Covet

[83b]

@dasgeh 113460 wrote:

[M]y ultimate would be a mid drive box [FAT!] bike…

Fixed that for ‘ya!

[wheelswings]

A friend just showed me this article about the valour bicycle.
http://mashable.com/2015/04/10/smart-bike-calls-home-when-stolen/
also
https://www.vanhawks.com/
It sounds very cool. My own bike (20 year old Mountain Trek) and phone (Sprint special, no data!) are from the dinosaur age… I’ve a ways to go to catch up with this Smart Bike, but it’s fun to read in any case. :+)

[peterw_diy]

@dasgeh 113460 wrote:

The bike Friday hauladay sounds like almost exactly what you want. Both wheels are 20″. I think the smaller rear wheel is for stability I know (and Chris s could attest) that the larger wheel on the Boda makes it really wobbly to carry people, especially big people, on the back.

With the Mundo, an adult on the back of the rear platform is bad. An adult on the front of the rear platform, with or without kids, is a little awkward. But 95% of my passenger loads are only kids, and 3 kids is no problem.

Reality with longtails is that heavy loads are normally carried beside the wheel, not laid on top of the platform. Groceries go in panniers (often oversized) and side slings, not up top. In the 18 months we’ve had a longtail, I’ve used the platform for heavy loads (bags of mulch) once. I would have liked a lower platform then, especially if it had that nice 2’x2′ Truck Bed platform. But to me small wheel longtails are to big wheel longtails as compact crew cab pickups are to station wagons – better for cargo, worse for people (especially taller passengers and when carrying both people and cargo).

[Phatboing]

Oh my.

The 48/32 + 11-36 seems really fascinating, too.

[hozn]

What is with the 1 1/8 – 1 1/4 taper ?! Cannondale does that too, annoying. 1 1/8 – 1 1/2 seems perfectly fine and far more available.

Granted when the frameset comes with a full carbon fork there is little reason to buy a new one.

[Phatboing]

@hozn 113886 wrote:

What is with the 1 1/8 – 1 1/4 taper ?! Cannondale does that too, annoying. 1 1/8 – 1 1/2 seems perfectly fine and far more available.

Granted when the frameset comes with a full carbon fork there is little reason to buy a new one.

Give me a singlespeed/fixed gear with a timeless square taper bottom bracket and a straight steerer and rim brakes any da… OH WAIT!

[Steve O]

@wheels&wings 113497 wrote:

A friend just showed me this article about the valour bicycle.
http://mashable.com/2015/04/10/smart-bike-calls-home-when-stolen/
also
https://www.vanhawks.com/
It sounds very cool. My own bike (20 year old Mountain Trek) and phone (Sprint special, no data!) are from the dinosaur age… I’ve a ways to go to catch up with this Smart Bike, but it’s fun to read in any case. :+)

If it’s meant to be used as a city/commuter bike, it’s lacking some features I would want. Currently, it is not designed for fenders, and I don’t see how it could be. There is no clearance between the rear wheel and the frame, so any fender will fail to keep water off the feet, because it can’t drop below the bottom bracket. Their Q&A video indicated they may be designing their own custom fenders to complement the aesthetics. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

And I don’t see any braze-ons (or whatever they are called on carbon frames) or other good ways to mount a rack. You might be able to MacGyver something–maybe.
I also didn’t see any place to mount a lemoncello-filled-bottle/coffee-travel-mug cage. Their obsession with aesthetics stands in the way of making this a truly all-round functional bike, IMO. I’d also be curious, with the carbon frame, if you were able to mount a rack for panniers, how much weight you could carry.

And one other thing. They designed in a front hub dynamo, but why no integrated lights? At the least, the wiring from the dynamo should run through the frame to the rear so one can mount a tail light. Much better would be if the tail light were designed into the bike. Headlight, too. As TK’s post from earlier today pointed out, simple daytime running lights would probably improve safety more than all their high-tech gizmos. I wonder even if they designed it for easy adding of additional electronic accessories or if the dynamo just runs the existing system and that’s it?

Correction – seems it has integrated rear lights of some kind. They aren’t mentioned on the web site, but there’s a reference to them in their Q&A.

[Powerful Pete]

I am coveting mightily… may ask Dirt to help hook me up with one of these…

What say you, folks o’ the forum? Looking for light, nice components, disc brakes, ability to mount fat tires, option for rack and/or fenders and ‘racier position (don’t want to commute on a slow bike). Considering this, the Carbon Warbird and the Niner RLT.

Would be better with Campagnolo but from all accounts the latest Ultegra is a very nice groupset, and it could always be replaced with better components at a later date.

I am not too hard on my equipment and both “ends” of my commute are in covered, safe parking.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8426[/ATTACH]

[hozn]

@Powerful Pete 114389 wrote:

I am coveting mightily… may ask Dirt to help hook me up with one of these…

That’s the GT, right? (Edit: nevermind, I see it’s the Renegade. Looks better in the smaller frame size.) Yeah, that looks pretty nice. A couple more to consider in a similar space:
– Anything from Foundry — the Camrock or Valmont, e.g.? Maybe too cx-specific. http://foundrycycles.com/bikes/
– The Santa Cruz Stigmata: http://www.santacruzbicycles.com/en/us/stigmata

If you’re plan is to typically do fast rides on the bike, I would look for something with a head tube angle on the steeper side (I haven’t cross-compared these frames, so not sure which ones those would be). I’m a big fan of the RLT9, as I’ve made clear in other postings. Personally, I would prefer a BSA bottom bracket, but those are harder to come by these days. I don’t have first-hand negative experience with the BB30/PF30, but I also haven’t heard anything good about them (mostly it’s just that they’re noisy). Anyway, I imagine most of these are PF30/BB30 now.

Edit2: Depending on size, the Renegade has a 71.5º HTA, which seems a little slack if you want a quick-handling bike (good for slow speed cornering, like cross racing, maybe?). I find my 72.5º HTA on my cross bike to be great for fast road rides and still works fine for off-road too. Here’s an interesting read: http://calfeedesign.com/tech-papers/geometry-of-bike-handling/

[Powerful Pete]

Thanks Hozn.

I misspoke – I am interested in going fast, but would like a relatively stable bike – so lower BB height and “longer” frame is interesting to me. That makes the likes of true cross bikes like the Stigmata a bit less interesting. What I have noticed is that I find I am doing less well with twitchy steering as I get older (no jokes please)… and in the winter I would also appreciate a lower… distance to fall on ice!

So I am looking broadly at “gravel bikes” more than CX bikes. Interested in wide tire clearance, discs and a relatively relaxed geometry. Always have my R3 for when I want to be speed racer guy (if only the legs delivered on that…).

Will go check out Foundry now…

[Phatboing]

@Powerful Pete 114402 wrote:

Thanks Hozn.

I misspoke – I am interested in going fast, but would like a relatively stable bike – so lower BB height and “longer” frame is interesting to me. That makes the likes of true cross bikes like the Stigmata a bit less interesting. What I have noticed is that I find I am doing less well with twitchy steering as I get older (no jokes please)… and in the winter I would also appreciate a lower… distance to fall on ice!

While you’re on Salsa’s site, I cannot say enough good things about the Colossal. It’s exactly what you describe. Not gravel technically, but the latest one does have clearance for 32mm tires, so you can gravel away regardless.

[Powerful Pete]

Thanks phatboing – I was hoping for greater tire clearance for the 37mm studded tires I now have in preparation for BAFS 2016… my understanding is that the 32mm on the Colossal are a pretty tight fit, as per my conversation with Dirt.

[Phatboing]

@Powerful Pete 114416 wrote:

Thanks phatboing – I was hoping for greater tire clearance for the 37mm studded tires I now have in preparation for BAFS 2016… my understanding is that the 32mm on the Colossal are a pretty tight fit, as per my conversation with Dirt.

His Colossal is the 2014 model, if I’m not mistaken, which had clearance for 28mm – they kicked that up this year. An if you want 37mm studded tires in there, definitely don’t try that on a Colossal.

[GB]

@hozn 114395 wrote:

Edit2: Depending on size, the Renegade has a 71.5º HTA, which seems a little slack if you want a quick-handling bike (good for slow speed cornering, like cross racing, maybe?). I find my 72.5º HTA on my cross bike to be great for fast road rides and still works fine for off-road too. Here’s an interesting read: http://calfeedesign.com/tech-papers/geometry-of-bike-handling/

You’ve talked about HTA before, and I’m semi in the market for a CX bike. Maybe (most likely?) I’m not understanding something, but I think you’re giving too much value to this metric. Just about all the CX bikes I look at have a HTA of 71-72. My road bike has a HTA of 73 (and I wouldn’t want it any steeper). I doubt 1 degree makes much difference, and if it does, I’d have thought rake/set-back was just as important.

[hozn]

@GB 114432 wrote:

You’ve talked about HTA before, and I’m semi in the market for a CX bike. Maybe (most likely?) I’m not understanding something, but I think you’re giving too much value to this metric. Just about all the CX bikes I look at have a HTA of 71-72. My road bike has a HTA of 73 (and I wouldn’t want it any steeper). I doubt 1 defree makes much difference, and if it does, I’d have thought rake/set-back was just as important.

Maybe. I can definitely feel the difference in steering my road vs my cx bike; that is 1° difference (73.5 vs. 72.5). The rake is slightly different, though (43mm vs 45mm). And I can definitely feel the handling difference between my cx bike and slacker MTB (71°, 45mm rake). The 1° is not huge, but I think you would feel the bike behaving differently if you were able to hold all other things constant.

[Author]

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