What have you done to your bike(s) recently?

I'm thinkin' your Strada Rossa time may be a bit faster this year....

 

You should see the funny looking brake levers they sent!

 

This is going to get interesting...

 

Welcome to the new iGravelbiketrails.com

 

IGBT? I don't like the sound of that.

 

Gravel bikes?? Why??

 

At least there's no "L."

 

Rainy day morning in the garage.

Put a new Specialized Slaughter 29X2.3 on my spare wheelset
Then I messed around with a 13l drysac to see how it works with different loads. Roll closure on both ends with water proof(?) Cordura and a top zip access.
Top pic is maxxed out with a sleeping bag, bottom is with a saw and everyday items

 

It's All-Road man, All-Road...

 

Decided to skip the wheel build idea and purchase a set already built.

Found a great deal on ebay:

i9 Torch, Arc 27, DT spokes and nipples, taped and valved.

 

Bent down is the problem no?

 

Woohoo, restoring the old Varsity!


All-Road = no trail?

 

The Ls are the best ones!

 

Maybe not exactly a restore...

 

Got. More like a reinvention?


They're coming...will they get along?

 

That has a very Maxxis Ikon look to it.

 

New wheels mounted and ready to roll. I decided to stay with the Spesh Purg GRID 2.3 tires that have never failed me. A little skinnier than the OEM tires the Fuel came with but they are what I know well.

 

Really odd.... These notoriously LOUD i9 hubs on my new wheels are almost silent??? If I lift the rear wheel off the ground and spin it, I can hear the classic buzz that these are known for but barely, as in, almost silent.

But the engagement is amazing!

On the dirt today, I couldn't hear anything from the rear hub. After the ride, I again lifted the rear wheel and spun it. The buzz was only about 10% louder. So, still 80% silent. It turns out that there is a specific grease available to help quiet them down. I watched a few videos of mechanics applying it. Their hubs were maybe 35% less noisy (but still quite noisy) after the grease was applied.

I guess I can assume that the buzz will increase with each ride from this point forward?

Any input from experienced i9 hub users would be most appreciated.

 

My I9's were never really loud. But then again, I took 3 of the 6 pawls out. I now only have a mere 60 POE. Vince has all 6 in his, still not loud, just more of a buzzzzzz.

 

I think it could be the amount of grease as well as the type. I regreased my I9s a while back with park moly grease and they got much quieter. I thought maybe I put too much in and was afraid the pawls could stick and/or not engage fully, so I wiped some grease out. Louder for sure. I've said a few times before, I9s and their engagement points were a game changer for me, mostly because my bike has really low BB and I tend to need to time pedals to miss rocks or rachet quick. The noise never bothered me, hikers seem to hear it early (though a few thought I was a bee swarm or rattler).

 

Installed the new version Box shifter. The old one had a funky thumb shifter on the down shifts. The new one has a standard trigger shifter that is commmon on the big S brands.

 

Not sure I have a bike. Haven't seen it in a while. And that's OK. My skis and snowboard are happy.

 

I've had a clicking sound when pedaling for a while. I have half-assed diagnosed it to the bottom bracket. I took it apart about about a month ago and couldn't pull the seals off, so just greased the surface up. That cleared it up for a couple of rides, so felt I was on to something. Finally took it apart again today, and tried to force a little grease into the bearings themselves today. May have been successful, but won't know till I'm riding tomorrow!

 

Decided to go all in on training materials (okay, 50% in) and put a power meter on my XC bike. Went with the RaceFace Cinch and a Turbine crank on the XC bike. I'm not too concerned with weight this year, so I saved some money short term with the Turbine cranks, I'll upgrade to G4 Next some time in the future, and these will likely land on my gravel bike.

Besides feeling like a wuss when I look at the numbers, it is working pretty well so far!

 

Can I get a little floatation and traction?

 

He will ride again!!!!!

 

My Enduro has been rolling on Roval Traverse SL 29 wheels since 2015/16
It was time to respoke the rear wheel. One spoke snapped at the nipple after coming down sunset trail so it was just a matter of time that more would follow suit.
I don’t have the patience nor the time so I had the shop (Universal Cycles) do the job right.
Happy bike, happy rider

 

UPDATE:

I contacted Industry Nine with my concern. The tech asked which rims the hubs were laced to. When I told him that they were laced to ARC 27s, he said that these wheels are a Santa Cruz bikes wheel option and he said that the hubs they send to them are heavily packed with the specific grease to make them as silent as possible. Mystery solved...

 

With all of the talk about plus tires, I had them on the Chameleon for one of last week's snow rides. 3.o Trailblazer on the front and 2.8 Ikon on the rear... They were fun for the most part, but not for the ride that's coming up. If the hardtail gets the call up, I'll want the faster 29ers.

So today I took the plus wheels off, which meant swapping my XT cassette back onto the 29er wheel. While I had it all off, I pulled the free hub on the DT Swiss 350. The grease wasn't totally horrible, but it wasn't great either... So I cleaned up the parts, regreased everything, and put it back together. It was really quiet... Too quiet. My mechanic said I had too much grease in there, so I pulled it off, dabbed a little off of the ratchets and reassembled. Still quiet, but not as quiet... But boy is it smooth! I got it spinning in the stand, walked to the bench, washed my hands, and it was still spinning like mad. I watched it for a minute, and it didn't seem to slow down...

The headset, however, was not smooth... More like the bearings were made of rock. So I dropped the fork. The top bearing was a little gummy, but not bad enough to cause the gravel steering. The bottom was completely shot. Water definitely got in there... So, a quick trip to the Path for some new bearings, and she's good as new.

She's a Happy Lizard.

 

Yay.....you're learning.

Both bearings or just the bottom?