Functional bikes. Not Porn not Anti

Never sure with discs. On the one hand, no more rim wear. On the other hand, discs seem like throwing a lot of technology at something very simple.

I suppose my instinct is to shy away from discs, but as my instinct has proved singularly unreliable in many other areas of life, I'm questioning whether it's worth listening to it when ordering a bike.

but also keep reminding myself that rim brakes have been just fine for an awfully long time.

Until I went full hydraulic.

I've tried out a bicycle with the new Shimano R685 system, and I've never felt a brakes that good before in my life,

Last 5 hours in this thread has been so mesmerizing - go on suckers!

I have a Kaff in that colour scheme as pictured, not sure if all your questions have been answered but if you need any info / pics / measurements just shout.

xtr.

I want this bike. Like right now. Amazing

I want to know how KTM get away with running that input ratio on an Alfine hub. (not sure if that is the Alfine model or not but it is available with Alfine).

I want to know hoy KTM get away with running that input ratio on an Alfine hub. (not sure if >that is the Alfine model or not but it is available with Alfine).

the gearing is in the box at the bottom bracket. It's a Pinion p18 gearbox.

Ah ok, my mistake, I thought that was the electric one.

The Macina runs a Nexus, Alfine or Nuvinci depending on spec level but all the models have what looks like the same, very low input ratio

I'm pretty sure that if that's not 1:1 then its larger at the rear than at the front.

Not even sure how that gives useable gears, I spin out pretty easy in top gear of my Alfine with a 32:18 or 1.7777 input ratio.

When I bought my hub it was used so no manuals and I did find it hard to get hold of anything official about the input ratio but there was a lot of chat on forums etc about 1.6 being the lowest that Shimano recommend.

yea, not sure how this works. maybe they assume with the motor the total
torque will be low enough?

in reference to the rando bag stuff, that's totally correct. standard style rando bags (I made a couple for dudes on here a little while ago) do have weatherproofing isssues due to the closure.

me personally, I've only ever made rando bags with floating liners so water getting through the seams is nearly impossible. I use a 4oz PU liner (simliar weight to 420d pack cloth) with has a 2500HH, rather than a truck tarp (most of the time). Theres no exposed part of the main compartment where the needle has gone from the outside to the inside of the bag.

as for the wet getting in through the top, I've done my best to solve that by making a kind of hybrid fold down closure. in this instance its 100x better than a traditional rando bag closure but it's slightly heavier due to the extra fabric. Chaks new bag is made in this way aswell as the smaller klickfix ones.

I read similar too, when I was toying with the idea of putting a compact crankset to be paired with the Alfine 11.

Never had anything in the main compartment of mine get wet, the inner flaps with buckle fastening works really well. Keep up the good work fella. The wife may want a bag sometime next year, will definitely give you a shout.

I think a road compact is still ok, just those tiny granny gears with large rear cogs on a MTB
might be too much.

Sounds good. I figured floating liners would be an improvement - I guess Swift/Acorn don't use them at the moment as it would require a bit of a redesign to make it work with the slot-in supports they use to give the bags their shape (more of a requirement for the huge size bags probably...)

Tubus Tara for £45 at Wiggle, around 70 elsewhere: http://www.wiggle.com/tubus-tara-lowrider-front-rack/

THANK YOU for the heads up, I've been meaning to grab one of these for ages, mainly for development of the touring range, this is a godsend.. especially after just spending stupid money on machinery.

The way I do it, is I have one built in/tacked in support between the two layers, which goes up the sides and along the bottom, and then a removable support on the closed side to the rider. This means you can remove it if you need to pack the bag flat for a trip (the only real reason these stiffeners are removable).

Whilst looking for pannier bag options for the Soma Porteur rack, I came across this pretty functional Steamroller, carrying very comfortably what seems to be the Ortleib Front Roller Plus; they look like they'd be a nice accompaniment to one of Jordan's rack bags.

If anyone has any other suggestions for suitable pannier bags, please let me know!

Regarding the conversation three days ago (I'm a bit slow) @miro_o and @edscoble I'm the FKW commuting with the black Straggler with Grand Bois Lierre tyres /pink CK on the CS7.
My original choice was a Kinesis Tripster but it was unavaible at the time. I much prefer a fat 650b than a fat 700c, personnally. Running 26mm wide rims, 38mm tyres and not an awful lot of PSI. It just works, and it's definitely not a retro thing for me, I'd happily ride of of those fugly Carbon Calfee given the opportunity.

Glad to be of help, looking forward to seeing the rest of the touring gear too!

Seems like a good idea building those supports in. Think I'm going to stitch the base-piece/padding in when I finally get around to making a new porteur-sack bag for the weekly veg shop.

In that case I've saw you but couldn't says a thing as traffic was pretty tricky at that time.

Will keep an eyes out next time.

Carradice Super C on account for it's being a lots lighter and just as good.

Hello functional bike lovers.

I'm doing a small visualisation research project for my design course and would greatly appreciate some responses from the more functionally-minded amongst the forumengers. Really simple, straightforward questions, for a educational project, nothing commercial and the final piece will be some kind of graphic.

Many fanks for the consideration peoples. http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/258652/#comment11958407