I bought a bike today... and haven't told my spouse

Is your frame a 54 or a 56 by chance?

Sounds like riding in a breakaway :slight_smile:

This happened to me recently - but i was trying to be sly. I upgraded my front forks from a Black Rockshox Judy Gold to a Black Fox Performance Elite 34. She noticed it straight away when I got home…

A local to me 5w/kg rider is on ā€œcheap transmission with box aluminum rimsā€ with cables hanging in the air and he literally rides everyone off his wheels every single week :man_shrugging:t3:

I’m just saying a cheap transmission works great with a great engine.

to OP, I know actually a lot of guys who use cable actuated disc brake calipers and have actually grown to really like them because they can dial in their lever feel preference. I actually have a friend converting his bike to a Di2 rim brake/disc brake swap right now because of the feel (granted he was on hydro mech Ultegra).

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Nope, 58.

Why would one put Ekar on an aero race bike?

I’ve read reviews of the Juin Tech calipers and nothing about them seems low end.

It’s just a thought at this point as I have a spare 11 speed groupset sitting here.

Because it has the right gearing. Not sure why Campag markets it as a gravel groupset. Gearing-wise it fits nicely on a road bike. 44:9 = 4.89 is the same gear ratio as 54:11 = 4.91 and smack in the middle of 48:10 and 50:10. Unless your name is Keegan Swenson, I wouldn’t call that gravel gearing. Their 9–36 cassette is perfect for road riding. Personally, I’d go for a 40-tooth chainring.

Plus, Ekar is cheaper than many other Campag options.

Edit: to expand on that, a 9–36 Ekar setup with a 40-tooth chainring will give you the same range (400 % ā‰ˆ 401 %) as a 50/34 setup with a 11–30 cassette. You can also get a different chainring and shift that upwards/downwards for more top end gears or more climbing gears. I would almost always err on the side of adding more climbing gears if you are not sure. With a smaller 38-tooth chainring, your top gear is a tad harder than 50:12 and your bottom gear ratio identical to 34:32.

Note that in all cases you will have more closely spaced gears than with a Shimano 11-speed setup or Shimano’s 12-speed 11–34 cassette. (Although the latter has more range.) And if you want more range, you could always opt for the 9–42 cassette, which gives you a very large range, provided you are ok with larger jumps between climbing gears.

In short, Ekar gives you road bike gearing with lots of closely spaced gears. If you like Campag’s thumb shifter and accept that you will need to get power meter pedals (Assiomas are still a great option), then this is worthwhile to consider. Plus, it does not seem to break the bank. I am a bit at a loss why Campag pretends it is purely a gravel groupset. Their gearing says otherwise. I didn’t get one simply because I dislike their thumb shifters (not trying to argue here/claim they are wrong period, but they are an acquired taste and as such somewhat marmite).

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It’s still a 1x gravel groupset. I’d never put that on a road bike especially an aero race bike.

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What’s the difference between the two? That it is 1x? I don’t quite get it.

Large gaps between the gears. I already have a bike with 1x and don’t find it optimal for high performance road riding.

Ekar also requires Campagnolo’s new N3W freehub standard which makes finding a wheelset harder to find.

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It would have only cost $10,000, but I’m having them upgrade the wheels, rotors, and adding a dual power meter. I also got a good deal on the Edge 1040 Solar, so bought you one too! I was thinking of your safety, and, yeah… Um, why do you look angry? No, put down the knife… :ghost:

This is AFTER he’s found out. (My wife has thought she ā€˜caught me’ with new bikes that she knew about at some point. That has backfired on her because I DID get a new bike, and she thought it was an existing onešŸ¤·šŸ»ā€ā™‚ļø)

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This topic is like switching between two unrelated convos.

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For this cassette, this is not true, though. Look at the gear calculator pages I have linked to, the gaps are identical to e. g. SRAM’s 10–33 road cassette, Rotor’s 10–39 cassette. A Shimano 11–32 11-speed cassette has 2 less cogs 1 tooth apart at the top end.

I’m not telling you you should get a 1x13 setup, but at least with Ekar, the gaps are in line with most road cassettes. Campag could have opted for smaller gaps on the climby end by sacrificing 1 or 2 closely spaced gears at the top end, but that’s a matter of choice other road groupset manufacturers have made (and some riders prefer). I used a SRAM 11–32 cassette on my previous 2x11 Shimano-equipped bike for that reason, for example.

The cassettes for my SRAM equipped fat bike start around $300. The cassettes for my Ultegra equipped roadie are around $100. Adding that to the ā€˜whole picture’, and I’ll pass on SRAM unless I can’t avoid it. Granted, limited sample size, but wow. :money_mouth_face:

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Yeah… and considering Mrs. @AJS914 is supportive probably should be in a ā€œMy spouse supports me buying a bikeā€ thread. :rofl:

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Has she found the bike yet? If not, you might have time to mention the bike shop had an event on, and you bought a couple of raffle tickets when you came past…

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I read the whole thread but have yet to find the best way to reveal the new Tarmac hidden in the garage behind a flock of other bikes. Problem is the new bike has a very distinct colorway so even this ā€žneedle in a haystackā€œ will stand out :person_shrugging:t2:

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Yes … that is the problem. Should have gone with something the blends in with the rest. :wink:

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Just saw this in the other thread and it seems to apply here as well, although I’m concerned it’s not ā€œwrongā€ enough for this thread:

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I made the mistake of asking how many times she’s going to wear that $5,000 wedding dress we bought.

I joke but my wife doesn’t really give me grief for buying bikes and new stuff. We each have our hobbies and have separate bank accounts to fund those hobbies.

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Shots fired!!! :flushed::flushed::flushed::flushed::flushed::flushed:

Is it comfortable sleeping on the couch? :rofl:

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