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Old 10-10-2021, 10:50 AM
FrankHudson FrankHudson is offline
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Default Old guy gets his bike fixed, wonders at the investment

I took my winter bike in Friday as the grit and salt of the past three winters have worn the entire drive train out. It's a 4 inch wide Fat Tire bike with big lugs and studs, and it (rather unusually) has a two-front-chainring setup. The front derailleur gets the worst of it from what those tires kick up, and so besides a regular overhaul I decided to get it converted to a "1x" setup that has become more common since this bike was made.

I like my local bike shop, and the mechanic and I spent some time figuring out what to get to convert it over, a task complicated by the current bike parts shortages. In the end, with labor and the parts and the general overhaul I'll be out a few hundred bucks. The ideal rear cassette wasn't in stock -- the one I'll be getting sounds like it'll be good enough range-wise.

I told the mechanic, who really wanted to get the 1x setup optimized "Well, it it turns out to not have enough range I'll just get a different one in another three years...." And then I thought, wait, at my age and condition, what are the odds that I'll still be winter riding in three years? Or any bike riding?

With bikes (and guitars, and musical equipment) I've always figured that even if the costs are considerable to me, that the years of use one gets out of them makes it "cheap by the hours/months/years of use." Kind of odd to think now that I can't count on that in a actuarial way.
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Old 10-10-2021, 11:35 AM
imwjl imwjl is offline
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I do get some sentimental value with some bikes but confess we've sold or traded several in our fleet for the performance, comfort and control modern ones have. The fleet context is we've had several years with mom, dad and kids same or about same height and sharing bikes.

For fat bikes we've had the earlier 4" (most are labeled 3.8) and newer where I moved to 4.6" very knobbed and studded tires. Now the fattie is dedicated to winter riding only. It's more often when I appreciate the 4.6 inch studded Gnarwhal tires than miss faster 3.8 in tires. We've for sure been 1x with fat bikes for a while now.

My guess is if you have 2x and 4" tires, you have a hub that can have a wide-range 10 speed Shimano type cassette and a 30t 1x front to cover about anything. You could also do a SRAM NX conversion. NX uses the Shimano style splines and doesn't require XD type.

Keep this in mind on "old", upgrades, trades or the investment. A few new bike purchases and parts changes have made an incredible difference. The newer fat bike and modern trail bike have completely changed what this old guy can still do. Those and my few months ago gravel bike purchase also make a huge difference in how long I can ride and not suffering afterwards for doing it.

For your mentioning the $ few hundred, when a bike needs it's 3rd chain I usually need new chain ring(s) and cassette. When edges of fattie and MTB tires look a bit shredded you lose they lose more performance than you might think and can be dangerous if you really know how to turn a bike.

Like guitars, the pleasure and well being from it all is well worth the price tags.
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Old 10-10-2021, 04:09 PM
Alex&r Alex&r is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankHudson View Post
I took my winter bike in Friday as the grit and salt of the past three winters have worn the entire drive train out. It's a 4 inch wide Fat Tire bike with big lugs and studs, and it (rather unusually) has a two-front-chainring setup. The front derailleur gets the worst of it from what those tires kick up, and so besides a regular overhaul I decided to get it converted to a "1x" setup that has become more common since this bike was made.

I like my local bike shop, and the mechanic and I spent some time figuring out what to get to convert it over, a task complicated by the current bike parts shortages. In the end, with labor and the parts and the general overhaul I'll be out a few hundred bucks. The ideal rear cassette wasn't in stock -- the one I'll be getting sounds like it'll be good enough range-wise.

I told the mechanic, who really wanted to get the 1x setup optimized "Well, it it turns out to not have enough range I'll just get a different one in another three years...." And then I thought, wait, at my age and condition, what are the odds that I'll still be winter riding in three years? Or any bike riding?

With bikes (and guitars, and musical equipment) I've always figured that even if the costs are considerable to me, that the years of use one gets out of them makes it "cheap by the hours/months/years of use." Kind of odd to think now that I can't count on that in a actuarial way.
Hopefully you continue to beat the odds for years to come! My own winter/workhorse bike is a fixed gear with mudguards/fenders so there's relatively little maintenance required but fingers crossed there's a couple of replacement front rings left in my legs yet!
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Old 10-10-2021, 07:27 PM
FrankHudson FrankHudson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex&r View Post
Hopefully you continue to beat the odds for years to come! My own winter/workhorse bike is a fixed gear with mudguards/fenders so there's relatively little maintenance required but fingers crossed there's a couple of replacement front rings left in my legs yet!
Yeah, I guess my decision is to act like that's possible, so I'm ready if is!

I used to ride narrower tires on a former winter bike which allowed fenders, but in the past few years the streets the snow removal in my city has gotten more lax and the streets I ride get compacted snow and ice ruts where I appreciate the fat low pressure tires.
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Creator of The Parlando Project

Guitars: 20th Century Seagull S6-12, S6 Folk, Seagull M6; '00 Guild JF30-12, '01 Martin 00-15, '16 Martin 000-17, '07 Parkwood PW510, Epiphone Biscuit resonator, Merlin Dulcimer, and various electric guitars, basses....

Last edited by FrankHudson; 10-13-2021 at 10:26 AM. Reason: typo
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Old 10-13-2021, 10:15 AM
J Patrick J Patrick is offline
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…..live life like you’re never gonna die….until the day you buy the farm you’re alive…..might as well be kickin too!
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Old 10-13-2021, 04:17 PM
Alex&r Alex&r is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankHudson View Post
Yeah, I guess my decision is to act like that's possible, so I'm ready if is!

I used to ride narrower tires on a former winter bike which allowed fenders, but in the past few years the streets the snow removal in my city has gotten more lax and the streets I ride get compacted snow and ice ruts where I appreciate the fat low pressure tires.
Sounds like you have the right tool for the job! The roads are pretty well gritted where i am (liverpool or london) and we don't get a lot of snow. I do like to ride in 'normal' clothes when just going about day to day so my fenders are important in the wet. Best thing in the last few months is I've finally after decades found a way to carry a hard-cased guitar safely. Who needs cars? ✌
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Old 10-13-2021, 05:02 PM
FrankHudson FrankHudson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex&r View Post
Sounds like you have the right tool for the job! The roads are pretty well gritted where i am (liverpool or london) and we don't get a lot of snow. I do like to ride in 'normal' clothes when just going about day to day so my fenders are important in the wet. Best thing in the last few months is I've finally after decades found a way to carry a hard-cased guitar safely. Who needs cars? ✌
My original winter bike had fenders, my regular "rest of the year" ride has them too. Alas, though a few electric fat tire bikes have fenders, they've never really been available to to add on to bikes like mine. There's a theory that fenders will get jammed up with snow and slush, but in all my years of winter riding I never saw that as a factor. Just the right consistency of wet snow will build up in the insides of fenders (temp and snow has to be just right) -- but the moving tires constantly scrape it out.

I use a downtube "mudboard" to keep the worst of front tire spray and slush off and I made my own "deck" to go on my open rear rack to reduce the back of my jacket "racing stripe" effect.
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Creator of The Parlando Project

Guitars: 20th Century Seagull S6-12, S6 Folk, Seagull M6; '00 Guild JF30-12, '01 Martin 00-15, '16 Martin 000-17, '07 Parkwood PW510, Epiphone Biscuit resonator, Merlin Dulcimer, and various electric guitars, basses....
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  #8  
Old 10-13-2021, 06:02 PM
tbeltrans tbeltrans is offline
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Frank, since you are also in Minnesota, you will certainly get a kick out of this.

Back in the early 90s, another engineer I worked with was an avid bike rider. I remember one snow storm and I was driving to work. I saw something ahead in the road and as I got closer, I finally could see that it was the co-worker on his bicycle right there in the snow storm pedaling away and staying upright. I had never seen that before or since, other than seeing him again on occasion.

Since I am not a bike rider, I couldn't tell you what kind of bike he had, but it was certainly snow-worthy.

Tony
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