I was lucky to find s Specialized Tarmac for sale locally in July at a very reasonable cost. Pre-owned, but still had protective film on components.

In August, I traded a handgun for a 1989 Specialized Rock Combo that fills the gravel bike niche. Spent some time and money for bar tape, cables, new brake levers/hood, and bearing repack.

I already had a 1985 or so Diamondback Ascent so I'm covered for the fat tire needs. Should mention that I'm 76 and don't do crazy stuff on bicycles so the older ones are perfectly fine for my needs.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Caneau, Thank you for the info on the Kona Honzo ST that’s a nice bike and now it’s on my radar.

Who else makes a good chromo/steel frame mountain bike? I really would like to get a full suspension bike if possible since I already have a hardtail that I like. My hard tail is aluminum so I am also open to a steel frame hard tail like that Kona.

I got my ass kicked on the trails this past week by a guy who looked like he was in his 60’s or 70’s. He was riding some kind of 29er full suspension bike. I tried to lose him and couldn’t so after I let him pass I tried to keep up. That didn’t work so well, my 27.5 hardtail was bouncing around quite a bit. I think it was a combo of him knowing the trails better than me, having a better bike
and me being a little out of shape currently.

https://www.singletracks.com/m...s-for-getting-rowdy/

That's a pretty solid list even if it's a few years old.

29ers make a big difference. They're much more forgiving than 27.5 given both are running equal tires.

Three things make you fast: cornering, braking, and climbing. Newer bikes make all three better because it's easier to trust the bike. Full suspension helps but not as much as an efficient geometry. Also, a 1x12 drivetrain is fantastic especially for the 50 or 51 tooth climbing ring. I can spin up a hill without losing traction or having my front wheel in the air.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:

The Frame:

Some of that price tag is because of the company. Evil Bikes is a US company (although I don't think the frames are made in the US). They have a very good warranty policy and an EXCELLENT support department, based in the US, staffed by bike nerds that know EVERYTHING about their bikes. I had some detailed, technical questions about assembly and parts compatibility and got instant, thorough answers.

Have you had to use their warranty? I was less than impressed with them on some issues with my Calling... Still love the bike.

quote:

Originally posted by ridja75:

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:

The Frame:

Some of that price tag is because of the company. Evil Bikes is a US company (although I don't think the frames are made in the US). They have a very good warranty policy and an EXCELLENT support department, based in the US, staffed by bike nerds that know EVERYTHING about their bikes. I had some detailed, technical questions about assembly and parts compatibility and got instant, thorough answers.

Have you had to use their warranty? I was less than impressed with them on some issues with my Calling... Still love the bike.

I have not had any warranty issues, just the experience trying to figure out some specific technical stuff described above.

maladat, that looks like an incredible build. Feel free to post up a pic if you few so inclined. There is something nice about building it your way with only the components you like. I don’t know nearly enough about mountain bikes to completely build my own yet (and have it be any good) but I’m now a HUGE fan of mountain bikes. It’s ridiculous that for years I’ve lived only a 5 minute ride away from amazing trails and I’m only now beginning to ride them. Better late than never I suppose.

You guys are right about the lower tier bikes getting better over time too. I recently bought 2021 Polygon Xtrada 6 1x11 that set me back $799 (it’s since gone up to $899) and I was surprised by the quality of the disc brakes and drivetrain. It has a Shimano Deore M5100 1x11-Speed drivetrain and a wide range 11-51T 11-Speed cassette which is not state of the art by any means but it all works surprisingly well. For a sub $1000 bike the Xtrada 6 has been surprisingly decent and has been a blast to ride.

I’m torn right now between a steel/chromo hardtail or getting a better full suspension machine as my next bike.

Here are my current rides. You guys were absolutely right about the dropper seat post in one of my other bike threads. It is hands down one of the best mods you can do. At 5’9 & 154 lbs this large frame Giant Anthem X-29 is almost too big for me.


The lever actuated seat post has a decent amount of drop.




I have since installed a dropper seat post on my Xtrada too and wiring the internal cables was NOT fun. If I could do it over again I’d just get the kind with the lever under the seat like on my Giant. That was 3 min to install the seat post on the Giant verses the 3 profanity filled hours it took to set up the internally routed cable.

quote:

Originally posted by snwghst:
I’m still riding a rigid aluminium fat tube Cannondale that’s 30yrs old. I remember thinking it was crazy expensive at $875 (employee price, my brother worked there)

Wow!! What a coincidence!! I bought my Cannondale from a guy going back to the USA from our local base. He had something spiffy lined up back home and wasn't going to pay the extra shipping for it. I got it for $500 cash right there and we were both very happy. Now I'm getting older and crankier and on lockdown, I don;t get out as much as I oughta and right now it's looking at me through the window of the summer room....

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
maladat, that looks like an incredible build. Feel free to post up a pic if you few so inclined.

I'll take one in a bit to post, I haven't actually taken any yet because I was still fussing around changing things.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
I have since installed a dropper seat post on my Xtrada too and wiring the internal cables was NOT fun. If I could do it over again I’d just get the kind with the lever under the seat like on my Giant. That was 3 min to install the seat post on the Giant verses the 3 profanity filled hours it took to set up the internally routed cable.

There are tools to make internal routing easier, like this one: https://www.parktool.com/produ...ble-routing-kit-ir-1

I don't think there's much point in buying the official tool, though, it's effectively just a strong magnet and a string with a bit of steel on the end. The idea is that you feed the steel bit in through the port, then use the magnet on the outside of the frame to move the steel bit to the other port, then use the string to pull the cable housing through. You could make your own with a piece of string, a small screw, and some electrical tape.



It adds SIGNIFICANTLY to manufacturing costs, so you don't see it much until you get to fairly expensive bikes, but some frames do have cable tubes inside the tubes, so you just shove the housing in one hole until it pops out the other.



There are also droppers made for externally routed cables, but on a frame without attachment points for external routing, there isn't a way to make it look decent.



If you want to REALLY push the price up, there are some wireless droppers (the lever and the dropper both have batteries, but there aren't any wires or cables anywhere). Magura and Rockshox both make them. The Magura Vyron is about $500 and the Rockshox Reverb AXS is about $800. The Vyron gets mixed reviews, but everyone seems to love the Reverb AXS.

I didn't really consider either, I don't want anything essential to riding the bike to need a battery to work because I know I won't always keep up with them.

Here's the Evil Following I built. I think everything's fairly final and dialed in.

The one thing undone is that I left the cables and hoses long while I was still moving stuff around. I need to trim them all.

I did spend completely unnecessary money a few places just because I thought the bits were cool, like a Rotor bottom bracket with ceramic bearings, a Cane Creek headset to replace the perfectly fine FSA one that came with the frame, and a silver Wolf Tooth seat post clamp to replace the black Evil-branded one that came with the frame.

I don't think there's any functional improvement to speak of in those selections. The headset and bottom bracket will probably last longer, but you could buy several FSA headsets and several Shimano bottom brackets for what the Cane Creek and Rotor cost, so it's kind of a wash.



The funny looking bumps on the downtube are a Fidlock magnetic water bottle mount. It's a really cool system. The magnets suck the bottle straight onto the mount and it snaps into place, and to get it off you just twist the bottle sideways maybe 30 degrees. It's more secure than a cage (I don't see how the bottle could possibly bounce loose, unless you crashed hard off a cliff or something) and out of the way if you're not using a bottle. They also make little bags and stuff you can pop on to the magnetic mount.

The tumor on the left side of the handlebar is a Spurcycle bike bell.

The thing right over the stem is a Garmin bike computer on a mount that replaces the steerer tube top cap.

Those are just the odd bits that came to mind, I'm happy to answer any questions about it, maybe even in excruciating detail!

Whoa....that’s a SWEET BIKE! I love the blacked out stealthy look. I like how the cables are routed in straight compared to the insertion points on my Polygon.

What all does a Garmin biking computer do? Track mileage? I like the idea of a magnetic water bottle. I wasn’t aware of them, I’ll have to check them out.

Amazing build!!’

Thanks! I have really been enjoying the bike.

The Fidlock bottles are really great, I will never go back to a normal bottle cage.

I also have a pretty nice Haibike (German MTB manufacturer) aluminum frame hardtail E-bike that I use for commuting. Like your Polygon, it has flat side ports for cable routing with little plastic guides and the cables just run loose inside the frame.

I added a dropper post to it a few weeks ago. Because of the design, it would be a monumental pain in the ass to get a new cable through the downtube, around the motor, and up the seat tube to the bottom of the dropper (I did something similar, minus the seat tube, when I installed a brighter headlight - it was a nightmare), so I just bought a dropper designed for external routing. Fortunately the bike has ports at the back of the top tube, too, so I just ran a cable in at the front of the top tube and out at the back of the top tube. Even that was pretty fussy, I really feel for you wrestling with the cable for a full internal cable routing!

The forward-facing cable ports with internal routing tubes on the Evil frame are really nice, but they have to add significantly to the cost and complexity of manufacturing.



All of the Garmin bike computers basically combine the features of a fitness tracking watch with a traditional bike computer, and have a GPS receiver and barometric altimeter built in.

You can do the traditional bike computer thing of just displaying time, speed, distance, etc.

You can also record activities, which will upload to Garmin Connect or Strava or whatever for fitness tracking.

Then there are a TON of different sensors you can pair with them. Sensors can connect over Bluetooth or over ANT+ (the low-power system most fitness equipment uses). Most (all?) of the models can be bought just as the computer, or in a kit with a speed sensor and a cadence sensor.

The speed sensor straps onto one of the wheel hubs with an elastic strap and measures the rotation of the wheels, like how a traditional bike computer works. That might seem redundant, given the bike computer already has a GPS, but it's actually pretty clever. GPS is essentially perfectly accurate for distance traveled and average speed over distances of more than a couple hundred feet, but a GPS fix is only accurate to about 15 feet, and computing a GPS fix is computationally intensive, so a GPS position is only calculated once per second. With GPS position within 15 feet once per second, you can't get very accurate instantaneous speed if you're speeding up and slowing down a lot or swerving around (like on a mountain bike trail, for example). So the Garmin bike computers use GPS data to automatically calibrate the speed sensor for wheel/tire diameter, then use the speed sensor to fill in the rapid changes that the GPS can't really measure effectively.

The computers use their built-in barometric altimeters to fill in elevation data the same way - the GPS can struggle to accurately measure quick elevation changes.

The cadence sensor straps on to one of the crank arms and measures your pedal cadence. That's not super useful for mountain biking - trying to keep in a specific maximum efficiency cadence range is more of a road bike thing - but it does provide additional data for estimating how much exercise you're getting.

You can also pair things like heart rate sensors (very useful for exercise tracking) and power meters (also very useful for exercise tracking).

There are a few kinds of power sensors available, the one I put on this bike is from Stages Cycling. They take stock crank arms and build in a stress sensor and accelerometer to measure how much power you are putting into the bike by pedaling (and also pedaling cadence, so if you want cadence, you don't need a separate cadence sensor). They make them out of a bunch of different crank arms. I have Shimano XT cranks with a Stages Cycling Shimano XT power meter. From the outside, the left crank looks exactly like a stock XT crank, but it has a little panel on the inside with a pairing button and a coin cell battery cover. The battery is supposed to last ~200 hours of riding time.

There's some other odd stuff I haven't used, like Garmin makes rearview radars that can connect to the bike computers and provide alerts when cars are approaching from behind you.

All of the Garmin cycling computers can do that stuff. For the smallest ones, the Edge 130 and 130 Plus, that's it. The larger ones (500, 800, and 1000 series) also combine something like a car nav system with the traditional bike computer and fitness tracker functions. They have a built-in cycling map, with both roads and bike trails. You can display your position on the map (useful when exploring new trails!). They apparently can also do turn-by-turn directions, both on roads and trails, although I haven't tried it yet. Some of them also support Trailforks, which is a user-generated trail directory and review app.

Excellent info! Thank you! I believe you have explained the variances I witnessed while using different (gps) devices to track workouts on my bike. One example that comes to mind is a 7 mile loop around a lake I live near. I always start and stop my rides at the same point and stay on the lake loop trail yet I have gotten annoyed by the sometimes substantial different distance and elevation results.

I can see exactly why you would have that on your bike. Is it the kind of thing you set up and leave on your bike? Can you move it from one bike to another easily? I suppose for functions like being an odometer it’s probably the kind of thing you set up for each bike. Right?

I’m hoping this bike buying craze dies down a little. Sometime this winter I would like to order a new full suspension bike

New bike day!
The base for my first do it yourself e-bike kit showed up. It’s brighter than I was expecting. All I need now is to assemble it and decide on a battery to power the 48V 1500W hub drive motor.

A brand new Honda CRF450X race dirt bike will be a lot more fun and cost the same $10,000... more bang for the buck if you ask me...

It depends on where you live. I cannot legally take a CRF450X all over the paved, gravel and dirt trails of the many parks I live near. If I had land then yeah the dirt bike would win when it came to big $$$ items. As it is now my bike can basically go anywhere legally and it is easy to toss in the van and transport to any park that is further away.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Excellent info! Thank you! I believe you have explained the variances I witnessed while using different (gps) devices to track workouts on my bike. One example that comes to mind is a 7 mile loop around a lake I live near. I always start and stop my rides at the same point and stay on the lake loop trail yet I have gotten annoyed by the sometimes substantial different distance and elevation results.

That is definitely the kind of issue you can see, especially if the trail has a lot of twists and turns.

It's made worse than it might otherwise be by how GPS error works. When a GPS says its position fix is accurate to within 15 feet, it's really saying something like "every time I calculate a position, there will be a random offset in a random direction, and at least 95% of the time it will be less than 15 feet." Occasionally a calculation may be off by more than 15 feet, and just because the last calculation had an error of 8 feet to the southwest doesn't mean the next calculation won't have an error of 13 feet to the north. If the error was a more stable offset, it would be easier to account for.

There's a significant amount of random noise in the sequence of one-per-second (to be clear, one-per-second it not universal, it's just the maximum frequency for most fitness tracker and consumer navigation type devices) position fixes. If you walk in a straight line while recording your track and just plot the actual exact position of each fix, you'll get a jumpy, jagged line that looks like you were really, really drunk and walked considerably farther than you actually did.

To reduce the impact of this inaccuracy on what is actually reported to the user, basically all consumer GPS devices generate the track, distance traveled, etc., that is reported to the user by taking the exact track of datapoints and performing some averaging with earlier and later datapoints to smooth out the bumps that result from GPS measurement noise (which would otherwise erroneously and significantly increase
the distance traveled).

It's necessary to do that, because the noise would cause significant inaccuracy every time you track anything. However, sometimes you don't move in straight lines and gentle curves. In the case that you are making a lot of fast twists and turns, not only does the noise in the GPS measurements make that difficult to detect accurately, the noise reduction algorithm in the device actually further smooths out what IS measured of the twists and turns you made.

Unfortunately, there's literally no way to discriminate between noise and not-noise of the same magnitude without making assumptions about the data (like "you won't zigzag around like a crazy person, so time averaging is OK," which is fine until you DO zigzag around like a crazy person on a twisty bike trail), improving your sensor (for example, by increasing sampling frequency or by making use of the new higher-precision signal the GPS satellites have started broadcasting but most devices don't support yet) or by including data from other sensors (like a wheel speed sensor or barometric altimeter).

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
I can see exactly why you would have that on your bike. Is it the kind of thing you set up and leave on your bike? Can you move it from one bike to another easily? I suppose for functions like being an odometer it’s probably the kind of thing you set up for each bike. Right?

They work pretty well with multiple bikes EXCEPT for use as an odometer to keep track of total mileage on each bike.

All the Garmin bike computers use the same pretty good quick-release mount. You stick a flange on the back of the device into the mount, twist the whole computer 90 degrees, and it's locked in place, and just twist it again to pop it out. So it would be very easy to move it back and forth between bikes.

They also just use whatever sensors are in range (that have been previously paired - so you're not going to pick up sensors from a riding buddy or someone you pass on a trail), so you don't really have to do anything with the sensors or any settings on the device when you switch back and forth (although you probably would want a set of sensors for each bike rather than swapping them back and forth, too, mostly because it would be a pain, but also because some, like the speed sensor, have to be calibrated to the specific bike).

However, none of the Garmin bike computers (to my knowledge, at least) have any awareness of multiple bikes or an easy way to automatically distinguish between miles ridden on one bike vs. miles ridden on another.

They do let you define your own activities, so you could kind of hack it by defining separate activities for each bike, but you'd still have to remember to actually record an activity every time you ride and to do the right one for each bike.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
I’m hoping this bike buying craze dies down a little. Sometime this winter I would like to order a new full suspension bike

Yeah, complete bikes from the VAST majority of companies are hugely backordered.

The obvious way to skip the line is if you can find the right frame and build one, but that does require some specialized tools and knowledge, and even though frames aren't quite as unobtainium as complete bikes right now, it can be hard to find what you want.

There are some big online retailers that will sell you a frame and a bunch of parts, build it for you, and send you the complete bike. I know Competitive Cyclist (which is the biking branch of Backcountry.com, and where I bought my Evil frame) does that.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
New bike day!
The base for my first do it yourself e-bike kit showed up. It’s brighter than I was expecting. All I need now is to assemble it and decide on a battery to power the 48V 1500W hub drive motor.

Very cool, I look forward to seeing how the conversion goes!

My Polygon Xtrada felt too good of a bike with a surprisingly fun set up so it felt wrong to ditch it all and convert the bike to an e-bike. Eventually I decided to do the logical thing and I sought out a better quality base for my first DIY e-bike build. As luck would have it I found something perfect. The 3x7 set up will work very well with the supplied 7 speed cassette on the electric hub. One of the reasons I like the RWD electric hub drive is that it can be ridden as a normal bicycle if you run out of battery. It’s also more in the price point where an e-bike base should fall. The whole project should come in under $1300. I’m not crazy about the paint but at least people shouldn’t have an issue seeing me on this bike. The paint looks pearlescent but it just photographs that way the paint is more of a flat, bright as hell Orange.

The bike almost has a Dukes of Hazard, General Lee vibe going. I remember a BMX bike back in the day rocking the orange paint and “General Lee” text on the down tube.

Mountain bike prices can get crazy high! I seem to be paying the price but I am getting great satisfaction out of it. The technology and the suspensions get better all the time. Maladat, Stickman, bigeinkcmo great looking bikes!

Last year I moved parts I had (mostly Shimano SLX level stuff) over to a new Santa Cruz Tallboy v4 frame. My first DIY build. I had fun putting it together. I decided I liked building bikes, so I tore it all down and moved all the parts over to a Specialized Status frame.

The Status is purpose built for lift service or shuttle bike parks. The past few years I have been taking trips to Angel Fire, NM, Crested Butte, CO and Eureka Springs, AR. The Status is a mullet bike, 27.5 rear wheel/ 29er front. 160mm rear suspension and a 160mm Fox 36 up front. Shimano SLX 11 speed, Zee brakes, dropper seat post, Stan's Flow aluminum rims with i9 1/1 hubs. I haven't weighed it but it's likely 36#, but I don't care too much because I built it to ride on shuttle or lift serve trails. The bike did great at Angel Fire last October. It's a little slow to pedal on my local trails but it works okay.

My daily driver trail bike the Tallboy is getting built back up now, a little lighter and higher end. Nobl TR37 carbon fiber wheels with i9 1/1 hubs, Shimano XT 12 speed drivetrain, and SLX brakes. Rockshox Pike 140mm fork. I was having a hard time climbing last year in Colorado at 10,000 feet elevation so I made a few changes. Lighter wheels are a big part. I upgraded the drivetrain from 11 speed/ 11 to 46 tooth cassette to 12 speed/ 10 to 51t. The 51t combined with a 30t oval chainring will make climbing easier.

The Oklahoma red dirt trails get muddy as heck and can close for several days after it rains so I ride a road bike when that happens. I am firmly in the N+1 is always better camp when it comes to bikes!

What are the advantages of a 29er front tire and 27.5 rear?

Dirt bikes and many motorcycles have a wider rear wheel for traction and sometimes have a larger more narrow front wheel to assist with steering. I’m assuming such a set up offers similar advantages on a bicycle? Are there other advantages?

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
What are the advantages of a 29er front tire and 27.5 rear?

I've heard of that before, but never tried or even seen one of those. But in theory, it should pair the 29" front's better travel over obstacles with the more aggressively drifty maneuverability of the 27.5" rear.

It's my understanding that it's primarily used for downhill racing bikes, but again, I don't know all that much about that setup.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
maladat, that looks like an incredible build. Feel free to post up a pic if you few so inclined. There is something nice about building it your way with only the components you like. I don’t know nearly enough about mountain bikes to completely build my own yet (and have it be any good) but I’m now a HUGE fan of mountain bikes. It’s ridiculous that for years I’ve lived only a 5 minute ride away from amazing trails and I’m only now beginning to ride them. Better late than never I suppose.

You guys are right about the lower tier bikes getting better over time too. I recently bought 2021 Polygon Xtrada 6 1x11 that set me back $799 (it’s since gone up to $899) and I was surprised by the quality of the disc brakes and drivetrain. It has a Shimano Deore M5100 1x11-Speed drivetrain and a wide range 11-51T 11-Speed cassette which is not state of the art by any means but it all works surprisingly well. For a sub $1000 bike the Xtrada 6 has been surprisingly decent and has been a blast to ride.

I’m torn right now between a steel/chromo hardtail or getting a better full suspension machine as my next bike.

Here are my current rides. You guys were absolutely right about the dropper seat post in one of my other bike threads. It is hands down one of the best mods you can do. At 5’9 & 154 lbs this large frame Giant Anthem X-29 is almost too big for me.


The lever actuated seat post has a decent amount of drop.




I have since installed a dropper seat post on my Xtrada too and wiring the internal cables was NOT fun. If I could do it over again I’d just get the kind with the lever under the seat like on my Giant. That was 3 min to install the seat post on the Giant verses the 3 profanity filled hours it took to set up the internally routed cable.

I am a fan of Giant bikes. Not my bike, but mine is just like this one. Fits me like a glove, riding it for hours was always comfortable.

I would buy Giant again. My bike is 20 years old!

quote:

Originally posted by ibanda:
Mountain bike prices can get crazy high! I seem to be paying the price but I am getting great satisfaction out of it. The technology and the suspensions get better all the time. Maladat, Stickman, bigeinkcmo great looking bikes!

Last year I moved parts I had (mostly Shimano SLX level stuff) over to a new Santa Cruz Tallboy v4 frame. My first DIY build. I had fun putting it together. I decided I liked building bikes, so I tore it all down and moved all the parts over to a Specialized Status frame.

The Status is purpose built for lift service or shuttle bike parks. The past few years I have been taking trips to Angel Fire, NM, Crested Butte, CO and Eureka Springs, AR. The Status is a mullet bike, 27.5 rear wheel/ 29er front. 160mm rear suspension and a 160mm Fox 36 up front. Shimano SLX 11 speed, Zee brakes, dropper seat post, Stan's Flow aluminum rims with i9 1/1 hubs. I haven't weighed it but it's likely 36#, but I don't care too much because I built it to ride on shuttle or lift serve trails. The bike did great at Angel Fire last October. It's a little slow to pedal on my local trails but it works okay.

My daily driver trail bike the Tallboy is getting built back up now, a little lighter and higher end. Nobl TR37 carbon fiber wheels with i9 1/1 hubs, Shimano XT 12 speed drivetrain, and SLX brakes. Rockshox Pike 140mm fork. I was having a hard time climbing last year in Colorado at 10,000 feet elevation so I made a few changes. Lighter wheels are a big part. I upgraded the drivetrain from 11 speed/ 11 to 46 tooth cassette to 12 speed/ 10 to 51t. The 51t combined with a 30t oval chainring will make climbing easier.

The Oklahoma red dirt trails get muddy as heck and can close for several days after it rains so I ride a road bike when that happens. I am firmly in the N+1 is always better camp when it comes to bikes!

My Evil Following has a relatively uncommon rear axle size, the newish 12mm x 157mm "Super Boost" spec rather than the more common 12mm x 148mm Boost thru-axle or traditional 5mm x 135mm skewer. My choice of Shimano 12-speed drivetrain also required the new Shimano Micro Spline freehub interface, which is starting to filter through the market, but not super common yet.

As I worked on my build, I knew I was going to have the bike otherwise rideable a month or more before my custom wheels were going to be ready, and I REALLY didn't want to delay gratification that long.

I decided to look for a stock wheelset I could use until the custom wheels were ready, and then once I had the custom wheelset in hand, put on mud tires for wet days or gravel tires for riding around the neighborhood with my kids or whatever.

Between the run on bike parts and the uncommon axle and freehub spec, I could not find ANY factory wheelset available in stock ANYWHERE that would fit the bike. I found a couple of cheap Chinese import rear wheels that would fit, but then I couldn't find front wheels using the same rims in stock anywhere.

What I ultimately figured out I could do to get a wheelset quickly was to buy an i9 1/1 "Super Boost" wheelset (with the right size axles, but the wrong freehub driver, because the Micro Spline version wasn't in stock anywhere) and order a Micro Spline 1/1 freehub driver from Industry Nine to swap in.

Anyway, all of that is a very long-winded way of saying I bought a wheelset with i9 1/1 hubs and swapped out the freehub driver on them. With the cassette off, you literally just pull the spacer out with your fingers and then pull the freehub driver off with your fingers and have full access to the ratchet and pawls for cleaning and regreasing. I didn't have to do it, but the way the pawls and springs are retained makes for really easy disassembly and assembly if they've gotten filthy.

They are really well-designed, beautifully machined, easy to service hubs! I like them a lot, and while they're still fairly expensive, they're significantly more affordable than the i9 Hydra hubs.