Cyclists, I have a few questions I hope you can answer. I know we have a few knowledgeable riders here so here we go.

1. Who do you like when it comes to a lightweight & compact speedometer/odometer? Preferably one that is not too expensive. I have a goal of whittling down my bike collection to just 3 or maybe 4 primary bikes and I’d like to have a dedicated speedo/odometer for each individual bike. Unless there is some better option I am unaware of that can be swapped between bikes and still keep track of the miles put on each bike.

2. What is your favorite bicycle headlight? Because of my odd schedule I do a lot of night riding and it’s about time I invest in a good, preferably USB rechargeable head light.

3. Ok, this might not be such an easy question. I recently bent both rims on my brand new Marin Nicasio + gravel bike. I think it was an unfortunate combination of running too high of a PSI on a trail that was pretty damn gnarly and being used to my mountain bikes which love to get airborne. My tires (WTB Horizon 650B 47c) say to run between 40-70 psi. I had the front around 49 and the rear at 55. Would you continue to mess with the oem tube tires and fine tune the psi or look into converting over to tubeless? I believe my WTB tires are tubeless compatible.

In hindsight I might have thrashed this bike a bit too hard but the dang thing is marketed as a go anywhere bike and even a few reviews mentioned going on trails similar to those I rode without any issues. I probably need to invest in a small compact bicycle pump so I can air down and air back up depending on where I am, which leads us into our next question.

4. Who makes a good and VERY compact bicycle pump? I am thinking it might not be a bad idea to just keep a bike pump in my car so I have an additional option to adjust tire pressure depending on my location. That said I still want to invest in a bike pump I can take along on rides because I often bike to the trails I ride so being able to air down and air up would be nice.

I really liked the Cateye that I had on my old Cannondale. Did speed & cadence & could connect to a HR monitor as well. Probably pretty outdated by now.

Good alternate would be to carry your phone & use something like Strava, which allows you to tag which equipment you're on & keep a log of mileage as well.

I always wanted one that did cadence as well as MPH and trip distance. I've had Cateye and Vetta, both were good, but the Cateye was stolen years ago and the Vetta is old enough to be wired, not wireless. I assume if I put a new battery in it, it would work, but my current location isn't conducive to riding.

As for pumps, rims and tires, I have been away from the sport long enough that I no longer know what is good or bad.

1) Garmin owns this business. A very distant 2nd is Wahoo. I am sure there are other brands out there, like Cateye, I am guessing Bontrager still makes a computer. But it's all Garmin, all day long. They are not cheap, but they easily switch between bikes and they seem to last forever.

2) I use Light and Motion. But NiteRider is also good and Bontrager is also good.

3) I do not ride gravel so I cannot help you. Road I am tubed, MTB I am tubeless.

4) I do not carry a small pump, just CO2.

I have a Sigma on each one of my bikes. They have done well for years.
I also use a Suunto watch/App and can add in the notes which bike I was on.
Though for me it is very easy to tell as the bikes are very different so I can almost always which bike I was on.

I ride a lot at 4am in a pitch black park and have this light.
USB Rechargeable Bike Light Set, Runtime 8+ Hours 400 Lumen Super Bright Headlight Front Lights and Back Rear LED, 4 Light Mode Fits All Bicycles, Mou https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H...p_apip_iXS2mqmSRy3Jb

I carry a pump, because very rarely you need to repair twice on a ride. I never bother with electronics, just not worth the bother. Easier to look on a map and determine how many miles, or off road I just go by hours ridden.

I have this bike computer and like it a lot. Features cadence, MPH, AVG MPH, Heart Rate (have a Precor heart rate monitor), and more. I should add I'm a road cyclist...

Cateye Strada

I ride road and use a Garmin, Light and Motion, and carry a Lezyne pump with CO2.

1. My phone. Get a QuadLock mount for the bike. It's bombproof. I've always had some sort of cheap speedo on the bikes, but since I discovered the Quadlock, I haven't used them.

4. I'm "old school", I use tubes on both my road and mountain bikes. On the mountain, I also use the Tuffy Liners - I live in the land of goat's head thorns. I always have a patch kit. Make sure the pump matches the bike - i.e., high volume for MTB tires - otherwise you'll be sitting there pumping for hours. I also keep a regular bike pump in the car too - it's much faster than the little frame-mounted pumps.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:

3. Ok, this might not be such an easy question. I recently bent both rims on my brand new Marin Nicasio + gravel bike. I think it was an unfortunate combination of running too high of a PSI on a trail that was pretty damn gnarly and being used to my mountain bikes which love to get airborne. My tires (WTB Horizon 650B 47c) say to run between 40-70 psi. I had the front around 49 and the rear at 55. Would you continue to mess with the oem tube tires and fine tune the psi or look into converting over to tubeless? I believe my WTB tires are tubeless compatible.

In hindsight I might have thrashed this bike a bit too hard but the dang thing is marketed as a go anywhere bike and even a few reviews mentioned going on trails similar to those I rode without any issues. I probably need to invest in a small compact bicycle pump so I can air down and air back up depending on where I am, which leads us into our next question.

Wait, what? How are you thinking that less air pressure would protect against bending your rims? If you are running tubes you should have pinch flatted when you bent them. If you slammed your wheels hard enough to bend them and pinch flat at ~50 PSI you would have DEFINITELY hammered your wheels harder at a lower pressure. If you didn't pinch flat when you thought you bent your rims then something else bent your rims.

Garmin GPS all the way. I’m actually selling one in the Classifieds: https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...930043084#6930043084

Have you considered bringing one of those little tubes of compressed air? That’s what I’m going to be doing. I went tubeless for both on and off road sets of wheels and tires.

Yes, the 520 Edmond is selling is what I use, it’s solid. And this is a solid deal.

RobLew, 50 psi didn’t allow any cushion. High speed hits from rocks and roots and a tire that is not going to compress much at all under pressure is a recipe for bent rims. It seems backwards but airing down a little might have kept the rims from getting messed up.

Think about it. These tires are 1.9 inches wide. Have you ever heard of a mountain bike running high psi on root filled trails? No. Why? Because it’s counter productive. It gives you a hard as hell ride and doesn’t allow the tire to compress at all and the impact is carried over to the rim. I wouldn’t be surprised if lowering the psi to 35-40 allows the bike to handle mountain bike trails better at the cost of being slower on gravel.

When I got my bike back recently I lowered the psi from 51 to 39 and I could visually see and feel a BIG difference in the front tire as it rolled over bumps. It allowed the tire to absorb some of the hits at the cost of a little more resistance or basically requiring more effort to pedal the bike than before.

Unfortunately there is no perfect psi for every condition. I had my tires perfect for asphalt and gravel but I don’t think I’ll ever ride mountain bike trails anywhere near 50 psi again.

I ride road bikes, so here are my answers.

1. I have upgraded from a CatEye stealth 50 (it quit reading my heart rate monitor) to a Garmin 820, and just upgraded the 820 to a Garmin 1030 plus. I like the size of the plus for maps, and it was so easy to pair with my sensors (Stages power meter, Garmin cadence sensor, Garmin Fenix 5 HR monitor).

2. Headlight is the CatEye Volt 800, and tail light is the Garmin Varia which is also a rear facing radar that pairs with the Garmin bike computer and lets me know if there is a car behind me.

3. Get good tubeless compatible wheels (I really like my road wheels which are Rolf Prima Vigor RS as they have been maintenance free at my 360 pounds for three years). Rolf makes gravel bike wheels, and they are handmade in Eugene, OR. Yes Rolf wheels are expensive, but figuring all the time I spent taking other wheels in to the bike shop for repair (time is money) me not having to take wheels in has saved me the cost of the Rolf wheels in the four years I have owned them.

4. Lezyne (spelling?) makes a great bike pump that is tiny.

I prefer Maxxis tubeless tires.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
1. Who do you like when it comes to a lightweight & compact speedometer/odometer?

4. Who makes a good and VERY compact bicycle pump?

I use a Garmin Edge 500 - which is discontinued. Now they have those with wifi trail and road gps mapping bells and whistles that I don't want or need. Maybe the Edge 130. They are light and have great detachable mounts.

For a pump, while I don't carry or have one, something that you can stabilize with your weight would seem to me to be easier to use:

what pump would you recommend.

1) Garmin. Buy once, cry once, and get a mount and speed/cadence sensors per bike. Wahoo is also very good.

2) NiteRider. In the winter I ride with a 1200 on the bars and a 900 on my helmet fat biking (obviously at night). Will use the 900 on the bars rest of the year if I’m out before sunrise or cutting it close around dusk.

3) This is probably where Marin cheaped you on spec, every bike company has their spot to save money to hit a price point. Definitely go tubeless but not necessarily to fix your problem. Better wheels will be an investment and carbon will absorb better than cheap aluminum hoops. That all said, I run 50F/55R on my gravel bike.

4) It’s a few years old but I carry a Topeak Morph in my MTB bag and tiny one in my road bike/gravel bags. Never had good luck with CO2.

quote:

Originally posted by ridja75:
Never had good luck with CO2.

Why is that? I've never used CO2 but it seems to be common for many riders to carry CO2.

quote:

CO2

there are tricks to it...

I've had many computers and none of them lasted more than a couple of years until a bought a Garmin. Its their smallest one. I can't answer the tubeless question since I've never been convinced to try them. I've watched many videos singing their praises and then read the comments where people have a lot of trouble with them when they do flat.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
RobLew, 50 psi didn’t allow any cushion. High speed hits from rocks and roots and a tire that is not going to compress much at all under pressure is a recipe for bent rims. It seems backwards but airing down a little might have kept the rims from getting messed up.

Think about it. These tires are 1.9 inches wide. Have you ever heard of a mountain bike running high psi on root filled trails? No. Why? Because it’s counter productive. It gives you a hard as hell ride and doesn’t allow the tire to compress at all and the impact is carried over to the rim. I wouldn’t be surprised if lowering the psi to 35-40 allows the bike to handle mountain bike trails better at the cost of being slower on gravel.

When I got my bike back recently I lowered the psi from 51 to 39 and I could visually see and feel a BIG difference in the front tire as it rolled over bumps. It allowed the tire to absorb some of the hits at the cost of a little more resistance or basically requiring more effort to pedal the bike than before.

Unfortunately there is no perfect psi for every condition. I had my tires perfect for asphalt and gravel but I don’t think I’ll ever ride mountain bike trails anywhere near 50 psi again.

I don't think we're using the same terminology.

When someone says they bent their rim, I think of creating a flat spot or a kink in the rim because you've compressed your tire so much that you have used all your give and the remaining force from your hit goes right into the rim. The chance of this is reduced by having a higher pressure, as the tire is a buffer (even at 50 psi) between the whatever and your rim. If you run too low air pressure, you can pinch flat your tube and if you hit hard enough, deform the metal in your rim in a bad way.

If I understand you correctly, I think you are probably pushing your wheels out of true. Either putting in wavyness side to side or unequal distance from the axle as you spin the wheel. Lower tire pressure will help mask that, but I suggest you check out the spoke tension on your wheels. Or maybe your weight starts with "2" or you make massive hits in which case you may need tougher wheels.