Bike Stuff

Mechanical experience I've been messing around mechanically with bikes for decades.  I learned the basics in childhood doing all the basic tuning and repair activities. But it is only in recent years that I've started to take on the full spectrum of work. Recently, I've started building bikes from the frame up ( Litespeed Road ,  Litespeed Gravel , Waterford ) and fully overhauling  old bikes with various generations of technology. Doing this brought in new skills like replacing headsets, working press-fit bottom brackets and hub bearings, hydraulics, and more such that there isn't much I don't feel comfortable doing. But wheelbuilding is scary But there was one major component build that remained scary voodoo to me: Wheelbuilding. I'd been able to true a wheel without screwing it up since I was a kid. But the idea of starting with a hub, a rim, a stack of spokes and a pile of nipples made me very uncomfortable and I avoided it. I avoided it even when the rear ...

 Well, isn't that quite a name. "Waterford Adventure Cycle"  It was named back in the day when the meaning was somewhat different than today. It is a touring bike. So adveturing by travel. Not a gravel or bikepacking adventure.  But conveniently, this is exactly what I was looking for. Why a touring bike The question you may be asking is "why do you want a touring bike?"  Not unreasonable. I just did a tour from Salzburg to Udine on my gravel bike and that worked fine. So, clearly it is possible. But that was 'credit card touring' not carrying sleep systems, shelter, etc. What a touring bike brings to the table is being a bike made specifically for longer days in the saddle, riding as efficiently as can be and carrying up to obscene amounts of cargo. The gravel bike was a bit racier (lower, longer) and was limited to two, smaller panniers or a saddle and frame bag. Fine for clothes, toiletries etc but could not have carried a tent, sleeping bag, cookin...

Gravel bike. What is a 'gravel bike'? It's lots of things. And I already had a pretty great one in the Salsa Cutthroat . The Cutthroat is at the hardcore adventure end of the gravel scene, bordering on a drop bar MTB. In fact, if you look at the bottom of the down tube, you'll see a map of the Tour Divide for which it was designed. Over the couple of years I've had it, I've set it up to do anything short of full MTB riding (including an hour-long bomb run descent down at the Grizzly Gravel ). It wears mountain bike 2.25" race tires some of the time. But for other rides, I've had a set of 38m, gentle knobby tires for more champaign gravel, sporty, or touring use.  But there's the trick:. I've also evolved the setup as a whole for good performance on rugged trails with a Redshift suspension stem and an PNW Coast suspension/dropper post and those MTB tires at the expense of a more nimble configuration. It is a great setup that can be used for so...

  As first built in winter guise with fenders Carbon fiber endurance road bike with 2x12 SRAM Force AXS One of the things about getting to ride a bunch of very different bikes of different eras is you start to get an idea of what improvements have evolved over the years. In particular, the idea that a ' road bike ' doesn't have to be a ' race bike ' to still be sporty.  This is where the current idea of an ' endurance bike' comes in. It is a bike that is designed to be nimble, light and fast, while having a slightly more upright and comfort-oriented position. Oh, and in the 2020s, accept wider tires. Wait, wide tires? Aren't they slow? Well... it turns out not so much. A bit wider, run at correspondingly lower pressures, they ride both more comfortably and actually faster in the real world (where roads are not smooth and hysteresis takes away energy). So a nimble, fast setup that is also comfortable on long rides. Winner concept. And not in my inventor...