The light of autumn on November 15, 2020.
The light of autumn on November 15, 2020.

offtrail.guru

A small blog about offtrail riding, allroad cycling, fatbiking and singlespeeding.

Patrick

The Geometry Of A Gravel Bike

My Marin Gestalt X10 Built As An X12

The bikes I ride on pavement or gravel are more than road, all-road, or gravel bikes. They are efficient, practical, surface-agnostic bikes that bridge the functionality gap between road and off-road. In this post, I want to look at the geometry of the bikes I have ridden in the last nine years.

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Patrick

Cycplus Cube Electric Bike Pump

The toolkit I carry on every ride.

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.

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Patrick

A History Of Saddles

Prologo Scratch NDR and M5 Nack saddles.

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.

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Patrick

Vive la Modularité

Rotor Aldhu spiders and axles.

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. I wish they would only offer Kapic axles for fat bikes.

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Patrick

Raudax Cycling Clothing

Raudax cycling clothing from AliExpress.

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…

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