Bicycling

bike updates

//been making some changes the last year, sold a few bikes to get new ones. i want two more to complete my stable (mid 90s mtb to make a dirt drop bike out of, and a Cinelli Nemo). Bit of a brag here as I'm proud of the collection I'm rounding out, buy nice or buy twice.

current stable:
(due Dec) Speedvagen CX Disc
Cielo 29" MTB
Focus Izalco Pro
Cinelli Parallax (10th year LTD version)
Cinelli Hobo (my "daily", stripped all the stock stuff off it and it's more of a 'rando' setup now)
Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra

Still lightly recovering from a shoulder/rotator cuff injury I had on my last MTB ride, so I'm mainly only riding my Cinelli Hobo and the Izalco occasionally while I get used to that riding position again.

in related news, my shop was broken into twice last month, one of the bikes they took was mine. I hate thieves

ham_sl said:

current stable:
(due Dec) Speedvagen CX Disc

Click to expand...

Ao-_sl said:

fuck that sucks man, hope it was all covered by insurance or w/e.

Click to expand...

still waiting on it, but it looks like they're giving like $3300 for the first break in ($500 deductible, $5200 reported lost). No word yet on the second claim, makes it somewhat easier to swallow

my cielo came in last week, I had forgotten to order an 11spd chain for it so we didn't start putting it together until today

Just bought some of theseClugand they're pretty good. I have 2 mountain bikes and my CX bike and because of insurance limits on garden shed claims I've had them in my dining room, that I never use. Decided to tidy up and now have the cx on one side of the fireplace and the 2 MTB's on the other mounted with the stood on the back wheel (Clug images better than any crap I could attach). Takes up about 1/3 the floor space so if you're tight on space, say in an apartment, they're worth a look. I got them cheaper from a re-seller than they are direct but YMMV and they're not exactly expensive anyway.

So I'm demoing one of these for a few days, aRocky Mountain Sherpa. I wasn't sure what I'd think of 27.5+, but after a few rides I really, really like it. What a damn fun bike to ride - it grips almost as well as a fat bike, takes a beating like my full suspension, and climbs extremely well. The thing has almost no pedal bob at all, the head angle is 69.4 so it's not quite XC steep and not quite AM slack, and is insanely supple for a 120mm/95mm setup. Plus the finish on it looks fucking badass.

I'm not sure i'm quite ready to plunk down $4500 for one because I don't know how it'd fit in my current stable (I already have a carbon 27.5 Trance and a fat bike) but if I was in the market for another bike I'd probably go for one of these. For anyone that doesn't do much enduro/gnarly XC or DH style riding, IMO this is definitely worth considering. It's crazy comfortable and seems to be good at just about everything.

Pardon the shitty pic, after work rides and all. I'll take a proper leaning shot of it tomorrow in the daylight before I drop it off. (I know you all can't wait!)

Here's a better pic, since I know everyone has been F5-ing this thread since last night waiting for it. I unfortunately have to go drop it off at my LBS now, but man, what a freakin' fantastic bike.

ham_sl said:

Click to expand...

I saw this on Instagram today and didn't know it was yours. A+ bike.

das my hand 2

ty

Not nearly as baller as Ham but it was new bike day this weekend. 2015 Specialized Rockhopper picked up for damn cheap, most of the parts are weak but it's mainly a dink around bike that I'll be racing short track on and doing some training rides with. Hopefully get a couple days up on the mountain with it in the summer.

Gonna trickle upgrades to it as shit breaks.

Make sure they are anodized. That shit makes you faster.

Good looking whip man, beat the hell out of it.

Finally some proper snow up here in the Northeast. It's like riding through a Christmas card, absolutely awesome conditions this morning.

I'm so jealous of snow, this el nino winter has truly killed my motivation. Last couple years it was common to get some good cold dry days to get out and have a real ride with, this winter I've just given up and got fat.

Threw some carbon bars on the MTB the other night and buddy has offered up an XT groupset for dirt cheap to me, probably gonna take him up on that and do a 1x10 to drop some weight off this fatty.

Almost light enough in the morning now to restart bike commuting. We've had a fairly typical wet and windy UK winter so far and combine that with dark both ways commute I just gave up, been feeling really guilty as I'd lost so much weight last year just doing 1500 miles commuting. Going to aim for 2000 this year.

I reckon I'm going to swap the Promax renders on my bike out for some R685 Shimano hydraulics, seems they're an easy swap and the Promax don't have great feel.

I'm also debating swapping the creaky-ass FSA gossimer BB30 crank for a Shimano. They don't do a 105 compact crank set so will have to go Ultegra but that's not exactly a hardship. Might try and do it before I start commuting again. I need to pop the BB30 out and throw in a Rotor BB30-24 adapter, they get good write ups, was going to get the Praxi Works one but researching it they don't fit the CAADX due to a weird machined bit inside the frame. Anyone here used a BB30 adapter? I realise I could service the current BB to get rid of the creaking but he FSA crank also looks like shit IMO and looks are important!

Still hankering after a new MTB but I just can't justify it, even to myself let alone the wife.

Sucks that the Praxis doesn't fit - I have a BB30 frame and am running Ultegra using their kit and it's been totally silent for ~2000 miles now.