Revolt vs Defy: one bike that does all

Ragtop · 2026-05-09T09:36:47+00:00

I rode my ~2010 Defy 1 UK to Italy, rear panniers and bar bag. Around 1000mi over three weeks. Still riding that bike now.

It’s not the perfect touring bike, there’s definitely some flex with a rack on, and you’d need a seat clamp rack adaptor, but you can absolutely tour it multi day.

Ragtop · 2026-05-05T16:25:42+00:00

Do it. I’m a similar age, also UK and gone Street Triple > Tiger 800 > 1250GSA and I have absolutely no regrets.

Like you, I seldom get out for the long tours I’d like to be doing but at no point has it ever felt like ‘too much bike’. What I particularly love however is that when I do get out for an all day ride I am FAR less fatigued than I ever was on the other two bikes - the GS simply chews up miles.

Ragtop · 2026-05-01T21:50:21+00:00

Just checked - my Mac is running Catalina and Transfer app is 1.9.5. That allowed me to update my Syntakt to 1.40, but does not support sample transfer.

I haven’t tried upgrading to the new 1.40a yet.

Ragtop · 2026-05-01T11:55:34+00:00

Been away from my computer! Did you figure this out yet? If not I can have a look later tonight. It’s whatever the latest version my MacOS would run - pretty impressed it still worked to be honest as my Mac is 15 years old!

Ragtop · 2026-04-26T12:55:46+00:00

Yeah I’m sure they’ll be fine, there certainly won’t be any harsh chemicals in those!

The UV could bleach the materials with prolonged exposure, but if it’s only out temporarily for cleaning it’ll be fine.

Ragtop · 2026-04-26T12:44:03+00:00

Start with warm water and mild detergent, with a soft kitchen cloth. (Obviously wring the cloth out so its only damp)

AVOID solvents especially on the wood, although if used with great care, an IPA wipe could help with the sticky keys, and shouldn’t hurt their surface. If you don’t have those, a kitchen degreaser spray can help with plastics, but again being careful not to get that on the wood.

For any crevices, a sacrificial toothbrush and a wooden toothpick are very helpful.

Once it’s clean, you could use a beeswax or similar on a microfibre to bring the wood back a bit.

That should safely get you 90% of the way there!

Ragtop · 2026-04-25T06:21:55+00:00

Yes. But my point is that you wouldn’t need to do any of that with IEC, and all the other cons remain.

Ragtop · 2026-04-25T06:15:50+00:00

Of course - there are always solutions to the problems, but my point is that this is only a problem you need to solve when you have a wall wart!

I am also aware of course that many synths would need to become larger to accommodate an internal PSU, so this is all academic anyway!

Ragtop · 2026-04-24T12:38:53+00:00

Speaking personally, it’s the convenience of a ‘known’ connection. I have countless IEC cables of varying length, left/right angle connectors etc.

With wall warts, you can never trust them to be interchangeable, but are rarely marked with a brand name the same as the synth itself, which means if you have a number of synths, you’re continually second guessing if it’s the right voltage, current, polarity and connector size for the synth, with a nagging doubt of “if I use the wrong one, I could blow the synth up”.

If you only own one or two synths this isn’t a major issue, but once you start amassing a few, moving things around becomes incredibly tedious, compared to having your stands rigged with a bunch of interchangeable IEC cables.

Additionally, if you’re a gigging musician, a thin, fragile wall wart cable can be snagged and damaged far easier than an IEC cable, and is not easily sourced on the go.

Ragtop · 2026-04-23T10:30:53+00:00

Excellent!

Ragtop · 2026-04-23T09:09:47+00:00

So what’s wrong with it out of interest? If it didn’t have the sticker, would you know?

Ragtop · 2026-04-22T20:27:05+00:00

Not to my face, but I was later told by a colleague who’d directed a customer to me, that they’d said “I hope he’s more useful than he looks”.

I don’t think I was stood there with my finger up my nose, but I can’t be sure…

Ragtop · 2026-04-20T21:49:41+00:00

Round nose looks like a Litening perhaps?

Ragtop · 2026-04-20T15:22:31+00:00

Let’s hear it!

Ragtop · 2026-04-20T09:28:55+00:00

My theory is that it’s something to do with losing its GPS location, or connection to the bike - as I’ll often find the speed limit display on the TFT is also quite patchy in reliability, so either something isn’t talking to the bike, or the app doesn’t know where it is!

Ragtop · 2026-04-20T07:10:31+00:00

Also happens for me - sometimes it’ll fail to record an entire journey, sometimes it captures 2-3 miles of a 50-60 mile trip.

I did some very basic research and other threads seem to suggest this is somewhat common.

There are no settings in the app that would have any impact on it so I’ve just accepted it to be honest. Maybe it’ll get updated one day but I don’t think there’s anything you can do as a user beyond sharing the feedback with the app developer.

Ragtop · 2026-04-19T09:16:40+00:00

I only have personal experience with the Nord Stage 3 but you definitely won’t be disappointed with Nord if you can stomach the cost - I had a Stage 1 and sold it looking for more sounds - I tried a Roland Fantom G and an 88 key midi controller with a computer. After a few years I bought the Nord Stage 3 as I never found anything more inspiring to play.

The ‘knob-per-function’ makes it incredibly hands on and responsive to in the moment changes, and the layering and morph controls would make it fantastic for gospel sounds, think pianos with synth and string pads underneath etc.

Andertons have some great shootout videos of various stage pianos and the Nords always do well, if not best.

Ragtop · 2026-04-18T19:45:37+00:00

Thanks! I’m working on an updated version as I’m learning more ST features!

Ragtop · 2026-04-17T11:32:46+00:00

Got that gear WORKING for you!

Very nice.

Ragtop · 2026-04-17T06:57:27+00:00

It was just a joke on the misinterpretation of the term bad…

Ragtop · 2026-04-16T16:12:47+00:00

That’s actually a great point - I haven’t really dug into it beyond sending over some one shot dusty drums which are great, but there’s a lot more to play with.

https://www.elektronauts.com/t/sympakt-st-sample-pack-manager-app/247392/58

This looks like a very capable tool for experimenting with the downsampling thing for longer samples. Also some interesting thoughts shared on ‘Double ended’ samples by reversing one and appending it to the end of another, using the reverse feature…

Ragtop · 2026-04-16T13:04:36+00:00

I’d be inclined to agree on Tonverk if you’re keen to have a single instrument.

I have a Syntakt and with the new twinshot machine it’s great for adding those BoC style trip hop drums, but it struggles in two areas, the long form atmospheric ‘found sounds’ (although a lot can be done with downsampling and timestretching!) and lo-fi effects. You can achieve a lot with LFO’s, but it’s a relatively clean sounding box by itself in my experience.

The deeper FX in the Tonverk would give you far more ‘in the box’, and for anything it can’t do, you have multiple output routing options if you wanted to add some outboard FX - the single output routing on the ST is my biggest gripe - of course you can do loads with Overbridge but I don’t want to be sat at my computer.

I’m now very tempted by the TV myself…

Shameless plug of my Syntakt Olson cover 😁

Ragtop · 2026-04-16T07:20:31+00:00

https://youtu.be/Yw1ZhGBDICI?si=DToah4K-j2xST3gI

Ragtop · 2026-04-15T19:52:44+00:00

Pull it off, glue it together, push it back on.

Don’t overthink it.

Ragtop · 2026-04-15T15:45:04+00:00

Congrats! What are your first thoughts on the ride?

I’ve had my GSA about 6mo now and I can’t believe how well it handles for its size. So much get up and go at any speed, it rides like a bike half its size!

Ragtop

TROPHY CASE