That looks like a great base for an e-bike build!

I had a Giant hybrid city bike for getting around campus in college. It was a great bike, especially given how cheap it was.

A while after college (before I got into bikes and figured out how to do the work myself) I was going to go do a weekend ride as an adult volunteer with my old Boy Scout troop, so I took the bike in to a shop for a new chain and general tune-up. I picked it up on Thursday and was going to go Friday afternoon. I didn't have a bike rack, so I took the wheels off and wrestled it into the back seat of my VW Passat, which was enough of a pain I figured it would be alright to leave in the car in my driveway for one night.

Sure enough, some jackass broke out the rear passenger window and dragged the bike out through the window and stole it. They absolutely shredded the headliner with the greasy cassette getting it out, too.

For some stupid reason, in that generation Passat, to replace the headliner, you had to take the rear windshield off, and then once you took the rear windshield off, you had to throw it away and put on a new one, because the old one wouldn't seal again.

The bike was 5 or 6 years old, pretty beat up, and had been maybe $400 brand new. I'd just spent maybe $100 getting it tuned up. It cost me $1200 to fix the damage the asshole did to my car. That was probably 12 years ago and I'm still pissed about it.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
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?

I don't know much about "mullet" bikes (29 front, 27.5 rear), but I think RogueJSK is right.

Interestingly, for width, the trend right now seems to be the opposite of what you see on dirt bikes and motorcycles - wider front tires. For example, the factory Evil Following comes with a 2.5" front tire and a 2.3" rear tire.

I don't know much about dirt bikes, but I think motorcycles (and cars, too) tend to have wider rear tires to manage heat better, because that's where the power transfer happens. That's not really an issue on mountain bikes.

Width aside, pretty universally, any time I see someone running different tires front and rear on a mountain bike, the front tire is the more aggressive/grippy tire and the rear tire is one with less rolling resistance.

The rationale is partially that you get more of your braking power from the front wheel than the rear, so that's where it is most important to have traction for braking.

The other part is that if you're riding really aggressively, on the edge of your tires breaking loose on turns, you would REALLY rather your rear wheel break loose first, rather than both at the same time or especially your front wheel first. If your rear wheel breaks loose, you can maybe maintain control, if your front wheel breaks loose, you're going down.

So the people who are really trying to optimize things for aggressive riding tend to put an aggressive tire on the front to maximize breaking power and grip during turns and a faster tire on the rear to reduce energy lost to rolling resistance and make loss of traction more predictable.

I think the same rationale drives the wider front tire trend - with a wider front tire, you can run it at lower pressure, increasing traction at the cost of increased rolling resistance.

At the skill level and aggressiveness at which I ride, I doubt it makes much difference, so I picked some good trail tires and put the same ones in the same width front and back.

Posted by maladat,

quote:

Interestingly, for width, the trend right now seems to be the opposite of what you see on dirt bikes and motorcycles - wider front tires. For example, the factory Evil Following comes with a 2.5" front tire and a 2.3" rear tire.

I get it. This was the set up I used when I raced BMX in Hampton VA. I just love a fat front tire and slightly more narrow rear tire. There is an added shock absorbing effect you get from running a bigger & wider than normal front tire....this is especially evident on a bike with zero travel.

Heh, yeah.

There's been a growing trend for a couple of years of hardtail or fully rigid fat bikes with huge (4"+) tires.

One reason is that huge tires are pretty much the only way to make a bike rideable on snow, but the other is that the huge tires at super low pressure absorb bumps well enough to make the added expense and complication of suspension much less necessary.

I've seen a number of bike people recently recommend fully rigid fat bikes as a good option for kid mountain bikes, because not many people want to spend nice adult bike money on a bike a kid is going to outgrow in a few years. A fully rigid fat bike lets you get higher quality components and a pretty comfortable ride for less money than a hardtail or full suspension bike.

I have many thousands of miles on all manner of bicycles (bmx, cross country, freeride, downhill, and road), and a $9000 one seems crazy as hell.

Do you at least get it dirty?

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
I have many thousands of miles on all manner of bicycles (bmx, cross country, freeride, downhill, and road), and a $9000 one seems crazy as hell.

Do you at least get it dirty?

Personally, mine's just a prop to use when posting staged "look at how active and outdoorsy I am" photos on Instagram.

It gets dirty, it's just clean in the picture because I hosed the mud off after the last time I rode trails.

It's even a bit scraped up from being dropped in the street practicing manuals.

I don't collect anything just for the sake of having it, and I don't buy anything I don't intend to use.

I have a couple of expensive custom kitchen knives. I keep them in the knife drawer in my kitchen, not in a display case, and I cut food up with them and wash them and sharpen them myself.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Personally, mine's just a prop to use when posting staged "look at how active and outdoorsy I am" photos on Instagram.

quote:

Originally posted by bigeinkcmo:
Sounds fun. Interesting on the wheel setup, is that help you stay back over the rear wheel better and keep the front wheel rolling over stuff? ...

Exactly, the 29er wheel rolls over obstacles better and the smaller rear wheel helps you turn a little quicker and more importantly it allows you to hang your butt over the back wheel when it gets steep and get your center of gravity lower. It's not a magic bullet but it seemed like an interesting bike and I wanted to try it out. The aluminum frame wasn't really that expensive and now that I have the tools and know how to swap parts, I can change out the frame and rear wheel to something different if I want to. I was really happy with it on the steep stuff.

I have rented a Bronson for a day and loved it! It was that ride that convinced me that I fit really well on Santa Cruz frames, and why I bought the Tallboy.

Sourcing parts this past year has been interesting! I spent a lot of time researching what I wanted like maladat did. Some parts took 2 months to come in.

I am not especially fast or great rider, but I have a blast doing it and I get better all the time. I had triple bypass surgery in 2019 and I had to work my way back into riding slowly. I ride with a heart rate monitor connected to a Garmin 530 computer just to keep an eye on things. I was really happy to work up to some 4 hour rides last year.

Maladat the gear section on the Garmin Connect App will let you name bikes and track odometer miles. I use the gear section in Strava for that purpose. The paid version even allows you to track mileage on specific parts. Want to really nerd out on data? You can tell the app when you put a new chain, front tire or when you last serviced your fork and it will track mileage on parts for you.

I had 3 bikes stolen when I was a kid (I am still pissed too). I have heard too many stories of bikes being stolen out of garages, my bikes stay in the house. When I travel I use a 1Up rack (which I highly recommend). I also have a 9#, 3/8" thick ABUS chain and lock for when I have to leave it for restroom breaks on road trips. The ABUS has a nylon sleeve so it won't scratch the frame. I know all locks can be defeated but this one would require power tools, and at least a few noisy minutes.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
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.

Curious on your experience with the Stages power meter. I'm getting a new Top Fuel soon and was considering swapping it out. You have the left crank replacement, I'm assuming? I can't decide between the left or just getting both sides...thoughts?

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
Interestingly, for width, the trend right now seems to be the opposite of what you see on dirt bikes and motorcycles - wider front tires. For example, the factory Evil Following comes with a 2.5" front tire and a 2.3" rear tire.

I don't know much about dirt bikes, but I think motorcycles (and cars, too) tend to have wider rear tires to manage heat better, because that's where the power transfer happens. That's not really an issue on mountain bikes.

Width aside, pretty universally, any time I see someone running different tires front and rear on a mountain bike, the front tire is the more aggressive/grippy tire and the rear tire is one with less rolling resistance.

The rationale is partially that you get more of your braking power from the front wheel than the rear, so that's where it is most important to have traction for braking.

The other part is that if you're riding really aggressively, on the edge of your tires breaking loose on turns, you would REALLY rather your rear wheel break loose first, rather than both at the same time or especially your front wheel first. If your rear wheel breaks loose, you can maybe maintain control, if your front wheel breaks loose, you're going down.

So the people who are really trying to optimize things for aggressive riding tend to put an aggressive tire on the front to maximize breaking power and grip during turns and a faster tire on the rear to reduce energy lost to rolling resistance and make loss of traction more predictable.

I think the same rationale drives the wider front tire trend - with a wider front tire, you can run it at lower pressure, increasing traction at the cost of increased rolling resistance.

At the skill level and aggressiveness at which I ride, I doubt it makes much difference, so I picked some good trail tires and put the same ones in the same width front and back.

Yep...my race wheels have a 2.4" up front and a 2.25 in the back

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
I have many thousands of miles on all manner of bicycles (bmx, cross country, freeride, downhill, and road), and a $9000 one seems crazy as hell.

Do you at least get it dirty?

It'd be a shame not to...I had a 2019 Fuel EX Project one with a beautiful paint job and in my first ride, I kicked up a softball size rock on top of my lower linkage between the chainring and it chewed up the paint...oh well

That said, I'll be putting the 3M clear tape on my new frame of the '21 Top Fuel I'm getting.

I ordered this bike in August 2020 with an original ship date of 12/7 and it got bumped to 2/8. Pending delivery next week, I should have a Top Fuel in the color I'm pretty sure the OP was describing..."Amplified Alchemy" Purple/Teal/Black

quote:

Originally posted by ibanda:
Maladat the gear section on the Garmin Connect App will let you name bikes and track odometer miles. I use the gear section in Strava for that purpose. The paid version even allows you to track mileage on specific parts. Want to really nerd out on data? You can tell the app when you put a new chain, front tire or when you last serviced your fork and it will track mileage on parts for you.

Thanks, I will have to look into it. Is it a process of manually assigning activities to bikes?

quote:

Originally posted by MaThGr82:
Curious on your experience with the Stages power meter. I'm getting a new Top Fuel soon and was considering swapping it out. You have the left crank replacement, I'm assuming? I can't decide between the left or just getting both sides...thoughts?

The Top Fuel is an awesome bike!

I do have the left side replacement. I would have bought the both sides version, but it wouldn't fit on my bike. Because my bike has 157mm super boost rear hub, for the chainline to be right, I need the widest version of the Shimano crankarms, which have a longer axle (in XT, the part is FC-M8130 and in XTR it is FC-M9130). Stages don't make a power meter drive-side crank in the longer axle version, so all I could do was buy a standard crankset and add the left side power meter.

I actually called them and asked, and the person I spoke to said they weren't aware of any plans to start making the -130 drive side crank arms. I wouldn't be surprised if they do eventually, though - it seems like the -130 cranks are BRAND new to market, I could only find a few online stores that even listed them, much less had them in stock.

The Stages power meter seems to work well. I don't have any real way to gauge the accuracy, but their claim is that it is very high. So far it has worked seamlessly with my Garmin bike computer - at least once I actually read the instructions and figured out I had to run a calibration on the Garmin for it to actually display and record data from the sensor. Heh.

At a minimum, I can say that the power and cadence reported by the Stages left side sensor respond quickly to changes in pedaling speed and effort in a way that seems consistent with what I'm actually doing.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
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...

Technology wise, this is the mountain bike equivalent of a $100,000 (or more) MotoGP-style bike.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:

quote:

Originally posted by ibanda:
Maladat the gear section on the Garmin Connect App will let you name bikes and track odometer miles. I use the gear section in Strava for that purpose. The paid version even allows you to track mileage on specific parts. Want to really nerd out on data? You can tell the app when you put a new chain, front tire or when you last serviced your fork and it will track mileage on parts for you.

Thanks, I will have to look into it. Is it a process of manually assigning activities to bikes?

You set the bike you ride the most as the default, and that part is automatic. I wish Garmin would track by the back wheel speed sensors to each bike, but I don't know that it does that. In Strava I manually change if I ride bike 2 or 3.

Got it, thank you.

I’m so tempted to pull the trigger on this clean Marin Pine Mountain in forest ranger Truck green.

With fat tires front and back (2.8 inches) a 4130 chromoly frame and no suspension at all it is quite intriguing. I like the idea of a solid, camping/adventure bike that’s up for just about anything.

Must resist the sweet steel frame hardtail.

That's a great looking bike.

The first road bike I ever did any long rides on was an old steel Peugeot borrowed from a friend's dad. It's heavy, but there's something to be said for the ride quality and durability of steel frames.

My older daughter is currently riding a steel hardtail kid's bike from Cleary. It's a nice little bike.

I know 4130 bikes are not going be super light but what components could I modify over time to shed weight?

I learned this over about a zillion miles. Just don't buy a no suspension bike. Your body will thank you.