The 48 tooth triple is more of a hybrid so its not so bad. Before changing it out you might want to be sure you are not mashing the gears pedaling too slow. A 48-13 at 90 rpm is 27 mph which is fairly fast. Changing the crank to a road crank might mean you need to change the front derailer as well so keep that in mind and yes the shifters you have may or may not work with the crank and derailer you put on there it just depends. Just some stuff to think about. =)

Please also note that road front derailleurs are more fussy about chainline than mtb FDs; especially if you get a road double, instead of road triple FD.

Get a double crankset, but go with a road triple which has more travel, which will give you more margin on the chainline.

Looks like it's time for this week's end of week report!

710 miles on the bike now, still no problems. Well, one minor one.

Earlier I had reported that the brake lever assembly sometimes moved down on it's own on bumps, and that I was going to tighten it. Well I tried (removed the bar tape and all) but I could not find how to tighten the metal strap that goes around the back of those things. Anyone know how to do that?

I managed to get it to sit in place well enough on it's own but it slid down yesterday on a really hard bump, so I'd like to fix it if I can.

But no problem other than that minor complaint. Bike rides great, and I can always depend on it 100% to get me where I want to go, no matter the distance. I may try moving the hoods a little further down on the bar to take off some pressure from the area between my index finger and thumb, once I figure out how to tighten/loosen them.

Here's how the Denali is parked at home:



I've vowed never to let another bike of mine sit outside ever again. The rust and dust is too much to deal with, so this bike has been inside since new.

More later. Going on a longish ride (for me) tomorrow again, like usual.
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typically, to tighten that type of lever, you have to loosen the tension on the brake cable by disconnecting it from the brakes, press the lever to the bar to open the guts of the lever, pull out the top of the cable. This will allow you to see the top of the allen bolt that tightens the band holding the lever to the bars. Stick your allen wrench in there and tighten that puppy up. The you have to reset your brake cable and attach it to your brakes. A bit of a pain, but doable.

If you go to this link: https://www.tektro.com/_english/01_pr...s&sort=2&fid=3 and download the user's manual in the lower right side, you should see a diagram of how to assemble it. Hopefully, that will give you a clue as to how to fix it if yours is similar.

Unhook the cable from the brake to get some slack, then open the brake handle as far as possible. There's a little tab that recesses to get a little extra. over the top of the handle you can reach the bolt with an allen wrench.

Yup, that was exactly what I needed to do. Fixed!

Also lowered the levers a bit to shift pressure around. We'll see how it does tomorrow.
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Because the basic goal of the Denali is too deliver a road bike at minimal cost, there are some weird idiosyncrasies about the frame that may not be deal-brakers but are worth pointing out.

1. The rear spacing is 135mm (like MTBs and hybrids) rather than standard road spacing which is 130 mm. I'm sure they did this because cheap MTB hubs are readily available. A cheap road hub is going to be more expensive.

2. The frame is designed for a 1" threaded fork and quill stem. This makes it more adjustable out of the box but it also means that getting rid of that heavy steel fork is going to be more complicated (but not impossible).

I haven't ridden a Denali or a high-end road bike so I can't comment on whether or not the frame is overly flexy or gives a harsher than average ride.

A few years ago I had a 20 year old Peugeot road bike that was in excellent shape but I wanted something more modern. I like upgrading bikes and I was torn between getting a newer bike or just upgrading the components on the Peugeot. I ended up finding a 2 year old Specialized Allez on Craigslist for $350. I sold the Peugeot for $270. So for $80 I had a much better bike. Of course no one's going to pay $270 for a used Denali and finding 2 year old road bikes for $350 isn't all that easy.

Still, to me it doesn't make much sense to put decent components on a low end frame like that. You can get a much better frame from Nashbar right now for $75. If you want carbon stays, it'll only cost you $24 more.

What one could do is upgrade components to a Denali and make sure they save the old ones. Then at some point get a better frame, move the newer components to the the new frame and put the old components on the Denali to use as a back-up bike or to sell.

That's good to know. So replacing the Denali frame would mean you'd also need forks and hub or cassette, and probably the headset and handlebars? I can see how that could relegate the retired Denali to the role of spare parts rather than upgrade.

This is my future bike! Thanks for the info. More than generous review! I can't wait to get that box delivered to me. I love putting things together too! Especially new things, straight out of a box.

This is a helpful review on YouTube:

I like that speedometer he threw on there. I have a few of those laying around waiting for the right bike to put them on.

Glad you enjoyed the thread Cyclomania! Hope you enjoy your new bike.

Nothing new to report on the Denali, other than it could really use a good bath but I'm not sure how I'd go about doing that. So I suppose I'll just keep wiping it down. 744 miles on the bike now.

I'd like to break my previous top speed record, I might try that today if I have time. I reached 39.7 mph last week. I bet I can crack 40 if I tried a bit harder. Fortunately the bike is very stable and I feel comfortable at those speeds.

Of course, these speeds are reached while going downhill. My gears seem to max out at about 35 mph or so, past that point I'm spinning too fast to do anything, gravity does all the work at that point. I could fix this with different gear combos, but for all practical purposes my bike already seems to be geared too much toward top speed capability for the local terrain as it is. The positive aspect of this is that I notice I'm getting a lot stronger and faster on hills, and on group rides I seem to have more top end than the other riders. But at the same time, with my lowest combo being 42-26, every now and then there's a hill that just really takes it out of me.
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This week's end of week report!

This has been sort of a rest week. I think I only rode 4 days. The result was this Saturday ride was a LOT easier and faster for me.

787 miles on the bike now, no problems. It really rides nice. Finally seem to have everything adjusted right to where my hands, knees, and lower back don't bother me. Seems like previously as soon as I'd adjust things to get one pain to go away another would come up.

I also did succeed in breaking the 40 mph barrier I was talking about in my previous post. 41.1 mph is my current record! Seems like now that I'm getting stronger I am able to make use of this bike's top speed capabilities much more than I was previously able to.
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Why so many verbose Denali riders lately?

We're taking over.

I saw someone on the MUP riding a Denali. I thought it was interesting.

LOL!!!

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Any more updates?

Not a bad looking BSO (Bicycle Shaped Object). Good luck with the weight loss, keep at it. A combination of exercise and DIET will get your weight down and your health up. You have a nice dad, take care of him.

LC

I laugh every time I see that this thread has another update, and so many pages. Now, I'm adding to it

I was mowing my lawn the other day and saw a guy on a black and yellow Denali go by. Bike looked pretty. He seemed happy. That's all I have.

Sorry, yes. I was going to go to maybe once every two weeks for an update since this bike has been so reliable that my posts are all sounding the same!

834 miles now and well, no problems. I still need to clean it up a bit, although I'm noticing that the other bikes in my local group aren't any cleaner, in fact most are dirtier.

Only other thing to add is that tomorrow the Denali and I will be competing in a time trial. I don't expect to do very well because I've only been riding for three months and my bike isn't particularly light but I'll be sure to post my results here regardless.

Thanks LC, I've been attacking the diet side as well from the start (not really changing what I eat, just cutting back on the excess) and it seems to be working great. 50 pounds lost, 12 to go. Pretty sure I'm in the best shape of my life right now.
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50lb! Awesome! The Denali was part of that so it deserves some love as well. You are creeping up on 1,000 miles thats pretty good. So many bikes are bought every year and never see 100 but generally thats the users fault not the bike.

Don't forget pictures.

Question since I recall some mention of the tire being wide.. and on a project i'm looking into doing.
What kind of dropouts does the back wheel have, and how fat of a tire could that frame accomodate safely? The "road noise" around here is akin to a heavy metal concert, so i'm hoping that I can find a cheap, low theft risk frame with drop bar geometry that I can stick a 29x2.x tire onto. (i'm looking at 29x2.0, 29x2.35 tires now..) Not sure what the clearances are like on the Denali.