The biking thread

[Greycap]

Worth it... that's a 50-50. Maintenance becomes infinitely easier as the Hollowtech is pretty much the ultimate in ease of (dis)assembly while square taper more or less sucks in that regard, but the big question is how often you'll need to take it apart. The weight savings though, not only are they negligible in the grand scheme of things, but the difference is also mainly in the spindle itself which makes it just about impossible to feel when pedalling with no noticable extra inertia compared to an external system.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I'm leaning towards square taper with these cranks:

Crank - Silver3 - Arms only

Short version: It’s svelter, lighter, not as versatile or all-welcoming as the original SILVER, which we still sell and endorse. The SILVER3 is for road use by riders 200lbs or less naked. Detail etc. We have all of our-branded metal mechanical bicycle parts tested to established international...

www.rivbike.com

and this chainring:

110 BCD Gravel / CX / Road Chainrings

110 BCD 1x chainring sprocket gravel cyclocross cx road wide narrow wolf tooth drop stop

www.wolftoothcomponents.com

I think the silver and black would actually look rather cool.

Along the way of searching, I found this set of cranks that are absolutely stunning:

Sugino Super 75 DD2 fixed gear track crank arms & bottom bracket

Sugino's Super 75 DD2 crank arms feature S-Cubic (S3) coating and a stiff IDS24 chromoly axle. Compatible with any 144mm bcd track chainring of your choice.

www.retro-gression.com

They are far too expensive for me to consider, and I don't think I could get a 40t chainring on there, and they are meant for fixed gear/track so are pretty heavy. It did get me wondering....could I nickel plate the Riv cranks to achieve a similar finish?

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I have never really researched bottom brackets before. They are fascinating and the permutations are deeeeeep. I assumed that square taper would always be heavier than hollowtech BB & Cranks, but it honestly depends.

If you're feeling particularly spendy, you could get a Sugino RD4 crankset at 458g and a white industry titanium square taper BB (how neat is it that this exists?) that weighs a paltry 142g. That's more than a typical hollowtech BB (figure 90g average), but the hollowtech doesn't include the spindle. A 105 crankset with spindle and cranks (and chainrings) weighs 750g.

ST BB: 458 + 142 (+50 for a chainring) = 650g
EB BB: 90 + 750 = 840g

Now the former setup is significantly more expensive, but its also way more interesting and the cranks are far more elegant.

I'm close to pulling the trigger on the RD4 cranks (they are way prettier than those Riv ones) and debating whether or not I want to spend 1.5x more than the price of the whole bike on a BB )

edit: For reference, my Ultegra 3x crankset weighs 892g. Add in the BB at probably 250g, the 3x derailleur at ~100g and that's over 1200g worth of front drivetrain. The RD4 1x + WI BB will save nearly 5 quarter-pounders.

I think I'm going to end up taking around 3lbs off the bike with this planned suite of changes. Time to weigh it tonight before the knives come out...

 

[Greycap]

If there's one part in a bike I wouldn't spend a lot of extra on, it would be the BB because it's literally a couple of bearings and an axle through them. The cheapest one does exactly the same as the most expensive one as long as us mere mortals are concerned. Having said that, if my Chisel some day needs a new one I'll throw an XTR on but that's more of a "because I can" thing, as the cheapest Shimano is 15€ and the XTR is 40€ it may just be worth it just for the better seals it has but I'm fully aware it won't perform the slightest bit better than the base model.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

If there's one part in a bike I wouldn't spend a lot of extra on, it would be the BB because it's literally a couple of bearings and an axle through them. The cheapest one does exactly the same as the most expensive one as long as us mere mortals are concerned. Having said that, if my Chisel some day needs a new one I'll throw an XTR on but that's more of a "because I can" thing, as the cheapest Shimano is 15€ and the XTR is 40€ it may just be worth it just for the better seals it has but I'm fully aware it won't perform the slightest bit better than the base model.

Took this advice and ordered a $25 BB. At some point I realized that the drivetrain was quickly adding up to me more than what I paid for the bike, even without a fancy BB. I still want the Sugino cranks, so I ordered those + the wolf tooth 40t crank. Pretty stoked to get this setup together. Unfortunately, the shifters are coming from Germany (for what reason...I'm not sure) and possibly won't arrive until the end of the month. So the full parts list:

Fyxation Rodeo Pursuit Bars
Tektro RX.4 Inverse Brake Levers (silver)
Sunrace SL-R91 downtube shifter(s)
Sugino RD4 Mighty comp cranks (silver)
Andel 110mm square taper JIS BB
Wolf Tooth 130 BCD 40t chainring (black)

I still need a chain and bar tape, which I'm planning to buy locally.

 

[Greycap]

That was definitely a wise choice. You were looking at a $450 BB for a $300 bike... meanwhile I have that cheapest possible 15€ Shimano SM-BB52 on a roughly 4000€ build. Or actually two such combos, my old full suspension bike is also somewhere around the same total price tag accumulated over the years and it too has the BB52. Moreover, it has had that exact BB for 12 years now, gone through all the weather Finland has to offer and travelled a five digit amount of kilometres, and it's still smooth. The red Chisel is "only" at 4½ years at the moment but it too has its original BB52 while just about everything else that originally came with the frame has been swapped to something else for one reason or another. No issues there either.

And that, people, is exactly why I root for the cheapest possible parts in that area.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I think this is why many of the custom hand built carbon frames are essentially of the standard tubes with metal lugs variety. It's just far too development & labor intensive to build custom monocoque frames - or it would be so expensive basically nobody would buy them. Lugged carbon tube bikes can look cool, but you are giving up the entire benefit of CFRP - the ability to create a structural monocque that is stiff as hell, compliant, aerodynamic, and very light all at the same time. I'd bet that the development cost of the Specialized Tarmac SL-8 is somewhere in the 7 figure range.

Circling back to this future bike. I did a ride on my Cannondale today and the brakes are terrible and the bottom bracket has started creaking again. I will never buy another press fit BB bike again!

The other thing that occurred to me is that I don't know how much I like my Ribble. It's capable, but it's also damn heavy and I don't really use the "adventure" mounts enough to justify having them. It does have a good group on it though.

So I started to think - could I consolidate two needs into one bike? I could make some adjustments to my Soma to make it more of my go-to bike for really rough stuff (it's practically there already) and then maybe I get a racier "all-road" / gravel bike. One that I find particularly appealing is the Ibis Hakka MX. It wouldn't be as capable as the Ribble, but it would be way faster - possibly faster than the Cannondale to boot, and it's just as pretty as the Cervelo Soloist I was contemplating before, and from a brand I like better. I could potentially sell my Ribble frameset for $500-800 depending on the market (it's still a ti bike afterall) and then pickup a Hakka frameset for just over $2k and move my whole GRX group over to it, with the two wheelsets I have.

Not sure what I'm gonna do yet...but I feel like reducing the quiver might be a smart move.