6 ms·

Could be useful for downhillers but for all others the less the bike weights while maintaining strength - the better. In my experience bike weight is the single

by Arech 6y ago

Could be useful for downhillers but for all others the less the bike weights while maintaining strength - the better. In my experience bike weight is the single most important thing that matters the most no matter where are you going to ride - over a nice asphalt road or in a woods. It's ok to ride in the woods with overinflated tires compared to riding overweight bike... The latter is just exhausting.

globular-toast 6y ago
Yeah. It's little wonder most people don't take cycling seriously when their experience is limited to a £100 ridiculously heavy piece of junk with under inflated tyres and non lubricated gears. I tell some people that my bikes cost upwards of £600 and they can't believe it. But if I tell them my car cost £5k second hand they're like "is that all?"
- Arech 6y ago
  Exactly!
- dan1234 6y ago
  And £600 is still pretty much entry level for bike pricing!
  - wtallis 6y ago
    At least for mountain bikes, that's well out of the entry-level tier. Trek's MSRPs start in the $500-$600 US range for decent hardtail mountain bikes (aluminum frame, disc brakes) that are reliable and worth repairing when something breaks, unlike department store crap. $700 US is when they start giving you fancier features like hydraulic disc brakes and suspension lockout. Full-suspension bikes that are worth the trouble are definitely more expensive than that, but I don't think it's fair to say that hardtails are necessarily entry-level.
    - johannesgoslar 6y ago
      A mediocre rim brake is much more useful than a shitty entry level disc brake. Even worse if it is a mechanical disc brake which should be forbidden.
      - mauvehaus 6y ago
        Good mechanical disc brakes exist. I have Avid BB-7's on my mountain bike, and there's a lot to be said for the fact that every mom and pop bike shop has cable and housing on hand. Are they as nice as hydraulics? No, but they're pretty damn good and easy for anybody to maintain. At the level I ride, that's a worthwhile trade off. I've done brake jobs on my cars and I've done every job there is to do on a bike short of replacing a headset or rebuilding a fork; I don't have a burning need to bleed more brakes.
      - Mediterraneo10 6y ago
        There are some really crappy low-end mechanical disc brakes around, but the TRP Spyke and Avid BB7 are solid and commonly found on touring bikes. If you plan to cycle 30,000 km through lots of remote terrain (e.g. Alaska–Ushuaia or Europe to Cape Town via West Africa), then they are as trivial to maintain as rim brakes, without however destroying your rim. I have cycled down some of the world's great mountain ranges, and I have never had complaints about my Spyke's stopping power.
        veggieburglar 6y ago
        Agreed on Spykes and BB7. Mech discs are essential for long touring... who wants to carry a bleed kit? In all other cases though, I will prefer the modulation and stopping power of hydraulics, both on the road and on the trail.
  - bambax 6y ago
    In France you can buy a very decent MTB with hydraulic brakes for less than €400. The sky's the limit if you want to spend more, of course, but for that amount of money you can get something that isn't bad at all.
- u02sgb 6y ago
  5k for your car? you could buy a bike for that! :)
sva_ 6y ago
I think optimizing in weight for non-competitive riding often takes it too far. From my experience, you grow accustomed to the weight of the bike (in fact, it makes you stronger). I frequently see people on carbon frames with xtr sets or such, who could've more easily just lost a few kilograms of body fat, rather than spend literally thousands to save a couple 100 grams of mechanical weight.
- lostlogin 6y ago
  It wouldn’t be half as fun to overtake them if they had a crap bike though. Using a mountain bike on tar seal is just brutal. Even the noise sounds inefficient.
sideshowb 6y ago
Not just downhillers, also enduro/all mountain/trail riding. I can see it being great to have tires drop to 12psi for a steep muddy section where you need the traction, come back to 30psi for stability in a hard corner, drop to 20ish to suck up some trail chatter at speed (assuming it's tubeless) then up to 50 for the ride home on tarmac. The thing that would mainly concern me is not weight but reliability. Everything on bikes breaks eventually and the % of rides that are ruined because the auto tire inflator failed and left me with a flat has to be very low indeed. And on the occasions it does then the % of weeks riding that are ruined because it's not quick and easy to fix back at home has to be low as well. Tech has to be very, very mature before I fit it to my bike.
- JNRowe 6y ago
  At last year's UCI worlds one of the riders(I forget who) had a dropper post failure, and it was depressing watching them slowly lose rank simply because of that. Part of me wants to see all the new advancements, but I also hate it when it ruins an otherwise good spectacle or personal ride. We also saw it with e-shifting in road, but that seems to have largely been solved. So, perhaps any problems that should arise with this could be shaken out in a couple of seasons too? </fence> Maybe there is a market for racing and events where you're only allowed steel-framed, canti brakes, SiS index shift monstrosities? Like one of those sub-$1k car rallies or something.
  - sideshowb 6y ago
    >Maybe there is a market for racing and events where you're only allowed steel-framed, canti brakes, SiS index shift monstrosities? The closest fit to what you're looking for is the singlespeed category :)
    - JNRowe 6y ago
      Yeah. I was using a lot of hyperbole in an attempt to get my point across. However, in the time between writing my earlier comment and this I've actually been out for a lunchtime ride on my fixie. Just good fun for a Friday in February! The response here makes me think there are others who like the idea though, so I'll try to float it in the local CC forum.
johannesgoslar 6y ago
The single most important thing is having great brakes. After that a decent enough fit from geometry to your body while not being massively overweight (the bike).
szemet 6y ago
Looking at the photos, I can imagine it is even rotating. Ok-ok, it is near the axle, but you do not see racing bikes with huge internally geared hubs neither, so...

by Arech 6y ago

globular-toast 6y ago

Yeah. It's little wonder most people don't take cycling seriously when their experience is limited to a £100 ridiculously heavy piece of junk with under inflated tyres and non lubricated gears. I tell some people that my bikes cost upwards of £600 and they can't believe it. But if I tell them my car cost £5k second hand they're like "is that all?"

Arech 6y ago
Exactly!
dan1234 6y ago
And £600 is still pretty much entry level for bike pricing!
- wtallis 6y ago
  At least for mountain bikes, that's well out of the entry-level tier. Trek's MSRPs start in the $500-$600 US range for decent hardtail mountain bikes (aluminum frame, disc brakes) that are reliable and worth repairing when something breaks, unlike department store crap. $700 US is when they start giving you fancier features like hydraulic disc brakes and suspension lockout. Full-suspension bikes that are worth the trouble are definitely more expensive than that, but I don't think it's fair to say that hardtails are necessarily entry-level.
  - johannesgoslar 6y ago
    A mediocre rim brake is much more useful than a shitty entry level disc brake. Even worse if it is a mechanical disc brake which should be forbidden.
    - mauvehaus 6y ago
      Good mechanical disc brakes exist. I have Avid BB-7's on my mountain bike, and there's a lot to be said for the fact that every mom and pop bike shop has cable and housing on hand. Are they as nice as hydraulics? No, but they're pretty damn good and easy for anybody to maintain. At the level I ride, that's a worthwhile trade off. I've done brake jobs on my cars and I've done every job there is to do on a bike short of replacing a headset or rebuilding a fork; I don't have a burning need to bleed more brakes.
    - Mediterraneo10 6y ago
      There are some really crappy low-end mechanical disc brakes around, but the TRP Spyke and Avid BB7 are solid and commonly found on touring bikes. If you plan to cycle 30,000 km through lots of remote terrain (e.g. Alaska–Ushuaia or Europe to Cape Town via West Africa), then they are as trivial to maintain as rim brakes, without however destroying your rim. I have cycled down some of the world's great mountain ranges, and I have never had complaints about my Spyke's stopping power.
      - veggieburglar 6y ago
        Agreed on Spykes and BB7. Mech discs are essential for long touring... who wants to carry a bleed kit? In all other cases though, I will prefer the modulation and stopping power of hydraulics, both on the road and on the trail.
- bambax 6y ago
  In France you can buy a very decent MTB with hydraulic brakes for less than €400. The sky's the limit if you want to spend more, of course, but for that amount of money you can get something that isn't bad at all.
u02sgb 6y ago
5k for your car? you could buy a bike for that! :)

sva_ 6y ago

I think optimizing in weight for non-competitive riding often takes it too far. From my experience, you grow accustomed to the weight of the bike (in fact, it makes you stronger). I frequently see people on carbon frames with xtr sets or such, who could've more easily just lost a few kilograms of body fat, rather than spend literally thousands to save a couple 100 grams of mechanical weight.

lostlogin 6y ago
It wouldn’t be half as fun to overtake them if they had a crap bike though. Using a mountain bike on tar seal is just brutal. Even the noise sounds inefficient.

sideshowb 6y ago

Not just downhillers, also enduro/all mountain/trail riding. I can see it being great to have tires drop to 12psi for a steep muddy section where you need the traction, come back to 30psi for stability in a hard corner, drop to 20ish to suck up some trail chatter at speed (assuming it's tubeless) then up to 50 for the ride home on tarmac. The thing that would mainly concern me is not weight but reliability. Everything on bikes breaks eventually and the % of rides that are ruined because the auto tire inflator failed and left me with a flat has to be very low indeed. And on the occasions it does then the % of weeks riding that are ruined because it's not quick and easy to fix back at home has to be low as well. Tech has to be very, very mature before I fit it to my bike.

JNRowe 6y ago
At last year's UCI worlds one of the riders(I forget who) had a dropper post failure, and it was depressing watching them slowly lose rank simply because of that. Part of me wants to see all the new advancements, but I also hate it when it ruins an otherwise good spectacle or personal ride. We also saw it with e-shifting in road, but that seems to have largely been solved. So, perhaps any problems that should arise with this could be shaken out in a couple of seasons too? </fence> Maybe there is a market for racing and events where you're only allowed steel-framed, canti brakes, SiS index shift monstrosities? Like one of those sub-$1k car rallies or something.
- sideshowb 6y ago
  >Maybe there is a market for racing and events where you're only allowed steel-framed, canti brakes, SiS index shift monstrosities? The closest fit to what you're looking for is the singlespeed category :)
  - JNRowe 6y ago
    Yeah. I was using a lot of hyperbole in an attempt to get my point across. However, in the time between writing my earlier comment and this I've actually been out for a lunchtime ride on my fixie. Just good fun for a Friday in February! The response here makes me think there are others who like the idea though, so I'll try to float it in the local CC forum.

johannesgoslar 6y ago

The single most important thing is having great brakes. After that a decent enough fit from geometry to your body while not being massively overweight (the bike).

szemet 6y ago

Looking at the photos, I can imagine it is even rotating. Ok-ok, it is near the axle, but you do not see racing bikes with huge internally geared hubs neither, so...