WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,425 
|
Post by WDB on Dec 31, 2020 10:29:58 GMT
That's the kind of thing I was thinking of here: I don't want a carbon-tastic mid-life-crisis bike. I bet your mate's got the black version too. 'Stealth' or some such. It actually looks quite nice in blue - but I still don't want one.  |
|
|
|
Post by dixinormus on Dec 31, 2020 23:21:29 GMT
Spot on WdB, it’s black!
Mind you, he drives an Audi S3 so can’t be all bad 😂
|
|
WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,425
|
Post by WDB on Mar 15, 2021 15:31:08 GMT
Boy1 has spent weeks — or is it months — trying to decide on replacements for the wheels his Cube bike came on. Well, it didn’t actually come on them; it came with them, in a box. But the cup-and-cone bearings were a cost saving and now they’re knackered and not worth rebuilding, so he’s better off with a complete new set — and sealed cartridges this time.
So perhaps this is another example of ‘what you get for your extra money’. This was a £1200 bike, and two years on it needs most of £400 to keep it rolling. My £1700 bike already has the cartridge bearings and seems still to have two sound wheels. Which is just as well, as wheels, like just about all bike parts, are feeling the effects of the Covid-Brexit one-two and are very hard to get. Having decided what he wanted, Boy1 scoured the country, was offered delivery in June — and then found a pair in stock less than a mile from home.
|
|
|
|
Post by bromptonaut on Mar 19, 2021 10:47:18 GMT
How do cup and cone bearings get knackered two years? Was the bike ridden extensively with them out of adjustment - too tight or free play?
In nigh on 50years of bike fettling I've only once seen shot cup/cone setups and even in that case the damage was outside the actual races and the wheel ran OK once properly greased and adjusted.
|
|
|
|
Post by Humph on Mar 19, 2021 10:57:06 GMT
I'm sort of glad you mentioned that Bromp. I was thinking something similar and as you know, I'm in the habit of asking a lot of my bikes.
|
|
WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,425
|
Post by WDB on Mar 19, 2021 11:31:51 GMT
Grit, I suppose. Stuff that sealed cartridges can exclude anyway. From what I can gather, it’s a corner Cube bikes tend to cut to make way for more headline-grabbing spec items, so these may not even be particularly good cups and cones.
|
|
|
|
Post by Humph on May 17, 2021 19:49:27 GMT
A pal has just sent me a picture of the new state of the art E MTB he has just dropped seven grand on !
Am I jealous? Noooooo, of course not. Who would be?
😫
|
|
WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,425
|
Post by WDB on May 17, 2021 21:35:55 GMT
Not quite ready for the e-thing yet. Not on two wheels anyway. 😉
|
|
|
|
Post by dixinormus on May 18, 2021 1:55:51 GMT
7 grand on a bike?! Who are these people?
I must be in the wrong job...
|
|
|
|
Post by Humph on May 18, 2021 6:31:43 GMT
Even I can't get my head around that sort of expenditure on a bike. But, there is an inexorable rise in the number of these things appearing on the trails. Maybe half of the bikes I saw "up the hill" on Sunday were electric.
Some rationalise it by saying that they still get the same levels of excercise because they go twice as far on them. My mate is justifying it to himself on the basis that he hasn't spent any money on summer holidays or winter skiing this year.
It'll be a fun thing for sure I suppose.
|
|
WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,425
|
Post by WDB on May 18, 2021 6:43:07 GMT
I’m uncomfortable with the encroachment of powered machinery into areas away from roads. The views and the (relative) solitude in remote places are a reward for the effort expended to get there, and e-bikes — which will only get cheaper and more numerous — undermine that principle and risk spoiling those places for everyone.
E-bikes as personal transport, on the other hand, I have no problem with. In that context, they replace car journeys, which can only be a good thing.
|
|
|
|
Post by Humph on May 18, 2021 7:28:30 GMT
Yes I'm similarly conflicted in my views. But, it feels like an unstoppable trend. Anyway, I was saying to my friend that my problem with the whole thing is that if I were to jump on that particular bandwagon, that I'd have to buy three of the things. I certainly wouldn't get away with not furnishing the current Mrs H, or indeed H Jnr with their own versions.
My pal is currently single with no kids and owns a successful business. He works very hard and I don't grudge him his indulgence.
Very much. Well, maybe be a bit...
😉
|
|
|
|
Post by dixinormus on May 18, 2021 7:43:54 GMT
I’ve just never had a hobby, or a leisure activity, that requires me to stump up that kind of investment. Guess I am missing out somehow. Do ski holidays count?!
|
|
|
|
Post by Humph on May 18, 2021 7:47:36 GMT
Absolutely, once you fall down any of these rabbit holes you're in trouble. Whether it's Motorsport, or skiing or bikes or golf or whatever. Once you get bitten by a bug it all starts to cost way more than you can ever justify or imagine.
|
|
WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,425
|
Post by WDB on May 18, 2021 7:59:52 GMT
Include travel and accommodation costs - which we should, because skiing happens in places we wouldn't go to for any other reason at that time of year - and a ski habit costs vastly more than I've spent on bikes, clothing and accessories. How many ski trips would you get for £7,000? Three?
|
|
I bet your mate's got the black version too. 'Stealth' or some such. It actually looks quite nice in blue - but I still don't want one.
