[Closed] Bike stuff you just don't *get*

A quick look on CRC would suggest that you can get some in a Medium and Long cage, but the only one I would consider short cage is the Saint mech.

You ride rocky trails with narrow gaps between rocks and sooner or later, your mech is going to hit something - much more likely with a longer cage mech. Plus, as I said, what is the purpose of such a long cage on a mountain bike?

Didn't realise how many people I was pissing off riding my lighweight all mountain bike with white seat and grips and £200 seat dropper around trail centres every weekend 8)

People who feel the need to comment on what is good/bad/odd/in need of changing on my bike
People who don't know how to ride with other people

stuboy2k - you forgot to add "29er" in that description...

You ride rocky trails with narrow gaps between rocks and sooner or later, your mech is going to hit something

Never happened to me in 20 years of biking, and I live in rocky South Wales.

And the long cage mech is because the vast majority of people use triples.

Tom & Kuco, yeah, I guess I'm lucky where I live that I've got plenty of bridleways and [i]other trails [/i] 😉 near where I live. Horses have made some of them almost unridable, at least in one direction, but there's still enough to make a decent loop or an extended commute.

Molgrips, you could be right, although I think bias confirmation is more likely. Whenever I hear people talking about trail centres, I tend to think, "Oh no, not again, why don't you do something different for a change". Maybe they do and I'm just not registering it.
Although, if you include places like the Wyre, the Malverns and Clent as unofficial trail centres, I do find it disappointing how often people will discuss which one they're going to next weekend as if they were the only options.

what molgrips said + what bigyinn said + 29ers + 69ers

molgrips - Member
Never happened to me in 20 years of biking, and I live in rocky South Wales.

Jinxed now! Take a spare mech hanger out with you next ride... just in case!

I don't get this thread.

I don't get the confrontational attitude that's so common on STW. In particular, the way it's so different to meeting other mountain bikers in real life.
Any slight difference of opinion or preference on here can lead to indignation or worse.
Out in the real world when I meet up with other people, we all ride different bikes and we all get on.

I don't get the confrontational attitude that's so common on STW. In particular, the way it's so different to meeting other mountain bikers in real life.

That's because the real mountain bikers are out riding their bikes.

STWers are webbos who spend more time on forums reading about and buying bike bits than actually riding them.

Or looking at what roof rack to buy for their Audi before their quartely trip to Cannock to spin round in the granny ring of their mint condition Nomad.

I don't get the confrontational attitude that's so common on STW. In particular, the way it's so different to meeting other mountain bikers in real life.

It's cos it's a forum. This always happens. There's a lot of subtle psychology going on.

The presence of a physical person modifies our behaviour completely. On here you only have a few words to go on, so your brain constructs a person to whom to attribute the words to. This tends to be a cipher for a confrontational position so people end up getting angry. They aren't angry with the other person really, they are angry with the avatar in their heads that seems to be saying the things.

It's cos it's a forum.

That and they let roadies on here. Everyone knows roadies are arsey 😉

Fair enough - usually I try to keep out of it, but as you used a picture of me I'll take the bait 😕

Things I don't get...

People riding xc with huge wide handlebars at chest height like an old Dutch roadster and saddle nose pointing up in the air (seems the norm these days - perhaps I'm just out of touch, haven't tried it [which is pretty much the gist of the thread])

Cyclists who own dogs (surely the two are mutually exclusive)

Ronhills - yes, sorry about those whoever mentioned it, but they were cheap, not a good fit though, won't buy any more. If you meant cycling tights in general, we'll have to agree to disagree 😉

People who worry too much about conforming to what everybody else is doing - s'pose you all drive silver diesel BMW/Audis as well do you?

The new XTR cranks that look like the nasty Suntour SR ones I had on my cheap Coventry Eagle tourer in the 80s. In fact, ANY of Shimano's recent chainsets - the road ones look like frying pans.

Now I've played the game, a bit in my/our defense FWIW (although I don't want it to turn into a rant)...

I ride bikes as well, always have done (although I don't actually own a mountain bike at the moment). I ride unicycles off-road because I enjoy it, not for attention (TBH I'd prefer it if everybody ignored me). Try it, it might be fun. I know it's a fairly unusual sight for most people and expect a degree of surprise/interest/piss-taking - I don't mind that as long as it's in good humour. On the road I still prefer a bike.

Oh, and when I'm racing in with bikes I'm well aware of the speed difference between even a quick unicyclist and (most of) the bikes on the faster sections and try to give every opportunity for safe overtaking. Most riders communicate well and pass cleanly, the same as they would with a slower biker. I hope that's true of all of us all the time (whatever we're riding) but we all know there are exceptions and lapses. If I've personally annoyed anybody in any bike races I've unicycled in (Mayhem and Sleepless last five years, Muc-off 8 last year, Exmoor Explorer last year, and a few other more obscure ones) then I apologise.

See you all at Mayhem. I'll be a lycra-wearing long-haired [i]unintentionally[/i] attention-grabbing unicyclist just trying to enjoy the racing and not come last (we never have done). Not much different from the bloke with the pink mohecan and tartan socks (and a bloody good rider he is) or somebody riding a retro bike, and certainly less silly than the ironing-board-on-back guy...
Can't we all just get on - we're all cyclists after all. Now I'm sounding like a hippy.

Everybody's someone else's weirdo, as they say.

Rob
(ooh that got a bit long and dangerously close to being ranty...)
Oh, and it's not a bike, BTW 😉

bike computers;
speed, distance, cadence, stats - taking the fun out of mtbing
now if they made a gnarometer id fit one of them to my bike

lycra; there are some really cool functional biking clothes out there, if i want to look like a gimp ill go to a fetish club

singlespeed; 1x9 i can appreciate for simplicity but surely 1 gear is just saccrifing efficency?

Full fingered gloves for normal, everyday, non winter riding.
Wusses, the lot of you.

High Rollers:
Currently using up a pair 'cos I'm not wasting £65.00.
Vile, horrible useless things. Spin out on the back, grip free on the front unless you're cranked over.
Genuinely hate them with a passion rare in one so plump.

Tubeless. Will be great when the technology matches the expectation, but not right now.

Non standard wheels:
Heavier, harder to true, can't get the bits, not as strong.
Utterly pointless retrograde engineering.

Lock on grips:
If I Starship myself I want to land on rubber, not metal.
And no, my normal grips don't slip, even in the wet.

Black anodised components.
Ugly and look heavy and inelegant. Cheaper for the manufacturers, which is the sole reason for their existance.

5-10's.
Cardboad insoles in this climate? Really?

And relax........

speed, distance, cadence, stats - taking the fun out of mtbing

Really?

"Wow this is amazing singletrack, woohoo, I'm enjoying myself so much.. Oooh dammit, I am doing 18mph. Sh*t that's ruined my whole day now"

Lycra is more comfortable and much less flappy than baggies - nice if you are a) on the road or b) racing

I like bike in all shapes and sizes and things like gravity droppers and tubeless give me a semi.

But 12V pressure washers that you take with you?
Oh and fox forks *s*****

WoW can't believe the hate of CX it's great fun!! I can see why unicycles could be a pain in a race but otherwise if everyones having a laugh what's the problem!!!

No hang on full facer lids on a xc trail.......... 8)

Singlespeed is great for trail centres, not so great for "proper" mountain biking.

I'll stop taking mine out in the peak district, North wales and across the long mynd then and stick to follow the dog 🙄

I don't get flat pedals, or the need for a 6" + travel all mountain bike for riding 90% of the stuff in the UK just extra weight for no added benefit

I really don't get Jeff Jones bikes.

Having ridden one, I scratched my head and wondered what I was missing. I concluded that it was just a [i]very[/i] expensive rigid bike. Nicely made, and very light but then a rigid titanium singlespeed doesn't have much opportunity to be heavy.

The wacky rigid fork is just that; if it flexed even 1mm, I sure didn't notice. Felt rigid to me, but no more rigid than, say, some £100 carbon ones from On-One.

Not having a go; I just didn't/don't understand the fuss, and that's before you look at the price.

I personally dont get the whole commercialisation of the industry / must have new kit that we are TOLD will MAKE you ride better - rather than actually riding more and getting fit and also learning decent skills both ON and OFF the bike - say map reading ? Which allows anyone to actually go away from quite tame TC trails to really tasty stuff!!!

Also I find the the big bike / armour scene to ride normal trails quite amusing. Full sus can be fun on the right sort of rocky alpine / lakes / scottish trails but its overkill on most Uk trails - as a result I find group rides have become slower as people tire quicker peddling / walking / pushing their overbiked 30 lbs plus bikes and to then be not exactly that fast on the downs.

Its the triumph of marketing / image over functionality. If people want to buy into it then so be it.

I find adjustable seatposts quite pointless for my style of epic xc riding but it may suit others. I find singlespeed pointless unless as a winter forest bike. There is no way I could ride 6-10 hrs regularly on a singlespeed and not kill my knees. Thats just me.

I love disc brakes / suspension forks and thudbusters !!

Embrace the differences !

or the need for a 6" + travel all mountain bike for riding 90% of the stuff in the UK just extra weight for no added benefit

With the travel comes other things usually like slacker angles, wider bars, bigger brakes, tyres etc - all of which make a difference. My Patriot is ace even on smooth downhills... And there are plenty of trails round by me that are rocky enough to be much better with 7" travel 🙂

I personally dont get the whole commercialisation of the industry / must have new kit that we are TOLD will MAKE you ride better

Right, I'm fed up of hearing this stuff - can you provide me with a link? I don't think I've EVER read anything that told me a piece of kit would make me a better rider..

rather than actually riding more and getting fit and also learning decent skills

I didn't realise that buying a nice bike and learning to be a good rider were mutually exclusive?

But 12V pressure washers that you take with you?

Absolutely life saving at wet 24hr races...

quite tame TC trails

Trail centres are only tame if you mince them. It's up to you to challenge youself not to expect the trails to do it for you.

I too don't get Jones bikes. I rode one around a field with a giant tyre on the front and it weighed 27lbs which is a bit poor for a 3 grand ti SS fully rigid... All I could tell was that it had a really short wheel base. The owner was not able to tell me why it was good either, but he was sure that it was.

I vaguely "get" most of what I've tried. My downhilling skills/balls aren't sufficient for me to enjoy uplift days though. The ratio of riding to hanging about is all wrong for me, because my awesomeness when riding is on average quite low. 🙂

I just quite like the cycling, bit of road, bit of cx, bit of mtb, bit of tandem and a bit of commuting. Moderation in all things - as long as I can accompany it with either something shiny, errr, or matt black.

i don't get why CRC advertise goods for a certain (usually exceptionally low) price, only to click the link and find it refers only to some stupid obscure size that no one would want to buy. the part that fits [i]your[/i] bike is three times the price...

well, i guess i do get it, but i don't like it!

scottw - Member

I don't get this thread.

+1

I don't get where all the colour has gone from MTBs. Yes, anodised purple and the Judy yellow/red fads were a bit silly. But all this black or white is just plain dull, which is much, much worse.

People who don't get the need for 6"+ bikes for UK riding, claiming that for 90% of UK riding nobody needs more than $MY_TRAVEL on $MY_BIKE.

I will add long travel HT's to the list, utterly pointless!

Only good for the "oh look at me, I've got 140mm forks on my HT, aren't I rad!" brigade.

I don't get flat pedals

Seriously?

I've seen plenty of SPD riders make a mess of things purely because they were clipped in.

I will add long travel HT's to the list, utterly pointless!

Have you tried one? They are FUN which is what a lot of people seem to be missing on this thread.

need for a 6" + travel all mountain bike for riding 90% of the stuff in the UK just extra weight for no added benefit

Since when did "need" have anything to do with it?
People don't have to justify their bikes to anyone.
I like seeing people having fun on the hills (trailcentre or not) and could not GAF what bike they're riding.

If you don't get it, accept it or try to understand it. Failing that, ignore it )

geoffj has pwned you all. This is the biggest pwn since the leet haxorz did STW mk I for teh lulz.

Why?

He asked you for instances of [i]bike[/i] stuff you just don't get. Then gave his example as a unicycle.

Now, call me old fashioned, but where I'm from the word 'bike' derives from the the word 'bicycle'. Which is greek or german or something for 'two-icicles' - commonly translated into 'two wheeled steed'...not a freaking unicycle (trans. one-icle...or one wheeled monomono)

He done you all up like greasy old kippers. Can't believe we're on page 3 and no one has noticed this obvious troll.

I am in trouble here! As out riding today my: all anodised black, rigid, single speed, (cheap! cost £200 ish all in - bits from here) 29ner whilst wearing Ron Hills and with two dogs!! Good job nobody saw me......

And I had a go on (or is it in?) a Windcheeter, recumbent trike - huge fun, jet fighter like turns, sliding the back out on a roundabout, it is like a Lotus 7 of the pedal world.

And wish I could ride a unicycle...

I think I get nearly all bike stuff just feel a long way from BMX parks and their tricks, and packs of bright roadies (look mostly middle-aged, prob the only ones that can afford) on expensive carbon bikes.

People who don't get the need for 6"+ bikes for UK riding, claiming that for 90% of UK riding nobody needs more than $MY_TRAVEL on $MY_BIKE.

well considering the question was "bike stuff [b]you[/b] just don't get" I think I answered it very well from a personal perspective you complete and utter knobend.

Now, call me old fashioned, but where I'm from the word 'bike' derives from the the word 'bicycle'. Which is greek or german or something for 'two-icicles' - commonly translated into 'two wheeled steed'...not a freaking unicycle (trans. one-icle...or one wheeled monomono)

He done you all up like greasy old kippers. Can't believe we're on page 3 and no one has noticed this obvious troll.

From page 1..

uplink - Member

<pedantry>

Technically, a unicycle isn't a bike [short for bicycle] so an invalid as as 'Bike stuff you hate'

</pedantry>

Consider yourself pwned.

Can't believe we're on page 3 and no one has noticed this

Noted on page 1.

+1 for Lefties, just plain wrong.

Noted on page 1.

Oh yeah. That'll learn me.

In that case, I hate red bikes.

Ha ha, 140mm isn't long travel on a hard tail! 160 is where it's at and the really cool kids are on Ragleys with 180mm upfront. My 456C with Lyriks is absoloutely brilliant.

This links onto a couple of posts above; biking isn't about efficiency, it's about having fun. Most of the time anyway. So I'll ride a bike with one gear up and down big hills because it makes the 2-3 hours I can ride in an evening a better workout and with less faff and cleaning afterwards. And I'll ride my DH bike up and down mountains occasionally, because I'm in no rush to get the ride done and it's fun to ride different bikes.

i love riding my bike, if other people look like they're having fun on their bikes then the worlds a happier place. who cares what they look like or what they're riding? surely what matters is what you ride and that you enjoy doing so?

your eyes should be picking the line you're going to ride not who to hate next 🙄

your eyes should be picking the line you're going to ride not who to hate next

god dam hippies get everywhere....go and hug a tree man 😈

 

Lefty forks:

I can't accept that in my own poor understanding of engineering the extra material needed to make them as rigid as a normal fork doesn't negate the weight saved by removing a leg

Ah hah.. right.

The point about lefties (and headshocks) is that the telescopic bit is actually two square section tubes running on roller bearings, so it's really really smooth. However it's heavy to build this into a fork, so to cut the weight they made two forks where you only had to build it once - the lefty and the headshock.

So it's saving the weight that their design would have had, bringing it down to the level of a normal fork.

He asked you for instances of bike stuff you just don't get. Then gave his example as a unicycle.

I noticed this but didn't comment, because no-one really gives a F.

Cannondale headtubes. What is the point of 1.56 inch? Is it just to make sure that the 'system integration' sticker's sole function is to make the manufacturers giggle? Integrated with precisely naff all if you try and find a sealed headset on their zero stack bikes has been my experience. Feel better now.

Why would you molgrips. You're too busy being an internet hero.

Let's be safe out there.

You're too busy being an internet hero

Wherever there is misconception, I'll be there 😛

Word to you holmes.

I didn't say who was doing the misconceiving..

It's inconceivable...

[tazzymtb] well considering the question was "bike stuff you just don't get" I think I answered it very well from a personal perspective you complete and utter knobend.

Grown men who take internet forums seriously

Actually, I tell you another thing I just don't get.

People who bang on about how ugly or otherwise a bike looks. WGAF? You're going to ride it not take it out on a date FFS.

It's a bike. Two wheels, bars, saddle, you know - bike. There are some lovely stylish design statements and then there's bikes, the kind that we ride, get tired on, get covered in mud and hose off in the driveway.

I honestly can't see anything in an Orange 5 other than an engineering solution. Or any other common bike.

So wait, I rode my new (to me) Summer Season (with flats, a long cage, 3x9 ultra-niche gear set, black anodised bars, stem and seat post), round a trail centre for the first time and had the time of my life, throwing it bravely into jumps and corners (and failing spectacularly, but learning all the time), and you're telling me I forgot to pack my jaded cynicism?

Damn!

I'll take it next time!

Grown men who take internet forums seriously

never have and never will, so there.

and grown men are not "bike stuff" unless you are riding in a very different way to me 😯

+1 philconsequence (I'm not just agreeing with you because I've actually met you!). It's all good.

Personally I wouldn't touch a carbon frame because I'm not exactly light and dainty but that doesn't make it bad / something someone else shouldn't have, it's just my choice, rational or not.

As someone else said, we should encourage all varieties and forms of bike. In my opinion.

Cannondale headtubes. What is the point of 1.56 inch?

Actually... the Cannondale headtube size came long before the 1.5 standard so it's not like they intentionally shunned an existing technology. And it's the *inner* diameter of the bearing that makes it that, you can easily fit 1.5 headsets to their tubes and vice versa (insertion depths permitting etc.)

but I agreee .56 is a bit bonkers, I can only assume its the metric version of some imperial yank measure...

EDIT - or even imperial version of a metric measure...

but then 1.56inch in mm is 39.6mm so actually you're right, totally bonkers

more digging (not sure why, but it was bugging me..)

it is actually 1.5625 or 1 9/16 inch so it's defo using a standard imperial size rather than making stuff up for the fun of it 🙂

all mud guards look shit

all mud guards look shit

absolutely irrefutable

I don't understand people who won't use mudguards 'cos they look shite. What does it matter? The mudguard keeps the crud off you

I (usually) don't use rear ones because they flap around annoyingly and get clogged up from time to time. Not cos of how they look.

Chris King headsets.

£125 for some bearings? Should it ever actually break I can replace my FSA Orbit four times over for that.

and Road Bikes, WTF is that about? I can't see a single bit of it that could possibly be described as fun.

"and Road Bikes, WTF is that about? I can't see a single bit of it that could possibly be described as fun."

Heathen! Everyone loves them on here!

I don't understand people who won't use mudguards 'cos they look shite.

Don't think anyone was saying that they wouldn't use them because they looked shite, just that they look shite. Which they do.

I use them sometimes, but they still look shite.

The attractiveness of mudguards is not subjective.