Cycling Thread 2

[habernac]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

Gravel bike question for anyone with experience….

Anybody ridden a checkpoint with Isospeed? Or any other trek with it? Like it? Thoughts?

And more generally, is it worth getting a gravel bike with with some ride smooothening (isospeed, future shock, kingpin) or are the big tires good enough for ride quality?

I think I'm down to either a checkpoint or a Scott addict gravel. The Scott is fast and looks great, but is a little more limited than the trek.

I've got a Kona Rove NRB DL. No suspension on it. I think I've ridden one road in the thousands of km I've done on it where I would have liked the suspension. The tires are enough.

[KTrain]

I think Northendzone has a Checkpoint.

[Icantwhisper]

Originally Posted by habernac

I've got a Kona Rove NRB DL. No suspension on it. I think I've ridden one road in the thousands of km I've done on it where I would have liked the suspension. The tires are enough.

Agreed, I've run 38, 40 and 45 mm tires depending on state of the gravel, 45mm soak up everything.
I personally think the suspension is a gimmick and they just need to keep changing things so we'll buy new stuff.

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by Icantwhisper

Agreed, I've run 38, 40 and 45 mm tires depending on state of the gravel, 45mm soak up everything.
I personally think the suspension is a gimmick and they just need to keep changing things so we'll buy new stuff.

Your bike build choices and what you most frequently ride need to align. Chunkier gravel and tougher surfaces might require heavier wider tires, not to mention pressure choice, and whether you need/want a suspension stem/seat or carbon fibre seatpost.
For a while I ran 29’er tires on my gravel, but at slightly higher pressures and it was a lot of fun. Except on heavier loose gravel where it sucked. At present I’m running a 43 in front and 38 rear which covered me for last 2 months of gravel outings and work commuting. I tried 33’s and definitely too rough. At some point you gotta say hey I need my road bike, or mtb, rather than trying to force a gravel rig into everything.

[Icantwhisper]

Difficulty level was a little higher today on the ride in, pretty slick out there, need the sun on the paths today

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by KTrain

I think Northendzone has a Checkpoint.

Ryan - I have a Checkpoint ALR5; however, it does not have isospeed.

Overall it has been a solid bike for me; although, I had to replace the factory wheelset as i kept breaking spokes. Only had 4 rides on the new wheelset before it was time to put this bike away, but the bike felt more solid overall and it felt like it engaged a little quicker

[RichieRich]

I’ve been commuting through a lot of the last couple months of random weather. Granted sometimes I cheat and drive part way but I still see lots of snow and ice and runoff. That said I gotta say I’ve been super impressed with the 38mm gravelkings for grip in all conditions. Been doing this year round riding for over 10 years and these have been super awesome on everything except the death-ice where nothing is awesome.

[bossy22]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

And more generally, is it worth getting a gravel bike with with some ride smooothening (isospeed, future shock, kingpin) or are the big tires good enough for ride quality?

All depends on where you ride. I have a Diverge pro and while the future shock is nice, I don't need it. I ride it around my home, fish creek, some gravel roads, but nothing extreme.

I have a couple of buddies who rode from Vancouver to Fernie this past spring. No pavement. All fire roads and trails. Took them 6 days. One friend had a hardtail, the other had his Open WIDE with 27.5x2.1 tires. He said it was way too rough in a lot of sections. He was pretty beat up. He ended up selling his Open and getting a Lauf Seigla. He really likes it so far, but he doesn't ride pathways.

[Northendzone]

i keep reading a lot of positive thoughts on those Lauf forks - but they are so visually unattractive.

i doubt i could ever get past that to actually try or buy a bike with that style of fork

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

i keep reading a lot of positive thoughts on those Lauf forks - but they are so visually unattractive.

i doubt i could ever get past that to actually try or buy a bike with that style of fork

They look like an ugly morphed Girvin from the 90’s but misinstallled on a road/gravel bike by accident.

[RichieRich]

ok perhaps a bit of a long shot here... had some of the good old faithful Magicshine LED lights for a long long time. lights have been awesome. After first battery died was able to find replacement on Amazon. Can't find them cheap anymore (last paid about $15) there... looking for the 7.4V Li-ion, preferably more than 3000mAh, but has to have the Trail-tech female plugin. Looks kinda like this: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08DDB7FGW/...v_ov_lig_dp_it

[Icantwhisper]

Great ride in this morning, the days when there is 2-3 cm of fresh snow are the best, nice and peaceful. Always feels like I'm moving faster than I am though

[Fuzz]

It was a very nice ride, but damn if it wasn't slow. None of what I rode was plowed(other than a short section of the river path) so no coasting. Fortunately most of the ice seems to be buried deep enough, I only had 3 surprise sideways moments...

[Northendzone]

i actually got out on my fatbike for the first time this season on sunday. trails in the bow bottom area need some bike traffic and some snow

[Icantwhisper]

Also, Xmas came early, Canyon Inflite 7.0 arrived yesterday, probably take it out on the weekend to boot around

[Ryan Coke]

Congrats!

I just got my new checkpoint for my birthday today. Now I’ve got to start checking out gravel races next summer. But Belgian Waffle Victoria might be a little much for my first ever gravel event.

[Northendzone]

come on you guys - pics or these new bikes are not real to me

[Ryan Coke]

Not my bike, but same model and Color.

[Icantwhisper]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

come on you guys - pics or these new bikes are not real to me

I'll take some pics in the sun on the weekend

[Icantwhisper]

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