Bicycles!

calvinhobbes said:
I’m not actually sure. I keep the bike in a spot where I don’t expect many encounters with devices that pick up the signal, but the “last seen” info indicates an extremely small number of sightings. Perhaps I’ll get one of the many holders on offer.
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Update: I got a bell with an integrated holder and the reception appears to be much better.

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ArktisPRO AirTag Fahrradklingel Diebstahlschutz

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eizbaer said:
DUTCH ENGINEERING! i kid, i kid... but maybe they just have lacking QC?
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KWALITEJTSBEWAKING STRIKES AGAIN!
it seems that somehow they managed to not quite install or set up the CVT thing on our bike correctly, because today, this happened:
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now that ain't right!
the whole thing is operated by the twisting that grip there and the movement is transferred by those two cables you can see poking out there (in order to be able to "pull" in both directions). the manufacturer service manual states that this exact thing (the cables coming unwound at the shifter, usually they go a whole 360° around the thing to properly take the forces) may happen in certain situations like "too high shifting load" (which is a nope from me) or when either the cable length is set up wrong or the cable "tightness" is too low (how much they can move without doing anything, basically)... yup, i'd argue they didn't quite check that right and now we have a bike with no functioning gears anymore. it's now stuck on the lowest gear it can do, which is super fun. yup.

i am annoyed. and once more, even more certain than before, that i will never buy anything from babboe ever again.
 
Hindsight 20/20 and all that, right? Should/Would’ve probably gone with one of the more mainstream options like Riese & Müller or Urban Arrow… which aren’t even that much less expensive than that Velo lab thing.
 
Adunaphel said:
Babboes were made for wine drinking Dutch Karens in the fucking polder. I'm surprised it didn't fall over and died at the first sign of a hill.
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thanks for confirming my suspicions... however, i'm stuck with it now, so i'll somehow have to make it survive the next few years until our daughter grows out of it, at least. Ditching it on some unsuspecting Karen and just getting a replacement and screw the expense does sound a lot like me, but I think my wife would kill me for that. Her SIL and all of her (SIL) friends have babboes and (ofc...) praised them to the moon. turns out, they're also the wine drinking karens in the fucking polder kind of people... so maybe we should not have listened to them :|

anyhooooooo, my hopes for a quick and easy repair (i.e. "just pop the cables back in place") were of course expertly dashed and this is what greeted me when i took the stupid enviolo twist shifter apart:
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that cable looks like it's been riding between those plastic gears for a long time already. that's properly fucked. i'll go over to a local shop to see whether they'll replace the cables TODAY or, alternatively, whether they'll just sell me two new cables so I can do it myself.

want to hear something funny? those bloody plastic gears are there exclusively to drive the entirely unecessary "gear indicator" on the shifter. they do nothing else - except fuck up the cablesf, as my exhibit shows. fucking crap.
 
And I just learned what a "polder" is.
 
eizbaer said:
want to hear something funny? those bloody plastic gears are there exclusively to drive the entirely unecessary "gear indicator" on the shifter. they do nothing else - except fuck up the cablesf, as my exhibit shows. fucking crap.
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Alriiiiight, that was actually easier than expected. Had to source two oversize gear cables, because why would a regular 2.2m one suffice anyway? nope, needs to be 2.3m or something thereabouts. yup. now the little shitty gear indicator doesn't work anymore, but I don't care. the stupid CVT does. put a bunch of grease to help things along and set the tension on the cables correctly. nice. if you know what you're doing and don't have to go and procure cables and whatnot, this whole thing would probably take about 30 minutes tops. i probably spent something between 60-90... still good. next time i'll be prepared.

Redliner said:
And I just learned what a "polder" is.
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lifelong learning and all that! polder is probably one of the dutch world heritage thingies, no? if not it definitely should be. did you know about the Afsluitdijk?
 
Wohoo, finally managed a real nice fall with the cargo bike... luckily after I had dropped of my kid at the daycare.
Nice ice sheet made for a good 5m slide with the bike going further and further away to the left and my body, on my right foot, sliding behind until my full body met the ground and kept sliding for another few meters. How do we say in German: I made myself long. I was very very slow... so nothing really happened (neither to the bike nor to me) except I hit my knee on the bloody stupid steering shaft thing (for the thousandth time)... lovely! Strangely enough, this was on the exact same way back that I had come just five minutes earlier, where I didn't even notice it being slippery :dunno:
 
Oof. Glad you're mostly okay.
 
My cheapo E-bike is rather fun in the winter as well. With a hub motor, most of the weight is at the back and base spec control unit offers an on/off power assist experience. So it's basically like a 911 turbo! And has resulted in several 180s on my commute. 😅
 
I’ve decided to sell the Synapse as it’s far too big for me and get a proper bike fit before buying its replacement. This also opens up an opportunity to get a gravel bike instead!

So I may as well ask for recommendations here too: comfort leaning, drop bars, road first, probably 2by as a result, hydraulic disc brakes, 700c and 650b compatible, up to $3,000.
 
altoid said:
road first
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For clarification: you mean you’ll probably spend most of the time on tarmac and just want to be able to keep going where a road bike would stop you?

I was about to suggest the „all road“ flavor of canyons endurace - as the name suggest an endurance (comfort) road bike that comes with very light gravel tires. Since there’s a bunch of people actually gravel racing the canyon ultimate, which is also a road bike, the bike can definitely take it. Sadly, that „all road“ model of endurace doesn’t seem to be available in the US, this is the closest I could get. Nobody stopping you from slapping 650b on there of course 😉
 
CraigB said:
Surly Disc Trucker
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I used to want one of those, but something lighter is more appealing at the moment.


eizbaer said:
Canyon Endurace
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This was a high contender, but the delivery and service story seems suspect stateside.





Tomorrow might be New Bike Day™… 👀
 
eizbaer said:
Yeah… to be honest I feared as much 😕
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I was talking to a friend who’s in the biz, and his experience has been that being a Canyon sponsored rider is awesomesauce, but being a regular consumer can be frustrating. Deliveries are poorly organized and often end up with borked bikes, returns sometimes get recycled, and so on. Sounds like what I would fear from a direct-to-consumer brand without physical locations, bummer to hear it might be true.

Maybe things get better in the future. I still have a thing for that Grail double bar. 😬
 
altoid said:
Sounds like what I would fear from a direct-to-consumer brand without physical locations, bummer to hear it might be true.
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Yup… I’ve also heard the occasional horror story of local shops refusing to work on canyon out of principle. But I know a bunch of people that are very happy with their bikes (and their LBS) and I’m only an hours drive from their headquarters in any case, if it ever came to it.
altoid said:
I still have a thing for that Grail double bar. 😬
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I’ll have to try that thing out some time, just out of curiosity. I’m not convinced by the whole idea, but it sure makes for a unique look - which probably is at least half the appeal 🤣
I was close to going the @Eye-Q route last summer and get a grail with two sets of wheels, but then I did remember that I’d still end up 95% on the road and that aeroad was just way too tasty 🤤
 
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