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I'm turning my older steel bike into a city/comfortable touring bike. Putting 35mm tires on it, changing the cassette to a wider ratio (the bike is 1x chainring so an easier granny gear would be helpful on the infrequent climbs when loaded down). It's 9 speed, 11-28t and I'm wondering if any special accommodations would be necessary to jump up to an 11-46t.

jeff fox wrote: Wed Apr 20, 2022 10:24 am I'm turning my older steel bike into a city/comfortable touring bike. Putting 35mm tires on it, changing the cassette to a wider ratio (the bike is 1x chainring so an easier granny gear would be helpful on the infrequent climbs when loaded down). It's 9 speed, 11-28t and I'm wondering if any special accommodations would be necessary to jump up to an 11-46t.

Most 9 older speed derailleurs won't handle a 46t cog. You can either get a new one -- these are solid and relatively cheap https://www.microshift.com/models/rd-m6195l/ -- or mess around with something like this https://www.rivbike.com/products/zs-lna ... 54a1641fdg , but 46t may be impossible with the extender approach.

I put the Microshift Advent derailleur, cassette, and thumbshifter (because I wanted it to index) on my son's bike and it works really well.

Microshift stuff seems to be easier to get than the bigger brands these days. It works well and is cheap, but it's maybe a bit heavier than the others (if you care).

Thanks for the info! A little research suggests I can go a little bigger than the cassette that's on there now, just not 46t. Maybe I'll try 36 or something around there next time I'm due for a chain/casette replacement. Thus far I've only been in a few situations where I wanted a lower gear and I don't plan on doing any mountain passes on this bike, at least. Maybe that will do the trick.

Does anyone have any experience with those taint-saver bike seats that (are supposed to) take it easy on your undercarriage?
Are they good? Comfortable? Effective?

A few months ago I had surgery for prostate cancer (doing well now!) and was really sore down there for a while but it's feeling better now and I took a short trip on my city bike with a padded seat. Basically, if that had been a hard racing seat it would have been painful, but with my weight being more on my butt it was fine. So yeah seats do make a big difference on where you're putting the pressure. I forget what kind of seat I have, but it wasn't expensive and it wasn't some super huge thing with coil springs, just enough to redistribute the weight. I realize all your biking friends are gonna mock you for not sitting on a half-ounce titanium knife edge, but good for them.

Teacher's Pet wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 3:16 pm Does anyone have any experience with those taint-saver bike seats that (are supposed to) take it easy on your undercarriage?
Are they good? Comfortable? Effective?

Late to the party here (my notifications have never worked).

Seats are INCREDIBLY personal. I'm still looking for the perfect commuter seat. I've found one that I like for my "performance" bike... when I'm wearing the padded shorts. I still haven't found something that works for commuting in street clothes. I have something that's pretty goog made by SMP. I wanted something leather, but I can never get them positioned correctly. If I see something interesting and not too expensive I just buy it. If it's not as good as what was on the bike, I pass it on. Luckily, there is a rich used market here in Los Angeles.

Not sure if this is blasphemy here, but I got me one of those little electric Jetson Bolt Pro bikes from Costco. (via craigslist for $250)

My commute is a mile, but it's uphill , and I live in southern CA so 90+ degrees is pretty normal. Anyway the bike is cool and saves me wasted gas driving a mile each way and whatnot, so it's a win all around. I did the "speedhack" with an arduino to up the max speed from the stock 15mph to the 19mph which is supposedly the max the motor can handle. These numbers are theoretical, downhill, with the wind numbers of course, and it doesn't help that I have yet to shed my pandemic weight. I also upgraded the battery from the stock 36V 6Ah to a 48V, 10Ah jobber from theBay. Some battery case modification was required, but it's together and doesn't stand out and the battery is protected and now my sweet ride doesn't struggle uphill on the way to work, I can go multiple days without charging, and it goes fast enough that the pedals are mostly useless now. Good stuff.

Teacher's Pet wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 3:16 pm Does anyone have any experience with those taint-saver bike seats that (are supposed to) take it easy on your undercarriage?
Are they good? Comfortable? Effective?

YES! Many years ago I raced triathlons, and after my first super duper long ride, things were, uh, not working as designed for a day or two, let's say? Everything returned to normal pretty soon after, but I bought a Cobb JOF split seat saddle and that did the trick for me.

On the topic of taint-saver seats: Does anyone have any recommendations for a leather or leather-ish Brooks-style taint-saver that's more affordable? Maybe a Chinese knock-off. My second road bike needs a new saddle and I don't ride it enough to justify a $150 Brooks or $190 Selle-Anitomica. Thanks in advance!

Geiginni wrote: On the topic of taint-saver seats: Does anyone have any recommendations for a leather or leather-ish Brooks-style taint-saver that's more affordable? Maybe a Chinese knock-off. My second road bike needs a new saddle and I don't ride it enough to justify a $150 Brooks or $190 Selle-Anitomica. Thanks in advance!

One of my bikes has the Selle Anatomica X2 or something. It has the taint cutout. I got it slightly cheaper than the Brooks (B7 Imperial) that's on my other bike. Sign up for Selle's email list and they offer discounts/closeouts pretty frequently. That said, it's not as comfortable as the Brooks. The edges flare out slightly from my weight, just enough to give me some pretty bad thigh chafing. I ended up using a leather punch to add laces and give it some support. I'd pay the few extra bucks for the Brooks if those work for you.