I couldn't make it, schedule got too busy . Going to try to sneak away from work early this week to go take a peek.

How was the R3? And the Ultegra group set? I'm just itching to ride something higher than Tiagra :alonehappy:

Thanks for the suggestion man! I'm gonna read this one up a bit, I was totally lost on where to start brand wise, lol.

^ sorry, I fixed that 2nd link, should be: Devinci Stockholm - Bike Doctor
All the well known brands make some sort of Hybrid bike, just depends what you like and how it fits, and of course, your budget.

Honestly as I was swiping my credit card I was freaking out inside going "what if there isn't a difference..." It only took about 30 minutes into my ride home to realize that it was a serious improvement. A bunch of small differences add up to a big overall change. My position is significantly lower on the r3 and this is actually more comfortable IMO. I am very pleased with the bike but am only 40km in haha.

Ride the r2, it will be a great bike.

Mark

What were you riding previously? Can I get a pic of the R3 for the spank bank? :nyan:

You'll need to make sure the crank you get is compatible with a PF30 bottom bracket.

If you have / the bike has ultegra di2 and you want to run a 11-32 cassette, then you need the GS derailleur which is the longer cage. You don't need to buy an extra derailleur to disassemble. Anything bigger than a 28 you need long cage, otherwise short cage.

Depending on your fitness and intended use, in my opinion and experience 50/34 11-32 is a bit overkill. Great for if you're in an area with a ton of hills, and all you're doing are hills. But for vancouver, semi compact 52/36 11-28 is more than enough. I've been running 53/39 11-27 on my cervelo for 2 years doing the triple crowns, fondos etc just fine. But I recently stepped down to 52/36 11-27 and I'm finding it's a good balance. Performs well in racing too.

Again, comes down to your personal fitness and riding style. When i ran a 50/34 11-28 during group rides, i felt in between gears a lot of the time. I wouldn't spin out on the flats (you'd have to be very strong) but I did feel under geared when descending HSB/cypress/sfu/seymour.

165mm cranks... over the last few years people have been migrating to shorter cranks, Cervelo has a nice write up on it (https://www.cervelo.com/en/engineeri...n-crank-length).

Thanks. I'm taking another direction on my setup yet again but you're right, 11-32 seems like an overkill come to think of it. I do think my fitness is as at a good level and I mostly ride around the GVA so granny gears are not needed for that. One of the things I'd like to do this season is to do the fondo and do a single day ride of the three peaks- I thought it would be nice to have for those rides. I think I'll stick with the 11-28 I have for now.

Great read on the shorter crank arms too. I consider myself a spinner so I'm excited to see what kind of cadence I can do with the shorter arms and 50/34 gears. Worst case, I can switch back to 52/36 if I find myself in between gears.

The quarq vendor I ordered from had a discrepancy in their inventory so they cancelled and refunded my order which turned out to be a good thing. I got in touch with P2Max, who's NA offices are based here in Vancouver. I didn't go through them initially because they were more expensive but I'm glad I did now. Customer service is great - fast responses, you save on shipping when you pick up from their North Vancouver location and they install it for you as well. And if there are any problems, you wouldn't have to go through the hassle of shipping items back and forth. The best part about it is they also give you the option to pay in CDN so you save a bit on the conversion plus the 2.5% fee your credit card charges on top. If you pay cash there's an additional 5% discount.

On another note, has anyone had any experiences with oval chainrings - osymetric, rotor q-rings?

Q-rings supposed to flatten out the dead spots in your pedal stroke, likely a marginal gain. If it was such a huge performance boost, you would see everyone in the pro pelaton ride them but you don't. I've ridden them before on a buddies bike, couldn't really tell much of a difference but then again it was only for a short period of time (50km).


RE: Disc Brakes
So the disc brakes on road bikes in the pro pelaton discussion continues as the first reports of serious injuries occured at Paris Roubaix with at least 1 rider with massive gash on leg after coming down onto a disc: Ventoso blasts the use of disc brakes in the peloton | Cyclingnews.com

{edit} Looks like UCI is suspending disc brakes for now, http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-...entoso-injury/

Anyone with half a brain could have seen this coming... high speeds, massive pile ups, with disc 'blades' at the front and back of bicycles ... It will be interesting to see how the bicycle manufacturers will react to this now

^ you mean, like BioPace? haha, yeah, I'm old school. I have them on a few of my old mtn bikes, don't really feel a difference.

Like biopace but clocked 90* differently to work completely opposite of biopace theoretically

FYI... For anyone that hasn't experienced owning a pair of top of the line bib shorts, this might be your opportunity.

In my opinion, Assos makes the most comfortable pair of shorts and best chamois pad. Their top trim shorts is the T.campionissimo shorts that retail online and in store for $450-$500CAD + tax

Just spotted them online on Ribble for $229CAD including free shipping (SIZE SM & MD ONLY): Assos T.Campionissimo Bib Shorts - Bib Shorts & Shorts - Ribble Cycles

Note: If you're not lean and in athletic shape like the guy pictured, these shorts are not for you. They are super super tight compression...

Best shorts I own...

Finally got around to putting together the Specialized Langster frame that I got from ZN6 a while ago.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...pstmvfsdkc.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...psscrkip44.jpg
Spec list? Some parts I had lying around, and some are new or new to me(used). Knowing that this isn't the lightest frame to work with, there are some carbon parts to offset the weight. ZN6, not sure how much it weighed when you had it all together, but right now, it weighs 16.9lbs without bartape and pedals.
Parts list: New Sugino BB and Sugino RD Messenger crankset, SRAM chain, old $20 Wobler rear wheel that came with old Serfas tire and old hub from OCB, Surly Tuggnut as tensioner (& bottle opener), FSA carbon seat post, M.O.ST saddle, Ritchey carbon stem, Easton EC90 carbon handlebars, FORZA brakes (F&R), Cane Creek brake levers, Bontrager Select front wheel, Specialized Pro front tire and generic carbon fork. Will probably replace that rear wheel at some point, but I couldn't resist the cheap wheel at the time. And yes, I put it together in the hallway of my condo. =)

I want to pick up biking again. Haven't biked for like 15 years now.

Any recommendations on shops that offer decent selection for budget around $250-$350? It'll mostly be used within city biking, don't need the newest and greatest. Thanks in advance.

Shops that carry bikes within that budget, I would say try Ride On Kitslano, Sports Junkies, Bikes For All, Bike Doctor & Cap's Sapperton. The first three shops will have some used bikes, but all tuned, as well. Good luck!

Was shuttle driver today, helping the local kids' high school team do some laps.

http://i.imgur.com/P1FjWx4h.jpg

First crit race of the season at WTNC Glenlyon Business Park on Tuesday night. 200+ ppl showed up! Was insane...

This is the final 2 laps of the Cat4 race with 55 ppl. I'm leading out my mates at the end (the guys in the red Pender Racing jerseys and dark grey/black bibs)

Random question. I'm thinking of building up a hard tail for city use, but keeping it as a low budget build from parts I have laying around the garage.

Anyways. Is there such thing as an adapter to use 9mm QR wheelset with a 20mm thru axle front fork? I love my manitou Sherman and would like to use it. If not possible, I guess I'd have to look into selling it/ trading for a QR front fork

holy shit you guys are moving fast lol i can't even imagine how hard it would be to maintain crusing at 40+

Lol! I was surprised myself when I looked down during the race. I've done a few longer road races but this was my first crit, and I agree it was fast. Over the 27km's, the average speed was 41.6km/hr over the duration.

If you're at the pointy end of the front, you're working hard for the time that you're up there, but when you're behind someones wheel, you're spending 30% less energy.

I thought you almost had it in the end! Good race!

I think you're looking for something like this?
DMR Pro Wheel 20mm - QR Adaptor | Chain Reaction Cycles
(currently unavailable though)
Or you can try to make your own, such as this:
20mm bolt thu to QR dropout conversion!!! For Sale

Actually, the opposite way lol. 20mm thru axle front fork with 9mm QR rim/hub. It seems like a pretty rare thing so might just have to ignore that

I can't think of a more appropriate picture than the one from Altered Beast:

http://vandalsbucket.s3-sa-east-1.am...jpg?1386272046

Excellent work man!! When I had it it was around 18lbs.

Anyone have any suggestions for getting into group riding?
Last few 30km jaunts around Stanley park have been averaging 28-31km/h as per my Garmin. Need to head out on some longer rides so I can make sure I won't bonk out. But i'd like to get some experience riding in some groups as i'll be doing the Tour de Victoria in august, and am aiming for a 32-35km/h average over the 140k route. I have a feeling it would be smart to test out the waters with some people around me before I start playing with hundreds, if not thousands of riders at once.

Heysues! Wow. How can you keep your heart rate up so high for so long! Haha that's insane/