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Thank you! I’m happy with the bike and it performed really well during the ultra. Aside from the tires that completely disintegrated after three days and about 2000 km in total, 800 or so in the race. Luckily I could ask a bike shop to leave a pair outside so I could fit them when I arrived there in the night.
The tires were GK 38mm slicks. The first three days were about 33 degrees Celsius and i think they couldn’t take the hot roads. Another rider with WTB Horizons had the same experience. After three days we were both down to the threads and had loads of small leaks that stole loads of time. Eventually I could borrow a 28mm tyre for the front and I put a tube in the back and cut a tube to wrap around it in the back. It allowed me to continue but it made my bike pretty much a low pro and being on the aero bars put me in a constant uphill, haha.
For bikepacking I’d say bidons on the fork legs are ok, but for a race I felt very un aero. Days of head wind made me reconsider this setup numerous times.
nogk-
the tires that completely disintegrated after three days and about 2000 km in total
this has been said many times before but Conti Gatorskins have been the most reliable tyres I ever ran. 32mm slicks even give great grip off road if run at a lower pressure, sharp stones / drop offs with a loaded bike no problem.
For bikepacking I’d say bidons on the fork legs are ok, but for a race I felt very un aero
it's counter intuitive but making the bike wider at the front, narrower at the back, can infact reduce air resistance. Think of an airplane wing :)
However packing the frame and keeping the whole bike narrower is more aero for sure.
William.
I have really enjoyed reading this thread from start to finish. Very nice bike, seems the perfect balance between an enjoyable ride but also stable when loaded up. you seem to have your set up pretty well sorted, but this got me thinking:
I have a genesis fork with the same drilling, three holes each side for anything cages. Like you I looked at the drilling and assumed it would take a rack. Because I tour / ride to work with up to 30kg sometimes so I needed a way round this. I got some z-bar, cut it to length, drilled it out and bolted it to each side of the fork. Then my low rider rack bolted to that (and my mudguard):