kizarmynot
Well-Known Member
I just completed a two week tour of the Erie Canal Trail (750 miles total) on my Q45 and want to share my bike setup as well as a few other things that may be helpful to others. Because this could be a long post I've broken it into several parts: Bike Setup, Gear Load, General Riding and Bike Skills, and What Worked and Needs Improvement. I'll start with the bike setup in this post.
Bike Setup
This is a picture taken during my shakedown ride. A few things changed along the way so I'll make note of those. I'll also only point out things that are not standard.
Starting from the ground and working up, I had a pair of wheels built by Peter White. These are Cliffhanger 559 (26”) 36-hole rims and White Industry XMR hubs. I have had good luck with Surly ExtraTerrestrial tires in the past, so I opted for the 26x46 running tubeless. Front and rear tires surrounded by Planet Bike fenders.
The drivetrain is SRAM GX AXS 12 speed derailleur. I originally installed the GX mechanical groupset and it worked great. I was surprised at the ease of shifting for a mechanical shifter, but I have always been concerned with the arthritis creeping in so converted to electronic. Overall very happy except with battery monitoring in the app. I purchased a second battery during my mid-way rest stop and will always carry it along.
I also wax my chain using Silca products. Love them and don't see a reason to change.
Pedals are from Pedaling Innovations. The larger platform gives me more options to place my foot. Up to this point my arch has been a little forward of the spindle and this was not much of a problem during previous rides. However, riding 6 hours per day for many days in a row I started developing foot discomfort that went away when repositioning my foot or getting off the bike. More on this topic in a later post.
I started off with my main water bottle mounted on the boom. This is another thing that worked well for short rides but the repeated use when removing and replacing the water bottle resulted in the bottle holder slipping around. I removed it a few days in because of my improved ability to access a water bottle behind the seat. More on that later too.
A Ventisit pad replaced the standard seat pad. As you can see it is fairly upright. I had tried reclining the seat a bit but discovered I needed a headrest beyond this point. For rides of a few hours prior to the tour I'd get some minor RB pain but nothing that I would say was too problematic. Unfortunately that wasn't the case for this trip. I'll touch more on this later.
Another great modification (IMO) I made was changing the handlebars to the Jones H-Bar Loop. I used these on two other DF bikes I rode in the past and enjoyed them but have to say I was really surprised at how much I like them on my Q. I used the entire length of the grip depending on how I was riding, and the loop is a great place for the computer, phone mount, light (not shown) and my bell. I can't say enough about the bars.
Additional Cruzbike accessories include the rear and underseat racks as well as the short crankset. I also started off with a SteerStopper and ClikStand. I failed to disengage the SteerStopper one too many times and the strap developed problems. I am still a firm believer in the product and ordered a replacement that is now in the queue for post-ride modifications. The ClikStand was awesome, but I lost it at some point - what a bummer. I ordered a new one and hope it arrives before my next tour.
I'll talk about my gear load in the next post.
Bike Setup
This is a picture taken during my shakedown ride. A few things changed along the way so I'll make note of those. I'll also only point out things that are not standard.
Starting from the ground and working up, I had a pair of wheels built by Peter White. These are Cliffhanger 559 (26”) 36-hole rims and White Industry XMR hubs. I have had good luck with Surly ExtraTerrestrial tires in the past, so I opted for the 26x46 running tubeless. Front and rear tires surrounded by Planet Bike fenders.
The drivetrain is SRAM GX AXS 12 speed derailleur. I originally installed the GX mechanical groupset and it worked great. I was surprised at the ease of shifting for a mechanical shifter, but I have always been concerned with the arthritis creeping in so converted to electronic. Overall very happy except with battery monitoring in the app. I purchased a second battery during my mid-way rest stop and will always carry it along.
I also wax my chain using Silca products. Love them and don't see a reason to change.
Pedals are from Pedaling Innovations. The larger platform gives me more options to place my foot. Up to this point my arch has been a little forward of the spindle and this was not much of a problem during previous rides. However, riding 6 hours per day for many days in a row I started developing foot discomfort that went away when repositioning my foot or getting off the bike. More on this topic in a later post.
I started off with my main water bottle mounted on the boom. This is another thing that worked well for short rides but the repeated use when removing and replacing the water bottle resulted in the bottle holder slipping around. I removed it a few days in because of my improved ability to access a water bottle behind the seat. More on that later too.
A Ventisit pad replaced the standard seat pad. As you can see it is fairly upright. I had tried reclining the seat a bit but discovered I needed a headrest beyond this point. For rides of a few hours prior to the tour I'd get some minor RB pain but nothing that I would say was too problematic. Unfortunately that wasn't the case for this trip. I'll touch more on this later.
Another great modification (IMO) I made was changing the handlebars to the Jones H-Bar Loop. I used these on two other DF bikes I rode in the past and enjoyed them but have to say I was really surprised at how much I like them on my Q. I used the entire length of the grip depending on how I was riding, and the loop is a great place for the computer, phone mount, light (not shown) and my bell. I can't say enough about the bars.
Additional Cruzbike accessories include the rear and underseat racks as well as the short crankset. I also started off with a SteerStopper and ClikStand. I failed to disengage the SteerStopper one too many times and the strap developed problems. I am still a firm believer in the product and ordered a replacement that is now in the queue for post-ride modifications. The ClikStand was awesome, but I lost it at some point - what a bummer. I ordered a new one and hope it arrives before my next tour.
I'll talk about my gear load in the next post.
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