Anyone have anything they'd like to rant about?

[funkendrenchman]

Bike shops

I took my bike to a local shop to get a spoke fixed yesterday. They charged me for labor including cassette removal ($60), new rim tape ($15) (old tape was just fine), Stans ($9), and the spoke ($8). Last time I went to the same shop, a spoke replacement cost $25. Don't charge me for all that extra shit without telling me. I can tape a rim. I have my own Stans. I can remove the cassette if you're gonna nickel and dime me on labor. There is no way in the world that a spoke replacement should cost $95! (I talked them back down to $25) And the best part was, they didn't put the cassette back on correctly. They didn't catch it and I had to show them what they did wrong!

[Dantheman]

$60 to remove a cassette is pretty outrageous.

[skaredshtles]

Ima lol when new bikers "discover" the benefits of multiple chainrings.

[XXX-er]

/\ /\ /\ /\
I’m diametrically opposed to you guys on this.

If I’m going 20mph or so, I’m coasting.
1x is up there with disc brakes and dropper posts.
Pie plate cassette with small chainring or I walk uphill. Even then, I still walk.

1x means you can have narrow/wide which never drops chains and the shifting is next level,

longer & slack with 29" wheels is just faster

[Bunion 2020]

1x means you can have narrow/wide which never drops chains and the shifting is next level,

longer & slack with 29" wheels is just faster

Well, I have rarely dropped a chain and know how to shift so there goes that.

I don't race, I ride slowly and with great respect for the bipeds on the trails I ride so there is that.

I guess we are "diametrically opposed" I can live with it if you can.

Ima lol when new bikers "discover" the benefits of multiple chainrings.

Give it 5 years and suddenly 1x will be obsolete and replaced by multi-rings, seems like a common bike industry tactic.

$60 to remove a cassette is pretty outrageous.

No shit, I am going to have to double my price to 2 beers.

[Redsmurfer]

Bike shops

I took my bike to a local shop to get a spoke fixed yesterday. They charged me for labor including cassette removal ($60), new rim tape ($15) (old tape was just fine), Stans ($9), and the spoke ($8). Last time I went to the same shop, a spoke replacement cost $25. Don't charge me for all that extra shit without telling me. I can tape a rim. I have my own Stans. I can remove the cassette if you're gonna nickel and dime me on labor. There is no way in the world that a spoke replacement should cost $95! (I talked them back down to $25) And the best part was, they didn't put the cassette back on correctly. They didn't catch it and I had to show them what they did wrong!

This has happened to me before. Now I do it myself or I totally strip the wheel and bring them just the wheel with everything removed. One time I got the wheel back and they had put gorilla tape as rim tape on the wheel. I was pissed, gorilla tape in combo with stans tends to leave a sticky residue on the rim and its sucks big time to get it off. I made them take to gorilla tape off and had to come back in 45 minutes after they got off all the residue of the rim. I purposely did not tell them trick to get it off faster (i.e. using duck tape to pluck to bits off) dumb asses. After that I bought my own truing stand and only take my wheels to a shop if they are really fucked up and beyond my truing skill.

[Redsmurfer]

"longer & slack with 29" wheels is just faster"

Downhill yes but I am already going fast enough to severely injure myself in a crash, extra speed means more$$ in medical bills. I always chuckle when when I see young guys pushing their 35lb, 1x, slacked downhill beasts uphill. Hey but for that 10 minute downhill it rocks.

Ps. The only dropped chains I have seen in the last 3 months were on 1x, go figure?

[skaredshtles]

1x means you can have narrow/wide which never drops chains

Uhhh... yeah. Never say never.

This is kinda like the "Go tubeless - you'll never have pinch-flats again!" myth.

I'd like to rant about tubeless pinch-flats.

[skaredshtles]

Well, I have rarely dropped a chain and know how to shift so there goes that.

I don't race, I ride slowly and with great respect for the bipeds on the trails I ride so there is that.

There is a direct correlation between these things.

On my old Reign (3x9) I dropped the chain regularly. So much so that I got accustomed to putting things in specific front/rear gear combos to combat it.

Come to think of it... if that fucking bike had had a tapered head tube and an ISCG mount for a guide, I never would have had to buy a new bike.

[Dantheman]

Where's Damien to tell us that 26ers are coming back in a big way any day?

[Ted Striker]

yeah, the front der ain't comin back.

[zion zig zag]

"longer & slack with 29" wheels is just faster"

Downhill yes but I am already going fast enough to severely injure myself in a crash, extra speed means more$$ in medical bills. I always chuckle when when I see young guys pushing their 35lb, 1x, slacked downhill beasts uphill. Hey but for that 10 minute downhill it rocks.

Ps. The only dropped chains I have seen in the last 3 months were on 1x, go figure?

You could also argue that slacker and longer is safer and more fun at the same speed than steeper/shorter.

[funkendrenchman]

After that I bought my own truing stand and only take my wheels to a shop if they are really fucked up and beyond my truing skill.

Ya I think I need a truing stand. The only bike maintenance I don't do on my own is spoke replacement, wheel building, star nut installs, and brake bleeds (because I never get it right and it can be messy).

[rideit]

Give it 5 years and suddenly 1x will be obsolete and replaced by completely internal electric shift drivetrains .

FTFY

[skaredshtles]

You could also argue that slacker and longer is safer and more fun at the same speed than steeper/shorter.

The longer bikes that I tried out were definitely *not* more fun for me. That's why I ended up with a not-so-long bike as a replacement for my old Reign. It was a CHORE to get the front end up on the ones I tried. Which apparently is a pretty big key for "fun" for me.

[Dantheman]

Ya I think I need a truing stand. The only bike maintenance I don't do on my own is spoke replacement, wheel building, star nut installs, and brake bleeds (because I never get it right and it can be messy).

Star nut setters are cheap and that's an easy job with the tool. What brakes? I've only had to learn how to do Shimano and Hayes Dominions, but both are pretty easy and well worth doing myself IME.

[XXX-er]

You could also argue that slacker and longer is safer and more fun at the same speed than steeper/shorter.

Yup last time I got hurt was on a 20yr old Kona cuz in fact on ANY mtn bike ridden anywhere you are already going fast enough to get hurt if you fall so its a good thing we got universal HC eh

but if you don't have universal HC with a long/ slack/ 29 you can just ride thru/over anything faster OR slower going up OR down as you wish instead of needing to pick a line all of which gives a wider margin of safety

With 1x11 XT I did not drop a chain in a season due to narrow/wide and for the clutched derailleur just push the levers and it works better, same with the brakes/ suspension/ dropper post, IME the latest bikes are the next generation in working better all of which gives you an extra bandwidth of safety and better operation, the one thing i won't deny is they are fucking expensive

And riding the new bikes you gotta lean forward over them wide bars with yer elbows out

[plugboots]

Damien. Who was he before Damien and who is he now?

[Bunion 2020]

extra bandwidth

No offense to you but if I hear one more project manager use that term they are getting kicked in the balls.

You may continue on unmolested.

Star nut setters are cheap and that's an easy job with the tool. What brakes? I've only had to learn how to do Shimano and Hayes Dominions, but both are pretty easy and well worth doing myself IME.

Same/same and I don't own the star nut tool, I made one from a wooden dowel. Speaking of that I should bleed my front brake before tomorrow's ride.

[Redsmurfer]

an interesting comparison between old and new geos

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/ibis-r...nion-2016.html

[Dantheman]

Damien. Who was he before Damien and who is he now?

Highway Star->Damien Sanders->Jonny Snow

[jono]

And riding the new bikes you gotta lean forward over them wide bars with yer elbows out

New bike is already old: Yeti finally started shortening the chainstays...model year after yours. I mean, you still gotta lean forward, but now it's the seat angle pushing you instead of the memory of the last front wash out.

[plugboots]

Kinda like Rog, there are all these people we can’t stand so we send them away, but they keep coming back.
I just got to say it’s kinda hard to rant right now. My local area is basically doubling it’s trail system after probably 15 years or more of the same trails, bikes work pretty effing well, etc.
OK, Crank Brothers and Specialized still suck so there’s that.

[skaredshtles]

an interesting comparison between old and new geos

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/ibis-r...nion-2016.html

It's really kind of amusing that they have, like other mfg'rs, kept the model name despite the fact that the current bike is NOTHING like the older model.

For example - I wanted to find a bike that rode similarly to my old (2010) Reign... and it turns out the current Trance (2018) is almost the same bike. The "new" Reign isn't even in the same ballpark.

I guess it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme...

[rideit]

Kinda like Rog, there are all these people we can’t stand so we send them away, but they keep coming back.
I just got to say it’s kinda hard to rant right now. My local area is basically doubling it’s trail system after probably 15 years or more of the same trails, bikes work pretty effing well, etc.
OK, Crank Brothers and Specialized still suck so there’s that.

Imo, there has never been a better time to be a MT. Biker.
Or a stoner, I guess!