I'm fairly certain the chain was long enough, but of course I and my friends could be wrong. Should I have run a medium cage RD if I'm going to use a 28-tooth cassette?

 

The capacity for the RD is stamped on the cage. Or you can go to Shimano's site and d/l the instructions for the various cage length RD's. You can also lengthen the chain.

 

+1 for getting proper road tires. Coming from MTB myself, I didn't fully appreciate just how much rolling resistance MTB tires generate. Even CX tires have way too much to keep up with a roadie. I went on a ride with my neighbor, and with him on his CX bike (with 30+ CX tires) I had to stop a lot and wait for him to catch up. We stopped at the LBS during the ride and he had 23s put on. Night and day difference.

 

But having the CX tires are nice. You can lean down and nearly drag a knee without going on the side wall. The road tires I had if you so much as leaned you would fall off the 3/8" wide piece of tread and be on sidewall rubber. And if you're leaned into a turn and have to run over a bit of sand that some truck pulled onto the road you dont die.

Like seriously, how do you turn aggressively with a tire like this?

 

lol @ your priorities

(edit to reply to picture) If that's what you consider a road tire to be, no wonder you don't want to use them. Yikes.

 

Sometimes I doubt whether you've ever actually ridden a road bike.

e: Based on what you think a road bike tire looks like, I'm 100% sure you never have.

 

Yep, chromoly frame, shifters on the head tube, gumwalls, and everything.

 

lolol

 

This is how

 

How slow is a 28mm Gatorskin compared to a 23 GP4k? Is **** about to get real now that I'm on a CX bike for road stuff?

 

Noticeable but not horrible. I'd guess 5-10%. I have 28 GS on the commuter and I can ride with my riding partners, but at a higher work level.

 

It's ******* work, son.

 

You'd probably be able to keep up just fine if you had listened to me and bought a track bike instead of a CX bike.

 

I don't want a $2100 track bike.

 

So, you think 10% was a low estimate?

 

I take great pleasure in leaving my carbon BMC at home and taking my free-to-me MTB on the bikeway. When you pass people on TT bikes they sometimes look confused.

They are probably just cruising, but still...

 

I'm not sure but it was definitely more work, I dropped pretty hard and ran the groupetto.
It is pretty damn hilarious to get up front next to a guy on an aero bike, on a bulky CX bike with 28s.

 

Had a nice mid-week ride with the lady, took her on the longest ride she's been on yet. I got her a new bike about a month ago, and she's been enjoying riding to scenic places in the mountains you can't really get without a bike.

Ride is about ~13 miles total, mostly uphill going, mostly downhill back. We got caught in a full-on monsoon with hail and flooding about 5 miles from the car. Craziest flooding and whatnot I've ever seen on a trail. This pic is from when we got to the bottom, so a lot of the mud was flung off the bikes by then. At one point we hit "adobe" mud that clogged up the bikes and we had to walk in the rain for a bit. Was pretty sweet, and she had a blast despite it all.



Ride safe guys

 

Whoever is doing the design at Raleigh is doing a great job. Some of the best looking bikes made.

 

Very much agreed. I actually bought this for her on a whim when I saw it and got to ride it at my LBS, and at ~$700 out the door it's a steal.. the fork even rides pretty damn nice and has adjustable preload and a lockout.

If anyone's wondering, it's a raleigh tokul 2, and here are my thoughts on it. So far she's loving it and there is not a single thing I'd upgrade for her yet. A new fork eventually, the brakes are a little weak, but that seems to help keep her from locking them up - so maybe it's intended on an entry level bike.

Otherwise I've ridden this bike for myself, it has a 69* head angle and 120mm of travel and 27.5" wheels so it's a real blast on any trail (XC to AM), fun for jumping, pretty short and playful rear end for manuals, stable and has not kicked her over the bars or anything yet, despite hitting some dips with improper form (i thank the head angle and travel for that).

All in all, would highly recommend the raleigh tokul 2. Would ride myself, just add a better front fork and front brake to bring it up to my preferences. Derailleurs shift fine, full hydro disk brake setup, wheels are surprisingly light and I doubt she will ever have an issue with them, cranks feel great, bars/stem setup is awesome, it came with lock on grips and a nice saddle and light seatpost with QR. You sure get a lot of bike for ~$700 now days.