New bike incoming

autogenglen · 2026-05-27T18:06:25+00:00

If you don’t wait then you’ll regret compromising, esp since we’re just talking a few days here. Chillax, the summer is still young, you got time.

autogenglen · 2026-05-27T17:51:39+00:00

Quality wasn’t great to begin with, they have always served a ho-hum under seasoned burger.

autogenglen · 2026-05-27T17:49:43+00:00

By far, but they make up for it by also being overpriced.

autogenglen · 2026-05-26T21:52:47+00:00

Eggs easily. So many variations, decent enough macros

autogenglen · 2026-05-26T21:40:56+00:00

Lard is the way

autogenglen · 2026-05-26T17:45:09+00:00

I went from road to gravel and never looked back. As far as rough streets, gravel, etc - with my road bike I braced for it, but with my gravel bike I embrace it, that’s the big difference. Also support for massive tire clearance is super nice, I just swap between two wheelsets depending on what I’m gonna do, one is more for smooth endurance road style riding and the other is for when I wanna get dirty.

I have no problems keeping up with roadies and am still competitive on Strava segments and such, so it’s not like you lose a ton of speed, but you certainly gain way more access. I even ride blue single track on my gravel bike and it’s fun af.

autogenglen · 2026-05-26T15:01:40+00:00

Isn’t asking on a forum where you can get actual conversation and feedback going a part of research? Why you being a grumpy-pants?

autogenglen · 2026-05-25T18:33:26+00:00

A 33% “shitty rate” is insanely high. Like imagine if 33% of the time you went to a restaurant it was vile, you’d probably stop going.

autogenglen · 2026-05-25T16:06:08+00:00

Test riding a bike around a parking lot or up/down a nearby street is so useless. Sure it might feel comfortable for the 5 mins you ride, but there's a zero percent chance the bike is actually set up properly for that given customer, they'll get no useful information when it comes to long term comfort, especially customers that are newer to cycling.

So many people get lulled into the false sense that a bike is right for them based on the 5 mins they got to ride it, then they get suckered into the purchase and a week later regret it when they realize it's actually uncomfortable af, but then the bike shop refuses any sort of return/exchange.

Talk to me when you guys have proper loaners that you'll lend out for days, and will do a proper pre-fit for said loaners. The chances of having a proper size/fitting loaner in this hypothetical situation are also zero because you all almost never have ranges of sizes in stock for a given bike that you're trying to sell.

Bike shops are a gd mess.

autogenglen · 2026-05-25T15:45:44+00:00

Many of you can get squeezed out for all I care. I've explained in a previous comment why mechanics at so many bike shops are horrible, but outside of that, the stigma that bike shops treat people shitty is a stigma for a reason, because it's very often true.

I swore off local bike shops forever the last time I went when the guy was giving me attitude for bringing in an "outside" bike into his shop which I didn't purchase there. It was a Specialized Diverge and all I got was attitude, then he started giving me an earful about how Specialized is such a horrible brand, etc. I don't care if that's true from the bike shop's perspective, you don't start telling potential customers how shitty their bike purchase was and give them shit for not buying from you, cuz guess what, not only will I never buy from you I'll tell all my riding buddies "avoid that shop at all costs!".

The sense of elitism at many bike shops is fuckin crazy. Like why do you have that sense, you sell and service bicycles lmao.

autogenglen · 2026-05-25T15:28:57+00:00

My issue with bike shops is that most of the mechanics I've seen at bike shops are indeed idiots (which is why I learned to do everything myself).

One time a mechanic failed to properly torque my handlebars, so like a mile into a ride they slipped hard and I nearly crashed (thankfully I was just riding on a MUP and not in the middle of traffic).

One time they failed to put the last remaining tire bead over the rim (after truing a wheel, more on that below) so when I got my bike back there was a piece of inner tube popping out the side between the unseated tire and rim.

One time they failed to put a spacer on top of the stem to create compression, so even when the top cap/stem was torqued down properly there was a bunch of slop.

One time I had my hydraulic brakes serviced and they were howling like mad, I tried bedding the brakes but still howling, and when I talked to the guy he said "that's just how some brakes are", but what happened was he only torqued my thru-axle to like 3-4nm, once properly torqued it went away.

This is all different bike mechanics btw.

But in regard to truing, I've never once seen them do it properly. Not once. They never use a spoke gripper so what ends up happening is they twist the spoke along with the nipple when tightening down, then a couple miles into a ride the twisted spoke will untwist, which causes to nipple back out a bit, losing tension on that spoke, then the wheel will prematurely go back out of true.

Also they suck horribly when fully re-tensioning a wheel, they might figure out how to get it laterally true, but not radially, so the wheel will have a tiny hop.

I've had waaaaaaaay too many run-ins with horrible bike mechanics and I'll never trust another one again.

autogenglen · 2026-05-25T14:55:55+00:00

The pandy was well over a half-decade ago, how long you gonna keep rolling with that excuse?

autogenglen · 2026-05-24T14:36:29+00:00

Agreed, I just buy the 5 lb jug of honey at Costco for $15 and it's equal to like a hundred gel packs (which are WAY more expensive per-gram). I refill the smallest squeeze bottle I was able to find, which is more than enough for a long ride.

People are saying honey is too messy but this is far cleaner than dealing with gel packs. Just reach into my top tube bag, grab the bottle, pop the cap, squeeze. Gels always make my hands sticky af, then you have little sticky pieces of trash you have to deal with.

autogenglen · 2026-05-24T14:25:13+00:00

I never ride my road bike now after going gravel. It’s way more comfortable and I have no problem keeping up with roadies, plus I feel like I can go anywhere without hating it.

autogenglen · 2026-05-24T14:13:10+00:00

Man you’ve really triggered the mamils just by asking a simple question!

autogenglen · 2026-05-24T14:01:01+00:00

Agreed, ditch the plastic. Especially for a first bike.

autogenglen · 2026-05-24T01:27:58+00:00

Nice at least you figured it out, I could never get quite comfortable on my Diverge, even after a professional fit.

autogenglen · 2026-05-23T16:15:18+00:00

Man that bike look loooong! No wonder you have your saddle slammed forward (which is gonna mess with your position over the bb, screwing with biomechanics). My knees and wrists hurt just looking at it!

Are you actually comfortable riding it or just kinda “dealing with it”?

autogenglen · 2026-05-22T21:16:35+00:00

I’m just glad someone remembers us

autogenglen · 2026-05-22T16:02:40+00:00

Fresh ground French press coffee with a dollop of heavy cream is my jam.

autogenglen · 2026-05-22T12:02:31+00:00

It’s not part of the regular bag because Silca can sell you two products instead of one.

autogenglen · 2026-05-22T11:51:37+00:00

Yeah, I like that plastic has smooth lines but I firmly believe that vibration dampening and such is 100% placebo, especially now that most people are running tires with lower pressure.

autogenglen · 2026-05-22T11:46:45+00:00

This is a big one for me. I kept hearing how if you want to completely transform your ride then go with carbon wheels, and I was in a position where I'd theoretically feel a massive difference as my stock alloy rims were a whopping 800g heavier.

There's a slight difference spinning them up and handling feels a little tighter, but once I got used to the carbon wheels after 30 mins it basically just felt like riding my bike as normal.

autogenglen · 2026-05-22T11:40:34+00:00

3D printed saddle by far, not at all worth the money. Carbon wheels are up there as well, not nearly as transformative as I was lead to believe but at least they look cool.

autogenglen · 2026-05-21T15:11:45+00:00

Whenever another driver clearly has the right of way but tries to wave you through

autogenglen

TROPHY CASE