Salsa Cycles Fargo Page

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Rainy Day Fiddlin'

Once I get this plugged in, then it's on!
With hurricane Patricia's remains about to drench us, I had no alternative but to high tail it home, even though I had a bit of spare time on my hands in the afternoon. So, I started fiddlin' with this new Raleigh Roker LTD that was sent over for test/review on RidingGravel.com.

I bought some Teravail Cannonball tires to check out, and the Roker LTD has tubeless ready American Classic Argent disc wheels on it, so......why not? I got the front one done quite easily, but the back one? That will have to wait until tomorrow. Why? Because I have to plug the bike in. 

Yep. This is a Di2 equipped rig, and the battery is completely dead. It came out of the box stuck in its lowest gear in the back, so until I can get that rear derailleur shifted out of the way, the back tire remains tubed. Yeah.......I could get the wheel out, but I figure I'll wait till I get the battery charged first. So......why don't I have it charged yet? Well, you see, I didn't get the charger, which is specific to this set up, with the bike. I mistakenly thought we had all we needed at the shop, but apparently this new stuff takes a different charger. Well........of course it does. No worries. A new charger should be here today and I'll get that battery charged up, ride the bike a bit, then swap out that tire tomorrow, most likely.

Batteries, chargers, and bicycles? I never thought I'd be saying those three words in the same sentence, but that's the way things have gone now. I hear great things about the Di2 stuff, so now I will get to try it and judge it for myself. Stay tuned......

3 comments:

  1. I just spent the weekend with a Di2 equipped rig. It worked fine. Its weird hearing the servos moving the front derailleur; its really loud. The one thing I really didn't like were the shifter buttons. They're terrible. I was constantly hitting the wrong one because I couldn't feel the difference between the two.
    I am curious as to what you think of those wheels. I've looked into them before but I don't have any experience with them.

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  2. @Daniel Lemke: Interesting that you should bring up the button's similarities. I have already found that to be a nit just from working on Di2 bikes in the work stand. I have heard that some Pros have taped bits of grippy "sandpaper" to one of the buttons on each lever to help with that issue. Any tactile difference would be appreciated, I suppose. I may do something along those lines to test that theory out as I get things underway here.

    I have not run the Argents before, but I have spent a little time on the Hurricane Disc wheels from Am Classic and liked those well enough. We shall see.....

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  3. They have become everything bicycles were supposed to free us from! UGH!

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