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Tom K.

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Anyway, notes on the bike - Sooooo stable. GPS said I was doing 48mph down the Notch Road, no hint of speed wobble, could probably take your hands off the bars at that speed.

One of the many beauties of gravel bikes. We have long steep downhills, as well as stupid winds, here. My Checkpoint is SO much more stable than my old Tarmac.

How are the double-decker bars? They are certainly intriguing. I suppose it's tough to tell, since that's all you've had on the bike, but still curious.
 
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Erik Timmerman

Erik Timmerman

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Trails have been good, so I took a few weeks off from the Grail. Got back on her on Saturday and a nice morning ride today. Put a new saddle on courtesy of Ron. Not sure how long it will stay, but I think it's an improvement and it looks really sweet. I discovered that the headset uses the world's tiniest bolt for adjustment. I had adjusted it a few times and it stayed loose. That's because I didn't notice the T6 bolt underneath the stem. You can barely see it. I think the last time I saw a screw on that bike was 25 years ago on a pair of Grafton brakes. Those came with an alley wrench that looked like a single human hair bent into an L.

Saturday was a beautiful high pressure day and I rode 30 miles from Morrisville to Jeffersonville and back. It was headwinds all the way out, and I was anticipating a killer tail wind coming home. I think it shifted a bit because it wasn't that great, but I was flying anyway. Riding at 25 mph for a nice stretch. At the end of the ride when I uploaded to Strava I saw that I had gotten 4th place for that stretch coming back. I had missed beating Bobby Murphy (our Stowe/Vail President) by 10 seconds. If I had known I was that close, I can assure you I would have been far less courteous to other trail users and/or turned myself inside out to beat him. :doh: In reality, I realize it's a total crap shoot with other users, winds and delays at road crossings, but I would have loved for him to get an email that I just beat his PR. I bet he would have dropped me by two minutes within a day.

Rode the same thing today trying to beat the rain. Wind was the exact opposite. Nice tailwind on the way out and a real stiff breeze coming back. Just beat the rain. Only a two hour ride, but I do think it's great for the legs and a nice change from MTB.
 

Tom K.

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... when I uploaded to Strava I saw that I had gotten 4th place ... If I had known I was that close, I can assure you I would have been far less courteous to other trail users and/or turned myself inside out to beat him.

Strava in a nutshell!

If you haven't seen it, I recommend the Mountain Biking Before and After Strava video. HIlarious!
 
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Erik Timmerman

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So I was at least half joking about the Strava. I wouldn't have been a jerk to people, but today I did go and turn myself inside out and rode a 48 minute time trial to get my man. I'd like to think I'll get fitter as the summer goes on, but I'm not sure I can go faster without a big tailwind (no real wind today) and/or a motorpace.

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Erik Timmerman

Erik Timmerman

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At this point I’m not sure if this is a review or a TR, but went for a July 4 cruise w @Josh Matta. Started at his house to ride around the Reservoir. Found some serious grades. One downhill seems to have been 25% per Strava and we were climbing some stretches of 15. Still loving the bike. I could see maybe flipping it next year for a GRX Di2 model if speced to my liking. Ron’s saddle got more comfortable too when I realized it had been turned a few degrees to the left. Explains the sore right butt cheek! Oh yeah it was 90 degrees, really need to get another bottle cage!
 
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Ron

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great combo report! glad the seat is working out. electronic shifting is the cats meow. something I swore I didn't want but once tested, it was a "gotta have" thing in a short period of time. I'm going to put etap red on my Moots over the winter.



yes, the venerable bud light can; the last time we did road cleanup it was the #1 item found along the roadside.
 
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Erik Timmerman

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yes, the venerable bud light can; the last time we did road cleanup it was the #1 item found along the roadside.

They're everywhere! #2 Twisted Tea, #3 The King of Beers.
 

Ron

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A g 5%. You are talking about a compact 50/34 11-32 without issue? I know you are plenty strong for that. Am I missing something?
 

Ken_R

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A g 5%. You are talking about a compact 50/34 11-32 without issue? I know you are plenty strong for that. Am I missing something?

The last mile or 2 average over 11%. I see some parts well over 15%. That is pretty nasty.

That said a 50/34 with 11-32 should be enough.
 
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Erik Timmerman

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There's a good stretch at 24%. And it was last paved in 1961. I'm not sure what the surface is going to be like.
 
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Erik Timmerman

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Now I finally have two bottle cages. I couldn’t find another old Elite cage so I ordered two of these to be matchy.
 
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Erik Timmerman

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Earlier in the week I had a nice ride on the Grail. Took her up and over Smuggler's Notch. Abut halfway up I saw a small dot far, far ahead of me and wondered if I could catch them, so put the hammer down as best I could. Finally made the catch one turn below the summit. I was stoked to see a PR for the Notch climb on Strava. 47 minutes and something. Then I looked at the KOM.... 27 minutes. Ted King was like 5ht or something at 28 minutes. So I just need to cut 20 minutes from that.

It got me thinking, when I am climbing hard I hear the "rip, rip, rip" sound of all those little knobbier on my tires. I had added a few pounds of air to reduce the casing flex, as it 45 psi it seemed like the profile was kind of flat where the rubber meets the road. Would I be faster with a less knobby tire? What about on my road bike? Well, I don't know, but yesterday a friend was visiting and we wanted to go for a little road ride so I put him on the Grail, and I took the old LeMond out. I'm not going to say I solved the mystery, but it was interesting to go back. I have to tell you this, my first thought as I started pedaling was that it is NOT faster. Not by much anyway. I felt like I was pushing just as hard and going the same speed as always. You sure do feel every little pebble though. The stability of the Grail? That is real, the old bike felt way twitchier on the downhills. Obviously, the 23c Hutchinsons could feel every grain of sand while Graham said that the Grail was like the fat bike version of road. He'd see me swerving around cracks, stones, and dead animals and he didn't even vary his line (kidding about the dead animals). I think the Lemonds bars were probably always a little too high. I will lower them. My daughter wants to do RAGBRAI next year. If I had to pick a bike right now to ride across Iowa, I'm sure I'd choose the Grail.

Interesting side note, Graham and I were both using Strava yesterday. My Garmin mount is on the bike he was riding, his phone was in his pocket. They were both started and stopped in the same place. The numbers logged by the two devices were pretty divergent. Over a 20 mile ride, his phone gave him an extra half mile and while the Garmin logged 1086 feet of climbing his phone only got 959 feet. My top speed was 35.3, his was 37.4, again, he was carrying both units! Once again, it has to make you wonder about how accurate any Strava is and how we shouldn't obsess over losing a segment by a second.
 

scott43

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There are a lot of ins and outs of GPS and corrected data that are difficult to find for the typical user. Z-axis GPS accuracy is relatively poor for consumer grade GPS units. Each software has its own adjustment for vertical and you can get strange results. This applies to receiver quality too..under trees..does one transmit and the other doesn't? What happens when position is lost and it has to determine speed? So your point is well taken Erik..don't think they're both precise and accurate.
 
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Erik Timmerman

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Update, I started hearing some creaking (argh, could it be the press fit BB?!?!). I basically took the whole drivetrain apart, like chainrings off, etc., lubed, greased, loctited (that was originally autocorrected to lactated, btw...) as appropriate and then took her for a ride. Still creaking, but only when riding the small chainring, it kinda sounded like AL/steel galling. I checked my chain for wear with my Shimano chain checker go/no-go gauge. It gave a go, but it was close, so I picked up a new chain and installed it. Silent bliss. Also, finally made some small front der. adjustments. The new Ultegra FD is really cool, I like that it has a built in micro adjust for cable tension. So long story short, I have put in enough miles to pretty much use up a chain, and definitely starting to think about new tires.

So at this point, what do I think of the bike. Well, there's not much I'd change, I mean sure, I'd like Dura-Ace, but would that make it better? Lighter wheels would be cool, but I sure as heck don't need them, I'd be happy to try a pair, but I'm not sure I'd know that they are there. One thing that I think would improve the bike is the new GRX brake levers which have a different pivot point that should allow more effective braking from the hoods. On steep descents (like 20%+) that would be nice. It would be nice when riding single track. That would mean going to Di2 also because that lever is only offered in the electric version. If I wanted to ride more single track, a dropper would be nice. Even two inches of drop would help out. But I have a mountain bike, I don;t need a dropper on the Grail.

The Hoverbar! I really like the aesthetic of the hoverbar, but for me, if I could wave a magic wand at it, I'd like to be able to make the lower bar more droopy and have it connect lower in order to allow more room for my hands when in the drops. As it is now, the connecter bar does let me hook my thumbs, but it kind of pushes on the meat of my hand behind my thumbs and pushes me back from the brake levers just a little bit.

Bottom line, great bike, would buy again. Depending on what next year's Grail is speced like, I might flip this, and buy a Di2 GRX model next year.
 

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