chief9245

Hi Yan,
Went through Sherman pass, Wauconda pass, Loup Loup pass, Washington pass, and finished up with Rainy Pass. Was one of the most amazing rides of my life. So stunningly beautiful.

chief9245

My bad Yan, that was the Cascades. Through the Rockies I came in through East Glacier and the Marias pass. Went through Glacier National Park, Whitefish , ,Kalispell, Libby, Sandpoint, etc. That was amazing too, the Cascades were by far more menacing.

djb

Chief, having 23.5 as a low gear would be a bit high for me, but your bike very much is benefited by how light modern stuff is. Tailfin, apidura, are both really light stuff, and I'm sure your tent etc are light, so I'm sure your bikes total weight with gear is pretty darn good.
You must be a strong rider, I personally would want a lower low and a higher high, using a double, but as you say, your set up worked great.
ps, I like a 1x for certain things, but to maintain a double setup isn't really much more work other than wiping a second chainring sometimes, but that's about it.

chief9245

DJB,
The gear definitely helped, and I went as minimalist as possible, at least I think I did. I wouldn't say I'm that strong, just strong willed. That's why I originally said, it's an almost impossible answer. Everyone has their preference. 2x is fantastic, I have 2x setups but after riding this, I don't seem to want anything else for right now, it ticks all my boxes, although it does have its limitations, I'm ok with that.

Polaris OBark

There are others:

imi

I carry my scars with pride!

Polaris OBark

I just bought my first 1X today. Since it isn't a touring bike, I won't contaminate this thread.

djb

fattie?
today I got my fattie down from where its been sitting and put my Jones bars back on it.
More cross contamination, ooops

Polaris OBark

Yes, or do you mean the bike?

https://www.bikeforums.net/mountain-...-bike-day.html

I've got two of those. Maybe that is what this needs.

djb

chuckle, I'm a skinny who has fun on a fattie (not too fat, only 26x4)
Holy FS and lots of firsts Batman....a shiny new thing. I've never even ridden a FS, let alone a light one and dem new fangled shifters. I'm sure it will be quite a smile inducing experience.

And ya, I had some jones bars kicking around for years, with the idea to slap em on my dropbar Troll if I ever did the Divide trail or similar. Then a few years back finally put them on my commuter just to live with them for a while to see if I liked them. Lots of fun on that bike, so then put them on the fatbike for a few winters, still loved em, but always put them back on the commuter come spring. We've had a weird winter so far, so havent been out on the fatbike yet, but did the bar switcheroo today finally.

P.S. the one thing with jones bars is that they really need longer housings to avoid binding, easy to do with all mechanical, but could be a bit of a pain in the keester with hydro stuff and internal routing. My bikes are all pretty old fashioned and easy to work on.

str

on steep climbs I would like a 46 cassette, how was the 42 for you? did you clean the bike every day? )) looks al so clean in the pictures I saw.

chief9245

It would have been nice to have a 46 but the 42 gave me a better than 1 to 1 and it worked well. Yes, I constantly cleaned it, especially the drivetrain. I'm OCD like that, plus it shows any problems that might begin to arise. Bottom bracket issues were my biggest problem, the stock pressfit just couldn't hack it so I went with a Wheels Mfg threaded. Expensive but worked flawlessly.

str

Thanks. now I am curious, how do you put a threaded BB into a pressfit BB?

djb

says the man always with a very dirty bike in photos!
( I like poking you about this every time)

str

I love to see dirty bikes, looks like somebody uses them. ) Saturday I cleaned mine with a water hose, but from far, NOT that it gets too clean ()

P.S. ok, chain and cassette I clean more often.

chief9245

Wheels Mfg makes a bb just for that purpose. Of course you need they're special wrenches or sockets, but once installed you'll never deal with it again. Cheapest I found was $110.

djb

I may not be OCD about the whole bike, but I do always keep my drivetrain clean. Total win win as you say, better for chain life and whole drivetrain, plus who likes riding with a crunchy sounding bike, not nice from an enjoyment thing, not nice for the components. For offroad riding, this is the one thing that makes a belt drive dream rather appealing.

so chief, on this note, you didnt respond the other day, what sort of life did you get out of your chain on your year long trip? I only have up to 10 speed experience, so would like to know your real life 11 spd experience. Knowing you keep the drivetrain clean is a good factor to know, more or less meaning it would be similar to how I keep my bikes and the resulting effect on drivetrain life.

str, how about you? What sort of kms do you tend to get out of a chain. I know you ride a lot more on dirt, but its probably more often dry in the Spain photos you show us than wet dirt roads.

Repeating the obvious here, but changing out a chain when it gets to a certain wear point, stretch point, is much much cheaper than letting it go way too far, as this then prematurely wears out the cassette and chainring--so cheaper and less hassle changing out the chain before it is stretched too much, and if you do so, you can go easily three chains before a cassette change is needed.
Cassettes and chain rings are a lot lot more expensive than chains.

chief9245

I just wiped it down and maintained the drivetrain daily, nothing special. Maybe with my high rate of speed, a good sustained 13-14mph, the dirt just blew off? Ha! Actually, I never rode in the rain so that helped keep it clean too.

chief9245

I went through three chains, three sets of brake pads, two shifter cables, a pair of shoes(!), two pressit bb's., and 4 sets of tires. The chainring I have is a Wolftooth 38t and it still looks as good as the day I left, awesome product! The cassette needs to be changed out, it's a SRAM xg-1195.

chief9245

I really hate to plug myself, but when I got home I got super depressed. Being on the road for so long became a way of life that I absolutely fell in love with, but couldn't maintain due to family issues, plus I was a yearling grandfather at the time. Touring becomes a selfish habit, and I can't wait to get back out to finish the 18 states left in the lower 48. I kept a journal every day and to keep me from jumping off the ledge, I had it published, 720 pages along with over 1,00 photos. If anybody is interested, it's for sale on Bookbaby.com and Amazon under the title "Keep the Lonely Places Lonely". It's super pricey due to publishing costs, but it's pretty epic. I don't know if this violates any rules on the forum, but I thought I'd plug it.

djb

thats pretty reasonable life per chain, not really any different from all of my years riding through the 7, 8, 9, 10 spd generations. 5000kms + per chain for you is actually really good. Not riding in rain is a big help, being on dirt and stuff with rain, especially with no fenders, is a big big factor for lowering chain life.
-brake pads, not unusual. More than me but I'm not much of a braker, not a brake dragger in any case.
-the shifter cables surprise me a bit, I wonder that with clutch type rear derailleurs this is the reason--they put more tension on things. I have only one bike with a clutch rd and I turn it off as I prefer that, I find the shifting harder with it on, and anyway, its on a fatbike and it rides perfectly fine in the off position (not a mtb with a lot more bashing around)
-the pressfit bb, I've never owned one, and have to admit I dont have an urge ever to. Will always prefer a frame with a threaded bb shell. Ive gotten great life out of Hollowtech 2 bb's, even installed by myself never having done it before and its got to have easily 10,000 kms on it still. (but I'm a lightweight and dont put out a lot of power, so this has to be a factor)
-tires. heck, there are a gazillion flavours of tires out there but I'm a bit surprised they wore out that fast, but completely depends on the specific tire. Some really nice riding tires wear out faster, but I get liking how a tire rides and living with less mileage.

thks for details, fun to read anyway. bike nerd central here.....

chief9245

Shifter cable was an issue before I left, finally resolved it after 6,000ish miles. Brakes were mostly due to the mountains. Put a new set in right before the Cascades and had to replace them after. Some of the descents are crazy, and riding solo safety was my biggest concern so yeah, I rode the brakes a lot on the descents. Pressfits are such a horrible idea, pretty much designed to fail, and if you're a person that throws down some power, they go even quicker. Going through 4 sets of tires was partly my problem. My first set of Byways lasted to Montana, the set I got after that were Terravails, I can't remember the model, but they were designed mostly for gravel which I planned on being on for awhile. They wore out quick so I went back to Byways and those got destroyed by goatheads in New Mexico. Went to a set of Schwalbe Hurricanes for about a week, absolutely hated them so went back to the Byways in Texas and finished with them.

djb

gotta get going, so not time to properly respond, but yeah, pretty common experience. Throw in other stuff folks trail around with them in their lives, and having the simple basic satisfying adventure thing stop is always weird, and heck, I've only ever been away 2 or 3 months.
cheers, and hey, why not plug it, bike traveling nerd central here again.....

chief9245

You're the best dj!

djb

I've had shifter cable issues in the past when I've improperly adjusted the derailleurs and shifters, so a bit too much tension in the system, which over time stresses the cable at the bend point inside the shifter. I perhaps recall you writing that you hated the Hurricanes. I have a pair that were super cheap and ride ok, but I really havent put many miles on them.
Ive been lucky so far in that I havent ridden where goatheads were around, they sound like a real pain in the arse. But hey, tires are tires, a consumable thing, just hope you didnt have the inconvenience of having lots of flats within a short time, that would be frustrating. Touch wood Ive not had that happen (yet)