offtrail.guru

I like shopping on Ali Express. Not so much because it’s cheap, but because I find things no one else sells. Truth be told, I ran across the Cycplus Cube on Youtube first. Cycplus introduced this electric bicycle pump on Indiegogo in February this year.

I started mountain biking in 1986 and road cycling in 1992. I don’t remember what saddles were on my first three mountain bikes. I sat on what the manufacturers specced for those bikes. In the early 90ies that changed with Selle Italia’s iconic Flite saddle. It was a minimalist, long, slim saddle with a rounded top and a flexible hull. Equipped with titanium rails it made for a comfortable perch. It was a revolutionary saddle for the time, and I liked it a lot. Over the next decade, I stayed faithful to the brand and moved on to the even more minimalist, narrow-sided SLR. The SLR’s profile ensured minimal pedaling interference, but to be honest, while it felt good with padded shorts or bibs, it was a horrible saddle to sit on without any padding.

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.