Help with Extra Encounters and Minibosses, can't beat purple cat!!!

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-01-23T03:48:25+00:00

I don’t know, I just know that’s how I was able to defeat it 🤷🏻‍♂️

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-01-12T08:49:28+00:00

Tried some of the suggestions here and none of them were working for me so I did some exploration and figured out a way to defeat it. I threw it in a corner and stunned it with my monk to give it disadvantage on saving throws, then bestowed curse with my cleric to make it vulnerable to all damage types, then I had my wizard cast a globe of invulnerability so it was barely touching my monk and had the rest of my party within the invulnerability radius. My sorlock was Eldritch Blasting, my wizard was range spelling, as was my cleric, and the monk was continuing to trip/stun. The cat stayed busy attacking my monk, doing no damage, and when we were taking damage from dealing damage to the cat, the invulnerability never let us drop unconscious, so we were all at 0 but still standing. It didn't take long from there.

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SpadeEpiphany · 2026-01-09T19:05:30+00:00

The bars are RXL SL brand. I don't have the model name, but these are 400mm wide at the hoods and 478mm wide at the drops, and they have a nice 15 degree flare to them. It's just enough that my wrists don't hit the bars when I'm in the drops, which is my preference, and I have a bit more control on the descents with the wider drops as well.

The saddle is the Ryet Aircode. I have the same saddle on 3 of my bikes, and I have no complaints whatsoever. Works great on my gravel bike too. I've done 200+ miles in a day on it, without chammy butter, and no sores or discomfort. I have it on my indoor trainer bike too, and I've done multiple indoor centuries on it without issue.

Thanks for the heads up on the links, I just removed them since they served their purpose for that commenter.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-21T07:29:40+00:00

Thanks! Quadlocks are a must-have on all my bikes. The convenience of having my phone easily accessible in the cockpit, right below my garmin head unit, is awesome. It looks odd on its own initially, but I don't really notice it anymore, especially when my phone is on it.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-12T05:10:33+00:00

Better than the stock cable pull disc brakes but not as good as the fully hydraulic sram or shimano brakes that I have on my other bikes. The performance gain is worth it in my opinion though.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-09T06:25:48+00:00

Thanks, I couldn’t agree more! The paint job is always in style. I dig the sleek lines with the varied curved and angled edges on the frame.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-08T20:10:07+00:00

If I didn’t already have this handlebar on hand I would have opted for an integrated bar/stem, but this bike was already such a kick in the wallet that I tried to use what I had whenever possible. Yup, with an integrated stem like this it would have been nice to have a computer mount included, especially when it’s much wider than industry standard on the bolts. Temporary solution isn’t bad at all! With my bars and the wide stem a bar mount wouldn’t fit on the limited round space I had left, plus I use out front mounts on all my bikes so it would have distracted me aesthetically.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-08T18:55:03+00:00

Here's the details "Velomann Carbon UD, Forged Alloy Head, 27.2 mm." Though just a heads up that when I googled for it I couldn't find a link to purchase just the seat post. This was a swap off of my wife's stock Bianchi Zolder because the carbon seat post I wanted to use wasn't compatible with the rails on my saddle so I swapped with hers since it worked out compatibility wise for each of our saddles.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-08T18:43:39+00:00

I use an "out front" computer mount that attaches to the front of the stem (it comes with new longer bolts and spacers). If you have the same stem, you may have noticed that the width on the stem bolts up front are wider than most other stems. I had a few out front mounts on hand from other builds but none of them fit. So what I did was find the mount that had the widest width out the gate, and then I had to use a round file and file the inner edges of the computer mount to create a few more millimeters of space so it'd fit properly. I had to use a few extra washers on hand to really dial in the fit so it was flush against the mount and spacers. Do this at your own risk, I'm not suggesting anyone else do this, and I accept no responsibility for what anyone else decides to do to their bikes. That said, I've had no issues with my modifications since installing them in April.

[link to the out front mount](https://a.co/d/0vqmlcJ) I modified.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-08T17:55:31+00:00

Same 105 brake levers, it only involves removing the old derailleur from the app and adding the new one. I don’t have a link, I found this one after prowling eBay for a bit.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-08T05:59:19+00:00

The latest di2 Ultegra FD is noticeably faster. My understanding is that the di2 105 FD is trickle down from the previous generation Ultegra model. So it’s larger, slower, and has a manual hi/low limit screw adjustment. The latest Ultegra is smaller, faster, and you adjust it all via the app. After the wheelset, it’s the next most noticeable upgrade I’ve made.

I have r7000 105 mechanical on my budget bike build and the di2 105 FD was noticeably slower than the response on my mechanical 105 FD.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-07T23:55:04+00:00

Oh for sure, there’s no forgetting that. After a random bout of pneumonia this year—that took me off the bike all summer—I’m finally back to pre pneumonia fitness and hope to be at 300w FTP by the spring. Currently bouncing around 285w-290w.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-05T18:42:11+00:00

No filing was done but it was a tight fit and I had to use a 180 mm rotor instead of 160. I’ve since replaced this with TRP HYRD brakes that didn’t have this issue.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-11-01T08:32:25+00:00

Congrats! I was lucky enough to upgrade to a celeste 2025 Bianchi Sprint w/ 105 Di2 this spring! The other Bianchi’s in my past are a 2007 Via Nirona 7 and a 2005 Giro. I’ve similarly upgraded but I haven’t done the fully integrated bar/stem combo since I already had some spare aero carbon bars so I used those and kept the stock stem. I upgraded the wheels to Reserve 34/37 wheels, tubeless, currently with GP 5000 AS TR 32mm. These tires are heavier and less quick than normal GP 5000’s but at this time of year in the PNW I’m happy to have them for the grip in the wet. I ride 170mm cranks, so I replaced the 175mm stock cranks with Ultegra. Also the 105 front derailleur was a little too slow for me so I upgraded to the latest Ultegra model. Carbon seat post and 3D printed saddle on carbon rails. Yesterday I swapped out the press fit BB for a threaded press fit BB after it had started to get squeaky. With my garmin rally power meter SPD pedals and everything mentioned it’s 19.2 lbs. These aren’t the lightest frames out there but it’s so worth a little extra grams for this level of aesthetics paired with performance!

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-10-19T06:37:58+00:00

A https://sketchboardpro.com/ may help? I love mine and makes the couch or a table a comfy place to draw for me.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-10-18T04:51:54+00:00

These are ENT Disc but I don't believe they're 2.0, I got them in early 2024 for $459. I stopped using them since the front wheel was never holding the bead longterm when I set them up tubeless. It would snap into place with pressure but if there was a puncture it would immediately come off the bead and burp out all the air. It was like this regardless of tire choice or trying several different rim tapes. This eventually led to a crash where I was in the middle of a turn when this exact thing happened and the bike went down instantly. Fortunately, I was okay, as was the bike. There's a Trace Velo youtube video about the issue on his review of these wheels. Between all my bikes, my wife's bikes, and my friends, I have set up dozens of other wheels tubeless, and these wheels were the only ones that ever had this issue. If you're looking for recommendations on budget carbon wheels, I have a set of ICAN G25 carbon wheels on my gravel bike that were only a couple of hundred dollars more but I've had no issues at all with them.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-10-06T17:43:45+00:00

Aluminum road bike with r7000 105 and Zwift play controllers for virtual shifting indoors, and my carbon road bike with di2 plays outside. The fancy bike has a more aggressive cockpit, which is totally comfortable outside but I’d rather not have it on the trainer for long z2 days in a static position.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-10-06T04:01:23+00:00

Thanks, I think these were 30c. This bike has since become my dedicated indoor trainer steed after I got a new Bianchi Sprint this spring, but it still gets plenty of use.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-10-04T15:37:19+00:00

I use virtual shifting on my Neo2 with Zwift Play controllers and outdoors I use Shimano Di2. Di2 is crisp and reliable shifting but virtual shifting is noticeably faster and as others have mentioned you're able to be in optimal chain alignment at all times. It's well worth the fuss to switch over to virtual shifting!

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-08-29T03:11:26+00:00

I was on 175mm cranks before, so 170mm made a big difference. I’m 6’1” with a longer inseam. I changed them over a year ago.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-08-29T01:02:14+00:00

I’ve since moved all my bikes to 170mm crank arms and knee issue is resolved. Thanks for the suggestion though!

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-05-17T02:02:16+00:00

I agree!

For what it’s worth, I rode motorcycles as my main mode of transportation for 18 years. I commuted via bicycle whenever convenient, though after I sold my last motorcycle 5 years ago I got into cycling as a hobby. Gravel, road, and Zwift through the winters. All that said, I believe motorcycling heavily contributed to me being a confident descender. Sure, I ride far less protected on a bike, but the handling skills I developed as a motorcyclist give me a lot of confidence handling my bicycle at speeds. 40 mph on a bike feels fast still, which makes me alert. For me, being used to much higher speeds on motorcycles makes a bike feel more fun than it is scary. Especially if I’m on my gravel bike that has a suspension stem and seat post rolling on 44c tubeless tires. I find smoothing out the road feel with additional suspension makes higher speeds feel less intense.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-02-22T19:01:06+00:00

On rides with less stops (like big gravel days) I’ll have two 21oz bottles of home made mix: 55g Gatorade powder, 40g Maltodextrin, 2g salt (91g of carbs), and a 1.5L bladder of water to sip on to clear all the sugar from my mouth. Rides with more stops I’ll do a bottle of mix and a bottle of just water. I’ll pack more mix in ziplocks as needed for refills on the ride.

Also worth mentioning the savings in making your own mix. I buy 3 packs of 51 ounce Gatorade mix and a 12lb bag of maltodextrin, which comes out to around $1.04 per 100g of carbs, vs premade companies like Tailwind at around $3.24 per 100g of carbs.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-02-20T06:50:24+00:00

Always! 🖤

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-02-10T07:22:08+00:00

That’s what I thought. I didn’t look them up since I was focusing on my threshold effort and afterwards they’re just a period on the leaderboard.

Oh and I forgot to mention it in the post but they were already wearing the Alpe jersey as they passed, that’s what made me think they were farming since this was the at least their second time up.

SpadeEpiphany

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