Jshort’s bike thread
- Thread starter Jeremy
- Start date
Solid effort Jeremy.
I’m wrapped up with baseball and soccer tournaments every weekend. 2 kids in travel sports is a lot. Plus this is busiest time of year for work.
I’m just trying (unsuccessfully) to maintain a base level of fitness.
These are the periods that I go though that, when I come out of, keep the motivation high. So hopefully in a few weeks both kid’s teams will slow down and work will too.
I’m just trying (unsuccessfully) to maintain a base level of fitness.
These are the periods that I go though that, when I come out of, keep the motivation high. So hopefully in a few weeks both kid’s teams will slow down and work will too.
It’s been a while. And it’s the slow time of the year so let’s my put some words down.
I’ve been sick with a head cold for a week+ and its a slow recovery. My watch is telling me my recovery data score is definitely improving, but I think it’s going to be a while before I get back to where I was right before I got the cold. As is usual, I was feeling great on the bike in terms of aerobic fitness and to lose it is a little frustrating. But maybe I can take this frustration and use it to focus on making some small improvements in self help and diet to come back stronger.
Today I went for my first outdoor ride of 2025 and I felt like shit. The trails were really frost heev-ey so it took a little more power to move and there wasn’t much flowy fun happening because my momentum would get lost in the crunch.
(Look at all the drones)
On the ride, I kept running into the issue with my touchscreens (Garmin, phone, and watch) and gloves. They’re older gore winter gloves and work well for sub 30 degree days but they are useless when you want to swipe. I need suggestions on gloves that don’t suck at this.
I also recently upgraded my brakes to some 4 pot level g2 ultimates. I know they aren’t everyone’s favorite brakes, but for my use, they check the boxes of light, more powerful than 2 pot brakes, and they’re SRAM. Which I’ve become very proficient in installing internally, and bleeding. But my problem was I just installed them and needed to bed them in. I went to a hill on the road near the trail head, and went up and down a few times to bed them but they never stopped screeching. Maybe it was too cold to bed them in? I’ll try a few more downhills before I resort to more drastic attempts to quiet them.
Lastly, I was thinking of buying a new bike since it’s certainly a great time to do so. It’s hard to browse the internet and not be inundated with killer deals on leftover bikes. But the problem is selling my old bike for enough that I’m not dropping a ton on a new bike. And the more I think about it, the more I realize I don’t want to spend any money on a bike at the moment . So new bike day will be rescheduled for a later date, possibly in 2026. i ride my Epic Evo the most right now and regardless of what bike I go to, the improvements are so marginal that it just does not make any sense. I’l leave here with a picture of the bike and someone can try to convince me that a new bike would be any better…
(This site really kills the quality of the photo)
I’ve been sick with a head cold for a week+ and its a slow recovery. My watch is telling me my recovery data score is definitely improving, but I think it’s going to be a while before I get back to where I was right before I got the cold. As is usual, I was feeling great on the bike in terms of aerobic fitness and to lose it is a little frustrating. But maybe I can take this frustration and use it to focus on making some small improvements in self help and diet to come back stronger.
Today I went for my first outdoor ride of 2025 and I felt like shit. The trails were really frost heev-ey so it took a little more power to move and there wasn’t much flowy fun happening because my momentum would get lost in the crunch.
(Look at all the drones)
On the ride, I kept running into the issue with my touchscreens (Garmin, phone, and watch) and gloves. They’re older gore winter gloves and work well for sub 30 degree days but they are useless when you want to swipe. I need suggestions on gloves that don’t suck at this.
I also recently upgraded my brakes to some 4 pot level g2 ultimates. I know they aren’t everyone’s favorite brakes, but for my use, they check the boxes of light, more powerful than 2 pot brakes, and they’re SRAM. Which I’ve become very proficient in installing internally, and bleeding. But my problem was I just installed them and needed to bed them in. I went to a hill on the road near the trail head, and went up and down a few times to bed them but they never stopped screeching. Maybe it was too cold to bed them in? I’ll try a few more downhills before I resort to more drastic attempts to quiet them.
Lastly, I was thinking of buying a new bike since it’s certainly a great time to do so. It’s hard to browse the internet and not be inundated with killer deals on leftover bikes. But the problem is selling my old bike for enough that I’m not dropping a ton on a new bike. And the more I think about it, the more I realize I don’t want to spend any money on a bike at the moment . So new bike day will be rescheduled for a later date, possibly in 2026. i ride my Epic Evo the most right now and regardless of what bike I go to, the improvements are so marginal that it just does not make any sense. I’l leave here with a picture of the bike and someone can try to convince me that a new bike would be any better…
(This site really kills the quality of the photo)
It really is a tedious process and it's tough to get a solid price coming back as a seller right now so you're definitely right in waiting it out. Epic 8's aren't on sale yet anyway.
Yea for sure. My buddy @Jesseh87 just listed 2 bikes which are very very similar to what I have (epic Evo and epic hardtail). I think mine are both a year newer. I’ll be curious to see what he is able to get for them.
He got the new epic 8. Even with that bike, I’m not convinced it’s that much different than my Evo. Maybe a little more rear travel ( like 10mm?). Definitely not worth the effort of selling and then still dropping 3-4k to make up the difference or 5-6k if I dont want to upgrade things.
The more I think about it, the more content I am. Maybe the frame will crack and then I’ll get the free upgrade.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
As someone who’s owned an Evo and ridden the new Epic8, they’re exactly the same bike with the exception of the dual lockout. Although the paint on the Pro is so dope.
That’s the first thing I would take off an epic 8
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Me too. I use it a lot more than I thought I would on the Scalpel, but also wouldn’t miss it at all if it were gone.
Bikeworks
Well-Known Member
Can't say that I disagree. Between the EE and the StEvo, hard for me to justify getting another bike. I will say I'd like to have some downtube storage on the EE, but that's really splitting hairs.
Yes. All that plus my one hitter and a lighter.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
It’s great if you love hearing shit rattle in your downtube the entire time you ride 😂
Weed helps with the anxiety of riding deed-restricted trails.
a.s.
Mr. Chainring
@jShort Every day you wait on selling your used bike you lose $10 in value*. If you wait for new bikes to drop in price (can they really go any lower?) you will end up spending the same because of the lost value of your Evo.
*completely made up number. I still say buy a new bike. 😁
Jesseh87
Member
This color is what convinced me I needed a new bike! 😂 But honestly the epic 7 Evo has been the kind of bike I could never ask more of. So for them to slightly re design it and claim better pedal efficiency while also claiming more bump absorption, i'm all in for it. I honestly may just end up keeping both my old bikes instead of taking a massive loss in selling them. My epic 7 Evo build cost me more when I built it then the new epic 8 pro. So to even entertain taking a couple grand for it is pretty Ludacris. Id rather keep it and use it as my beater bike and keep miles off the new rig! Just waiting for the new bike to get ride wrapped!
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rlb
Well-Known Member
That escalated quickly
Maybe a weekly cadence can be the sweet spot for this?
I’m still battling this cold thing. Today was the first ride with any real effort, and I came out feeling pretty good. Usually, the 30 minutes following a workout are pretty indicative of how you are feeling. This is when I would feel like I’m coming down with the flu or some other sickness. But even after some 10-minute threshold efforts, I felt decent.
My post-workout recovery shakes are looking a lot different lately too. I asked ChatGPT for some immunity-boosting shakes, and it gave me a “recipe” which was 2 oranges, 1 banana, frozen pineapple, orange juice, fresh ginger, and some honey. Dump this all into the NutriBullet, and you have an all-natural vitamin-packed shake. I started adding 1 scoop / 20g of whey, and it’s a perfect recovery shake. I’m not sure if this is really helping me get better, but it seems like a better option than 100g of Gatorade mix and 20g of whey.
I also did a sweat test today. I’ve been wondering about my ideal sodium intake, and after some internetting, I decided to try the cheapest test out there, which is a Gatorade patch.
You just put this little patch on your arm, and it somehow tracks the sodium in your sweat. I have no clue how accurate this is, but from what I read, checking the salt levels in your sweat is not a difficult thing to measure. I did one test today and will do another (the one-time use patches come in packs of 2).
So based on this, I am a pretty salty sweater, which is interesting.
I may take a plunge on a fancier test from Precision Hydration but only if the second patch test comes back wildly inconsistent with the first.
The action items here are to add some sodium to my drink mixes. Formula 369 has 200mg of sodium per 30g scoop. I usually use 2 scoops, so I’m getting 400mg of sodium, which may not be enough for longer days.
And speaking of sweat, my old bars were pretty icky, so I upgraded to some sweat aero bars. No AliExpress shit here @Pearl. Real Easton EC70 aero bars. Of course, I had to disconnect and run the brake lines through them, which led to a brake bleed, but it’s been a while since I bled the brakes on my road bike. Plus, since I’ve been sick, I had some time on my hands, and this is something I find perfect to pass some time when I can’t ride.
I do need to do a better job of bar tape wrapping, but it’s good enough. And with no tape on the flats of the bars, there’s less sweat making the bar less nasty. So I got that going for me.
I’m still battling this cold thing. Today was the first ride with any real effort, and I came out feeling pretty good. Usually, the 30 minutes following a workout are pretty indicative of how you are feeling. This is when I would feel like I’m coming down with the flu or some other sickness. But even after some 10-minute threshold efforts, I felt decent.
My post-workout recovery shakes are looking a lot different lately too. I asked ChatGPT for some immunity-boosting shakes, and it gave me a “recipe” which was 2 oranges, 1 banana, frozen pineapple, orange juice, fresh ginger, and some honey. Dump this all into the NutriBullet, and you have an all-natural vitamin-packed shake. I started adding 1 scoop / 20g of whey, and it’s a perfect recovery shake. I’m not sure if this is really helping me get better, but it seems like a better option than 100g of Gatorade mix and 20g of whey.
I also did a sweat test today. I’ve been wondering about my ideal sodium intake, and after some internetting, I decided to try the cheapest test out there, which is a Gatorade patch.
You just put this little patch on your arm, and it somehow tracks the sodium in your sweat. I have no clue how accurate this is, but from what I read, checking the salt levels in your sweat is not a difficult thing to measure. I did one test today and will do another (the one-time use patches come in packs of 2).
So based on this, I am a pretty salty sweater, which is interesting.
I may take a plunge on a fancier test from Precision Hydration but only if the second patch test comes back wildly inconsistent with the first.
The action items here are to add some sodium to my drink mixes. Formula 369 has 200mg of sodium per 30g scoop. I usually use 2 scoops, so I’m getting 400mg of sodium, which may not be enough for longer days.
And speaking of sweat, my old bars were pretty icky, so I upgraded to some sweat aero bars. No AliExpress shit here @Pearl. Real Easton EC70 aero bars. Of course, I had to disconnect and run the brake lines through them, which led to a brake bleed, but it’s been a while since I bled the brakes on my road bike. Plus, since I’ve been sick, I had some time on my hands, and this is something I find perfect to pass some time when I can’t ride.
I do need to do a better job of bar tape wrapping, but it’s good enough. And with no tape on the flats of the bars, there’s less sweat making the bar less nasty. So I got that going for me.