Wrap

[GOLIGHTLY]

I said the same after fixing the rust in my FJ-62.

Ultra is such a range. I base it on the mtb scale of marathon being 50 miles and ultra 100 or longer. I'm not doing RAAM. My gravel and mtb races are 90-100+ miles with 8k-12k of climbing and multi-day stage races. We have a great gravel race series that I've been doing for 6 years with more events popping up all the time. The single days go 6-10 hours for me but I usually do pretty well depending on how tech it is (I'm better at pure endurance gravel than 100 miles of tech single track but I enjoy both). The race formerly known as Dirty Kanza, the Breck Epic, Leadville and Rebecca's Private Idaho are on my bucket list. I would also like to do a solo 24 hour, but those events are disappearing.

I may get to race in two weeks. High Cascade 100 Bend has limited the field to 250 and converted the race into effectively a remote/start finish 85 mile technical mtb time trial to provide distancing. I split my time between Seattle and Bend. In Bend I'm right at the start of the 300+ miles of singletrack so I can ride to the start of High Cascades.

@Moby Roadie/tri-guy here, but much love to anyone looking for long days on the bike.

To any and all: Any idea if wraps like this can be done to basically just lower half of panels? I want to do something for roughly lower 18" of the doors and a couple inches around wheel wells, but have heard that leaving that edge exposed is going to peel easily. Trying to judge how true that is, and I'm happy to re-do it every couple years but don't want to burn money if it's going to go bad a month later.

 

[Crush 4]

@Moby Roadie/tri-guy here, but much love to anyone looking for long days on the bike.

To any and all: Any idea if wraps like this can be done to basically just lower half of panels? I want to do something for roughly lower 18" of the doors and a couple inches around wheel wells, but have heard that leaving that edge exposed is going to peel easily. Trying to judge how true that is, and I'm happy to re-do it every couple years but don't want to burn money if it's going to go bad a month later.

@Moby appreciate all the info on the paint protection
Totally off topic, what’s your preferred bike trainer. I play around w some mtb races, including some Fatbike stuff but need to get focused on some solid indoor training. Currently have an old tacx system
Thx

 

[catastrofe]

@Moby Roadie/tri-guy here, but much love to anyone looking for long days on the bike.

To any and all: Any idea if wraps like this can be done to basically just lower half of panels? I want to do something for roughly lower 18" of the doors and a couple inches around wheel wells, but have heard that leaving that edge exposed is going to peel easily. Trying to judge how true that is, and I'm happy to re-do it every couple years but don't want to burn money if it's going to go bad a month later.

If you’re interested in DIY, you can purchase pre cut kits from XPEL. Here’s an example of the available kits for a 2019.

Shopping

www.xpel.com

 

[Moby]

@Moby appreciate all the info on the paint protection
Totally off topic, what’s your preferred bike trainer. I play around w some mtb races, including some Fatbike stuff but need to get focused on some solid indoor training. Currently have an old tacx system
Thx

@Crush 4 I have 3 "smart" trainers. A first gen Tacx Neo and 2xSaris H3 (I split my time between two locations). I got the Tacx 4 years ago because it had and still has the widest axle standard support. I have a road bike with a 9mm/10mm thru bolt config, a standard that never took off and is hard to find support for. I like the Neo a lot. For MTB and gravel the only problem is that a long cage derailleur just barely hits the frame of the trainer in top gear. Not really a big deal as you're likely never in this gear. It is smooth, extremely quiet and very nice. Electromagnet resistance beats a belt drive 100%. I consider it the gold standard, no question.

The H3s are good. They are not as quiet or as smooth as the Neo even though they are ~4 years newer. But they have the best thru axle design. Instead of using an adapter that sits on the threads of the frame and "allows" you to use a quick release skewer you just use the regular thru axles on you bike. I don't like the idea of the adapter on the threads. I'm sure it is fine, but my gravel race bike, a 3T Exploro, has a very strange, detachable derailleur hanger that the thru axle secures. Don't ask, it is a terrible design on an otherwise brilliant bike.

I don't do as much structured training with smart control on the Neo. But when I do it has been good. With the H3 I find that there is about 3 second lag on having a head unit increase the resistance. 30/30 intervals is about all it can take. 15/15s and 20/40s you have to shift. There are a couple of other oddities, such as if you increase power at the beginning of an interval before it ramps resistance it won't ramp resistance and you just spin away as recovery wattage until you stop and let it catch up. And occasionally it will miss resistance changes, but I suspect that this may be the head unit. I don't seem to have this problem in Sufferfest. But obviously this was not enough to keep me from buying a second one. For something like Zwift I'd guess neither of these are an issue, but I'm not a Zwift user. Overall from a price perspective it is a really good balance.

 

[GOLIGHTLY]

@Crush 4 no to offer input where it wasn’t solicited, but just for the sake of adding to your available intel:

I have a Wahoo Kickr Core, couple hundred hours on it. Sort of the little brother to top of the line Kickr but you wouldn’t know it. Direct drive, big fly wheel, pretty much universal thru-axle or skewer compatibility, and folds up real small if you’re traveling or headed to a race. If you’re on Zwift it feels great, like you’re actually riding into a hill (no choppy bumps in resistance) and if you’re on TrainerRoad it seems to be really accurate, relative to my Quarq power meter.

Apologies, don’t mean to hijack, just want to offer that up in case you were looking at that as an option.

 

[Crush 4]

@Crush 4 no to offer input where it wasn’t solicited, but just for the sake of adding to your available intel:

I have a Wahoo Kickr Core, couple hundred hours on it. Sort of the little brother to top of the line Kickr but you wouldn’t know it. Direct drive, big fly wheel, pretty much universal thru-axle or skewer compatibility, and folds up real small if you’re traveling or headed to a race. If you’re on Zwift it feels great, like you’re actually riding into a hill (no choppy bumps in resistance) and if you’re on TrainerRoad it seems to be really accurate, relative to my Quarq power meter.

Apologies, don’t mean to hijack, just want to offer that up in case you were looking at that as an option.

@GOLIGHTLY @Moby
How’s the set up on these? Do you need a Computer? I haven’t done any research but will be soon so thx in advance. If you’d rather PM me feel free

 

[Moby]

The H3 has a mobile app. I can't remember for the Neo, I think PC software. I've updated it but can't remember off the top of my head.

Frankly I don't use these much with continual variable resistance control. I use Sufferfest some when I get to race specificity in my annual training plan. But I only sometimes use resistance control. I'm probably the anomaly, but I just don't like variable control that much on any of these. I use my head unit to set resistance at the start and then shift. 4x5@120% of FTP or 3x30@90% of FTP is just easier to set resistance and shift. 30/30s are the exception for me. If I was Zwifting I would use variable control, but I consider that race specificity and not year round training.

 

[MTN2SND]

@Moby How's the Xpel holding up after a year? I've got a 2021 black HE sitting in the driveway just getting occasional local city street drives until I figure out what I'm doing with Xpel. Did you have them pull the Land Cruiser badges on the sides before doing the install, and how's that area holding up? Did you have them do full roof or just the front edge up to sun roof? Any reason why you went with Benchmark over NW Auto Salon? That's the two shops that I'm considering. I need to get on with it...I keep tripping over the pile of BudBuilt parts in the garage that go on after Xpel is done.

 

[Moby]

Still looking great, and I've not been taking care of it. Many trips between Bend and Seattle with all the winter road grim and no washing.

Seattle Lexus put swirls into the hood of my GX460 when it was brand new. And then didn't understand that they were dealing with someone that understands that you "fix" swirls by removing a small layer of clear coat to level, and there is only so much clear coat. I want that clear coat for my own mistakes and wear and tear. After explaining to them how this works and why I was so pissed off they went with me to Benchmark and the owner and I talked through what specifically was needed. Then they fixed it and I had a point of reference on the severity of the issue when negotiating compensation with the dealer (who handled it well after the initial BS).

I've been using Benchmark ever since, and won't go anywhere else. Others may do a great job as well but I know I'm going to get excellence from Benchmark and I've very loyal to companies that consistently give me great service.

 

[MTN2SND]

I'll give them a visit next week. I haven't washed it since I got it specifically because of swirls...and because weather hasn't been real great for washing cars the last couple months. It's not real dirty, but all dirt shows on black.

On another note, is Seattle Lexus at least capable of doing regular maintenance oil changes, etc. without screwing things up? I'll skip the dealership bashing details, but its not going to the two closest Toyota dealerships EVER.

 

[1world1love]

I’m curious how much weight this adds. A full wrap can’t be trivial. A roll of xpel isn’t exactly light. Anybody have any idea of the pre/post wrap difference?

 

[Moby]

Seattle Lexus is fine for maintenance. Actually I liked them quite a bit. Just don't let them wash or detail. They did the swirls while applying ceramic coating. The service manager was very candid about it - he said it was just really, really hard to hire and retain good detail talent. He was the one that made good on it once I explained to the service writer how swirls are "fixed".

So generally they've been good to deal with. My GX460 had a front cover leak at ~1 year. They massively under estimated the time, by like 100%, but it was the first that they did. They've done a good job on my wife's 450h, including comping a very expensive emissions component that failed outside of warranty (her car has very low miles on it). And I do like the sales woman that we bought the 450h and 460 from - straightforward, no BS.

Lake City Toyota (or whatever it is called) is definitely a step down., even from 10 years ago. They used to give me their "enthusiast" discount on all parts for my FJ-62, which was pretty darn good and I bought a lot of parts from them. But it seems to have fallen a bit. I'll use them for included maintenance to ease any potential warranty issues but check the work. I didn't feel the need to check Seattle Lexus's work.