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I am fortunate and, at the moment, own four bikes: a Surly Straggler, a Niner SIR 9 (circa 2016), a Niner RLT 9 RDO, and a Wabi Classic. Of my four bikes, I am consistently the most excited to reach for my Wabi. The Straggler has a stuff-of-dreams paint job but its rear end noodles around when I mash the pedals. The SIR 9 is a smooth XC hardtail with ample frame space for bikepacking but can be timid on descents. The RLT RDO is great at what it’s built for—going fast and straight on gravel—but front-end handling can feel dead on the road which, unfortunately, has been its most common surface. I learned about Wabi Cycles a few years ago while wading through bike forums and blogs about single-speed steel frames. At the time, I was hoping to spend less than $500 on a single speed to kick around on. The consensus from the bike-forum community was that it'd be worthwhile to spend a few extra hundred in exchange for a Reynolds-725-tubing bike thoughtfully designed by a then one-man operation from Los Angeles. The bikeforumsphere was right. I’ve owned my Wabi Classic for three years and, after spinning over 2,000 miles on it, I can confidently say it’s my favorite bike. Why? For five somewhat overlapping reasons: fast acceleration, nimble steering, eager climbing, smooth bump absorption, and, well, look at it. Five reasons why my Wabi Classic is my favorite bike Quick acceleration Prior to riding the Wabi, my main frame of reference was my Surly Straggler. Compared with the Straggler, the Wabi is a rocket. Part of the speed disparity is due to weight. My size 61 Wabi weighs 21.6 pounds with a saddle bag, while the Straggler (size 58) tipped the scales at 28 lbs, even as a single speed (but including its rack, its dynamo front hub, and aluminium fenders). Apart from the weight, I attribute its brisk acceleration to its wheelset and its stiff rear triangle. Somehow, the wheels, which came stock on a sub-$1,000 complete bike, are a glaring exception to Keith Bontrager's aphorism: "strong, light, cheap: pick two." The acceleration also comes from the frame stiffness. When I pedal hard on the Wabi, I sense that most of the energy goes towards spinning the rear wheel. Not true with the Straggler; some gets used to bend the tubes like macaroni. Admittedly, the Straggler has no pretense about racing, as its name implies, so the Wabi-Straggler acceleration comparison is perhaps unfair. Still, after having been introduced to steel by Surly, as many are, I was pleased to learn from the Wabi that steel does not have to mean slow acceleration. Nimble steering The Wabi’s handling is on the nimble side of the agility-stability spectrum, but nonetheless feels well balanced. On the old webpage—before the company was sold from LA to Tulsa—the geometry was described as somewhere between track and classic road. I’ve never owned either type of bike, but I assume that description is apt. The Wabi is one of those bikes where I can tell it to turn simply by thinking. It requires very little body English to initiate a turn and, in the turn, it holds my chosen trajectory well, neither urging me to turn more sharply nor to straighten out. Turning the Niner RLT 9 RDO, by comparison, feels like making a right turn with a semi truck. Somewhat ironically, this slower handling can make the RLT feel less stable, even skittish, as a result. Per Clint Gibbs, this handling characteristic may be due to the rather short fork offset on the RLT (45 mm) resulting in a higher trail number. For what it’s worth, the Straggler splits this handling difference nicely—a bit more relaxed than the Wabi but more predictable and lively (at least upfront) than the RLT. Despite being nimble, the Wabi feels composed going downhill at high speed. Because the handling is so intuitive, I am not bothered by its quickness because it’s predictable. Its agility simply makes the descent more fun. It has no problem dodging a pothole without notice at 25 mph. The RLT RDO, by contrast, would have no choice but to go up and over. Eager climbing When the bike is pointed uphill, the stiff rear triangle and one-with-the-bike feel of single speed makes climbing a lot of fun. I find it refreshing, even exciting, to forget about which gear I should shift into and focus entirely on putting power to the pedals. It also has a fairly high bottom bracket (62 mm drop on Wabi compared with 72 on Straggler). (I recently learned that a higher bottom bracket can make a bike climb better because it has less room to swing between pedal strokes. Interesting.) Because it's so fun to climb with, the Wabi is a great training bike. Out-of-the-saddle climbing on a single speed is my favorite way to try hard on a bike. I like that it's more of a full-body anaerobic workout than spin-to-win cycling. When the hill grades approach double digits, single-speed climbing can feel like upper-body pull day in the weightroom. Smooth bump absorption Finally, it wouldn’t be a discussion about a steel-frame bike without a word on its bump-absorbing abilities. It has good vibration dampening on pavement and even feels fairly supple on light gravel. I enjoyed riding it on 28s through the gravel roads of Dupont State Park, for example. If I had choices, it wouldn’t be my steed of choice for a long, bumpy, gravel ride, but it would do the job. It’s not quite as supple as my other steel dropbar bike, the Straggler, especially out back. The rear end is comfortably firm and absorbs chatter but is not flexy. The strikingly short 400 mm chainstays on the Wabi don’t have much wiggle room, but as mentioned, do transfer power. Compared with the rear, I find the front end to be more compliant, which, at this writing, is aided by a 32 mm tire under the fork (details below). In the rear, I use a 28. The rear will reluctantly clear a 32 (I did it for a while), but a 28 provides more breathing room. Aesthetics The ride characteristics alone would make this bike my favorite, but it also helps that it’s so easy on the eyes. It is important to me that my bikes not only spark joy while I ride them but also while I look at them in my living room. My only qualms with the bike: the stock build As much as I love the bike, I wasn’t always this smitten. I knew I liked the frame at first pedal stroke, but it took a while to dial in the touch points. The bike arrived stock with swoopy handlebars with a gigantic drop (Lead Tec LCH-609), a seatpost that wouldn’t hold, and a knife-like saddle. I tried to keep an open mind with the big-drop handlebars, but they were gone after a few rides. I can appreciate that Wabi was going for the namesake classic look, but the shape wasn’t for me. The brake-hood position never felt right (as you can see, I tried moving them around), and I prefer a shallower drop. In hopes of keeping the all-silver-everything aesthetic, I tried a Soma HWY One, which fit into the stock 26 mm stem clamp and certainly looked the part. Comfort was an improvement over the stock bar, but I still didn’t love it. Function eventually won out over aesthetics, and I found my way to the venerable Salsa Cowbell, which despite being clamped to a black 31.8 stem (an extra I had in a parts bin), doesn’t look bad wrapped in desert tan. The stock seatpost was also a P.I.T.A. It had one job--to hold the saddle--and it did not deliver. Fortunately, I was left with a spare seatpost after installing a dropper post on my SIR 9. Like the handlebars and stem, it’s also not silver, but it does hold the seat, which is nice. Almost no stock bike can hope to satisfy its rider’s saddle preferences. Fortunately, Wabi appears to now offer several options on their site. In any case, I now find myself atop a Chromag Trailmaster, a favorite of mine, which, if I dare say, pairs nicely with the gumwalls and bartape. In a way, I am relieved that the touch-point spec wasn't spot on. Something had to give considering the quality of the frame, wheelset, and $900 price point. I tend to swap around the touch points anyway, so they might as well be cheap in the stock delivery.
The rest of my build is the stock Wabi Classic build circa 2016, except:
My Wabi has proven itself to be a Classic. Of my four bikes, it’s the only one I don't foresee getting old.
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How to replace outer cog of SRAM XG-1099 10-speed cassette with up to 39 teeth: review of Ari cog9/17/2017 Summary SRAM X-DOME cassettes are fantastic. Having to buy a new XD driver is not. The 10-speed X-DOME is the biggest that doesn't require a special driver, but it has limited range (11T-36T). At this writing, familiar makers of cassette expanders don't make anything compatible with the XG-1099 cassette. Ari makes a 39T cog that works. For those looking to add range to their existing SRAM XG-1099, this is welcome news. Others may wonder why anyone would purchase this cassette in the first place given the bigger options available at a similar price point. Why pay so much for a 10-speed cassette? Apart from being lightweight and mud-clearing, the SRAM XG-1099 appealed to me because it's one piece of metal. I own a Niner SIR 9 and waver between single speed and geared, depending on terrain and mood. I grew tired of chasing down the tiny cogs and spacers in the stock SRAM PG-1030 cassette while changing between a cassette and a single cog. The single block of billet steel has proven to be a joy to wrench. Especially with comparably priced 11- and 12-speed options available I couldn't justify a new 11-speed or Eagle drivetrain when my 10-speed shifter (X7) and derailleur (X9, long cage) were in perfect working order. On the other hand, the XG-1099 retails for $320 for a 10-speed cassette; if that kind of coin was on the table, why not just upgrade the whole drivetrain? Budget aside, I chose the 10-speed because the 11-speed and Eagle versions of the X-DOME require the XD driver, which would have made single-speed conversion complicated at the time of purchase (that problem has since been solved). The initial driver of this cassette search was the pursuit of simplicity, after all. Plus, I assumed that I could expand the range of the 10-speed, given the array of aftermarket options to increase the range of popular cassettes (e.g., by Wolf Tooth, OneUp, or First Components). The search proved more difficult than expected. The only company I found who would add teeth to the XG-1099 cassette was Ari, an Italian maker of bike components. So I ordered a 39-tooth in red, by emailing info@aribike.it. Email correspondence was pleasant and prompt. Installation and weight Removing the aluminum outer ring from the steel set of cogs was nerve-wracking, given the value of this precious metal, but not that difficult. I used a flat-head screwdriver to pry it off slowly. Ari has instructions here. Installation was also simple, following the instructional video on Ari's website. Cog first, then spacer, then the rest of the cassette. The weight of the cassette with the new outer cog is 218 g. With the original, it is 194 g. Cost of cassette, including Ari Cog
My total cost: $247 Durability and performance That's admittedly a pretty expensive cassette, but it checks my criteria:
As for how the cog works, I've really liked it after 3 months. The aluminum outer ring has stayed flush with the steel cassette body, with no sign of movement. The teeth have not noticeably worn. The bright red paint has slowly given way to its metal roots, but I'm alright with the more subdued look. The cassette itself has already been heavily praised, and for good reason. It's a beautiful piece of metalsmithing that is incredibly lightweight (only 102 grams more than my Surly 20T single cog + spacers), shifts crisply, and completely ignores mud and debris. Would I recommend? This cassette build made sense for me, because I already had a working-order SRAM 10-speed shifter and derailleur. I can't say I would recommend this if building a drivetrain from scratch, however. It's just too expensive without providing that much range, especially considering Shimano has a cheaper 11-speed way to avoid an XD driver, and Problem Solvers have devised a way to make XD drivers single-speed convertible. Still, Ari has made my cassette pretty fly despite not being an Eagle. Summary The Straggler, as the name proudly suggests, is a slow road bike. While it can fit 2-inch tires, it's not really a mountain bike, either, if we're being honest with ourselves. Its realistic calling is mostly pavement with an eager taste for dirt. Fenders are also good to maintain dreamy glitter. The best tire I have found that 1) fits under 45-mm fenders, 2) rolls fast on pavement, and 3) handles singletrack is the Hutchinson Override 38. My Straggler has had 32s (Panaracer Ribmos) on it for most of its life, but I recently realized I could get more out of the bike by adding some cushion. With 32s, the Straggler is a pretty fast road bike with the right engine, but there's a ten-pound reason my Wabi Classic broke all of its Strava PRs. On the other side of the spectrum, the frame will easily fit 700x43 Bruce Gordon Rock N Roads. It's certainly fun to thrash around on singletrack with the Rock N Roads. Indeed, I embrace the notion of underbiking as a way to hone bike-handling skills. Still, the tires never last long, because, well, they make mountain bikes for singletrack, and my Straggler has errands to run. Unfortunately, errands typically require pavement, where the Rock N Roads are awfully slow. If the Straggler is a slow road bike and an under-biked moutain bike, is it great at anything? Yes. It's great at being a bike that rides mostly pavement but enthusiastically seeks dirt. The multi-tool field is crowded these days, but for the money, it's hard to beat a Surly. To complete my multi-tool, I needed a tire that would roll fast on pavement but wouldn't be intimated by the occasional singletrack. And on my quest to find the perfect tire for the Straggler, I had one major constraint. It had to fit under Handsome 45-mm fenders. (As an aside, I don't understand why the gravel-bike scene hasn't embraced fenders. Well, some have, but it's not a unified scene. There's a reason my purple paint still glitters strong after three years of year-round commuting.) Handsome says their 45-mm fenders will fit 38s. This width seems about right for the job, regardless of fender restriction. Much fatter, and it'd be slow on the road; much skinnier, and it'd be sketchy on dirt. After considering the Maxxis Rambler 38, Schwalbe G-One 38, and the Panaracer Gravelking 38, I decided on the Hutchinson Override 38. While the other three would have presumably done the job well, I went with the Hutchinson because it looked like the roadiest of the four, and, if I'm being honest with myself, that's where the bike will get the most use. True to Handsome's word, the fatties fit fine under the 45-mm fenders after a little wrenching with the struts. As advertised, I have been impressed with how fast these tires roll on pavement--not much slower than the Panaracer 32s and A LOT faster than the Rock N Road 43s. I attribute the speed to the low-key center knobs and the respectable 418-gram weight. They're comfortable, too, pairing nicely with the vibration-dampening Natch frame. And they have held their own on local ITP singletrack, with enough side knob and cushion to hold a dirt corner, but not so much so that the pavement ride to the trail is a slog. Note: this opinion is not motivated by any compensation from the tire manufacturer.
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