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 ...

I've already had experience with the first of the new, value-priced electronic groupsets from China in LTWOO eGR. You can read about that experience here , but in summary it's pretty good but wasn't perfect for my application for two main reasons It expects to stash the battery inside the frame and have a wire run out to the derailleur. Unfortunately, my V1 Cutthroat isn't set up that way and I had to strap it to a bottle cage in a less-than-pretty way Officially it only supports up to a 46t cassette and I run a 50t. It does actually work, but it's a little cranky about it in setup and operations. But along comes the Wheeltop GeX solution. Same idea from a company that has been making components for others for many years and MTB electronics for a couple of them. It promised to address my issues in that it uses a battery attached to the rear derailleur directly and officially supports 51t cassettes. Reports are the...

I've been asked often of late "what do I need to carry for roadside repair?"  I decided to write my thoughts down here, once to point to. I don't think I have the one and only correct answer. I don't even carry the same kit on all bikes. But here are some thoughts: What I generally pack: Inflation device A pump is my preference because it always works and never runs out of capacity (although I might while using it). Cheap and/or micro pumps get the job done. (usually), but quality ones and larger ones do usually work much better or easier. If your bike has the place to put a full size frame pump, those are the best, but generally aren't an option on modern bikes. But I sometimes carry CO2 instead/in addition for rapid inflation and on tubeless, to have the ability to pop a bead back on. Lately I've been carrying a tiny battery pump on my road bike that has no room for a frame mounted pump. It's a compromise between the simple-but-one-shot nature of C...

Installation and first impressions Updates: 6/10/24, 7/4/24, 9/26/24, 10/3/24, 11/8/24, Spring 2025 Note: I've left the early text more or less as written. But there have been updates. So do scan through the updates below Background I was interested in the LTWOO eGR groupset to use on my 2019 Salsa Cutthroat . It was running SRAM Force 1 HRD (Mechanical shifting, hydraulic brakes) with a Garbaruk 10-50 cassette and their cage extender to allow for that range on Force.  The setup worked, but I never had the reliable, crisp shifting I would have liked. Usually ended up 'finessing' each shift with partial presses etc. It was nearly impossible to find the right tension setting to get perfect indexing.  As my first 11s rig, I tolerated it as semi-normal for a while. Some of this is understandable given that it was modified outside of OEM spec. So I'm not badmouthing the Force itself based on that (for the badmouth, see this YouTube: SRAM Force 1 HRD (any DoubleTap) Shift...

The “Impossible”: 9-speed to 11-speed conversion Goal: Give a 2002 Klein Quantum a lower granny gear and an update. It came with a Shimano 105 5500 9 speed road triple chainring setup with a granny gear of 32 gear inches. In 2002, this is how you got both low gearing and wide range. However, it is still significantly higher than either my gravel or mountain bikes. Of course, being a road bike, it also topped out at 115 inches for speed in the flats. This is much higher than the gravel 1×11 (88in) or even the mountain triple (100). But things have changed in the world of drivetrains in the last 20 years. Let's go for a bit of a journey into the changes in road componentry in the last two decades: The most notable change has been the ability to put wide-range cassettes on the back. Back in 2002, this bike was equipped with a conventional (for the time) 12-25t cassette to go with a less conventional (on a non-touring bike) 52-42-30 triple set of chainrings. Modern non-race road ...