David Yang said:

What and how bent? Might be able to DIY it at home.

The seat stay and chain stay on one side are bent inward, maybe about an inch?

Horse cycles in bushwick is a local frame builder , might be able to help

http://www.horsebrand.co/

There are something like 15 or more frame builders in the city at the moment.  Or at least were before the pandemic.  

Of them, my experience is that Horse might be the most together.  Website was up to date and he responded to a phone call right away.  

An inch is pretty aggressive, but if you're feeling brave and there isn't a crease where it's bent, steel is a pretty forgiving frame material.

Has anyone tired the wahoo front wheel "climb" device? Reviews?

On Friday, I heard a crunching sound coming from my rear hub.  A Chris King R45.  I pulled the wheel out of the frame, quickly disassembled the hub, and a few ball bearings dribbled out.  The right-most cassette body bearing.  

CK's bearings are not standard, which is annoying at moments like this.  But then, I hadn't touched this bearing in at least a few years, and this is my daily wheel set.  I called them at 5pm on Friday to see what to do.  I asked about getting a bearing.  The guy quickly told me he'd send a bearing along with some grease.  

It arrived today. And with oil for the ring drive.  Think I'm set for another several years.  Hated the price. Love the service.  



  

I have the roam , the mapping is better than the bolt 
but This old man man really like the larger screen , 

I might of enjoyed some gravel roads a bit to much this weekend as I found this pretty large nick out of my tarmac’s chain stay when I got home. I guess the tarmac should stay on tarmac...
 I sent Ilya an email checking in about a replacement, but do you guys this it is safe to ride for the time being? I would say there is a portion that is definitely into the carbon  

Probably safe. Give Paul Carbonara (heh, the pun only occurred to me now) a ring. He’s a Brooklyn local who does carbon repair.

it's hard to judge from the photo, but looks like it might be just a paint chip, unless the carbon is actually broken then that's probably fine and safe to ride.

Thanks for the input @Jules and @eloy ! I will be in touch with Paul. 

Yesterday at Cunningham I bashed a rock with the non-lever side of my fork thru-axle. It's a proprietary Suntour style that essentially works like a quick release. The housing on that side was crushed so it was impossible to remove the wheel without unscrewing the whole thing. I ended up with a handful of broken bits with no way to repair it. 

This is the only bike I have with thru-axle so I'm not familiar with the intricacies of their operation but from the research I'm doing it looks like each fork manufacturer has a proprietary thru-axle. That seems ridiculous but I can't find evidence otherwise. I emailed Redbeard (not sure if they are open today) but thought I'd ask here as well.

BTW, this is what it has - https://www.srsuntour.com/technologies/q-loc/

^ the number and flavor of thru axle standards is a disgrace. 

Jim, yes, your findings are correct and everyone shares your frustration.

There are a few standards in diameter and length (these help wheel/hub manufacturers) but otherwise the axle thread and the shape of the axle's head are completely proprietary and specific to your frame or fork.

i.e. the axle belongs to the frame and fork (not the wheel) 

There are ways to figure out the thread pitch and head's shape/angle, (and you can measure lenght + diameter) and find a replacement; but worlds easier to simply buy a replacement from Suntour in this case.

 

@jim_nelson  While there are some proprietary designs, I don't think they are all that way.

You "just" need to have the length of the axle and pitch of the threads.

A company called the Robert Axle Project makes after-market thru-axles and claims to brag about compatibility.

https://robertaxleproject.com/what-axle-do-i-need/

eloy said:

Jim, yes, your findings are correct and everyone shares your frustration.

There are a few standards in diameter and length (these help wheel/hub manufacturers) but otherwise the axle thread and the shape of the axle's head are completely proprietary and specific to your frame or fork.

i.e. the axle belongs to the frame and fork (not the wheel) 

There are ways to figure out the thread pitch and head's shape/angle, (and you can measure lenght + diameter) and find a replacement; but worlds easier to simply buy a replacement from Suntour in this case.

 

This was my fear. I just went ahead and ordered one from Suntour. $50 with free shipping.

mugwump said:

@jim_nelson  While there are some proprietary designs, I don't think they are all that way.

You "just" need to have the length of the axle and pitch of the threads.

A company called the Robert Axle Project makes after-market thru-axles and claims to brag about compatibility.

https://robertaxleproject.com/what-axle-do-i-need/

I looked at this site. Problem is the Suntour system is not really a true thru-axle. It is basically a quick release skewer run through a 15mm housing. There are no threads on the actual 15mm piece. 

I was hoping to get away from that system but alas, it seems like I am stuck with it unless I upgrade the fork which I'm unlikely to do on this bike.

When did chains get so damn expensive? $50 for an 11 speed chain seems a bit rich, but that's the price I'm seeing.

Jules said:

When did chains get so damn expensive? $50 for an 11 speed chain seems a bit rich, but that's the price I'm seeing.

Slowly.

On the good side, if it's a wippermann or Shimano DA, you're getting a long-lasting chain.  One that's probably worth the price premium over the cheap ones.  

I thought ultegra was the best bang for buck? Maybe 105? All I know is Lim slow cooks his in candle wax and loves it and I swear I'm going to start doing that this year...

Two gravel bikes, two mtn bikes, two fat bikes. I feel like I buy these 1/6 dozen at a crack. I went with a few KMC's. Will report back...

David Yang said:

I thought ultegra was the best bang for buck? Maybe 105? All I know is Lim slow cooks his in candle wax and loves it and I swear I'm going to start doing that this year...

VeloNews did an investigation on chain wear:  https://www.velonews.com/gear/we-went-to-germany-to-test-the-most-popular-bicycle-chains-heres-what-we-found/
 


I did do a video on how to wax a chain.  The actual waxing itself is easy and relatively cheap.  It was something I learned to do when I was young and chain lubes were much messier.

I find waxing yields 250-500 miles of use before it needs lubing or re-waxing, depending on conditions. Basically, a messy ride dramatically shortens the interval.  Summer riding on dry days and paved roads lengthens the interval

That written, it's a good idea to thoroughly degrease your chain first.  I also keep two wax containers going--one for new chains, one for used chains.  Maybe if I had a better ultrasonic cleaner, I wouldn't need to do this.

https://youtu.be/tv4dMOwAP7w

Kissena slow cooker sponsor in the works? 

RobertMullen said:

Kissena slow cooker sponsor in the works? 

portable industrial ultra sonic cleaner would do.

i, for one, would love to see 'crock pot' on our kit

James Reeder said:

i, for one, would love to see 'crock pot' on our kit

I was going to take offense because I first read it as "'crack pot' in our kit" and it felt a little too close to home. 

After a decade of bike computer caretaking I finally lost one. Now I'm faced with replacing it with Garmin 530 or Wahoo...

Thoughts?

(yes, I read DC Rainmaker)

Wahoo Bolt FTW. (roam if you like colors)

The new hammerhead looks like fire (I have the first version)

if I lost my bolt, I would buy another one today.

I recently switched from a 520 to a Bolt. Overall, I like the bolt a lot. I switched because I had too many weird glitches with my Garmin (bad GPS reception, wouldn't always connect to sensors, occasionally a crazy gps map, and refusal to update firmware). I haven't experienced that with the Bolt yet. The Bolt was pretty easy to set up on my phone but that wasn't a deal breaker for me with the 520. The on unit interface is also a lot more intuitive I think. rather than have multiple screens set up, you have one big data screen you can zoom in and out of. I like that more than the garmin interface.

There are a few annoying things that nathaniel pointed out. No trail forks or third party apps, all of the routes I've made on Strava dont give me navigation alerts on the head unit like my Garmin did, and for some reason my activities won't upload unless I open the Wahoo app. I think this might be due to my phone (Google Pixel 3) but it can be kind of annoying when you finish a ride away from wifi and forget to open the app while the Bolt is on. All that said, none of these have been deal breakers, just lil quirks. Overall I like it a lot and it has functioned really well on road/ trail.