to refill my bottles on long rides. I guess I'm a special case though, with riding sometimes 150+ km a day...

 

[ninjacoco]

Thinking of my n+1 situation rationally for a bit… it might be prudent to go like @Eye-Q with a gravel machine and two sets of wheels, especially since the grail does now come in a very nice setup (rival etap xplr with power meter, well chosen wheels). It’s even sort of available maybe. But the available color is shit („sand“, yes it’s as boring as it sounds).

sooo… @Eye-Q how has your experience been, anything you wish you’d known before? Anything that’d make you buy something else next time round? How „weird“ is the handlebar in day to day use? that’s what weirds me out the most tbh…
in the end, mostly just a theoretical thought. I’d have the money, but I’m not sure another bike is sensible what with the small flat and the kid and whatnot. Also I could just ride my current bike a Bit more… ugh. I should not be looking at all the bike sites anymore, no no…

edit: why not have mah cake and eat it too yadda yadda… someone please sell me a Ridley Kanzo fast with rival axs pretty please? It’s fairly expensive, but not insanely so, so I don’t care. It has everything except a cool color, but at that price, the custom paint doesn’t really matter anymore (100 bucks is actually cheap). Mhmmmmm yeees
View attachment 3563824

b-b-bbbbicycle paint to sample?

Hot damn! I want that. (Please match Fluffy Bunny. Thanks in advance.)

 

[CraigB]

 

[altoid]

I usually ride my cargo bike which has a flat bar (most of you carry around between one and four spare seats as well as an empty trunk/boot around when you drive your car so it's not as ridiculous as it sounds )

 

[lip]

Yep, just ordered some easy detachable fenders for my racing bycicle too, now that I've decided to stop being lazy and and using my two legs instead of the V10 to get to work every day. So since Monday apart when there is snow or ice on the road, the bike it is, even when it's raining. What doesn't kill you makes you harder, that sort of thinking. Still, better keep that water from shooting upwards and playing bidet, so fenders are much needed.

And here they are, looks a bit silly, but that's less silly than me getting multiple ass-showers with cold streetdirt-water.
Very easy to take on and off with simple rubber straps.

 

[altoid]

I did a wee bit of chain maintenance a few days ago, possibly for the first time since I bought this bike in May of 2020, 1,500 miles ago. Here are some pointless pictures!

My humble “shop”:

Look at this grossness:

Things are starting to look better after a bit of chain cleaning:

Oh right, my chain isn’t black:

Sidebar: the ChainLift is p. handy in general, but especially in absence of a dummy hub:

Not perfect, but presentable:

Now to fix totally fubar indexing this weekend, and maybe go for an actual ride…

 

[Eye-Q]

 

[eizbaer]

Finally on Saturday we’ll get our cargo bike! After a 6 month wait. But not the raincover, no sir! because that’s got an even longer lead time for some reason??? Ughhhh

edit: well, looks like my first ride with the thing will be 35 km straight across cologne. This should get interesting.

 

[eizbaer]

Well, here goes this thing… has a kiddie seat now as well, but we’re still waiting for the rain tent cover thing. Rides… alright ish. Takes a little getting used to, but it’s fine. The CBT style hub is also fine, although with the motor support any old 8 gear hub would’ve been enough really. Also so waiting to hear back from our neighbors about whether they’d share their parking garage space with us (also cargo bike).

No, I don’t know why the pics orientation is crooked, just iPhone things I guess

 

[altoid]

Bike Nook set up, let’s see how it does!

 

[Redliner]

PINION I The revolution in bicycle gear shifting

Pinion gearboxes shift the world's best bikes. A reliable and low-maintenance shifting system for your E-bike, MTB, trekking, or touring bike.

pinion.eu

I just heard of it and I quite like the engineering of it.

I know, I know, weight, price, etc.

Cool nonetheless.

 

[ninjacoco]

Bike Nook set up, let’s see how it does!

View attachment 3564123

OOH. I need something like this...after I clean up the back room......after I clean up the front room.........after I get my taxes in............after I get this mound of work out...............after................

My life is a mess, ugh.