LWK profile

Uncle Dave's last sentence in the first section is all that need be said.  

Or ride your current bike for another season.  COVID started a 14 months ago and the impact on the bike industry was abundantly obvious well before Nov 2020.

I have Saints on all my bikes (DJ included, lol...) and I've found Shimano pads and rotors to leave a bit to be desired.  Either the pad or rotor (or both, I dont know) will glaze over and braking power reduced to terrible. This is random but its happened often enough that I've run out of patience with it. Not sure about availability right now but I run swiss stop rotors and pads and that combo works really well.  the pads do take a bit to bed in but they last a long time and work well.

big yes to better bike maintenance and I've committed to improving my game here.  And the free, and truly liberating, option is to focus on bike riding rather than bike buying.

I've gotten lazy with my bike mechanic skills over the years as I have a very good shop that looks after my bikes for me. 

While that is great, I've also become somewhat helpless, which is an awful feeling when something needs to be fixed.  And now with COVID, my home shop is booked months out (literally). But the upside is that I am paying attention to this stuff again so I can be more self sufficient.  

I'm getting a few tools to work on my modern bike parts.  And I would say that manufacturers can be good sources of info on their own products.  SRAM had a really good manual and instruction video I followed to tune up my rear derailleur.  I need to give my Fox forks some love and Fox has good online resources that cover the basics.

Great article, a few observations for me.  First, steep STA seem to be more important for taller riders.  Second, I would think the terrain and riding style would play into this.  "winch and plummet" is a fair bit different from long traverse pedal rides.  Noel Buckley had a good (IMO) synthesis of this in a recent comment in a different forum.  

People are talking lots now about size matched chain stays but seems to me the entire bike geo needs to change between sizes.  With carbon, you have different molds for every frame size regardless so this shouldn't be THAT big of an obstacle.  God forbid the manufacturer has to do a bit of extra thinking up front though...

Finally, AJ, do you have an idea what your actual STA is when climbing?  I think the main benefit of steeper STA is to stay in a better climbing position, especially with longer travel bikes with more sag.  So a static 78 turns into a comfortable 75-ish when actually riding, instead of a static 74 turning into a miserable 71, or whatever the value is, when sagged under rider weight and pedaling forces.

I think NSMB behaves like the mature kid in the sandbox on this topic, trust you'll keep it that way.

As others have said above, the "spy shot" stuff is completely useless speculation.  I get it that its maybe sorta fun at some level but without any actual info its just empty gossip, at best.  PB, Vital forums, etc seem to have that (large?) niche well covered...

Pros/cons on this compared to the Yeti SB165 you wrote about in Jan 2020?  or about what one would expect... Shore is a bit worse on the way up and a bit better on the way down?

good questions, I dont know re the precise failure mechanism.  All I know is that in each case after about a season of riding I'd start to get some "slipping" when pedaling and then within a few kms I could spin the cranks forward and nothing happens at the wheel.  LOL.  The shop seems rather familiar with this and simply proceeded directly with warranty.  

And yes, Trek does seem pretty good on the warranty end of things.  Aside from the time required, its a pretty much "no questions asked" sort of thing.  However, my shop is excellent and I suspect that plays a role too.

I've had the Line wheels on my 2018 and now 2020 Remedy.  First, I had a busted spoke while on vacation last summer and had to take a knife to the tire to get the thing off.  I thought it was just my inexperience so good to know re the rim strips.  It was a Bontrager SE5 tire but thankfully it was basically worn out anyway.

Second, the freehubs are well known for their lack of durability in my riding area/LBS.  I've wrecked two of them now and the LBS moved me over to an Onyx freehub.

opposite perspective...  I have a pair of these (several years old now) and love them, money well spent for me.  I have limited vision in one eye and am getting to the age where the eyes dont work quite as well as they used. So eye protection and clear vision is important to me.  I tried multiple pairs of cheaper glasses and was never happy.  These are fantastic.  Yes, they are expensive but glasses are not hard things to take care of.

FWIW, I went to book a campsite in Whistler over May long weekend and was refused as I am not from the local area.  So, compared to my experience last summer, this does seem to have a bit more bite to it.  Not necessarily agreeing with it...  and yea, cycling outside, even in small-ish groups, seems to be about as low risk for COVID transmission as it gets.

I think its pretty clear that 5:10 soles are not particularly durable, esp for heavier riders, lots of bike park riding, etc.  

I mentioned above that I was going to try a pair of Shimano flat pedal shoes (GR9 model, but all their models have the same sole).  I have a couple of rides in now and initial impression is that they are very grippy.  Maybe not as soft and "sticky" as a 5:10 but the combo of the small interlocking tread pattern and rubber does seem to grip very well.  For reference, I have HT and Shimano Saint pedals on my various bikes and have been on flat pedals/shoes since forever.

Time will tell regarding durability but initial impressions on grip and performance are very positive.  So I'm thinking/hoping there is finally an option to 5:10 shoes

I suppose it depends on how much you weigh and how hard you ride, but I would tend to agree.  My experience the past several years is that I get about 3/4 of a season out of a pair of 5:10s.  I  find that I seem to be heavy enough and ride enough that the sole gets chewed through with basically nothing left.  I ride them till that happens and the outer sole starts to tear apart from the mid sole and then I have to discard them.  I am tired enough of the short life and expense that I am trying a pair of the new Shimano GR9 instead.

I cant imagine MTB on an ebike, I'll freely admit I am a snob that way.  Its a pathetic motorbike and a ponderous MTB; neither of which appeal to  me.   I also commute by bike and am fortunate to have a short and pleasant ride; but if I didnt I would have been an early ebike adopter years ago.  I snickered at the plus wheeled MTB ebike I started seeing in my work parkade this past winter, but then saw the owner one day.  she was middle aged and overweight and I though good for her for getting out and riding instead of just driving.  

As stated in previous posts, all the arguments against ebikes are pretty much replicas of the hiker vs. biker or skier vs. snowboarder rants.  I am seeing many more ebikes on the paths and trails this summer, yet absolutely none of them are shredding anything.   The riders are doing well just to stay upright while gently cruising along.  I watched a group of 10 local top riders ride hard down a trail and thought to myself that they likely put more wear and tear on that trail  in 5 minutes than a 100 ebikers ever would.  Why are the top riders "cool" but the ebikers should be "banned"?  I think the concerns about motor mods, improving technology, etc are very valid but I also am at a loss as to how to manage or regulate that in the real world. Why would I begrudge my excellent LBS a new source of revenue, both sales and service?

All this to say that I really think its all shades of grey; the sport will evolve however it will evolve, for better and/or worse.

no experience with the Reverb but I have two 9.8's on separate bikes.  The first one has a solid season of use and zero problems.  Love it.  The second one had a a problem holding air right from purchase (exactly as T-mack describes above).  LBS had an excruciating time getting response/service from 9.8.  By the time I got it back the season was basically over so it has sat in a box since; will put it on one of my bikes as soon as the local trails dry out.  Hopefully it will be fine now but yea, a bit disappointed overall.

any experience or comments on the Bontranger Lithos or Evoke storm shells? I dont need to worry about coastal type monsoon rains but would be for cool/cold fall riding when raining moderately.

Thanks. Maiden voyage was the first PORCA toonie on Saturday. This is now my do-it-all one and only bike after selling my Trance SX to build my dream hardtail, pretty stoked on it!

The Chromag boys sure make some nice products. Love the attention to detail, sweet colour and clean welds.

I have a 2014 Stylus that I love and use for everything from dirt jumping to commuting. However, I have found the relatively short TT and esp the 70 degree seat tube angle to make pedal oriented rides a bit tough. I am 5'11" and ride a size Large.

The new 2016 version has an ~ 1" longer ETT and a 73 degree seat tube angle so I think that would make for a better all around ride? any comments or thoughts? thx!