Ive been playing with bikes a lot lately. I finally built myself a 20" BMX after not having one since my early teens. Its a ton of fun on the pump tracks in 'Tosa and Brown Deer. 

HipMF said:

Looks good. Jealous of those rackmounts on the forklegs. Not a super-rare feature, but not super-common either.

Thanks! Yeah I was excited to find those on the fork when I picked up the frame, that basically made the decision for me to put a front rack on it.

I've been playing with old bikes again. This time it is a 1990 Diamondback Ascent EX with an awesome candle smoke and purple pearl paintjob that I got for free from a friend. Basically every component on it was completely trashed but the frame and fork polished up nicely. After a bit of scope creep I rebuilt it into a nice cafe cruiser that's really fun to ride.

P_Roloff said:

Thanks!

Yep, putting my order in today. My first real ride over the weekend exposed how not great they were. No panic stops needed but I don’t want to have to rely on them as they currently sit. 
 

That’s kinda what I’m thinking, it’ll be a good chassis to grow into as far as ability while still keeping it reasonable as far as price. Were your eagle setups problematic out of the box or is it more of a wear over time issue that they can be fiddly with?

I stopped at wheel and sprocket the other day and they said they can order one in for me anytime when I want to test ride, so once the e28 is running and ready to get gone I’ll have them bring one in. 
 

I did see a 2020 X-Caliber 8 for $800 on marketplace this morning though, which is tempting I think I want the Roscoe geometry though

I think the fiddly setup is more a comment on 12 speed drivetrains than a specific brand, it just means less spacing between each gear so it takes less misalignment to cause a problem. That being said, having the huge range of ratios on a 1x drivetrain FAR outweighs any downsides. I don't have any experience with shimano MTB drivetrains but I've been completely happy with eagle after ~5 seasons of using it in various forms. 

99spokes.com has some great comparison tools like @B C mentioned, you can visualize the frame geometry differences between the Roscoe and X-Caliber:

It really depends on what type of riding you want to do. If you're plan is to get into racing or cranking out a lot of mileage on smoother trails the X-caliber would be the right choice, but if your interest is casual riding for fun the Roscoe would be a better fit. If it were me, I'd definitely go Roscoe between the two. The more modern geometry (slacker head tube, steeper seat tube, etc.) will be generally a lot more stable and confidence inspiring, it'll be more forgiving of questionable line choices too.

m42b32 said:

Nick pick up on the road bike! A pad swap will probably make a huge difference in braking, kool stops have been my go to for rim brakes.

I'd say the roscoe 8 would be a great hardtail, solid component set and good geometry. One of those would be more than capable enough for just about every trail in the area. I have Sram eagle drivetrains on both of my MTBs (GX on the trail bike, NX on the fat bike) and have zero complaints, they are a little fiddly to set up once dialed in I think it works really well. Since basically every bike shop around here is a trek dealer you could definitely go take a test ride on one and see how you like it! They might even do demos where you could take one out to a trail. 

Thanks!

Yep, putting my order in today. My first real ride over the weekend exposed how not great they were. No panic stops needed but I don’t want to have to rely on them as they currently sit. 
 

That’s kinda what I’m thinking, it’ll be a good chassis to grow into as far as ability while still keeping it reasonable as far as price. Were your eagle setups problematic out of the box or is it more of a wear over time issue that they can be fiddly with?

I stopped at wheel and sprocket the other day and they said they can order one in for me anytime when I want to test ride, so once the e28 is running and ready to get gone I’ll have them bring one in. 
 

I did see a 2020 X-Caliber 8 for $800 on marketplace this morning though, which is tempting I think I want the Roscoe geometry though

B C said:

Let’s take a ride on the bugline trail and water balloon JOEBD2’s house

Make sure to aim for the bushes by the front porch, they could use a good water!

I'd say the roscoe 8 would be a great hardtail, solid component set and good geometry. One of those would be more than capable enough for just about every trail in the area. I have Sram eagle drivetrains on both of my MTBs (GX on the trail bike, NX on the fat bike) and have zero complaints, they are a little fiddly to set up once dialed in I think it works really well. Since basically every bike shop around here is a trek dealer you could definitely go take a test ride on one and see how you like it! They might even do demos where you could take one out to a trail.

Cant go wrong with Trek. Don’t overlook Giant or Marin as good budget options. As the worlds largest bike frame producer Giant makes frames for Trek and many others. They usually end up having slightly higher end components at the same pricepoint.

W&S has become a Giant dealer within the last few years so they are easy to come by.
 

Checkout www.99spokes.com

it has a great comparison tool which helps you understand where on the totem pole certain components rank.

Finally replaced my old Trek 3700 hybrid (ridden hard and like 4 sizes too small) with a still slightly small 2009 Trek 1.2. I’ve wanted a road bike for awhile now for the rail trails around here, and combined with a really nice 4-bike Thule hitch mount carrier (FB marketplace score for $80), I’m now set to get some miles done. For $350 for the bike, I’m pretty happy. Shifts smooth, rides nicely, really clean for the age, it seems well taken care of and hard to beat for the cost. Even has a carbon front fork!

Brakes kinda suck though (common complaint when it was new) so I’ll probably toss some more aggressive pads on it and see what that does. I put Kool Stop’s on the afrementioned hybrid and it went from mushy to tossing me over the bars if I wasn’t careful, so we’ll see if that does it.

I mentioned it elsewhere, but I’m also thinking I’m going to sell the e28 (zero time to use it or wrench on it) and dump the funds into a hardtail MTB, likely a Trek Roscoe 8. I’d like to go new on that to save the hassle of buying someone’s abused or worn out stuff. If anyone has any alternative recs to that bike, I’m all ears. I’m definitely a noob when it comes to bikes but I’d love to learn more.

In other news...

Woo!

Aww.

Rolled over 1000 miles, but no fireworks or prizes. Nothing much else to report. Haven't had any more issues. Bike is sill holding together and is still fun to ride.

I recently got a bug to rebuild my old Trek 560 into something I'd get some good use out of as I hadn't ridden it in years. I live within a mile of the bugline trail network and decided it would be silly not to have a bike path cruiser. Between parts I had kicking around and a few smaller bits I needed to buy I think it came out awesome for not much money. 

Got it out for a ride this morning and it's fantastic. 28c tires (frame won't allow anything bigger) and wide-ish flat bars are super comfortable and I've always been a single speed fan so it's fun to have one of those again too.

HipMF said:

Saving this here so I can find it later.

https://bike.bikegremlin.com/1985/bicycle-bearing-grease-explained/

Interesting article, thats a pretty deep dive on grease. I've just been using park tool polylube 1000 basically everywhere. I haven't had any washout issues or things drying up, and its safe for carbon where that matters. Only place I don't use it is bottom bracket threads, those get proper anti-seize.

https://bike.bikegremlin.com/1985/bicycle-bearing-grease-explained/

I've racked up about 270 miles on this thing over the past couple weeks. Mostly going to work and shopping trips, but a couple joy rides obviously. The small wheels make the bike really agile and nimble, but the ride quality definitely suffers. I tend to cruise at around 12 mph, and only really put the hammer down when there nice smooth pavement.

Overall, I really like this thing. It's been a lot of fun to cruise around on and suits my needs really well. I did have some quality issues out-of-the-box though. UPS had obviously had their way with it. The battery was just laying loose in the bottom of the box. On my 2nd ride, I had it pop off of the bike and go skidding across the asphalt. The source of the problem turned out to be some loose hardware in the battery holder. That's fixed, but I still have a few wraps of electrical tape on there as cheap insurance. Looks a bit janky. There's also a tolerance issue between the front sprocket and crank spider which made getting the chain tension dialed in pretty difficult. Nothing too major IMO, but it would be nice not to have to deal with these kind of things on a brand new bike. I've heard that Propella's customer service is good, so I could probably go back to them, but so far I haven't bothered.

https://www.cabinetparts.com/p/johnson-hardware-sliding-door-hardware-bifold-sliding-door-hardware-JH10072-p29164?gclid=CjwKCAiA9bmABhBbEiwASb35V_gvQ82HtRxUtxX-uosKcwr0wFqkYpvG2oQFB38EMm2pLr3NyPDSZxoCWDAQAvD_BwE

+ hook setup:  big eye hook (pry open) with machine threads + 2 lock nuts + nylon washers/regular washers. maybe electrical tape or plastic dip to coat the hooks and not scratch your rims. 

or 

iron pipes with some sort of hook setup around the pipes. that industrial look is all the rage these days. 

obviously dont buy from amazon, but this sorta setup on the wall:  https://www.amazon.com/Turnbull-Farms-Industrial-Pipe-Curtain/dp/B01EKNPGLK

maybe with figure eight hooks, bent as needed.

m42b32 said:

It doesn't really NEED to slide, I'd just like to accomodate N+1 if I can haha

That's the ideal number of bikes!