How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

[warthog1]

Not too bad then

[jasonc]

new bike day find_bruce!

[warthog1]

^^

[find_bruce]

new bike day find_bruce!

Indeed, but which one - haven’t even thought about a new bike in more than 10 years. I have conflicting desires in that while I can afford a decent bike, I’m cheap & I commute in all weather over rough roads with the occasional gutter & stairs to navigate (got to love Sydney)

While I’m a retro grouch who prefers 8 speed, I’m also a fan of disc brakes in wet weather & 30-40mm tyres

The one thing I’m sure of is the replacement won’t be an aluminium frame

[jasonc]

new bike day find_bruce!

Indeed, but which one - haven’t even thought about a new bike in more than 10 years. I have conflicting desires in that while I can afford a decent bike, I’m cheap & I commute in all weather over rough roads with the occasional gutter & stairs to navigate (got to love Sydney)

While I’m a retro grouch who prefers 8 speed, I’m also a fan of disc brakes in wet weather & 30-40mm tyres

The one thing I’m sure of is the replacement won’t be an aluminium frame

trek checkpoint SL5, if you can find any in stock in your size

[warthog1]

Yep sounds like a gravel bike fits the bill with wide tyre capability.

Comedian had a Norco steel gravel bike he seemed to like.

Not sure if this is it.

https://www.99bikes.com.au/norco-search ... lue-2020-1

[find_bruce]

Noice, SL5 seems to fit the bill, but no luck finding a 52. Mate has suggested a canyon roadlite 9

Reminded why I love my wife - she just pointed out that a new bike will be cheaper than any of my cars. It'll do more ks too

I'm 1/2 expecting some seppo to suggest I go to kmart

[jasonc]

Noice, SL5 seems to fit the bill, but no luck finding a 52. Mate has suggested a canyon roadlite 9

Reminded why I love my wife - she just pointed out that a new bike will be cheaper than any of my cars. It'll do more ks too

I'm 1/2 expecting some seppo to suggest I go to kmart

I would call a couple of trek dealers. Stock may not be accurate

[Mr Purple]

Noice, SL5 seems to fit the bill, but no luck finding a 52. Mate has suggested a canyon roadlite 9

Reminded why I love my wife - she just pointed out that a new bike will be cheaper than any of my cars. It'll do more ks too

I'm 1/2 expecting some seppo to suggest I go to kmart

SL5 will be great but you may meet your criteria a lot cheaper than that.

I'd suggest a Giant Revolt 1 - carbon frame, hydraulic discs, 2 x 10 GRX and easy to find new at $2k. And I ride a Checkpoint myself!

Personally I think the GRX600 (11 speed) is worth the stretch but for commuting purposes I'm sure the GRX400 would be fine.

[jasonc]

with the walter taylor bridge closed, decided to ride in via oxley rd. only had 2 cars overtake me between sherwood rd and the bridge.

[P!N20]

Put my Kona Paddywagon back into commuting duties this morning after ~four months of riding my road bike. It's going to take a few days to get used to riding fixed again!

[find_bruce]

SL5 will be great but you may meet your criteria a lot cheaper than that.

I'd suggest a Giant Revolt 1 - carbon frame, hydraulic discs, 2 x 10 GRX and easy to find new at $2k. And I ride a Checkpoint myself!

Personally I think the GRX600 (11 speed) is worth the stretch but for commuting purposes I'm sure the GRX400 would be fine.

I seem to be confused - or perhaps Giant have changed their models - according to the Giant website, the Revolt 1 ($2,499 RRP) has an aluminium frame - as best I can figure I have to go up to the Revolt Advanced 3 ($3,199 RRP) for a carbon frame with GRX 400 or the Revolt Advanced 2 ($3,699 RRP) for carbon with GRX 600

Your post gave me the hint to figure out the $500 difference between a Checkpoint SL 5 which isn't available and the SL5 AXS - mostly GRX600 2 x 11 on the former v SRAM apex etap 1 x 12

Also considering the Canyon Grizl or perhaps stump up for Titanium by our friend Rheicel at FixnRide

[jasonc]

SL5 will be great but you may meet your criteria a lot cheaper than that.

I'd suggest a Giant Revolt 1 - carbon frame, hydraulic discs, 2 x 10 GRX and easy to find new at $2k. And I ride a Checkpoint myself!

Personally I think the GRX600 (11 speed) is worth the stretch but for commuting purposes I'm sure the GRX400 would be fine.

I seem to be confused - or perhaps Giant have changed their models - according to the Giant website, the Revolt 1 ($2,499 RRP) has an aluminium frame - as best I can figure I have to go up to the Revolt Advanced 3 ($3,199 RRP) for a carbon frame with GRX 400 or the Revolt Advanced 2 ($3,699 RRP) for carbon with GRX 600

Your post gave me the hint to figure out the $500 difference between a Checkpoint SL 5 which isn't available and the SL5 AXS - mostly GRX600 2 x 11 on the former v SRAM apex etap 1 x 12

Also considering the Canyon Grizl or perhaps stump up for Titanium by our friend Rheicel at FixnRide

I was going through the same process when looking for mine last year. The Grizl was looking good till the small print said they were changing the crank to a rotor. Looks like they aren't doing that any more, and you get 12 speed

https://www.canyon.com/en-au/gravel-bik ... e=R075_P08

[Retrobyte]

Commuting on the roadie instead of the gravel bike this week and enjoying the sunshine

[nezumi]

Commuting on the roadie instead of the gravel bike this week and enjoying the sunshine

I did the opposite today, and regretted it.

I took my CX/gravel/allroad bike in to make use of the pannier rack to take home my stash of refund eligible bottles & cans from work. Sadly about 3/4 of the way in I had a sinking feeling, and peddling quickly revealed a rear puncture. I pumped it up in case it was just a slow leak that had materialised over the duration of the ride - no such luck, this was a bit worse. Further inspection uncovered a slash in the tyre, and taking off the wheel I found a matching hole in the tube. I used my last stick-on patch on the tube, pump the tyre up by hand and rode on to work.

At lunch I pumped up the rear from 40PSI to 60PSI. Before leaving this evening I checked and it was at 50, so I topped it up to 60 and figured that I would use one of the shared path pumps en route if needed.

I needed to do so 3 times, and to use my hand pump twice.

Then after the final failure I bit the bullet and swapped out the tube for the spare in my tool caddy - unfortunately I hadn't swapped this out from my roadie, so I only had an 18-25c tube to go in the 35c tyre. Less than ideal.

Hobbled home, and now to get on with some more permanent fixes. Step 1: buying new tyres.

[Mububban]

Yep sounds like a gravel bike fits the bill with wide tyre capability.

Comedian had a Norco steel gravel bike he seemed to like.

Not sure if this is it.

https://www.99bikes.com.au/norco-search ... lue-2020-1

Gee that's tempting for 2 grand.....

Commuting last week, I got overtaken by a young bloke on a e-converted MTB up a 4% bit of path like I was standing still (not that I was going fast). Caught up at a red light and he took off at a rate of knots, and I watched him match vehicle traffic to about 60kmh, on the footpath that loads of pedestrians share.

I also saw "electric unicycle guy" who has amazing skill and balance on his single wheel device. Dressed in knee and elbow guards and full face helmet, and hitting 50km (on the shared footpath of course), he can stand or sit down on it. Impressive bit of kit but I'm not a fan of people doing those speeds on shared footpaths that have a lot of intersecting side paths where people just pop out of suddenly. I've had a few close calls going downhill (and ready on the brakes) on my bike with bright flashing lights on the front of it because walkers just step out without looking sideways first.

[jasonc]

rained all night. not many bikes, or escooters, this morning

[Retrobyte]

Very mixed week. Sunny and warm early in the week - was 30C on the way home on Wednesday before the rain came. Commuted Mon-Wed, not the rest of the week.

[find_bruce]

Really enjoying my commute. Traffic on Lilyfield Rd has dropped off significantly, so I've been riding via the Rozelle Parklands which gives me a couple of nice stretches with no traffic lights, 4 km & 2.8km. Really enjoying the Trek Checkpoint SL5


Even added in a 7km loop of Iron Cove Bay just for fun

[Retrobyte]

And now this bush turkey is setting traps for cyclists ...

[jasonc]

Drenched. Rained pretty much the whole way home. The lightning was of concern

[CmdrBiggles]

Commuting in the crisp early morning air with a runny nose and watery eyes (7°c this morn at 7am) gives way to commuting in the warm to hot sun and calm air of the late-afternoon. There is much to dislike about Daylight Savings (loss of appetite, sleep akimbo), but I guess on the flipside is that the risk to life and limb from cycling in the dark is much reduced, and the longer daylight hours make the task all that more enjoyable and worthy of prolonging. I stopped in the CBD for an hour to check out and bookmark bushwalking packs, preparatory for my November trip along the Australian Alps Walking Track.

WFH is dead on the pavement in Melbourne CBD. More and more people are now back in Collins Street, my main up/down route. Even Southern Cross Station is far busier than it was just a couple of months ago.

[jasonc]

Drenched. Rained pretty much the whole way home. The lightning was of concern

Wet again. Not as wet as last night. But wet enough

[Retrobyte]

17C today, 24C tomorrow. Welcome to Spring in Sydney

[blizzard]

I left the office early to beat the rain today, didn't show on the BOM radar that it would hit until after 5; 4:40pm half way home and got drenched. Annoyingly I only just topped up the wax 80kms ago so need to reapply now.

Also, interesting trip in - there were signs on the V1 entrance reading "Who paid for the Veloway?", I was ready for an anti cyclist nutter but, no, there was former transport minister Mark Bailey smiling and waving (in Lycra I might add).