Matt's Bike Thoughts

 The Poseidon Redwood is an interesting bike. Just under $1,000, yet it offers all the main things you want in an adventure bikepacking bike. Lots of mounts, clearance for fat tires, drop bars, and a decent component spec to start. My girlfriend was looking for a first bike - something that would work for bikepacking, gentle mountain biking, and commuting around town. The options were a cheap hardtail, a hybrid, a used gravel bike, or - this. Before we get into the bike itself, I have to say, the market segment of this bike is very  interesting. It's not marketed at beginner cyclists. It's marketed at experienced  cyclists that want to get their friends into adventure biking - their friends who balk at the idea of spending more than a grand on a bike to get started. Or maybe it's marketed at experienced cyclists that want a cheap beater for bikepacking, instead of worrying about a nice carbon bike? I'm not entirely sure - it's a weird rig. Weird, interesting - these...

 Well, I was excited to post a race review on CO2UT, my B race for the year. But it was canceled due to muddy conditions. Fruita had an unexpected rainstorm yesterday, and the roads are impassable. I am now absolutely loaded up on carbohydrates and am in totally peak condition. There's a 40 mile group road ride that's a replacement of sorts for the event, which I'll be doing instead. It'll be fun to sprint instead of marathon, I guess.

 Everyone wants to know: "What can I buy to make my bike faster?" And the stock answer is, for some reason, so unsatisfying . The best bang-for-the-buck looks like this: Bike fit Coaching/training plan Power meter Heart rate monitor (slightly cheaper than power meter, but also less bang-for-buck) Yoga and strength training Actual bike components Getting a bike fit is boring . You spend a bunch of money so someone can tell you to spend even more money on unsexy stuff like stems and handlebars. Maybe some spacers for your pedals and a shoe insert. These changes have two huge effects: you're more comfortable on the bike (and can train more), and you'll be more efficient about putting power down (and can go faster/train harder). The next thing is actual coaching, or a training plan of some sort. If you're not training smart, then you'll eventually plateau. Training harder, at that point, just leads to burnout and injury. A coach will help you figure out how to act...

My Outlier OG Climbers have officially reached end-of-life after nearly 5 years. They're still in great shape, but they're a bit worn looking, and I've lost enough weight that they don't fit. Unfortounately, Outlier stopped making the OG Climbers, so I'll have to figure something else out for a technical pant. Rapha's Technical Trousers seemed to check all the boxes - they look nice, aren't terribly technical looking, have lots of stretch, and they're Rapha, so I'll get to engage in some of that delightful conspicuous consumption. Rapha's jerseys have been phenomenal, and I keep trying their other stuff, usually to be disappointed - there's often just one thing wrong that ends up being a total dealbreaker. Let's start with the positives. The pants look great. I ordered the navy color, and the fit is excellent. I have larger legs and hips from powerlifting in the past, and the pants have a flattering fit without being too tight. A much ski...

    Nextie and Light Bicycle are two Chinese manufacturers of bike wheels. The Chinese make really light  carbon, and at pretty great prices. I purchased a set of XC wheels that I'm using as my gravel bike wheelset with DT Swiss 240EXP hubs and ultralight rims - the set weighs about 1200g and takes off like a rocket ship. The total cost was $1,415, with $137 of shipping costs.     However, at the end of 2021, have supply chains been sufficiently wrecked that local carbon is a better deal? Or, at least, a more palatable deal? Let's compare some wheel builds on Nextie, LightBicycle, as well as some domestic wheel manufacturers, like ENVE, Zipp, Roval, etc.     We'll start with ENVE and use them as a benchmark. Then I'll configure a comparably specced wheel from Nextie and Light Bicycle and report weight as well as total price. Finally, we'll look at other brands, and see what makes sense. An aside - aero? on  gravel??      ENVE's blog...

     Alright, now that the Salsa Cutsmoke is gone, I've been craving a fast drop bar bike. I thought I'd be happy with the Woodsmoke flat bar build and small tires, but I'm running into some limitations! Namely, the chainring is too small, and there's some annoyance with having to swap to a rigid fork/seatpost for more competitive gravel rides. The flat bars are an aerodynamic problem and  a comfort problem. Lastly, the handling is just not appropriate for road rides, though given the limited gearing and aerodynamics, I can't really spend that much time at the speed where that's a problem.     However, the acceleration is amazing, and the short (417mm) chainstays are incredible for power transfer and stiffness. I like that. Can I get that and even more?      This has me perusing a road/gravel bike. Why a slash? Well, let's look at my stable at this point in time: Soma Saga - Heavy duty steel touring bike with racks, fenders, dynamo, 50mm tire...

According to Strava, I've put about 56 miles on the  Fezzari La Sal Peak (initial review here) . I've had the chance to try it out twice at Green Mountain (a popular Denver trail system) as well as Maryland Mountain (with the relatively new downhill-only mountain bike trail, Fast Money). These are some of my favorite trails in the area, and Fast Money is the trail that inspired me to get a full suspension bike in the first place. tl;dr: I'm returning the bike. Marketing Claims This is my main beef with the Fezzari, and it came out in my initial unboxing review. Water Bottles Let's talk hydration. Virtually no longer travel bike can take two water bottles. Salsa's new bikes can do it, but rely on Superboost for their wheel standards (yuck). The La Sal Peak website claims multiple times to be able to carry two water bottle cages, and this is a pretty big selling point for the bike. 2 water bottles "Holds Two Bottles" again without disclaimer Almost all revie...