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~2" studded tyres on an full-size wheel (559/622/etc) are my prefered size during winter time. 20x4,0" just doesn't steer that well in winter conditions. Fat bikes serve a purpose, and that is allowing certain types of people to get into bike commuting with their masculinity intact.
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Jul 18, 2022 18:12
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 10:55 |
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A weird side effect of that is whenever I'm on my fatbike, the people in lifted pickups with punisher decals go from being the most hostile to me on the road to being really supportive. I'll get tons of space and they'll honk at me, but instead of giving me the finger it's a thumbs up. When I'm wearing my jersey with a Canadian flag on it it's possibly even better than a helmet. A convoy dumbass yelled at me "hell yeah brother, awesome shirt" while giving me a full lane to pass. I was so confused until I remembered what I was wearing, saw all the flags flying off his truck, and put 2+2 together.
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Jul 18, 2022 18:25
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Groda posted:Fat bikes serve a purpose, and that is allowing certain types of people to get into bike commuting with their masculinity intact. false. a fat bike would be the superior option if part of your commute took you through, say, the Sahara desert
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Jul 18, 2022 18:41
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do fat bikes do better in the rain, I wonder? Honestly, I've never really had a problem slipping on pavement though, it's always my brakes that get soaked so I just have to start breaking a lot sooner, especially since the front doesn't work as well. I've just ordered a new lower tooth count cog for my single speed, so I am hoping to get several weeks of that wonderful soreness you get after lifting weights.
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Jul 18, 2022 18:52
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They kick up an unreal amount of water. With how big and heavy full-coverage fenders would be I don't bother using it in rainy weather.
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Jul 18, 2022 18:59
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Mauser posted:do fat bikes do better in the rain, I wonder? Like standing water on a normal road? No. 2-3" of water in a sandy/weedy marsh? Yeah.
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Jul 18, 2022 19:32
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osker posted:This is like the best feature of an IGH
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Jul 19, 2022 16:17
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evil_bunnY posted:Mine can this and I loving hate it. Let me click the gears. I'm gonna be murdered by a driver eventually. I don't want to hasten it by starting at 80 gear inches when the light turn green.
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Jul 19, 2022 16:58
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I really want to replace the ancient Tiagra 3x10 on my Croix de Fer with GRX 1x, mostly because I've coveted the limited edition Rival 1x Croix they made since 2016, but also I'm getting pretty sick of the crappy TRP hybrid brakes mine came with and I can't see a good path to proper hydraulics without doing a full groupset upgrade. I rarely use the small or big ring so I don't think I'll miss the range. Trouble is I'd probably want to upgrade to the Genesis carbon fork at the same time, and my LBS has quoted me £1500, which is a lot of money to spend on a bike that cost me £540 new. I can probably get it all with cycle to work (legitimately, on account of it being my commuter) but it'd be a lot of bike to leave in the shed at my office.
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Jul 20, 2022 16:34
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 There's "bike racks" down here, but they're bolted into the ground. If I'm gonna use something bolted to the ground, gently caress it I'm using a light pole.
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Jul 20, 2022 19:24
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iospace posted:
The last place i worked had one of these out front. It wasn't even bolted down, they'd move it around if they decided it was in the way
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Jul 20, 2022 19:40
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It was the same at my 7-11 until eventually the rack got stolen by scrappers. Fortunately it seems like fewer places are hassling me for taking my bike inside in light of how bad theft has become.
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Jul 20, 2022 19:59
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Thanks for all the feedback on winter commuting options. I'm not sure if 2 inch tires will fit on my current bike, but I'll see what I can work out.
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Jul 20, 2022 23:49
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Dog Case posted:The last place i worked had one of these out front. It wasn't even bolted down, they'd move it around if they decided it was in the way These thankfully aren't those. These are pretty thick Us that are bolted to the ground. If it wasn't for the bolted part, they'd be perfect, but since it isn't, guess it's the light pole. So my thoughts are pretty much "ok, if you *really* want my bike, I can't stop you, but I'm gonna make you life hell to get it" I think I accomplished that
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Jul 21, 2022 12:55
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If they unbolt a light pole I think there’s going to be some commotion when it falls over and smashes into a bunch of poo poo Maybe that’s how they escape though
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Jul 21, 2022 14:09
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Gone A Few Blocks In 60 Seconds
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Jul 21, 2022 17:54
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first commute for a while due to lack of secure storage and long Covid, a ride to work from the auto service station. Google suggested a fantastic route with minimal traffic and maximal bike lanes, with a nice bit through a stretch of the river valley I'd not ridden before. Lovely! Annoying thing though--after only a few rides on the new tube I put in last year it somehow got punctured. I could not detect anything through either the tire or a burr or something on the rim. Very odd. Any ideas what else I should check?
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Jul 22, 2022 18:45
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Bilirubin posted:Annoying thing though--after only a few rides on the new tube I put in last year it somehow got punctured. I could not detect anything through either the tire or a burr or something on the rim. Very odd. Any ideas what else I should check? If I'm unsure where a puncture comes from the first thing I do is take note of the tire/rim/tube relative positions before disassembly. This ship might already have sailed in your case, but it's good practice IMO. Second step is finding the leak in the tube. This requires inflation and listening for the hiss (or bringing the tube close to your face, your lips in particular are really sensitive to tiny air currents), or looking for bubbles in a water bath if the leak is too small to detect dry. If it's the valve that's bad the bubbles will usually tell, though not always since a naked tube can't be inflated to anything close to riding pressure. Anyways, once you've found the leak you can at least narrow it down to a rim issue or tire debris from whether it's on the rim side or tire side. If you followed step one you can find the general location in the tire tread to look for possible embedded foreign objects which makes it much easier.
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Jul 22, 2022 19:28
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Invalido posted:If I'm unsure where a puncture comes from the first thing I do is take note of the tire/rim/tube relative positions before disassembly. This ship might already have sailed in your case, but it's good practice IMO ... If you followed step one you can find the general location in the tire tread to look for possible embedded foreign objects which makes it much easier.
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Jul 23, 2022 00:58
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I've usually mostly ignored the 'riding in snow' discussions, as it was irrelevant, but as I'm now moving to Alberta... I think I can fit maybe a 28mm tire on my bike. Does thread pattern make any real difference in snow?
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Jul 23, 2022 02:18
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ImplicitAssembler posted:I've usually mostly ignored the 'riding in snow' discussions, as it was irrelevant, but as I'm now moving to Alberta... Tread makes a difference in snow, spikes make a difference on ice.
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Jul 23, 2022 02:44
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Albinator posted:This is why the pedantic rule about lining up the printing on the tyre with the valve stem is in fact quite useful. If you do that, the relative positions are a lot easier to track. I don't know this rule, how does it work? Invalido posted:If I'm unsure where a puncture comes from the first thing I do is take note of the tire/rim/tube relative positions before disassembly. This ship might already have sailed in your case, but it's good practice IMO. Second step is finding the leak in the tube. This requires inflation and listening for the hiss (or bringing the tube close to your face, your lips in particular are really sensitive to tiny air currents), or looking for bubbles in a water bath if the leak is too small to detect dry. If it's the valve that's bad the bubbles will usually tell, though not always since a naked tube can't be inflated to anything close to riding pressure. I have the tube so I will hunt around. The tire looked good but there might be some small debris I'm not seeing. Got two rides/15km on the new tube and so far, so good. This time I partially inflated the tube before seating the second tire bead to ensure proper seating so we'll see if that works. These are freakishly skinny tubes coming from MTB exclusive riding in recent years
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Jul 23, 2022 05:46
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Bilirubin posted:I don't know this rule, how does it work? On both wheels line up the brand logo on the tire with the valve stem. That way even if you take the tire completely off of the rim you know how it was all lined up. When you find the puncture on the tube, you then check the same area on the tire and the rim for whatever might have caused it in the first place to ensure it doesn't happen again, like a piece of embedded glass in the tread or a metal burr on the rim. A bit of cotton balls come in handy for this since you can run it along the inside of the tire and the rim and if there's anything sharp it catches on the loose cotton instead of cutting up your fingers.
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Jul 23, 2022 08:55
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Bilirubin posted:I don't know this rule, how does it work? RULE#40 posted:// Tires are to be mounted with the label centered over the valve stem.Pro mechanics do it because it makes it easier to find the valve. You do this because that’s the way pro mechanics do it. This will save you precious seconds while your fat rear end sits on the roadside fumbling with your CO2 after a flat. It also looks better for photo opportunities. Note: This obviously only applies to clinchers as tubulars don’t give you a choice. It should be noted THE RULES on https://velominati.com are at least partly tongue-in-cheek and at best semi-useful for understanding macho lycra road bike culture. They have little to do with serious bicycle transportation which IMO is all about practicalities. Still, if you only have one printed label per side it can be a good idea to orient it with the valve on one side of the bike. Convention seems to be that this should be on the starboard/chain/pretty side of the bike which is what I think is what Albinator suggested. My current commuter tires have two labels per side 180 degrees apart so I still need the marker pen or piece of tape. Tubes don't have labels like that so you'll need to mark that too since it's easy to flip it around and thus look for debris in the wrong place.
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Jul 23, 2022 09:17
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Took a little low-speed spill on the way home from work. A car with the right of way waited when I stopped at a 4-way stop, and then gave it a little jump when I got in front of them in the intersection. They've been chip-sealing roads all week and there's pebbles and grit everywhere, so my front tire slipped out when I swerved away from the now-moving vehicle. What the gently caress is wrong with people? I'm pretty much unscathed at least, all my weight came down on my hip, which will probably bruise, and otherwise I just scraped my hand a bit. But seriously, what the gently caress motorists? I stopped for you because you had the right of way. You could have just driven off.
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Jul 24, 2022 03:28
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Oldsrocket_27 posted:Took a little low-speed spill on the way home from work. A car with the right of way waited when I stopped at a 4-way stop, and then gave it a little jump when I got in front of them in the intersection. They've been chip-sealing roads all week and there's pebbles and grit everywhere, so my front tire slipped out when I swerved away from the now-moving vehicle. What the gently caress is wrong with people? I'm pretty much unscathed at least, all my weight came down on my hip, which will probably bruise, and otherwise I just scraped my hand a bit. I've had similar situations come up before and now I refuse to go out of order. First stare at them, then put both feet on the ground, then take hands off the bars, then if all else fails point at the stop sign looking impatient. At that point I've always had drivers go first but sometimes they look mad at me for insisting they take their right of way.
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Jul 24, 2022 04:06
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Coxswain Balls posted:On both wheels line up the brand logo on the tire with the valve stem. That way even if you take the tire completely off of the rim you know how it was all lined up. When you find the puncture on the tube, you then check the same area on the tire and the rim for whatever might have caused it in the first place to ensure it doesn't happen again, like a piece of embedded glass in the tread or a metal burr on the rim. A bit of cotton balls come in handy for this since you can run it along the inside of the tire and the rim and if there's anything sharp it catches on the loose cotton instead of cutting up your fingers. Invalido posted:It should be noted THE RULES on https://velominati.com are at least partly tongue-in-cheek and at best semi-useful for understanding macho lycra road bike culture. They have little to do with serious bicycle transportation which IMO is all about practicalities. Still, if you only have one printed label per side it can be a good idea to orient it with the valve on one side of the bike. Convention seems to be that this should be on the starboard/chain/pretty side of the bike which is what I think is what Albinator suggested. My current commuter tires have two labels per side 180 degrees apart so I still need the marker pen or piece of tape. Tubes don't have labels like that so you'll need to mark that too since it's easy to flip it around and thus look for debris in the wrong place. Thanks for this. Something to keep in mind should I need to change something out when not pressed for time. Good news is that the puncture was easy to find on the tube (now patched, yay free spare!), which had only like 25km on it. It was about 10 cm away from the stem on the stem side facing the rim, which suggests either I had the tube badly placed when I was changing it out on the side of the road or I have a sharp nipple? Which would be odd but who knows.
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Jul 25, 2022 01:35
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I parked about 6 miles from ComicCon (San Diego) on Saturday (Liberty Station, free parking) and then rode the Brompton to the convention center and put it in bag check for $5. I suspect parking anywhere near the convention center would be considerably more expensive.
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Jul 25, 2022 05:12
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Bilirubin posted:Good news is that the puncture was easy to find on the tube (now patched, yay free spare!), which had only like 25km on it. It was about 10 cm away from the stem on the stem side facing the rim, which suggests either I had the tube badly placed when I was changing it out on the side of the road or I have a sharp nipple? Which would be odd but who knows. It's easy to mess up an inner tube install. Inflating it a little before plopping it in to give it some shape helps, so does pushing on the valve stem to lift it up and make sure it's not getting pinched between tire and rim in that area which can easily happen. It's also real easy to buy the wrong type of tube that doesn't fit right, which makes a successful install much harder. Stiff uncooperative tires that must be levered into place increase the risk of messing up. Patched tubes are generally fine and I ride on them but it's a good idea to bubble test them after patching before they're put into rotation. Patches are a weak spot and have a tendency to fail eventually (I'm talking thousands of miles here) but they fail slowly and gracefully. If you find yourself having to inflate more frequent than normal an old patch is reasonable to suspect. If you get another puncture in the same place it's time to remove the rim tape and look for issues there. Weird things happen.
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Jul 25, 2022 08:17
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Invalido posted:It's easy to mess up an inner tube install. Inflating it a little before plopping it in to give it some shape helps, so does pushing on the valve stem to lift it up and make sure it's not getting pinched between tire and rim in that area which can easily happen. It's also real easy to buy the wrong type of tube that doesn't fit right, which makes a successful install much harder. Stiff uncooperative tires that must be levered into place increase the risk of messing up. I did apply pressure to ensure the patch was holding and it seemed like a nice and tight seal. I also this time gave the tube a couple of pumps before seating the second tire bead (which thankfully can be done by hand to ensure nothing was getting pinched. Crossing my fingers that worked! It was the first tube change I have done in years, and those for mountain bikes tend to be easier than these skinny 700 things
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Jul 25, 2022 14:43
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Driving to work: takes at least 30 minutes, and there's a ton of traffic this time of day. Then I have to find a parking spot in our structure and walk over to it. Parking is free, at least. Riding to work: takes me around 50 minutes, don't have to deal with traffic, and my bike is locked up right outside my job. I know what I'm taking.
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Jul 26, 2022 14:19
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I do not miss working in an office at all, but I do kind of miss my 30 minute commute each way. I finally went to the office for the 3rd time in my two years working at the same place and they've got bike storage in the recently renovated building now!
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Jul 27, 2022 00:29
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That bike rack sucks for lots of people - what if you're a not very strong person who rides an e-bike to work for example? Still better than no indoor bike storage at all like at my workplace though.
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Jul 27, 2022 05:36
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I'd say it sucks for a few people...otherwise it'll be the choice of having room for a lot less bikes.
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Jul 27, 2022 06:03
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Invalido posted:That bike rack sucks for lots of people - what if you're a not very strong person who rides an e-bike to work for example? Still better than no indoor bike storage at all like at my workplace though. I have en even worse one in my workplace - same setup by the bike is held by the front wheel sitting in a loop. So entirely incompatible with mudguards, which every commuter bike ever should have.
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Jul 27, 2022 11:54
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Looks like you could just keep your bike on the ground and use a chain if necessary.
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Jul 27, 2022 19:29
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sweat poteto posted:Tread makes a difference in snow, spikes make a difference on ice. Studs make a BIG difference on snow that's been ridden over, which is most of the snow you'll want to ride on.
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Jul 28, 2022 15:10
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ImplicitAssembler posted:I'd say it sucks for a few people...otherwise it'll be the choice of having room for a lot less bikes. I'd hope the have non-wall storage too... My current workplace has this: https://centralparktower.com.au/the-facilities/end-of-trip Which is going to be shut down permanently in the next couple of months to turn into a carpark because they are building a new, upgraded facility on a different basement level
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Jul 28, 2022 17:00
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evil_bunnY posted:Studs make a BIG difference on snow that's been ridden over, which is most of the snow you'll want to ride on. Whenever there's a serious test of winter car tires, this turns out not to be the case. It's all about the rubber on anything other than hard ice, where studless snow tires do fine as long as it's been roughed up. On anything that isn't slick ice they actually outperform the studded tires by a (very) little - the studs take up space in the tread that could otherwise be used for the snow gripping lamellar rubber. My car sits on studless snow tires during season cause that's good enough where I mostly drive and I can't justify the drawbacks of studs. My bikes have studs because ice is a thing and a little slide that's no big deal in a car can be devastating on a bike. Studs are also more predictable since you always have at least some grip no matter what.
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Jul 28, 2022 18:50
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 10:55 |
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Invalido posted:Whenever there's a serious test of winter car tires, this turns out not to be the case. It's all about the rubber on anything other than hard ice, where studless snow tires do fine as long as it's been roughed up. On anything that isn't slick ice they actually outperform the studded tires by a (very) little - the studs take up space in the tread that could otherwise be used for the snow gripping lamellar rubber. While I don't deny that tire shape has a huge effect on grip against a variety of snow/slush conditions, the dynamics between cars driving up to 30-50mph in snow on very wide tires and bikes rolling 5-15mph in snow on (usually) narrow tires are pretty different. A 35mm bike tire is gonna be able to cut down to the road or ice sheet on all but very packed / refrozen snow. If it does cut down, then studs are gonna be that difference maker. In my 20-30F winter weather, I mostly encounter slush in extensively ridden bike lanes. I don't run studded tires now, but the times I did, I felt much more confident feeling the studs tick into the asphalt.
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Jul 28, 2022 19:11
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