Thanks for the kind comments djb

The guitarist comment relates to G.A.S
(Guitar Acquisition Syndrome), which affects many guitarists. How many guitars do you need = n+1, steel strung, nylon, electric, single cut, double cut, 6,7,12 string etc etc. I think it’s a bit worse than bikes: road, mtb, gravel, touring etc etc… apart from the collectors in both camps of course 😅

Unfortunately (fortunately) I have both interests.

The white, yellow, and red tape are reflective. The other colours are electrical tape to cover up decals both to make the bike look less theft-worthy, but also - in the eyes of this beholder - beautiful.

Yeah, I love my bikes and guitars. I know they’re tools, but I do get emotionally attached to them- They give me so much :)

This. In my experience traveling with disc wheels,particularly taking them on and off the bike can bend rotors enough to have a little rub, given the relatively small clearance, which is noisy and annoying, But I’ve yet to have one bent enough to be disabling.

An adjustable wrench from the Dollar General, while not as refined as the Park tool ( which I have and is nice) is more than adequate to get you rolling quietly.

gotcha, get it now.
and I certainly agree with your last sentence, feel the same. Things that give us so much enjoyment in life are special, and for me, a bike has been pretty consistently doing that for most of my life.

re the rotor straightening tool-- hey, you'll have it now if you ever need it.
I do highly recommend doing some practicing with it, maybe you could ask at a bike store if they have a bad rotor to try on, if you'd rather not muck about with your perfectly true new rotors.
The finesse thing kinda comes down to putting a certain amount of force into it, and then after it bends back on its own , seeing if the force was sufficient to make a change--so just observe carefully and gradually increase force and or how far you bend the rotor.
I once fell downhill skiing into a mogul dip on top of one of my aluminum ski poles, giving it a pretty good bend, but luckily an even bend, no kinks. I later took the time after lunch to use a wooden telephone pole as a "hard round shape" to very gradually work the bend out, little by little, not overdoing it, and that pole got pretty straight and Ive used it skiing for years since with no issues.
The key thing was just to start slow and with little force, and then increase as needed by increments--just keep this in mind when you first try trueing a brake rotor.

I prefer not to set up my disc brakes with a very very small pad / rotor distance, so this helps if the rotor isn't perfectly true. I prefer a bit of "later engagement" so the meatier part of the lever travel is not right away, I find I have better modulation and finger power--but we're talking not a huge distance of pad to rotor, but I find it also gives a bit more leeway if the rotor isnt perfectly straight.
That said, I do like to keep them pretty true, and you'll see that it isnt that hard to do, especially with a small amount.
Ive never had a big warp, have never hit a tree or whatever with the rotor, and use common sense when transporting a loose wheel in a car or whatever, to avoid the rotor getting bent by an obvious boo boo.

Ha! Silly guitarist with your various string choices. As a bassist I have been enlightened and know, that the only true string is flatwound. Thou shalt have no other strings!

As for various types of basses, less is more! One only absolutely needs a J, P, PJ, Stingray H, Stingray HH, a modern dual humbucker, a five string multiscale J and a six string bongo.

Honestly though I'm kinda glad I'm not currently playing metal because I'd have to get a 35"-37" multiscale for that.

That makes sense.

My light touring bike is the bike I usually use if I expect most of my trip will be on pavement, not gravel. I run 37mm tires on that, works very well for loaded touring, and those tires are wide enough that they are passable for gravel too. The wheels on that bike are 36 spoke rear (disc) and 32 spoke front (rim brake). I did not plan it that way, but I was unable to find the front hub I wanted in 36 spoke, so went with 32. Since most of the weight is on back, I decided that 32 up front should be just fine. I suspected that it might take a few months to find the front hub I wanted in 36.

When I built up my randonneuring bike, I used a brifter for rear. But was unsure what to use for front shifter, so temporarily used a vintage Huret downtube friction shifter. Now 10 years later, I have decided that the downtube shifter is no longer temporary, still using the Huret. The older Campy brifter looks so much like an older Tektro brake lever that you have to look close to realize that the brake levers are different manufacturers.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...85eb2b33d8.jpg

Lets not forget the ChiCom Aliexpress tools...
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ec1ba3dfb7.png
Aliexpress

^ I would rather forget those tools.

For rotor truing and tire lever stuff Wolf Tooth 8 bit system has a disc brake tool. I personally have the Magura collab they did because the bike I carry it on a bike with Magura brakes so it is handy both for truing and measurements as well as tightening or loosening the compression sleeve nuts. Plus it works well with the full 8 bit system if you wanted to use that as well.

https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/...A3bS5q2mLbg1mA
https://www.magurausa-shop.com/produ...2784&cat=11894

Guitarist!!!!!

Any reasonably proficient zombie slayer knows the only suitable weapon is an accordion at midnite in the forest as you micturate in your soggy bleu jeans in the rain!

hey Imi, before I forget, a heads up re your pump strapped to the frame like that -- I wanted to mention how over the years, I keep my pump in a pannier, also during all my regular commuting, and a number of times the end cap, the part we unscrew to change the innards from presta to shraeder, has become loose from vibrations.
Once, the parts came off, but luckily was in my pannier and I found them in the bottom.

I've put this pump on a bike frame for day rides , but even then I'm quite wary of losing the bits if ever one didnt notice that it had become loose--essentially having a useless pump.

yes, it probably takes ages for this to happen, but I'm glad Ive been lucky those few times.
cheers

Hej djb! Thanks for the heads up. It hasn’t happened to me… yet.

I find the handle has a tendency to unwind itself for whatever unknown reason it has to do so 😆

Np, I just try to remember to check the tightness of the cap thingee.
And yes, the handles tend to do that

I also put a small piece of tape over the pump chuck to keep dirt and dust out of the chuck. I do not want any dirt to get into the valve on the inner tube where it might result in a slow leak, etc.

The two bikes where you have the pump in the top tube, the pump should stay cleaner there. I usually use the seat tube mounting point and I get a lot of dust and dirt there from gravel trails. I occasionally have to take a pump apart to clean out a lot of that excess dust. I get more dust inside my Road Morph G than I do on my Lezyne pumps. I think the downtube mounting results in the most dirt and dust on the pump.

I got the Knipex Cobra XS adjustable wrench.
As elcruxio says it is very small, but my, what a wonderful tool 😍
Thanks again for the recommendation

Been riding disc brake bikes for 11 years now. Never had to true a rotor.

I'm thinking this is a solution looking for a problem.