The Road Bike thread

[BLachance75]

Id like to get to 20 miles daily but have time constraints at the moment which only allows for about 70 to 75 minutes of riding before I got to get ready for work. Eventually I want to hit longer rides on the weekends. I hate/love riding....

Free time during daylight is why I ride on Zwift. I work a 10 hour day and have an hour commute each way so my free daylight hours are 0 most day. Zwift allows me to ride at night and for as long as I want. I do try to get out 1 day a week and do a longer road ride but with so much going on in the summer free time is at a premium.

[Tugboater203]

I ride a 2015 Diamondback Line mountain bike with road tires. I do a 15 mile circuit Monday to Friday. The Diamondback is not even remotely adequate for the roadwork I am putting it through but its what I have. Its a 9 speed meant for climbing and bombing down hill trails, not long road riding. I am saving up to get an endurance bike. Id like to get to 20 miles daily but have time constraints at the moment which only allows for about 70 to 75 minutes of riding before I got to get ready for work. Eventually I want to hit longer rides on the weekends. I hate/love riding....

One you get a bike designed for road work, you'll be doing 20 miles in that amount of time

[ramagupa]

couldnt find an appropriate section in off topic… but this ebike is used for my commute to school, and then on the off-weekend to the field a few miles down the road…

getting to school with my art portfolio is no problem, its loading up 1.5 peoples’ worth of gear to the field. It takes a 55L filled to the brim to bring 2 markers and my gear

Just bought a rear rack, and am wondering if there are any suggestions for American made pannier bags or saddle bags in the budget of 50-150 for a pair

hoping for 20L minimum per bag.


and heres my whip

[martix_agent]

I have had this for years and never really rode it. I got it when I was delivering food on a bicycle and a rode a TON. My delivery bike was stolen and i got this to replace it. I liked my first bike 1000% better than this one. This particular bike isn't set up great for me and makes my hands numb really fast and is generally uncomfortable
Turns out I have 0 fun riding on roads if I'm not on a mission and playing around in traffic.
I think I'm gonna sell it.

[ramagupa]

i had a hard tail stolen from me that fit and felt pretty well… had nice parts added to it by a coworker who sold it pretty cheap..

1 week later i got to see the thief ride away on it
right in front of my face.

now i have an airtag, and a “good” set of kryptonite lock and cable. hopefully the three will stop a thief

[BLachance75]

I broke my chain last week so I took the opportunity to try out using a waxed chain. I went back and forth with hot waxing or using a drip wax and decided to go with Silca Super Secret drip wax. I fully cleaned my drive train and did 3 applications of drip wax per Silca recommendation and I'm very impressed so far. The drivetrain is noticeably quieter and smoother.

I was shocked at how much grime was in my old chain and derailleur pulleys considering I fully cleaned it all before putting it on the trainer for the winter. The pulleys were caked with grime and I didn't realize how loud they were until they were cleaned. The Muc-Off dry lube was caking up around the pulleys and attracting dirt and dust which made the loud and not roll smoothly.

[Tugboater203]

I broke my chain last week so I took the opportunity to try out using a waxed chain. I went back and forth with hot waxing or using a drip wax and decided to go with Silca Super Secret drip wax. I fully cleaned my drive train and did 3 applications of drip wax per Silca recommendation and I'm very impressed so far. The drivetrain is noticeably quieter and smoother.

I was shocked at how much grime was in my old chain and derailleur pulleys considering I fully cleaned it all before putting it on the trainer for the winter. The pulleys were caked with grime and I didn't realize how loud they were until they were cleaned. The Muc-Off dry lube was caking up around the pulleys and attracting dirt and dust which made the loud and not roll smoothly.

Did you clean your cassette too? I don't follow bike stuff much so I haven't heard of a waxed chain. How does it do with road grime and stuff?

[BLachance75]

Did you clean your cassette too? I don't follow bike stuff much so I haven't heard of a waxed chain. How does it do with road grime and stuff?

The bike is on a trainer now and the trainer only has a single speed cassette but I did clean that. I will clean the cassette on my wheel before I put it in the bike.

A waxed claim is supposed to be better if you’re riding in dry conditions. The chain is dry to the touch so road grime shouldn’t stick to it. After riding you can quickly wipe it down and you’re good to go. If you did get it wet and dirty you clean it then dry it.

[Tugboater203]

Sounds neat, I get so much grit in mine.

[Tracker]

i tend to use dry formulation chain lubes, currently im using some stuff from muc-off. but ive also used Dumonde for years, and as long as you remember to wipe your chain with something every few rides, and lube it when you can "hear" the chain you should be fine
a properly lubed bike with the shifters aligned SHOULD be silent while pedaling (unless you got the BB creaks, then it just is what it is).. if you can hear the chain rattling around, it either needs to be wiped, lubed, or cleaned and lubed..

[ChillswitchEngage]

Hope this is allowed, but uh, my DIY conversion. Base bike frame is an 29" Ozark Trail Ridge with a 35A controller, 1500w motor and (not pictured) 52v 14ah battery. It's humble, but it gets me from A to B

[BLachance75]

I had been looking at new bikes for a while going back and forth on what I wanted. I knew I wanted something with more tire clearance as my Giant Defy can only take 32mm tires. I mostly ride on the road however I do enjoy the safety and peacefulness of dirt/gravel roads and bike paths or rail trails. Having a second bike would allow me to leave my Defy on my trainer. I love the Defy but could never get the fit I wanted for both indoor and outdoor on it. I was extremely comfortable indoors on it but I always wanted to be lower and more stretched out while riding outdoor. If I adjusted my fit to be comfortable outdoors then I wasn't comfortable during long indoor rides.

I ended up buying a frameset and got it built up over the weekend.



**Note** The seat moved during my test ride and was adjusted when I got home as well as putting on bar tape.

The frameset is a Velobuild GF-003 with a custom paint, silver chameleon is the main color with pink chameleon on the top tube and inside the fork and rear triangle. Link to frameset, https://www.velobuild.com/products/gf-003-carbon-fiber-gravel-frameset

The ordering process went very smooth and easy. I emailed them on 4/3 inquiring about a quote for the frame and custom painting fee along with a picture of how I wanted the frame painted. Late that evening I received a response with a quote. On 4/4 I paid for the frameset, bottle cages, extra derailleur hanger. I had a few questions after ordering and they were all quickly. All of my email communication went through Chris and his responses were in perfect English. Due to the time zone difference it was basically a situation where I'd send and email and would have a response the next morning. From reading online I knew that it could take a few weeks for the frame to be painted and shipped. On 4/23 I emailed and asked if they had an estimate on when the frame would be painted. The next day he responded with a picture of the painted frame saying that it was finished that day and would ship the next day. The frame shipped from China on 4/26 and I received it on 5/10.

The good;
For the price the paint is good. It isn't perfect if you look closely but it was also only $60 for the custom paintjob. It was also painted exactly how I wanted it
The brake mounts were faced and square to the axles
The headset bearing faces were clean and fit the bearing correctly, not lose or tight
I looked down the tubes with a scope and all of them were smooth and I couldn't see excessive resin pooling of fiber tenting or obvious layup defects
Came very well packaged

The bad;
The bottom bracket had paint overspray. I had to scrub it with a wire brush and pick to get all the overspray out
There is a little gap between the bottom cap of the stem and the bike. Not huge but it is noticeable
A few spots where the paint is missing. See above for comment about cost
I feel like the mounting points on the top tube are in the wrong spot or there should be a third mounting point. Both mounting locations are behind the kink in the top tube. The last mounting hole on my top tube bag lines up with the front screw hole
Not necessarily the bikes fault but man is it a pain to set up an integrated cockpit with hidden cables. This was the first time I did it.

Currently the bike is built with the 105 di2 groupset that I took off my Defy. I want a little more gear ratio so I bought a GRX crankset and front derailleur but it wasn't shifting smoothly or consistently so I put the 105 on for the time being so I can participate in a few upcoming charity group rides. I'm guessing that I didn't adjust it correctly and will try to put them back on and get the derailleur setup correctly in a few weeks. I will be using the Ican wheels as my road wheels and the stock wheels that came with the Defy as my gravel wheels. Eventually I will buy a set of carbon wheels with wide internal clearance for gravel tires.

The only other change may be the saddle to the same as on my Defy. This is an old Fizik saddle that I used to use. I've been using a Specialized Power saddle on the Defy and want to leave it on there as it is comfortable during long indoor rides.

Time will tell on how the frame holds up but so far I'm very happy and feel it was well worth the price.

[BLachance75]

I made a few changes and got my bike to a state that I'm very happy with.

From my previous post I've switch my saddle to a Specialized Power saddle which is what I'm used to. I put on a GRX 48/31 crankset and GRX front derailleur. My old 4iiii power meter crank arm didn't fit, the power pod hit the frame, so i sold it and bought a newer version that is slimmer and fit. I got a cheap set of carbon wheels for gravel riding. I shimmed my rotors so that I can quickly swap wheels and do t have to worry about rotor rub or needing to realign the calipers.

Setup in road mode with 35mm Continental GP5000



In gravel mode with Continental RaceKing 2.0



I have 2 updates left.
Jenson's had a screaming deal on Ultegra di2 shifters and I couldn't pass it up. It will be nice to have the extra button on the shifters to swap pages on my Wahoo. I can also add satellite shifters to the Ultegra shifters later on if I want.

I also bought a set of flared handlebars. I have them on my bike on the trainer and find it more comfortable to be in the drops when they are flared.

[Tracker]

i dunno where else to post this.

if anyone is looking for a good price on a new road bike, specialized will/has their allez sprint comp on sale for 2k on their black friday deals., I feel "sale" is kind of a misnomer here cause I would call it "appropriately priced" going by their available sizes though, you'll need to be about 5"10-ish or taller for it to "fit"

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/allez-sprint-comp/p/216918?color=350024-216918

thats a few steps better (in some ways) than my first road bike thats almost 10 years old now that i still have and ride

I see no reason why this wouldn't last just as long

[BLachance75]

Canyon is also having some decent sales. This would make an excellent first road bike.

https://www.canyon.com/en-us/road-bikes/endurance-bikes/endurace/al/endurace-7-raw/3705.html?dwvar_3705_pv_rahmenfarbe=R074_P06

[Tracker]

I mean,,, that canyon is a hell of a deal.. I'd give that one the edge over the specialized on account of the freehub with those wheels, AND the cables have traditional routing that doesn't put them through the headset

[Tugboater203]

I was hoping to grab a wider set of wheels to use on my Cannondale Synapse and use it as a gravel bike. Has anyone tried this?

[BLachance75]

I was hoping to grab a wider set of wheels to use on my Cannondale Synapse and use it as a gravel bike. Has anyone tried this?

How wide of a tire can the frame fit?