The "what bike bits have you just bought" thread Vol 2

[GCH]

President Merkin said:

Yes dude! I was expecting you to say 65. down to 63 but that was epic. I asked because I have one, I went from 66 to 64. i like it, Haven't noticed any detriment to BB height or reach & it's super good downhill but the trade off is it can be a bit floppy climbing. Def have to concentrate on lines going up. Be interested to hear your experience after a few rides.

Haha, more like 65 down to 62...
I hate climbing anyway - thats why ski lifts were invented Seriously though, I'm genuinely interested how it climbs too, as it's pretty good now.

[GravelBen]

GCH said:

TGCOTF-dewey said:

A longer front stem can help if you slacken the front.

My Geometron has a 62deg HA IIRC. Couldn't get on with it at all on a 35mm. Night and day better on a 50mm stem.

Noted (mine is already 50mm actually) as can extra rise on the bar.
Un exemple:



It's been really quite interesting delving into the minute detail of this stuff..looking forward to seeing how it rides when it's done.

It still surprises me how many people don't realise the effect spacers have on effective reach.

I often use spacers vs bar rise for tuning the fit of bikes, I tend to be right in between M and L sizes so its not easy to find a bike that fits well out of the box without swapping a few bits around.

62° is super slack, the slackest HA I've had is the Reign at 65° and that feels slack enough for me. It still climbs well too, the STA is about 77° which helps there.

Edited by GravelBen on Wednesday 22 February 21:44

[bobbo89]

GCH said:

Noted (mine is already 50mm actually) as can extra rise on the bar.
Un exemple:



It's been really quite interesting delving into the minute detail of this stuff..looking forward to seeing how it rides when it's done.

Edited by GCH on Wednesday 22 February 20:37

I love this nerdy small detail stuff that unless you do some research you'd never have thought about.

The last year or so I've been playing around with spacer height, different rise bars, fork travel/axle to crown and head angles using offset bushes. I've perfected my bar an stem set-up but I'm yet to get any of my bikes slack enough for me to think they're too slack. Yes, climbing is affected but not to the point it's of enough detriment to offset how well they descend...

[irc]

A pair of Shimano A520 SPD touring pedals. My favourite pedals are the A600s on my Surly Long Haul Trucker. I discovered both the A600 and the similar A520 are out of production.

Picked up a pair of A520s on Ebay £20. £49RRP when they were in production so happy.

Also have a bid on a pair of A600s but won't be bidding higher. If I win I have a spare pair.

[PastelNata]

I got a few things today for my Diverge gravel bike:

Specialized mudguards
SRAM (Quarq) spider power meter
Time ATAC XC8 pedals

That’ll complete it as my Winter / wet weather bike.

I’ve been very impressed with the Diverge over the last 3 weeks. I was a gravel sceptic actually, thinking that my MTB and road bikes had me covered. But gravel really is a great blend of the two.

[bobbo89]

Pay day last week, told myself to have cheap one with it being a short month until next pay day and having no birthdays to pay for or events planned I aimed to end the month with as much money left as possible. Promised myself I wouldn't buy any bike parts or upgrade anything...

Set of 165mm Hope Evo cranks are due to land today with a chainring coming next week so spent a snip over £250.

Is there an alcoholics anonymous equivalent for people who buy bike parts?

[President Merkin]

bobbo89 said:

Pay day last week, told myself to have cheap one with it being a short month until next pay day and having no birthdays to pay for or events planned I aimed to end the month with as much money left as possible. Promised myself I wouldn't buy any bike parts or upgrade anything...

Set of 165mm Hope Evo cranks are due to land today with a chainring coming next week so spent a snip over £250.

Is there an alcoholics anonymous equivalent for people who buy bike parts?

Would Sir like a nice pair of Bespoke Pembree flat pedals to go with those cranks? And perhaps a gold KMC chain to set everything off nicely?

[bobbo89]

President Merkin said:

Would Sir like a nice pair of Bespoke Pembree flat pedals to go with those cranks? And perhaps a gold KMC chain to set everything off nicely?

I'd love a set of Pembree's but I've got more of an eye on the new stem they've brought out right now and yes, a KMC chain will do nicely but not gold, current want is an all black DLC10...

[nickfrog]

bobbo89 said:

Is there an alcoholics anonymous equivalent for people who buy bike parts?

I don't even drink but I ordered GX Carbon DUB cranks as I thought £170 was a decent price and I am already DUB. I really don't need them.

[JayRidesBikes]

Clip on flat pedal adapters for my speedplay pedals. Can just leave em in the car for when I ride with the kiddo and need to ride in trainers instead of changing pedals.

[bobbo89]

nickfrog said:

bobbo89 said:

Is there an alcoholics anonymous equivalent for people who buy bike parts?

I don't even drink but I ordered GX Carbon DUB cranks as I thought £170 was a decent price and I am already DUB. I really don't need them.

Oh I was stone cold sober when I put my order in, it aint a drunken purchasing thing, just a lack of self control when it comes to ordering bike bits...

Tell you what though, these Hope cranks are nice! Proper bit of British engineering and quality, the pre-load adjuster puts SRAM, RaceFace, Cane Creek and all others I've used to shame!

Edited by bobbo89 on Saturday 25th February 19:01

[M1K3]

Two sets of overpriced stickers as I couldn't decide...





Two pairs of shoes.... One ordered online from Italy, then my ride got pushed forward so needed a pair ASAP. I should of just waited as Italy to the Philippines took 4 days.




The factory pair



Pas Normal Studios


CHPT3

Edited by M1K3 on Tuesday 28th February 00:48

[M1K3]

Julian Scott said:

OPEN Frameset. Great choice. Best VFM frames out there IMO.

It is super compliant mate and only 8.5kg for an XL gravel bike! I love it

[GravelBen]

Decided to step up to a full face helmet for my occasional lift/shuttle access bike park days, might encourage me to do it more often and progress my downhill riding (I'm less than 2 hours from Queenstown so plenty of opportunity).

So I've got one of these on the way, hard to say no to a half price clearance deal!

https://www.wideopen.co.nz/coron-air-spin-carbon-b...

[M1K3]

GravelBen said:

Decided to step up to a full face helmet for my occasional lift/shuttle access bike park days, might encourage me to do it more often and progress my downhill riding (I'm less than 2 hours from Queenstown so plenty of opportunity).

So I've got one of these on the way, hard to say no to a half price clearance deal!

https://www.wideopen.co.nz/coron-air-spin-carbon-b...

That's a bargain!

[bobbo89]

M1K3 said:

GravelBen said:

Decided to step up to a full face helmet for my occasional lift/shuttle access bike park days, might encourage me to do it more often and progress my downhill riding (I'm less than 2 hours from Queenstown so plenty of opportunity).

So I've got one of these on the way, hard to say no to a half price clearance deal!

https://www.wideopen.co.nz/coron-air-spin-carbon-b...

That's a bargain!

Yep, cheap AF for what it is that!

POC gear is brilliant, got a Kortal just over a year ago and it's by far the best helmet I've had.

[GCH]

GravelBen said:

Decided to step up to a full face helmet for my occasional lift/shuttle access bike park days, might encourage me to do it more often and progress my downhill riding (I'm less than 2 hours from Queenstown so plenty of opportunity).

So I've got one of these on the way, hard to say no to a half price clearance deal!

https://www.wideopen.co.nz/coron-air-spin-carbon-b...

Carbon
I've been watching Bernard Kerr, Matt Jones, and others youtube videos in queenstown and NZ this winter and it looks like you have some great stuff there.. Looks nice a nice place to vanish to for the northern hemisphere winter.

[GravelBen]

bobbo89 said:

M1K3 said:

GravelBen said:

Decided to step up to a full face helmet for my occasional lift/shuttle access bike park days, might encourage me to do it more often and progress my downhill riding (I'm less than 2 hours from Queenstown so plenty of opportunity).

So I've got one of these on the way, hard to say no to a half price clearance deal!

https://www.wideopen.co.nz/coron-air-spin-carbon-b...

That's a bargain!

Yep, cheap AF for what it is that!

POC gear is brilliant, got a Kortal just over a year ago and it's by far the best helmet I've had.

That's what I thought!

The only uncertainty is (like any helmet) how well it fits my head, no shops within reasonable distance had any in stock for me to try on. Guess I'll find out when the courier arrives... But nominal sizing looks fine and it has some swappable different thickness pads for tailoring the fit, and the shop has a good returns policy so if it really doesn't suit me I'm only losing the cost of return postage.

[GravelBen]

GCH said:

Carbon
I've been watching Bernard Kerr, Matt Jones, and others youtube videos in queenstown and NZ this winter and it looks like you have some great stuff there.. Looks nice a nice place to vanish to for the northern hemisphere winter.

There is a veritable sh!tload of riding to be done... I've never actually tried the main Queenstown gondola DH mtb park yet but have ridden plenty of other good stuff around the area - Coronet Peak, Cardrona, Glendhu Bay etc along with other more pedally but also fun spots. Happy to give some pointers if any PHers head this way for a trip!

Queenstown itself is an expensive tourist trap as you may expect, but worth tolerating that for the good stuff around it.

[President Merkin]

Cardrona in particular looks like great fun if fast flowy stuff is your bag. One day....There's an interesting guy on Youtube called Benjamin Kellett if you want to see the south island from a different perspective.