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Pick a chainring size and be a dick about it? Honestly who cares. Kind of reminds me of skiing, where if you don’t ski on 130 flex boots you’re a lil bish. I have a commute and regular guy job and live kinda far from trails. I don’t have as much free time as others to be an ascent monster. Let me enjoy my 30t ring. Don’t yuck my yum yo!!

Yeah, as someone who does HR based zone-oriented training a <32t is pretty amazing when i need to haul a heavy bike up something in zone 2. Sure I could ignore what I'm trying to accomplish on that ride and muscle my way up things and blow myself up in the process, but that's not always what you need to be doing. And yes, I do go to a gym. My guess is that people who are saying "real bikers only need 32t" haven't actually ever followed a formal training plan, which tend to involve a lot of time in...

If you use a power meter to follow power-based, zone-oriented training and a <32t chainring allows you to do so consistently and repeatably, you actually don't need a power meter, you need to train...in a gym? Flawless logic.

Being realistic about your terrain and fitness and biasing your gear usage to the middle of your cassette is going to be better for your drivetrain long term. If you wanna be a hero and only climb in first and second gear you’re gonna roast your cassette real fast.

29er rear wheel and 30t chainring with 10t on cassette with a max comfortable cadence of 95 rpm will give a top speed of 25 mph. When are you ever pedaling when going faster than 25mph on a trail bike, and will require a larger chainring? I appreciate the lower possible gearing of a 30t for slow tech climbs or ridiculously steep fire roads on the edge of traction. There is no reason to go larger except for being a DH racer, XC racer, or having too big of an ego.

Looks like Laurie to me.

Simple dark horse thick grip option that I've fallen in love with this year is just cutting the core out of any old lock on grip, then sliding your favorite push on BMX grip over it. Ends up around meaty paw thickness but softer, longer lasting, cheaper to replace, and maybe more street cred?

I’m pretty sure the guy that has the I-track patent lets anyone use it as long as they put a sticker on the bike. What is bullshit about that? Genuinely curious.

I have been riding the ESI "Extra Chunky" grips for years now. They're cheap, thick, and comfortable (at least when new). The downsides are that they don't provide as much traction as more textured options, and are a bit more work to install and remove unless you have an air compressor. I may have to try some of the other options mentioned above.

Well this is interesting! However, seems like SRAM does not offer any multi-click (rapidfire) mechanical shifters (non-Transmission) anymore...

Yeah with shifting the BB relative to front triangle pivot points (assuming no concentric BB pivot) there’s no impact on leverage curve, which is kind of nice. The change in anti-squat would be pretty hard to notice. Anti-rise I do think would be noticeably different, but there’s a pretty wide range that people are fine riding so that’s not the biggest deal. Going the route of changing the chainstays and/or seatstays, it is possible to decrease the impact on the kinematics by moving the pivot points on the front triangle. I can’t think of a brand off the top of...