Is the Grappler really available in Trail Casing? On the e thirteen website I could only find the Enduro and DH casings.
And did you get a chance to weight the tires yourself? After my experience with Schwalbe, I’m quite suspicious about claimed weights.
Please, customers have somehow managed to navigate the byzantine madhouse that is Maxxis tyre specs and nomenclature. Compared to that mess, the Conti lineup is almost self-explanatory.
Previous generation Contis (i'm only counting the german-made black chili versions) had awesome rubber but the casings were finicky. For instance, they were really tough for their weight, incredibly so. But that came with stiff sidewalls which could feel harsh and made finding the right pressure really hard, especially for light riders.
I can think of only two tire brands who do things right in terms of nomenclature. With different approaches, mind.
There is WTB with high grip/fast rolling, light/tough which tells you exactly what you are getting in terms of technical properties.
And there is Michelin where you buy tires called "Enduro Front" and "Enduro Rear" which tells you nothing about their specs but which do exactly what it says on the label.
I don't think brightness itself is a problem at all. The issue is just where it's aimed.
Even relatively low power dynamo lights can easily blind cyclists and drivers. But a 4000lm light aimed at the pavement in front of the wheel won't blind anyone.
Most people I know who commute in the winter do so in light hiking or approach boots. Especially the approach shoes work well on flats, but sadly nothing of that kind is available in hi-viz.
It doesn't even do that. The lightest stem/handlebar solutions are separate parts.
It may be possible that a carbon bar + aluminum stem combo will always be superior to a one piece carbon part.
I have a hard time imagining a place anywhere in the world where a substantial number of customers would regularly spin out 30x10 gearing on a 15kg+ full squish bike with knobbly soft tires.
What a beautiful timeless look and color scheme. It beats pretty much all plastic wonderbikes on looks alone, at a fraction of the price.
Btw, i suspect that a good part of the Fluid's agreeable climbing manners comes from the tires. That Vittoria rubber just rolls incredibly fast. They give up quite a bit of wet grip though.
As much as I like my Wera tool check around the house, I never found much use for it when working on bikes. Changing bits is always annoying and many of the screws turn so lightly that the ratchet mechanism doesn't trigger.
I'd always take the hex plus L-keys over a mini ratchet for bike stuff.
I like your take on trails "made for mountain biking". They can sometimes feel a bit samey even if located in different landscapes.
However it is a bit surprising to read it on NSMB of all places.
I always felt that the made-for-MTB trails on the shore are very different from those anywhere else. At least the older, jankier ones. I can't really think of anything comparable anywhere else in the world?
Let's go full circle: how much dinosaur was in that plastic bottle?
Something seems a bit off with the overseas pricing on this shock. In Europe the MOD is almost 300€ cheaper than a Fox DHX2.
Don't they all have visors though? Vertical, see-through ones, but definitely visors. And yes, they look unbalanced without them.
Its not the first time we hear something like that. Remember the Banshee Titan review where Andrew liked the off-the-shelf TriAir and CCDB better than the "custom tuned" X2 that the frame came with?
Forum jump:
