Tjaardbreeuwer profile

I don’t remember if we had a dropper on our 20” bike. For sure on the 24”

First of all, they are a lot cheaper now. Just over $100. Second, you can move them to the next larger bike.

I am sure it depends on your trails too. Ours are rolling, especially the easy ones, even when they tend up or down, there are always short sections going the other way.

For you guys, you pedal up for a while, then rip down right? Droppers are far less of an must have in that scenario.

I just cut the valves out of the tubes I pulled out, and the Specialized Roller 2.8 ran great tubeless, even with gripstuds screwed in for winter.

I have been very happy with Trailcraft cranks. Reasonable price, lightweight and with the removable SRAM spider interface I have used different rings and 2x spiders on them.

(As a Bikefitter), I think the biggest improvement is proper Length cranks. Besides better pedaling, it also raises the seat height, which allows the use of a dropper post, when it wouldn’t fit before.

I am sure you will.

I also think it is actually a lot easier these days, with the internet. When I started reading about mtb’ing, it was in magazines. If I didn’t know what a word or concept meant, all I could do was keep reading and hope that it would come up again, in a way that made sense to me.

These days, if you read a bike review, and wonder what “xxx mm reach” means, or why they mention a “short offset fork”, you can open a new tab, and get 10 articles explaining each of those. So cool!

A dog (aka) bike wash room in your condo complex sounds sweet!

That is not quite correct. 

Yes, in an absolute sense, short riders will need the saddle lower, but since the same is true when they are seated, that doesn’t mean they need more drop.

Yep, exactly the same here. My new gravel bike had 7mm more reach than the old one...

Every bit helps,  but I am still running a 140mmm stem.

Since the Lake Superior North Shore, where I live, is quite the opposite terrain from the BC Northshore, I rather regret the way most bikes seem to be moving towards the “Gun fight” preparation. I really like having the plushness of suspension for cost, traction and margin of error. That means, historically, 120-150 mm of travel has been great. 

But the way bikes are moving these days, bikes over 110mm of travel are becoming kind of beasts in weight and lumbering in geometry. 

I think it's  great that bikes like these are made, but they shouldn’t be the only option. There should be a variety of styles to choose from.

I am not advocating going back 70 degree head angles, but it would be nice to be able to  find a bike with a 66 degree head angle, as easy as one with 64 degrees.

As a tall rider, the length of my bikes makes them stable enough anyway, and the slacker they get, the less weight I have on the front wheel, for climbing and cornering.

That is consistent  with others’ experience. Old Spesh tires came up small. 

These new ones, in the Grid trail casing, I have seen measurements around 2.4” for the “2.3” and 2.6 for the “2.6”.

Obviously, pressure, rim size and casing all influence those numbers, but it has been reported enough that I think we can safely say the new 2.3’ run big.

The one thing I wonder about is whether there might be a benefit to running a lighter casing+insert, vs heavier casing, if balancing rolling resistance with grip and pinch flat protection.

Heavier casings have more rolling resistance, because they are stiffer(harder to deform). So my hypothesis is that the more supple casing, even combined with an insert, would have lower rolling resistance than the thicker casing.

So even though the heavier casing tire was lighter than the combo, I wonder if rolling resistance might still be better.

The other thing of course, is that this depends on the exact casings and inserts compared.

For example, EXO+ with Tannus might be lighter than DD.

Many years ago, a German magazine did a comparison test of plus tires vs ‘normal’ tires and normal tires with Procore inserts.

In many aspects, the Procore set up performed similar to the plus sized tire.

It sounds like @Cam is running plus-like pressures with these in skinny tires.

It would be great to see some comparative testing of 2.4, 2.6 and 2.8 inch tires with inserts (these or Cushcore) in the narrower widths.