Tried and Liked 2021

A year ago at this time of the year I was recovering from a broken wrist. Not a great mental place to write about bike stuff and so I skipped the tried-and-liked post for the year. Time to pick up the tradition again!

Liked

Smart bike trainer and Zwift

When I broke my wrist in October 2020, it was clear I'd be off outdoor biking for a while. Hesitantly I bought a direct-drive smart trainer, a refurbished Wahoo Kickr. "Hesitantly" because my previous attempts at indoor riding had fallen firmly into the disliked category: Too boring; can't do it. But I knew that I'm a sucker for gamification, and so I figured virtual riding on a smart trainer, with badges, achievements, group rides may just work. And it did! I have spent 47 hours on the trainer in 2021, have gotten the SO and some friends onto it, and recently started doing and enjoying virtual races. Indoor riding will remain a cold-season-only activity for me, but during that time it's really great! 

Indoor biking is a sweaty affair

 

Track cycling

A true tried-and-liked! I finally did a track cycling clinic at the Kenosha velodrome and loved. For practical reasons, this will remain a one-time affair, but it was one of my highlights of the year. Full post here. 

Having a competent shop fix things

I do pretty much all bike maintenance myself. The reason: I'm cheap; I can do it; I have traumatic experiences of crappy/expensive repairs at a shop; being car-less makes getting a bike to/from the shop for repairs a pain. But when the hydraulic brakes on my fat bikes needed to be bled, I decided to take the bike to a shop. I have little experience with hydraulic brakes and lacked some supplies. Neff Cycle Service took care of it quickly, competently, and at a very reasonable cost. The transportation problem was solved with the help of our bike share system: Bike to the station nearest to the shop; switch to the bike share bike while ghost riding the fat bike; drop off bike; take bike share bike back to station near home.

Komoot

In the US I almost exclusively use Strava for planning my routes. While in Germany for a few weeks in the summer, Komoot was a much better alternative. A good route planner needs good underlying maps, a strong community, and a good user interface. In Germany, Komoot has all three of these. It was super easy to click on a couple of "Highlights" on the map and be confident that the proposed route connecting them would be fun (occasionally type 2 fun, but still). 

Silca Tattico mini pump

There is joy in handling a really well made product. The Silca Tattico mini pump is such a product. I bought the pump when it was on sale, and it is a joy to use. Is it functionally better than my ProBikeKit mini pump that costs less than half and that I reviewed favorably in 2019? Better: yes. Much better? Probably not. Is it as light as the Nana Ultralight carbon mini pump? Surely not. But I have no regrets about buying the Silca.

Mixed bag or to be determined

Expensive bike kit

Velocio jersey

My bike kit in the past has consisted of cheap stuff: Jerseys bought for less than $15 new, bike shorts from cheap house brands, ...There were a few exceptions over the years, such as Bouré bib shorts or Ibex wool tights. This year I decided to try some really expensive jerseys and bib shorts. Because prices for these are still ridiculous, I bargain hunted for used items on ebay, various bike forums, and I bought some "mystery jerseys" from Voler (these are overstock items with random graphics from events or clubs). The verdict is mixed: Construction and material quality on the jerseys is noticeably better, and they have neat details that look and feel nice. But all that's no good if the fit doesn't work. Here's what I tried and my verdict:

• Velocio ultralight summer jersey: The fabric is super thin and airy, and the raglan sleeves make the fit work well for me. My favorite.
• Voler race fit mystery jersey: Silly graphics, but the fit works great for, and for $29 you get a lot of value.
• Rapha Brevet wool blend jersey: Awesome materials (the wool blend feels really nice) and a bunch of neat details, e.g. a liner in the back pocket that keep sweat away from your cell phone! Unfortunately the fit around the shoulders doesn't quite work for me
  
• Rapha lightweight summer jersey: Similar fit problems as the Randonneur, but otherwise a nice summer jersey

For bib shorts I bought used ones from Search and State, Ornot, and Eliel California. Features I liked: wide leg grippers and compressive fit. Some of the chamois were fine, others were so so. I don't think overall I noticed a great improvement over the more affordable Bouré products.

All in all, at full price I would never buy any of these. I understand where some of the expense is coming from (materials, quality, county of manufacture, and yes, marketing), but $180 for a jersey? $250 for bib shorts? Nah. 

Crust Lightning Bolt

I bought and built up an XL Crust Lightning Bolt frame (cantilever version) and mostly like it. As described in this thread on the 650B group, the handling has some issues. Depending on how those get resolved, I'll make a final verdict on the bike. 

Cheap and expensive sensors 

I experimented with various heart rate and cadence sensors. The experiences have been a mixed bag. For chest-strap heart rate monitors I have found that cheap Chinese ones get the job done just fine. For whatever reasons that has not been true for cadence sensors. Maybe it is because they need to transmit over a longer distance (crank to handlebars vs. chest to handlebars for a heart rate monitor), but I could not make two different cheap ones work reliably. The more expensive Wahoo sensor that I eventually bought works just fine.

Touring in a large group

While in Germany over the summer, there was an opportunity to join large group touring ride. The ride was a multi-day protest ride from Frankfurt to Munich, and I joined for one stage. It was a great experience for many reasons, but I wouldn't have wanted to do this style of group riding for more than a day. The organizers were absolutely top notch. With 20-40 people riding on public roads, you need a high level of coordination: A lead and a sweep connected through radios; participants corking intersections to prevent drivers breaking up the convoy; maintaining a speed that works for everyone; dealing with angry people in cars. Not my preferred style of riding.