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@Sunspot —
I hope some young person is reading this thread, so that she can be inspired to take up bioengineering and help out the people who share your predicament.
Now THAT would be just plain awesome.
Sunspot: “Good stuff comes to those that do a bin build.”
Yes, and we ought to encourage them all we can.
37 F and wet here. Pinnacle trails closed. Probably will ride down to the mailbox and back but I don’t suffer cold weather much any more. (You don’t have to shovel sweat, ya know?)
If I was doing it again, I definitely would have taken the extra time to use a small squeeze bottle with a tip (or a small tube) to inject sealant through the valve stem. I think it would have resulted in less loss of sealant and less drama if those beads did not have to be seated twice.
Overall, the process was much less involved than replacing a head gasket or other home shop processes. I would say it is similar in difficulty to gluing up a table top out of separate boards.
Rim tape- I used generic translucent rim tape. I could see lots of voids underneath the applied tape even though I cleaned the rim with alcohol and applied the tape under tension. Past experience led to apply hot air to soften the tape and activate the adhesive. I seated the tape with a gloved finger because the assembly was too hot to touch. No bubbles were observed coming out of any spoke holes or around the valve stems during the initial bead seating or final inflation or tires.
Turning to the more recent past, I want to share some thoughts about mounting tires.
I chose GK SK+. which are reputedly difficult. I lubed the bead area with 20:1 dish soap and water. I seated the beads with valve cores removed. Lacking a good method of injecting sealant though the valve stems, I broke the bead on one side. This is sub-optimal, and resulted in loss of sealant while seating the bead a second time. The liberal application of soapy water didn’t appear to hurt the sealant at all. Once the bead seated a second time hardly any sealant weeped out.
You got me thinking about how it used to be. Here are surviving photos from the 20th century–
I used to live where lots of snow fell, from Halloween to Mother’s Day.
We did a lot of XC skiing before mtn bikes were a thing. We just went out the driveway, turned left, and…
All that snow covered a lot of understory. What looked like this in the winter:
… looked like this in the summer–
So I cleaned it up *just a bit*.
… and swapped pedals for skis.
Good times.
My bars are just slightly above my seat (see here). But I have ridiculously long arms. I am 65.
No the days of mtn bike bushwhacking are long gone.
The subcompact tractor is to maintain our steep driveway.
Controls. Not unhappy so far but need to get fit to see about longer trips.
As shown the thing weighs 30.0 lbs.
BTW, I realized this morning that the 2-inch wide Gravel Kings remind me of the tires on Schwinns from the early sixties. 👍
It ended up at 24-44 at purchase. Shifting on work stand, but I need to mount my tubeless tires first.
Soaping the rim was successful. I disassembled my floor pump at the compression fittings and used the hose with my compressor to pop on the beads.
Lots of bubbles!
Gearing was important. Thinking back, I did around 75% of my trail riding in the middle ring and about 75% of blacktop in the big ring. But that granny gear was important when I thought about epic climbs or negotiating rocky stream crossings. Plus, I’m old now! I thought about a 1x as opposed to 2x crankset but decided to go for 2x for a couple reasons– 2x would be more flexible and slightly lower cost.
Thinking back to my old 3×9 system, the three rings were like 22-32-42 or something. I occasionally ran out of gears on long gentle blacktop descents, but the granny gear was plenty low enough. I decided to try a crazy idea– 22-44 (front) x 11-36 (cassette)…
The 44 tooth chainring was only $25 on eBay, so I wasn’t risking much. According to https://www.bikecalc.com/gear_speed I would have plenty of top end and still be able to climb at a walking pace.
Those fat bikes are cool.
I mentioned previously that a pre-owned bike set up the way I wanted would cost around $1500 to $2500. Could I put one together out of new/used parts for (significantly) less? I planned to source:
- Frame/wheels/controls/seat post
- Air or carbon fork
- Crankset/cassette/chain
- Tubeless tires/setup
- Saddle
- Flat pedals
- Rear rack
- ALT bars
One big variable was that buying pre-owned equipment on eBay has been a mixed blessing because sellers don’t always fully disclose the problems to be found with their items. After watching auctions for several weeks, I decided I could source the parts and bike for <$1200. So I took the plunge.
- Bike: 2016 Norco Charger 9.3 ($400)
- Fork: rockshox reba race dual air ($232)
- Crankset: Deore 2×10 38-24T, 175mm ($70)
- 44T chainring ($25)
- Bars/bar ends/grips/tape: Ritchey Kyote & ESI chunky ($91)
- Pedals: RaceFace Chester ($43)
- Rear Rack: Axiom Journey ($30)
- Tires: Panaracer GK SK+ ($65)
- Saddle: Selle SMP TRK med ($80)
- Shipping: ($150)
So, $1186 and I win right? Not so fast… The bike had been left out in the weather, so I decided to replace the (Shimano) wheel bearings, plus it needed pads, so that was another $25, plus I had to buy some tools that I didn’t have and finally put perhaps 20 hours into wrenching everything together.
So, perhaps the (imaginary) $1500 used hardtail would have been better, but I still would have wanted a rack, different bars, saddle and probably tires, plus whatever maintenance required.
January 1, 2021 at 15:11 in reply to: Why a full-sus XC Mountainbike might be a better GravelBike? #576632Been riding mountain bikes on gravel, single track and no track since the late ‘80’s. HT & FS.
Just bought an EBay project bike and a used Reba Race air fork.
Decided against FS due to cost and complexity. Instead of droppers, going with Ritchey Kyote and stubbies mounted inboard at the bends.
January 1, 2021 at 15:11 in reply to: Why a full-sus XC Mountainbike might be a better GravelBike? #576619I have been working up a hard tail 29er for gravel grinding. Back in the day I found semi-slicks so effective on my 26er that I gave away the knobbies.
Flat bars cause numbness in my wrists so I am using Ritchey Kyote bars with stubby barends mounted at the bends (about where brifter hoods would be). The bars are taped inboard of the levers.
Waiting on rim tape to come in the mail and then will mount up a pair of 700×50 GK SK+.
I went HT over FS for two main reasons— Simplicity and Cost. I am building it up out of mostly new parts but an older frame and air fork for under $1k.
Thanks for the great informative thread.
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