Electronic shifting isn’t overrated, it’s just overpriced.

"I've slept in a few bushes" This last sentence is massively underrated.

I vote to have overrated/underrated segments become a regular feature of this channel. This was a lot of fun.

Keto diet experience: 2012-2018, avoided carbs, ate (animal) protein and fats. Started with no cholesterol warnings in my blood tests. Toward the end, my cholesterol was spiking. Then, ahem, heart attack symptoms out the wazoo, quickly vanquished with rationalizations. I went out for a morning run: I was lethargic, and skipped leaning push ups at the three widely spaced horse hitching posts along the trails. Got home, went grocery shopping with dusty feet and ankles, and found myself gulping cool air to cool "XXL heartburn". Got home, felt symptoms all over. Googled, "heart attack symptoms". It replied, "If you have any of these, dial 911 or get thee to emergency." I had them all. Off we went to an InstaCare. I wasn't happy: it was a terrible time in my life for a heart attack I thought. The InstaCare doc eventually punted, directing us to the ER. I walked into an empty 12x12 room. Someone came to the locked door and asked, "Can we help you?" I leaned over and spoke through the tiny portal between us, "Heart attack symptoms". The door flies open, and now we're with 12 pros. They hook me up to a 12-lead ECG (programmed by guys I worked with when just out of grad school) and immediately say, "Oh, it's happening right now. The T-waves are inverting. Minutes later I wave bye to my wife and youngest son, both feeling much worse than me (I was happy to know the pain's source, and sure it would be corrected) and I'm in an ambulance heading to a cathlab 8 miles north. They back up to a loading dock, doors open, and the cathlab crew welcomes us. They rush me in, hook me up, and are about to put me under, but remember I haven't approved the procedure yet. I sign, and go under. I wake a short time later, and feel great. I wonder if I'll get another wave of pain (pain had come in increasingly intense waves). None came. They found a clot in my right coronary artery, and stented it with a catheter passed through a tiny hole in my right wrist. The RCA had been occluding, and clearing, then occluding more, and clearing less, etc. They took echocardiograms all night. My troponin levels peaked at 13 (bad attacks take it to 300-400 stat). My echocardiograms showed some valve regurgitation, but the ejection fraction was good. My resting heart rate drove clinicians a little nuts, resting in the mid 40s, where it usually does. The next morning the cardiologist came in, and said, "So, where's the patient with the caveman diet?" He told me I had a near miss, that I had to stay 48 hours because statistically most 2nd strikes come within 48 hours, but that if/when I got out I should go on with my life. Of course, red (lean) meat no more than twice a month. I abandoned my keto diet and gear, and took my meds. My cholesterol is back to negligible. My blood sugars remain negligible. I believe I brought this on myself. I think the cardiologist agrees. In training for the "Tour of the Moon" this September I used Noom to drop 20+ pounds over the past 5 months. My weight and BMI hit normal for the second time today. The first time my height was 6'4". I had some cranial nerve issues in January, and my height afterward was 6'3.25". That jacked my BMI and normal weight calculations. I'm planning to drop to 85Kg over the coming months. The Tour of the Moon is off, pretty sure, because my left quad tendons let go of my kneecap a few weeks back and I had them surgically reattached a week ago. I'll be rocking crutches for the next three months. Anyway, my vote: the Keto diet is dangerously overrated.

The whole point of cycling is to enable the eating of chips. Of course a keto diet is overrated.

Oval chainring : they don't give you more power. The power meters of the time where not compensating for them, new ones are working perfect with them. The idea of oval rings is that you get less tired at the top of the stroke, therefore on a multi-day outing you could recover easier between days by being less tired from those top strokes hard pushing all day long. Of course the higher the cadence you can sustain all the time, the less useful they are too. I would test them on the small chainring, grinding on +10% climbs, multiple days in a row.

Short drop flared bars are a superb option. Aero for the hoods and control in the drops. The mistake is to think the drops are the aero option.

There is a big problem with keto, specially in studies, as it doesn’t show long term effects of around 12-24 months on professional level. This is simply due to the fact, that in the beginning the performance drops immensely compared to standard diets, this you can see in basically every keto study conducted, in which for most of the time participants and athletes are kept on keto for around 6 weeks. Would be interesting to see how the body adapts whilst basically having “infinite fuel” (obviously is finite, but the production and storage is bigger and the energy output higher, which provides more energy over longer periods in comparison to glucose)

I tried Keto diet for around a year. Steady state effort seemed endless without fuelling, but I lost my top end power

I built up a gravel bike last year on a budget and put on a current spec Claris drivetrain. I was prepared to live with a bit "less than perfect" performance because it is just a cheap, fun bike. Instead, the shift quality impresses me every time that I ride it. Light action, positive changing and it's absolutely bulletproof. It's great!

i never had drop bars, and started with mountainbiking. i had a 440mm straight handlebar on my first gravel bike. i went for a 440mm handlebar with flare (making it over 440mm) and i saw to descend safely you should always be in the drops even though for a mountainbiker its counterintuitive to have weight forward. i offset this with a dropper post. I am crazy underbiked for some riding, i basically ride mtb routes on my gravel bike and with the drops it is insanely fun and feels great, so flare on gravel bikes is definitely crazy good for descending.

Agree with everything except flared bars. Flared bars are fantastic. If you're tuning your bike for Unbound, which is just a road race on dirt (no real MTBer would see any of that course as 'technical') then a regular bar makes sense. If you ride on actual chunder/singletrack etc, then a wider drop allowing more stability in the strongest braking/grip position on the bike makes sense. I agree that superflared bars compromise too much on hood position, but some flare makes sense for majority of riders, less so far roadie gravel racers (same argument you made for 1x vs 2x).

I have a Wolftooth oval chainring on my CX bike, I find that the shape helps with steep and loose climbs by smoothing the power input, creating less spikes (wheel spin) and dead zones.

I liked this segment. If I had one critique, it would be that pictures would have helped. Or even a short video clip of someone using the item. Other than that, nicely done.

:19 agree 1:04 agree (need to swap mine) 2:16 agree. Great on my MTB's though in technical terrain. But otherwise there is no difference. 3:30 disagree. I have it on two bikes, both originally mechanical, (one was XTR, the other was X01) and in ditching it on one of them. I have killed the battey a couple of times. My other two bikes are mechanical and I never have to think about whether or not my bike is ready. I daily commute and already hate having to charge my lights every day at work, but I can ride without lights.

LOL. you guys smashed two of my favorite things ... titanium frames and waxed chains. No worries. I'm here for it. Ti is expensive. Survives crashes really well though. And waxed chains are great! If its taking you lots of time, you may be doing it wrong. Takes me no time at all. And I never have to wash my drivetrain, which is sweet. Love the content. More please!

Some products are very good but not as good as their high prices would imply. The controls, motors, and software of electronically controlled shifting systems are not actually expensive, but the price difference over cable-controlled systems would imply otherwise. The high price of "modern" shifting systems is almost entirely driven by induced demand.

I put new Claris on my '82 Centurion LeMans (when I converted it to 2x8) and I could not be happier. Underrated cheap groupset.

Yes, electronic shifting is the best. But it does wear and brake down over time. I ride between 25 and 30k per year. I have had to replace my rear mech twice and my front mech once because of worn out moving parts in the internals. E.g. small sprockets etc. Shimano estimates the life span of a mech to be around 30-50k before it breaks. After that, you just replace and it almost instantly works out of the box. So yes, it rocks. But it was shite when my front mech broke in the middle of Thailand….

I like my flared drops on my gravel bike. People just take the flare to the extreme for no reason, so keep it pretty minimal and it does pretty good.

I have Sora shifters (9-speed) with Claris FD and RD on my CX bike. It works fantastic. The shifters are a bit heavy though. I don't understand the 'underrated' for electronic shifting, as Francis ends the discussion with "it is really expensive". So I would argue it isn't under- or overrated. Francis never had problems with electronic shifting, but a friend of mine had his chain stuck in a (heavy) gear halfway in the group ride. Not very pleasant for him. I never ever ever had an issue with mechanical shifting, apart from me not changing the cables after winter and stubbornly riding with rusty old cables.

Bivy bags for emergencies: V Under-rated, weigh very little and might save your life in a pinch, I take one on any adventure off the beaten path.

I can't speak for the new SRAM electronic shifting but the first RED eTap was shit. I always would get dropped chain on the front and the rear mech failed to shift numerous times until it didn't work at all anymore. That's when I went to Dura-Ace Di2 and have never had a problem since.

Francis was spot on with his response on 1x. Love my 10 speed 1x set-up, but i get to pick where i ride. i am sure i would find my limited range of low gears easier to live with if i had the FTP of a grand tour winner.

Absolute Black non-round (let's face it...they're not oval) on a Rotor 3D24 (165mm) crankset with a Power2Max NG Eco power/spider... fitted to a Canyon Aeroad, IMO was the best thing I did for my riding. Climbing was a lot easier on the knees, getting up to and maintaining a higher speed was easier. But, the price (you need to buy the corresponding chainring bolts - ridiculous price for aesthetic vanity - and the dubious claims) were a bit off-putting. Cheaper to get the 105/Ultegra parts. Set up was easy though. I never had any shifting problems. Now...if you want to laugh at all that type of gubbins...AB's derailleur OSPW...cop yourself on with that..schizzle!

I had first generation di2. Battery failed, motor failed, contacts between several cables, junction boxes and battery mount corroded. Went to Ultegra r8000, I would consider trying di2 again, but first generation was poor.

I used Sora for 1 year and was not a fan of it. After every second ride, I had to adjust my derailleurs. For the price, I can't expect better but It is neither overrated nor underrated in my opinion.

I have new Sora on my new cheapo road bike - shift quality superb. New Sora is better than old (very old) ultegra.

Big fan of oval chainrings, especially Absolute Black. To get the best out of the oval effect, the widest point of the oval should be the same diameter as your regular round rings, which is usually sized about 2 teeth smaller, otherwise you end up inadvertently overgearing. I find the main advantage gained with the oval is to noticeably shorten the dead spot. They also work better if you prefer shorter cranks (165 or 160, for example), as you can lower the gearing by an extra tooth or two in order to spin more freely. If you get it right, the natural rhythm of the oval is barely perceptible, yet you find you're getting more torque. I now ride 160mm cranks and no longer have knee pain, but can ride much further than I ever could on 170mm with round rings, and I am 56yo, 6'2" with 33" inseam. Each to their own tho...

More of this sort of thing, please!

i am still rocking Shimano R600 brakes on my Lemond!

Flared gravel bars are great for people who want to ride on the drops while bike packing. You can fit a bag between most bars but access to the hoods can be limited, flared drops solve this in a lot of instances.

Sram has a notorious battery problem. The connectors depress and stay that way causing the battery to lose connectivity and thus shifting. Maybe you get perfect ones or get lifetime warranty because they are far from perfect.

I replaced my flared drops with normal drops on my gravel bike.

I absolutely love the newset 2x9 Sora shifters! Performance/price is through the roof and they are definitely leaps ahead of my 2x9 Ultegra 6500 shifters that I kept in pristine condition on one of my older road bikes. This opinion spans over the entire groupset, but I usually mix and match road and mountain components on my favorite bikes (cyclocross and trekking) and only keep purely road parts (Rival, 105 or Ultegra) on my road bikes (I keep 12 bikes, that's why I keep placing them in categories). And the new Claris... wow, I want to change some Microshift 2x8 levers with those, but there is no honest reason to justify dismissing those while they still work pefectly. On that note, "upgrde only when parts wear out/break" is massively underrated. Besides flared handlebars, I find completely intregrated cables as overrated for non-racing bikes. Yet, I am happy that all of these choices exist for whoever thinks that they need them. What makes me sad is the acceptance for casual or enthusiast riders of proprietary standards for handlebars/stems/forks, bearings and bottom brackets (shell and the bearing part). I like to keep my bikes running for decades and some I do upgrade through very transformative changes, like a cyclocross/travel bike from 1974, or a road bike from 1989. I own an older DeRosa with an Italian (figures) threaded bottom bracket (Ultegra 6500 - octalink) and, despite having already bought external bearings (Hollowtech II standard) and being ready to upgrade at any time, it still grinds my gears that I might not be able to find new cups in 5 years or so. Oh, and yes, none of the Shimano BB shells I own have repleaceble bearings, only some dubious Chinese ones (bought for their color). There!

new sora is underrated because 2 or 3 generations ago it had rubbish shifters! ive got new 9 speed sora levers with old 9 speed dura ace mechs, and it works amazingly well

You two have a GREAT thing going, keep it up!

Is it terrible backwards basball caps?

Oversized jockey wheels .. duiscussion ..over !

Nice video but why did you choose to not show pictures of the products you're talking about??

I prefer a slight flare 12º and 44-46 wide for aggressive gravel. The width creates increased stability and I ride 90% on the hoods and the flare is more comfortable and the levers are easier to access. So no, not overrated.

Just had a shifter battery fail at my LBS. No warning from either of my devices that monitor battery health.

The vegan cyclist has a very intriguing 1x setup with a big front ring and a cassette half as a big as the wheel. I'd be curious to try that

Wasnt g on ovals at the time?

V-brakes are overrated :)

Take Claris run a nicer shift cables and housing nice calipers and a nice chain/ cassette and it’s insanely nice

1x even on a mtb is a wank and way overrated. 2x9/10 is so much better for reliability, ratios and efficiency

Claris is probably best entry level groupset, they're the best for commuters / begginer bikes, and Sora and Tiagra is the new "people's" groupset. 105 is now "high end".

Not a study, to the best of my knowledge, (but there may have been one conducted as part of the expedition), but if you look up ranulph fiennes transglobe expedition (I believe it was), he was pulling an inordinately heavy sledge, across ice, often significantly undulating, burning an inordinate amount of calories per day. To the extent that with respect to carbs, in their words, (paraphrasing), it’d have been impossible to ingest the volume required to meet the necessary calorific value, hence they were eating something like a whole bar of butter with each meal, but from the photos, they looked like someone who’d just been rescued from a concentration camp, really emaciated to the point their bodies were consuming muscle mass.

If you can’t sleep comfortably in the bush that is simply because you’re doing it wrong!

man sleeping outdoors while Bikepacking is great just get a tarp flip your bike upside down pair it with a bivy bag and a ground sheet and you got an awesome tent obviously you dont have to close the bivy bag to the max because you got a tarp above you

Flared drops are the best for decending rough or technical decents on gravel. hoods = aero drops = control

I know someone who bought $1000 cranks that show is power output. More money than sense.

keto diet has been fantastic for me,helped with joint inflammation and weight loss but you have to be on it a while for it to work,peak power is down but general day to day is much better,no good for pro cyclists or those looking to be the best they can be on the bike but nice to be able to go all day on a ride with no extra food to carry about for those on long rides,

claris R2000 is not as reliable as the older 2400...bombproof...but if you replace the cables, brake blocks and jockey wheels with better quality items then you get a vast improvement for not much money....in my experience

Yup! Hotel or B&B. You might as well enjoy yourself after a hard day's pedaling. ;)

I think the most two overrated things in the race bike realm are AERO WHEELS (or any aero stuff for that matter, coming into effect at speeds most non-pros never get to ride at) and tire rolling resistance savings.

I had shimano sora i had mechanical disc

Flared bars are to fit bar bags

Keto: nope, not a performance improvement over perfectly executed carbs, unless maybe you're doing ultra long durations, but that is missing the point. The point is health and body composition improvement for us mortals and it's a hell of a lot less error prone. Yes it takes a while to really adapt to, but once you do it's great! None of that constant fueling nonsense and no bonking or GI distress. I can just ride day in day out without worrying about my fueling whatsoever. For those wanting to podium sure, you need all the advantages you can get and the performance enhancing drug named carbs is one of them, but for everyone else avoiding that drug is really the better way to live.

Keto for cycling performance has been debunked. I THINK some ultra runners are keto, but they do such low intensity to endure the distance that it's very very niche. Other than that, you basically need "sugar" in the tank, as I understand it.

1X FOR GRAVEL 2X FOR ROAD , TIAGRA STILL GOOD ,FLARED BARS FOR GRAVEL,ROUND CR, ELECTRIC GROUPSET OVERPRICED , KETO MEH, BEVY BAG WORKED FOR ME ARMY TIME

I’ve ridden 1x it’s awful, couldn’t find a nice gear to ride. Sold it after 3 months.

Specialized bikes/products: most overrated thing brand/manufacturer on this planet Disc brakes: over rated AF

Do you feel pro races should bring in a speed restriction for downhill decents? Love the content BTW

Wide/flared gravel bars are for clearing Carradice/Zeitgeist style handlebar bags.

No one has ever overrated sleeping in bushes. Nice try;) You've never had a battery fail? I've never has a battery fail since 1982(and I never will). YOU actually might. Keep us updated. ;)

Absolutely agree. Ketogenic diet will never outperform. Carbs are a raw source of quick energy and essential for cycling.

Flared normal width bars for me on my road bike. My goofy wrists have reduced rotation and feel at their comfort limit with straight drops. Tilting the shifters inwards helps, but makes the drops totally useless (drops for most non-competitive cyclists are overrated). Flared bars let me still be able to shift while in the drops while taking a pull, albeit awkwardly. My "gravel" bike is an XC MTB with a short travel Lauf fork and a Jones alt-bar that gives me a hoods like position on the upper loop that is very comfortable. Extra wide tires (like 29x2.6) on gravel are underrated for comfort and confidence, and have less of a speed penalty than a lot of folks think.

I'll stick with cable operated gear's, unless you fellas want to send me and expensive set of electronic gear's 😉🤷🏼

You guys need to show us some pictures or video of these products so we know what you're referencing...

Wide gravel drops help with bike packing bags.. more room. But for normal use they are kind of pointless.

Pannier bags underrated, bike packing bags overrated (but still really good)

Keto is overrated for athletes but underrated for sedentary lifestyle

1x over-rated for racing? Idk my friends. After seeing Roglic switch to 1x in this years Giro d'Italia and DESTROY everybody in the uphill TT, including Gerraint Thomas, I may disagree. That was an absolute legendary performance that won the Pink Jersey and the overall GC standing for Roglic... done on a 1x.

Keto diet is underrated if you have a condition which it genuinely helps like in some very specific cases with for example epilepsy. As a diet in general it's bullshit!

May be a controversial take but if you sleeping in hotels it's not bikepacking IMO.

Bivvy bag on a snowy mountain while imobalised might just save your life. Never hike alone without one…

Maybe I'm a weirdo, but I sleep better in a tent than a hotel, so I avoid hotels most of the time. The tent is familiar, and often quieter. It is too easy to stay up late on the hotel WiFi, or catching up on bad cable news, then have a hard time sleeping just due to my brain knowing it is in an unfamiliar space.

Im still using Sora 8 speed. Like the thumb levers and its bulletproof.

105 di2 vs ultegra di2

Any overpriced DLC chain

does anyone else think this Chanel has gone down hill since becoming ""cade media"" ?

Why didn't you cover disc brakes on road bikes??

Oval works well on a full suspension bike, reduces pedal bob slightly. Only ever use the flared drops on my gravel bike when descending, never for aero

1x is absolutely overrated for everything.

I dont understand why anyone rides flats, drops have BOTH flats and drops ROTFL

A lot of hand cyclists use oval rings.

Sora and Claris under-rated... so true! These are high quality top shelf products that will out last the life of most bikes... but the low-ish number of gears is the drawback. If you could get 11- and 12- speed versions they would be widely accepted.

Sora definitely underrated. It never needs adjustment or is finicky; much less trouble than my 105.

I find with sora and the “cheaper” group sets they are harder to adjust and service. 105 etc function exactly the same but setting them up is so much easier. There a better bolts and such

Where keto is beneficial is if your insulin resistant, same goes for carnivore. Maybe you should do an interview with Sean sakinofsky before you say over rated & find out the health benefits

The most overrated? 2 guys talking in a dark room to be able to switch on lights and using 2 mac books instead of a piece of paper... It is the biggers overrated something what i EVER saw.

Triplex on road bikes - underrated and vastly unfashionable.

Oval chainrings: overrated for road/gravel, justrightrated IF you’re using them on a mountain bike with flat pedals. Electronic shifting: Come on, totally overrated!

1x on the MTB but 2x on the road bike.

lol people do use the drops on the flared bars while riding singletrack, it is the point of most control during descents or technical riding. If you aren't using them then you don't know what you are doing.

I don’t understand the hatred over 105 di2, it’s a brilliant groupset for the everyday rider and can be found at a very price competitive price point in the marketplace. The mere question of Sora vs 105 is silly for anyone who has ridden both.

Cades vegan bros science does not stand up to the light of day.