What is your "other" expensive hobby?

[jeep45238]

Finally added a new bicycle to the collection as my daily 'driver' around town; Trek Allant with hydraulic brakes, front and rear racks with folding baskets and panniers. It's my pickup truck. Hydraulic brakes are amazing, and it has no problem stopping with 60+ pounds of gear on top of the bike and rider weight using 1 finger pressure.

Also re-discovering knife sharpening. I use an Apex, and it's wonderful having only sharp knives in the house. Wifey is happy too.

Recently discovered LumTec, native to my home state of Ohio; one of their 24 hour watches will be on my Christmas lists for the coming years I think.

[olstyn]

Nice! How do you like the hydraulic brakes?

I've been curious about disc brakes on bikes, too. I'm not about to retrofit them to my old Trek 1200 road bike, but it's hard not to wonder about whether they'd be beneficial on a future bike.

[jeep45238]

If you ride when it's muddy, snowing, or raining it is worth it. If you ride with extra cargo/gear on your bike, it's worth it. If you find yourself having to adjust mechanical disks after a ride or two, it's worth it.

If you ride in good weather only, without a bunch of stuff, and don't have to deal with mountains or huge hills (going down) then it's not worth it.

[taadski]

I'm not too up to speed on the road cycling thing these days, but in the mountain biking/off road riding world, discs have been the standard for quite some time. I've been riding hydraulic discs (Magura initially) since the early 90s. There's really no down side to them nowadays, to include price, given all the trickle down tech going on. They do everything better. Debating the merits of them is kinda like debating whether smokeless powder is worthwhile. Just sayin'.

[Lex Luthier]

Weeellll, there's the thing about weight, and modulation, really. I've got a bunch of different brake systems here.
(for the record, I do not recommend rod-brakes for rain, or downhill riding. Especially not rainy downhill riding.) Will likely be adding mechanical discs to the mix on a cargo bike next spring.
Some of the hydraulic stuff I've seen recently is impressive; but I've been around long enough to know that for a whole lot of people, rim brakes are a completely viable choice.
I have test-ridden ridden one hydraulic-equipped bike; they were TRP Spyres, and they felt...pretty darned good. I was wondering what the SRAM sets were like.

[taadski]

Weeellll, there's the thing about weight, and modulation, really. I've got a bunch of different brake systems here.
(for the record, I do not recommend rod-brakes for rain, or downhill riding. Especially not rainy downhill riding.) Will likely be adding mechanical discs to the mix on a cargo bike next spring.
Some of the hydraulic stuff I've seen recently is impressive; but I've been around long enough to know that for a whole lot of people, rim brakes are a completely viable choice.
I have test-ridden ridden one hydraulic-equipped bike; they were TRP Spyres, and they felt...pretty darned good. I was wondering what the SRAM sets were like.

That's a neat bike...

Absolutely agree re calipers being viable. I still have an old set of Campys on my road bike (alas, as noted, it doesn't get ridden very often these days). I guess my point was the newer technology, from a price point perspective, is pretty comparable currently if you're buying new. Admittedly the retrofit thing isn't very convenient or cheap though, unless you go with a hydro rim-brake setup or something.

FWIW, I've actually found hydraulics (especially discs) modulate quite notably better; more consistently and more precisely under load, than their counterparts. But again, I get your drift re calipers still working very adequately for the masses.

I don't have any first hand experience with SRAM's new brake stuff. I've used their drive train and shifting components pretty extensively though and have had no issues. I HAVE heard some passing hubbub re their brakes not being quite up to snuff in contrast to other options (specifically Shimano and Magura) but, again, that's not first hand. I can tell you that I demo'd a trail bike the other month with 2016 SLX (read budget, low to midrange) hydraulic brakes and was BLOWN AWAY with the performance and how far they've come in recent years. And pretty dirt cheap compared to even just a few years ago.

Anyway, I'll shut up about bike brakes now.

And yeah, yay bikes! They're cool.

[MD7305]

Nice! How do you like the hydraulic brakes?

I really like them but this is my first road-type bike with discs. I've been using hydro disc brakes on mountain bikes for about 12 years now and I really like the benefits they afford you especially in adverse conditions. I prefer SRAM components over Shimano mostly because I've always preferred twist shifters. All of my disc brakes have been Avid/SRAM (Elixir, Guide, and now Rival) but I had a set of Shimano XT hydro discs on one bike and liked them quite well. From what I'm told by my mechanic lots of riders in Enduro and DH prefer Shimano as they seem to tolerate the heat with heavy, sustained braking better than SRAM. I've personally seen a SRAM equipped downhill bikes brake fluid turn black after only a few rides. I trail ride, cross country style stuff, and I've never had problems but I was never hard on rim brakes either. I agree that Shimanos SLX, XT, and XTR are the bomb but my latest set of SRAM Guides are as good as my last set of XT discs.

This Marin I posted above is my first road oriented disc bike. The discs are the same diameter as my mountain bike (160mm) so I don't forsee any issue aside from me over utilizing them and ending up on the road!

[MD7305]

Anyway, I'll shut up about bike brakes now.

And yeah, yay bikes! They're cool.

We should start a bike oriented thread. I think there are several cyclists around here.

[orionz06]

Road disc is something I wanna try but it does seem like something that needs modulated correctly to prevent endo's.

[jeep45238]

I just read the build thread for this. That is a talented, very clean install with a clear end vision from the onset of the project. I'm pretty humbled and jealous. If it ever comes time to sell that car, please let me know.

This nonsense