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The "Monique choosing a mountain bike" thread!

AmyPJ

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Probably you shouldn't ;-) But when I'm out there in July, we could swap for a bit? (Swapping with my aunt for about 3 seconds a few years ago showed us that we each hated the other's bike!)
I'm game! We both ride flats, so easy enough!
 

Ron

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Congrats and many happy miles. Fwiw, i9's are a pretty light hub but those stock wheels are just fine and will be great.
 
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Monique

Monique

bounceswoosh
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The "thingie" is the star ratchet mechanism in a DT Swiss hub.

Thanks! Some googling after my post made me suspect as much ;-)

Congrats and many happy miles. Fwiw, i9's are a pretty light hub but those stock wheels are just fine and will be great.

Thank you, and I don't want to know that! Just let me labor under my delusions, kthx!
 
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Monique

Monique

bounceswoosh
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Hah. @Ron you were right - got there for the fit, and the cranks were the wrong length. Honestly I'm sure 175 would have been fine, but 170 will be better. So. Tomorrow. I will get the bike during the heat of the day.

I'm telling myself it will get me to study more.
 
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Tony S

I have a confusion to make ...
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Hah. @Ron you were right - got there for the fit, and the cranks were the wrong length. Honestly I'm sure 175 would have been fine, but 170 will be better. So. Tomorrow. I will get the bike during the heat of the day.

I'm telling myself it will get me to study more.

I've always ridden with 170s. New bike has 175s. It's different. Still trying to decide how much I want to go back. For now I'm treating it as an experiment.
 
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Monique

Monique

bounceswoosh
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I've always ridden with 170s. New bike has 175s. It's different. Still trying to decide how much I want to go back. For now I'm treating it as an experiment.

I probably agonized over the choice more than is reasonable. Ultimately the extra 5mm of clearance seemed worth a day's wait.

My sales person felt so bad about it that he offered to let me swing by at 6am tomorrow (before the heat settles in) and he would swap in the cranks from a demo bike. But that seemed excessive. I told him I could wait, and it would give me another chance to study.
 

AmyPJ

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I probably agonized over the choice more than is reasonable. Ultimately the extra 5mm of clearance seemed worth a day's wait.

My sales person felt so bad about it that he offered to let me swing by at 6am tomorrow (before the heat settles in) and he would swap in the cranks from a demo bike. But that seemed excessive. I told him I could wait, and it would give me another chance to study.
It's worth it, trust me. The 175s were fine, but I did have quite a few more pedal strikes than in the past, and the extra leverage required, well, needless to say, I'm finally swapping out for 170s.
 
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Monique

Monique

bounceswoosh
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It's worth it, trust me. The 175s were fine, but I did have quite a few more pedal strikes than in the past, and the extra leverage required, well, needless to say, I'm finally swapping out for 170s.

Yeah - the deciding data point for me was when I said, "Well, how much would it cost to swap them out later?" and he quoted some number like $350 (they're fancy pants cranks).

The data points that led up to this decision:

* We're pretty sure when I demo'd the bike, it had 170s (the bike was out yesterday, so we couldn't check), and I liked riding it
* I am very sensitive to pedal strikes (not that I expect to avoid them completely, but if I can skip some, that's better)
* Usually for people my height he prefers 170mm

The question mark was the tradeoff. My old bike has 175mm, and I never minded (but it has a higher BB). I was told that a with a shorter crank, it will be easier to grind up climbs - with a longer crank, I get more "oomph" to pedal the back wheel up a lip. I do like that oomph, but I already knew that the Yeti with shorter cranks has more oomph than my 26er with longer cranks, so it's fine.

Honestly, I'm sure I would have been 100% fine with 175, but it would be silly to take something "fine" instead of "optimal" just to get the bike a day earlier.
 

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