MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Sorry I've been absent, little chums. Life can be a bitch sometimes, yunno? But anyway...
Southern VN has been horribly hot these past few days. My pet Kona accompanied me on a jaunt to the Delta (the Mekong Delta, you morons) though some seriously unhappy medical outcomes for some rather nice people (Why is life always like that? Good people get shit on, wasters get a new pair of Nikes) rather dissipated my desire to ride the thing. Anyway, the Delta is an incredibly boring place to ride. You have water, you have sky, and you have flat green in-between. Like I said, boring.
I'm coming back to the UK in June and don't think I'll be able to resist the temptation to buy bike bits. I love the *idea* of singlespeed for its simplicity, but some of the dirt roads up in the central highlands just grind on forever, so I NEED gears. Currently I'm running an old aluminium cog 12-23 freewheel with 28 / 42 chainset. I need a new freewheel / chain / front rings but they've got to be light and easy to maintain. Ideas?
Plus, seriously, is there a decent full 853 frame out there that can the thrown around in the back of a Toyota pickup like my Kona? I doubt it. But if you have suggestions...
Off to Cambodia this evening. Try not to miss me 🙂
If money is not a serious issue then a Rohloff might work - very easy to maintain, plenty range of gears and you are almost singlespeeding. Downside is expense and it's a serious weight (in 1 point rather than spread around the bike).
Shimano make the Alfine - not as many gears but seems to be quite capable for offroading - much cheaper than the Rohloff too.
If gears are the thing you want/need then I wouldn't go for lightweight, I'd go for durability - Middleburn have always been very good for me - good range, good price and the hardcote variants just seem to go on and on...that would be my recommendation for chainrings.
The higher end Shimano stuff is all alloy and doesn't last very long - it all works very well but I always feel it doesn't last long - so either go for the cheaper end of the Shimano cassette range (drawback is weight as it is quite significant compared to say an XT cassette - but the weight is near centre of wheel so probably not as noticeable). SRAM make good cassettes as well but I've seen less 'failures' on Shimano ones.
SRAM chain as the powerlink idea could be your godsend - I'd also take a spare powerlink in case the chain snaps/bends and it isn't at the existing powerlink. Shimano chains are good but I've found I get longer life out of SRAM units...
Gears overall? XT is very good but costs a lot of money...SLX seems to be just as good but not as much and Deore I think is good (not as good but certainly not bad) and costs much less. Not really used SRAM kit myself as I've seen a fair amount of SRAM mechs fail (the plastic they use tends to sheer from what I can tell from the failures I've seen). The shifters seem to work very well but you are tied in to the SRAM-only route (saying that Shimano isn't exactly encouraging the competition to work!). Microshift make some rather nice mechs and are much cheaper than Shimano/SRAM - the ones I've seen seem to work just as well as Shimano but a much cheaper price, saying that the range isn't as vast.
Enjoy Vietnam and Cambodia...
😆Why is life always like that? Good people get shit on, wasters get a new pair of Nikes
i reckon another kona would be good or a cotic. Believe it or not people from europe have had of the Mekong. sod gears just pedal harder.