Originally Posted by
Moisture
Wow, thats quite a wide spread of ratios! Me personally, i just don't have steep enough hills to warrant the need for 22/34 as my lowest gear maybe unless I am touring. I've never really noticed any flex from my crankset or bottom bracket. I will definetly have to take a look into this. Why do you like having the bars lower? Maybe you need a shorter stem. I think I will be looking into some sort of very soft grips in the near future from Amazon or something. There's actually other factors than just the frame aline which can contribute to road vibration, such as the padding on the grips.
My understanding is that my bike is some sort of sport touring low end model. To me it seems like the more relaxed angles were designed for good stability with loaded cargo and heavier riders. I keep losing weight lately because I've started to eat very slowly and its doing wonders for my balance and performance on the bike. Front end shake at high speeds could have something to do with the way you are balanced on your bike.
As for tire pressures, I've heard that you can achieve identical rolling surfaces by inflating to similar pressures. So experimenting with different PSI would be the key here.
Personally I was a huge fan of my old Sugino crank (40/52t) the ring count felt good to me and the arms felt extenely stiff and responsive despite the tiny size.
Whenever I did try going some mild singletrack on my norco, the pedals slapped against tree roots and dirt mounds several times. Otherwise it was the best performance I've ever felt on such varying terrain.
Thats great advice with the wind riding, but I find that, no matter which direction I go, 99% it is pretty much just constant wind. Im very rarely able to slip alongside it even if I turn around. If I gotta be somewhere I just tough it out.
Sometimes things are planned and sometimes the world provides. In the case of my ultra wide gearing I bought the Race Face crankset and it came with its original sprockets. I would have used a 24-32-35 set up for sprockets. It was so much easier to say, "I'll save the money and try this setup". So cheapness got me my wide gear range. I average 10 to 13mph on my bike rides. I need gearing that takes me up to about 21mph for downwind and downhill days. Any faster and I just coast. The 46-11 takes me up to about 30mph or so. Way beyond what I need or want. I can't pull the higher gears anymore that I did when I was younger. 35-11 will take me to 21mph give or take and I'll use it much more often than the 46-11 I have now. My handlebars are forward to put more weight on my hands and less on my bum. This division of the weight makes my bum happier than if I'm sitting straight up. Also leaning forward a bit helps a little bit on air drag reduction. I had experimented recently with putting foam pipe insulators around my handlebars and taping them up. They worked great but the foam for insulation breaks down rapidly with use and goes flat against the bar. But when the foam was still working my hands would not get numb. This is such a recent development in a long life of having numb hands that I'm amazed it came along. Anyway the ODI mushroom grips are just as cheap as any and are made right here in the USA. If you decide to buy these be sure to buy their mushroom grips. They make all kinds. My Nishiki Sebring is also a lower end model. It would be just above the steel rimed models with bolt on deraileur hangers. My Sebring has chrome moly main tubes. hi tensile steel rear forks, stays, front fork and a rear dropout with integral derailleur hanger. The rims were aluminum but the deraileurs were steel Suntour models of the era. Higher end and race bikes would have all aluminum derailleurs and all tubes of the frame and fork made of chrome moly. I've had lightly built high end chrome moly race bikes that would shake their front end in high G turns going 50+ mph when racing. That can be quite scary. The whole frame is bending from the loads then springing back into shape over and over in the corners. However the race bike that did that to me was super comfortable to ride. Bumps didn't come through as much. I don't ride that fast anymore. Had a great 26 mile ride today on my recumbent. Lots of people out on the bicycle trail during this pandemic.