Road Cycling Essentials

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Sure, but it happens in the 3 rear sprockets and I'm preparing it to sell so not sure how that's going to fly when I try saying that to any potential buyers :p

Just found a replacement chainring on CRC for £14. I'll give that a pop.
 
I've got one bike with a compact and one with a double.

I prefer the double and not just because it looks better with bigger rings!:p

The progression through the gears just feels more natural to me on the double. On the compact my favoured gears seem to sit at awkward/extreme chain positions and shifting doesn't feel progressive as I have to down-shift the rear as I up-shift the front.

I only get one extra climbing gear too as my bikes are currently...
53-39, 12-27, 11sp
50-34, 12-25, 10sp

34-25 is only 3GI less than 39-27
 
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Shamrock said:
The progression through the gears just feels more natural to me on the double. On the compact my favoured gears seem to sit at awkward/extreme chain positions and shifting doesn't feel progressive as I have to down-shift the rear as I up-shift the front.
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I actually agree, I rode my Ti for the first time in nearly two months last week and did 70 miles. I noticed I kept my cadence up on the standard more easily than on the compact.

The compact on the R5 I find much harder to keep at higher cadence as at certain speeds the difference between a shift can be spinning too high or mashing.
 
platypus said:
Hmm has anyone moved from a compact to a double? Experiences?
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The biggest difference is when changing between chainrings because the compact has a bigger gap.

Riding along in the big ring coming up to a hill, you want to change to the little chainring to get ready for the hill but you dont want to change gear ratios.
So on a double you drop to the little ring and simultaneously click down 2 sprockets on the cassette.
On a compact you need to click down 3 sprockets to keep the same ratio.

There's also a few more options around the middle of the gears which i find more useful than a bigger top end or smaller bottom end.
I have a standard 53-39 chainring with 11-25 cassette. I rarely ever spin out the 53-11 and i only need the 39-25 for the biggest hills, so it suits me fine.

If you need to replace your chainset for whatever reason, you might want to consider a standard. If it doesnt need replacing, then I dont think that the benefits of swapping to a standard are worth the cost.
 
touch said:
If you need to replace your chainset for whatever reason, you might want to consider a standard. If it doesnt need replacing, then I dont think that the benefits of swapping to a standard are worth the cost.
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Yes I do need to replace my chainset, the chainrings at the very least, and I was just considering whether a double would be more useful for me.
 
touch said:
The biggest difference is when changing between chainrings because the compact has a bigger gap.

Riding along in the big ring coming up to a hill, you want to change to the little chainring to get ready for the hill but you dont want to change gear ratios.
So on a double you drop to the little ring and simultaneously click down 2 sprockets on the cassette.
On a compact you need to click down 3 sprockets to keep the same ratio.

There's also a few more options around the middle of the gears which i find more useful than a bigger top end or smaller bottom end.
I have a standard 53-39 chainring with 11-25 cassette. I rarely ever spin out the 53-11 and i only need the 39-25 for the biggest hills, so it suits me fine.
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39/25 for hills would destroy me! I currently have a hard time on some hills on 34/28. If I went to a 39 at the front I'd need a 32 at the back to get a comparable ratio!

I think I'll give it a few years before I consider a double...
 
I ride to work sometimes, 2.7km each way on the MTB :p

Once it gets over about 10-12% I find its tough going with 39/25 and Ill have to stand up.
 
back from holidays.. missed me? ;) will need to get new cassette, chain and wheels at the end of the month.. 57km this month.. lolworthy distance :(
 
So I've ordered a Cree XM-L T6 1200 Lumen headlight... it's getting too dark these days! Got a month-ish to wait as it's from China, hopefully it's as well raved as people on Amazon says it is. £16.99 isn't too pricey for a decent headlight for unlit country lanes...
 
I have 4 torches, 2 are the older P7 emitter and 2 are XM-L T6. Brightness is not an issue with them, they are all bright enough to use alone in an otherwise completely dark area (in the woods on MTB, etc) but i usually use 2 for a bit more coverage.
Build quality is not great. Of my 4 torches, 1 has now died (very low light output even with fully charged batteries) which is fair enough as it's over 2 years old now and they get a lot of use in poor weather through the winter and 1 of them has something loose inside and will change modes when i ride over rough stuff (i dont ride with a single torch, but if you do and it changes to strobe mode going down a rough descent, it could get interesting :p). It started to do this just a few weeks after i got it.

Overall, i'v been happy with 3 out of the 4 torches. Considering that they cost £10-20 each, I will probably buy more to replace my current ones when needed.

Dont buy cheap chinese batteries for them though.
 
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The XM-L T6 comes with a battery pack, so it is 'cheap Chinese' battery. Lets hope it's good, I just want to be able to see and be seen when I go out on weekends.
 
Mr Jones said:
The XM-L T6 comes with a battery pack, so it is 'cheap Chinese' battery. Lets hope it's good, I just want to be able to see and be seen when I go out on weekends.
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Oops, didnt read your post properly, I thought you were talking about a torch rather than a headlight.

I actually have a headlight as well but it's newer than the torches and hasnt had as much use yet. I'v done quite a few short 2-3 hour rides with it but never taken it on a proper long ride, so i dont know what the battery life is like. It lasted through the Strathpuffer 24hour race but that was in a team of 4, so I probably only rode about 4-5 hours in the dark. It was cold though and that usually kills batteries, so maybe it's not that bad.
 
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