……….and Strava KOM attempts”

We all know that Strava has an eBike category, right?

Putting an e-bike ride into the normal section to clain KOMs, would be analagous to doing a running route on a normal bike and similarly claiming the KOM.

For what it’s worth, I have nothing against eBikes. I own one!

I am very hapy with my year on the bike, mixture of road, commuting (on- and off-road) CX, MTB, gravel, snow, singlespeed and towing a chariot with a baby at weekends…..

Quite a lot of early mornings and extra wiggles on the way to work in the dark, no matter what the weather to do that. It was my “year of no excuses”. Not sure I’ll beat that next year!

Shimano do an Alfine dynamo full wheel, in back or silver. Mine’s been rolling happily on a both MTB and touring/commuting bike for years

CLICH HERE TO SEE

Cheers, it looks like its the EC40/30 & EC40/28.6 “standard” headset I need.

Many thanks :-)

Dynamos are great. I use them for lighting on road and off road. However…..

….be careful to destinguish between a dynamo light designed for on road (shaped peam, low cut off for traffic and German StVO laws, and a “be seen” standlight) with a dynamo light designed for off road, which will have a symmetrical beam and a massive standlight that stays bright enough to see with for several minutes when you slow down, important when braking for tricky sections, a moment when you don’t want your light to dim significantly!

The B&M light above is an on-road light with a shaped beam and it is a very good on-road light, but will not, for example, highlight head height branches off road.

The Revo is what I use, together with the SP PD-8X QR15 compatible hub. The main thing for me is the powerful standlight, which makes it really off-road compatible (although I do have to angle it down for on-road riding too and from the trails in the dark). Having tried a few lights over many years, and with dynamo lights on more than one bike, I would also not recomment the Supernova E3 triple for off road. Their single is a truly fab on-road light, but the triple has no meaningful standlight other than something for cars to see you at traffic lights with, although this can be fine when coupled with a head lamp I guess.

Jerome, I have tinkered with a couple of fox forks and as far as I recall from the insides, there should be no reason you cannot take the fox reducer that takes their forks from 100mm-80mm and add it into an 80mm fork to reduce it to 60mm, and lower the A-C height, if you add it in the right place. I bet you could use a rockshox 20mm reducer in the right place too, if this doesn’t work for some reason. The suspension should not be “spikey” if you adjust your positive and negative air pressures correctly.

All you’re doing is adding a 20mm bumper under the top out stop, and then topping out where you would normally sit in a sagged mode at the end of the day, right?

Have fun tinkering and enjoy the geometry appropriate suspension on you aging wrists :-P

Rob

Tax to get it from Austria? No

How’s your German, you realise they are expecting to send the bikes out in “about March” right now?

It’s billed as a snow/sand bike, and it comes from an area near proper snow and proper mountains, so there is good reason to believe it will work well in snow and on proper hills, so perhaps not a trail oriented fat bike, if that is what you are after in the UK

Happy shopping!

Ooh! That brings back a few memories, of too much time on Singletrack, and too much time eulogising about LED lights to my ride buddies, and thus becoming being the butt of much ribbing.

I am still tinkering and these days have moved onto LED dynamo lights, with large standlights so things stay bright all night, when I slow down or even stop, no more high/low flicking and mid-ride burn time maths and even with USB chargers so I can keep my GPS charged up on long, long, long rides (or just when I didn’t bother charging it!).

Thanks hoodoo

The current route goes way past the Mary Townley Loop, and extends to Kirkby Stephen, in a pretty complete state. I have ridden it, so speak from some experience. Recently Mark Goldie did the whole thing from Kirkby Stephen to Middleton, so it is still all in place sine I last rode it.

As above, I have not come across and real activity to take it further north. Still, it’s a great resource and more than enough for a long weekend of nice riding, with enough pubs within striking distance of the route too.

I would say if you put a massive dent in one rim, any other rim, when hit with the same rock through the same tyre will dent too.

if the rims stayed true and had not other problems until the single, large, impact, I would stick with what you know. Otherwise you will be in the outrageous situation of having mis-matching rims 8O

The best “fix” to that problem is more tyre pressure and/or a larger tyre….

I’m going to get a Bambike!

https://www.facebook.com/BAMBIKE/posts/597514163664457

Just FYI, there is more efficiency difference to be gained in type pressure, or tyre tread or baggy clothing choice, or aerodynamic drag of riding position, or even a well lubricated drivetrain, if you’re really, really worried about that kind of thing, once you start searching for the odd 1-2 watts here and there……

How many reommendations would you like? Can I offer more than one:

SP PD-8 was used to win the tour divide the last two years

SP PD-8 was used to win the Highland trail 400/550 the last two years

SP PD-8 was used to win EWE the last two years

SP PD-8 was used by Mike Hall to win the Trans America Bike Race this year

Oh, and, of course, in STW forum style, I have raced, mountain biked, toured and commuted on a SP PD-8 for the last couple of years too, with several thousand happy, trouble free, miles behind me. This of course is (for me) most important….

Ah-ha! There is a solution here (luckily I can speak some German), for €15 someone in Germany modifying 10s mechs to 9s actuation:

http://bikemarkt.mtb-news.de/article/42978-umbau-shadow-plus-auf-9-fach-kettengluck-2-0

Of course, this is also someone doing it in Germany…. No-one doing this, or offering any sort of adapter in the UK? I can’t find one.

So does that mean there is no Shimano 9s compatible clutch-type rear mech out there?

I have a shimano 9s shifter, a perfectly useable cassette, a spare cassette and a couple of spare chains, so I want to keep everything 9s, with my Shimano shifter. However, I need a new mech. Is there no clutch solution out there that allows me to keep my 9s cassette and shimano 9s shifter? :-(

It’s fine, no different to having a device connected and the device (light or charger) turned off.

I am fortunate enough to have moved to Munich last year. Here we have separated, wide cycle lanes, not lines painted on an existing road or pavement. I cycle everywhere, and always did in the UK.

I am now totally spoiled. I have right of way crossing sideroads, and never have to stop, I am separated from pedestrians, whom I am dangerously faster than. I am separated from cars that are dangerously faster than me. Traffic lights have car, cycle and pedestrian lights, and there are proper signs signalling where the cyclist has right of way etc. There are directional cycle lanes on each side of the road, so I do not have to worry about oncoming bikes in a narrow cycle lane. Everyone has a bike, and everyone uses them. Problems just do not happen. I certainly do not have to conform to the wildly varying personal standards that motorists expect cyclists to follow.

Even all the trains have plenty of space, in every carriage, for several bikes, even the underground and inner-city overground trains. I have not had, or seen, an “incident” in the last year.

I have come to the, unsurprising, conclusion that the UK infrastructure just does not support bikes, and that cyclists are squeezed into tight spaces and the resulting conflict from people who are simply busy and/or in a hurry and/or stressed and/or tired (be that either the cyclist, pedestrian or motorist, or all three), is simple inevitable.

Until the UK gets proper cycling infrastructure, which will cost billions (more than a few tins of red paint and some white lines) and take decades. Until then, whenever cycling in the UK, I will just try and remain patient, or pity the poor cyclist in my way when driving, or stay out of the way of the cyclist heading right at me as a pedestrian. I will fail sometimes, as I, like you, and sometimes bust, tired, stress and in a rush, but I will hopefully remember these things, be grateful that I live somewhere with proper cycling infrastructure, and hope the UK continues to catch up, hopefully faster than currently.

The Rohloff stand decided me for certain that I won’t be converting mine to a belt drive at any point

Could I ask why? I like the idea of a belt drive – no chain gunk, no chain stretch to deal with on a SS or hubgear setup, longer drivetrain life. So, assuming I have a split frame (I don’t!), what issues should I be aware of that I am currently not – this is a genuine plee for help, not a troll!

I know that if I snap my belt, I am in a mess, but what are the other issues? Or are they just issues with Rohloff hubs?

Cheers, Rob

The Mavic 29er rims might suit you. They’re a little narrower than Stans, but would fit nicely to a wide-ish cross tyre, and they are good and stiff, although this means a few more grams

Only thing I would like is an off switch

Get a 99p toggle switch from Maplin and add it to the cable between the hub and the light, this is what I did.

If you run a light and USB charger, as I have on another bike, get an on-off-on toggle switch, connect both devices to the hub through this and then you can run everything off, or switch between either a light or USB charging (GPS, phone, headtorrch etc) from your bars, should you wish.

For a couple of quid more you can have a waterproof switch too…..

Simple!

Complete wheel built and comes in at 960g on my kitchen digital scales as a 29er wheel

Pretty astonishing, considering a Hope Hoop 29er is 810g, only 150g penalty.

Add 110g for a Revo, and that’s 260g for the light and power source, for 800lumens, all night! Lighter than any battery light that’s nice and bright, and I never need to turn the light down or charge a battery, let alone fret about burn time at the end of a night time epic or in cold weather :-)

I am very happy indeed :-)

What make/model of lamp do you use it with?

Easy – USE REVO. Brighter, free of flicker and with a stronger standlight than the usual suspects from B&M, Supernova etc., absolutely essential for proper offroad. Proper fit and forget kit.

UPDATE!

It seems the guys at IDC supply this hub with a 9mm adapter. This may be standard from SP, but no infor on their website, or it could just be IDC being lovely.

SEE HERE for more info (scroll down)

I’ve not looked into that yet. But they come in a 9mm standard QR versions too.

See here: LINK

I have the setup you are after on my MTB, I have used it racing, all day epics, multi-day bikebacking touring and day to day commuting.

I have tried a few different chargers, but fur ruggedness, mall size and value for money, I would recommend the Kemo 172, you need to cut and connect the wires into the Exposure cable, but well worth the fuss. The Exposure Boost cable will keep a Garmin charged, but would struggle with a smart phone, plus I recommend using the power port to connect to the long cable redeye rear light, so you have a dynamo powered, sper bright, rear light too.

There’s some more info here:

FORUM DISCUSSION WITH MY SETUP & AIDAN HARDING’S IN (both MTB setups, for racing, not the normal touring setup)

BLOG ENTRY SHOWING MY SETUP (with similar, but no longer available, Softhema charger)

My Revo light with standlight (after a few minutes to walk the bike across the beach)

Also, here is a pic of Phil Simcock’s setup for the Highland Trail 400, Exposure Revo + Kemo 172 to charge the Garmin in the day:

CLICK HERE

Hope that helps!

Get the SP QR15 dynamo hub and a 135mm adaptor. They definitely exist.

I have seen them referenced on the web (I live near the Alps and am contemplating a dynamo on a snow bike), but can’t for the life of me find them right now.

For everyone’s info, the Revo will work with any dynamo, although I rate the SP hubs quite highly, having used them commuting (on and off road), touring and on the mountain bike for a couple of years.

However, be careful, as for a MTB at slow climbing speeds, the lightest hubs, rated at 2.4W, will give you noticably less light at low speeds (although maximum brightness will ultimately be the same. I have run my with a couple of different Shimano models and some no-name random hubs too, and all “6V 3W” rated hubs (note, this is at a controlled speed, with a fixed load, the actual max outputs depends on what you connect) should provide similar performance but with different weight and efficiency.

Personally, after the hub completing EWE under three different riders in the last two years, and “winning” both, an SP hub being on the winning bike for the Highland Trail race, and coming first AND second at this year’s Tour Divide, I wonder what more proof people need that they’re both suitable for mountain bike and durable!

Hope that helps clarify hubs, as I was requested in the first post not to comment on the Revo itself ;-)

Oh, and the SP hub is now available in a QR15 compatible version too :-)

JoeG – Front mech to crank alignment, what a great top tip, I had completely failed to think about that possible issue with wider cranks!

shaggy, Sanny, doh & JoeG, many thanks, some good and really useful advice there.

Time to price up a mech, shifter & 22:32 chainset (and possibly a new BB) plus some pedals and see what the full bike will cost me…..

On One have been careful to say that the Fatty was designed primarily as a trail bike

Many thanks for the tip. I shall go and do some careful sums on the real/final cost of a Mukluk vs. an adapted Fatty.

You have got it hard eh? I nearly had a little cry for you then. Maybe you should swap your granny for a jokey wheel.

Quite the opposite, with the Alps on my doorstep I’m a very lucky boy indeed.

I went for the “fatty” purely for cost reasons, at £500 for rolling chassis or £1000 for a full bike. This is a tool to get me through winter in and around Munich and in the Alps when a normal bike will be toally overfaced by snow, rather than a bling summer trail bike or a beach bike.

Unless there’s a killer deal on a Salsa or Surly somewhere?

I’m with twoniner.

I even told Brant when it was launched that it needs a granny ring, but as he said it was for a “trail” bike set up.

Since I picked it up in February I’ve never felt the need for a granny ring on mine.

So I’d say buy the £999 full bike and ride it for a while, then if you feel the need for an upgrade then you can do it as and when parts wear out.

I have a 20lb carbon “race” bike, and feel the need for a granny ring, when climbing up the side of the mountains in the Alps near me, let alone in the rain and, more importantly, snow that I will have to deal with in winter. As in the original post, I want to use this in the snow, in fact it is being bought specifically for using in the snow, not as a trail bike, for which I am sure a single ring will be just fine for the UK.

The conclusion is then, buy the full bike, swap out the cranks. Any recommendations on what cranks and where to buy them greatly appreciated. I just moved to Germany, so online retailers preferred, 3 months of German doesn’t extend to bike shop natter, let alone the german for “fat bike crank arms for an external bottom bracket fitted to a fat bike 100mm bottom bracket shell” and the ensuing conversation!

fab – thanks scotroutes, I guess this thread is done then, cheers STW!

thanks for the “advice” twoniner, but you didn’t really answer my question, although you’re clearly much harder then me.

I’m pretty fit (see HERE[/url]) and I can assure you that the hills mountains round here need a granny ring, some of them even in summer. I used to live in the Peaks and pop over to your neck of the woods and even rode SS for several years, and this was all “fine” too. However, given the climbs here are much larger than anything in the UK (and I’m not sure you can compare the hills in Snowdonia to the Alps?!), and the snow is deeper and everywhere here all winter, permanently, I want a granny ring. Last year I was riding in the mountains nearby with Josh Ibbett and we both were forced to use our granny ring (which we both near killed ourselves to avoid) and even walk up some of the steeper sections, and Josh is a lighter and more talented rider than I will ever be (on both counts)

So, given you own a Fatty, are you able to answer either question? Can you confirm I can definitely not fit a granny? And where/how can I buy 100mm BB cranks?

I found this link, but they’re all looking pretty pricey, the only sub $100 option is an ISIS BB :-( CLICKY

Many thanks scotroutes

I don’t suppose you know the names of any of the replacement cranks, and what might be an affordable solution, before I start hitting google?

Rob – are you happy with wheel strength given the (relatively) narrow flange width?

I’ve got a couple of different dynamo wheels, which I occasionally swap with a non-dynamo wheel from a different bike. I honestly can’t tell the difference in strength. I can feel a bad wheel build though (I rebuilt the wheel and it was much better). There is also a small difference, although, it may also be down to the spokes, between my “race” superlight build with a Crest rim with revolution triple butted spokes and my “trail” build with a Reynolds carbon rim and double butted spokes. So much so, that I have actually selected the Reynolds build for racing even though it is a teeny bit heavier.

If you’re really worried about stiffness, wait a few months and get the SP QR15 dynamo, this will be the biggest step up in stiffness, much more so than a few mm in flange diameter, see HERE

This is MTB dynamo Nirvana! :-)

The dynamo hub that comes with an Exposure Revo light is made for them by SP, it is the disc or non-disc version of the excellent SP-8 dynamo, which is a very good thing. See the photos on Exposure’s own site that show this HERE <- CLICKY[/url]

This is the same hub & light setup I have been using for a couple of years now, and as is currently being ridden (in the lead as I type) in the Tour Divide by Mike Hall.

You can see a little more on my own bikebacking (and general riding and racing without the luggage!) setup, with Revo ligt and dynamo hub HERE <- ANOTHER LINK!

apparently make the parts for SON who then build them up with better quality internals

Not sure where you got this from, SON & SP are rival companies, who use very different internals! The SP, importantly for me, uses one ring magnet with many poles (clever), not lots of individual bonded magnets, so is much more robust, particularly as I use mine for regular mountain biking as well as daily commuting, where there is a lot of vibration and I want no compromise on reliability.

I have the TN719 rims on my commuter/touring bike. Super strong and stiff as based on the MTB stuff, disc only, black, done a couple of winters and corrosion free, I also use 35c tyres, could pop a cross tyre on and have an option to go to 50, or even a 29er tyre.

Mine have, literally, done thousands of miles. Started life on a MTB, now running Alfine dynamo front and Alfine 8 rear, just like your plans.

As an ex-owner of Mavic wheels – Those wheels use cartridge bearings so:

If the bearings are loose in the wheel, the tool will clamp the tight. Really the tool is for taking the cover on and off to change the bearings

If there is play in the bearings, clamping them tighter in the wheel will not remover the play (nor will clamping the skewer tighter), this only works with cup and cone bearings. Your only solution is to change the wheel bearings.

Hope that helps.