Roval and Specialized appear to be returning to road tubeless after last year’s curious non-tubeless tubeless wheel launch, we question the merits of Ratio Technology’s latest 12-speed conversion kit, and — no surprise — Shimano made a heck of a lot of money last year.
But we also now have more concrete proof that the Covid-fueled bike boom might finally be cooling off a bit. And what’s Dave Rome’s favorite chain checker? What’s on the Nerds’ wish list for internal cable routing? How do you graphics off of DT Swiss hubs? And do Cushcore gravel inserts work with all rims?
We tackle all of that in this week’s Ask a Mechanic segment.

OldGrumpyH8ters gonna hate

The CyclingTips Nerd Alert Podcast dives deep into the bikes and tech we all love. Road, gravel, mountain bikes, we cover it all. Hosted by James Huang, Dave Rome, and Caley Fretz.

Sports

Much of the attention on the Right to Repair movement in cycling has been concentrated on hard goods, like bikes, wheels, components, and so on. But it’s also important to remember that you can often fix clothing and bags at a nominal cost after a crash or even just due to wear and tear. Why throw it away when you can bring it back to life? In this week’s episode, we chat with two brands – Velocolour and Ortlieb – who are doing just that.

A new lease on life for clothing and bags

The Nerd Alert podcast had an unplanned week off, but rest assured we’re now back on schedule. In this episode, Senior tech editor Dave Rome chats with No.22’s co-founder Bryce Gracey. For those unfamiliar with No.22, let’s just say they’re often one of our first stops at the USA-based custom bike shows they attend.
This episode has a varied chat: including a deep-dive on the updates that No.22 revealed at the Philly Bike Expo, geometry concepts, stealthy travel bikes, and more. Enjoy!

Advancing metal bikes with No.22

One fun fact came out during our discussions with Specialized engineering mastermind Chris D’Aluisio: much of his testing of the company’s new Diverge STR fully suspended gravel bike has been on tarmac with a full complement of road components. In his words? “It’s awesome!” That got us thinking, especially given D’Aluisio’s background in Moto GP racing: if full suspension is good for gravel, then might it also make sense on the road, too? Give this one a listen before you pick up the pitchfork.

Suspension on gravel bikes

This week's episode is all about aerodynamics, efficiency, Filippo Ganna, and how Dan Bigham engineered two hour records.

Dan Bigham explains how hour records are broken

With the news that Pinarello's new Bolide F HR 3D track bike is the first UCI-approved 3D printed bike, Ronan visited Metron Dimitris Katsanis and find out how a bike is 3D printed and why.

OldGrumpyH8ters gonna hate

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