Road Cycling
- Thread starter FrenchTart
- Start date
Yeah I expect I’d need to remove a few links. I’ll do that for the summer. I don’t think it will make a huge difference but in my mind it would make me faster up hills. Not sure if the math is mathing though
I did the same last year. I simply found myself in the small ring at the front far too often and even then I found that I couldn’t find quite the right gear often. 50/34 is perfect for me.
I took off my big boy pants and I’m much happier for it.
Was looking again at the above pic and it seems i had mounted the levers like a full moron and was trying to point them at 90 degrees like you would on a MTB but putting them pointing down like a regular dropped bar feels much better and gives some space on the hose. I reckon i could add around 3cm to the stem length and still had enough slack which is ideal as paying ~€100 to get the bike shop to replace the hoses didn't sound like fun.
Annoyingly i had to get medical proof of my injury to claim on the insurance for this upcoming event so went to A&E last night who confirmed it is broken. Now starting to regret trying various things like calf raises to test it! Had got a little confused as the pain seemed to have moved but maybe i aggravated something!
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Just please don't subject us to another photos of that...that...thing!
Oh he's let himself into whatever you wanna throw at him really hasn't he! Really it's your ride, so ride it how you want. If testing yourself is what you want out of it then ride it solo. If you want to experience group riding then settle in with him and try to get off early so when a small group only slightly quicker catches you ask if you can jump in with them. It's his call then if he does the same. If you're after building that friendship and 'coaching' him back into the rider he was so you'll have someone to ride other stuff with them really be flexible. You can ride some parts (climbs) hard and regoup at feed stops/junctions. Even more - ride the climbs hard, regroup at the tops, let him do the descents, then pull him on the flat/rolling. Pacing it to get you both around together, with enough parts for you to test yourself but with the social element of riding more with him than solo. I looked back at a mini sportive I did last year, saw my 'on the road' time as 7 hours, while my actual 'moving time' on Strava was only 5. It was a glorious day, started with a guy I knew and some of his club (very slow), clubmate I thought wasn't coming caught us up, rode the rest of it with him mostly towing him and testing myself on the hills. 3/4 the way around caught another clubmate riding with a couple of his friends so rode then end part 2 of us doing pulls back towing the others. Good fun even with all the waiting around!
At the end of the day - it's a Sportive, there will be a lot of other riders there, so whatever you do you'll come across other riders. Group up if you want to, chat and make some friends, usually everyone is there to enjoy the ride for very much the same reasons - a good day out!
This! Pretty much what I do all the time anyway... Ride everyone off my wheel, anyone able to stick with me have some fun with. Regroup and then be so buzzing about it chat so much nobody gets any recovery. Then do the same again up the next hill!Do the first few miles with him, and then at the first hill, ride him off your wheel to teach him a lesson. When you see at the end, just say you lost him by accident. That's what cycling is about
My LBS last quoted me (early 2024) £65 for a set of hydraulic hoses (Shimano) and then £90 workshop time to fit - includes all parts and stripping the original.
I never got around to it, but after fiddling with hoses on my new build - fitting new bars (actually cut hoses and bodged new ends without the hose vice holders and it worked fine). I'll do it myself at some point this summer (buying the proper tools). Need to change the bars & a caliper on it anyway. But you know me - fairly practical and tend to prefer to buy the tools to figure things out.
Rubbish about the toe (s?), but at least now you know!
Eeeek! Yeah depending on the spokes you can get tools to stop them twisting as you balance. But really if you're at that point might be best to buy a bundle of spare/new spokes anyway. But if it where me - I'd pay the LBS to solve, let them have the hassle factor.
Well done getting the bolt out! That's the hardest part, bolt itself should be easy. If you're struggling than should be easy to find spares especially Shimano much of it is universal across different series.
Depends on the cranksets you're talking about. Modern Shimano very easy with only a Torx required (T25 I think?) as the bolts screw directly into the spider.
Just mentioning in case you where also using as an excuse to switch to 12s di2 (trollololol) I've got 2 brand new Shimano 7100 cranksets. 50/34 & 172.5 length from new builds I swapped to Ultegra 170's on my Tarmac's... Have been meaning to list them on ebay as listing on all the local buy/sell groups only getting stupid offers.
But also don't underestimate going for a 32 or 34 on the rear cassette if you can. I've nearly always ridden 11-32. The time I went for a 30t I missed that lower gear, now I'm riding 34t & I love it!
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Cheers, i got a quote back from the bike show at €90 all in so carries on them being spectacular value (They last serviced my bike including pads and bar tape and converting 2 29" wheels to tubeless inc all parts and was only €92 for everything!).
The only real weird bit is that they didn't have a 142mm thru axle in stock because they said it was an unusual size.
Sounds like they might be quite old school. Pricing perhaps backs that up. 142 has been road standard rear for quite a few years now.
Yep. There really is little reason not to go large at the back. My mate has just got a new bike with a 34 on the rear (think it was a 28 previously) and he loves it. Its very rare that I think, man I have too many easy gears. If I don't want to use the 34 I can just use the 30.
Thanks for the insight, Gents. I don't think my RD will take over 11-30 as it's not a long cage one so I thought changing the chainset would be the bigger impact. I know for sure the Next bike (Soon™) I'll be going 50/34 with 11-34 on the back.
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Lol, the sportive is now a tenative yes. He started the weight loss jabs this week and is concerned he wont have enough energy to make it around. It is what it is!
I suppose I could still go by myself but the thought of waking up early and spending the day solo isn't filling me with joy
Think it's time i put my big boy pants on. I have pretty much everything I need for a non critical roadside emergency so I should start getting the confidence to just go out by myself and take everything in.
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Lol, the sportive is now a tenative yes. He started the weight loss jabs this week and is concerned he wont have enough energy to make it around. It is what it is!
I suppose I could still go by myself but the thought of waking up early and spending the day solo isn't filling me with joy
Think it's time i put my big boy pants on. I have pretty much everything I need for a non critical roadside emergency so I should start getting the confidence to just go out by myself and take everything in.
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By the time that arrives we will all be on 1x and 14 speed.
Nothing about what you have told us suggests he has any intention of doing this. Everything about it suggests he will let you down at the last minute as well.
Correct.
To be fair he has offered to pay me the money back and says he feels really bad. It's just one of those things, I guess. I sent him the weather for the weekend and he was like "mate, i got something to tell you" so I figured something was up lol.
It's odd, I always enjoy riding by myself when I eventually go and probably enjoy it more than when riding with someone else as you can stop when you want or whatever pace you want but at the same time I feel you can't beat a good ride with friends
It's odd, I always enjoy riding by myself when I eventually go and probably enjoy it more than when riding with someone else as you can stop when you want or whatever pace you want but at the same time I feel you can't beat a good ride with friends
I would just be sitting on his wheel the whole time bzzzting my di2 in his ear the whole time.
Yeah as fez says they must be a traditional shop - you are in quite rural Spain. I doubt many of the locals riding the latest disc brake setups else they would have seen it - but if you found a shop that some of the local Pro's used you'd be fine.
142mm hub width for a disk brake road bike has been a standard since 2016/17
My 2016 Diverge came with 'SCS' a middle standard as disk brakes originally on road bikes started at 135mm hub width with a quick release to be frame compatible (QR for rim brakes uses 130mm width but the 'ears' for holding the hub into the dropouts are at least 2.5mm each side).
Originally some MTB (Boost?) used wider and some narrower hubs at 142mm with a thru axle. It was fairly obvious road bikes would go that way, but you know what the bike industry does with standards... So to preserve chainline for the wider 142 width frames needed to change, the 'SCS' (138mm) width thru axle my Diverge has was designed by Specialized as a stop gap as didn't drastically change frame design, allowing them to keep a 'race' Short Chain Stay (as most other frame manufacturers disc brake road bikes where not race bikes). This weird width did mean most 135mm wheels would fit with endcaps and some 142mm wheels would too - they even did a different hanger you could swap - although I couldn't get a good fit with it (I've always ridden 142mm without changing it so 'stretch' my frame so my rear wheel is actually offset by 2-3mm). But nobody else followed Specialized and the frame manufacturers gradually went to 142mm and redesigned frames to get back to the short chain stay on their race bikes. Cannondale I think came up with X-12 around the same time, which lead to the X-DR hubs from SRAM. I think XD is 142 and XDR is slightly wider again? But don't need specific frames for it so must be close...
Here ends the lesson (it caused me quite a lot of pain and frustration back then!)
You'll love it and have a great day, doesn't matter if he comes along or not! Just have zero expectations and just ride it for your own reasons, enjoy it for what it is!
Where is it? If not a million miles from me and they do late entry I might be tempted! You're in north/east Bristol aren't you? If it's above Bristol I'm only 1.5 hours away from Avonmouth/Stroud/Cirencester