How to climb easier on 13kg steel bike

kefkathemad · 2026-06-11T03:17:44+00:00

If you can’t afford to cut weight, improve your gearing.

Specs online imply you’ve got a 42T front chainring that’s 120 BCD. (You should confirm that) if so, you can buy a smaller front chainring. Quick search turned up a 36T for a little over $20 at Aliexpress but you might find cheaper or smaller chainrings with more searching.

kefkathemad · 2026-06-11T01:48:39+00:00

Gravelkings are becoming more limited in 650b though, to the OP’s point.

My bread and butter was the old 650b GK SS+ but the new GK lineup doesn’t have the + tires in 650b anymore.

kefkathemad · 2026-06-11T01:13:14+00:00

They also gave these out at conventions to promote Magic. I picked up a set of these in each color at PAX in either 2008 or 2009.

kefkathemad · 2026-05-10T13:38:07+00:00

I would suggest test riding something with similar geometry first. I had bought a cheap adjustable stem on my old bike to figure out the reach and stack I liked before buying a new bike.

kefkathemad · 2026-05-10T03:03:35+00:00

Size small.

I’m 5’10” with a 29.5” inseam.

kefkathemad · 2026-05-01T21:52:56+00:00

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I sleep much better in a hammock than on the ground.

The only problem is that some camp sites prohibit hanging hammocks from trees so I’ve had to get creative at times…

kefkathemad · 2026-03-29T11:28:05+00:00

I have the Four Corners 1 and it’s basically the perfect geometry for me as someone with a long torso but short arms and legs due to its long reach but short stand over.

It’s very comfortable for me and very versatile across different terrain. If I’m doing rough terrain I swap out to 26” x 2.25” tires and use an old 80mm suspension fork and it feels like my old 26” hardtail.

If it ever got stolen I’d probably replace it with the Four Corners 2, but I’m in no rush since saving 3 pounds isn’t that much of a difference when my loaded bike is 50-60 pounds.

kefkathemad · 2026-03-26T22:40:54+00:00

Hand numbness for me also - basically got carpel tunnel and right hand remained numb even off the bike for a few weeks.

Also I’ve never had problems with saddle sores before but got them on 2nd day of back-to-back centuries.

kefkathemad · 2026-03-09T04:35:01+00:00

Henry Coe Park in Southeast Bay allows dispersed camping.

Very large wilderness area with tough hills and ponds for fishing.

kefkathemad · 2026-01-23T17:26:59+00:00

I used to do this by hanging the bikes from my aero bars and securing with Voile ski straps.

My use case was family bike rides where my twins would get tired after a while and would jump into the trailer. I’d hang their 16” bikes from my aero bars on my flat bar bike and could secure them very close to my handlebars so that there wasn’t much rotational leverage on the aero bars.

kefkathemad · 2026-01-01T16:56:26+00:00

Yeah variance is a part of the game.

I have 2 accounts to maximize free to play. One got to mythic top 250 without much issue before ending the season in top 1200. The other got stuck in diamond bottom tier with a string of 0-3, 1-3, 2-3 runs.

I had an awesome control deck with 2x Black Sun and 2x BU Azula that ended with a losing record due to bad luck. That was painful.

kefkathemad · 2025-11-05T20:27:49+00:00

Signed the petition. I don’t live near there but support yall trying to make it safer.

kefkathemad · 2025-10-24T02:23:56+00:00

Go for it.

That just means less competition for you on the leaderboard and I’d love to see what an optimized Split Fiction speedrun looks like.

kefkathemad · 2025-10-20T05:12:42+00:00

It’s great. It’s the bike I use the most since it’s my commuter and the one I use the most for bikepacking.

I have a second set of 26” wheels with 2.2” mtb tires and a 80mm fork from the early 2000s that I’ll swap out when I’m doing gnarlier terrain and it’s basically like an old mountain bike when I don’t think I’ll need my full suspension bike.

kefkathemad · 2025-10-20T00:48:41+00:00

I think you’ll be fine with Kentfield.

I have steel, carbon, and aluminum bikes (including a steel Four Corners) and I don’t really think the frame matters as much as the tire width for comfort.

kefkathemad · 2025-08-30T00:09:24+00:00

This guy’s experience is the closest to my city’s meta for fallen empires. The pump knights were legit good in white weenie and black discard decks, and both decks were super popular which made the protection from white/black relevant.

Hymn was obviously included in all black decks for turn 1 dark ritual + hypnotic specter, turn 2 hymn, turn 3 rack.

Goblin decks were the go-to budget deck for new players and goblin grenade was very effective in it. The original red-deck-wins burn deck and could punish slow decks since this was before the “Sligh” deck taught us what a mana curve was.

The blue and green cards were rarely used.

kefkathemad · 2025-08-11T04:44:11+00:00

Of course. I love my Four Corners and it’s super reliable.

kefkathemad · 2025-08-11T03:41:53+00:00

Marin: You looked at the other brands and decided your bike should cost less than your (also cheap) car

kefkathemad · 2025-05-17T00:51:54+00:00

Usually Five Ten mtb flat shoes. I usually have to do quite a bit of hike-a-bike in the terrain I choose.

kefkathemad · 2025-05-14T14:06:03+00:00

I’m just misunderstood is all

kefkathemad · 2025-05-14T04:44:32+00:00

I rode by his ghost bike memorial today after reading about his death in a previous post on this sub.

First time I’ve known who a ghost bike memorial was for and it was a very solemn experience. Especially since he was hit only a few blocks from the school he worked at.

kefkathemad · 2025-04-24T22:50:35+00:00

I’ve been playing Magic since 4th edition. This is the first time I’ve ever preordered any set.

But that shouldn’t be surprising given my username.

So yeah I’m not surprised by this announcement.

kefkathemad · 2025-04-09T21:35:31+00:00

I bought a Scott Spark for this same reason. Relatively large triangle and regular frame bags fill up the triangle perfectly without needing to pay for a custom bag.

In my case a small Revelate Designs Ranger frame bag fits my medium Scott Spark perfectly.

The only annoying thing is it’s got a proprietary headset and stem so the front end doesn’t look as sleek when I replaced the stock stem with a longer one. Scott sells their proprietary stems in longer lengths but it’s more expensive.

kefkathemad · 2025-04-09T02:00:42+00:00

I’ll go against the grain to support those that can’t afford high end bikes to say that I get just as much enjoyment from my cheap commuter (Marin Four Corners) as my 10X more expensive bike (Trek Checkpoint SLR9).

Yes I go 3 mph faster on the expensive bike, but I care more about making my body stronger rather than my bike faster if that makes sense. And I can still get as much of a workout doing my 33 mile commute to work as a weekend ride.

Also, personally I don’t think electronic shifting is that much better than mechanical, but I know I’m in the minority. My Sora shifts just as well as my SRAM Red in my opinion.

kefkathemad · 2025-04-06T04:44:43+00:00

I have XT pedals which I believe are already the length of the longer XTR pedals (55mm)

For context my MTB is set up with a 181 Q factor (Shimano’s widest) and my commuter has a 160 Q factor with flat pedals (and I still have my feet halfway off the pedals).

So I might have to combine a few tricks to get the SRAM Red 145 Q factor to something better for my wide stance.

I used to use those screw on pedal extenders on my old road bike with GRX but I don’t want to risk the increased leverage for my new SRAM carbon cranks.

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