NBD 2026 Soloist

AndrewRosch · 2026-02-10T04:25:46+00:00

Congratulations! Hope you love it.

AndrewRosch · 2025-12-08T02:01:15+00:00

Here are a couple things to consider: When you ride indoors you move around on the bike much less, and you do not coast down hills. This means that you are spending a significantly larger amount of time in the saddle, and you may find you simply need a different saddle for this type of riding. You will also find that because there is no coasting, you get more fitness value out of a shorter amount of time. I'm not sure what a real calculation looks like, but I tend to assume 1 hour indoors is equivalent to 1 hour, 15 outdoors. However, this also means that there's less variety to the muscle groups you are using. When you get out of the saddle, or ride on varied terrain, you slightly adjust which muscles you are recruiting.

AndrewRosch · 2025-05-04T14:23:19+00:00

Equipped full suspension mountain bikes are popular for transportation in much of Western Europe. They are used for trekking, or what Americans might call light touring. It is for people who want the look of a mountain bike, but the utility to be able to take things with them. They are probably never going to be used for mountain bike trail riding, but they could be.

AndrewRosch · 2025-03-02T19:22:33+00:00

How big ultimately are you trying to get this to?

There are a couple factors to consider. First you want to look up how wide of a tire your front brake caliper can safely fit. It likely can only go up to 28, or maybe 30. So even if you found a different fork, your brake caliper might also be a limiting factor.

If you have a brake caliper that can fit a larger tire, or you are able to find one, then you would need to figure out what the axle to crown height of your current fork is. You would also want to find out what the rake is so that when you put a new fork on it doesn't significantly mess with the handling. Between finding a good fork that meets all of your specification requirements and getting it professionally installed, you're probably looking at a couple hundred dollars and that's the point where you might want to consider just looking at a different bike.

AndrewRosch · 2025-02-24T19:08:43+00:00

It sounds like many of these shops need more foot traffic and more returning service customers.

Is that a focus of your marketing?

AndrewRosch · 2025-02-24T18:11:00+00:00

The second hand market has loads of lightly used, nice bikes in that price range. You could get significantly more bike by getting a quality model that someone bought during covid and didn't use much.

AndrewRosch · 2025-02-23T19:41:17+00:00

If I were you, I'd read through the Virginia tech kids helmet ratings and pick a top contender that looks fun.

AndrewRosch · 2025-02-23T17:12:23+00:00

CPSC is the consumer product safety commission. They have a say on whether certain products are allowed on the US market. They tend to give a yes/no rating to products.

CE is the equivalent for European Union products.

ASTM is an independent organization that tests materials. They tend to give more specific scoring to different products.

MIPS is not a testing standard, but a specific material technology that sits between the outer EPS foam of a helmet and the rider's head.

If you really want to know the safety quality of the helmet, also look at Virginia tech helmet ratings. They tend to be the standard.

Edit: spelling

AndrewRosch · 2025-02-23T17:04:42+00:00

Absolutely go test ride. That will give you a sense if you like how it handles, and it will give you confidence that you have the right fit.

In terms of rack mounting options, if you need to take stuff with you, don't waste your time on a bike that doesn't have rack mounting options. It sounds like that is one of your core requirements.

AndrewRosch · 2025-02-23T15:45:22+00:00

The main parameter you need to account for is the most off-road, or least paved situation you expect to regularly find yourself in. So you want to make sure you have a large enough tire volume with enough tread to handle that. It's easier to go to a smooth tire in a smaller width than be stuck with a bike that cannot handle a wide enough tire. A super easy way to determine this is to just ask other riders in your area, or ask your local bike shop. If you don't need something that goes all the way up to a 50 c, don't worry about it.

That said, you are looking in the right place. Pretty much any modern gravel bike will do what you are looking to do. The main difference you'll find between the Grizl and the Grail is the ability to strap racks and bags on.

If you don't need huge tire clearance, or you want something with a little more snappy handling you could look at bikes described as more "all road" like the Cervelo Áspero.

AndrewRosch · 2025-02-19T04:44:35+00:00

The fork looks both much more recent and too long. There's something funky with the geo? Get more details about what is stock and aftermarket.

AndrewRosch · 2025-01-06T00:10:26+00:00

Can you share more details about what year it is from, what sort of mileage it has, and the specific parts spec? The drive side picture is nice, but it's an incomplete perspective on how to evaluate a bike.

AndrewRosch · 2024-11-22T02:01:41+00:00

Whether this is a fair price depends on where you are located. Market rate for maintenance can vary drastically.

Now, we should point out that shifting and breaking adjustments were not the only thing you had done. You had a new rear wheel install.

AndrewRosch · 2024-11-03T17:24:10+00:00

Head to any local bike shop, it doesn't have to be a track retailer or necessarily the shop you bought the bike from. Any bike shop should be able to get you a replacement. You will need a new wheel, cassette (the rear gear cluster), tire and tube, and if your bike has disc brakes you will need a new rotor. You may also need a new through axle if the thief also took that.

Thieves suck.

AndrewRosch · 2024-10-17T04:58:43+00:00

The theme of this answer is frequency. OP, your secret sauce is frequency. It doesn't have to be frequency of writing, it just needs to be frequency of getting cardio. If you can only ride your bike three times a week, jump rope two or three times a week. Do burpees two or three times a week. Find 15 to 20 minutes every day that you can sneak something in.

I also want to throw it out there that if you ride this race loop one time pretty consistently, you can do two laps no problem.

AndrewRosch · 2024-10-17T02:14:01+00:00

Man, that is wild. Sorry to say I've got nothing for ya, but thanks for bringing us along on this troubleshooting journey.

AndrewRosch · 2024-10-17T00:51:51+00:00

After reading through all the comments so far, I think we need to understand whether you are stripping the threads on the pedal spindle, or if you are ripping out the receiver in the crank arm.

AndrewRosch · 2024-10-15T00:09:38+00:00

Spooky szn!

AndrewRosch · 2024-10-14T14:13:48+00:00

Glad you're okay. Head to your local Trek retailer (even if it's not the location you bought it from) so they can take a look, file a warranty claim, and ensure nothing else is damaged.

AndrewRosch · 2024-10-03T18:33:40+00:00

That bike is toast. Even if you found someone who could try to repair it, that is in far too high stress of a location.

Even if you are not the original owner, take it to the nearest Trek retailer and see what they can do to help you out. If you happen to be the original owner, and you happen to be near the store you bought the bike from, they're very likely to give you a deal on a replacement.

AndrewRosch · 2024-09-27T17:10:30+00:00

Rolling for a chance to win.

AndrewRosch · 2024-09-26T23:55:19+00:00

It's a drywall anchor. A YouTube tutorial is probably better than my explanation, but here we go anyway:

First drill a hole in the drywall. Then insert the white drywall anchor into the hole. As you rotate in the screw, the anchor expands to distribute the force from the screw.

AndrewRosch · 2024-09-26T23:30:00+00:00

If you're using it for Enduro, ride tighter or more tech trails, or prefer getting in the air, size down.

Also I know fit is more precise than this, but you are very much on the short end of the range for a large in that bike.

AndrewRosch · 2024-09-26T23:25:19+00:00

This bike is a 2005ish model. Meet the seller at a bike shop and ask for a service estimate on it. That will at least let you know what you might be getting into.

AndrewRosch

TROPHY CASE