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Got out on the trail early this morning to beat the heat wave.

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I took the single speed out today to ride with my kids. I forget just how smooth and easy riding it is to be on a single speed! Also I swapped out the ugly stock Tektro disc rotors and replaced them with Shimano disc rotors pulled form my other wheelset. I think they just look cooler!

My daughter stole the bike though, I think she wants her own gravel bike now! :D

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Old disc rotors:
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New disc rotors:
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I took the single speed out today to ride with my kids. I forget just how smooth and easy riding it is to be on a single speed! Also I swapped out the ugly stock Tektro disc rotors and replaced them with Shimano disc rotors pulled form my other wheelset. I think they just look cooler!

My daughter stole the bike though, I think she wants her own gravel bike now! :D



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Looks great Jonathan. Being a car guy, I’ve always loved the look of disc brakes on bicycles.

I don’t know much about bikes, but is it possible to convert a bike with standard brakes to disc ones? I’d assume so.

I have a Devinci Stockholm bike that I really like and have for a while. I’m looking at some maintenance, including brake changes, and am now intrigued to go the disc route if possible.
 
Looks great Jonathan. Being a car guy, I’ve always loved the look of disc brakes on bicycles.

I don’t know much about bikes, but is it possible to convert a bike with standard brakes to disc ones? I’d assume so.

I have a Devinci Stockholm bike that I really like and have for a while. I’m looking at some maintenance, including brake changes, and am now intrigued to go the disc route if possible.

Apparently it's a PITA to to convert a rim brake frame to disc mount. It's possible if you know a welder and I've seen disc mount adapters being sold, but frames with disc brake mounts (I believe) are better reenforced to handle the weight and braking force. You could easily run a disc fork, but then you'd be running a different set of brakes and wheels. I think you'd be better off just getting a new bike.

I've been entertaining the idea of building a bike from scratch. You only need a handful of specific bike tools, torque wrenches and patience to watch Youtube bike tutorial videos! Honestly I've been enjoying the bike tuning as much as the riding itself!
 
I've always thought that Jerome K Jerome was very sound on the subject of bicycle maintenance:

“There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can "overhaul" it, or you can ride it. On the whole, I am not sure that a man who takes his pleasure overhauling does not have the best of the bargain. He is independent of the weather and the wind; the state of the roads troubles him not. Give him a screw-hammer, a bundle of rags, an oil-can, and something to sit down upon, and he is happy for the day. He has to put up with certain disadvantages, of course; there is no joy without alloy. He himself always looks like a tinker, and his machine always suggests the idea that, having stolen it, he has tried to disguise it; but as he rarely gets beyond the first milestone with it, this, perhaps, does not much matter. The mistake some people make is in thinking they can get both forms of sport out of the same machine. This is impossible; no machine will stand the double strain. You must make up your mind whether you are going to be an "overhauler" or a rider.”

Written 120 years ago, that.
 
Apparently it's a PITA to to convert a rim brake frame to disc mount. It's possible if you know a welder and I've seen disc mount adapters being sold, but frames with disc brake mounts (I believe) are better reenforced to handle the weight and braking force. You could easily run a disc fork, but then you'd be running a different set of brakes and wheels. I think you'd be better off just getting a new bike.

I've been entertaining the idea of building a bike from scratch. You only need a handful of specific bike tools, torque wrenches and patience to watch Youtube bike tutorial videos! Honestly I've been enjoying the bike tuning as much as the riding itself!
Thanks Jonathan. That saves me a lot of research and the potential costs. Rim brakes they will stay :)
 
I've built a few bikes, and have done the rim --> disc brake conversion on a couple of bikes. It is indeed a pain, and if you don't get the alignment exactly right, you'll have all sorts of rubbing issues. IMO the conversion isn't worth the hassle.

Building a bike is a fun challenge, and very satisfying when one begins riding the "new" creation. However, unless one has a ready supply of parts, or is patient and willing to wait a long time before finding the right part at the right price, the cost of building a bike can and will climb rapidly.
 
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Zpacks Duplex – Salsa Anything Cage – #001 by Andrew Priest, on Flickr

I explored for a short time the option of going with a Cuben Fiber (Dyneema Composite Fabric) tent material; a Zpacks Duplex in this case. Whilst the weight saving is nice, the packing size of the Duplex (and Dyneema Composite Fabric tents in general) is a limitation for me.

With my bikepacking setup, my Salsa Mukluk, my only feasible option for carrying the Duplex is the Salsa Anything Cage mounted to the front fork. Whilst it works, it is a bulky setup and one I didn’t consider that ideal.
 
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Zpacks Duplex – Salsa Anything Cage – #001 by Andrew Priest, on Flickr

I explored for a short time the option of going with a Cuben Fiber (Dyneema Composite Fabric) tent material; a Zpacks Duplex in this case. Whilst the weight saving is nice, the packing size of the Duplex (and Dyneema Composite Fabric tents in general) is a limitation for me.

With my bikepacking setup, my Salsa Mukluk, my only feasible option for carrying the Duplex is the Salsa Anything Cage mounted to the front fork. Whilst it works, it is a bulky setup and one I didn’t consider that ideal.
And you might rub that tent pretty hard in a tip-over, sticking off the fork so far.
 
Alright, I'm alive - I had in-laws visitng for over a week, took day trips, then a 3-day camping trip this past weekend. With the wrist still fractured / right arm casted, I didn't do much biking. We borrowed a road tandem, and my awesome brother in law piloted for me on a trip here locally, about 10 miles round trip. It was VERY hard to ride, with linked pedals, and only my left arm on a bar. Scary, unnerving, just really really hard. But we made it, it slowly got tolerable, and I was so happy to be on the ride with everyone else.

The tandem, whose owner named it Carlos for perhaps obvious reasons:

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My views:
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On the camping trip, we returned to a spot we visited last year. There's a 5 mile downhill MTB trail there, that I was SMITTEN with last year. I convinced the wife I could ride it slooooowly 1-armed and not kill myself. It was tricky, especially getting over a downed tree. But I did it, and it was amazing again. Very smooth and flowy, relatively easy but if you don't ride the brakes you can be doing 25 mph easy, which I did NOT do, of course. "No getting hurt allowed."

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