Road Cycling Essentials

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Just bought myself a powertap hub from wiggle. They seem to be pretty good prices. I got an SL+ for £480 which is sold out now but they still have an Elite+ for £414.
They only have campag freehub versions left (which is maybe why they are in the sale?) so i'm going to need to swap the freehub or get some wort of magic cassette ;)
Looking forward to getting this built into a wheel and having a play around.
 
There are cassettes out there with campag splines with shimano spacing. I think BBB or Ambrosio make one.

Freehub body RRP is £48/60 depending on what size axle you have so a cassette may be a bit cheaper.
 
My missus want in on the action now... but I'm very limited on budget after a big house move, so for £200, what should I be looking for?

Profile: My missus is 5' 3", not the sportiest of build but can happily cycle her work provided heavy steel ladies commuter (weights a tone with Pannier, lock and mudguards) when we head out riding. Not the fastest thus the prompt for a faster bike.

Looking around, brand new for £200 nets her an Halfords Apollo Fusion brand new. Yes, it's not the best of bikes but for her to try it around for the summer and then sell it off for around £120-150 if she don't like it?

I just missed a second hand 'retro' steel bike last night, would have been perfect. Currently there isn't much available around my area.

Pushing my budget to £300 can get the Triban 3, but it's a gamble that my missus will like it. Otherwise, it's a bigger investment and trying to sell that locally would be trickier without loosing too much money.

If only I was smaller or she was taller to try on my bike instead!
 
Jonny ///M said:
There are cassettes out there with campag splines with shimano spacing. I think BBB or Ambrosio make one.
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I spotted some ambrosio conversion cassettes that had campag spacing on shimano splines but i need the other way around and i havnt been able to find one of those yet :(
The other option is to get a Miche cassette with all individual sprockets then get a shimano spacer kit from Highpath Engineering. The spacers are £29 though, so its not that much cheaper..
I'll probably just buy the proper freehub for it.
 
Mr Jones said:
My missus want in on the action now... but I'm very limited on budget after a big house move, so for £200, what should I be looking for?

Profile: My missus is 5' 3", not the sportiest of build but can happily cycle her work provided heavy steel ladies commuter (weights a tone with Pannier, lock and mudguards) when we head out riding. Not the fastest thus the prompt for a faster bike.

Looking around, brand new for £200 nets her an Halfords Apollo Fusion brand new. Yes, it's not the best of bikes but for her to try it around for the summer and then sell it off for around £120-150 if she don't like it?

I just missed a second hand 'retro' steel bike last night, would have been perfect. Currently there isn't much available around my area.

Pushing my budget to £300 can get the Triban 3, but it's a gamble that my missus will like it. Otherwise, it's a bigger investment and trying to sell that locally would be trickier without loosing too much money.

If only I was smaller or she was taller to try on my bike instead!
Click to expand...

Would have thought second hand was your best bet. You lose less in depreciation too if she doesn't like it.
 
Mr Jones said:
My missus want in on the action now... but I'm very limited on budget after a big house move, so for £200, what should I be looking for?

Profile: My missus is 5' 3", not the sportiest of build but can happily cycle her work provided heavy steel ladies commuter (weights a tone with Pannier, lock and mudguards) when we head out riding. Not the fastest thus the prompt for a faster bike.

Looking around, brand new for £200 nets her an Halfords Apollo Fusion brand new. Yes, it's not the best of bikes but for her to try it around for the summer and then sell it off for around £120-150 if she don't like it?

I just missed a second hand 'retro' steel bike last night, would have been perfect. Currently there isn't much available around my area.

Pushing my budget to £300 can get the Triban 3, but it's a gamble that my missus will like it. Otherwise, it's a bigger investment and trying to sell that locally would be trickier without loosing too much money.

If only I was smaller or she was taller to try on my bike instead!
Click to expand...

you would have no problems selling a triban 3 if its a little used for 200-250. while that apolo turd from halfords is a no buy for 99% of people :) don't waste your money and get something that is proven to work.
 
When I say it's easier to sell locally it's because people beyond the cycling forum will buy base on looks and price vs trying to sell it above £250 on a used Triban, telling them this that component (if we decide to sell on).

Don't fancy posting too, thus the local focus.

Keeping an eye on forum for second hands too. Trying to buy cheap components for a budget bike is also tricky as people seem to keep it for themselves. Any tips on where else to look? Tried Bikeradar and eBay.
 
Mr Jones said:
Cant believe I forgot about Gumtree - tend to avoid it because it's either full of scams or stolen goods. Will have to be careful I suppose.
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meet in person and pay in cash really nothing wrong IMO, even thought my mate sold a pair of beats headphones and got paid in fake cash and was arrested and couldn't leave uk for 2 weeks after that.. mind you the beats were fake ;o ;D karma.
 
One of our guys bought a fancy carbon fibre bike on eBay for a bargainacious price in spite of warnings that it might be damaged or nicked. A while after getting hold of it the police turned up and took it off him as it had indeed been stolen.
 
That's the BIG problem with buying second hand bikes - way too many issues but the price is tempting. Look at this, retro ladies racer for £25, supposedly all working?

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/ladies-retro-road-bike/1019814156

Now click on other stuff she is selling and alarm bells ringing, do people really own that many bike and clearing them out for under £30 each?

No one on Gumtree seems to mention the size of the bike!
 
Gumtree is great for bicycles, I sold my Trek 1.1 on there recently and received asking price within 3 hours of listing it.

If you're concerned about buying a stolen bike you could request them to show proof of purchase and if they don't have a receipt then a bit of due diligence checking the bikeradar stolen bikes sub forum first and any other local cycling sites etc.
 
You do have to do a little bit of digging but there's some really good bargins on Gumtree. I picked up my Sirrus for a little under half price and turned out to be a brand new 2012 model.

Ask for a frame number too and check it against a few databases.
 
So rides from Peak District - ended up doing a longer one Saturday and a shorter one Sunday:
http://app.strava.com/activities/56582219

http://app.strava.com/activities/56582194

I was rather sore from doing squats in the gym for the first time in 2 months on Thursday and my legs hurt like hell on both days, but managed to get through it. We took a long time on Saturday as my mate's brother who was with us hurt his knee before we got to Cat & Fiddle and had to stop and wait for him quite a bit, so I'm not going to worry about some of my segment times!

Think I'm pleased overall with how I coped - hopefully with fresher legs I should be better on some of the climbs as Mam Tor destroyed me and I suspect some of the climbs on the dragon ride will be similar. I felt fine with the long, steady climbs like Cat & Fiddle though, in fact I really enjoyed going up them!

Doing some long rides over the next few days to get more miles in my legs, then not too much next week building up to the Dragon the following Sunday..
 
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