Happy wife, Happy Life!

[dynamic]

LBS gave me the go ahead a few days ago and the roll and sirrus x 4.0 are ordered (supposedly deliver Tuesday). Will be putting gx axs on it with an nx eagle cassette as soon as is reasonable. Plenty of other upgrades planned if I like the results of that. (onyx hub on new wheels, spider power meter and shorter cranks are among them).

They delayed in telling me to order and so the roll they had on the floor sold. So I had to do both bikes D2C through specialized. I could see the guy was annoyed but he wasn't about to tell me not to buy after telling me to buy.

In other news, a tero x 6 was being delivered to a customer. I got to see it. Picture attached. If gx axs shifting works for me, that bike will be mine at some point.

One other thing: The compatibility nightmare that is cycling hurts my brain. I am not a bike mechanic. So things that are obvious to a bike mechanic are not obvious to me. For example, XDR and XD are compatible. The onyx hub can be xdr + a spacer to accommodate a gx cassette (xd). All the while, I have an NX cassette on the bike with a shimano freehub, so I have to upgrade that cassette to an nx eagle to work with gx axs *or* wait until I can deal with the hub/wheel compatibility. I am opting to upgrade to nx eagle as it isn't that expensive. And will move to gx cassette if I decide to get new wheels/hub.

I also talked to a bike mechanic that is not happy about companies doing XDR + spacer to support XD. Same guy was also pretty specific about rims as well as number of engagement points that are "necessary" (Hint, it wasn't on the level of onyx or hydra). Loves the gx axs system though. He is a "simple and maintainable" guy. Doesn't like berd spokes much. Too much work for too little benefit. Obviously not a huge fan of onyx.

If anyone has highly durable wheels that don't cost an arm and a leg, let me know. I expected this guy to like stans notube but they use an aluminum part that tends to interact with the tubeless setup. He is a bontrager guy. Cool guy.

 

[mschwett]

yeah, the compatibility stuff is frustrating. most of it is well documented online, thankfully.

it’s 1/3 proprietary stupidity, 1/3 actual progress, and 1/3 the different needs of different types of biking,

e-bikes make it much worse because they pick standards from a wide range or types of cycling. things like “road boost,” the future shock, MTB drivetrains on what appear to be road bikes! your sirrus should be pretty clean by comparison.

XD/R is a good standard. it allows 10t small cogs, making a huge difference in gear spread. the body of the previous driver standards was too big to fit a 10t around. i changed the stock wheels on my creo to XDR and it was very trouble free and inexpensive. i have a couple of those tiny spacers, no clue which wheelset i ended up using one with or not

make sure you get the “shims” for your future shock.

everyone i know with a sirrus likes it. here’s my daughters XS s4.0 X. i like the way in the small sizes the top tube and seat stays are aligned like an MTB it’s leaning on my s works aethos here lol.

 

[dynamic]

it’s 1/3 proprietary stupidity, 1/3 actual progress, and 1/3 the different needs of different types of biking,

No kidding. I haven't even gotten into the bottom bracket stuff yet. All I am trying to do is create a reasonable cost map. So I know how much money I am getting into and approximately when based on my current desires. Gear range + electronic shifting is #1. Either wheels/hubs/gx cassette or cranks/power meter will be next depending on what I think is important.

make sure you get the “shims” for your future shock.

What is this? It comes with several springs. Oh, does the stem need special consideration because of future shock? I may want to put in a more comfort oriented stem.

everyone i know with a sirrus likes it. here’s my daughters XS s4.0 X.

I got a gloss lagoon blue (same color?). I suspect I will love it on everything but the real hills for a while. But, the point of doing all this is to learn what matters and apply it to other bikes in the future. And if I completely fall in love with the bike, there may not be a "future bike". I am honestly having a hard time finding other "all road" designs that really shine. There aren't all that many hybrid gravel-ish bikes for mixed surfaces. They tend to lean heavily in some direction. Surly goes more off roadish/mtb. A *lot* of these bikes have drop bars (and the geometry is tailored for that). There is no such thing as "smooth road" here. So, the idea of having a dedicated road bike just seems insane to me. My biggest concern with the sirrus x is it simply won't cut it in the rougher stuff either in comfort or performance.

 

[mschwett]

No kidding. I haven't even gotten into the bottom bracket stuff yet. All I am trying to do is create a reasonable cost map. So I know how much money I am getting into and approximately when based on my current desires. Gear range + electronic shifting is #1. Either wheels/hubs/gx cassette or cranks/power meter will be next depending on what I think is important.



What is this? It comes with several springs. Oh, does the stem need special consideration because of future shock? I may want to put in a more comfort oriented stem.



I got a gloss lagoon blue (same color?). I suspect I will love it on everything but the real hills for a while. But, the point of doing all this is to learn what matters and apply it to other bikes in the future. And if I completely fall in love with the bike, there may not be a "future bike". I am honestly having a hard time finding other "all road" designs that really shine. There aren't all that many hybrid gravel-ish bikes for mixed surfaces. They tend to lean heavily in some direction. Surly goes more off roadish/mtb. A *lot* of these bikes have drop bars (and the geometry is tailored for that). There is no such thing as "smooth road" here. So, the idea of having a dedicated road bike just seems insane to me. My biggest concern with the sirrus x is it simply won't cut it in the rougher stuff either in comfort or performance.

i think the electric gravel category is expanding. but it's still mostly drop bars. i guess it speaks to volume that specialized makes a flat bar diverge but not a flat bar creo.

the future shock cartridge is not a standard diameter, the "shims" are little cylinders that adapt it up. there are several sizes of stem ID, but no common ones will directly bolt onto a future shock. the adapter shim should be included with the bike, if it's not already installed. for some reason some of specialized's stems on future shock bikes are customized for the shock diameter, and some have shims. so when you pull off the stock stem to change it, look for a black metal sleeve that isn't part of the stem. and look in your small parts bag. a very minor thing.

also, i'm with you that accurate power is key. it's the only way to know how you're doing, too many other variables affect speed and heart rate etc. but since you're not 100% on what your forever bike is, or even how many you'll have, consider power pedals. i know you really like the clipless pedals you have, but there are great choices in the power pedal world with a lot less compromises and hassles than crank or spider based ones. plug and play, move between bikes, easy peasy.

 

[dynamic]

i think the electric gravel category is expanding. but it's still mostly drop bars. i guess it speaks to volume that specialized makes a flat bar diverge but not a flat bar creo.

the future shock cartridge is not a standard diameter, the "shims" are little cylinders that adapt it up. there are several sizes of stem ID, but no common ones will directly bolt onto a future shock. the adapter shim should be included with the bike, if it's not already installed. for some reason some of specialized's stems on future shock bikes are customized for the shock diameter, and some have shims. so when you pull off the stock stem to change it, look for a black metal sleeve that isn't part of the stem. and look in your small parts bag. a very minor thing.

also, i'm with you that accurate power is key. it's the only way to know how you're doing, too many other variables affect speed and heart rate etc. but since you're not 100% on what your forever bike is, or even how many you'll have, consider power pedals. i know you really like the clipless pedals you have, but there are great choices in the power pedal world with a lot less compromises and hassles than crank or spider based ones. plug and play, move between bikes, easy peasy.

Got it. I am hoping the geometry is such that I don't need to change the stem for the type of riding I do with this bike. The fit *appears* like it should be better on paper. (taller stack, shorter reach... etc). But I never did eliminate hand numbness entirely.

I also want to find a better way to mount the radar. The specialized one works way better than my rtl515 on garmin. It does lots of false positives. Which is obviously better than missing an actual car. I assume this is a function of the rack mounting of the unit vs the seatpost.

 

[mschwett]

Got it. I am hoping the geometry is such that I don't need to change the stem for the type of riding I do with this bike. The fit *appears* like it should be better on paper. (taller stack, shorter reach... etc). But I never did eliminate hand numbness entirely.

I also want to find a better way to mount the radar. The specialized one works way better than my rtl515 on garmin. It does lots of false positives. Which is obviously better than missing an actual car. I assume this is a function of the rack mounting of the unit vs the seatpost.

are you changing the saddle? i personally think the swat mount is the best place to put it. it's high up, protected from the front by you and the saddle and seatpost, very visible to cars, and not in the way of anything unless you want a saddle bag. i modeled/printed this one myself but there are ones available for purchase.

 

[dynamic]

are you changing the saddle? i personally think the swat mount is the best place to put it. it's high up, protected from the front by you and the saddle and seatpost, very visible to cars, and not in the way of anything unless you want a saddle bag. i modeled/printed this one myself but there are ones available for purchase.

View attachment 154552View attachment 154553

I currently like a brooks c17 carved saddle. And, on my current bikes I have used kinekt seat post which, I would think, would be a problem for the radar mounted on the saddle. I also have the kinekt saddle bag which is my preferred simple place for wallet/key/bike tool... etc. On this bike, I am not sure what I will do with the "stuff". And I would probably prefer to skip the kinekt for weight reasons unless I find the lack of suspension to be highly problematic. In short, I don't know what I am doing about any of that yet. I have been on the look out for some kind of super comfortable small cycling bag that you keep on your body. I have a sport focused backpack, but it's just too big to justify bringing everywhere.

First problem to solve is see if I can ride the bike far enough that brining a wallet even matters.

 

[dynamic]

The bikes should be delivered today. Once I have some time on it I am seriously considering moving to an X01 T-Type chain electronic drivetrain. If I didn't have to deal with a freehub swap, I probably wouldn't even blink at doing that. It is the onyx wheelset that is really making me pause from a price perspective. And I don't see a "simple" (read cost effective) way to swap hub styles.

 

[JayUK]

We're waiting, what's wrong with your new bikes?

 

[dynamic]

We're waiting, what's wrong with your new bikes!

Don’t know. Fedex seems to have lost them. Well, one has a damaged delivery exception and the other is stuck in a time loop.

 

[JayUK]

Don’t know. Fedex seems to have lost them. Well, one has a damaged delivery exception and the other is stuck in a time loop

If It Wasn’t for Bad Luck You Wouldn’t Have Any Luck At All!

Seriously, that is not good. I hope it's not as bad as it sounds.

 

[dynamic]

If It Wasn’t for Bad Luck You Wouldn’t Have Any Luck At All!

Seriously, that is not good. I hope it's not as bad as it sounds.

My luck on bikes is comically bad. When I bought the IGH bike pair I figured I was just going to have to be patient when problems started happening. Then they sent one broken and built wrong. So I ordered mechanical bikes. Fedex lost them. Previously I Fell into a specialized ecommerce black hole which showed me that they have zero flexibility.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they have to refund either or both of these bikes to move forward. And when I go buy them again: out of stock. This is my luck.

 

[dynamic]

Specialized hasn’t said anything to me but I just got a shipment notification for another sirrus x 4.0. So I am guessing it was deemed damaged.

 

[mschwett]

@dynamic i thought you'd like this - apple watch now connects to bluetooth power meters. power and cadence on your watch without buying an app

(of course you'll need a real power meter, since the one in the turbo motors doesn't broadcast on standard bluetooth profiles heh. but i'm definitely going to try this out on my non-e-bike just for kicks )

 

[dynamic]

@dynamic i thought you'd like this - apple watch now connects to bluetooth power meters. power and cadence on your watch without buying an app

(of course you'll need a real power meter, since the one in the turbo motors doesn't broadcast on standard bluetooth profiles heh. but i'm definitely going to try this out on my non-e-bike just for kicks )

View attachment 155323

I haven’t had time to watch the keynote yesterday. That’s pretty cool. I think the sram power meter I plan to put on the sirrus should work with this.

That might eliminate garmin from my life! Woot! I wonder if the peloton counts?

 

[dynamic]

My replacement sirrus x 4.0 arrives on monday. Looks like it made it to the local delivery facility without getting a damage flag. ;P The bike shop got the first one and it was "not sellable".

We finally picked up my wife's roll 3.0 today. It's a great bike for her and the rail trail purposes. She had me ride it a bit, and I am not optimistic about the chain or gearing. Even the little hill to get out of my development was way harder than I expected. The stock gearing on my sirrus x is pretty much identical (same low end, slightly higher high end on the sirrus from 11T vs 12T). The hill isn't quite enough to justify the lowest gear, but the jump to the next lowest was also quite large and not a great option. The shifting experience was.... not great. The shifts felt really slow and intrusive.

I will say, the bike feels like a feather weight. Loading these non-electric bikes on the hitch bike rack is ridiculously easy.

Neither of us tried hauling the 3 year old on it. I can't imagine it will be a problem since I did that on the vado with the motor off.

Hopefully, I will be able to go on my first real ride on the sirrus this week. I feel like I am losing my summer again.

 

[None]

Nearly 17 years ago, I built my wife (4' 11") her first road bike out of a 34cm Fuji kids frame with 650c wheels, 155mm cranks.

We rode locally, participated in events, worked our way up to century; tweaking the handlebar, saddle position along the way.

Now (with 4k miles on it) she's still riding it, maybe today we ride to get some lobster rolls.

 

[kahn]

Nearly 17 years ago, I built my wife (4' 11") her first road bike out of a 34cm Fuji kids frame with 650c wheels, 155mm cranks.

We rode locally, participated in events, worked our way up to century; tweaking the handlebar, saddle position along the way.

Now (with 4k miles on it) she's still riding it, maybe today we ride to get some lobster rolls.

I'd like to ride where I could get some lobster rolls. Nice conversion that seems to have served her well over the years.

 

[None]

The wife put about 25 miles total on the Lectric XP Trike; she feels that the in-laws are not ready for trike, I think she just wants to keep the trike for herself.
Here's a sizing comparison with my road/gravel bike vs trike folded up:

I even fitted the trike into my Toyota Yaris to be transported to NYC from my house in PA:

I want the in-laws to at least try it out before the weather gets really hot in NYC,
but then we get hit with poor air quality; not good for old people to be outdoors.

MON 05 JUN 2023:

WED 07 JUN 2023, up 5th Ave, same Empire State Building is on the upper left:

View of WTC from Brooklyn:

 

[dynamic]

Sirrus X 4.0 is in. And I sized it and road it down the block and back. Overall, I like it much more than my wife's bike. The shifting is much snappier though it was a bit slow going into the hardest gear.
One thing I immediately noticed: as I pedaled, the bike "pulsed". This was inline with the strongest part of the pedal stroke particularly as I went uphill. It was a bit disconcerting as I hadn't felt that on my other bikes. I assume this has something to do with the fact that I can lift the thing with my pinky.

Another comment: it feels fast. The direct drive feeling adds some amount of exhilaration even if I am not going nearly as fast as I do on the e-bikes. So much so, that if I can get over the hill climbing aspect, I am *sure* I will love flying on this bike.

My schedule, of course, got crazy. I am not sure when I will be able to give the thing a good hour or two ride.

More to come soon.