The R3V Bicycle Thread

[LateFan]

^^^ ow.

[Nick_S]

Tree hugging at speed is never a good idea, unless you are falling down a cliff.

That did leave a mark, and I'm sure you are going to be feeling that for a few days.

Will

Yea I've taken the last week and a half off. It's been so swollen I haven't been able to do much but am hoping to get back on this weekend.


Thankful to have had my google on too otherwise my face would have gotten it alot worse.

[beta14ok]

Oooof, reminds me of a skiing injury I had when I was younger.....I cracked ribs also. Agree w/ Blackbird here!

[BlackbirdM3]

Tree hugging at speed is never a good idea, unless you are falling down a cliff.

That did leave a mark, and I'm sure you are going to be feeling that for a few days.

Will

[wworm]

Ouch
Fuck that

[Nick_S]

Fun fact, tree's aren't soft. Hit one at a pretty clip riding last week which sent me straight over the bars onto my face.

[Nick_S]

Buddy of mine snapped some shots on the little bike last night.

[wworm]

Where in the Bay area are you? Might be fun to go ride some dirt. (Hell it would be good to get out on a bike again. 14 times this year is pathetic.)

Will

Oakland. Shoot me a PM and we can figure something out

[BlackbirdM3]

damn! I just switched to a 2.8" tire from a 3.0" and went tubeless and it was great. Felt so much less sluggish on climbs. a 5lb drop on that bike is going to be nuts

I can't tell you how many times I've been chatting with guys on the trails and they've told me they wished they had a hardtail. Its better for climbing, which we have a lot of here, makes technical stuff, which we have a lot of here, way more fun. I'd say getting a clipless setup is necessary for a hardtail though. I rode with flats once and got bounced off the pedals way too many times when bombing down through some rougher stuff.

Where in the Bay area are you? Might be fun to go ride some dirt. (Hell it would be good to get out on a bike again. 14 times this year is pathetic.)

Will

[wworm]

^^ shred! Good shit man, looked like too much fun

in other news, I overshot a jump this weekend and launched myself off the trail lol. No injuries other than sore abs from laughing my ass off

[Nick_S]

Hey guys, give this a watch! Friend of mine shot this mtb video over the summer. We spent two days riding Trestle at Winter Park. Bonus e30 content in there too:D

https://vimeo.com/306322998

[BlackbirdM3]

That's a great upgrade- with going tubeless plus a bigger tire you probably still lost rotational mass and gained traction.

It's funny, I'm always function>comfort, so I love hardtails. After getting beaten up in PA for so long I wanted a small bit of rear sus to help with some of the rocky trail systems we have in SE PA- my compromise was my Epic which has pretty fast geo and only a small amount of rear travel. However, I still have a Crave hardtail (used to be rigid single speed) which is a pretty fast/nimble bike- that'd be the perfect candidate for a plus wheelset.



Will- it is exactly as you pointed out! I have a full sus Epic that weighs but 22lbs and a Crave hardtail that is even lighter. The sole purpose of the fatty is to ride year round in the Midwest where the trails are almost unrideable from November to March, so I am trying to compromise a bit with the weight and just have a bike to keep me on the trails in Winter months. I plan on weighing the frame here soon to see what I'm working with there- the frame is alloy and the fork is carbon. Almost all the weight on this thing comes from the wheels/tires.

My guess is that I'll start building a carbon wheelset after the new year once I get some miles on the current setup.

Dude, I grew up in the snow. -15 outside and snow on the ground from October through April or May. Often over the front axle for most of the winter. On went the studded snow tires (that I made using machine screws run from the inside of a worn tire through the outside, then lined with some duct tape. I'd go ride in the snow all the time, on a fully rigid mtb with 18 speeds and 26 inch wheels. Yep, it was hard, and I got stronger and learned how to ride in snow really well. Heck, I raced a few XC races in the snow, and did really well on courses that really didn't suit me in the least. You don't need a 10 ton fatbike to ride in the snow. Sure, there were bikes specially built for the iditabike race, but they weren't the monsters that are available now.

I dont know if there are any really good snow tires out there these days (You might check Nokian they made some studded snow tires back in the day) but I found the old Onza Racing Porc IIs to be great front snow tires, and the Specialized Storm Control in a 1.8 to be a great rear snow tire. (The combo worked really well in mud as well.)

I think it was Dan Hanebrink who built the fist Fatbike back in the early 90s. I think it was under 35lbs. https://dirtragmag.com/spotlight-han...pe-circa-1993/ It worked really well on dry sand, not so hot elsewhere.

Will

[AWDBOB]

damn! I just switched to a 2.8" tire from a 3.0" and went tubeless and it was great. Felt so much less sluggish on climbs. a 5lb drop on that bike is going to be nuts

I can't tell you how many times I've been chatting with guys on the trails and they've told me they wished they had a hardtail. Its better for climbing, which we have a lot of here, makes technical stuff, which we have a lot of here, way more fun. I'd say getting a clipless setup is necessary for a hardtail though. I rode with flats once and got bounced off the pedals way too many times when bombing down through some rougher stuff.

That's a great upgrade- with going tubeless plus a bigger tire you probably still lost rotational mass and gained traction.

It's funny, I'm always function>comfort, so I love hardtails. After getting beaten up in PA for so long I wanted a small bit of rear sus to help with some of the rocky trail systems we have in SE PA- my compromise was my Epic which has pretty fast geo and only a small amount of rear travel. However, I still have a Crave hardtail (used to be rigid single speed) which is a pretty fast/nimble bike- that'd be the perfect candidate for a plus wheelset.

Holy hell man, that is almost as heavy as one of my entire bikes! Screw that. My race bike is 19.5lbs with full knobbies and late '90s tech. Seriously, that doesn't sound fun to ride at all. Its like having concrete filling your tires, and pulling an anchor behind you.

Will

Will- it is exactly as you pointed out! I have a full sus Epic that weighs but 22lbs and a Crave hardtail that is even lighter. The sole purpose of the fatty is to ride year round in the Midwest where the trails are almost unrideable from November to March, so I am trying to compromise a bit with the weight and just have a bike to keep me on the trails in Winter months. I plan on weighing the frame here soon to see what I'm working with there- the frame is alloy and the fork is carbon. Almost all the weight on this thing comes from the wheels/tires.

My guess is that I'll start building a carbon wheelset after the new year once I get some miles on the current setup.

[BlackbirdM3]

I can't wait to be able to ride in the snow with this thing. It's crazy how much the wheels/tires weigh.

The setup that comes on the NT Express:

Tubes: 1200g
Tires: 3300g
Rims: 1660g
Front hub: 219g
Rear hub: 421g
64 spokes/nipples: 382g

7182g (15.8lbs)

Just going to a lighter tire and running tubeless would save almost 5lbs (2120g).

Doing a DT Swiss BR2250 wheelset (2228g/set), converting to tubeless, and switching to "Jumbo Jims" (2380g/pr) would bring all of that down to 4608g (~10.1lbs).

27.5+ is an awesome setup. Although I've never ridden a plus bike, I've heard great things. My main bike (Epic, XC geometry 29er) isn't very forgiving and thus I have been itching to make the switch to something a little more relaxed with more travel. The 27.5+ stuff always comes up in my research.

Holy hell man, that is almost as heavy as one of my entire bikes! Screw that. My race bike is 19.5lbs with full knobbies and late '90s tech. Seriously, that doesn't sound fun to ride at all. Its like having concrete filling your tires, and pulling an anchor behind you.

Will

[wworm]

Doing a DT Swiss BR2250 wheelset (2228g/set), converting to tubeless, and switching to "Jumbo Jims" (2380g/pr) would bring all of that down to 4608g (~10.1lbs).

27.5+ is an awesome setup. Although I've never ridden a plus bike, I've heard great things. My main bike (Epic, XC geometry 29er) isn't very forgiving and thus I have been itching to make the switch to something a little more relaxed with more travel. The 27.5+ stuff always comes up in my research.

damn! I just switched to a 2.8" tire from a 3.0" and went tubeless and it was great. Felt so much less sluggish on climbs. a 5lb drop on that bike is going to be nuts

I can't tell you how many times I've been chatting with guys on the trails and they've told me they wished they had a hardtail. Its better for climbing, which we have a lot of here, makes technical stuff, which we have a lot of here, way more fun. I'd say getting a clipless setup is necessary for a hardtail though. I rode with flats once and got bounced off the pedals way too many times when bombing down through some rougher stuff.