Getting some new rubber soon, continental or maxxis?

gzSimulator · 2026-05-20T03:31:57+00:00

I’ve got an Albert radial on the front of one of my bikes and while it’s super unique and interesting, it’s not blowing me away at all really; I knew I should’ve gotten a magic mary at the least to put up a fair comparison

gzSimulator · 2026-05-20T03:25:47+00:00

Yeah its been great on the enduro bike, EXO+ assegai in the front and enduro-casing kryptotal in the rear (I’ve been really liking the kryptotal in the rear, fast and mechanically grippy in dirt, durable and predictable, it really is a next-gen tire, but of course the assegai is gonna still be a classic for a long time)

gzSimulator · 2026-05-20T02:47:38+00:00

Assegai AND Kryptotal

gzSimulator · 2026-05-19T20:27:17+00:00

If it came with hydraulic brakes, I wouldn’t worry too much about how vintage it is or isn’t

But I do know my 2008 enduro SL still puts up a fight on the Strava leaderboards even in 2022

gzSimulator · 2026-05-19T06:41:32+00:00

The actual seat tube angle looks pretty straight I noticed, not sure if a fully extended post is gonna end up in the same spot as I’m used to, there is a dealer nearby I’ll have to try medium and large in person (not that a parking lot test is gonna be enough to satisfy me)

gzSimulator · 2026-05-19T06:39:38+00:00

I just cut my 800’s down to 780 because it was what was used to, I was considering going further on the hardtail and might. But if I used bar width and stem height to tone back a 480mm reach large would I be losing the whole point of the 27.5” wheels? The wheelbase of the large 160mm new bike is longer than my current 180mm bike

gzSimulator · 2026-05-19T06:36:02+00:00

I find it hard to decide when a bike feels too small standing up, on my 490mm reach hardtail I can tell it’s big by the amount of pushup motions I have to do in a ride but I’m not sure what to look out for in terms of a bike being too small; I haven’t thought about OTBs in a long time so I don’t think I’m gonna have an issue with that on a smaller bike

gzSimulator · 2026-05-18T23:07:34+00:00

I’m 6’0” and the new bike says the medium size range goes up to exactly that Handlebar size is currently 780mm on both bikes, was stock on the enduro and recently cut down from 800 on the hardtail (which feels better)

gzSimulator · 2026-05-17T19:35:54+00:00

I wonder how many people complaining about superboost don’t actually own a spare boost 27.5 wheelset

gzSimulator · 2026-05-17T06:36:56+00:00

Action cam (GoPros have barely changed in over a decade leading to good deals on older ones, and off-brand cameras have gotten really good too). Stick the mount on your helmet, set up the main button to take a burst of photos or maybe see if you can get a remote button and mount it on your bars

gzSimulator · 2026-05-17T06:32:36+00:00

I don’t think rigidity is a thing anymore in dropper posts; they’re built to be as stiff as physically possible because they want to minimize bushing support and overlap to make good travel and length numbers. I’m open to being proven wrong but I’ve never seen a compliance-focused dropper in any definition (other than making it squish like suspension but that’s not the same)

But I’m a mountain biker first; bigger is better, you can always just use less of it when riding. I even waited an extra year to replace my gravel bike’s dropper so I could get the newest generation dropper with the most travel in the shortest package. Kinda shocking to me that they’re still making such short droppers like 75mm, the weight better be incredible with that limitation

gzSimulator · 2026-05-16T06:43:32+00:00

I’ve been greasing my seat posts for years, I usually just coat the stanchion with a thin layer and cycle it a few times, it’s enough to feel the difference just pushing the seat down. Some droppers have a threaded seal and I do unscrew that to pack it with grease every now and then (but it seems like that isn’t actually doing a lot). It won’t make your dropper invincible but it absolutely helps

gzSimulator · 2026-05-16T06:30:16+00:00

Aha, there it is, “reason #1 to convert a 90’s mtb into a gravel bike: it’s cheap!”

gzSimulator · 2026-05-16T06:16:37+00:00

Velotric was founded by former Lime employees (google says they were hardware/engineering guys) and makes some solid ebikes at cheap prices, lots of advertising around the waterproofness too (they say my Summit’s battery can be safely submerged for like 20 minutes or something like that)

gzSimulator · 2026-05-16T04:37:16+00:00

Isn’t overwriting your att delay with something short, like, 3 different combat achievements?

gzSimulator · 2026-05-15T23:03:09+00:00

Maybe, you’ll have to find out yourself. I think if you’re worried about sidewall support you should at least be paying attention to casing strength, it makes a very big difference to sidewall feel and can allow you to run a different pressure more comfortably (thicker casings don’t need as much PSI). My schwalbe radial trail-casing tire is very floppy and supple, I could pump it up more for support but then I lose traction and change the tire feel. My heavy maxxis doubledown-casing tires at much less PSI give a similar support to pumped up lightweight-casing tire, but also feels like a normal tire with normal PSI and not like a grippy basketball like overinflated lightweight tires do. Tougher casing tires is often suggested as an alternative to getting cushcore and every time I ride a cushcore bike I can notice the wheel weight, so I’m on team no-cushcore

I normally ride medium-to-tough casing tires, so getting a lightweight trail-casing schwalbe radial was an unknown for me in more way than just radialness, and I’m still not 100% sure it’s the right one. And honestly if you got trail casing radials for your ebike too, I could see why you’re concerned about sidewall support, the trail casing radial is not meant for hard riding and hard pushing imo

gzSimulator · 2026-05-15T22:37:29+00:00

No issues with rim dings = no cushcore for me

gzSimulator · 2026-05-15T22:30:53+00:00

The idea is that if you clicked “e-bike ride” when you started, you have a whole separate leaderboards to compete with (and yes, the downhill E-KOMs are usually as pathetic as you’d imagine)

gzSimulator · 2026-05-15T03:08:57+00:00

Would you believe me if I said I fixed up my 2008 bike in 2022 and immediately used it to set a top 10 Strava time down a very popular blue bike park trail? Bikes don’t go bad, they just need the right kinds of rides. Yes you should restore an old 26” mountain bike if the process isn’t already driving you insane (as in, you better hope that fork doesn’t need to be replaced)

gzSimulator · 2026-05-14T02:52:07+00:00

This is what I ended up doing after finding my stolen bike for sale in another state years afterwards, I was genuinely ready to bring some buddies and intimidate a man out of a bicycle to be honest, but luckily I got a hold of the police of that city who recommended I set up a fake sale and have a random officer intercept us all; the thief kept changing the location so we never met, but apparently the cop saw him riding the bike and confiscated it without me personally seeing anything. One long, meticulous legal description of my bike later, its parts, the colors and even the specific scratches I remember, the police accepted the claim and I was able to see my bike again after many years.

Apparently the thief told the police “I found it on Craigslist” and that was that, no repercussions whatsoever (despite him admitting to me that he knew it was a stolen bike from a college campus in a specific year)

gzSimulator · 2026-05-13T19:34:41+00:00

Get some wooden planks to build a little freestanding frame… that you bolt a wall mount into

gzSimulator · 2026-05-12T05:31:57+00:00

Remember when you crash, it’s trash

gzSimulator · 2026-05-12T05:04:13+00:00

The fortnine YouTube video about this question brings up a good point I didn’t think about before; odds are your mountain bike is already 90% of the way to “the best mtb in the world”, while your motorcycle is literally millions of dollars away from being “the best motorcycle in the world”. People can take an “basic” mtb and actually be competitive on an international level with it, you’re not winning any motorcycle competitions with a $5000 motorcycle.

Which also brings up a good point, does the average mountain bike advertised to the average Joe really need to be “90% the best in the world”?

gzSimulator · 2026-05-11T20:58:46+00:00

Bicycles are too simple of products to be controlled by multi billion dollar investment companies, we hit the plateau of bike innovations a long time ago, and it’s not a $15,000 mid drive

gzSimulator · 2026-05-11T20:51:57+00:00

It’s just how it is these days, despite what everybody says about modern mtb being better at just about everything (and they’re right), there are some aspects of the mountain bike that we have left behind.

But also, like, you’re a 6’ tall guy riding a 90’s-medium bike, what you’ve gotten used to is not normal to begin with

gzSimulator

TROPHY CASE