Have you ridden with them loaded? Any shimmy, like on fast downhills?
I mostly use underframe bag (this one:
https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/...nture-boss-frame-bag/p/35555/?colorCode=black). I haven't carried a heavy load in it ever because I haven't done a bike packing style trip. It does hold a mid size u-lock, tire pressure gauge, hex tool, phone etc. in a much more comfortable (to me) way than a backpack or jersey with pockets on it could. A lot of that stuff could go in the down tube storage but it would be harder to get to there. I can't say I've noticed the bag distorting handling very much when I take it off. I do think it's slows me down marginally but that could be in my head.
Vibration, shock, something else?
Rough, dry dirt paths are the issue I think the bars might be able to solve. I experience high frequency vibrations in my arms (not my ass) and I think the fancy bars on the SLR level bikes are supposed to have some kind of gel core thing to help soak those up (see
here). Even chunky gravel feels fine and I doubt anything short of a full suspension mountain bike would help with roots which are the big impacts that aren't getting damped as much as I would prefer.
Interesting - here I have been racking my brain to restomod old steel to electronic shift.
My mini review on Rival e-Tap AXS - It's not clear to me it improves shift quality or speed, if there's a difference there it's pretty subtle. Some combination of the 1x chainring and eTap tech have fully eliminated chain drops that are not attributable to very bent derailleurs (I have shifted off the cassette and into the wheel twice and both times had very bent derailleurs from crashes that turned out to have been more significant than I thought at the time). In that sense eTap seems a bit more robust than a mechanical 2x GRX group set my wife has been running which has had rare, though more frequent than mine, chain drops. The biggest issue I have with eTap (and this is admittedly 100% user error) is that it's very possible to forget to put the battery back on after charging or if you remove it (as recommended) due to taking the bike on a long road trip. The battery issue is only really notable because I don't see a ton of obvious benefits to the system.
I don't have a lot of interest in trying Shimano Di2 setups because charging them would be harder (I gather you have to plug the bike in, the battery doesn't detach). I do think the removable (and swappable - on very long rides I carry a charged spare) SRAM setup is on balance better even though I find forgetting the battery frustratingly common.
Edit: also, I have a bit of paranoia about forgetting to charge frame integrated lithium ion batteries after I killed an old e-bike by neglecting to plug it in last winter.
Just straight line some potholes on a downhill - that'll teach your wheelsuckers
(You're not wrong, though there is also a period of adaptation when one joins any given group ride/wolfpack)
Yeah, I need to get back on that horse. I seem to be competitive enough I get cranky when I'm losing in part because of things I know money would help address. I'd rather buy a new mountain bike than the new wheels so I've been trying to control myself on that one...
Overall been great and had a ton of fun this summer with it
www.rodbicycles.com
