Felt F55X

On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 10:45:42 p.m. UTC-5, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 11:12:27 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 9:52:01 AM UTC-8, Roger Merriman wrote:
Tom Kunich wrote:
On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 3:07:54 AM UTC-8, Roger Merriman wrote:
Tom Kunich wrote:
On Tuesday, March 9, 2021 at 7:13:12 AM UTC-8, Roger Merriman wrote:
Tom Kunich wrote:
On Sunday, March 7, 2021 at 4:27:45 PM UTC-8, Roger Merriman wrote:
Tom Kunich wrote:
On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 11:10:57 AM UTC-8, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 7:27:06 AM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, March 1, 2021 at 8:46:31 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Monday, March 1, 2021 at 8:14:50 AM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, March 1, 2021 at 7:46:03 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Sunday, February 28, 2021 at 5:41:38 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, February 28, 2021 at 4:22:58 PM UTC-8, wrote:
On Sunday, February 28, 2021 at 2:23:58 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, February 28, 2021 at 9:36:25 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Sunday, February 28, 2021 at 9:25:52 AM UTC-8, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Saturday, February 27, 2021 at 4:14:37 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Saturday, February 27, 2021 at 3:33:12 PM UTC-8,
wrote:
On Saturday, February 27, 2021
at 7:04:55 AM UTC-8, Roger Merriman wrote:
Tom Kunich wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 11:09:26 AM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/25/2021 12:10 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 2:04:33 PM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/24/2021 2:59 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
Parts are trickling in slowly. Local parts I can obtained off of
Craigs list now are so overpriced that it is out of question to pay

$60 for a bolt-on disk. There is a guy
that sells Chinese parts that
are cheap enough and with the bolts included but he is almost
impossible to get him to respond so I gave up. I'm sure he is
paying
his way through Cal State Hayward with the money but no response,
no
sale and now it costs as much to get a single disk from eBay as
four
from
him.

The headset tool won't arrive for another couple of weeks but since

there are four other minor parts that
are going to take that long no
sense in worrying about it. The BB386 us going to take that long as

well and it doesn't matter if the work
isn't installed if the crank
can't be fitted. The 32 tooth 10 speed cassette came in and I
installed that yesterday as the hunchback. since the rear disk
hydraulic line was mounted a rather long way it should fit on the 2

cm larger frameset without problem. The
say with the front line. It
is internal on this fork but was external on the other. So I will
have to strip off the bead and cap on the lever end and stick it up

from the bottom side. in order to lose
the lease fluid and make it
easier to bleed afterwards. It appears that flat bar gravel bikes
are

getting popular so this one should move a
lot faster than the Emonda
or Modone. The last guy to query about the Emonda must have been a
monkey, after exchanges for three days he said that
he
wouldn't fit the bike. He is three inches shorter than I am but
claims

his arms are 37" long. Maybe he is measuring
from the middle of his
back because from shoulder to fingertip my arms are 26".

The tires are 3 mm wider than I would like but there is more than
plenty of room with these triangles. It is surprising how easy
gravel

tires roll on hard surfaces. But gravel
bikes have lower gear ratios
and the 11/42 high gear isn't going to rush anyone down the road.
If
I can get this together there is another Felt road bike that I will

buy and build into a 10 speed Campy
Record. The parts I have look
brand new, though I will be looking for a compact two piece crank.
That will require a compact front derailleur that will come from
the
Campy warehouse.

I was standing upright for the first half hour of this morning so I

am recovering from that stained back if
a lot more slowly than I
would
like.

I wonder how you tell what sort of hydraulic fluid is in this Avid
setup. It could use either Shimano mineral oil or DOT 5.1 which
needs

replacing every year if that makes any
sense. When was the last time
you replaced your car brake fluid?

DOT 5.1. Do not substitute another fluid.

Any auto parts store or with a SRAM/Avid label.

By the way, Andrew, Mineral oil is a light petroleum based lubricant
derived from petroleum. DOT 5.1 is largely solvents used to lighten
the

Polyglycols that are used in the fluid.
Polyglycols are also derived
from petroleum and are a very heavy lubricant.. Polyglycols are used
mostly in lubricating very high load gear trains and worm gears that
carry very heavy loads. It isn't clear to me why you would use this
lubricant cut 70% or more by solvents rather than a lighter
lubricating

oil like mineral oil one such a lightly loaded
use such as a bicycle
disk brake whose loading is almost nothing. There are sometimes
additives that are supposed to slow the evaporation of the solvents
from the brake fluid.

It's often noted here on RBT that frequently the largest
part of a problem is 'you don't know what you don't know'.

This may be a case of that. Use DOT 5.1 and no other.

I don't know the chemistry of the seals and piston materials
and I'm pretty sure you don't either. I'm fairly confident
the designers and engineers do, or at least did when they
specified a particular fluid.

I do know that you have to replace this fluid supposedly every year (I
doubt anyone does that) and that is because it is 70% solvents to cut
down the very heavy lubrication grease. Mineral oil doesn't degrade ANY

seals that can take those DOT solvents. Though I
will follow your advice
and use the cheaper brake fluid.

No it s fairly obvious when it needs it, brakes will start to feel
squishy,
haven t had to have a service on either the MTB or commute bike for a
good

5 years or so now.

The gravel well parts are new so too soon to know, but on the whole as
long
as they are being used, they are happy.

Roger Merriman.
Roger, if the brakes are feeling "squishy" you are already in
danger of a rim failure.
? He's talking about a soft feeling disc brake, which means
air in the system or inadequate fill or a leak. It has nothing
to do with the rim.
I must have thought that we were still on the rim failure conversation.
I received the Zitto BB386 bottom bracket and was disappointed
to see that they had sent me a 30mm crank version. I ordered a
24mm Shimano crank version. Otherwise it appears to be a rather good bottom
bracket. No sense in sending it back since I intend to get a
Felt Road Bike later and use an FSA Gossamer compact crank in
it. These have a 30 mm shaft. So I looked on eBay and a local
California company has the correct size and it should be here in
a couple of days.
A 24mm version of a BB386 is a non
sequitur. 24mm is BB86. BB386 is by definition 30mm.
The Felt is marked BB386 in the paintwork. Only one company makes
a 30 mm shaft crankset. Also I just bought a BB386 bottom bracket
that said 24 mm on it. (isn't that also the same diameter as the
Campy Ultradrive?

So perhaps you're correct but does it really matter if the only
difference is the shaft diameter?
BB386 is just a press-fit BB30 that is wider, which means that a
normal BB30 crank axle will be too short.
https://bikerumor.com/2011/12/22/fsa...rison-weights/


A
Shimano will work fine with a BB386 and an adapter to reduce the
ID. So just buy an adapter.
https://wheelsmfg.com/386evo-adapter...o-cranks..html That
seems steep, and you can probably get a cheaper adapter elsewhere.
The BB386 measures 46 or 47 mm in diameter. Hambini who makes BB86
bottom brackets for race teams says that Shimano made is
specifically so that you couldn't fit a 30 mm shaft into it. So to
make it a Shimano you don't need any adapter, you simply need a
bearing with a smaller ID.
I was too dismissive to start because with any of the press-in BB
formats, you can spend a bunch of money on a special version with 24mm ID.
https://wheelsmfg.com/386evo-angular...nks-black.html

Normal BB386 is spec'd for 30mm ID, but you could get a hybrid, or
you could get a standard PF BB386 bottom bracket, pop the bearings
out and press in new bearings with a 24mm ID (don't ask me the
bearing number), or you could get a $13 adapter.
https://www.bikeinn.com/bike/fsa-red...gclsrc=aw.d s




The adaptor allows you to keep your current bearings and saves you
the trouble of finding the right bearing number for a BB386 bearing
with 24mm ID. It also saves you the pain of pushing out and pressing
in bearings in a PF cup, which is actually harder than mounting
bearings in a BB30, IMO. It also gives the next owner the flexibility
of using a BB386 crank. The rational thing to do is to to get the
cheap FSA adapters.

And yes, a BB86 is the wrong size for your BB.
This BB is a plastic piece and if you're riding hard would probably
creak. But the gearing is really low and it is supposed to be a flat
bar gravel bike so the people that buy these things won't notice it
because they simply don't put enough torque on the thing. I will say
that the while I will get away with running the rear brake as is, I
will have to pull the front brake since it runs internally, pull off
the bead, run the hydraulic line and then put it all together again.
And then bleed it. I didn't do the Avid parts when I first put it
together. Since I had to get the proper fluid anyway and didn't know
what it was, I let the shop do it. So I will have to learn this one.
No big deal, I was surprised that I bled both Shimano's in less than 10 minutes.
FWIW, all of my press-fit, plastic BBs have been problem free,
including the BB86 on my gravel bike is quiet. The BB386 is basically a
wide PF30, and I had one of those my old SuperSix, and it was quiet.
I was watching a YouTube video of Hambini and he said the actual term
for a 386 is BB386Evo. Evo is the term that FSA uses for the 30 mm shaft
on their lines. So I guess you're correct and that the company that is
selling the 24 mm BB386 should say that it is not an actual 386.

The lower race tool finally came in yesterday so I set the lower race and
installed the fork. They I threaded the internal cables for the derailleurs in.

Jay - cyclocross bikes use cables routed along the top tube and down the
seat tube with top pull derailleurs and gravel bikes use normally routed
cables with bottom pull derailleurs. So this is setup more as a gravel
bike than a cyclocross bike. Whether it rides that way or not remains to be seen.


Both bikes are likely to encounter copious amounts of mud, arguably more so
on a gravel bike in the winter in uk/Europe as a wet muddy park is only so
muddy.

I suspect that internally routed changes this, my Gravel bike has very few
areas that the cable is exposed, either external or internal, and thus
copes fine with bog snorkelling even if the tires etc don’t!

I’m not sure why your so keen it’s a gravel bike? That seems a dead cert
for a CX to be honest, narrow clearances, as it’s intended to run CX tires,
narrow ish range of gears as well muddy parks.

In short I’d expect and I’m far from alone a modern Gravel bike to a) be
able to take 40/45mm tires with mud clearance, and to have at least 1-1 low
gearing ideally lower as well off road gets steep and it gets rocky.

That Felt looks like something intended to be raced around a park, your not
going to convince many I suspect.

I haven't see a CX bike using 45 mm tires which are far more a slightly
narrowish MTB tires (used on dry hard ground) The clearances on this Felt
are wide enough for a 55 mm tire. Since it uses disks (and since it is
set up to 140 mm disks) it seems to me to be hardly a CX bike in classic
terms. That plastic derailleur cable diverter on the bottom of the BB
casing is more a bash plate to break the cables on real CX type of
courses. I used 32 and 34 mm tires on even very heavy terrain around here
without any problems. In fact the 34's probably had too much traction.
Good gravel tires have surprisingly little rolling resistance on hard road.
45mm are a long way from MTB tires, narrow XC are 55 ish, and look it, most
are the 60mm or more, even in the 80/90s 45mm was not even remotely a MTB
tire.

Felt claim 35mm clearance which those frames and similar, I’m sure you
could fit larger tires but you need mud clearance, or your likely to loose
paint quite apart from that you think 140mm rotors and 34mm tires give too
much grip rather leads me to suspect that your heavy terrain and mine is
likely to differ somewhat.

Felt think it’s a CX bike, everyone else thinks it’s a CX bike...

As for your spacers, I probably just should have bought those. Or better,
simply bought a Wheels Manufacturing BB386 Evo that uses 6803 bearings
that have a 24 mm inside diameter.

I think your confusing me with someone else!

Ridley claimed that their aluminum bikes were CX as well and they most
definitely were not. But they were great gravel bikes. I couldn't care
less what Felt CALLS their bike. What is important is the way it rides
and not what they call it.

A bike that has narrow clearances and gearing is very much a CX bike, that
it’s the Gravel bike you want to ride, doesn’t change that.
The stays and fork have sufficient clearance for 55 mm tires if anyone
was damn fool enough to put something that large in there.

That’s not clearance, manufacturers and well anyone vaguely sensible is
going to claim, maximum tire that you can run, rather that what will
physically fit, ie fag paper tight.
I have NEVER used an MTB tire wider than 1.9 inches which 48 mm and that
was on a full suspension 29er and that was far more than enough traction
in the softest ground.

I have used tires close to that size, used to have some 1.9 inch mud tires,
on the hardtail, and when I first had the Full suspension beastly, fitted
some 2in tires which really couldn’t cope, as the bike is capable of
hitting the ground so much harder, so quickly moved to some beefy 2.35.

They grip levels jumped as well.

I’d suggest that if 1.9 seems fine then it sounds much more gravel than MTB
trails.


Roger, I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. I have this
bike here and I'm telling you the damned measurements. Why are you
talking about your imagination of my bike? My Gary Fisher HiFi had 1.9
inch tires on it from the factory and THEY had too much traction. The
advantage of the HiFi was it was heavy enough in the front to hold it
down so that you didn't lift the front end, then the bike rotate on its
center of gravity and end up with you pointing downhill. Cyclocross bikes
do not have that advantage so if you have too much traction on a steep
hill, rather than the rear tire slipping the front end lifts.
That’s not traction or grip but geometry and position on bike, extreme
examples being Down Hill bikes, that are intended for steep descents, quite
apart from the weight and lack of gearing, climbing anything steep is
horrible, hence enduro bikes, which can do both, ie jack of all trades even
if master of none as they say.

Yes, you are quite correct that 55 mm tires would be too wide to work
well in this bike, but didn't I say, "if you were damned fool enough to
mount them"? Cyclocross tires are NARROW to not displace a lot of mud but
wide enough to move the bike forward through it. Gravel tires really
aren't made to ride in cyclocross conditions. Also, gravel tires have
rather surprisingly low rolling resistance on pavement. CX bikes carry
gearing almost the same as a road bike and gravel bikes much lower. I
don't know what it is like around where you are but around here the
gravel is continuously pounded down into the mud making almost a pavement
like surface in dry weather so they keep replenishing the gravel and you
have to ride though 3" deep gravel all the time. Though it is usually
done in 300 meter patches.
You did say it had clearance for 55mm vs Felt who if the catalog linked way
back claims 35mm which is much more likely.

Gravel here depends on season, for example some of the pre Roman roads in
the summer are lovely White Gravel trails, at the moment be foot dead
mud...

Gravel bikes are rather wide from racy stuff to essentially Monster Cross
bikes, and lots in between.

Mine is on the more roadie end, which is fine as I use it for farmers lanes
and tamer MTB stuff, taking the MTB to the steeper rougher stuff.

I only have a couple more components to get the Felt done, to tell you
the truth I'm pretty impressed with it. I might end up keeping it. Over
just off of the coast highway there are a whole lot of climbing gravel
roads. Suggestion, if you are building a gravel bike with disks (damn
noisy things) use 140 mm disks to reduce the power of the disks which are
way too strong for a light bike. I fit the Felt with a 140 front and a
160 rear since that was the most convenient size.

Possibly because I’m used to MTB but gravel 160 hydraulic though good in no
way feel overbraked! Plus I’m heavy and a fairly technical rider so I ride
steep stuff that is hard on the brakes.
I have a strong suspicion you are getting your measurements of the cyclocross Felt from the new carbon fiber bikes which have a LOT less clearance than the aluminum bike I have. Indeed they do look a lot more like a traditional cyclocross bike. It appears that they were calling these models by the same designation since I found one for sale that had V-brakes on it. Mine doesn't have the posts for V-brakes. weirdly enough this one for sale is an aluminum bike that has external cables and is using 32 cyclocross tires and clearly there is nowhere near the clearance on my disk bike. I would say that they are entirely different models if mine wasn't printed as an F55X by the factory and I'm pretty sure that the Ebay store I got it from was the factory.

You cannot have the sort of spacing I have and use V-brakes so their fork is a lot more narrow. But the rear triangle also has a lot less clearance. The factory pictures of their bikes do not call the latest models F55X but FX (designation) so I have no idea what is going on. I absolutely DO NOT have the narrow clearances of the latest or apparently the older bikes.

The "Breed" gravel bike has 45mm + 6 mm clearance. The latest cyclocross bike has 35mm + 4 mm clearance which definitely isn't mine. The older D55X was probably an unsuccessful try at cyclocross. So judging from that by the time they got around to building this bike it was a gravel prototype. All in all I am impressed with the workmanship and since the bike parts were set up for heavy climbing in gravel and loose dirt I think that it is going to be a success as a gravel bike. People rarely race on gravel though no doubt they will end up doing that. You can't prevent 20 year old's from acting like 12 year old's
WTF? Gravel racing is huge. https://www.cyclingnews.com/features...es-in-the-usa/ My son's former roommate and current workmate -- and Pro U23 enduro national champion -- won this one: https://www.cxmagazine.com/zach-calt...ar-gravel-race Zach Calton, great kid.

-- Jay Beattie.

Gravel racing? Just how fast does the gravel go? Perhaps you meant Gravel bicycle racing? then again that implies that the bicycle is made of gravel. Bicycle racing on gravel? Geeze, isn't English fun? LOL

Cheers

On 3/12/2021 10:45 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 11:12:27 AM UTC-8, wrote:

People rarely race on gravel though no doubt they will end up doing that. You can't prevent 20 year old's from acting like 12 year old's

WTF? Gravel racing is huge. https://www.cyclingnews.com/features...es-in-the-usa/ My son's former roommate and current workmate -- and Pro U23 enduro national champion -- won this one: https://www.cxmagazine.com/zach-calt...ar-gravel-race Zach Calton, great kid.

In Tom's defense, gravel races may be getting more common, but any
sample of "gravel bike" owners will only rarely find one who races.


--
- Frank Krygowski

Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/12/2021 10:45 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 11:12:27 AM UTC-8, wrote:

People rarely race on gravel though no doubt they will end up doing
that. You can't prevent 20 year old's from acting like 12 year old's

WTF? Gravel racing is huge.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features...es-in-the-usa/ My
son's former roommate and current workmate -- and Pro U23 enduro
national champion -- won this one:
https://www.cxmagazine.com/zach-calt...ar-gravel-race Zach
Calton, great kid.

In Tom's defense, gravel races may be getting more common, but any
sample of "gravel bike" owners will only rarely find one who races.



To be fair also counts for taking off road, equally as fair Gravel bikes
copes fantastic with potholes and generally rubbish roads.

I fairly rarely see other Gravel riders when out on the trails but MTBs and
walkers.

Roger Merriman

On Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 7:33:17 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/12/2021 10:45 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 11:12:27 AM UTC-8, wrote:

People rarely race on gravel though no doubt they will end up doing that. You can't prevent 20 year old's from acting like 12 year old's

WTF? Gravel racing is huge. https://www.cyclingnews.com/features...es-in-the-usa/ My son's former roommate and current workmate -- and Pro U23 enduro national champion -- won this one: https://www.cxmagazine.com/zach-calt...ar-gravel-race Zach Calton, great kid.
In Tom's defense, gravel races may be getting more common, but any
sample of "gravel bike" owners will only rarely find one who races.

There are a fair number of events in Oregon: https://bikeportland.org/oregon-unpaved And they're run as races with fondos/rides, so people can race or pretend to be racing.

Only a small fraction of cyclists on any kind of bike are racers, although pre-pandemic, it seemed like everyone and their brother raced CX around here. Road, CX and MTB races are clearly more common that gravel races, but its a developing market, and I'm sure we'll see more.

I'm road riding with my pals today -- sunny, clear skies, and I'm taking my light bike with no fenders. And skiing tomorrow. Woohoo. Its the magical time of the year when it gets sunnier and before the lawn needs mowing and the yard explodes.

-- Jay Beattie.

On Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 10:38:58 a.m. UTC-5, Roger Merriman wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/12/2021 10:45 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 11:12:27 AM UTC-8, wrote:

People rarely race on gravel though no doubt they will end up doing
that. You can't prevent 20 year old's from acting like 12 year old's

WTF? Gravel racing is huge.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features...es-in-the-usa/ My
son's former roommate and current workmate -- and Pro U23 enduro
national champion -- won this one:
https://www.cxmagazine.com/zach-calt...ar-gravel-race Zach
Calton, great kid.

In Tom's defense, gravel races may be getting more common, but any
sample of "gravel bike" owners will only rarely find one who races.


To be fair also counts for taking off road, equally as fair Gravel bikes
copes fantastic with potholes and generally rubbish roads.

I fairly rarely see other Gravel riders when out on the trails but MTBs and
walkers.

Roger Merriman

I think that potholes and more comfort were the two main reasons that MTB took off in the 1980s.

Cheers

Op zaterdag 13 maart 2021 om 16:33:17 UTC+1 schreef Frank Krygowski:
On 3/12/2021 10:45 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 11:12:27 AM UTC-8, wrote:

People rarely race on gravel though no doubt they will end up doing that. You can't prevent 20 year old's from acting like 12 year old's

WTF? Gravel racing is huge. https://www.cyclingnews.com/features...es-in-the-usa/ My son's former roommate and current workmate -- and Pro U23 enduro national champion -- won this one: https://www.cxmagazine.com/zach-calt...ar-gravel-race Zach Calton, great kid.
In Tom's defense, gravel races may be getting more common, but any
sample of "gravel bike" owners will only rarely find one who races.

Most gravel bike owners want to ride in places away from the crowded roads on a bike they think is most suitable. I'm one of them. I only race against myself.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aLmyAeaudT2zXKqu7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sCD6v8qUXQAtP6xk6

Photo's taken two weeks apart (Febr.12 and febr 26).

Lou

On Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 12:43:09 PM UTC-8, wrote:
Op zaterdag 13 maart 2021 om 16:33:17 UTC+1 schreef Frank Krygowski:
On 3/12/2021 10:45 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 11:12:27 AM UTC-8, wrote:

People rarely race on gravel though no doubt they will end up doing that. You can't prevent 20 year old's from acting like 12 year old's

WTF? Gravel racing is huge. https://www.cyclingnews.com/features...es-in-the-usa/ My son's former roommate and current workmate -- and Pro U23 enduro national champion -- won this one: https://www.cxmagazine.com/zach-calt...ar-gravel-race Zach Calton, great kid.
In Tom's defense, gravel races may be getting more common, but any
sample of "gravel bike" owners will only rarely find one who races.
Most gravel bike owners want to ride in places away from the crowded roads on a bike they think is most suitable. I'm one of them. I only race against myself.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aLmyAeaudT2zXKqu7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sCD6v8qUXQAtP6xk6

Photo's taken two weeks apart (Febr.12 and febr 26).
Lou, That is rather beautiful landscape and the reason that gravel bikes are becoming so popular.

Tom Kunich wrote:
On Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 12:43:09 PM UTC-8, wrote:
Op zaterdag 13 maart 2021 om 16:33:17 UTC+1 schreef Frank Krygowski:
On 3/12/2021 10:45 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 11:12:27 AM UTC-8, wrote:

People rarely race on gravel though no doubt they will end up doing
that. You can't prevent 20 year old's from acting like 12 year old's

WTF? Gravel racing is huge.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features...es-in-the-usa/
My son's former roommate and current workmate -- and Pro U23 enduro
national champion -- won this one:
https://www.cxmagazine.com/zach-calt...ar-gravel-race Zach
Calton, great kid.
In Tom's defense, gravel races may be getting more common, but any
sample of "gravel bike" owners will only rarely find one who races.
Most gravel bike owners want to ride in places away from the crowded
roads on a bike they think is most suitable. I'm one of them. I only race against myself.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aLmyAeaudT2zXKqu7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sCD6v8qUXQAtP6xk6

Photo's taken two weeks apart (Febr.12 and febr 26).
Lou, That is rather beautiful landscape and the reason that gravel bikes
are becoming so popular.


Very much this, it Gravel bike allows me to link together old
airports/forgotten roads framers tacks etc.

I can still tacked roads if I want to, but it’s a choice.

Roger Merriman

On Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 11:52:40 PM UTC-8, Roger Merriman wrote:
Tom Kunich wrote:
On Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 12:43:09 PM UTC-8, wrote:
Op zaterdag 13 maart 2021 om 16:33:17 UTC+1 schreef Frank Krygowski:
On 3/12/2021 10:45 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 11:12:27 AM UTC-8, wrote:

People rarely race on gravel though no doubt they will end up doing
that. You can't prevent 20 year old's from acting like 12 year old's

WTF? Gravel racing is huge.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features...es-in-the-usa/
My son's former roommate and current workmate -- and Pro U23 enduro
national champion -- won this one:
https://www.cxmagazine.com/zach-calt...ar-gravel-race Zach
Calton, great kid.
In Tom's defense, gravel races may be getting more common, but any
sample of "gravel bike" owners will only rarely find one who races.
Most gravel bike owners want to ride in places away from the crowded
roads on a bike they think is most suitable. I'm one of them. I only race against myself.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aLmyAeaudT2zXKqu7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sCD6v8qUXQAtP6xk6

Photo's taken two weeks apart (Febr.12 and febr 26).
Lou, That is rather beautiful landscape and the reason that gravel bikes
are becoming so popular.

Very much this, it Gravel bike allows me to link together old
airports/forgotten roads framers tacks etc.

I can still tacked roads if I want to, but it’s a choice.

My most common gravel ride is on a road bike and usually just to beat traffic and take a lower angle climb into the West Hills. Basically this ride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMOR...erCityBicycles Its right out of downtown.

Gravel is a part of many road rides around here, but getting more than five or six miles of gravel and doing a long gravel ride means a long wind-up on the road or driving somewhere -- which is what makes true gravel riding, like mountain biking, a devotee sport unless you live in Gravelvania and can jump on gravel out your back door. It's worth it when you get there, but for me it means more planning.

-- Jay Beattie.

On Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 11:52:40 PM UTC-8, Roger Merriman wrote:
Tom Kunich wrote:
On Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 12:43:09 PM UTC-8, wrote:
Op zaterdag 13 maart 2021 om 16:33:17 UTC+1 schreef Frank Krygowski:
On 3/12/2021 10:45 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, March 12, 2021 at 11:12:27 AM UTC-8, wrote:

People rarely race on gravel though no doubt they will end up doing
that. You can't prevent 20 year old's from acting like 12 year old's

WTF? Gravel racing is huge.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features...es-in-the-usa/
My son's former roommate and current workmate -- and Pro U23 enduro
national champion -- won this one:
https://www.cxmagazine.com/zach-calt...ar-gravel-race Zach
Calton, great kid.
In Tom's defense, gravel races may be getting more common, but any
sample of "gravel bike" owners will only rarely find one who races.
Most gravel bike owners want to ride in places away from the crowded
roads on a bike they think is most suitable. I'm one of them. I only race against myself.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aLmyAeaudT2zXKqu7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sCD6v8qUXQAtP6xk6

Photo's taken two weeks apart (Febr.12 and febr 26).
Lou, That is rather beautiful landscape and the reason that gravel bikes
are becoming so popular.

Very much this, it Gravel bike allows me to link together old
airports/forgotten roads framers tacks etc.

I can still tacked roads if I want to, but it’s a choice.

I bought a Zitto BB386 bottom brank and when it arrived I realized that it was 30 mm shaft diameter. So I bought a quick delivery BB that said it was 24 mm. Stupid me, rather than listen to Jay, I assumed that this was a 42 x 24 mm bearing. In fact it was the same 30 mm bearings but in a plastic container and with a couple of 24 mm adapters. Well, the BB was designed BB386 so the adapters made marginally too wide. But worst of all the plastic casing allowed the 41 x 30 bearings to rock in the BB and the adapters made it worse. Well I installed the bottom bracket with a BB press, and it was pretty tight. The crappy engineering was the the pushing the two halves together caused the outer shell to expand so that it is locked in place. A normal bearing extractor isn't getting anywhere and now I have to figure out how to get that crappy BB out of there to replace it with the Zitto. From there I have to decide whether to use those adapters that may make it too wide for the XT crankset or get a 30 mm shaft off-road crankset. This is about the last thing to do aside from bleeding the Avid brakes. I need only install the chain.