What have you done to your bike today?

Based on tomorrow’s temps, ok, all week’s temps really, I freshened up the Synapse’s sealant and preventatively changed out the valve cores.
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Charging up the Assioma Duo’s in preparation for, gulp, Road season.
 
Steve Vai said:
Stripped Elphie in prep for Crush The Commonwealth next week. Will also use this as a test to see how well a waxed system works against Dumonde Tec. I’ve done nothing but wipe dirt off the chain for 840 miles according to Strava…

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Dumonde is dirty AF.

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And the clean poop.

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Ran the chain through the steps 3x to make sure it’s really waxed.

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Might ride this bike tomorrow to break the waxed chain in, but I’m more than likely gonna ride my other bike that’s new and cool.
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Quasi wax test update. 400 miles in and the chain started making some squeaks. It did rain for 5 hours and 100ish miles were gravel so I don’t feel like that’s a bad mileage considering. For me in season I’d have to wax at least once a week so I’m not sure the benefit is there on this bike. Maybe having clean hands while changing a flat is a benefit? I’ll probably still do it because we have all the stuff and it’s quick.
 
Last night I realized my back tire on the road bike was kinda square and didn’t want to risk an issue for todays ride so I threw on a spare I had even tho the front one is a creamwall and the back one is black.

Next set of tires just going back to all black sidewalls since makes my older skinny carbon rims look more sleek.

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rlb said:
I had to touch a non-waxed chain the other day, ew. Blowing through quick links is really the only downside I can see. Coming from someone who doesn't ride 100s of miles in a week. Or even a month, FWIW.
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Yeah, clean is the upside. Dumonde last twice as long, is quieter, and has less friction but it's an absolute drivetrain destroyer. Like pouring 10w 30 on your bike 🤣

I'm gonna tell the people in charge we need the fancy Silca Wax so I can try that.
 
rlb said:
I had to touch a non-waxed chain the other day, ew. Blowing through quick links is really the only downside I can see. Coming from someone who doesn't ride 100s of miles in a week. Or even a month, FWIW.
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I reuse my own quick links.

Won't do it for other people. That's a huge liability risk.
 
Karate Monkey said:
I reuse my own quick links.

Won't do it for other people. That's a huge liability risk.
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Consensus seems to be you can get a few re-uses out of the 12sp eagle links. I killed one trying to size a new chain though, after putting it on 3x I could feel it was way more loose.

10sp links are a different story, I use the KMC links and they seem to hold up just fine.
 
rlb said:
Consensus seems to be you can get a few re-uses out of the 12sp eagle links. I killed one trying to size a new chain though, after putting it on 3x I could feel it was way more loose.

10sp links are a different story, I use the KMC links and they seem to hold up just fine.
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When you consider that 8-speed links, for most of their existence, has no locks/nothing bad happened (they're closed by tension, driving OR derailleur), it's easier to reuse them.*

Lawyers feel differently.

*They still wear out, just like regular chain pins do.
 
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So... I finally bought an e-bike. A used 2021 Specialized Levo SL from an old friend who had upgraded to the current model.

It looks really nice:
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And has a lot of nice upgrades: 2023 Fox 36 (160mm). GX AXS. Cascade link to bump travel up to 155mm.

I've had it about a week and finally got it over to Neshaminy to get used to it. It's a size M and I normally ride size L bikes (Spot and Megatower). But I figured being a year newer than the Spot and if I swapped out the 35mm reach stem for a 50mm reach, it would be fine.

I was wrong.

It feels so short... scary short. Not sure what to do other than put it back up for sale. Unless maybe someone has a line on a L front frame section...

On the plus side, the few times I was able to use it like an e-Bike, it was fun. Mainly the climbs where I could put it in Turbo and pedal like mad. I was still working: hit a max HR of 187 - but just flying up the hill was so fun.
 
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