As an orbea dealer, it brings me much joy to see them moving away from the much hated, cables through the headset trick. Their one piece bar stm looks good enough, but as usual, thes come with compromises in fit. Orbea makes great stuff.
I’ve said for a long, long time that Orbea is consistently one of the most under-appreciated brands out there. They do an awful lot of great work but rarely get the recognition for it.
It does! It actually helps to read stuff like the battery life and whatnot. And when the set pressure is reached, the motor stops running like it’s supposed to, but the entire display also flashes green.
Necessary? Nope. But again, it does make it look and feel like a premium and well finished product.
It's truly remarkable how much superb analysis is packed into these weekly drops. Thank you! Also, OMG, look at that gorgeous checkered carbon pattern on the Unno's bike's rear linkage!
Tire clearance on that Ritchey fork is a bit minimal too. Most other rigid mountain forks have a cavernous 29x3 clearance, which can make 2.4s look a little silly. I would love a properly tall (500-510 AC) carbon fork with 29x2.6 or 2.8 clearance.
Curve is an awesome brand. I own one of their Remlaw bars for my gravel bike. I actually already own a Trek 1120 fork as well, with which I have rigidized my Santa Cruz Chameleon. I originally built it with a 29×3.0 tire, but it was too much tire. So now I run Vittoria Peyote 29×2.4 front and rear
Well said about not (always) optimizing. I need to regularly remind myself of that.
On a separate note, regarding the Ritchey rigid fork, you said: “ That said, I would have preferred Ritchey used a 44 mm rake since that’s more common than 50 mm these days”
One could argue that the 50mm is better on a rigid fork.
After all, a suspension fork will steepen the head angle under sag, and under heavy compression.
For example: 68 degree static head angle, 60mm tire. With the rigid fork’s 50mm offset that gives 98mm trail.
If you had a suspension fork sagged 20 mm, it would steep the HA about 1 degree, creating a 97mm trail figure with a 44mm offset, so a perfect match.
But perhaps the axle to crown on the Ritchey is shorter, so maybe the HA is the same sagged on the suspension fork.
But even then, the moments where you have the most need for more trail are when rolling down a steep descent into a G-out. When the suspension fork is compressed significantly, it will have less trail than the rigid fork, even with the longer offset on the Ritchey.
The OneUp pedals you had for test. Did they have the updated cages? Have been waiting for them to come back in-stock since they issued the stop-sell to fix the cages; if you got a v2 set for test they must be coming soon. 🤞🏿
OneUp sent my samples right when they initially came out, but I waited until they sent the retrofit kit before I started testing. My understanding is that if these aren't already available now, they should be very soon.
Sounds good. Update on the MRP Lift V2 damper upgrade we briefly chatted about a few newsletters ago youd asked for a comment on. I’ve gotten a couple hundred miles on mine now. Massive massive upgrade from the Grip2. MRP really has something here.
As the damper is “custom” tuned to a weight range the adjustment window is huge. Every click of compression/rebound makes a noticeable change. This is not the case with oem Fox dampers as they are valved for a massive weight range therefore the clicks mean very little. In my particular case my Grip2 adjustments were literally for show as they made a near zero change in sensation.
Where the MRP damper really excels is the mid-stroke support, super plushness compression, and energetic rebound. Well energetic/plush if you want it to be; adjust the compression/rebound speed with 12-clicks to your liking. From super slow rebound and a climbing lockout compression all the way to full bike park plush mode that mutes the trail. The mid stroke support keeps the bike up higher in the travel overall preserving the bikes geometry.
The part is machined in-house at MRP and is a very very nice assembly. I won’t be riding an OEM Fox damper probably ever again. Shoot me an email if you’d prefer for more info. BiggieComponents@gmail.com
That Air Rush from Trek seems to hit the sweet spot of all the factors…size, price, speed, programmability, hose inclusion, etc. Now just waiting for someone to create a waterproof (or at least water resistant, more realistically) version. I have two from different companies currently - one goes in saddle bag, the other stays in garage for quick, flawless top ups before starting a ride. I’d buy a third if water resistant … but then again, I love me some gadgets 😁
Oh wait, I have 3! 🤪 I've got a big one in the car...for a slow tire leak, or if I drive somewhere with my bike, or if the kids basketball needs some air at the playground.
Thanks, Shiggy. I'm all about making things better and optimizing when it makes sense, but I also don't think anyone needs to obsess about either of those *all* the time.
I've had many of those "Why am I in a hurry to finish this ride?" moments when out on the rural dirt roads of Vermont. There's so much out there to enjoy.
I guess I think of "optimize" not as trying to gain 0.2mph with my nose on the stem, but as trying to improve efficiency and comfort so I can go farther and see more beautiful places. It's about enjoyment, not numbers.
Tell Joe to scour ebay and Marketplace for a used Magic Mill or even electrolux Assistant-its just an older version of the Ankersrum and they'll outlive all of us. Its what I did, and found one local for $125. It need the roller, so another $40 but I'm set. I still have my Kitchenaid-I use that for some things like cookie dough and the pasta roller, but the Ankersrum can't be beat for bread and pizza dough. Good hunting.
As an orbea dealer, it brings me much joy to see them moving away from the much hated, cables through the headset trick. Their one piece bar stm looks good enough, but as usual, thes come with compromises in fit. Orbea makes great stuff.
I’ve said for a long, long time that Orbea is consistently one of the most under-appreciated brands out there. They do an awful lot of great work but rarely get the recognition for it.
Does the colour display on the Trek pump actually make use different colour text???
Conversely, what is the point of a coloured display on a pump??
It does! It actually helps to read stuff like the battery life and whatnot. And when the set pressure is reached, the motor stops running like it’s supposed to, but the entire display also flashes green.
Necessary? Nope. But again, it does make it look and feel like a premium and well finished product.
It's truly remarkable how much superb analysis is packed into these weekly drops. Thank you! Also, OMG, look at that gorgeous checkered carbon pattern on the Unno's bike's rear linkage!
I don’t know about remarkable, but I do what I can!
Tire clearance on that Ritchey fork is a bit minimal too. Most other rigid mountain forks have a cavernous 29x3 clearance, which can make 2.4s look a little silly. I would love a properly tall (500-510 AC) carbon fork with 29x2.6 or 2.8 clearance.
Check out the Curve Seek 500 fork. 29*3" clearance, 44/52 offset with a flip chip, 16kg total carrying capacity on the legs.
Curve is an awesome brand. I own one of their Remlaw bars for my gravel bike. I actually already own a Trek 1120 fork as well, with which I have rigidized my Santa Cruz Chameleon. I originally built it with a 29×3.0 tire, but it was too much tire. So now I run Vittoria Peyote 29×2.4 front and rear
Yeah the Remlaws are a pretty cool option! Nice 👌
Well said about not (always) optimizing. I need to regularly remind myself of that.
On a separate note, regarding the Ritchey rigid fork, you said: “ That said, I would have preferred Ritchey used a 44 mm rake since that’s more common than 50 mm these days”
One could argue that the 50mm is better on a rigid fork.
After all, a suspension fork will steepen the head angle under sag, and under heavy compression.
For example: 68 degree static head angle, 60mm tire. With the rigid fork’s 50mm offset that gives 98mm trail.
If you had a suspension fork sagged 20 mm, it would steep the HA about 1 degree, creating a 97mm trail figure with a 44mm offset, so a perfect match.
But perhaps the axle to crown on the Ritchey is shorter, so maybe the HA is the same sagged on the suspension fork.
But even then, the moments where you have the most need for more trail are when rolling down a steep descent into a G-out. When the suspension fork is compressed significantly, it will have less trail than the rigid fork, even with the longer offset on the Ritchey.
When I looked at the fork dimensions, it looked to me like Ritchey was roughly matching a 100 mm-travel fork with about 20ish mm of sag.
The OneUp pedals you had for test. Did they have the updated cages? Have been waiting for them to come back in-stock since they issued the stop-sell to fix the cages; if you got a v2 set for test they must be coming soon. 🤞🏿
OneUp sent my samples right when they initially came out, but I waited until they sent the retrofit kit before I started testing. My understanding is that if these aren't already available now, they should be very soon.
Sounds good. Update on the MRP Lift V2 damper upgrade we briefly chatted about a few newsletters ago youd asked for a comment on. I’ve gotten a couple hundred miles on mine now. Massive massive upgrade from the Grip2. MRP really has something here.
As the damper is “custom” tuned to a weight range the adjustment window is huge. Every click of compression/rebound makes a noticeable change. This is not the case with oem Fox dampers as they are valved for a massive weight range therefore the clicks mean very little. In my particular case my Grip2 adjustments were literally for show as they made a near zero change in sensation.
Where the MRP damper really excels is the mid-stroke support, super plushness compression, and energetic rebound. Well energetic/plush if you want it to be; adjust the compression/rebound speed with 12-clicks to your liking. From super slow rebound and a climbing lockout compression all the way to full bike park plush mode that mutes the trail. The mid stroke support keeps the bike up higher in the travel overall preserving the bikes geometry.
The part is machined in-house at MRP and is a very very nice assembly. I won’t be riding an OEM Fox damper probably ever again. Shoot me an email if you’d prefer for more info. BiggieComponents@gmail.com
Ooh, I'd love to hear some details, please! What exactly feels different?
That Air Rush from Trek seems to hit the sweet spot of all the factors…size, price, speed, programmability, hose inclusion, etc. Now just waiting for someone to create a waterproof (or at least water resistant, more realistically) version. I have two from different companies currently - one goes in saddle bag, the other stays in garage for quick, flawless top ups before starting a ride. I’d buy a third if water resistant … but then again, I love me some gadgets 😁
Oh wait, I have 3! 🤪 I've got a big one in the car...for a slow tire leak, or if I drive somewhere with my bike, or if the kids basketball needs some air at the playground.
The intro is THE perfect attitude for N-1.
Thanks, Shiggy. I'm all about making things better and optimizing when it makes sense, but I also don't think anyone needs to obsess about either of those *all* the time.
I've had many of those "Why am I in a hurry to finish this ride?" moments when out on the rural dirt roads of Vermont. There's so much out there to enjoy.
I guess I think of "optimize" not as trying to gain 0.2mph with my nose on the stem, but as trying to improve efficiency and comfort so I can go farther and see more beautiful places. It's about enjoyment, not numbers.
100% this.
Tell Joe to scour ebay and Marketplace for a used Magic Mill or even electrolux Assistant-its just an older version of the Ankersrum and they'll outlive all of us. Its what I did, and found one local for $125. It need the roller, so another $40 but I'm set. I still have my Kitchenaid-I use that for some things like cookie dough and the pasta roller, but the Ankersrum can't be beat for bread and pizza dough. Good hunting.