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John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
4/25/22 1:39 p.m.

The Rev20 was replaced with the Rev20 plus which is more aggressive.  I would say this white bike is a hybrid/gravel trail bike but that meets our needs.  

I just see now that the Rev20 Plus is on sale, down from $399 to just $250.  Add disk brakes, fatter tires.  Rigid fork instead of suspension fork.

She wasn't ready for 24" yet.  I also didn't want to buy a "too big" bike which makes riding "unenjoyable".  It seems really hard to find a company who puts any thought and effort into 20" bikes (other than the ramp and motox bikes.)  

So far her bike has been to the pump tracks.  We now have a new pump track, just this year, in the town just south of us as well as the track in our town that we've had for about 3 years now.  New track:

 

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter)
Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
4/25/22 4:29 p.m.

In reply to John Welsh :

That looks fun!

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
4/26/22 8:05 p.m.

The brakes on my hardtail were...insufficient. More importantly, they were inconsistent. I swapped the pads and didn't get much improvement and my local bike shop wasn't impressed by my "Formula One" brakes. So I ordered a set of Deore XT (XT has never done me wrong) brakes and upsized to 180mm from 160mm. Took a good long while for the brakes to get here, but they're on and they're marvelous. I did have to properly bed the fronts before they'd bite but hey, brakes are brakes. 

Went on the first long ride today. I'm lucky enough to live in a destination riding area, and will pass over places that people will cross the country for because it's 25 minutes away. But today I headed out to 18 Rd in Fruita because it suits the hardtail so well. I didn't get any great pictures of the trail but hey. Fun day!

Tony Sestito
Tony Sestito UltimaDork
4/26/22 9:38 p.m.

I haven't been out on the bike at all this year, but with warmer weather coming, I'm looking forward to it. I have some fitness goals I'd like to meet this year and cycling factors into it big time. I'll be riding my Polygon Heist X5 primarily. 



While I still love the bike, if there's something I'd change, it would be the handlebar/grip situation. The bike shipped with 700mm bars and ergonomic "comfort" grips that are less than comfortable. I end up getting pain in my palms from riding and have been wishing for some other way of gripping the bars. Frankly, I miss my old bar ends that I had on my Mongoose MTB back in the 90's. They may have been dorky, but they gave me another place to grip on long rides. 

One thing I may try is to toss on the 760mm bars I had on my old project Mongoose I slapped together a few years back:



The slight rise on these was really comfortable, and the grips didn't hurt my palms like the wider comfort grips do. They are pretty wide, though. 

Another, easier thing to try is to swap grips on the 700mm bars to the ones that were on the 760mm bars and just add the bar ends. I'll have to mess around and find a solution. 

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
4/26/22 10:24 p.m.

I still run bar ends on my 26" full suspension, although they're a little smaller than the ones I ran in the 90s. It's really nice having that alternate hand position, especially on climbs. 

93EXCivic
93EXCivic MegaDork
4/26/22 11:03 p.m.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Look at SQ Labs inner bar ends

Ian F (Forum Supporter)
Ian F (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
4/27/22 8:02 a.m.

The closest I ever got to bar ends was a set of Ergon grips I ran on one of my hardtail bikes a number of years ago.  I might still have them, but I never came to terms with the palm support of those grips. 

Tony Sestito
Tony Sestito UltimaDork
4/27/22 4:57 p.m.

I just remembered I have two sets of 90's bar ends: 



These Concept ones



And these Zoom ones. Both are in my parts bin. Might have to dig them out and slap a set on to see if it helps. 

Tony Sestito
Tony Sestito UltimaDork
4/27/22 4:58 p.m.

In reply to 93EXCivic :

Will definitely check those out as well. If I went with inners, I'd definitely have to swap to the 760mm bars. It's crowded on the 700mm bars as it is. 

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
4/27/22 8:52 p.m.
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

The closest I ever got to bar ends was a set of Ergon grips I ran on one of my hardtail bikes a number of years ago.  I might still have them, but I never came to terms with the palm support of those grips. 

The Ergon ones are what I run these days. Just added a set to the hardtail this morning, actually. 

Pete. (l33t FS)
Pete. (l33t FS) GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
4/28/22 10:29 a.m.
Tony Sestito said:

I just remembered I have two sets of 90's bar ends: 



These Concept ones



And these Zoom ones. Both are in my parts bin. Might have to dig them out and slap a set on to see if it helps. 

Those look upside down to me, weird.

I always used the extended bar ends like aero bars, so I would want the ends pointed "up".  And maybe a second set of barcon shifters smiley

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
4/28/22 11:21 a.m.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I agree with your assessment but the printed words imply they are installed as intended. 

1993 Bridgestone MB4 with 1993 Salsa rand bar ends.  A Softride Softstem circa 1993 too. 

 

Tony Sestito
Tony Sestito UltimaDork
5/3/22 2:21 p.m.

I got bored on my lunch break and decided to dig in the parts bin. This is the result:



I'll have to do some riding to see if it helps, as well as wrapping them so they don't stick out like sore thumbs, but this may do the trick. These are the Concept bars that came with my old Green Mongoose, and I did flip them upside down. The angle of the pic is a little off, but they are spaced out exactly the same. The bars do feel a little crowded, so if I end up not liking the setup, I'll swap in my 760mm bars. 

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
5/9/22 6:01 p.m.

Does this look repairable? Note that you can see 2 ends of the same nail in this pic:

Update: Removed the nail and the exit hole might be worse than the entry hole. Exit hole is round and about 2mm wide, looks like you could easily slide a normal pencil lead through it. The sealant didn't stop it once I pulled the nail out. The nail is about 3mm diameter.

Update 2: I ended up putting a dab of rubber cement on each side of each hole and then applying 2 layers of patches made from Gorilla Tape to the inside of each one, should hold up...

Update 3: The hole in the tread patched up nicely, I did see some sealant bubble out of the exit hole when I mounted it back up though. No problems on the first ride.

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
5/12/22 3:02 p.m.

I've been thinking about putting together an "urban wheelset" for faster, quieter, less wasteful riding on pavement-heavy trails, but still with enough width for attacking corners hard. Something with 26x2.1~2.4 slickish tires in a tubed setup - I already have a front wheel, tubes, and a cassette I can use, I'd just need discs, a rear wheel, and at least one tire (maybe I could put my most worn 26x2.2 CrossKing on the front?). It's hard to find a good tire for this though, it seems most are 26x2.0 or smaller. The Maxxis Hookworm would be great if it were just a little smaller, it only comes in 26x2.5 (26x2.4s are already pushing it on this bike) - and it's on the upper end of what I'd like to spend. Continental Contact Urban is almost what I want, but too narrow. Anyone know of any tires that might fit the bill?

Closest matches I've come across so far at the Schwalbe Marathon and Zol Hybrid, available in 26x2.0 and 26x1.95 respectively. I have a 26x2.0 Schwalbe Landcruiser on the back of my utility/loaner bike and it's...quite small.

Schwalbe City Jet 26x.2.0 is another close one.

Update: Found some good options, as I often do after looking for help cheeky Kenda K1008 (Flame) and K1052 (Kranium) are available in 26x2.1

Also Kenda K-Rad is available in 26x2.3

EvanB
EvanB GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
5/12/22 3:47 p.m.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

I like the Kenda Kiniption in 26x2.3 on my single speed hardtail. 

93EXCivic
93EXCivic MegaDork
5/12/22 6:31 p.m.

Maxxis DTH.

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
5/12/22 10:28 p.m.

Good suggestions, however a local bike shop conveniently had a sweet deal on the Kenda K-Rads, and a suitable rear wheel at a decent price. It's a good thing I didn't go with anything narrower because they're closer to a 26x2.1 in size. Here's the rear mounted up with a 11-32t cassette I was sent in error back when I was trying to get the 11-34t, next to a 26x2.4 Ardent:

And next to a 26x2.1 cheapo XC/trail tire:

Discs should be here in early June.

ChrisTropea
ChrisTropea Associate Editor
5/15/22 5:06 p.m.

Tom Suddard and I made it up to Berm Park after the Ultimate Track Car challenge. Lots of different stuff than we see on Florida trails. 

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
6/7/22 1:52 p.m.

Tested out Urban Assault Mode on some local bike paths on the weekend. The cornering on pavement is so much better with the K-Rads, that alone would be enough to justify this second wheel setup.

Next stop, East Don and Humber River bike paths in Toronto.

I'm seeing some Raleigh Hucks going up for sale on the local classifieds and it's becoming increasingly difficult to refrain from building a 29" version of this bike...

Ian F (Forum Supporter)
Ian F (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
6/7/22 1:58 p.m.

In reply to ChrisTropea :

I want to get down there as it looks like a lot of fun.  At least the Green and Blue lines.  I can probably clear some of the jumps on Click Bait, but wall-rides have never been a feature I've been confident on.  I'd need practice at the local bike park in NJ that has a few of them (right under the lift so everyone can watch and heckle you when you get it wrong...).

93EXCivic
93EXCivic MegaDork
8/1/22 4:31 p.m.

In the thread about entry level mountain bikes, I was surprised by the number of people who didn't like or didn't see the need to dropper posts. For me, at least other then hydraulic brakes a dropper would be the thing I would least want to give up and I am just interested to see why people didn't see the need for a dropper? Do you ride with the post up all the time? Drop it at the top of a descent with a qr?

Maybe it is where I live cause I have a decent amount of rocky rooty descents that go straight into climbs. I don't really want to do down that high post and I don't want to constantly stop undo the qr drop the post and then stop and pull the post back up. If I lived somewhere, where the climbs are fire roads and I just winched to the top and then had a long descent, I could see not having a dropper post cause you would only be messing with the QR once. I mean I use my dropper all the time even on technical climbs.

Ian F (Forum Supporter)
Ian F (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
8/1/22 4:59 p.m.

In reply to 93EXCivic :

I have one riding friend who sells nearly every dropper post that comes on one of her bikes. Her excuse is she has really bad knees and sits pretty much every chance she gets.  She is pretty good at descending, so I don't question it anymore.  She's still riding tech trails at 61, so she can run whatever she wants.  Maybe after she gets her knees replaced, maybe she'll try using a dropper.  I've noticed a lot of women I ride with tend to not use their dropper post even if their bike has one. I dunno... 

Hydraulic discs I agree with for the most part, although I do have a set of Paul's Klampers cable actuated calipers on my gravel bike. They work astonishingly well and I'm considering a set for my hardtail. They are also more expensive than all but a few hydraulic brake sets. 

Pete. (l33t FS)
Pete. (l33t FS) GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
8/1/22 5:41 p.m.

In reply to 93EXCivic :

The local trails don't have ascents or descents, but they do have a lot of logs too large to just bunnyhop over at speed, so the accepted method is to hop (front tire on) stop the bike while keeping your forward momentum then hop (front tire up rear tire on) keep body momentum hop (jump 2-3ft down the other side) and keep going. (I never mastered the thing where you do a 360 on the front tire over the log and spin your way over to the other side.)

 Or crevasse like gullys with maddeningly tight turns before them, or steep dropoffs, etc.

They aren't actually BIKE trails, I think deer made them as they meander near the river.

Anyway, there is really no point to raising the seat, it is not like you are going to be going faster than whatever you can do in a 32-24.

93EXCivic
93EXCivic MegaDork
8/1/22 6:04 p.m.

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

I have Klampers on the front of my gravel bike and it is an awesome brake especially for maintence. But tbh I don't think I'd run it on a mountain bike. It doesn't have the power of the MT7 or TRP Slate T4 I have run.

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