u/Revolutionary-Gas884

Having had an ALR 4 now for 5 months, my routes are 98 tarmac, some a bit rough but tarmac nonetheless. The gravel bits are very minimal.

I’m finding the gearing all wrong on the ALR 4 for this kind of work. Too many super low gears and not enough high gears and the high gear ratios are too far apart for keeping a steady cadence up hills.

So I suppose the question is ?

Change the cassette

Change the chainring

Change to a 2x drivetrain

Put it down to experience, sell it and buy a Domane ?

I’d not ridden for 30 years prior to this and I’m riding a lot and longer and longer distances now and finding the gearing a PITA, other than that the fit and riding position is perfect.

Thank you for your consideration!

If anyone spots a Topeak Taillux light on the greenway can I have it back please.

It fell off on first ride after approx two hours of ownership 🤦

Anywhere between Guilden Sutton and Deeside.

Long shot I know 😞

In an effort to stay fit in my 50s I took up running two year ago and made really good progress, lost a ton of weight etc.

Recently I’ve started getting a lot of problems with my knees and started looking at watt bikes etc to be able to cut down on the running but keep fit.

Well after a lot of procrastination I ended buying a proper bike, an ALR 4 gen 3 for riding on the canal and cycle paths around where I live.

First ride was the first time I’d ridden a bike since 1996 🤣

I’ve managed to ride everyday since for between one and two hours at a decent pace with no leg or knee issues and I’m loving it (my arse less so)

With hindsight I should have probably got an all road rather than a gravel bike as the vast majority of the rides are on tarmac but I guess swapping the tyres out will help with that.

Other than that it’s a fantastic bike. As you’d imagine it’s a different world to what I would have ridden in the 90s. Fab colour as well.

I’ll do a 9 mile commute to work in the summer down a cycle path (pretty much door to door), save a fortune in fuel costs and get much fitter. It’s all good news !

TL/DR old man buys bike and is happy.

Replaced the toggle kill switch with a Tesi chrome kill switch. Much easier to use imo and matches the chrome hardware really well.

Bit of a pain to fit as the cable off the existing toggle was really short, ended up using Wago connectors 🤣 I’ll get it sorted properly when I have more time.