Ah… Fair enough

Was considering to subscribe for a while, I guess this seals the deal

Thanks for the heads up on the reviews!
Just happens that I’m not a subscriber… I know, shame on me

Would someone care to share the mains conclusions from the reviews?

Having been exclusively on SS for a few years in the past, I’d prefer to stay away from tensioners

The Cotic Solaris Max looks like a great option, but no chain tensioner…

Can’t open the page… Gives me an error

I’m living in Switzerland, could it be it?

Where?
Can’t really find them online

Also worthy to mention is that “gravel bike” means lots of different things. It goes from 35 semi slick tyres with almost road like gearing to 29×2.0 or bigger tires with Mtb gearing. The first will nearly as fast as a road bike, the second nearly as capable as a rigid MTB.
No wonder people report so many different experiences and use cases under the “gravel bike” umbrella

Frame bag together with top tube bag for me, just works. Not saggy if empty, next to none aero impact, and can fit virtually everything I need for a day ride over varying conditions, including food and layers. The capacity to carry so much stuff in the frame (and two full size water bottles) is one of the things that makes the gravel bike such an utilitarian exploration tool

@firestarter that’s because they quote tyre clearance with the dropouts all the way forward. In the rearmost position tyre clearance is like 29×2.5 or something

Interesting topic.
I found myself in the curious situation of moving to one of the MTB world mecas (Switzerland) and finding myself riding proper trails much less here than where I was before.

Here since November, most trails with any elevation tend to be either covered in snow or frozen for most of the winter so the motivation to drive or catch a train with the enduro bike to have a ride is not great.

Ended up buying a gravel bike for commuting in January, a Fuji Jari with loads of tyre clearance even with 29×2.0 and a relatively high stack. It’s just amazing, I’m addicted to the thing. It makes every road or trail interesting and fun. I can just leave my doorstep and spend the day riding and exploring, connecting the dots between the forests here and covering lots of ground fast.

I’m sure a light XC MTB would be even faster in some of these situations, but you can’t beat the comfort of drop bars for long hours, the cargo capacity or the reliability of not having suspension seals or pivots.

I replaced the stock tyres (700×40 WTB Raddlers) with a pair of 29×2.0 Schwalbe G-One Ultrabites, the 40t chainring with a 36t and the 11-42 cassette with a 11-46. The thing will do pretty much any trail, at it’s pace

I’ll second the Decathlon ones, very good trousers regardless of the price

Thanks for all the answers.

Thanks about the Alltricks suggestion, I seem to always forget that store exists. On the Restrap bag, is the 14L one that big?

Any thoughts on the Topeak one?

In an open economy you survive by charging for things that you have and others don’t. LBS used to have the monopoly on consumer last mile contact and logistics, bike brands/manufacturers being centralised entities were unable to reach that, but that ship has long long sailed. Most however still seem to want to operate under that principle.

What LBS have to offer now are local showrooms and local services. And for that, their costumer is the bike brand, not the final consumer. The sooner LBS realise this, the better for them. I recently read an article on a bike industry news platform interviewing several LBS owners on the direct to consumer model. Unfortunately, not a single one of them understood what I just said (as far as I can remember). Their were all beating the “but we ca still be valuable at selling bikes” dead horse…

Plenty of hard charging, not exactly light pros prefer the Lyrik for rockier, longer stages, so there’s that.

Also, if you’re wondering how a stiffer fork feels I suggest you to try torque caps if you don’t have them. Got a pair for my DT Swiss 350 a couple of months ago and the difference is considerable. I’d love to see a torsional stiffness comparison between a Lyrik with torque caps and a Zeb without them

I’d take a look at Michelin DH tyres.
Stupid durable, and the weight is offset by the fact you can get away without inserts.
The DH34 is not that slow rolling, I would say

@cupotea , I’d suggest a look into:
– Pipedream
– Nordest
– Cotic
– Kona
– Pace maybe
– more around

I owned 2 Ogres at separate moments in the past, back when Surlys where a reasonable value and pretty much the only option in their respective segments.
It seems to me like today there are plenty of options either at the same price bracket or even cheaper but with way more modern geometry and better finish

Running a 12spd Deore RD with Sram NX Eagle cassette and shifter since August. No issues, everything works

No mention of the Pipedream Sirius S5?
That’s my dream bikepacking/XC build, a Sirius with light components but modern trail bike geometry

Was in the need for a new rear rim 3 months or so ago, and after listening to Chris Potter talking about 25mm rims and looking at a good deal of the DH pointy end bikes I decided to give it a go. This coming from running 30mm rims for years, mostly on 2.4-2.5 tyres.

Spent some weeks like this with a Michelin DH34 and now on a Maxxis 2.5 Aggressor DD with Rimpact insert, so both setups on the stiffer side of things that might not suffer as much from the tyre folding.

My experience so far:
– not better or worse cornering (again, a softer sidewall setup might be a different story)
– seems to be ever so slightly harsher on the really rough stuff
– rolls slightly faster
– less rim strikes and pings from rock hits.

Overall difference is smaller than the difference between different tyres of the same size, but happy so far nonetheless

I was surprised, as I was assuming the pedal grip would be worse in the cold.

Honestly, looking at them I wonder if they’re going to last a month under these conditions

Well spotted @Sui , seems like they modified the nut by shortening it and placing some sort of spacer in between it and the bearing. I’d bet they’re trying to insolate the nut from the bearing rotation

There’s definitely something up with that Saint SPD generation’s axles. I had 2 different pairs in the past in which the RH nut wouldn’t stay tight, gave up in the end and got a full refund. More people and publications report the same.
They just released the new Saint M821 version and kind of make a big deal about the “increased axle durability (vs the PD-M820)”.

Thanks @5lab
So you’d say that using it as a watch and HR monitor outdoors it stays on pretty much as a regular solar G-Shock?

What kind of battery life are people getting out of Instinct Solars with the GPS turned off?

Birds are hardly beauty queens as they are (IMO), their value resides somewhere else.
What one gets is a top of the food chain performance bike, for a fair price and incredible reliability and durability. I’m OK with that trade-off.

I’ve seen people referring to Bird as “really great for the price” and I think that’s an understatement. They´re really great regardless of the budget

Interesting comments about the new Freerider Pro Mid. How do they fare with some showers and mud (not being submerged)?

Any more reports on the Vaude vs Trailcross thing?
Moving to Switzerland in a week, will cycle to work daily on the first 2 months through the worst of winter there, so have one week to decide if I invest in a pair of waterproofs and which ones.
Thanks!

Any more experiences around?

I’m tempted to try CB, I gave up on SPD as I can’t really avoid accidental unclips unless I crank up tension to the max (and then feel like I’m bolted to the bike)

Yup, surprised as well, positively so. Most reports I read in the past mentioned 1 year or so at the very most. I’d be perfectly happy getting a couple of years of from those

The thing with Time cleats is that worn down cleats in the 17°position behave like new ones in the 13° one. Thus my question

With Time cleats there’s the old trick of once they’re fairly worn you reverse them into the 17° release position and squeeze extra life from them.
Can the same be done with CB?

Thanks for all the answers.
Yeah, not looking for a scientific answer, hard to be objective without knowing clip ins and outs, how many miles walked, etc. More like to get an idea of the overall order of magnitude as in 6 months or 2 years or 6 years whatever. Because I know of people who swap shoes more often than they swap Shimano cleats, and on the other hand heard of horror stories of CB ones barely reaching 6 months.

@pothead why would you say makes your Mallets so good?

Starting to consider a pair of waterproof flat shoes. Very curious to hear from anyone who has both the Trailcross and the Vaud Moabs:
– grip
– how warm
– durability (too soon?)

I have a Bell Super DH with the MIPS Spherical system. The helmet used to squeak a lot, particularly with the chin piece installed or with a Gopro. After some months t started o fade away and now its mostly silent

SRAM and Shimano are way more interchangeable than people think. My setup is:
– Deore 12spd crankset
– SRAM NX Eagle chain
– SRAM NX Eagle cassette
– SRAM NX Eagle shifter
– Shimano Deore 12spd derailleur

It works flawlessly

I’m probably the least grip sensitive person in the world,, buy I’ve been enjoying the DMR Deathgrips for a while, the hype is real. Comfortable, grippy and quite durable. They have a funky wear pattern, they start to look like crap rapidly, but then stay in that reasonable state for a long long time.

At the time I got them only the flanged version was in stock so decided to try that. To my surprise, the flange is great, love it (maybe because I used to spend lots of time on motorcycles).

My only gripe with them are the closed ends. I’d much prefer them to be open and just use my lovely Hope barends

So yesterday I managed to borrow a pair of M520 SPDs to try with the Shotgun.
Hated every minute of it. Even though I have no trouble ever to unclip from SPD on regular riding, I felt really uneasy and tense, knowing the little one was onboard. Also, absolutely awful on the knee/feet department.
That settles it.

Thanks for all the input

@wheelsonfire1 , mate, chill, you’ll live longer