All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

this actually really good to know.

i think i have full 2x10 sora on there right now. my road bike has a combo of tiagra and ultegra and got a little blank minded.

i was thinking of grabbing a 105 drive train; front and rear derailleurs and a new cassette. the current stuff has well over 3k miles on it. a medium cage 105 should give a max gear of 34. i gotta look closer at my cranks, but it is a 2x, so should have plenty of low range for colorado climbing. (may just throw a new crank to match if i can swing the funds)

but, anyone got a recommendation on gearing? this bike is my do it all road/commuter/gravel bike. i try to climb pikes peak on the road once a year. similar gravel road climbing out here. i think a 34 should be plenty if im comparing ratios to pre-built cyclocross/gravel bikes

 

Hey there bikers and taco-ers!

Been casually riding around neighborhoods with my family growing up, but recently moved far away and have been biking more to get some exercise and make my brain happy. mostly riding along a paved/gravel bike path here, but my friend has a mtb and I hear there are some good trails here in central Illinois. Set a goal for myself to ride 40ish miles per week (on a path, that would be a lot for MTB haha), and last week I did 68.

Bought a saris roof rack 2nd hand, which has a tandem and a single bike tray. Wanted to make it so the tandem rack could do double duty as a tandem or single rack. Don't own a tandem yet, but I want to because double power sounds awesome!

The single rack uses one (1) of these arms (pictured below) to both secure the tray to the front crossbar and to hold onto the bike frame. To mount the tray to the rear crossbar, there is a little block that goes between the tray and the crossbar

The tandem bike rack uses an additional arm instead of the rear block, to hold onto the longer frame, for a total of two (2) arms. The tray for the tires is identical in profile, just longer for a tandem bike. The problem is that the arms have no way to secure them when a bike isn't attached, so on a normal sized bike, the rear arm would be flopping around.

The goal of this project is to replicate the functionality of the rear block, so I can mount two single bikes on the roof

Arm left, block right


So here is the final product! Aluminum flat bar and stainless hardware, so rust won't be an issue. Two bolts are used instead of a T-section to keep the tray straight. The top/flat aluminum piece was slightly undersized because I had initially made bends in the bottom piece that were too sharp, decreasing the overall span. When I flattened it out, the bottom piece got longer, so it looks a little funny. Still works and I'm using pretty limited tools here and didn't want to make another if this one still worked. May trim down the ears to get them to the same length, but that would just be for aesthetics


Additionally, the previous owner lost a piece of a small bracket and replaced it with some bent piece of soda can. I didn't like that, so I made a little replacement piece out of some left over aluminum flat bar to match the other identical bracket.


It's kinda ridiculous with them so high up there, but it works. My bike isn't very heavy, so I can do it pretty easily alone, but the MTB is a bit heavier to do alone. My friend from school and I have been wanting a tandem bike because you have double power with less than double weight, so hopefully I can utilize the tandem rack to it's full potential at some point haha

 

also a great loop. last time I hit red bull a few weeks ago, I forgot about the rut at the end. I swear it's gotten larger.

 

It took a while to gather the bits but this could be interesting, no idea what to expect. Guess I'm on cleaning duty again first...

 

My recollection was actually that there was like a root ledge at the end and someone cut that out so it's now just a steep chute. Who knows!

We did catch some guy heading down it on an oooollld hard tail with no dropper, rim brakes, etc. He thought he was going down Jenni's...I think we saved his life!

 

When I did it closing weekend last fall, the last move was the steep as shit chute to hill that was 99% kitty litter. Touch the brakes and you die.

 

yeah, there used to be a root right at the end that you had to navigate. Someone definitely cut it out and made it a tad bit easier. I'm torn about it. It's less techy and less challenging but it's also a bit more rideable. :/

Dude, imagine going down it without proper disc brakes. that would be absolutely terrifying.

haha! Better trust in your surfing skills!

 

Business up front, party in the back

 

I started from home in Denver (along with the GF), stopped in Montana to pick up my new GFC, and then made my way to British Columbia and rode along my Kelowna/Kamloops/Pemberton/Whistler/Squamish/North Van route. Well, let's just say that everything up there spits on our Colorado trails. What a devotion they have to mountain bike trail building, and the front range isn't even considered to be a slouch when it comes to trail quantity and quality. Man. I've been to Whistler a couple of times, but everything in the area is so good (especially Pemby and Squamish), and the best trails are outside of the bike park, no question.

All of the slabs, steep tech, and loam you could want! Finally got to ride the In-N-Out Burger slab I've always wanted to. The photos do no justice to the grade - not the absolute steepest thing ever, but there is a lot of distance on that thing to maintain control throughout.

 

I seem to have bit of a different type of interest and riding than what most of you seem to do. Here are some of mine. Currently working on a Bridgestone MB1 which will have some cool throw back bits from Cook Bros, Ringle, Onza, etc.

 

These all get a hell yeah from me.

I'm first and foremost a road rider that's stuck in the past.

 

Was the camping easily doable in Canada? That’s a trip of a lifetime by the way.

 

Definitely. I pre-research all of my campsites with a combination of iOverlander, freecampsites.net, and Google Maps and always have a couple of areas planned so I don't get caught out if one falls through for some reason.

A dream trip indeed! I planned to take 2-3 months off after college to live out of the truck and spend lots of time exploring BC and the PNW before entering an "adult job/career", but got offered a great job that needed me to start right after I finished my degree and the trip didn't happen. Fast forward a few years to now, and I crammed a sliver of it into a 9 day round trip. Way too fast, but I plan to get back up there again somehow in the next year or so and we still had an awesome time.

 

Anyone into eBikes? Just got an early father’s day gift for commuting to work and play afterwards- RadRover 6+…

my daughter did say I better not give up my MTB though! -I wont!

 

what app is this?

 

Garmin Connect.

 

Garmin connect. I ride with a garmin on my bike.

 

you did the trip from denver to montana then BC and back in 9 days? holy shit

 

I’m at the point in life where I wanna go about three or four miles every day, in the morning & the evening.

I’m not planning any marathon bicycle trips.

Also it has been several years since I actually put bicycles in the truck and took them somewhere else to go riding.

I just pop open my garage and go.

I guess if I get bored I could take the bikes in the Taco and go down to the paved bike trails by the San Joaquin river park. But those places tend to get a little busy. I need to figure out the best time to go when there’s no traffic.

Also I’ll have to cobble up an excuse to go up to the lodge in the sequoias, because they have some neat trails.

 

Funny, right as I was heading out someone said, "Red Bull is running all-time right now!" Decisions, decisions.

I've been dying to try that out, especially since I'm on the shorter side and like to throw the bike around when I ride. My next bike will certainly have that as an option.
Let us know how you get along with it.