offtrail.guru

I now have three sets of Rotor aluminum Aldhu cranks, or four counting the carbon version on my Ritte. My Marauder uses an older pair of Rex 1.2, and my Stooge sports a current set of aluminum Kapic cranks. Out of seven bikes, six are equipped with Rotor cranks. I love the modularity of Rotor’s cranks with the availability of various axle lengths, different spiders, and a wide selection of round or oval direct mount rings. The only thing I wish they would offer is Kapic axles for fat-bikes.

With this title, there is a high probability that this post will rank high in the search results whenever someone searches for "Raudax". I have searched for information about this brand myself, and there is very little to find. So, dear visitor, if you happen…

When I first set up my Stooge MK5 in March of last year, I mounted a pair of Schwalbe Nobby Nic 27.5x3.0” tires. For 3” wide tires, they were light, coming in under 900 grams. They climbed and cornered well but had one shortfall. As a rear tire, the Nobby Nic performed poorly when braking in steep terrain. The tire broke loose too quickly. I rode into stuff a few times where I had to get off the bike to get down that segment of trail safely. I would have easily ridden it with a better tire. For my second season on the Stooge, I’ve opted to equip it with a more aggressive pair of tires.

Three weeks ago, the Swiss news portal 20 Minutes reported that instead of doing a traditional apprenticeship, young people dream about getting rich with drop shipping, a business model where one runs a customer-facing online store without keeping an inventory and without handling the shipping process. So basically, these kids are hoping to make a living selling cheap goods without doing much work. Why would anyone want to buy something at an inflated price from a drop shipper when you can get the same on AliExpress at the lowest cost and often with free shipping? Whenever I see something unbranded or from an unfamiliar brand, I check AliExpress. Most of the time, I find the same item for a fraction of the price. I bought a tiny Windows 11 mini PC and often buy computer accessories there. It’s also a great site to search for cases in all shapes and sizes.

Whenever you switch a part on your bike, it’s important to do your homework. A coworker of mine once wanted to change the stem on his bike. He got one, went on the put it on the bike, only to realize that his handlebar wouldn’t fit. He had purchased a stem with a 31.8mm clamp. Unfortunately, his bike was equipped with a 35mm handlebar. It’d be easy to laugh and say what a noob. But we can’t all be experts in everything. I’m certainly not. After several winters of riding my fat bike, the axle of my crankset has worn where the bearings are seated. Without tightening the pre-load adjuster, there was noticeable play. A tightened pre-load adjuster doesn’t remove that play; it only hides it while the bike is in the work stand. The play is still there under every pedal stroke and will only worsen over time. It will also lead to premature bottom bracket failure. It was therefore time to replace the axle. Because I chose a SRAM XX1 carbon crankset at the time, a simple axle change isn’t possible. The axle and the non-drive side crank arm form an inseparable unit.