triple post (forum acting weird)

double post

I literally just bought a Pipedream Sirius 4G frame – couldn’t resist the sale price!

It’s heavy enough at 2.7kg (bare frame including dropouts & rear axle) but I guess that’s not that crazy in the scheme of burly steel hardtails – at least ones I’ve owned.

I’m building it up as a 140mm 29er to race hardtail enduros.

2.5 years, 7000km later and I’m still loving my Tripster.
It’s the longest I’ve ever owned a bike, with no plans to move it on, probably ever.

The hype is justified: it’s still a great looking machine, that somehow does do everything well.
It’s my daily commuter, backup road bike, gravel weapon, CX 2nd-bike… only thing left to do is bikepacking which I’m planning on early next year. Maybe a gravel marathon race too!

@atrthanks: Get on with it, it’ll be grand! Just keep the holes away from the weld heat zone. Something like this: https://www.ticycles.com/retrofit-di2-eps/

The ASRc is a very capable bike. It’s happiest where most XC full susses would be terrified. It deserves a 120mm, stiff fork.

Also, once you’re talking about 2017/18 fox forks there is only about 50g (yes fifty) between the regular 32 (non stepcast) and the 34. My current 34 is 1760g. And the damping is massively improved over previous years.

Obviously a stepcast 32 would save you a fair chunk of weight over a regular 32 or 34 (still not 500, more like 350-400g) but you’d be limited to 100mm. They’re excellent forks and handle predictable, known terrain fine… but when things get out of hand I always want my 34s under me.

SIDs probably split the difference between an SC32 and a 34. Both weight wise and performance. You can definitely convert up to the 2016 (sid b) model to 120mm. But yea newer ones limted to 100.

I vote fox 34 120mm. You won’t regret it!

7000km of commuting on tubeless and never needed to use the tube that’s in my bag. Two punctures I know of (could see/hear them) in that time, but the latex gunk fixed them both. I didn’t even need to pump up till I got home.

Must also mention that most of those km’s have been on schwalbe s-ones, which still have some life left!!!

Talcum powder.

Talc is a carcinogen. It’s mental they even still sell the stuff.

Bodyglide.

Applied directly onto chamois.

Everything else caused more problems than they claimed to solve.
Bephanthen after if it’s been a long ride.

I could tolerate the facepuke-like-feed in the app while the website still made sense. But now… not so much. Cancelled my subscription.

Commuter and road bike both tubeless “road”. S-ones on the commuter have been the best value tyres I’ve ever owned! Pro-ones on the race bike the fastest.

6000km between them since I started tracking things and not a single puncture. There has been one or two nearly-punctures but the sealant did its job. They do require regular air top ups, but you should be checking your pressures even with tubes.

Lower pressures, more comfort, more grip, faster speed, as light if not lighter… don’t understand why it’s even a debate any more.

I fully agree @slowster on the sizing recommendations being (still) wrong.

I’m 5’11 (180cm), typically medium everything and very comfortable on 54cm road/cross bikes. When I bought my V1 ATR Kinesis said I should go for a 57, as I was at the very top of the range for a 55.5. This seemed suspect to me so I went with the 55.5… I eventually got comfortable on it but I think a 54 would have been much better for me.

Any thoughts on these a few months later?

@eshoote: cheers for the bag recommendation… and for pointing out your blog… I’m reading through like a man possessed! 😉

Thinking about doing some bikepacking on my Tripster… anyone absolutely love (or hate!) a particular frame bag? Any other suggestions for gear carrying? (I have panniers for commuting, so in addition to those)

I went through a bad bout of saddle sores last year – the infected hair follicle type – not just chaffing. Turned out it was a combination of the shorts I was using, the washing powder, and using “chamois” creams.

Now I wash my shorts every single time I use them in Boots sensitive non-bio powder, and generally keep things clean down there with as little harsh products as possible (Simple face-wash is great). The *only* chamois cream I don’t have a reaction to (and I’ve tried pretty much everything on the market) is Bodyglide Cycle. Bepanthen after a long spin helps sooth any chaffing that does happen.

In my experience using antiseptic/antibacterial/antimicrobial products long-term (clothes, creams, body washes, clothes washing products), is counter productive as it throws the natural flora out of whack.

Presuming PC (laptop?) has bluetooth*: a 2nd hand bluetooth smart trainer (Tacx Vortex Smart), a bluetooth heart-rate strap. Enjoy.

*If not you’ll need an ANT+ usb-dongle and and ANT+ HR strap, most smart trainers these days are both ANT+ and Bluetooth

It’s steel: just get some tabs welded on. Way less faff in the long run: no alignment issues, more solid & secure and looks better. A2Z “worked” but minced the seatstay on an old frame of mine over time.

Ultegra hydros are magical. You’re plain daft!

Shop will not be paying RRP for anything: discounts will vary between Shimano & TRP and an even higher discount will be factored into the components of an off the shelf bike.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they considered the hydro setup off the Genesis to cost them less than 50% of RRP of the boxed equivalent – maybe a lot less. Whereas buying in components just for you will be a lot closer to RRP. Plus the hydros won’t actually be in a box, so their only option will be to sell it on another build… which may or may not come around soon.

In general, as little as possible. Seriously.

We had a guide but no porters (didn’t feel right to me) so carried our own stuff… but I brought WAY too much. If I was doing it again I’d try get away with a 25L or less backpack.

Are you doing the pass? Or just up and down one side? You can bring less if the latter.

Clothes-wise I think you could get away with:
– 2x merino t-shirts (+maybe a long sleeve if you are doing the pass, I like icebreaker coolite)
– 2x thin merino socks (I like smartwool)
– 2x uniqlo airism boxers (incredible, and cheap!)
– Quick drying zip off walking trouser/shorts (patagonia get my vote)
– Trail runners (I simply hate “hiking” shoes/boots now)
– Light hydroscopic down gilet (I love Rab)
– Light packable shell
– Light down sleeping bag
– Sun hat

You can put all of that on if it gets cold.

I’m sorry but something is not “correct” for you if you have pain… regardless of other bikes or fitters measurements.

The fit is only correct when the pain goes away. My left knee and lower back are very sensitive to very minor fit changes, yet despite very different positions I can get comfortable on both my MTB & CX for extended periods.

Compared with my MTB, my CX bike setup has:
– slightly higher saddle height
– longer seated reach, and much more drop (to the hoods)
– shorter crank arms
– cleats further forward (feet further backward relative to pedal spindle)

I’d suggest you look at two things:
1. your saddle height
2. your saddle offset & cleat position

My thinking is you might be too far over or behind the pedals. Make one small change and test. If it’s better make another small change, if it’s worse revert and make a different small change. Don’t go changing loads of things all at once.

Raceface Turbine.

Sexy, light, strong.

Grinding flats onto the spindle and clamping in the vice should do the trick. Try putting it into the freezer overnight and going at it again.

My Endura merino tops only shrunk a tiny bit, probably not even half a size. Icebreakers shrunk even less as hora said.

Yikes. That’s awful.

I’m running a pair of Ortlieb Sport-Packer Plus’s and a Tubus Airy Ti rack on my Tripster for versatile and lightweight commuting.

It’s a totally waterproof setup that easily fit a 15″ Macbook Pro, a pair of shoes and a change of clothes, with plenty of room left for other bits and bobs (i.e. bike parts sent to the office!)

25c Pro-Ones installed and I love them. Compared to the S-Ones:

They’re light! They weighed in at 275 & 257g (IIRC the s-ones were in the 350g region)

They’re still pretty wide: Come up to 28.5mm @ 110psi on my Grails

They’re fast: It feels a lot easier to accelerate, and maintain speed

Lastly, they’re comfy! I think I might have been doing it wrong with the S-Ones, maybe I was running the pressures above their sweet-spot, because the Pro-Ones feel more compliant at a similar % of max pressure – despite losing 4.5mm of girth to the S’s

If you felt bad at the time or immediately after get checked out. If you felt grand then it’s probably an anomaly.

My friends freak out at my high heart rate: age 35, max seems to be around 195 … but it is what it is. Unless you have a heart condition keep pushing on until you can’t.

My Tripster is reborn with Ultegra Hydro 2×11 kit… and I’m delighted! Such a nice road bike now. 52-36 up front, 11-32 out back is a simply brilliant range of gears for me. Brakes and shifting are sublime too.

Might swap out the 30c S-One’s (33mm wide on my Grails!) for something faster now. Hearing bad reliability reports for the Pro-One’s – can anyone here comment? Or recommend something else tubeless, fast and reliable?

Yup: if you achieve the same seated position over the BB the size difference disappears.

(thanks to http://www.bikegeo.net)

This is the 55.5 vs the 54.

Seattube-length/toptube-angle is not modelled, effective top tube is.

As you can see the 55.5 is “longer”: the seattube is relatively further backward.
If you keep the stem the same real height, the reach is identical.

I’m 180cm, but with fairly wonky body-geometry.

I was very happy with my 55.5cm Tripster until yesterday, when I built up my 54cm Planet-X XLS… which just feels a bit more right for me (shorter top tube, near identical reach)… it probably warrants a few long spins to really draw a fair comparison. But out of interest …

LONG SHOT: Would anyone be interested in swapping a 54 Tripster frame for my 55.5???

I use them regularly: sometimes the facial recognition takes seconds, sometimes – like just this Wednesday – it takes a good few minutes! Much to the amusement of my colleagues.

I’m de-CX-ing my Tripster: making it a purer training/commuting/touring machine.

I was finding the 1×11 (42 up front, 11-32 out back) a bit limited on the road – spinning out on long fast descents particularly – and thought it would be nice to have a lower gear or two when heavily laden… soooo:
The CX1 groupset is coming off and an Ultegra Hydro 2×11 is going on. Went for 36-52 up front and will continue with 11-32 out back.

It’s a good excuse to get another (CX) bike 🙂

Shimano wide-fit
Northwave
Scott

all feel similar to me. Most others I’ve tried have been too tight, including Sidi wide fit.

Yeti ARC… it’s a brilliantly fun bike that is viciously fast too. Full disclosure: I happen to have a frame for sale! but genuinely the only reason I’m selling is because my back doesn’t “do” hardtails anymore, so I got an ASRc. Which is amazing, but feels less pure than the ARC.

I simply can’t understand those recommending brand new electric guitars in that price range. It’s pure madness. Unless you are spending many multiples of the OP’s budget, a new electric will drop 20%+ in value as soon as you walk out of the shop. And unless you buy something that accidentally happens to become very sought after, it will continue to decrease in value. Additionally, I’m really not seeing consistent quality: It’s pot luck.

There is however exceptional value buying 2nd hand electrics that have been well cared for but are at the bottom of their depreciation.

BUT, I still stand by acoustics from small Luthiers in that price range, they seem to hold their value exceptionally well – and more importantly will be beautiful instruments for many decades to come.

A Lowden acoustic gets my vote. My O32c is about 15 years old and it just keeps getting better with age… and the quality & detail of the new ones is even better. They are true heirloom quality instruments (and very good value if you compare to top tier American luthiers). You simply cannot say that about any modern mass produced electric unfortunately.

Did you get sorted???

Racing Mr. Rapha on his S-Works Team … and winning.