On Wednesday, September 26, 2018 at 8:49:13 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Monday, September 24, 2018 at 12:49:48 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, September 24, 2018 at 8:32:11 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Friday, September 21, 2018 at 5:54:16 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:

YOU GOT A CARBON FIBER BIKE?

Yes, I crossed over to the Dark Side again. But the thing is that although there is only some 6 lbs total weight difference from my heaviest steel bike to the CLX, the ride quality of the CLX is easily the best of the lot. It doesn't bounce on those low spots when you're descending at 40 mph and while hitting bumps gives you a jarring just as any other frame material it doesn't continue reverberating from it after the initial strike.


As soon as I recover from the expense of building it I will switch to tubeless which will reduce the weight by some 2 lbs. because of the flat kit.

Well, unless you're a real optimist, you'll want to bring at least one spare and some CO2 or a pump -- and your usual tools, all of which you can get well under 2 lbs, unless you're Joerg, and then you try to get it under 20 lbs.

And CF? I thought you and CF were like gasoline and matches.

-- Jay Beattie.


Jay, I have four road bikes. One of then us tubeless. Presently I'm carrying some CO2 cartridges because I'm still not comfortable with tubeless. But the others all have packs. They all weigh about 2 lbs. I also have one of the superlight pumps with a pressure gauge on it. The pump, filler hose and plastic mount weigh about the same as two CO2 cartridges and a filler.

Why is this foreign to people who claim to ride a great deal?

I have two road bikes, a CX bike (commuter) and a gravel bike -- all ridden on the road with seat packs. All of my seat packs are under 2 lbs. Two tubes (180g-ish), a couple C02 cartridges, inflator (all maybe 200g), a multi-tool, tire lever and bag weight (100g maybe). I'd guess 550 grams tops. 2 lbs is about 900 grams. I carry things in my jersey -- a cell phone, wallet, and sometimes a spare tube, food, etc., that I do not count as part of seat bag weight.


Yesterday on the ride, a man with a brand new Specialized CF with a TRIPLE (???) got the chain jammed between the middle and small ring. He had no tools and no way of repairing it. Luckily I was there and partially disassembled the triple without destroying his 11 speed chain. So you cannot get rid of carrying a good multitool. I have Triple A if I don't want to carry tools.

I got massive chain suck on my Norco Search gravel bike and paid Ruckus a pretty penny to do the carbon repair, but the repair and paint were immaculate. Those Marxist Bohemians do a great job. You cannot tell the chain stay, downtube and BB were all munged up. The OE installed chain-checker is useless except to trap the chain if it drops off the inner ring.

The tool I really needed to extract the chain was the preload cap/fixing bolt extractor for the Shimano crank so I could remove the crank. I tried to remove the cap with a screw driver, but that just munged it up. I ended up yanking the chain out and riding home -- actually my son rode home. He was riding the bike at the time, but we were together. I should have made him pay for the repair, but I'm taking it out of him in pro-deals.

After stripping and rebuilding the bike, I did something that should have been done at the factory -- put foam padding around the disc hose and rear shift cable housing that runs internally. That really quieted the bike and now the biggest rattle (and it is big) is from a little Pro mini-pump.

-- Jay Beattie.