Matt's Bike Thoughts

I'm making progress, but it's not really the sort of progress I'd like to be making. So let's start with what's going worst: weight. Last month, I gave a conservative goal of 194lb for Feb 1. That's actually not too far off from happening - I'm at ~195.2lbs according to spreadsheet on January 26th. This isn't my stretch goal, but that's okay. The failure mode for the last half of the month was eating a lot of food to prepare for a ride, and then not actually doing the ride. Oops. Finally, the third weekend in a row, I ate a bunch of food and then did 90 miles the next day, 'earning' it. So, lesson for next month: don't eat extra to prepare for rides! I am not training for performance just yet. I am training endurance and mental fortitude. I can have a little feasting as a treat, but only after a ride, and even then I can't be too greedy. Estimating 2lbs per week, I will optimistically be at 187lbs next month. If I go conser...

I recently wrote about  Pogies for the Comfort Oriented , which detailed how well the Cobrafist and Williwaw pogies would work for Jones bars and bar-ends and Ergon grips. Now, it's time to review them as pogies. Ultimately, they're closely matched. Whichever one works best for you is going to be a matter of personal preference. Features The Cobrafist wins this round. The Cobrafist has a little interior pocket for storing stuff, and it has internal and external zippers for the two vents. The Williwaw has a single vent with an external zipper, and no pockets. There's lots of extra space to put stuff in the Williwaw, but if you unzip the vent, it can fall out pretty easily. I wouldn't want to do anything rough or bumpy with snacks in the unzipped pogies. Weight As you might imagine, the less featureful Williwaw wins this one. The Williwaw pair weighs 480g with the Cobrafist at 680g. Are those features worth 200g to you? Visibility The Revelate wins here....

There's a lot of talk about pogies and their relative merits, but there's unfortunately not much discussion about pogies and compatibility. Pogie manufacturers assume you'll be running standard mountain bike gear - flat bars and regular ol' grips. Unfortunately, my girlfriend and I are running slightly off-kilter gear. She's got Jones Loop bars on her fat bike, and I've got Ergon GP-3 grips with bar ends (and, uh, aerobars). Are they compatible? Who knows! So I decided to try stuff out and see. I'm going to try out the 45NRTH Cobrafist and Revelate Williwaw pogies on both bikes and report how things work out. Jones Bars Jones bars are going to be tricky for pogies because the cross bar attachment interferes with the closure of a standard pogie. I got both on the bike OK, but there's some usability concerns. Jones bars with Cobrafist on the left, Revelate on the right Cobrajones The Cobrafist and the Jones bars don't really play well...

Bike geometry is important for fit and handling. Fitting a bike is a process of measurement and trial-and-error, but once you have a bike that fits, you should be able to replicate that fit to a new bike. Every aspect of a bike's geometry affects the fit. The frame has a Reach and Stack measurement, which are the horizontal and vertical distance between the bottom bracket center and the steerer tube center. These are important for figuring out if a bike can  fit, but other variables come into play for dialing in a precise fit with stem and handlebar concerns. The total reach on a bike is the horizontal distance between the saddle and the grip point. The total stack on a bike is the vertical distance between the saddle and the grip point. The frame stack/reach does not factor in the seat tube, stem, or handlebars, which obviously contribute greatly to the bicycle. In order to determine the contribution of these factors to the total reach and stack, we need to perform a bit of hi...

I've been less than pleased with the Mukluk lately. Over the summer, I had modified it pretty hard, and really loved it as a bikepacking/mountain biking rig: Salsa Cowchipper 46cm bars 30mm stem 36/24 and 11-42 cassette for huge range 80mm rims and 4" Jumbo Jim tires Last winter, I swapped from flat bars to drop bars, and it was awesome - didn't really notice any reduction in performance or steering capacity. And the reach geo spec is reasonably close to my other drop bar bikes, thanks to the 30mm stem. I was running 4.8" Maxxis Minion FBR front and rear, and I assumed that the less-than-great traction and climbing woes I had were directly related to the tires. This winter, I made snow snow changes: 100mm Whisky carbon wheel up front Surly Bud 4.8" front tire Same 80mm rear rim, Surly Lou 4.8" tire Gooseneck stem (later removed because it added reach) 30t oval chainring The tires are H U G E. So big that I've had to shift the drop ...

Dingus: I can do anything on a fat bike. Dangol: Sure, they're great for snow, but do you really need one? Just get a regular mountain bike. Dingus: See, here's the thing - a fat bike is a good mountain bike! Just throw a suspension fork on there and a narrower wheelset and you have a badass hardtail bike. Dangol: What? Swapping forks and wheels - why not just get a whole new bike? Dingus: Well, it's cheaper. And you can have a single frame with a good fit, rather than doubling up. Dangol: Is it really all that much cheaper? A RockShox Bluto is like $600, and a Borealis skinnyfat wheelset is another $700. After you get rotors, a cassette, the crown race, tires, etc you're looking at nearly $1500 to convert the bike. That's, like, an entire bike! Dingus: Yeah it's about the cost of an alloy hardtail. BUT! The Bluto is a mid tier fork, and better than what you'll find on bikes in that price range. Likewise, those Borealis wheels are considerably nicer t...

Dingus: Front derailleurs are the worst! I hate them. I'm so glad I got a 1x. Dangol: I dunno, I really like my front derailleur. Dingus: It's so much extra weight! And it's another component that can go wrong. Dangol: The system doesn't really end up being lighter, and how often do you really have a front derailleur go bad? Dingus: What are you talking about? A front derailleur alone is about 106g, and the shifter is another 150g. Not to mention the cables and housing. Then you've got two chainrings instead of one, plus the spider. It's probably a pound of extra weight to have a front derailleur. Dangol: Well, that's true. But if you only remove front shifting, you lose a tremendous amount of range. Dingus: Is it really that bad? Dangol: Well, an older system might have an 11-36 cassette with a 42/28 chainring. That's a gear range of 0.77 to 3.81, which is 494% range. Dingus: Hah! SRAM's Eagle is 500% range using 10-50. Dangol: ... And the ...