Redbeard had tan-wall GP5000s in the shop when I was there yesterday.

I loved the GP 4000s and sadly despise the GP5000s. After having sidewall failures on 7 different tires (running pressure anywhere from 80-105psi) with varying amounts of miles in them, I gave up and switched to Vittoria. 

TomWasko said:

How many miles are people getting out of GP5000s?

I had only one flat in 1900 miles of riding, and in the past week, I’ve gotten three, two on my front wheel and one on the back. Wondering if 2k miles is typical.

Also, anyone know where I can buy the new tan sidewall version of the GP5000s?

I think I got over 3000 miles on 700x25 GP4000sii last year.  Enough that the casing was starting to show where the tread met the sidewalls.  

TomWasko said:

How many miles are people getting out of GP5000s?

I had only one flat in 1900 miles of riding, and in the past week, I’ve gotten three, two on my front wheel and one on the back. Wondering if 2k miles is typical.

Also, anyone know where I can buy the new tan sidewall version of the GP5000s?

Regardless of how long you rode them, getting constant flats is often a good indicator that a tire (or pair) is worn and it is time to replace them -- altho could simply be bad luck, personally I never wait to find out if it is bad luck, replace and go.

Redbeard has or can order any tire you want.

RobertMullen said:

Ive spent a lot of time searching for the one bike quiver killer. I’ve been riding my Crux with road tires pretty much full time these days and it’s the closest I’ve come. It is great, pretty competitive weight-wise and feels plenty aggressive for fast riding (more so than a gravel/endurance road bike might). It’s good on the road and very fun off road. 

 The biiiigest limitation to do-it-all builds is gearing. Ideally, you’d have 2x but I’m not sure how that would work out on the Crux or these other builds. If you stick with the 1x, the standard 40x11-32 will get you through 90% of group rides and p much all gravel or cross races (obv). You probably wouldn’t have a big enough gear to be comfortable in a park race or any sustained rides over 24mph or so. You could toss on a bigger chainring for road races but that is pretty inconvenient.

The other limitation is that it’s super hard to get a hold of a new bike, even from Redbeard. 

@StephenAschkenes echoing all of what @RobertMullen said but I chose the Cannondale SuperX for my swiss army bike. Gearing is the only issue but I'm looking at upping my chainring by a couple teeth to combat that

Several years back, Michael Perlberg won a Prospect Park race in a solo breakaway on an aluminum Giant TCX cyclocross bike with cantilever brakes. He was running 2x and road tires. 

FWIW
I have done Hell of Hunterdon for several years on a road bike with 28mm tires , only in the last few years,  folks on gravel bikes started showing up, admittedly its not the most hardcore gravel event .but the point I'm trying to make is that a road bike with 30mm tires will serve you well on lots of terrain 

This has all been super helpful. I decided to go with a road bike. The market is tough right now and finding something that could do it all seemed like a bit of a pipe dream. For the couple times I do gravel, 28’s will do as you all mentioned. Albeit choices were slim but just bought a preowned Cervelo R5. Looking forward to getting out there again once it’s in. Thanks again for all the help 🙏 

This thread has got me thinking, with the advent of disc breaks you now play around with wheel size. Other than the potential for damage because of the frame material (i.e., a rock getting kicked up and really smacking carbon), what would the advantages/disadvantages to running 650b wheels on a road frame for a more hardcore gravel ride be?

People do this all the time, Matt, the advantage is basically the 650 wheel allows to fit a much much wider tire so you can potentially ride on gnarlier terrain or just have a plusher ride. Depending on conditions, it'll be much slower on anything a 700c tire can handle.

Matt Budofsky said:

This thread has got me thinking, with the advent of disc breaks you now play around with wheel size. Other than the potential for damage because of the frame material (i.e., a rock getting kicked up and really smacking carbon), what would the advantages/disadvantages to running 650b wheels on a road frame for a more hardcore gravel ride be?

The rims could be too wide.  The tires too tall.  Regardless of those two things, you have the issue of trail possibly changing a lot and the bottom bracket possibly getting much closer to the ground, which could mean pedal strike in the corners.  So the bike might ride in a way that you're not ready for or comfortable with.  

So long as you realize those are possibilities, you should be able to do it.

I've been looking at gravel bike specs a bit.  The Cannondale Topstone Carbon is designed to work with both 650 and 700, but to feel safe about doing this, they made the BB drop very short, 62.3mm in the Medium size, so that people could use the smaller wheels at low pressure and not worry about pedal strike.  Road bikes are in the 68-72mm drop range.  Some gravel bikes have extreme BB drops, like 80mm, which is more like a touring bike--these almost certainly would not be good with 650 wheels.  

Got it got it. I knew this has been becoming more and more popular, but never gave much thought to the compromises you end up making as a result 

Running 650b on a bike not approved for it may also invalidate a warranty 

RichardKaufmann said:

 I'm considering waiting a bit and swapping my pedals for something like Speedplay Zeroes. 

Only thing I'm worried about is the additional maintenance, since I'm mostly useless on the tech side, but if it's simple enough to keep in check, I don't think that'd be a real issue.

Wahoo's redesign of the Zero pedals is supposed to make them almost maintenance free.  Probably less than the Shimano.

FWIW, I think the Zero cleat is very easy to adjust and with the walking cover, is better when you have to hoof it.

(if you go through this thread, I've made numerous comments on Speedplay pedals, including adjusting them)

mugwump said:

Wahoo's redesign of the Zero pedals is supposed to make them almost maintenance free.  Probably less than the Shimano.

FWIW, I think the Zero cleat is very easy to adjust and with the walking cover, is better when you have to hoof it.

(if you go through this thread, I've made numerous comments on Speedplay pedals, including adjusting them)

That's awesome news, and I'll definitely check through the thread for your comments. Thank you so much!

Looking for a suggestion for new pedals for my cross bike. Currently using Shimano M520s, but looking to upgrade to something a bit lighter and less clunky feeling. I've seen some love for the crank bros eggbeaters on the forums (but also vaguely remember someone (possibly Rob) having issues with the pedal body just coming off the axle).

My crankbros issue may have been n=1 (and possible neglect, but CB sent me a refurb set after I sent them away). I swapped over to the XTR Shimano pedals and they’ve been flawless (knock on wood). They’re a little pricy but much sleeker than other SPD pedals I’ve used and I really don’t think about them once I’m rolling. 

Like Rob, would suggest XT or XTR level pedals, specially is you already are in spd's. Good luck.

mugwump said:

RichardKaufmann said:

 I'm considering waiting a bit and swapping my pedals for something like Speedplay Zeroes. 

Only thing I'm worried about is the additional maintenance, since I'm mostly useless on the tech side, but if it's simple enough to keep in check, I don't think that'd be a real issue.

Wahoo's redesign of the Zero pedals is supposed to make them almost maintenance free.  Probably less than the Shimano.

FWIW, I think the Zero cleat is very easy to adjust and with the walking cover, is better when you have to hoof it.

(if you go through this thread, I've made numerous comments on Speedplay pedals, including adjusting them)

For what it's worth - my one visit with Andy Pruitt he seemed to think that excessive float was a culprit much more often than the opposite. 

#ymmv

Not sure if anyone's had this problem before, but I just found major handlebar corrosion from salt under the tape. If you're on the trainer, or sweat oceans like me, you'd be smart to check it yearly. If you have carbon bars or change your tape every 6 months you're ok.  

This guy recommends a coating of T-9 which is a solvent carrier with paraffin wax, the solvent evaporates leaving a wax coating. I'm not sure I'll do it because paraffin's a petroleum product and your hands would be right on it. I've gotten a bit more particular about this kind of stuff since reading this Guardian piece—ditch your Teflubes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cfqdvbDFMg

In Lennard Zinn's tech column today, he sings the praises of tubulars and thinks they make sense for gravel riding.  

"I believe that, with the ascension of gravel riding to not only people’s preferred training method but also much closer to the pinnacle of racing, the relative benefits of tubulars over clincher tires (tubeless and tubed) increase as people ride rougher and rougher roads on essentially road bikes."

mugwump said:

In Lennard Zinn's tech column today, he sings the praises of tubulars and thinks they make sense for gravel riding.  

"I believe that, with the ascension of gravel riding to not only people’s preferred training method but also much closer to the pinnacle of racing, the relative benefits of tubulars over clincher tires (tubeless and tubed) increase as people ride rougher and rougher roads on essentially road bikes."

https://www.velonews.com/gear/technical-faq-carbon-component-lifespan-future-of-tubular-tire-tech/

Interesting.

Does anyone own a Ritchey Breakaway frame and use it as their only bike? I'm going to start traveling a bit more for pleasure and work and would like to bring my bike with me, unfortunately I don't have space/funds to buy a Ritchey solely for traveling. My idea is I'd swap all my components off my regular road frame and sell it.

Please share your experiences and let me know if I'm crazy for considering this. My riding consists of loops around PP, longer road rides in the area, commuting to Manhattan, no racing. I'm looking at both the carbon and steel road models. 

TomWasko said:

Does anyone own a Ritchey Breakaway frame and use it as their only bike? I'm going to start traveling a bit more for pleasure and work and would like to bring my bike with me, unfortunately I don't have space/funds to buy a Ritchey solely for traveling. My idea is I'd swap all my components off my regular road frame and sell it.

Please share your experiences and let me know if I'm crazy for considering this. My riding consists of loops around PP, longer road rides in the area, commuting to Manhattan, no racing. I'm looking at both the carbon and steel road models. 

I don't think you're crazy.

that written, there might be other solutions, depending on how much you travel and how big your bike is.

If you've got a frame that's about 56cm or smaller, you can probably fit it in a small travel case that abides by airline regulations or comes close.  A second benefit of these small cases is that they're much easier to fit in cars.

I have the BFF from Gavilan.  It's a few inches over airline regs, but I've never been charged more than a regular bag fee since I started using it.  https://www.radicalvelo.com/trave/gavilan-bff

Another is the Airport Ninja from Orucase.  they actually have two sizes.  I think both are also slightly over airline regs.    https://www.orucase.com/products/the-airport-ninja-bicycle-travel-case?variant=373891551

odd note: the makers of both cases were teammates at one time. 

The thing with this method is you have to pull your fork.  But, the way I see it, if you're taking apart the frame via the Ritchey couplings, this is only a bit more work.  And you get the bike you already like.

I went with the BFF because it came out first, the guy who designed it is a friend and was based in Englewood, NJ.  I used to ride over to his shop, ride the case home, and then pay him a rental fee before I got it.  The BFF comes with a little less padding, but it's easy to get rubbery pipe insulation and other packing accessories (or spend on Orucase's fancy padding kit)--in both cases, you'll want to deploy travel axles in the dropouts and it's probably best to remove the rear derailleur as well.    

the key differences seem to be that the Ninja is designed to be used as a backpack, though there are rings to make it a shoulder bag.  The BFF as a shoulder bag.  

I think @b@"Brian Miele" might have the Orucase, as he's friends with the maker.

Was gonna suggest something similar than JP, no question that a breakaway or another coupler frame is a good solution for the task you describe.

That said, most USA airlines today have removed their bicycle bag fee.

Something to also consider is how much time you can spend putting the bike together and packing it, as well as your mechanic chops. As mentioned, the bags JP suggests require removing the front fork.

I have borrowed JP's BFF bag plenty of times. Takes me about an hour(ish) to pack a rim brake bike, and about 40ish minutes to put it together once on the other side. Add about 10 minutes for a disc brake. 

Hey all. It’s time to replace some bottom bracket bearings again!

Hey Bruce  That BB tool looks great ... I picked up a bearing press from WheelsMfg but their bearing extractor set is another $$$$.  I'll shoot you a DM!

@TomWasko , I have a Ritchey Breakaway and it’s fantastic. Go to the Kissenas Around the World thread to see it. I’m traveling with it right now. It’s amazing. I’ll give more details or answer questions later when I’m not typing on my phone.