power washer hack: shake up a liter of seltzer water real good and spray like you're on the top podium.

eloy said:

WORX Hydroshot

https://smile.amazon.com/WORX-WG625-4-Cordless-Hydroshot-Accessories/dp/B07P8JZDXC/

Thanks, my best guess would have been "grown up cleaning super soaker"

DanSztanga said:

Well I just wasted 11 bucks on a chemical sprayer... 

These still work pretty well for most road-grime! 

Jules said:

RichFreeman said:

After riding last weekend and seeing some considerate gear choices from teammates, I've decided that this is the year to embrace fenders. Any recommendations for good coverage, clip on and space for 28mm tyres?

Two different kinds I like
SKS Race Blades
CRUD Road Racer MKii

Make sure you wrap electrical tape around whatever part of the frame the fenders mount to.

Cheers Jules - I've been looking at:

https://www.amazon.com/Speedrocker-Gravel-Fender-Black-Mudguard/dp/B07P93NMHL?ref_=ast_bbp_dp

 

DanSztanga said:

Well I just wasted 11 bucks on a chemical sprayer... 

This is what I use when I clean my bike. Works great for my needs.

DanSztanga said:

Well I just wasted 11 bucks on a chemical sprayer... 

Does the orange adapter have an air intake valve to prevent the bottle from crushing under vacuum?

Yes, it has little holes, a small hose, and the right size threads to fit the bottle head.

Merida is adding cooling fins to their disc brake mounts.

http://www.ridemedia.com.au/product/cooling-system-added-to-bahrain-mclaren-disc-brake-set-up/

Looks like it gets bolted on, but the shaping perfectly mates with Merida's frame tubes.

Airless tires... coming (again) soon

Jules said:

Airless tires... coming (again) soon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDVD9tIW2mY

Question to bike connoisseurs

What is the difference between a road bike, gravel bike and a cx bike? From a novice perspective tires of road bikes are what sets them apart. 

I have been with my road bike to gravel kind of roads near the 9w and was fine. But here at the club many seem to have dedicated bikes for the activity. What is the difference between those bikes and if I were to put 30mm tires in a road bike with disc breaks? 

As a sport I understand the different activities mean, just not the bikes on a technical aspect. 

Thx, 

no set rules, but usually geometry is the biggest difference. 

CX bikes have slightly higher (or sometimes very high) bottom brackets, and aggressive/racing geometries/angles. They allow for wide tires usually up to 40 ish mm. They usually have screws for two bottle cages (of which you use none for cx racing)

Gravel bikes have lower bottom brackets, and more relaxed angles. Depends a bit on the bike, but they allow for very wide tires, often up to 50 mm. They often allow 3 bottle cages, and all sorts of bags, fenders, etc...

Road bikes, well, you get it, often allow up to 28 maybe 30 mm.

You can absolutely ride your road bike in all sorts of terrain with 28 or even 25/23 mm wide tires, you just have to be smart about it. Specially noticeable on organized gravel group rides/races, where the 28/30 mm tires, will not be able to keep up with the 35/40mm tires on descends and technical sections. Not an issue if you don't mind riding with a slower crew or on your own (or having to walk some portions). In the same way the 28 mm tires will have an advantage on asphalt smooth sections.

hope this helps, YMWV.

I am interested to learn more about wine bike specific geometry.

For all your gravel needs.

@DiegoSanchez

I actually wrote a four-part series exploring road geometry, but it does go into detours on cross and gravel and touring and track.  https://jralong.com/2018/10/03/making-sense-of-bicycle-geometry/

There are lots of differences, but the biggest ones to me are trail and bottom bracket height (which strongly determine how the ride feels), followed by stack and reach dimensions (which inform how you fit the bike).  Making it a bit more complicated still is that how you work out your fit can influence ride feel.     

FWIW I took my Giant Propel with 23mm tires out on the local hammerhead gravel ride and put some serious hurt on the group. In KCC kit of course.

It was shaping up to be a weeknight of legend until the clay from the road accumulated enough to make my own front wheel "ceramic" brake and I ground to a complete stop. Couldn't even turn the wheel with my hand.

Even so there was a small line of guys who insisted on incredulously inspecting the "23mm" sidewall label after the ride

So IMHO the biggest difference is tire clearance, but the slacker angles help a lot on sketchy sand, etc.

Non-wine question for our cross/gravel experts. I’m currently running a 40 x 1/42 on my TCX and I don’t like it. I feel like I only use a few of the gears. I’m more of a grinder so I was thinking of swapping the cassette to a 11/25 or 11/32. Also, any recommendations for gravel tires would be greatly appreciated. I plan on giving the TCX a facelift for Rasputita.

I'm definitely not an expert, but my experience tells me that 40x25 or 40x32 will be a painful and long day on a hilly gravel course.

I definitely need easier gearing on my gravel bike than my road bike bc the gradients tend to be steeper and I often can't stand up due to limited traction. This is from riding gravel routes that are train accessible around NYC, Rasputita is hillier. My easiest gear is 31x34 and it's made a world of difference in how enjoyable these rides are.

@RobertPeras , i swear by WTB tires, sidewall quality is so much nicer the the panaracer gravel king  , they have a complete range of gravel tires , the riddler is a real good all rounder

PS,
Choose the widest your frame will fit ( probably 37mm)

Lol im having my crux in the shop now to do the opposites. from 40 11-32 to 42 11-42

I was having hard time doing steep climb when i was in the bay area. 

But its a preference choice. If youre planning on more aggressive riding or cx races I would definitely change to 11-32

RobertPeras said:

Non-wine question for our cross/gravel experts. I’m currently running a 40 x 1/42 on my TCX and I don’t like it. I feel like I only use a few of the gears. I’m more of a grinder so I was thinking of swapping the cassette to a 11/25 or 11/32. Also, any recommendations for gravel tires would be greatly appreciated. I plan on giving the TCX a facelift for Rasputita.

It depends.

For actual cyclocross races a 40 front w/ 11/32 or 11/30 is pretty standard.

For gravel (Farmer's Daughter) and Rasputita you will want way lower, and I strongly suggest you keep the 40 front with 11/42 in the back, or lower.

For those events, I am likely to be running a 38 front with a 11/34 in the back, but might go lower in the back (11/36 or 11/40) 

No clue what Kevin wants a 42 *front* for, he will not need it for these events.

Mark's tire recommendation is solid. For Rasputita I might get some Rene Herse Steila Coom 38s (but could just end up using my 33 Donelly PDXs) set up tubeless
https://www.renehersecycles.com/shop/components/tires/700c/700cx38-steilacoom/

The Rene Herse tires are real nice also, I have a pair of Barlow pass ,FWIW , they were a real beast to set up tubeless , i had to put inner tubes in overnight to get the bead to sit, i read its because the sidewalls are super supple ,they also recommend only using the panaracer sealant 

Also Redbeard can get  super deals on the vittoria terreno tires

Well @eloy the crux is essentially my training bike. 
Little did you know since you live in NYC, theres such things as mountains 
And im like twice your weight! 

When I was in SF even climbing on mt tam, i was grinding at 60-70 rpm on the 32 close to threshold. Also theres part of the marin headlands that i couldnt climb in 32 at 400 watts

Im basically making the bike more versatile, if youre not planning to do real climb, theres no point in getting 11-42

PS Im planning to go to Olympic National Park in May... "Real climb and gravel"

Thinking of getting an 11-46. 

58 on the front though.

#bigringonly  

Thanks guys 

Kevin Man said:

Well @eloy the crux is essentially my training bike. 
Little did you know since you live in NYC, theres such things as mountains 
And im like twice your weight! 

When I was in SF even climbing on mt tam, i was grinding at 60-70 rpm on the 32 close to threshold. Also theres part of the marin headlands that i couldnt climb in 32 at 400 watts

Im basically making the bike more versatile, if youre not planning to do real climb, theres no point in getting 11-42

PS Im planning to go to Olympic National Park in May... "Real climb and gravel"

haha, I meant that you wont need the 42 front  

See my avatar ?? 52/42 with a 13-23. Say no more.

Just to add, nothing is worse than going for that extra easier gear and getting that “sorry, no more” click from your shifter. I ran 42x11-36 for cross and it worked well (maybe a the spread was a lil bigger than ideal) but I plan on putting a 38 on the front before spring. 

I've broken some random shit on bikes but I think this takes the award as the "smallest and most annoying."

I've been chasing a squeak for a long time on my trainer bike - I even went so far as to have wahoo replace my kickr (after some back and forth and a new chain) but as I pedaled, wondering wearily where could that squeak be... I thought about my jockey wheels.

This is was the bolt, and yes that is daylight you can see through the cap.