BikesBoatsNJeeps

Gowan Bex and Chole!

Hopes are downright affordable and excellent. I mainly use Shimano hubs for my builds, and they can be dirt cheap. I have an SLX hub at home I think I paid $35 for. I put XTR hubs on my CX bike years back and it was less than $200 for the pair.

@TheArbez: that was their older hubs, I grenaded a couple of those, the newer hubs have proven to be quite durable.

I’m more of a function over form person, but I like the look of their calipers. Also, I don’t think anyone else is doing a one piece forged caliper. They also have top notch customer service.

@lejake: I got some Kovee 23 carbons for around $400 for the set new. They’re narrow, but they’re on my commuter, so it doesn’t matter. I’ve been bike packing on them dozens of times and run them on a steel Marino. I’m like 105kg, on a 15kg bike carrying another 15kg of gear. The rear wheel is only 28 spokes, which means I’ve broken some spokes over the years, but Trek just warranties them, so I don’t mind. The last time I broke a spoke they didn’t ask for a return of the damaged wheel, so now I have two. The fun part is, if you break a spoke, they don’t really go out of true, so I just finish my miles and then swap the spoke at the campsite. My Fuel came with Line 30 carbons and on my first ride I had a stick go through the spokes and pop one spoke and bend two more. Once again Trek warrantied the wheel no questions asked, I also rode about 15 miles of east coast jank on that wheel after the incident and it never went out of true.

@c1olin: you’re not wrong. Although the shop I’m at is mostly employing retrogrouches and they tend to be more resistant to change than PB readers. Since basically every fitness bike over $600 now has headset routing, the amount of time it takes for simple tasks has exponentiated. It seems some manufacturers embrace complexity for complexity’s sake. It becomes challenging/exhausting explaining to customers that their bike is T&M and we can only ball park their quote because we don’t know how long it will take to fish all the hoses and wires through their frame. It used to be TT bikes were proprietary and basically everything else follows some standards. But now most brands have some amount of proprietary equipment. Also, try finding weird parts for a 10-12 yr old TT bike. The same issue will occur in 15 yrs when we’ve all moved on from whatever today’s flavor is. (Ask midfat rider about tire selection)

J Mascis came into our shop once when they were touring. He brings a bike everywhere he performs and does rides with his time off. Nice guy.

@Canadiantransplant: maybe I have it at my desk since I work with batteries for a living.

sitting here staring at my edition of Linden’s Handbook of Batteries knowing there are several similar, accurate diagrams that could have been as easily cited for this article.

Man, that is pretty sweet, but I’d want thruaxles to make it a bit more abuseable… it’s not far off of the Marino I have, 67* head angle is about perfect for everyday use and the long rear center is good especially if you ever carry racks/bags. Sweet.