I once had a Guru Flite which was made with T700.

I liked it. It was meant to be an endurance bike. It was comfortable. But when I wanted to drop the hammer, no way. And this is comparing to a CAAD10 aluminum frame and shortly after, I tried a SuperSix Evo Hi-Mod. It is a night and day difference.

Would I buy a no-name carbon frame? Probably not. But if you just want to boot around, look cool, say you have a carbon frame, then go for it. In my opinion, there are better bikes to be had regardless of what it boasts, but I would just go with what you want and plan on doing and just ride the fuck out of the bike like nobody is watching.

Are carbon frames better than other frame materials? Well, you got to do your homework and try not to sip on the haterade, then make an informed decision. Aluminum frames have come a very long way. Bike weight is all subjective these days anyway, but I wouldn't want to ride a 40lb bike. :fuckthatshit: Anything under 20lbs is good in my books and I don't think I could give enough of a shit if it was 12lbs with a Shimano Claris groupset.

I might buy a Leopard or build an open mold frame for crit racing next year.

everyone is going to point you in the direction of buying from an LBS, and buying a name brand because of the R&D, warranties etc.

Ride whatever you can afford bro. If this bike looks good to you, is within your budget, then go for it. I guarantee its not going to explode underneath you while you ride it lol.

Take this with a grain of salt, but I have friends on this thread and also riding partners that ride open mold frames and wheels (aka China carbon, knock offs, whatever you want to call it) that race the bikes in crits and bag the shit out of them with no issues. Worst I've seen is warped carbon bc of poor braking technique or a broken spoke.

There are a lot of proven open mold frames and wheels, you just have to do research. The Leopard is new, and they haven't been delivered yet so no real world reviews.

But if it's half as good as the current reviews are on GCN and other sites, it'll be a huge hit bc of price point.

Took the wheels off and gave the bike a thorough deep clean today - the first time since I have bought this bike, about 1000km now. I was astounded how filthy the chain and cassette truly were (ie I was willfully ignoring).

After cleaning it up I thought it was time for a photo with the new (used from Craigslist) wheels!

http://www.uhlmann.ca/wp-content/upl.../04/MarkR3.jpg

For fun, I bought a cheap kitchen scale to compare my stock wheels to these new Enves (because I'm a geek like that):


Mark

I did British Properties today, just shy of 100 clicks. Due to traffic, I took the easy right turn onto Stevens route and it was too easy. I'm going to turn to the left and pedal up some crazy hills.

LOVE how there aint no traffic and I don't have to deal with pedestrians, I was alone the who time and felt like I was just a well dressed paperboy delivering newspapers.

There were a LOT of sharp turns with signs (15km/h) and I was really shitting my pants trying not to over brake.

*PS, due to the OVERWHELMING amount of constructions up there, there are always tons of porta-potty if you want to take a leak.

I do need suggestions on where I can get refill on my water? Please don't say local bathrooms. These are the two places I go to.

a) Prospect point. I hit that after I come back from N / West Van rides.
b) Red & white light house at Stanley park. I hit that before i go over the lions gate.

How did you get your bike to stay upright? I don't see any stands or anything that it leans against .:concentrate:

Used a thin metal skewer for the BBQ between the left crank and the ground and then Photoshopped it out haha.

Cheers
Mark

Genius ... a sign of someone who really pays attention to details!

And a +1 to tomatogunk for noticing!

"Before" haha.

Mark

haha, I don't think there are too many bikes over 40lbs nowadays unless it's a fully loaded steel touring bike or a big heavy cruiser.

What do you guys use for chain degreaser? I have 1100 km on my newish bike and my chain is....black.

I bought the MEC degreaser (green colour) and their chain cleaner. Simple to use and does the job quite well. Usually i do 2 runs of it and the chain turns out quite clean.

I'm using this citrus degreaser from home depot. Cleans it extremely well.

ZEP 128 oz. Heavy-Duty Citrus Degreaser-ZUCIT128 - The Home Depot

On another note, I put the Osymetrics through its paces over the past couple of days. Did some flat riding, did a climb up Seymour and some mixed terrain riding in between--all in all did about 250km on them.

Are there any marginal power/speed gains? Not really, I was a lot faster on every Strava segment of the Seymour climb compared to when I did it two weeks ago but that's arguable because I'm pushing a 38 for my small ring now as opposed to a 34 back then.

The biggest difference I can feel is in the way that you pedal. With round rings you have this push and pull motion at certain angles to achieve a full circular motion. With Osymetrics, I feel that it takes the guesswork out of pedalling and you no longer have to be cognizant of when and at which angle you have to pull, you just have to push. Hard to describe but I like the feel of them so far.

I've used both the MEC green one or the citrus degreaser tomatogunk posted. The MEC one is cheap but you have to use a bit of it depending on how dirty it is. The actually prefer the Home Depot Zep citrus cleaner since it's easily accessible and works great.

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pro...c1d4e_1000.jpg

neat trick a friend showed me, just spray and then rinse off after a few minutes (I didn't use that brand but you get the idea)

I find aerosols are pretty wasteful sometimes and are expensive. I've used some wd40 foaming chain degreaser marked specially for bikes. It foams on and doesn't drip as fast as the finishline stuff as I find that finishline stuff pretty horrible. I like it but it's pretty expensive. You can pick the wd40 stuff up from BSP.

I hear mixed reviews about simple green and how it'll corrode your chain if you leave it soaking too long.

The less environmentally friendly stuff is using gasoline, kerosene, or some paint thinner and soak. People use this stuff, but I'd imagine it'd be a bit dangerous.

Anyways, since CRS is not looking to buy my bike, I thought I'd post my bike in case anyone else is interested:

FS: 2012 roubaix apex comp

http://images.craigslist.org/00b0b_e...W_1200x900.jpg

I've seen the WD40 bike line stuff in action and it's pretty good, but like you said, can be expensive in comparison to the competition. And yes, Finish Line stuff is horrible. :fuckthatshit:

I'm sure everyone here got the email from Chain Reaction announcing their new line of wheels. Looks to be made by Vitus. Very tempting, under $1100 for a set of 50mm full carbon wheels?! Someone buy a set and let me know how they are. :smug:
Prime RR-50 Carbon Clincher Road Wheelset 2016 | Chain Reaction Cycles

Look who my dash cam picked up on his new Giant!

Oh sheeeeeit! Nice catch!

What you guys think of this one?
http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/van/bik/5715332977.html

Anyone participating in next Sunday's Cypress Challenge?

Just completed century ride by myself today. It was perfect cause the weather wasn't extremely hot. YVR - UBC - Stanley Park - Horseshoe Bay - UBC - Iona Beach - Dinner - Steveston and back to YVR.

Fuck my ass is sore. Could have taken the easy way out and just stayed in Richmond but what's the fun in that.

I gotta say Marine Drive to Horseshoe bay was really fun. I need 20 more clicks before I hit 300 km this week. falk...

PS: Gleneagles Community Centre at West Vancouver was awesome. They have tools, brush and a pump with a stand outside 24/7. It was a life saver.

keep it up! :thumbs:

Yes