OV9

I got Maxwell a Frog 52 yesterday as he had outgrown his 16” wheeled bike. We tried a 24” but it’s very ungainly for a 7 year old and putting much lock on gas him leaning forward too much.

I looked at a few bikes and dismissed the Frog as a gimmick but it’s surprisingly well thought out, much lighter than the other 20” bikes, low and long and Maxwell has a notable turn of pace on it over his 16”.



Dave!

Please tell me you've tried riding it too and have made it do a skid for full Dad approval ratings.

My boy has a frog balance bike, he's just about grown out of now - they are impressively built for kids bikes - very light (and internal routed cable which is a nice touch).

We've now got my nephews old commencal ramones pedal bike and it's really heavy - I might just get him another frog instead though!

KiwiDave wrote: Sat May 29, 2021 10:09 am Please tell me you've tried riding it too and have made it do a skid for full Dad approval ratings.

I’d pY money to see Granite Dave try to ride that thing...

dinny_g wrote: Sat May 29, 2021 11:17 am I’d pY money to see Granite Dave try to ride that thing...

Same

Obviously wearing his weekend attire

I don’t think I would look that comfortable on it!!

Yep the weight is a big thing, really pleased with it. Will do our first long ride this coming week.

Dave!

I went out for my first ride on a gravel bike yesterday with a friend and I absolutely loved it. Being able to go on pretty much any surface but also keep up a decent lick on short road sections was so much fun.

I've naturally started looking to buy a bike but seems like stock is all in short supply still and used ones being sold for top dollar. I guess I'll just have to be patient, which really isn't something I do well!

Another puncture today, rear this time, about 5 miles from home. A thorn in one of the tread blocks, it turned out, so the thicker rubber there doesn’t provide any great protection.

Rather than faffing about trying to repair it on a muddy bridleway I realised it wasn’t riding too badly with low pressure, so I pumped it up a bit, stuck it in Turbo and kept going, pumping it up a bit every mile or so. As it turned out, getting the rear wheel off requires a 6mm Allen key so I would have had to repair it in situ since I wasn’t carrying one.

Tubeless next.

Jobbo wrote: Mon May 31, 2021 9:00 pm
Tubeless next.

I reccomend Maxxis tyres and Orange Endurance sealant.

I have Maxxis tyres already. Have you tried other sealants, because Caffelatex looks like the best value? https://www.bikeradar.com/features/whic ... -the-best/

I use Stan's on my road bike, coped ok when the tread started to part company with the carcass.

Jobbo wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 9:33 am I have Maxxis tyres already. Have you tried other sealants, because Caffelatex looks like the best value? https://www.bikeradar.com/features/whic ... -the-best/

I use caffelatex after seeing it beat out everything but stans race (at about 4 x the price) on the bike radar torture test. I can confirm it does indeed work well and was better than the stans regular that came in my Giant.

Jobbo wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 9:33 am I have Maxxis tyres already. Have you tried other sealants, because Caffelatex looks like the best value? https://www.bikeradar.com/features/whic ... -the-best/

No. All my mates used Stans and it was shite. I was reccomended the Orange sealant and have stuck with it ever since as I've not yet had a single puncture. Be foolhardy to change if it's working 100%

I think it must come down to your local riding conditions, I can't even remember the last puncture I had (I've bloody said it now) and I ride most weeks on fairly decent sized stuff all over the country, but usually in bike parks where the trails are pretty well tended.

It sounds that thorns in particular are the issue - maybe there's no thorny bushes near me!

I'm riding lots of bridleways and they all seem to be bounded by thorny bushes which have recently been trimmed I can imagine a bike park wouldn't be a problem.

My old bike was on Schwalbe Land Cruiser tyres with puncture protection and I had basically no punctures in 10 years despite riding in similar places, so I just think these Maxxis tyres are intended more for bike parks than bridleways. Which is fair enough, though I have no idea if there may be a more puncture-resistant alternative.

One issue I can foresee; if I'm riding round on tubeless tyres and get a puncture which the sealant doesn't fix, there will be so many embedded thorns already in the tyres that putting a tube in would be futile!

My local trails (Swinley) were running damn well this weekend - a load of rain to soak all the dust down then some sun to solidify it had them running like a skatepark. No effort at all to clear the tabletop and the landing on babymaker.

https://youtu.be/dwTLbKoito8

I put Runkeeper app on to track the ride and the map afterwards was quite amusing! I guess we really liked that trail!

Bit different to my ride yesterday

Had to adjust the breaks on my new bike so got round to taking all the plastic tat off. Looks much better.

It always makes me laugh when you get given a bag of that crap with a high end bike!