N+1: Bike fancying

Long cage in my mind is usually mountain bike stuff, like Deore XT, when you want the cassette rings bigger than the chainset.

Again, could be wrong, not an expert

drools

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They are not playing with that Darimo cockpit, seat post and collar.

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After purchasing three new wheels for my existing bike fleet, my itch is not yet scratched.

Dunno if this seems a decent deal for its spec. Electromotronical shifting, and geometry doesnā€™t require yoga either by the looks of thingsā€¦ but then also it is a lot of moneyā€¦

Nope scratch the last post - oooofta!

Early August I came one step closer to the N+1 club by putting a deposit on 2022 TCR with the new Ultegra 12sp di2 and they were upfront by saying they werenā€™t sure if the new models would come with a power meter like the 2021 models (Advance pro / SL lines).

I noticed the Giant updated their website and all the higher end ā€œultegra 12spā€ 2022 TCRs do not come with power meter which is a bummer. I never had a power meter before so maybe one of those things that I wonā€™t know what I am missing. Also Iā€™m not a racer and only trying to one-up myself and move up the ladder of quickest times on stravaā€¦plus not embarrass myself on the climbs. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Anyone using a power meter and find that it is a ā€œmustā€ for getting better?

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No but Iā€™m the opposite, I removed my bike computer etc. because more often than not I was just getting upset with myself that I wasnā€™t doing the mileage that I would have hoped. The odometer on that bike hung around 4000km for a year or two and it got pretty toxic in my brain-box. Power meters would also just make me feel bad!

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I have had a power meter for about a year and a half now and canā€™t really go back. However, if my bike did not come with it, I would have never really thought about buying one.

A power meter is not really necessary to ā€œget betterā€, it helps if you want to get very serious about your training, but if you have heart rate, a cadence sensor and analyze your Strava/Garmin numbers after a ride, it should be enough.

One downfall of having power stats at your finger tips is allowing it to take over the joy of riding as @volv1992 mentioned. For example, if you are doing the same route for training and on a day you think you are doing well, but your power states otherwise, it can get pretty demeaning. You start to question wtf went wrong on a day you were feeling 100%, but your numbers say you were nowhere near that.

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Great for serious structured training, otherwise wouldnā€™t worry about it at all.

You can do live Strava segments with many computers these days and to me that sounds more suitable for what you want to do.

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Thanks for the repliesā€¦Iā€™ll skip getting a power meter for now. Iā€™d probably need a class on how to analyze the data anyways. Iā€™ll just move my speed and cadence sensors to the new bike when it arrives.

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Iā€™ve bought something, expected delivery date is June next year.

As a millenial living in the days of Amazon Prime, my entitlement is at peak force and my patience at zero :rofl:

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I went through 5 months of working on an order with a bespoked bike brandā€¦nothing came out of it.

Ended up ordering something else. I believe itā€™s almost here, but got some things to change up on it.

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That sucks, Iā€™m hoping mine goes smoother. Best just to try and forget about it for now I suppose, but I have an itch that wonā€™t be scratched for nine months. Ah wellā€¦ #notevenfirstworldhastheseproblems

@Taiwan_Luthiers a bike Iā€™m looking at is made of martensitic stainless steel - the tube walls are 0.4mm thick! That seems mighty unsettling, but then Iā€™m no metallurgist nor machinist. Does that surprise you?

Noā€¦ I mean they obviously want to make it as light as possible and a thick walled bike tube is going to weight a lot especially out of stainless steel.

And welding something this thin requires some serious control as well as a welder with very good current control to only heat areas that need heating.

In fact I think in many cases they will braze it rather than weld it. They will use a thing that has the right connections and then braze the tube to it.

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Yeah i thought so. The marketing blurb is that itā€™s TIG but canā€™t imagine it would be, unless thereā€™s some steep butting on the tube ends.

Perhaps just drawn out and is a minimum of 0.4mm on the top tube, which would likely require the least structural strength in the middle.

My nightmares of it crumbling like aluminium foil are unfounded then. At least not until it corrodes :crazy_face:

ā€œa thingā€ = jig?

Well TIG welders can weld very thin metal, but itā€™s still a lot of skill and speed, as you can use higher heat but you must move very fast. Thing is speed and high heat is good as it welds with the least amount of heat affected zone. But one millisecond of pause and you burn holes into the metal.

I donā€™t know how to describe the ā€œthingā€. Itā€™s essentially those T shaped pipe connector thingie, but angled in such a way to make a bike frame. The tube is coped to fit each other, then slid into this T section, then it can be brazed.

For TIG welding what they do is cope it to fit the tube, then weld. They typically use a hole saw in a drill press for this operation. The bike will work as long as you donā€™t beat it with anythingā€¦

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TIG welded bike frames

Brazed bike frames

In many ways brazing bike frames is easier because the risk of burning a hole in the metal is much lowerā€¦ as you are not melting anything, just the filler rod which melts at a lower temperature than steel. Itā€™s like soldering only harder.

You can braze with a TIG torch tooā€¦

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What about this, then? Is it worth the money? 12,000 GBP, 456,000 TWD

Nope. Road bikes just havenā€™t really changed much over the years. If you buy/try a new one every 5 years thereā€™s not much difference ride wise. Mountain bikes evolve faster and thatā€™s where Iā€™d spend my money, just not Ā£12k.

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