Road Cycling Essentials

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janesssssy said:
What Can I expect from a sportive? is it ruthless racing or not? its a Wiggle 75mile ride through the Mendips / Cheddar.

Anyway - Finally built and am very happy how its turned out. Its light as a feather and cant wait till I get out on it.
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As the others have said - the field varies from a few Elite riders to mum, dad and kids on a family ride out.
I tend to take the first mile fairly easy to warm up properly then get onto my pace and work my way up through the field.
From my experience after the first refreshment stop the groups become very spread out and you'll probably find yourself riding solo for a while. In this situation you can either get your head down and crack on at your pace, or sit up and wait for a group to catch you up and join them.

Nice bike :)
 
How long have you had that. Looks nice.
As for this sportive, I have 2 mates with me, 1 having pistons for legs and the other about the same level. So I'm sure it will be ok.

Finished a 36 mile ride tonight. Was amazed how fast I was going on the flat an d slight uphill! Although need to work on climbing. Still so much better than the focus.
 
Hit a pretty big pothole on my Allez this morning which has buckled the rear wheel rim. Spoke to the guy in Evans and he reckons itll be ok for a while but suggested getting a new wheel. He said I could keep the Shimano 105 hub and just rebuild the wheel with a new rim, where can I get hold of just the rim section? How much do they cost?
 
I'd look at getting an open sport or even an open pro from Mavic. Most bike shops should be able to source one for you.

My boss runs open pros on dura ace hubs that are a few years old and are still perfect. Very solid wheels. Just make sure you get a rim that matches the hub spoke count!
 
So my commute has changed now, at least I think I'll do my old village cycle still once a week, but the guided busway has finally opened, over a year late. And the cycle path next to it is sublime, fresh tarmac, like glass, and swept once a week.

The only downside to it is that its like cycling through a wind tunnel, which is great on the way home but hell on the way to work!

@willhub nice job! Use anything in particular or just elbow grease?
 
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Jonny ///M said:
I'd look at getting an open sport or even an open pro from Mavic. Most bike shops should be able to source one for you.

My boss runs open pros on dura ace hubs that are a few years old and are still perfect. Very solid wheels. Just make sure you get a rim that matches the hub spoke count!
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How much do these cost?

I think it might be able to be trued, but the rim itself is quite messed anyway.
 
platypus said:
So my commute has changed now, at least I think I'll do my old village cycle still once a week, but the guided busway has finally opened, over a year late. And the cycle path next to it is sublime, fresh tarmac, like glass, and swept once a week.

The only downside to it is that its like cycling through a wind tunnel, which is great on the way home but hell on the way to work!

@Willhub nice job! Use anything in particular or just elbow grease?
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Thanks, all I used in the frame is a spray bottle filled with washing up liquid and water, sprayed it on a sponge and wiped off with a cloth. For the drivetrain and wheels I used some teflon stuff in a big green spray can, tf2 or something It's called.

Lukilly the frame is easy to clean due to the colour and surface.
 
janesssssy said:
Thanks for the postitive comments , Turned out better than I expected. Plus I do like the Planet X decals.
Im looking forward to riding it when I finish work at 4pm. Its alittle windy out though :(

Should get 2 hours on it atleast.
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Bike looks great mate, as do the decals in my opinion.

I've developed a clonk in my BB on the Felt, everything's tight, the BB itself and cup are screwed in properly, and the chainring bolts all seem fine, so I think the cartridge itself is on it's way out. I've got a complete SRAM Force double groupset ready for my chinese carbon build, but I think for the moment I'll stick it on the Felt rather than buy a new BB.

Question though- Going from a triple to a double, is there any consideration I need to make for chainset/cassette alignment, or is it just a case of bolt on and ride?
 
CGrieves said:
Bike looks great mate, as do the decals in my opinion.

I've developed a clonk in my BB on the Felt, everything's tight, the BB itself and cup are screwed in properly, and the chainring bolts all seem fine, so I think the cartridge itself is on it's way out. I've got a complete SRAM Force double groupset ready for my chinese carbon build, but I think for the moment I'll stick it on the Felt rather than buy a new BB.

Question though- Going from a triple to a double, is there any consideration I need to make for chainset/cassette alignment, or is it just a case of bolt on and ride?
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Heh I hve a clonk in the BB too. Only noticed last night, going out again this evening for a 50 miler so will repack it with grease before hand.
Hopfuly that will fix it for a few more 100's miles.
 
Had a collision today with a car, ended up slamming into the rear end of a car. A few minor scratches on the bike, ripped grip tape, and both brake hoods bent inwards (which were easily moved back into place).

I'm concerned about any potential damage to my carbon forks on my Trek 1.2 2011 model. Does anyone know how you go about checking whether it is safe to ride?

I took it to an LBS and the guy had a look and couldn't see any obvious damage and heard no creaks. I'm not familiar with what checks he should have done, so I can't comment on whether it was sufficient or not.

Once I got home I tapped around it with a coin and couldn't hear anything ominous. Next while I was propped up on the bike against the wall, I bounced and pushed down on the forks which didn't produce any ominous sounds (aside from squealing of breaks).

Anything else I can do?
 
I had an annoying creaking noise from my bottom bracket, replaced everything but couldnt stop it. I thought maybe i had a small crack in the frame somewhere so i took it to my lbs. The guy said that carbon doesnt fatigue the same way metal frames do. It you have a crash with a metal frame, you can stress parts of the fame which will then be weaker. Carbon frames, however, flex to a certain degree then break, so its either cracked, or its fine.

edit: actually, thinking about it, the stress from a front-end crash is going to be focused around where the fork blades are joined to the steered (which is most likely aluminium on a 1.2?) so what i said about stressing carbon probably doesnt apply here.
 
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touch said:
I had an annoying creaking noise from my bottom bracket, replaced everything but couldnt stop it. I thought maybe i had a small crack in the frame somewhere so i took it to my lbs. The guy said that carbon doesnt fatigue the same way metal frames do. It you have a crash with a metal frame, you can stress parts of the fame which will then be weaker. Carbon frames, however, flex to a certain degree then break, so its either cracked, or its fine.

edit: actually, thinking about it, the stress from a front-end crash is going to be focused around where the fork blades are joined to the steered (which is most likely aluminium on a 1.2?) so what i said about stressing carbon probably doesnt apply here.
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Thanks for the information. I've read and been told the forks have carbon legs. Difficult to tell where the carbon bits begin, as the paint finish obscures what is carbon and what isn't. I think the part where the fork legs join it is aluminium so going by what you said, i should hopefully be ok.
 
Just thought I'd post a pic of my Cannodale CAAD9, not sure what to do for this winter as I'm planning to buy a new bike next year (probably a supersix) and was going to use the CAAD9 but starting to think it's a bit too nice for that....?

CAAD9.jpg
 
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