All about bicycles

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Here's my Dual Sport 3 I realized I never posted pictures of since getting it in December. It has been a lot of fun and my wife says getting these (she has one too) was the best purchase we've ever made.
 
The Ride to Conquer Cancer was scheduled for last weekend, until it got moved to August in the hopes of getting lots of people vaccinated. It was nice on Saturday, so I thought I would do the ride solo.

I got an early start. These days are sun is up from about 5:30am to 9:00pm
CK_5384RTCC0kmSunrise.JPG

I cached food, an extra gallon of water and a change of clothes at a central location. The target is 100km for the day, unless you want bragging rights of doing the Hammer.
CK_5386PRTCCStart.JPG

The plan to get out early to make the most of the light wind meant for the first couple of hours it was just me and farmers. This is at 60 km.
Farmers pump the water from canals onto the fields. Riding through it cools you, but it also gets you dirty - the water is quite gross, but makes good veggies.
CK_5391RTCC60kmSprayFields.JPG

I stopped at the truck for a quick breakfast and to refill my water bottles at 73 km, then wandered the streets a bit and found my 4th public school. In 1967 all grade 6 kids were banished from the town I lived in and sent to this country school.
CK_5397RTCC101kmSchool.JPG

Back to the country for a quick lunch at 121km, then fought the mid day wind until Mrs and my eldest met me for an 'almost finished' snack at 156km. Their $4 small cone is enough ice cream to feed a small family.
CK_5401RTCC156kmIceCream.JPG

Then a quick ride back to my cache to finish off at 162.9km. Shoes are a big deal when you're on a bike this long.
CK_5404RTCC162kmShoes.JPG

And of course, when I got home I had to rehydrate. Local cider that I generally stock 10 or so varieties of.
The giant bags on my legs are socially distance massage.
CK_5406RTCCRecovery.JPG
 
The Ride to Conquer Cancer was scheduled for last weekend, until it got moved to August in the hopes of getting lots of people vaccinated. It was nice on Saturday, so I thought I would do the ride solo.

I got an early start. These days are sun is up from about 5:30am to 9:00pm
CK_5384RTCC0kmSunrise.JPG

I cached food, an extra gallon of water and a change of clothes at a central location. The target is 100km for the day, unless you want bragging rights of doing the Hammer.
CK_5386PRTCCStart.JPG

The plan to get out early to make the most of the light wind meant for the first couple of hours it was just me and farmers. This is at 60 km.
Farmers pump the water from canals onto the fields. Riding through it cools you, but it also gets you dirty - the water is quite gross, but makes good veggies.
CK_5391RTCC60kmSprayFields.JPG

I stopped at the truck for a quick breakfast and to refill my water bottles at 73 km, then wandered the streets a bit and found my 4th public school. In 1967 all grade 6 kids were banished from the town I lived in and sent to this country school.
CK_5397RTCC101kmSchool.JPG

Back to the country for a quick lunch at 121km, then fought the mid day wind until Mrs and my eldest met me for an 'almost finished' snack at 156km. Their $4 small cone is enough ice cream to feed a small family.
CK_5401RTCC156kmIceCream.JPG

Then a quick ride back to my cache to finish off at 162.9km. Shoes are a big deal when you're on a bike this long.
CK_5404RTCC162kmShoes.JPG

And of course, when I got home I had to rehydrate. Local cider that I generally stock 10 or so varieties of.
The giant bags on my legs are socially distance massage.
CK_5406RTCCRecovery.JPG
Looks like a fantastic day for that ride. Doing it again in August, I assume?
 
Just as much fun as new guitar day, but much more rare (for me at least), it's new bike day!

The bicycle market is absolutely nuts these days. I had a bike from another maker on order, which got delayed beyond the original three month estimate I was given. I went sulking online and it happened to be the night Canyon put up a new batch of Grails. I knew they wouldn't last long, so I pulled the trigger right away. Glad I did because when I checked the site the next day, all but a few in the largest sizes had already sold out in well under 24 hours!

I'm super stoked, since I've been eying this Grail 7 1by in particular. Anyway, I'm ready to go exploring the wonderful wildlife areas and rail trails we have here in Florida. Trying to stay away from cars as much as possible!

xaDiu2o.jpg
 
Just as much fun as new guitar day, but much more rare (for me at least), it's new bike day!

The bicycle market is absolutely nuts these days. I had a bike from another maker on order, which got delayed beyond the original three month estimate I was given. I went sulking online and it happened to be the night Canyon put up a new batch of Grails. I knew they wouldn't last long, so I pulled the trigger right away. Glad I did because when I checked the site the next day, all but a few in the largest sizes had already sold out in well under 24 hours!

I'm super stoked, since I've been eying this Grail 7 1by in particular. Anyway, I'm ready to go exploring the wonderful wildlife areas and rail trails we have here in Florida. Trying to stay away from cars as much as possible!

xaDiu2o.jpg
Beautiful ride, congrats!
 
Just as much fun as new guitar day, but much more rare (for me at least), it's new bike day!

The bicycle market is absolutely nuts these days. I had a bike from another maker on order, which got delayed beyond the original three month estimate I was given. I went sulking online and it happened to be the night Canyon put up a new batch of Grails. I knew they wouldn't last long, so I pulled the trigger right away. Glad I did because when I checked the site the next day, all but a few in the largest sizes had already sold out in well under 24 hours!

I'm super stoked, since I've been eying this Grail 7 1by in particular. Anyway, I'm ready to go exploring the wonderful wildlife areas and rail trails we have here in Florida. Trying to stay away from cars as much as possible!

xaDiu2o.jpg
Great ride @garrett !!! Is that single front sprocket the new thing these days? Or is that something that gravel bikes are mostly doin'? I am totally out of it when it comes to the latest in all worlds of two wheels! Enjoy and happy spinnin'!

MW
 
Great ride @garrett !!! Is that single front sprocket the new thing these days? Or is that something that gravel bikes are mostly doin'? I am totally out of it when it comes to the latest in all worlds of two wheels! Enjoy and happy spinnin'!

MW

Double ring is definitely still the thing for road and most gravel bikes are double as well. It still provides the best gear range, although Campagnolo has released a 13-speed single setup.

Single ring is one of the areas where mountain biking crosses over with gravel. I love it for the mechanical simplicity and ease of use. The sacrifice is a lower top end, but I don't need those big ratios anyway.
 
Double ring is definitely still the thing for road and most gravel bikes are double as well. It still provides the best gear range, although Campagnolo has released a 13-speed single setup.

Single ring is one of the areas where mountain biking crosses over with gravel. I love it for the mechanical simplicity and ease of use. The sacrifice is a lower top end, but I don't need those big ratios anyway.

I'm surprised at this trend towards 1x gearing. I don't go down to the smaller ring much except if it's a pretty nasty climb, but I'm sure glad it's there when I need it.

Btw...nice bike. The market is indeed nuts. I wanted to upgrade from my gravel (since converted to road) to a performance road bike and there is nothing to be found. You'd think a 5 to 6k bike would be pretty easy to find. Nope! There are people out with cash to burn.
 
I'm surprised at this trend towards 1x gearing. I don't go down to the smaller ring much except if it's a pretty nasty climb, but I'm sure glad it's there when I need it.

Btw...nice bike. The market is indeed nuts. I wanted to upgrade from my gravel (since converted to road) to a performance road bike and there is nothing to be found. You'd think a 5 to 6k bike would be pretty easy to find. Nope! There are people out with cash to burn.

I'm sure it's heavily dependent on the individual rider, but I was often finding myself in the middle ground between front rings.

I'm a big fan of keeping it simple. I had a hybrid with a 1x8 setup and loved it.

The gearing here is crazy low though, coming from road bikes. The ring is 40t and the largest sprocket on the cassette is 42. Looking forward to seeing how that pans out off-road here in flat FL.
 
Most people do not realize how complex a bicycle is.
The chain alone has over 500 moving parts and the frame
is under constantly changing stresses in every possible direction.
Compression, tension, torsion, all at once and all constantly changing.
There's a lot going on there.
 
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