MEAT Engines 2023...

Posted by: syncro

There are things about gearboxes that are a definite plus over deraileurs, but I don’t know if they’re enough to make the switch worth it. I still run 2x9 on my trail bike; it gives me great gear range, good chainline and the ability to replace the drivetrain (cassette, chainrings and chain) for a vey low price. I think it will be somewhat ironic if e-bikes push gearbox develop to the point where they make sense for meat bikes.

as someone with a distain for massive cassettes & long dangly derailleurs, i'd love to see a hyper refined 2x system. maybe a wee 6-8 speed cassette & robust short cage mech out back with some sort of internal 2x reduction (whether front or hub mounted). alas...

Posted by: xy9ine

Posted by: syncro

There are things about gearboxes that are a definite plus over deraileurs, but I don’t know if they’re enough to make the switch worth it. I still run 2x9 on my trail bike; it gives me great gear range, good chainline and the ability to replace the drivetrain (cassette, chainrings and chain) for a vey low price. I think it will be somewhat ironic if e-bikes push gearbox develop to the point where they make sense for meat bikes.

as someone with a distain for massive cassettes & long dangly derailleurs, i'd love to see a hyper refined 2x system. maybe a wee 6-8 speed cassette & robust short cage mech out back with some sort of internal 2x reduction (whether front or hub mounted). alas...

It wasn't purpose-built, but I loved the manual 2x7 setup I rode on the Titan. With pedal and plunge riding taking a second to swap the chain from ring to ring wasn't a bit deal at all and with both rings being narrow-wide there were zero dropped chains: https://nsmb.com/articles/going-14-speed/

There was a time when Shimano was rumored to be working on a shiftable narrow-wide 2x setup but that's still a front derailleur. SRAM is working on a 2x crank with the shifting mechanism built into the rings/crank but it looks super complicated. Manual is manual, but can't argue with the results for such a basic system.

Andrew  - your 2x7 setup would work great in places like the Shore - 1 big climb followed by lots of descending.  Our local riding has a lot of smaller climbs (~100m) with long flat sections between.  As such require a largish range 1x.  I think the 10Zee setup works quite well for our local trails with 11-42 casette.  

What I'm really hoping is Shimano brings out a short cage CUES mech (maybe DH) with reasonable range.  It will be a modern version of 10Zee.

Posted by: fartymarty

Andrew  - your 2x7 setup would work great in places like the Shore - 1 big climb followed by lots of descending.  Our local riding has a lot of smaller climbs (~100m) with long flat sections between.  As such require a largish range 1x.  I think the 10Zee setup works quite well for our local trails with 11-42 casette.  

What I'm really hoping is Shimano brings out a short cage CUES mech (maybe DH) with reasonable range.  It will be a modern version of 10Zee.

Marty sounds like a front derailleur would be awesome there! 

I wish Shimano had figured out their shiftable N/W. Add in the plastic runners inside the cage and they’re surprisingly quiet with GRX off-road.

Actually instead of N/W running a friction thumb shifter lets you adjust the position such that combined with a clutch I don’t drop chains.

I should track down an ISCG front derailleur and put one on a bike that isn’t 2x compatible.

It actually would given it had good chain retention.  2x5 would be sweet.  Thumbing for the front ring and dropper under the bar.

Ride Around Days

I was chatting about riding MTBs/doing sporty things after 50 recently and while I am still doing lots of stuff and feeling pretty good moving, the one thing that has taken a hit is healing time for injuries. Usually my "I'm still 25 years old" brain estimates half as much time as it will actually take to heal fully. So I do go out of my way not to get hurt these days. Elevated wood features in particular get my attention and I'm not afraid to ride around them. Especially on group rides where I have a habit of getting too rambunctious. I do enough solo rides that it's easy to head towards a particular feature and get it done on a 10/10 days when I am feeling on top of my game and there's no peer pressure involved and I have all the time in the world to do it right.

I'm not skipping every high wooden feature or anything like that, but I've reset my default from "give it a shot" to "ride around". That way if I am heading towards something feeling amazing I just charge onto the feature, but as soon as I'm not feeling 100% I take the ride around without thinking. Living to ride another day is more important to me than ticking off an extra 0.5% of the trail and maybe sitting on the sofa for a week or a month.

Posted by: fartymarty

It actually would given it had good chain retention.  2x5 would be sweet.  Thumbing for the front ring and dropper under the bar.

Yes!

Posted by: Vikb

Ride Around Days

I was chatting about riding MTBs/doing sporty things after 50 recently and while I am still doing lots of stuff and feeling pretty good moving, the one thing that has taken a hit is healing time for injuries. Usually my "I'm still 25 years old" brain estimates half as much time as it will actually take to heal fully. So I do go out of my way not to get hurt these days. Elevated wood features in particular get my attention and I'm not afraid to ride around them. Especially on group rides where I have a habit of getting too rambunctious. I do enough solo rides that it's easy to head towards a particular feature and get it done on a 10/10 days when I am feeling on top of my game and there's no peer pressure involved and I have all the time in the world to do it right.

I'm not skipping every high wooden feature or anything like that, but I've reset my default from "give it a shot" to "ride around". That way if I am heading towards something feeling amazing I just charge onto the feature, but as soon as I'm not feeling 100% I take the ride around without thinking. Living to ride another day is more important to me than ticking off an extra 0.5% of the trail and maybe sitting on the sofa for a week or a month.

I’m weird… conflicted?… in that I have some features I’ll only do in a group but then I have other features I find much easier solo.

But yeah, many years ago, when I was learning the realities of the Shore, I was straddling my bike nervously at the top of a long downhill log ride and my (at the time, new) friend Alan looked over and said ~ “do you see yourself rolling out at the bottom.” “No,” I replied. And he said, “if you can’t envision yourself finishing it, don’t start it. You’re guaranteed to crash.”

I’ve been living that advice for what’s gotta be almost twenty years now.

Posted by: AndrewMajor

There was a time when Shimano was rumored to be working on a shiftable narrow-wide 2x setup but that's still a front derailleur. SRAM is working on a 2x crank with the shifting mechanism built into the rings/crank but it looks super complicated. Manual is manual, but can't argue with the results for such a basic system.

Back in the day I knew a bunch of people that ran a manual 2x system just to have decent gearing for climbs. It almost makes sense to reverse that thinking and spend most time in the small ring and manually switch to the big ring if it’s needed for any pedaling on the road.

I just put a manual 2x onmy old Karate Monkey I use for bikepacking. Parts bin 26t x 10speed cassette for tired legs.

Posted by: syncro

Posted by: AndrewMajor

There was a time when Shimano was rumored to be working on a shiftable narrow-wide 2x setup but that's still a front derailleur. SRAM is working on a 2x crank with the shifting mechanism built into the rings/crank but it looks super complicated. Manual is manual, but can't argue with the results for such a basic system.

Back in the day I knew a bunch of people that ran a manual 2x system just to have decent gearing for climbs. It almost makes sense to reverse that thinking and spend most time in the small ring and manually switch to the big ring if it’s needed for any pedaling on the road.

Yeah, we used to sell a bunch of the inner plates at eNVy for manual 2x pre-narrow-wide rings.

Ride Around. 

Vik, I h'aint reached 50 yet, but it's a hell of a lot closer than 25 (and more likely to get there from here). The recovery time is brutal, last year I found myself in some steep roots and realised it had been exactly a year since I'd last ridden them. An innocuous crash, awkward landing, followed by physio and an ankle brace. 

Look out for yourselves out there people.

Ride Around Days - 

“if you can’t envision yourself finishing it, don’t start it. You’re guaranteed to crash.” - a great piece of advice for riders of all abilities.  Maybe there is something in the visualisation of doing said move / feature.

It has been quite a productive year technically for our ride group.  There are features we have knocked of that we wouldn't have thought about last year.  That said it's still not consistent - only when it feels right and less likely at this time of the year when things are getting wetter and slower.  I guess as things get riskier the chances of hitting them every time go down.

With 50 around the corner (next year) I am still trying to improve technically albeit in a calculated way.  There is definitely more "measuring" and "sessioning" going on to get comfortable on a feature you know before hitting the new feature.

RE - S'werx'd

This has got to be some of my all time favorite memories of all the stuff I've ever worked on bicycle related. A freshly serviced fork, god damn I miss that. Taking someone's well loved or abused suspension and turning it back in to what it originally was or better than.

Makes me smile :)