Road Cycling Essentials

Status
Not open for further replies.
wut? explain yourself before making such statement :) I just don't see how carbon is any weaker than alu/steel unless it gets stressed the wrong way which will bend steel and alu anyways..

I'm kidding :p

I'd say you're right - anything that's going to break a carbon frame is probably not going to do a frame of any other material much good.
 
How do you loosen a sora sti lever from the bar? I accidentally ran into the back of a van and now the sti lever has moved out of position. I still have the rest of the bike to inspect which hopefully I will feel up to it tomorrow. My helmet took part of the impact so I will already be changing that as I'd rather not risk it!
 
How do you loosen a sora sti lever from the bar? I accidentally ran into the back of a van and now the sti lever has moved out of position. I still have the rest of the bike to inspect which hopefully I will feel up to it tomorrow. My helmet took part of the impact so I will already be changing that as I'd rather not risk it!

Sorry to hear that. I hope you and the bike are ok.

As for how the lever is secured - pull the rubber cover on the shifter back towards the saddle and you'll find an Allen key bolt on the outside of the shifter. Loosen, adjust, tighten as necessary.

I think that's right, I'm going from memory on having read about this...
 
Thanks for the quick reply. I got lucky as I hit my postmans van so he didn't care, I asked him a few times but he really didn't want anything for the damage! It was annoyingly my fault as I had just fitted spd-sl's and was getting too much pressure on the inside of my foot, I looked down to have a quick look at how much space I had to the crank arms. Before I knew it I look up to see the van parked in the cycle lane and my hands just out of reach of the brake levers. So I was trying to reach for my brakes at the point of impact. Front wheel took a lot and then rotated round so the top of my head hit the rear panel, then all I remember is being on the floor!
 
Has anyone ever stuck a carbon frame on a rig and left it vibrating around for days/weeks to simulate thousands of miles of rugged terrain? and then x-rayed them or whatever after for signs of weakness?

It won't do anything; carbon doesn't fatigue like metals. Unless you stress it to the point of failure, which happens suddenly and at a certain stress level as there is no plastic deformation, its structure is not affected. Unless you buy a very top end carbon race bike, the carbon they use is far, far thicker than it needs to be and it'll only fail if it's in a pretty significant single impact. You'll just have to trust me on that because I work in a composites and aerospace alloy testing facility. I jump my Dolan up and down kerbs and I'll be happy to xray the fork next time I take it off.

The only thing you need to watch with carbon is bashing it around. Sharp direct impacts from something hard, scrapes through the lacquer and repeated bashes against other bikes will damage and weaken it. So you need to be careful with clumsy other bike users, kids, careless girlfriend parking her heavy shopper next to it, letting it fall over etc.
 
It won't do anything; carbon doesn't fatigue like metals. Unless you stress it to the point of failure, which happens suddenly and at a certain stress level as there is no plastic deformation, its structure is not affected. Unless you buy a very top end carbon race bike, the carbon they use is far, far thicker than it needs to be and it'll only fail if it's in a pretty significant single impact. You'll just have to trust me on that because I work in a composites and aerospace alloy testing facility. I jump my Dolan up and down kerbs and I'll be happy to xray the fork next time I take it off.

The only thing you need to watch with carbon is bashing it around. Sharp direct impacts from something hard, scrapes through the lacquer and repeated bashes against other bikes will damage and weaken it. So you need to be careful with clumsy other bike users, kids, careless girlfriend parking her heavy shopper next to it, letting it fall over etc.

there's always a...


slap-o.gif

Faberry-slap.gif

pimp-slap-o.gif

SLAP.gif

Cat_slap.gif

slap.gif

Glee_slap_gif.gif

BitchSlap_u18chan.gif

7DTly.gif

anigif_enhanced-buzz-20464-1360640446-1.gif


;)
 
so would I be crazy to buy a planet x CX bike without ever sitting on it since the nearest store is Edinburgh and I don't fancy paying 50quid or whatever the train costs to go check them out.

Bearing in mind I never sat on this hybrid before I bought it either and can't say I have any issues with it apart from the initial pains of getting used to cycling.
 
http://www.bustedcarbon.com/ Always an entertaining read, most of the failures are crash or roof rack related incidents and many of the rest can be put down to over torquing seat posts and bars etc. Quite tempted to replace the forks on my Scott with some nice carbon ones, but with a mini divuk83 due this month I don't think I can justify the cash!

Dave

Edit: Just supposing I was after a carbon fork with disc mounts where would be a good bet? So far I have looked at planetx and superstar?
 
Last edited:
Haven't been interested in cycling since I was a teenager but the cycle2work scheme and a guy I work with who loves his cycling (he recently flew to America for 3 days to compete in something called TransIowa) are both making me want to get in to it again. No idea where to start though :o
 
Bike fits - are they worth it?

I have issues with my arm which I don't think would ever be cured by a bikefit as no amount of adjustment will make up for the fact I have about 50 degree limitation on bending it/straightening it.

As such I think it would be wasted money as no one I know has anywhere close (I know there are lots of disabled cyclists but each one is always different) to this. If I was 'normal' I think a bike fit could help but I can't afford to waste money....
 
Edit: Just supposing I was after a carbon fork with disc mounts where would be a good bet? So far I have looked at planetx and superstar?

The myriad of suppliers on aliexpress are probably a good place to start. Just pick one with good feedback.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom