Bicycles!

When a good friend of mine announced he was getting rid of some of his cycling gear, I cautiously informed what kind of gear he would be selling... To which the answer was "Don't really know yet, but at least my two Garmins." To which I, of course, replied "Which ones and how much?" Which is how I am now the owner of a Garmin Edge 520 and a Garmin Edge 830 with HideMyBell mount for the grand total of €250... I guess I did good.
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Our recent trip to The Netherlands must have awakened my son's Dutch jeans genes.
He's getting transfered to a different school next year, and he told me: "I can't wait to buy a bicycle and ride to school".
 
Once again #Carryshitolympics - Today I finally picked myself up to dismantle my old bed and bring it to the civic amenity site. It took three trips (I don't have a picture from the first one, it only occured to me on the second trip to take pictures), but since it's just 4.5 km one way it wasn't a big deal.

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Can’t find my post from the first time round, but the cargo bike finished another set of brake pads in the front. 1500 km in a bunch of ugly weather did it… somehow seemed very early to me, but thinking about it, that’s actually just fine (60 kg + 20“ and all that)… wear is very uneven, however 🤔
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I'm contemplating about fitting my cargobike with dropbars. Since I have a Rohloff hub transmission I'd need a special box and adapted shift-/brakelevers so all in all I'd be shelling out at least 900 Euros for the least expensive set of adapted shift-/brakelevers with pre-filled brake callipers - damn, I could buy a whole bike for that...

Or I could buy a complete SRAM Rival eTap group set for about 1200 Euros, but then I'd have to buy a new rear wheel as well, and the brake calipers are only available in flat mount while the bike has IS2000/post mount...
 
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Contemplating is over, over the weekend I retrofitted the cargobike with dropbars. :wub: I was able to marry the existing brake callipers with the STIs, and I even managed to properly bleed the brakes afterwards so they still work well. :nod: You shift up with the right shifter and down with the left one.


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You shift up with the right shifter and down with the left one.
ON A SHIMANO LEVER??? HERESY!*
lol… I actually like the SRAM right up left down a lot better than my other (mechanical) shimano system with two levers per side.

* seriously though, how does that work? Doesn’t that require mods to the shifters or something? 😵‍💫

Anyhoo looks very nice, while riding my 15yo daily today I again thought it needs a modern 1x and drop bars too…

Regarding your choice of bars: what’s with the weird kink in the drops? Is that to provide better support on your thumb base kind of area? Thinking about it… it may work, but it just looks off 😜

Also: that’s a proper angle on those STIs. I’m actually thinking about tilting mine a bit as well, despite that looking weird on the canyon aero cockpit. But who cares, ergonomics trump looks. Mostly. Sometimes anyway.
 
* seriously though, how does that work?
The shifting itself is actuated by a rotating pin. You have two shifting cables between the twist shifter on the handlebar and the normal shifting box at the gearbox. The far ends of the shifting cables are wound up on a drum which you just install on the pin (with a quick release system) so when you twist the shifter that twisting motion is replicated on the pin at the other end.

With the special box mentioned above you have the usual one shifting cable to each STI which both connect to that special box, you can see the insides of the box in the assembly instructions. This way when you pull on the right lever the pin is being rotated in clockwise direction by the block with the pawl while when you pull the left lever the pin is being rotated in anticlockwise direction. Afterwards the block with the pawl gets pushed back to it's original position by a spring.

Doesn’t that require mods to the shifters or something? 😵‍💫
Yes it does, you have to take out the indexing component and replace it with a non-indexed component specially designed as described here. That said, you can buy modified STIs for marginally more than new STIs cost so I did just that.

Regarding your choice of bars: what’s with the weird kink in the drops? Is that to provide better support on your thumb base kind of area?
Yup, it's designed to support the center of the palm since that's not flat so on traditional drop bars you get uneven pressure. I was about 50% of the time in the drops today (2x30 km) and it's pretty comfortable.
 
Also: that’s a proper angle on those STIs. I’m actually thinking about tilting mine a bit as well, despite that looking weird on the canyon aero cockpit. But who cares, ergonomics trump looks. Mostly. Sometimes anyway.
I did that with the STIs on the Grail as well, it is more comfortable indeed.
 
Hello! It’s been a bit over a month, and not all of you are in the Telegram group (or pay attention to me [or anyone] there), so let’s catch up. 😁 As is customary, words before pictures.

Old bike — First and foremost, not sure if I ever mentioned it here, but I sold the Cannondale to a coworker of my wife’s. I got 50% of the initial purchase price from three years ago, after some 1,750 miles and a few scratches. I feel like that was a good return, and the buyer was super stoked. He took it to the shop where I got my Trek for a tune-up, and they told me there wasn’t anything problematic going on, so I didn’t screw things up too badly on my own. 😂

New bike — Speaking of my fancy new Trek, it’s been an awesome journey so far, and increasingly so! I’ve taken the bike on some muddy adventures while the world was still ending here, and some dryer ones since. Still predominantly road riding, as that’s what I have within reach from my apartment, but fun nonetheless. The bike is truly a joy to ride, I think in large part because it’s just so damn comfortable.

Bike fit — I got a bike fit a few weeks ago, and it’s been quite helpful, I’d say. We lowered the saddle and moved it slightly forward, experimented a bit with bar height, moved the cleats around, and actually replaced the stock saddle with a triathlon one, because I liked the wider pressure relief channel and especially all the room for my junk up front. I need to try a lower bar height on a longer ride, as it’s possible I’m finding it too high right now, and am thus reflexively propping myself up with my arms. I also might eventually experiment with other saddles, as I test this one out on rides longer than two hours. I have some follow-up appointments available to work out other things, should that be necessary. A+ experience, would recommend, especially when spending all this money on the sport already. I definitely feel like I put more power down now, even as unfit as I currently am.

Riding goals — I’ve basically only ever ridden solo or with a friend or two, with a few notable exceptions on some protest rides. While that’s all well and good, I want to try some bigger structured events as well, so I signed up for Phil’s Cookie Fondo in late October, with the plan to ride the 49-mile Sugar Cookie route. Sometime around then I’d like to do the Long Beach to San Diego century again, even if I end up riding alone. And next year I want to ride AIDS/LifeCycle, in all its 7-day, 545-mile glory. These are all road adventures, and I’m not planning a ton more specifically to leave room open as I ramp up my off-road abilities and aspirations. I might bring the bike to a conference I’ll be attending in late July, for some spur-of-the-moment riding in the countryside. If anyone wants to join me for any of this, let’s do it. 😂

Pictures — I know, I know, most of you probably skipped to here anyway, and that’s fine.

I got a SeaSucker Talon for versatility, and felt some seriously epic nervousness the first time I used it with my asspensive bike, but it was obviously totally fine:
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Found some pretty serious mud on that ride that neither I nor my tires were equipped to deal with:
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It was a lot more miserable than it looks in the photo:
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Downside of mounting a muddy bike on top of the car:
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Took the bike to the shop the next day to get the rear tire re-mounted so it would lose less air, and felt a lot less nervousness this time:
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Tried the lock at a quick stop by the store:
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And got some sweet Muc-Off valves in rainbow oil slick:
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Also got what turned out to be a pretty solid ride snack:
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Got a Lead Out! bar bag and wallet since I don’t love carrying too much stuff in my jersey pockets:
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A week after that muddy ride I remembered I never cleaned out my fancy new shoes, and they looked predictably awful, but a bit of soap and water cleaned them right up:
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Here’s that ISM tri saddle I got during the bike fit:
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This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like:
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Ocean ride photo:
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City ride photo:
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View from a park atop a small but steep hill:
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Tried using my old GoPro Hero7 Black for ride pics so my phone could stay put inside the wallet inside the bar bag:
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Great status report! Is this just dirt on the car roof, because that looks awfully like scratches!
 
Great status report! Is this just dirt on the car roof, because that looks awfully like scratches!

Oh, it was 100% dirt and mud, since I didn't really clean anything off, so a wet, muddy bike went right up there while it was still drizzling outside. The SeaSucker vacuum mounts don't seem like they'd leave any scratches, provided one wipes clean both the mounts and the surface they're being mounted to. I have lots of soapy wipes in the car so I can do it every time, to both prevent damage to the paint and also help the mounts stick firmly and actually do their job.
 
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SeaSucker vacuum mounts
Oh I’ve seen those suckers (badum tsss) on the Tesla forums a bunch and despite zero actual nightmare stories I’d still be too chicken to try those 🙈 also I’m not sure those are legal over here? No idea…

I should spring for the regular roof rack at some point, since I didn’t get the bloody tow hook (hindsight yada yada). Also wouldn’t necessitate the slightly weird lock situation you got going on with that (I’d be deathly afraid to forget the lock out there and drive off with it slapping around).

I’d really like to take a bike on holiday with the family as soon as the little one starts riding. We got her the smallest size runner bike we could find and she doesn’t fall over with it, but seems to be distracted by birds, a bug, cars, a plane, another bird, a flower, another bird and more before she actually gets going much 🤣

Muc-Off valves in rainbow oil slick:
That is a hood look for the grey bike! I have those same valves in red because I thought red bike, red valves, yeeees. And because those were the only ones that were available that long (80 mm) at my (formerly local) shop.
 
Oh I’ve seen those suckers (badum tsss) on the Tesla forums a bunch and despite zero actual nightmare stories I’d still be too chicken to try those 🙈

I definitely had them nerves going at first, but in the end here’s a reasonable test beyond what I expect to do:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H1sbJ4uefM

Also wouldn’t necessitate the slightly weird lock situation you got going on with that (I’d be deathly afraid to forget the lock out there and drive off with it slapping around).

I’m a little afraid of that, but still prefer this to any sort of permanent solution. We won’t be keeping this car forever, or possibly even much longer, and I’ll get some sort of silly toy eventually, so it’s futureproofing as well.

What I am genuinely concerned about is just generally forgetting that I’ve got a bike on the roof when returning home, and trying to drive into my parking garage. I’m actually working on a warning system for this that I won’t ignore as successfully as I would the vacuum cups if I mounted them on the windshield, or the static cling people seem to like. In the meantime I’m just hoping I don’t fuck it up. :eek:


That is a hood look for the grey bike! I have those same valves in red because I thought red bike, red valves, yeeees. And because those were the only ones that were available that long (80 mm) at my (formerly local) shop.

I <3 the look of rainbow oil slick on the otherwise super stealthy bike. I want a full set of bolts from Better Bolts at some point, for some serious flash. :giggle: Example from their IG:

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What I am genuinely concerned about is just generally forgetting that I’ve got a bike on the roof when returning home, and trying to drive into my parking garage. I’m actually working on a warning system for this that I won’t ignore as successfully as I would the vacuum cups if I mounted them on the windshield, or the static cling people seem to like. In the meantime I’m just hoping I don’t fuck it up. :eek:

I wrote up the idea here!

TL;DR:

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Or you could mount a mirror onto your garage door. Doesn't have to be big, just enough size that you will notice the bike on the roof from your driver POV.
Or a Bike!? sticker on your garage remote.
 
Or you could mount a mirror onto your garage door. Doesn't have to be big, just enough size that you will notice the bike on the roof from your driver POV.

Can’t really do that, I share a large garage with a buttload of other people:

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Or a Bike!? sticker on your garage remote.

I don’t look at the remote—I just reach and press the button. 😂
 
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