It's mixed, some stuff has decent value, but they simply don't serve lower price ranges. And the low sales volume means they can't directly compete on price with the big players. But IMO the stuff is worth the money...
And unlike Apple, the products are actually useful 😜
So I'm already taking a big detour to avoid the small residential streets as they are so dangerous. But still I can't avoid a certain 50m stretch. Again, got harassed and yelled at for not riding in the dooring zone. The guy told me that cycling doesn't have a future if we ride like that. So we should either a) risk our lives by riding in the dooring zone/gutter b) drive, because apparently that is the only valid option?!
also on the weekend: car driver somehow feeling the need to dangerously overtake us in a 30km/h road only to drive exactly our speed (30.5km/h according to the Garmin) in front of us o.O
@Erlkoenig don't get bothered by them. Smile at them and look at them as if they were a child throwing a tantrum. Let hypertension take care of he rest.
Side streets are typically much safer. Worst are cycle paths on arterial roads where drivers do quick right turns.
It's a bit more hassle to check for traffic from the right at every intersection but it's usually pretty safe as drivers don't have automatically right of way and need to slow down themselves
@gschenk Easier said than done. If you don't have a very thick skin... The repeated occurrence of this strains the nerves
@gschenk Sadly lots of drivers take this particular side street, and it has no bike lane, and they all are in a crazy hurry and can't even spare a second.
It's not a thick skin, it's the attitude. You don't get hurt by a small child throwing a tantrum. If you don't respect those people and treat them like a naughty child you don't need a thick skin as their utterances are meaningless.
That's why I take the centre so they don't even try to squeeze through.
At those speeds it's unlikely for them to injure me seriously by negligence or incompetence. It has to be intentional and I dare them to attempt manslaughter.
Very few people are going so far to intentionally hurt you.
@Erlkoenig No they would not. You are exaggerating it for more effect. Most people are very reluctant to hurt others on purpose, even when they are enraged.
@Erlkoenig yes, I had this a few times. I slapped one on the roof, that made them go slow and realise what they did. Flipped another off which made them even more angry than me /grin/.
@Erlkoenig big talk in peer groups. You get that in all comments about things some people hate. Just post a recipe for a vegan fruit salad and you get death threats.
@Erlkoenig people who do punishment passes get so angry about it that they are more likely to get out and try to knock you from your bike than reporting it to the police.
@Erlkoenig if it's too dangerous I go slower to increase chance for reaction and lower impact speeds.
@gschenk Eh, they can use it as a weapon, even if they're blinded by anger. Get you to pay a hefty fine for flipping them off, so you don't try to mess with drivers again
@Erlkoenig if they want to play that game, play it. You risk a fine, but they risk 1 month without a car. By being pleasant for everyone to deal with they place the onus at themselves.
@Erlkoenig yep, most road rage guys don't have the self esteem to face consequences and run away.
@Erlkoenig main thing there is the police. You can change a lot by being polite, pleasant, and wee bit stoic. Last time they asked me after 15 min of listening to the tantrum of the guy who got me there why I wanted to report them. They threw him out with a stern request not to bother them for such trifling matters.
@Erlkoenig a lot of them overtake just because they're in a car and we are cyclists. They don't have enough foresight to realise it doesn't make them any faster.
@DavidW When I am about to cover my arms with thin UV arm covers, and then wear a bike jersey on top (it's best if the jersey's sleeves go slightly over the arm covers), I keep wondering whether I might not be better off with just a long-sleeve ultra-thin jersey instead. After all, when riding in the sun I will in any case not take off the arm covers.
Likewise now for leg covers. Would it not make sense to just wear long bibs rather than short ones, and get over the leg covering part without having to put on another item?
Might it just be the case that it's difficult to impossible to find jerseys and bibs that are thin enough to keep ventilation high, and UV protection also high?
@gschenk I do notice that although Canadians are in general reputed to be (if not actually) nicer than Americans, American drivers are distinctly more polite and deferential than Canadian drivers.
The only explanation I could come up with is that an American driver will always assume that another driver might have a gun in his glove compartment, and angering an unknown person may not be such a good idea.
Canadians, on the other hand, will express their discontent more visibly while driving.
(Moral of the story: you don't know how far they'll go; and they are in a car and you're just on a bike.)
@gschenk I had license plate, driver description, everything. Waited an hour for the cops to show up. Even managed to find where the driver lived, told the cops everything. Nothing ever happened.
Another time I was intentionally struck by a vehicle. Had witnesses, license plate, etc. Nothing. 6 months later the same asshole did a punishment pass in the same location.
Another driver pulled up beside me and started forcing me to the kerb. I slammed on the brakes, he stopped, rolled the window down and told me if I ever got in his way again he'd take the bat from behind his seat and beat me to death. (I was riding all of 1m from the kerb on a 4 lane road; he had an entire free lane to use.)
Cops. Did. Nothing.
If the solution to any problem involves cops, you do not have a solution to the problem. Cops are the problem.
@Erlkoenig On the topic of Campagnolo, I've seen that Canyon now sells an Italianized version of the Grizl AL (Ekar, Fulcrum, Pirelli) for 2.5k€. Seems like a good deal.
@Erlkoenig Looks like they got very good deals on Campy stuff and the rest, the rest is seem like it's very good mid-range stuff (Rapid Fulcrum Red 5 wheels, Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H). No-name components with Canyon usually.
Putting a high-end road groupset like Ultegra on a cheap bike would be wasted potential/performance... But a high-end gravel groupset on a cheap bike might not be a bad idea, as its main advantages aren't weight/performance, but reliability, comfort, gearing, braking power. So actually an interesting concept.
What should be done about 8 years old unanswered questions that need updates where the OP is a 1 rep user who has never logged in again? Let's say I raise a flag, is this the kind of question a moderator can delete right away or it would go through a voting process? I say that because those questions are a bit annoying when browsing the unanswered questions queue.
