shelbyfv

I'm so confused. Surely the Felt was perfect. Or was it the hybrid with 12" steerer extension? Or the child's BMX? Maybe he got it right this time if he can refrain from screwing around with the stem and cranks. Next goal- increase ride distance beyond 20 miles.

livedarklions

Chapter 97: The world's worst decision-maker chooses the best option for all of humanity again. SPOILER ALERT: It's completely different than last week's best option for all of humanity.

Moisture

@cubewheels

Using 20 or 18t on a rear cassette like a 10 speed 25-12 would cause lots of chain bending with the big cog... its a fine ratio for cruising otherwise.

shelbyfv

Yes overall very happy with the bike.. Best I've ever owned. I was looking around on local classifieds for a drop bar bike where the options were so limited before getting the road bike. I found this opus within 5 minutes of searching around on pinkbike. Should have done my shopping there from the start.

Where I live, the roads are old, cracked, ridden with potholes, and very sandy. The rail trails here are better suited to smaller 650b wheels and we have endless kilometers of fast flowing gravel.

I figured I'd write a thread on the opus reviewing it in detail, but only after I got my KHS figured out. Decided ill just stick to the original crank on the road bike and put the surly bars on.

As for the opus, it is the fastest, best handling, most stable bike I have ever ridden. Its a pretty sporty geomtery in my opinion without sacrificing comfort or stability in any way. I quickly got in tune with the geometry and found it easy to haul some serious speed through the sketchy turns around here with loose sand everywhere. The handling is light, predictable, very direct and communicative and you can easily correct tire slip with little drama when pushing the bike.

I really like the 1x drivetrain, the sram seems to shift better than the otherwise identical shimano deore setup I have on my Felt.

Moisture

🤣🤣🤣

livedarklions

Sincerely: I hope you enjoy it in good health!

I'm going to give you some advice, and hope you understand that it's actually offered in a friendly manner. Do yourself a favor and don't even think about starting a review thread on the new bike until you've ridden it around for a full year The biggest problem with your threads is they always seem to start with the premise you've found the ideal solution which you post about right away, then a few posts in, it becomes clear that you didn't realize the gross problems with your solution until after you told everyone about how great the solution was. It's like reading the diary of someone who has a new love of their life every single week.

As you've described them, your biggest problems with riding seem to be endurance, comfort and climbing. I think the effects of a bike on those first two will only be measurable with a fair amount of experience with the bike. Focus on riding the new bike, not on how to describe riding the new bike to a bunch of strangers who have seen your opinions change on a dime several times.

Koyote

livedarklions

Yup, that's what I'm talking about.

cyclezen

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moisture View Post
I found a deal on an Opus Horizon AL Apex 1 in my size that was too good to pass up with the 650b wheels. It has an... Apex groupset..
interesting, nice bike...
but not for me... (not that that matters...)
the droopy chainstay thingie does bug me though... I'm not a fan of possible 'affectation' ?
less chainslap to the arm closer to the BB, especially with the tiny cogs ??? maybe ?
then maybe do it to both arms... ?
I seem to remember seeing some frames from days gone by (rd and mtb) which had this style of 'droopy' chainstay, both sides symetrically - name buried under all the other crap info in my coconut... LOL!
Plenty of places to mount soft reindeer antlers or LV Raiders flags, though... LOL! maybe even a deer whistle or 2...
seriously though. Iff'n you're gonna target this to real gravelly/quasi-offroad with the 1x CR, then you should also use the open bar space for a Dropper Seatpost remote. To really use this bike, a dropper post would be an instant add-on and a detail more important than a droopy chainstay.
I guess astronomers are correct - the universe is expanding !!!
Ride On (whatever you've done gotz...)
Yuri

PeteHski

But the dropped chainstay is necessary for chunky tyre clearance on the drive side. Without it you are limited to narrower tyres. So it's a practical thing if you want extra tyre clearance.

Germany_chris

I’m not going to lie my 2 1x w/11-42 are perfect, my 36/44 14-30 is also perfect different bikes, different ideas behind them.

cyclezen

not really... geometry
radius of a circle is same along all points
the stay has to clear whatever the largest chainring size it's designed for, whether you go straight across out of the BB or at a droopy angle. The amount of clearance outside, whether straight across or droopy, and therefor inside, would have to be the same, any chainstay mods/flattening/bulging past chainring, could be done either straight or droopy angle...
same geometry for the wheel circle...
going down a few degress, as shown might offer a very tiny (1-2 mm ? ) additional further 'forward' start point for the stay path, once past the Chainring, but inconsequential...
quick look at specs doesn't say what the rear axle width is, so that could offer a fraction more space, if using newer mtb spacings... more digging into frame specs might give more info... but not that interested, am I...
marketing blurbs do talk about 650x50 width - which would be same regardless of straight or droopy.
onward, forward, upward and down...
Yuri
didn't note what the BB width was, mtb width would be useful for that...
EDIT: and a 50mm / 1.95 tire is already quite wide for this concept bike, imo

PeteHski

I'm pretty sure the tyre clearance increases as you drop the chainstay down. Can't say I've personally modelled it, but that's what I understand from the designers who do. The effective wheel clearance increases as you move down. That's why dropped chainstays are pretty universal on gravel and mtbs. Often on both sides for maximum clearance. You are basically threading the chainstay through the gap between the trye and chainwheel, which increases lower down.

Here's a good explanation:-

https://www.bikehugger.com/posts/mar...ped-chainstay/

Maelochs

I have seen this on a lot of gravel bikes (dropped drive-side chainstay.)

Possibly it is because it gains an inch or so from the base of the chainstay to where it clears the ring, to where it passes the tire, so the angle outward to clear the wider tire isn't so dramatic. When I look at the posted photo, it seems the chainring almost overlaps the tire--maybe 3/8 inch clearance---on a direct line from the BB to the axle (traditional straight chainstay._

With the angled chainstay, it seems that the chainstay has more than an inch clearance (radially from BB to intersection of tire and chainstay) which means the chainstay can make a slightly gentler outward bend. Makes sense to me.

Koyote

And my SS works nicely for its intended purpose.

Horses for courses.

mstateglfr 

Its a design option, but it isnt required. There are plenty of straight chainstay designs that fit 45mm or even 50mm 700c tires. Some use a yoke, but others just use shaped tubing.

livedarklions

Droopy Chainstay is my rapper name.

cyclezen

Yeah, I can see that with a larger chainring size, double or trying to wedge in a 700c wheel (referred to in the bike online descript.) the space for the chainstay would be quite small/thin.
Droopy Chainstay, prolly like wavy gravy forks (Pinarello) are prolly quite fine and sound. Just my peccadillo...
I'm sure it's a very fine bike...
Ride On
Yuri
EDIT: maybe like livedarklions, my rapper name can be : onehungLo ...

PeteHski

Sure, depends on how wide you really want to go. But there is more clearance down there to work with. Bikes like the OPEN Wide maximise tyre clearance with a double dropped chainstay. Dropping both sides creates a neat box section under the BB. I think the design concept makes sense and is widely used now on high end gravel bikes and even the odd endurance road bike e.g. Look 765 Optimum +

shelbyfv

Well there's some random bizarre. The dropped chainstay is for tire clearance. Has nothing to do with 1X or 2X or chains whacking on it. What a strange speculation. Folks who are actually familiar with gravel bikes understand that the small ring of a 2X is smaller (chain closer to the chainstay) than the chainring on a 1X. Tire clearance.

Branko D

If you only rode your bike instead of posting and faffing with it and changing this and that, did some training on it and so on, you could very well cruise on the flats in the 50t in a year or two. Of course you can't see it happening now. You are new to it, after all.

No new rider ever got from "I don't know what I'm doing" to reasonably fast and strong overnight, but if you just ride and stick with it, you'll get there if you make an effort. Others did, too.

Go ride as far as you can on the weekend, if something hurts, make one change to the fit, and then try again. Do a couple of hard rides every week, going up and down some local hill multiple times as hard as you can.
​​​
The results will be much better.
​​​​

Koyote

Maybe you can protect your chain stay with some paper spacers.

Moisture

Jesus.. Where do I even start here.

Opus said themselves that the droopy chainstay is for improved tire clearance. I guess it could be for reducing the chances of chain slapping as well?

The KHS is currently up for sale. I've put the stock crankset back on and left it at that.

livedarklions honestly. anything with drop bars works fine for me. The KHS is a great bike, just like the Opus is as well.

I gave the KHS another thorough try with the 39/53 crankset, this time using a rear wheel with a 12-30 cassette and it worked fine... I don't see any issues with cruising flats on a 50t outer ring with a bike like this. I denounced this idea thinking back to my old steel 25" frame Nishiki, which just.. wasnt efficient in the 50t outer ring unless you were going down a steep hill.

cubewheels 1x, 2x or 3x all can work great in my opinion and each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Personally I would stick to 1x for its simplicity, but i'd be totally fine with any of the three provided it is set up correctly gearing and chainline wise.

mstateglfr 

You dont. You just let it die.

livedarklions

So, after all of that contradictory back and forth about this measurement or that gearing, basically, you're at everything works if it's properly set up. OK, stop looking for the perfect bike then and work on your riding for a while. You're going to learn more about what does and doesn't work for you by doing that for a year than you'd learn in a lifetime of yackety yack and buying the must have part of the week.

Like I said before, don't even think about "reviewing" your findings on BF until you've been riding something consistently for a year.

Koyote

That seems about right.

Some day, when you're not so busy buying bikes and endlessly fiddling with them, you might want to actually ride one a bit. It's fun.