I’m currently buying some wheels for my bike as I want to make it lighter as a project. The bike currently has a cues 11speed . With my new wheel can I order a XT cassette 11 speed and will it fit onto the HG free hub fine?
Thanks for any help!
Edit… this is for a MTB. My current cassette is 11-50 I believe and the XT is 11-46.
Is there any YouTube channels that focus around XC bikes and races?
I watch a lot of GCN, GMBN, Cade, Katie Kookabura and other channels.
But they are mainly road and gravel.
Is there any good dedicated XC channels to watch?
Thanks!
Our dog started to slightly limp tonight. She is only 10 months old. We would obviously take her to the vet but they are closed until tomorrow and there’s no other local options.
Does anyone have any ideas? Her paw looks like this? She’s still running up and down and jumping on and off things. But she just has a slight limp.
Is there anything we can do in the meantime? I’ve had a close look but can’t see anything stuck in there.
Thank you for any help!
The question is in the title?
Looking at flat bars I was going to get the giant connect but then saw they are 620mm which seems crazy narrow for a modern XC hardtail. What are you running?
Thanks for any answers!
This is a Voodoo Bizango 2026. It’s not an expensive bike at all but it always wins awards for its specs at this price. It costs £750 normally. I’m 6 foot 1 and the bike is a size large.
The problem is I also have a Cannondale topstone gravel bike. And this thing just feels so slow in comparison.
I’ve change the front wheel to a DT Swiss and a Barzo Race and set up tubeless. The rear wheel is set up tubeless with a Peyote Race and hopefully will change that to DT Swiss soon. I’ve changed the grips to Ergon GA2 fat, and the handlebar to more rise as how high I have to have the seat post causes too much dip with flat bars and I feel like I’m super hunched over. The bike weighs 13kg and has shimano Cues 11 speed and Shimano MT200 hydro brakes.
I know my gravel bike will always be a bit faster. But it’s like riding through sludge compared.
But I LOVE the way hardtails and XC bikes look compared to road and gravel bikes. So I really want to try and make it work.
Can you experienced XC guys point me in any direction of what I can do or change, or anything that you notice will be causing issues?
I love the way the bike looks, but even with the expensive tyres on and pumped to 40 psi it feels sluggish over everything 😬
I’ll start.
I actually don’t think gravel bikes are that good even though I own one. I think it’s big marketing hype and instead of being a do it all bike they actually have a very narrow section where they excel. Otherwise it’s either slower than a road bike or get beat up much more than a MTB.
Your turn…
I’m riding my mountain bike.
I’m in the UK and I don’t ride downhill or bike parks. All my rides are XC rides about 4 times a week. A mix of tarmac, gravel, single track, woodlands and fields.
I’ve noticed recently as I’ve been swapping between my MTB and my Gravelbike that I get a lot more negativity towards me when on the Gravelbike. This can be on the road or even on footpaths. Is it the cycling gear I wear when riding? The shape of the bike that instantly reminds people of being stuck behind road cyclists, the dorky road bike look with Lycra? Who knows…
In complete contrast when I’m in my XC MTB and wearing my FOX Jersey, MTB shorts, Backpack with bladder pack people seem to go from negative to almost overly positive. I get compliments on my bike, people moving out the way and wishing me a good ride, even the odd wave. I even had today a works van with 3 lads pull up next to me and compliment my bike and was very curtious. I could be wrong but I’m not sure they would have done that if I was on my gravel bike and Lycra.
Does anyone else ride both and has noticed this? As much as my XC MTB is slower on the road, it actually feels safer as it feels like people generally look at it like a ‘Cool Boys Toy’ rather than ‘Dork In Lycra’.
What’s peoples thoughts? It’s starting to
Make me choose the MTB to go out on to be honest.
I did one last year and contemplating doing the same one again this year.
However it’s £35 to enter. It’s not racing, even though last year I did put the hammer down and put the 200 people I was 9th to the finish. However as I say it’s not a race and some people are litterally just on a jolly so it’s not a bragging right to be in the top 10 haha.
But that’s my issue really. We don’t seem to have any cycling races around my area, but we do have sportives. I love to have something to train for. But at the end of the day it’s paying £35 to go ride a road that I can ride for free whenever and it’s not even a race. So training for it feels a little pointless.
How’s everyone else feel about sportives? Worth it? Don’t like them?
Would love to hear some views.
My rides on my gravel bike are 80% tarmac and hard pack with 20% being pea gravel.
I was reading people recommending the GP5000 AS in 35mm. For great road use and it can handle light gravel too!
However here in the UK they are £100 PER TYRE!
That’s more than a half decent car tyre here in the UK.
Are they actually that good?? Is there anything else that people recommend that’s not so expensive but will be good for my use case?
I know I know I’m asking a sub that’s for this.
But I’m wanting to give it a go. I have a Cannondale Topstone gravel back with pannier rack mounting points. I have a 1 man ORX Bobcat tent.
But I have no sleeping bag, no rear rack, no saddle bag or storage for the bike etc etc.
Before I go and start to spend, I thought it may be sensible to see what makes bikepacking fun for you guys?
And see what the upsides and downsides are? For a more realistic view.
Hope some people can help.
Thank you.
I know I’m on a gravel sub so the answers will probably be leaning one way.
But I have both and I really can’t decide. I live in the UK and every ride involves a bit of country roads, fields, woodland. Farmers tracks, rocky tracks, bridleways etc etc…you get the picture.
Every 5 mins I’m literally feeling like I would rather be on the other bike. For instance, today when in the lanes I’m longing for the gravel bike. But then my route has a mile long rocky decent that on my gravel bike I hit about 14mph as it just feels too sketchy, but in the XC bike I’m hitting 21 mph as it’s just so much more confident inspiring and comfy. I’m even bunny hoping down it at them speeds.
I’m wanting to buy a good spec bike in the next 6 months. Around £3000. And I can’t decide whether to get a well equipped gravel bike or XC bike.
So I’ve come to Reddit for opinions
I know I’m on a gravel sub so the answers will probably be leaning one way.
But I have both and I really can’t decide. I live in the UK and every ride involves a bit of country roads, fields, woodland. Farmers tracks, rocky tracks, bridleways etc etc…you get the picture.
Every 5 mins I’m literally feeling like I would rather be on the other bike. For instance, today when in the lanes I’m longing for the gravel bike. But then my route has a mile long rocky decent that on my gravel bike I hit about 14mph as it just feels too sketchy, but in the XC bike I’m hitting 21 mph as it’s just so much more confident inspiring and comfy. I’m even bunny hoping down it at them speeds.
I’m wanting to buy a good spec bike in the next 6 months. Around £3000. And I can’t decide whether to get a well rocked gravel bike or XC bike.
So I’ve come to Reddit to see what people’s opinions are. Seems to make sense.
Thank You.
Anyone have any experience with this bike?
I’m looking for my first e bike. I’ve always liked my trek analog bikes. I have around £2000 to spend and this comes in at £2200 on sale. It’s got store group set, Bosch motor, rockshox forks, shimano MT401 brakes. So I can’t really see anything wrong with it?
Normally treks are one of the expensive brands so I’m a little confused why this bike seems to be one of the more affordable e bikes that’s actually a big name brand with branded components.
My wife won’t let me go out to ride my bice in cycling shorts because she says it’s to indecent. I’ve tried multiple shorts and all have the same effect. I now have to wear baggy shorts over the top so I can go out and ride my bice.
Has anyone got any suggestions…
P.s This is actually kinda a serious problem…
I’m a window cleaner from the UK. I have around 500 customers on a 6 weekly rotation. I aim for roughly 15 houses a day all of different sizes and pricing. But on average I spend between 15-30 mins per house.
After reading comments on here from our peers over the pond, it seems like you have a very different way of running window cleaning businesses. It sounds like cleans are booked in by the customer once per year? Or 6 monthly? And you charge a lot more per clean but also spend a lot more time on the clean per house.
How do you feel about the UK way? Where every customer is on basically a monthly subscription and we do full houses in 15 mins? Would you prefer this method or do you like having 1-3 houses a day?
Sometimes I think I would like the American way, but with it being a rolling rotation here you always know roughly where you stand financially wise.
Would love to hear thoughts from both sides.
For someone who has just got a ps5 pro. Which games do you think have that wow factor to show the console off?
Is it still really blurry like i need glasses or has it been improved? Does anyone know? Not sure whether to download and give another go!
Thank you for any info
I’ve just started getting into the Tour De France however I’ve been riding a couple of years now.
I found a polka dot jersey like they wear and thought it would be cool to wear it while on a local group ride. It was only cheap from a Chinese company but wanted to show my support for the tour etc etc.
However when I turned up the other 7 lads on the ride all started making comments and seemed like they would talk behind my back without trying to let me hear. I should mention I’ve only been riding with this group about 6 weeks and it’s my first cycling group I’ve ever ridden with.
On the first climb I heard the leader shout something that all the rest understood, like an order, but no one had told me anything. They all put the hammer down and dropped me.
That was it, ride over for me, just slowly peddled home, haven’t heard anything from them since this morning.
I thought wearing a Tour jersey would show my appreciation of the sport like if I was to wear a football top. Have I missed something?
I Have a Cannondale Topstone 4 with a different wheel set on it. It weighs about 9.7kg.
I always wonder how much better a lighter bike would feel and it got me wondering what everyone else’s bike weight is and is it worth obsessing over it or not?
Thanks!