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

For gravel riding, I have not noticed any issues with the bar bag. This bag is new this year and is significantly larger than my first bar bag. I love it, it’s very convenient. I shied away from a frame bag for a couple reasons: I sweat a lot and would just soak a frame bag. I’m short so, on that medium frame, I’d lose the ability to run a large bottle without conflicting.
I run my smaller bar bag on my fat bike but turned over so it sits on top of the bars, over the stem. Sounds weird but it works really well and gives me a little on bike storage.
Those are the only 2 bikes I run bar bags on. My Stumpjumper has some frame storage and I wear a hydro pack for my phone and snacks.

 

I was looking at Giant, Spesh, and some others and it was $$$$, so I was basically only at the realm of "I am overhauling my bike with an eBay 105 groupset, it's the only thing I can afford", then I looked up Polygon and was pleasantly surprised. Half or less of Specialized for an alloy frame/105 groupset. Most of the big names aren't doing 105/alloy, they'll do at best Tiagra w/ alloy, 105 is carbon frames. I probably wouldn't care much between Tiagra and 105, but it was there for cheaper and if I was overhauling, it would have been about 450-500 for a groupset on my Giant.

Heck yeah, didn't know you were doing the PMC, cool beans! I am not.

40 O.O

I went from 25 to 28 and it's awesome. 40 is going to be WIDE compared to a lot of bikes at the PMC. I don't think my bike can even handle 32s, I think someone put 30s in.

MTB stems are about half the length of a road/gravel stem. MTB typically in the 50-60mm range, road typically in the 100-110 range. Not as much twitchy/technical steering/handling to do on a gravel/road bike, bar bags do pretty good for road/gravel.

 

I tuned up an old Schwinn that sounds like what you contemplated doing to your Giant. it was an old flat bar 3 x 8 set up that I converted to a drop bar 1 x 10. I used a micro shift set up so it was compatible with the cable rim brakes, I converted the square taper bottom bracket to a hollow Shimano Zee. Fortunately, the wheels were in good shape so I didn’t need to replace them. I’m likely into that build $3-400. I’m using it as a ‘road’ bike but it’s not as comfy as my gravel bike, that’s why I’m not using it for the PMC. It is faster though, rolling on 700x35’s, it was meant to have 28’s on the rims.

the reactions from the roadies when they see 40 wides will be comical. I’ll also be dressed like a gravel/MTB rider with Five Ten MTB shoes and baggy-ish clothes. I’m wearing low socks also because I grew up in the era of no-show ankle socks so, if I pass people, they’ll know it’s by someone who’s primarily a MTB’r and also over 40. :snicker:

 

do the low socks show off the shin scars from pedal strikes?

 

I wear taller socks so I can spray them with bug spray, but if I'm on a ride w/o then I use low socks. I don't care.

Yeah it was a bit of a coin toss to overhaul or not. Forks, groupset, tires - wouldn't have done wheels I don't think. Would have been a lot of work and cost about the same. Plus now I'm on thru axle and all my QR truck bed channel mounts are useless

I use SPD pedals on my road bike, funny enough. I have some normal shoes and some road-focused shoes, depends on the ride.

Here I am planning a 20 mile tomorrow and that'll do me

 

What pads are you using? I have an Ambition X and stopping sucks. I made it a bit better by changing to Jagwire cables and a hyrid caliper but still not super confident in a panic stop.

 

That bike has SRAM Apex, full hydraulic brakes. I just used SRAM pads. The only thing 'Poseidon' left is the frame. I had Juintech calipers before, they do help but the Jagwire housings were the best upgrade. If you're interested in trying the Juintechs, let me know, they're collecting dust in my basement.

 

Haha, no, I've done well avoiding them this year (and I do run flats on the MTB).

 

Bontrager rim strips are the most annoying thing ever. Took two hours to swap a rear tire. Took the POS rim strip off and replaced with shitty WTB tape and the tire seated within 15 minutes. If it doesn’t hold air it’s because I did a bad job taping the rim. Worth the risk with how annoyed I was at the end of that.

 

Got to a few shops today to try a few things out. Only 1 of the 3 shops really had anything to try. The 2 shops only had a handful of bikes and only one that I could try from their rental line that they struggled to get down for me to ride.

In general no one had smalls; At the better/best shop I got to ride a Transition Spur and a 22/23 Trek Fuel. I hated the Fuel.

Hubs is more "normal sized" and got to try a few -- he actually ended up getting a Top Fuel 7 Gen 3 on discount -- which is a good step up from the walmart bike he wanted to by (thank glob).

I DID end up ordering something though...

 

LBSs are hit and miss nowadays. There's no mediocre. They're either great with a lot on the floor, and a lot they can get next day if not, or are an absolute shit show.

Sport is overwhelmingly 5-9 to 6-2 Male, mtb road BMX (BMX has a few shorter pros because they're literally 12), the whole shebang. Shops are building and selling their top sellers, which is really no bueno for you.

What did you end up with?

Will say - Walmart bikes are a far cry today from what they were in the 2005 era when I was riding BMX. I've been thoroughly impressed with Walmarts value. They're not good but they're better than you'd expect and a decent cost.

 

I'll be honest Broken Spoke in Santa Fe was at least good people and effort made; they did have one demo bike coming back tomorrow that I could also come try/rent but they at least put effort into understanding what I was looking for and by no means tried to sell me anything -- even though I hinted at wanting it; they really wanted me to experience it. It was great; guy spend more than a couple hours with us (sans a lunch break for us both, lol).

He also hinted at that I didn't fit the "size" for the sport in nice words; suggested it was mostly "taller people" to no fault of my own. I'm 5'5" -- so yah.

One of the other shops never even said "hi" when we walked in or walked around for 5-10 minutes; ignored us on the way out as well. The 3rd shop had 8 mtn bikes to "look" at all tied/locked up and 4 demo/rental bikes from Giant; I tried it for shits and giggles because they had a small and we were already there. They struggled to get it down and I made one lap around the parking lot and brought it back embarrassed at it's lack luster.

Hubs picked through a few -- he rode a smuggler and 3 different treks - and one other I don't recall. He didn't quite understand why I said he needed to spend a bit more until he rode a few and was grinning. He still settled a little lower but was fine.

I went in with interest in the Transition Smuggler or Ibis Ripley - and anything in about the 140/130 range; they only had a couple Ibis on hand and the Ripley was an XL. They had a few Transition bikes (even the older models for the $$ savings) but nothing in Small other than the Spur. If that Spur wasn't 120/120 I might have bought it; it was Carbon with decent components; was a VERY nice ride.

The Trek they had in Small I tried was lower components and I couldn't stand the lower POE on the rear hub -- I honestly thought something was wrong with me or the bike.

I at least liked the Transition fit. Any Ibis was an unknown delivery date -- Ripley or Ripmo -- so....


I ended up ordering a Smuggler Alloy -- no, not the fanciest, but best for the budget I wanted to put towards this (I could put more, just not ready to). It gives me some room to grow with the trails I'm planning to ride and is a hell of a step up from the last bike I had -- which was 5+ years ago on a Raligh Tokul 2 - so I'll take the flack thrown at me; but I think this is honestly the best setup for what/where/when I'm at in life.

 

Come into Albuquerque next time, the shops will have your size. My wife is 5’0” and when we got her an MTB a few years ago, we were able to ride a number of bikes in small and XS (parking lot rides though).

It’s too bad Mellow Velo is no longer around. I had good experience with them, picked up my Salsa Cutthroat from them a while back. But, hope the new bike comes in soon and you are off to ride!

 

Yah I'll be in ABQ tomorrow to play hockey (later in the night of course) but could have come down early to play at some shops I suppose. I will say Broken Spoke did just say "ride wherever" and pointed at "some dirt" over at a local play ground a bit down the road behind their parking lot. They really didn't care -- told us to take as long as we wanted and go anywhere to get a feel; so I at least didn't feel limited with what I was able to try.

Mellow Velo actually sponsored an old friend of mine for awhile -- she's back at biking now too (mtn biking also). She is sadly however a survivor of terrible SF drivers; she almost died riding her road bike a few years back. :/

 

Really? Are you talking MTB or ???? I personally have had no problems swapping tires plus adding cush core while doing so.

 

Started off intending to do just a gravel ride because of the mud. Got bored and ended up doing Bear Creek. The whole time I was thinking that lifting full power ebikes over and around blowdowns must totally suck.

Saw some fishable streams so wet waded with the 3wt. Ended up catching 20 chubs for every rainbow. It was a good day.

 

I want to get something for my wife. She will be riding around town, rail trails, bike trails, etc. no dirt. Pretty rough paved conditions though. She is 5'5" tall. I know woman specific bikes have lowered tops frames but aside from that i don't know much about frame size, tire size, etc.
Heck, if someone wants to pick one out for me, that'd be great lol

These are listings i am looking at. ~$200.

 

Headed to Whistler for a few weeks if anyone tryin to hit some lapz.