commuting. never ridden hard. makes me wonder if that's why they no longer make them.

Wow, that sucks. Hubs are one of those parts I expect to boringly do their job until they wear out.

bad hub karma

how's that?

Aren't you going to tell us what they are for?

An old Raleigh Twenty foldie bike

Too cool.

Today I am taking the fixed gear to work finally. Cold out, but no rain, and the sun is shining.

Today I put the stock tires back on a hybrid bike I want to sell, put one on backwards :-/, and used the bowflex, riding is more fun.

Yesterday I raced bikes in a flannel. Today it is nowhere on social media so maybe it didn't actually happen.

Today I found out why my chain had been skipping on my gravel bike. American Classic 29 RACE wheels had bad bearings and failed freehub at only 1200 miles, six months old.

Richard at ProWheelBuilder.com took the rear hub apart and there are all kinds of problems. AC uses an interesting clutch plate design. The spring which holds the plate in place was gouged and the plate looks as if the circumference had been reduced. The drive side bearing was crunchy. I sensed play in the wheel when I first took it out of the box and am sure it was bad from the start.

Richard was able to call his technical contact at AC and share photos - both agreed that they had not seen one fail like this. AC is sending parts under warranty. ProWheelBuilder is an American Classic authorized service center and I've no doubt that Richard will be able to rebuild it as good or better than new.

Still

An $80 cassette, $30 chain, $18 derailleur hanger, rebuilt the B axle on the derailleur, swapped the cranks from my road bike, endless adjustments and test rides... Missed a big gravel ride weekend and half of the time I took off from work to ride trying to chase down this issue. I should be more pissed than I am but am just glad that I have something to point at.


-Tim-

Glad you finally figured it out [MENTION=418438]TimothyH[/MENTION]. Sucks you've had that much trouble between the wheels and those tubeless issues.

I managed to snap a non-potato quality photo of one of my welders last night. Quite pleased with it.

Today I watched a video by Niner Bikes about gravel racing and got a good laugh from a guy on a State single speed bike.

FFWD to about 3:35

I hate to dog on some decent video production, especially about bikes, but man that was corny as hell.

Some nice bikes and scenery though.

The whole gravel thing is trendy and strikes me as a passing fad; it seems like hipster mountain biking to me. If I'm going to ride off road anyway I'd prefer harder/more technical conditions that demand a MTB anyway!

Sorry for being a hater [MENTION=418438]TimothyH[/MENTION]. Maybe I just need to give it a shot.

If I had to guess, I'd say it's here to stay. Seems like it's really catching on. That said, I do not get it. At all. Riding off road, or on dirt and gravel roads is awesome. But, I still don't get the attraction to doing it with what is essentially a road bike with drop bars. It seems like the rough riding surface would prevent one from developing any real speed to speak of, so why the aero position? It provides no speed benefits. Manhandling a bike over rough terrain is a lot easier with wider, straighter, higher MTB style bars. I have the same inability to understand why cyclo-cross racing uses drop bars.

it improves bike handling and you actually need to have decent handling to ride on gravel. we've got hundreds of miles of gravel trails in north texas that you won't ever see a car on- that's cool too. most of the gravel trails aren't in the city so you get a since of being "out there" when you're riding.
i love gravel.

I'll quote the words of our recent sage:

But I'm with [MENTION=112127]johnnytheboy[/MENTION], gravel rules. Drop bar, road-style bikes on gravel are just plain fun. And if you think you can't develop any real speed you're dead wrong. Then you hit the pavement and you're still fast.

I ride pavement, gravel, fire roads, grass, single track and race, all on a SSCX bike. Thing is never dull.

Are there better tools for each job? Definitely. For all jobs? Doubtful.

I was hoping someone would have noticed the single speed gravel guy in the video...



@SquidPuppet will note that this is a three day gravel stage race in Idaho.


-Tim-

That's some primo gravel there! Dirt looks to have just the right moisture content.

That part I understand, because it's subjective. Everyone likes different things.


I'm assuming that any speeds high enough to warrant an aero position only occur on down hills. In which case a rider could just kinda "tuck" with any bar. Or do gravel riders go fast on flat ground? My assumption is just that, based on my experience on bumpy fire roads.

^
that looks nice, not gonna lie. I'll pass on the dude wheelie'ing with his tongue stuck out, but that fire road looks real nice.

What made you laugh about that moment in the video?

I mean it definitely is all personal preference:

https://www.cxmagazine.com/winning-b...lost-and-found

But yes. gravel riders definitely go fast on flat ground. 20 mph average for a race like the DK.

As far as I'm concerned there is nothing quite like descending in the drops, and then climbing in the hoods. And I prefer to ride to the trails instead of drive. So road-style bike with as many hand position wins out.