***I’m on holiday thru Exertions Day. You’re no longer studying this as a result of this submit doesn’t exist. You don’t exist. I don’t exist. We’re all serendipitously assembly right here in a consequence-free exchange fact.***
Greetings from deep within the wasteland, the place on any given journey I’m up to a number of miles clear of the closest eating place:
Thankfully I’ve were given a extremely succesful bicycle with me:
Regardless that I didn’t style the gravel first, so I’m no longer assured about my tread variety or tire drive:
For the previous couple years my default holiday bicycle has been my A. Homer Hilsen:
On the other hand, it’s now my number one commuting motorcycle, and I’ve were given it arrange so nicely for city accountability that I simply couldn’t deliver myself to undo it once more:
If the Homer resents no longer becoming a member of me this yr, it may take solace in the truth that no longer simplest did it take two bicycles to interchange it, but in addition that as my commuter it’s formally my most-ridden bicycle.
Anyway, after pronouncing to the sector that I’d switched over all my motorcycles to friction transferring, I un-converted the Jones once more through reinstalling the inventory cause shifter, most commonly since the lengthy throw this actual derailleur required of the friction shifter wasn’t the most productive are compatible ergonomically with the Jones bars. So for the primary time in awhile I’m on an absolutely trendy(-ish) drivetrain once more:
I don’t love SRAM’s obsession with hanging batteries in completely the whole thing, or their newest try to make your body out of date. On the other hand, for sure sorts of driving I do recognize the deserves of a wide-range single-ring drivetrain, which they kind of pioneered. It’s easy and it really works nicely. Additionally, now that I spend maximum of my time on motorcycles with friction transferring I admit I’m playing the newness of going clickety-click once more:
Anyway, I’ve had this motorcycle for simply over 4 years now, so I believed it could be value checking in on how the drivetrain is doing. The portions are SRAM Eagle NX. For those who learn any of the more than a few Web boards, you’ll briefly be told that SRAM Eagle NX sucks and that you simply’ve were given to get no less than GX, braaah, or your derailleur’s going to blow up and also you’re doing to die. Granted, I’m no longer in the market SENDING IT [barf], however I’ve put this motorcycle to just right use within the time that I’ve had it, and up to I’d love to malign SRAM and their insidious anti-derailleur hanger, battery-powered cabal, I truly haven’t had a unmarried downside with it, nor may just I believe it’s functionally any other from the portions which might be simply above it within the part hierarchy. Sure, it may be slightly finicky to regulate the transferring after you installed a brand new cable or anything, and arguably a 12-speed drivetrain is slightly a lot (particularly when SRAM shifters simplest permit you to upshift one equipment at a time), nevertheless it’s laborious to name both of this stuff “issues.” I did have to switch the chain slightly early on–no longer as a result of put on, however as a result of rust. (Now not each chain is suited to just about entire forget, which is my normal option to chain repairs.) However since hanging a KMC something-or-other on there awhile again it’s been operating easily with simply occasional utility of lube.
After all, if I had been development the Jones from scratch, I’d almost definitely do it slightly another way. Unmarried-ring drivetrains with grasp derailleurs are nice for full-on “mountain motorcycle”-style driving, the place you’re repeatedly driving up and down such a tough and rocky terrain that make entrance shifts unimaginable. On the other hand, for all-around driving that still contains pavement and easy filth and garvel, I nonetheless like a pleasant double. Moreover, up to I’m nonetheless playing the clickety-click novelty, 12 cogs and one chainring approach a lot of clickety-clicking, and in that appreciate the friction shifter used to be in reality a greater are compatible. And this Jones has a prevent for a entrance derailleur cable, which I’m no longer certain is correct of the more moderen ones:
So given my quirks, personal tastes, and pretentions, I’d almost definitely arrange the Jones with some kind of friction-shifted double with fewer cogs at the rear, a equivalent low differ, and a better prime equipment for the street. That apart, no less than for now, the lower-end wide-range single-ring mountain motorcycle drivetrains appear well-suited to the bike owner who prizes simplicity, and will nonetheless be used together with cable-actuated brakes (disc or rim), or even friction shifters, equipped you in finding the best one. Sure, their days is also numbered as those firms electronify the whole thing, however for now no less than it’s just right to have choices.
