furiousferret

So I planned to vote in person because I always do and am paranoid it would get lost.

...and they're closing my road tomorrow for paving, which I didn't think was a big deal because the polling place is a short walk....but I just found out they moved the polling location 4 miles! =\

Flatballer

I feel like you shouldn't be able to close roads in neighborhoods on election day, or any holiday.

Can you park a car nearby but outside the closure?

topflightpro

Sold my MTB yesterday.

It was 13 years old, and I had not ridden it more than 2 or 3 dozen times over the last 10 years. I was going to give it to my sister in law, but after I cleaned it up this weekend, I realized there was no way I could make it small enough for her. So, I put it on Craigslist yesterday. It was sold within 2 hours.

Part of me wonders if I underpriced it since it sold so quickly, but at the same time, I'm happy with how much I got out of it.

furiousferret

Probably, we just went to a drop box last night. Its nice they're paving our road because we were having weeds grow through, but yeah, bad timing.

topflightpro

Sold my 13yo MTB last week for $600. (They’d been going for $700-$750 over the last year on eBay.)

Saw it today for sale on CL in another city for $1350. I wish the guy luck, but I only paid $1300 for it 12 years ago.

Hermes

I had a simple outpatient procedure done at the hospital this week and I had to get a Covid test prior. It was pretty simple. I had an appointment, drove up, wound the window down and then done. A couple of sneezes and all was good. Got negative results 10 hours later via my health app.

big john

Sold mine through the lbs. I tried to give it away but no takers. I wanted $100 but he gave me $300. No idea who ended up with it, lbs guy didn't tell me.
Also sold my touring bike, a 1988 Cannondale frame with a bunch of donated parts. My lbs guy knew a tall guy who was recovering from a stroke and wanted a bike to cruise the neighborhood and it was perfect for him.

himespau 

As a tall guy who likes vintage cannondale tourers, that's a beauty.

ridethecliche

I'm on the hunt for a slightly more relaxed-ish bike which can take wider tires for mostly road but also some gravel use. Been considering some cross bikes as well. Any reason not to? I have a little money I could put towards it, i.e. money that was for vacations but isn't going anywhere this year. Was thinking of spending a bunch of money and getting a new fangled gravel bike with disc brakes yada yada yada, but now I'm wondering if I'm better off looking for an older cross bike with canti's. I rarely ride in the wet or mud anyway and my other bike is rim brake as well so....

Thoughts?

I've had some leads locally on decent gravel bikes, but some of them have been QR and others have been thru axle front and QR rear and I'm not sure I want to deal with that.

big john

It only had 1 scratch on the top tube from where a guy loaded it on a cargo car on the train. That was in 2007, the last time I used it. It was a great touring bike, I got the frame for $100 in about 1992 when a bike store went out of business. I switched the parts from a Nishiki I had and I had fun the times that I did use it. Mixed feelings about selling it but if I want to carry panniers my Gunnar has rack eyelets.

big john

I thought about trying some gravel rides with the touring bike. Some friends were doing some rides that looked interesting but events this year conspired against me.
There are some cheap gravel bikes on the market.

topflightpro

How wide of tires do you want to run?

Many older cross bikes can’t handle current gravel tires. For example, average gravel tires are 38-42 (on 700c wheels, 50 on 650s). The Cannondale CX-9 I recently sold couldn’t go bigger than 35.

ridethecliche

Thing is I want to keep everything 11 speed. The prices jumps up like 5 fold with that.

Hm. Interesting. I feel like 35 would be fine for the most part since this is likely going to be run 90% on the road or for cross-ish things.
That said, I really feel like I probably wouldn't even be thinking about any of this if my current roadie fit 28's or 30's. It can just about do 25's on a slightly wide psimet wheel. That's not terrible, but when I'm just training I don't really care about speed all that much and would rather be comfortable. Figured a cross-ish bike could save that.

I have a line on a van dessel full tilt boogie which looks promising, but it's unfortunately built up with 1x sram stuff. I'd have to flip that over and get some 105 or ultegra disc stuff so I could convert it to 2x. Parts pricing is nuts right now... even on the used market so really not sure what to do. The FTB is selling for about 1400 shipped. But if I waited a while, I could probably get something like the domane. Was also looking at some used trek boones.

I figure if I wanted to do something for the short term, it may be better to get a cross bike with cantis for now since those are much cheaper.

big john

I wouldn't care about that. My road bikes are both rim brakes so I wouldn't be swapping wheels with a gravel bike. If I did get one it would be only for rides with mostly dirt. I wouldn't spend money to save weight and figure I'm just going to beat it up off-road. I have a mountain bike so it would be for road only when riding to dirt roads.

My friend is a KHS dealer and I can get one from him that will suit my needs and the geometry looks like it will work, too.

ridethecliche

I'm currently looking at a 2016 van dessel full tilt boogie that looks to max out at a 40mm rear and also a 2015 Giant TCX slr 1 which I've read can do like 44mm?

Only issue with the giant is that it's thru axle front and qr rear. Should that be a deal breaker?

himespau 

I have a slightly older (they still did side pulls) and slightly lower (ST400) version of that that I built up for my wife as a sort of townie. Just took it for a ride today - I'd fabricated a new bracket to hold her basked and was going to take it for a shake down around the block to make sure it didn't rattle, but my 6 year old wanted to go on a long (for him - 6 or so miles) ride and it's not like I'm going to turn that down, even if the seat was too low and the bars were too close and I was sitting too upright. There's just something about those C-dale sports tourers from the 80's that just works for me.

big john

I haven't done it (gravel bike) but the guys I talk to say they use at least 40mm tires. They did say 40s should be sufficient for mos everything around here.

I don't see why having a QR rear and thru axle front would be a problem. The front is where the thru axle would be the most benefit.

burnthesheep

I'm a crazy MF'er. I just blew it on a new TT skid lid.

I found a line on one brand new at something not stupid unreasonable. I've wasted more on a wheel before I didn't end up using. Go figure. I'll give it a try.

I'll get it in and test it out. If it works, I'll sell my other POC and keep my cheaper Giro. The Giro and my existing POC were within a gnat's ass in my runs of each other. So, I could recoup more on the nicer lid.

I figure if I sell my existing POC if the other one tests better plus a wheel I never use then I'll break even.

Meh, I spent more back in the day on a little controller system to shoot windshield washer fluid into my turbo car's engine for more power (methanol injection).

If this is my hobby, so be it.

topflightpro

What happened to your declaration that you were finally done spending money on TT'ing?

burnthesheep

Yessir. You are correct. I'm trying to weasel it on a technicality if I can sell the one wheel and the other helmet for a net "zero".

I now have too many wheels, redundancy and unused stuff.

I think the motivator was finishing 2020 with drastically faster times than 2019 based mostly on riding the bike enough to start putting useful power to the road and adapting to riding scrunched up.

In 2019 I think the most power I ever managed for a 10mi attempt in a race OR in training was 245w. That was on my heartbreaker low reading left Stages, but it also included a couple minutes riding sat up a hill at higher power than in aero to skew it higher.

In 2020 I threw out a legit measured 285w including the zero power coasting u-turn at 5mi.

The new speeds/times/power I felt like doing it justice honing the CdA again.

ridethecliche

Luckily they'll both clear 40s.

The FTB is more pricey but is definitely the better frame/bike I think. I'm just not sure if it's worth the extra 300-400 bucks over something that's already the configuration I want (2x group) and comes with two sets of wheels which will suit my needs (one set for gravel cross and one for road).

Anyone have experience with either of the bikes?

topflightpro

I know what that negotiating is like. I often set performance goals to justify new purchases, but I have definitely fudged it a few times with them.

ridethecliche

Ended up buying the giant TCX in a size large. Per giant's sizing online, I think I should have been an M/L but the numbers for this should work out as I was looking for a more relaxed setup.

The stack is about 15mm more than my current bike and reach is about 12mm more. Pretty much in the ballpark re: acceptable mods with stem changes.

I was also looking at a van dessel full tilt boogie frame but the steerer was totally chopped off... It could have worked but would have required so much doing that I don't think it would have been worth it at all.

Giant is a 2015 tcx al frame with hydro disc brake shimano setup. Came with a second set of wheels with rotors and tires. So 2 sets of wheels, one for gravel and one for cross. Pretty stoked, especially since I think I can get the fit dialed. Just don't want to feel like I'm riding on top of the bike as opposed to riding it. I'm honestly very stoked on my road bike fit right now. Would love to be able to come close to how it feels.

TMonk

I certainly have too many wheels. Like the team sponsor's road race wheels from this year... At this point I want to reach out to them just to get them out of my damn house. I like the simple ones I already own more (Novatech R5/Turbo Cotton/Latex).

burnthesheep

Alright, the crazy space helmet is in the US territory now. Not much longer.

If I'm going to keep it after it tests well...........I kinda want some graphics on it. Not stupid stickers or decals.

Anyone have any experience doing that?