Some new DJ content
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So, Dylan going with Thunderburts instead of Race Kings?
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2.35 Burts for the bigger volume
Pretty sure heās always trained on burts and raced on racekings?
What water bottles are those?
Itās certainly not the prettiest/lightest build, but heās got the right idea! A bit surprised to see him go with fairly wide SES AR bars, but as he mentioned, he might come to appreciate just that tiny bit extra buffer for the technical stuff over his typical 35cm gravel bars.
Water Bottles; Elite Fly 950ml
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Iām a gravel guy not really knowledge in the MTB world but how can DJs bike weigh 23lbs and Cole Paton (based on his IG story) can get his flat bar sub 17lbs. Seems insane to me. Surly drop bars donāt weigh that much more !?
Hardtail frames can be built pretty lightweight. 900g and below is not unheard of wheras a full sus XC frame is easily 1900g+ (s-works epic evo 7). 17lbs or 7.71kg for a hardtail is pretty damn light, like dangerholm level weight weenie. Comparing that to a dropbar full sus XC bike with dropper is apples to oranges.
Going that full weight weenie Iād be worried about breaking something like DJ did testing those lightweight flat barsā¦
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This whole dropbar MTB conversation has shifted over to the Keegan Bike check thread. Donāt want to derail the discussion over there so I hope still some people are reading here.
I have a 2018 trek procaliber sl that Iām in the process of converting to a dropbar mtb. The frame accepts 36t front chainring and ideally Iād be at least on a 38 or even 40t.
I need a new crankset for this bike anyway so I was thinking either getting a transmission gx crank or just shimming an eagle crankset a few mm over to get a chainline that wirks with a bigger chainring.
What would you do?
It would depend on how much you like a slimmer Q-factor (or rather, stance) should you be forced to go a bit wider with the crank.
But maybe this could stay unchanged so the probably worse problem would be the chain angle on the inner sprockets. This of course is also a bit of a preference (and depends on the terrain / gradients you tend to ride most often in). So maybe a bias towards the outer sprockets would be even welcomed by you.
But be aware that the chain will sound awful on the 1 to 3 innermost sprockets aka climbing gears (the audible sign youāre wasting Watts and instead of propelling yourself forward with it rather grinding your drive train down) and you could experience problems with backpedaling there. This will be the more problematic the shorter your chain stays are.
I can say from my own experience with a stock Canyon Exceed which came with rather wide Shimano SLX cranks (their widest) and thus a whopping 56.5 chainline (really made for superboost instead of making sense on a boost hard tail) that I instantly felt something was off and wrong upon the first test rides (again - stock, no conversion done whatsoever).
I changed it to their slimmest XTR crank with chainline 52 mm and voilĆ”: no audible chain noises, much cleaner running, as good as an drive train efficiency as you can possibly get from a 1x system, also in the climbing gears.
Interesting to hear your experience. I donāt mind the 52mm chainline nor the Q factor of my Hardtail - on the contrary. I have the +4mm wide axles on my SPD SL and 2mm spacers on my roadbike. I can get more power trough the cranks with a wider stance.
I wasnāt aware of the drivetrain problems that come along with a spaced iut crankset.
Iām not even sure if the Transmission cranks are compatible with eagle chainrings. Have to dig in some more.
Iām paging @CincoGirl here. Can you share your thoughts and experiences on riding a 56mm chainline on your trek procaliber?
I wouldnāt shim anything. The chain line was designed to work as it is. Do you really think you need a 40t on a MTB? 
Unless your rides are averaging in the mid-20mph+ it doesnāt make much sense to me, but so many people seem to think that they need to have gravel gearing on their MTBs. Donāt forget that the bigger tire increases your gear inches on its own.
Iād be willing to bet that a 36t would work well for most of what you need. Maybe try it first. 
Then if you need a bigger ring you can see what fits without shims. A lot of people run 38t on those, but Iām not sure if they have 55mm chainrings or not.
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If I was interested in trying this kind of thing, how much shorter stems are you using than flat bars? Currently at 100mm with 660 bars
Not sure about swapping rings, but t-type rings are compatible with Eagle chains. No issue running transmission crank and rings on an eagle drivetrain.
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I agree many folks overestimate their gearing needs, but it really depends on the course (and rider) as much as average speed. Before I had a gravel bike, I raced gravel for a few seasons on my scott spark RC with a 38 ring. Never got dropped due to gearing, but it wasnāt optimal at times and there are courses (and wind conditions) where a 38 will certainly get you dropped. Iāll also use my MTB for road training (including fast group rides) when prepping for some MTB races and I have been dropped many times running a 38. All it takes is a big tailwind on an extended false flat (downhill). I do think the gearing limitation on MTBās is a real thing if we are talking about using drop bar MTBās for gravel racing. The gearing limitation is the primary reason I moved away from the MTB for most gravel races. And while I considered drop bars on that bike multiple times, I could never find a good suspension lockout remote that would work well with drop bars.
If you go that route, keep in mind that going with a t-type crank does not guarantee youāll have a wider chainline compared to an eagle crank. Itās a function of the rings and the cranks ship with either zero offset rings or 3mm offset rings. Youāll want the zero offset ring to get a wider (55mm) chainline. My new epic came with the a GX transmission crank with 3mm offset (so 52mm chainline). I swapped to a different crank and went with zero offset rings to get the 55mm chainline (which is technically required to run a 38 ring on that frame). Iām considering that bike for Big Sugar this year (just for fun) and hoping I can make a 40t ring work. Iām not a fan of shimming a crank off center, but might consider it if it comes down to less than 1mm.
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Just wanted to point out that the above only applies to DUB bottom brackets. GX T-Type cranks with Wide DUB and 3mm offset chainring do make a 55mm chainline.
Sorry for nit-picking 
The conversion is still in progress so I havenāt had the opportunity to ride it.
Considering the Supercaliber has a very similar C/S length and is a 55mm chainline, Iām not terribly concerned, but Iām going to stay away from the 51t cog as much as possible.
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No, good call. I wasnāt even thinking about that and I think that crank was a wide dub.
The chainline thing was a big point of confusion when I got that bike. I wanted the narrow 168 Q-factor version of the XXSL powermeter crank and it took multiple calls (and SRAM initially sending the wrong rings) between specialized, SRAM, and my LBS before they came to a consensus on the proper chainring offset to get a 55mm chainline. I canāt remember what all the confusion was about, but I think it was related to having 2 versions of the new threaded ring powermeter cranks. The 174 Q factor version only supports 55mm chainline (using a 3mm offset ring). The 168q version I got looks identical, but supports 55mm chainline (with zero offset ring) and 52mm chainline (with the 3mm offset ring). If you look on srams website, they didnāt even show the different versions and it looks like there is only a 55mm chainline option for the XXSL crank.