[hozn]

Yeah, I was going to add a comment to the end of my post, saying something to the effect of …

while I think carbon makes sense for any plus-sized rims (to keep weight down) and for anything where you expect to bottom out that rim sometimes (e.g. gravel), and for anything where you want a deep rim profile for aesthetics and/or “performance” (road), I’m less sure that it makes sense for a narrow MTB tire.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve damaged an alloy mountain bike rim (but any alloy rims I’ve used for gravel riding get dented up); MTB tires are generally plenty large to avoid rim damage. I think the best bang for your buck is a set of Stans Arch EX (or, if you’re heavier, maybe Flow EX) rims. At these narrower widths, carbon rims aren’t going to weigh much less than alloy (well, especially if considering the Arch). And the Stans rims will likely have a better tubeless experience. And you can find them for $60-70/rim instead of (at the cheapest) $200+/rim. So it’s easy math. I.e. you could build those up with SRAM 900 hubs for somewhere around $400 in total parts, as opposed to $800 in parts for carbon rims.

When I build my single-speed wheels for my mountain bike, I think I’ll be just using Stans (Arch) rims. I don’t see a compelling reason to pay for carbon.

[hozn]

+1 for Nextie, or — in a similar vein and at a similar price point — Light Bicycle rims. Those are also well respected in the MTB community. I realize I have 4 sets of LB wheels across 3 bikes now (45mm 27.5+ wheels, 2 sets of gravel wheels, 1 set of road wheels). They also have US distribution now (though it is still cheaper to order direct).

I don’t think there’s any reason to pay more for carbon in 2018. (Or, at least, I think this price point is about where the value curve levels off.)

https://www.lightbicycle.com/

I would build these up with Hope hubs, or maybe SRAM 900; those seem pretty solid on my MTB so far — and they’re cheaper.

[hozn]

I generally bed in new pads. I don’t think that there is a noticeable performance difference, but bedding them in leaves me confident that my brakes will stop the way I expect them to. (Brake strength improves noticeably after a bunch of those bedding in slow-downs.)

As for the squealing …. I would guess a contaminated rotor, though I have had some pads (jagwire scintered come to mind) that are just noisy pads. I switched back to organic on my commuter so I don’t scare peds when it is wet out.

[hozn]

@ginacico 182379 wrote:

Ding ding! I think this is precisely the answer I was hoping for. It’s the equivalent of what I did with the 10-spd triple, but compatible with new 11-spd Ultegra. I very much appreciate you honing in on specifics and providing all the background resources too, good stuff n18!

It remains to be seen whether CoMo will swap out parts, or whether I get the stock package and do it myself later.

I probably missed this from earlier in the thread, but I believe you will need a TanPan (or equivalent from jTech) to allow 11sp road shifters to work with the mtb rear derailleur. https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/collections/derailleur-optimization/products/tanpan

If you do end up having to source these parts yourself, lemme know; I believe I have both of those (a TanPan + an M8000), used, in a box from when I was considering implementing a Shimano 1x setup.

I agree with your arguments against 1x. I wouldn’t change it on my ‘cross or gravel bike, but I can imagine that for touring having really fine-grained gear selection would be valuable.

I use a 10-42t cassette with a 44t chain ring. That’s a great gravel setup, but doesn’t have the range you’re looking for. The only thing I’d say is that the (1-piece) XG cassettes (for driver) are very nice when it comes to swapping a cassette between wheels. I do that enough, that I’ll pay the premium for cassettes (but I buy XG-1175 take-off cassettes on ebay, so there isn’t much of a premium). But the Shimano 11-40 XTR cassette I have on my road bike shifts much smoother than the SRAM XG cassettes.

[hozn]

I agree w/ mstone. I can pretty much guarantee you that my 44mm Extralight Compass Snoqualmie Pass tires roll faster than your 28/32mm tires. (And are less puncture-proof.)

Jan Heine, who admittedly is often more provocative than scientific, says this about ROAD BIKE tire sizing “tires narrower than 38 mm don’t really make sense any longer. 38 mm tires still give you the “connected to the pavement” sensation that makes a racing bike feel so fast. Below 38 mm, all you gain is harshness. The bike doesn’t feel any better, just more jiggly.” https://janheine.wordpress.com/2018/07/19/how-wide-a-tire-should-i-ride/

For a general purpose bike especially, I’d get the largest tire you can fit. In addition to something like the Conti Top Contact, I’d probably also consider some of the new lighter-weight gravel tires like the slick 40mm Panaracer Gravel King (not Gravel King SK) https://www.panaracer.com/lineup/gravel.html (They also make this in smaller sizes if your frame can’t clear 40mm). The 40mm Gravel King is a good illustration of the earlier point: the reports I’ve read agree that it’s not as fast as a similarly-sized Compass tire, despite being lighter and also having smooth tread. Casing stiffness matters more.

There are lots of options in 32c too.
Eg. WTB Exposure 32c if you want/need to stay a bit smaller: https://www.wtb.com/collections/road/products/exposure-32c
Or the Specialized Roubaix 2bliss 30/32 (which is a 32mm tire): https://www.specialized.com/us/en/roubaix-pro-2bliss-ready/p/130434

These are all tubeless compatible tires which adds another avenue for flat protection (albeit with some learning investment required).

If you like thinking about tires, there’s also an interesting perspective from the folks at Challenge that was featured on recent Cycling Tips podcast: https://cyclingtips.com/2018/09/cyclingtips-podcast-cyclings-calendar-problem-and-tubular-gravel-tires/ . Gist is that supple (tubular, in this case) tires are actually more resistive to flatting than tires that are built with thicker rubber. Because tire deforms around sharp objects rather than resisting and being cut by said objects.

[hozn]

I was there — my son was racing the Jr 9/10 category. I shouted to Josh, but I don’t think he heard me. Yeah, that is a great race to spectate — as well as a great race to race.

[hozn]

This is great!! (Richard and I are coordinating.)

[hozn]

You can totally ride that (to the left of the stairs). Though there’s a recent hole that definitely ups the game.

[hozn]

@TwoWheelsDC 181450 wrote:

I seem to remember reading an article a few weeks ago that judged e-bikeshares were ultimately the fastest, followed by e-scooters (I may have that backward…it was close either way, and now I can’t find the article). I haven’t tried a scooter yet (personally I would get on a Jump or CaBi+ before a e-scooter), but my understanding is that scooters are not suited to going up hills of any kind. So around downtown they may be okay, but if you’re going up to Columbia Heights or something, you’ll want to grab a Jump or CaBi+.

I believe that, but I still feel that a scooter is “fast enough” for cruising around between transport stops without a helmet etc. And it’s only a matter of time before there are stronger motors, etc. Conceptually the scooter makes more sense to me for short trips from pretty much every angle other than “hauling capacity”.

I’d always rather ride *my* bike. But I think I’d rather use an e-scooter than a cabi if I’m just looking for convenient short-trip transportation.

It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.

[hozn]

@lordofthemark 181407 wrote:

1. Kurt suggested it might be where I am keeping my phone? This AM I had it in the pocket of my yellow windbreaker – not sure about Saturday. I do not recall a problem with the jacket in the past, but not sure
2. GPS is still working in google maps, now and did when I rode the bus on Monday. So either a strava issue, or maybe an issue with the light. Pretty sure not a general GPS issue.
3. The battery on the light died so I could try riding without recharging, but I think I will want the light this evening (I will be going to shul first and then riding home later)
4. I will try keeping the phone in a different place from the jacket pocket.

Re #2 — I don’t think the fact that the GPS seems to work when you open Google Maps rules out that it’s a GPS or Location Service problem. You want to rule out Strava app for being at fault, so make sure you can record a ride on another app and that it looks correct (and different from Strava).

To the point, if #1/#4 is true, then it has to be a GPS problem — despite Google Maps working.

But, really, I’d start by ruling out the app. if you identify that it’s a system-wide problem you can start experimenting with GPS location / radiation interference, etc.

[hozn]

My thought is that it’s a problem with the GPS — or the Android location service that abstracts the phone’s GPS to the applications. To rule that out, I would recommend also recording your ride on another similar recording software. If the other software records the correct route and Strava doesn’t, then it sounds like there’s something about Strava — or about how your phone is trying to throttle’s Strava’s usage of location services or something. Anyway, should be easy to identify whether it’s a phone/OS issue or app issue.

[hozn]

This e-scooter craze is intriguing. From a transportation perspective this makes so much more sense to me than bike-share e-bikes (or non-assist bike-share bikes): they go fast enough, are far more compact/maneuverable, can be ridden more places (even if they shouldn’t be), and have a lower barrier to entry. If you’re trying to just save time on a couple-mile errand, who wants to actually pedal a damn bicycle!? I mean, it’s not going to do anything to further cycling itself, so *we* might be sad, but honestly even I would rather use an e-scooter than an e-bike if it’s just about speeding up pedestrian transportation. And it’s not like an e-bike is doing anything to further the sport of cycling, so no love lost there. Sure, bikes could haul more stuff, so maybe we’ll see some bikeshare e-cargo bikes that might differentiate themselves. But that’s still gonna be a tiny percentage of the people who want to speed up their walk to the metro or the drug store.

It’s a bit funny that e-bikes have been such a point of controversy. The real future of e-assist transportation probably looks a lot more like this.

And, yeah, it’s also going to generate its due share of controversy. Just the other evening in Clarendon a couple of dudes in brown flipflops were zigzagging through peds on the sidewalk at 12+mph like a bunch of jackasses. Hey, maybe it’ll shift the target of all the hatred away from bikes.

[hozn]

@consularrider 181315 wrote:

When did The Bike Lane move?

This summer. Their new location is bigger and has a cafe. Of course, the cafe only opens at 8am and closes at 4pm weekdays so I’ll likely never stop there for a coffee or a beer. And access from the trail is a grass-hill run up — I guess it’s good CX training.

Maybe the store does a better job attracting visitors who are driving by on the road.

[hozn]

I found this cyclingtips podcast episode to have a good breakdown/explanation as it affects bicycles in general: https://cyclingtips.com/2018/09/cyclingtips-podcast-a-gravel-racers-pursuit-record-and-tariffs-on-bikes/

Ironically, as is mentioned in the podcast, this has the effect of encouraging US consumers to start buying direct from overseas — whether truly direct from Alibaba/eBay/etc. or places like the UK. Since tariffs are waived for items under $800. You’d be hard-pressed to spend more than $800 on anything from China — and if you did, the seller would likely lower the declared value anyway.

[hozn]

There’s certainly nothing to stop anyone from taking over and running the leaderboards this year.

[Author]

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