Road Cycling Essentials

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nydryl said:
Try and get the old wheel fixed up? Buy a new wheel - something like this ? What else would I need to run singlespeed on that and not fixed? Would it need redished (this confuses me massively)?
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A flip-flop hub means it has threads for a freewheel on one side and threads for a fixed sprocket on the other. You can then take the wheel out and turn it round to change between fixed/singlespeed whenever you want.
Looks like it comes with a fixed sprocket but not a freewheel, so you'll need to get one. Not expensive, £5-10.

You havnt mentioned chain tension. I assume your frame has horizontal dropouts so this wont be an issue? Otherwise you'll need some sort of tensioner.
 
Sorry should have said, it does indeed have horizontal dropouts. I think I was getting myself muddled with the old wheel having a screw on freewheel as opposed to a cassette. Tried to take in too many instructional videos and my head exploded. So buying that new wheel and a freewheel will have me good to go, no spacers or anything required?
 
[Damien];26198746 said:
Nice one! Some good info there. I'll plan out some routes and save them to my Garmin for when I arrive.
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Have a look on the Garmin site and search for routes by others in Majorca. Its really useful in getting an idea for the main cycle routes.
 
nydryl said:
Sorry should have said, it does indeed have horizontal dropouts. I think I was getting myself muddled with the old wheel having a screw on freewheel as opposed to a cassette. Tried to take in too many instructional videos and my head exploded. So buying that new wheel and a freewheel will have me good to go, no spacers or anything required?
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Yep, the hub on that wheel is 120mm wide, so it will fit without spacers if your frame is spaced 120mm.

A screw-on freewheel will fit the same threads that a screw-on cassette does, so you could get your current wheel rebuilt and get a freewheel for that.
 
Russinating said:
Cool. My friend's sister works for a charity called United Response and they still have some spaces left so I think I'm going to do it through them.

Excited for my first closed-roads ride!
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From what I've heard there is still plenty of nodder traffic blocking the road despite having the whole width!
 
nydryl said:
I could do with a bit of advice regarding a singlespeed conversion I'm doing (yes, I'll be bearded and sipping real ale whilst skipping traffic lights in my tweed onesie). I have an old 531 frame that I'd stripped the derailleurs off and was just running on the small 42t chainring and middle of the 6 speed freewheel at the back - 16t or thereabouts I guess, but I haven't actually checked. It was a half arsed job and the whole bike needed a bit of a seeing to. Now that I'm at my parents and have a wealth of tools available I've decided to do a proper conversion. What's done so far:

Serviced the old weimann brakes - actually seem okay stopping power now
Lightly sanded the old rust away from the frame
Taken off the cranks and and ordered small chainring bolts for the single chainring
Taken out the bottom bracket and ordered new bottom bracket

If I've missed anything obvious let me know. What I'm struggling with is the rear wheel. The frame only has 120mm clearance at the back. The old rear has a 6 speed freewheel, nice condition cogs, and I had hoped to just use one of the old cogs in the interest of keeping things cheap and cheerful. However it's well off being true, has a couple of spokes that look bent, and a fair few that have no tension at all. Looking for advice on how I should best go about setting this up? Try and get the old wheel fixed up? Buy a new wheel - something like this ? What else would I need to run singlespeed on that and not fixed? Would it need redished (this confuses me massively)? Getting bogged down in information online so I'd appreciate any help. I'll post pictures in return!

edit: has anyone had experience/bothered to treat rust before - another thing I wasn't sure about.
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If you get that wheel you need to remember that it's got a 41-42mm chain line. You need to choose your bottom bracket width such that the chainring you're using is the same spacing out from the centre, i.e. 41-42mm. At the moment it sounds like you're just using the cog on the cassette that sits where the chain line is straight.

The budgetest option would be to get a spoke key, loosen all the spokes to about the same place and start tightening them evenly to re-true the wheel. There are plenty of Youtube videos to help you through this process and it'll take a few hours but is very satisfying. You'll probably have a couple of stuck spoke nipples on the old spokes and I often find I have to cut them off - you might get lucky though, but the next budgetest option is to buy a set of spokes and re-lace the wheel.

If you want to use the flip-flop wheel then I'd seriously recommend getting the correct width bottom bracket or you'll have problems with it throwing the chain off. It's quite simple to do: measure the width of the existing bottom bracket axle (end-to-end) and measure the distance from the centreline of the frame to the tip of a tooth on the chainring. You know the chainline on the flip-flop is 41-42mm, which means the cog is 41mm from the centre line. Let's say the old bottom bracket is 120mm wide and you measured the chainring distance as 46mm. You need to bring the chainring in towards the frame by 5mm to get it inline with the 41mm at the back. Take that 5mm off both sides of the bottom bracket, i.e. you'd need a 110mm bottom bracket.

For the record, track cranks with a Shimano taper usually use a 110mm bottom bracket for a 41-42mm chain line.
 
oli collett said:
You should probably practise going up leith at 5km/h...
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Not quite that bad. Last year I managed to ride up without getting taken out by people wandering over the road. I think my average was about 9mph for the segment and I was by no means going for it. It is without doubt the hardest part of what is actually a very easy but enjoyable 100 miles. I didn't get in this year but if I had I would be targetting under 5 hours.
 
Calpol said:
Not quite that bad. Last year I managed to ride up without getting taken out by people wandering over the road. I think my average was about 9mph for the segment and I was by no means going for it. It is without doubt the hardest part of what is actually a very easy but enjoyable 100 miles. I didn't get in this year but if I had I would be targetting under 5 hours.
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Depends on your luck though. I got boxed in on leith and box hill :( worst thing I found was descending after box hill as a lot of people were sitting on the outside of the road going very steadily
 
Well my Shimano shoes arrived today. Wow cleats are certainly going to take some getting used to.
I'm at work so couldn't really have a proper spin, but did go out quickly during my lunch hour. It was all going so well, until my trousers got caught in the chain, I forgot about the cleats and crashed to the floor :cool:

I think I'll wear normal shoes for tonight's rush hour commute :)
 
god damn it why are HR straps black...

I just glanced in the mirror after putting it on a white tshirt and it looks like I'm wearing a bra from the back..
 
Jonny69 said:
If you want to use the flip-flop wheel then I'd seriously recommend getting the correct width bottom bracket or you'll have problems with it throwing the chain off. It's quite simple to do: measure the width of the existing bottom bracket axle (end-to-end) and measure the distance from the centreline of the frame to the tip of a tooth on the chainring. You know the chainline on the flip-flop is 41-42mm, which means the cog is 41mm from the centre line. Let's say the old bottom bracket is 120mm wide and you measured the chainring distance as 46mm. You need to bring the chainring in towards the frame by 5mm to get it inline with the 41mm at the back. Take that 5mm off both sides of the bottom bracket, i.e. you'd need a 110mm bottom bracket.

For the record, track cranks with a Shimano taper usually use a 110mm bottom bracket for a 41-42mm chain line.
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I'm going to hang fire on the wheel, check around on ebay for a few weeks until I can grab a decent rear flipflop that won't break the bank. I had ordered a bottom bracket to match the old width (122.5 I think it was) but I'll just return it, wait until I have a wheel, then buy a suitable bb. The whole chainline thing had me a bit perplexed so cheers for the advice - saving me from frustrating costly mistakes!
 
Can anyone remind me of the name of the guy on ebay that is good for cables? I need to replace the inners and outers on my brakes asap...and probably the pads tbh - what is an expected mileage for disc pads (TRP)?

edit: Whilst we're at it, any suggestions for half-decent bar tape that is totes cheap?

edit2: Is it Jagwire stuff that is cheap and decent for cable inners/outers?
 
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nydryl said:
I'm going to hang fire on the wheel, check around on ebay for a few weeks until I can grab a decent rear flipflop that won't break the bank. I had ordered a bottom bracket to match the old width (122.5 I think it was) but I'll just return it, wait until I have a wheel, then buy a suitable bb. The whole chainline thing had me a bit perplexed so cheers for the advice - saving me from frustrating costly mistakes!
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Chain line is perplexing.

Most hubs are around 41mm but not all (white industries hubs are different chain lines for fixed and SS on their flip flops!). Different combinations of BB and crank will produce different chain lines as there is no standardisation of the position of the rings relative to the BB end. That's why there are so many BB sizes.
 
FrenchTart said:
Can anyone remind me of the name of the guy on ebay that is good for cables? I need to replace the inners and outers on my brakes asap...and probably the pads tbh - what is an expected mileage for disc pads (TRP)?

edit: Whilst we're at it, any suggestions for half-decent bar tape that is totes cheap?

edit2: Is it Jagwire stuff that is cheap and decent for cable inners/outers?
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I bought a full jagwire kit not long ago - 24ish quid, brakes, gears etc! REALLY nice kit and literally transformed the way my bike shifts/brakes!

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Jagwire-Racer-Brake-Gear-Kit_33423.htm

this.. cheapest I could find! do mind tredz take 2-3 days to dispatch.
 
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