Road Cycling Essentials

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[DOD]Asprilla;21465569 said:
If I get the chance then I'll be replacing the Fulcrums with Stans ZTRAlphas on Chris King hubs with 24 Sapim X-Rays on the front (radial) and 28 on the back (2 cross). They will be about 1250g and will be as smooth as butter.
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now that's a wheel :D

thought about royce hubs? they have a remarkable ability to make King hubs look awfully expensive and awfully cheap at the same time..
 
Saytan said:
now that's a wheel :D

thought about royce hubs? they have a remarkable ability to make King hubs look awfully expensive and awfully cheap at the same time..
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Isn't it just.

I'll be looking to get them from either justridingalong or The Wheel Smith so Royce hubs are an option from both. The Kings are £150 more but having CK headset and BB on the commuter I'm just a big fan of CK.

These wheels won't be for the commuter.

I've contemplated the Extralite hub option, but the rotating hub mass doesn't have a big impact (compared to a rim) so I'm not bothered about spending the extra on that.
 
For commuting I am not bothered about weight or stiffness so much, more about durability. The R500s are perfect and only cost £70. They do 120-150 miles a week, have hit potholes, I have been hit twice in the time I have had them on, been through winter and summer, and they are still great.

how many around these parts still use lovely handbuilt wheels? the modern predominance of factory wheels saddens me a bit
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Why would it sadden you, technology has come along way...

Many "factory wheels" are of high quality, e.g. all Shimano ones I have owned are great. I love the Dura Ace wheels I have, they are just sheer quality.
 
Shimano wheels are awesome, I have an R550 on the back and I do everything on it, it's commuted, it's done a 23:58 10 mile with a 36 spoke Ambrosio on the front too. It's not about the bike.
 
rafster said:
Why would it sadden you, technology has come along way...

Many "factory wheels" are of high quality, e.g. all Shimano ones I have owned are great. I love the Dura Ace wheels I have, they are just sheer quality.
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because a good wheelbuilder takes many factors into consideration rather than building to a spec

and because a decent hub will outlast a rim many times over, i could probably buy a set of royces tomorrow and never have to buy a hub again...
 
Saytan said:
how many around these parts still use lovely handbuilt wheels? the modern predominance of factory wheels saddens me a bit
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Yes, all of my wheels are hand built :D

[show off mode]

The ones on my 531 Raleigh are the original early 90's Shimano 105 hubs and classic early aero bullet-profile alloy rims. I rebuilt the hubs, polished the rims back up and re-laced them with stainless double-butted spokes. The ones on my Bob Jackson are beautiful VO Paris-Brest rims that look like classic tubular rims, but in 700c size on new track hubs. With 32 spokes they are silky smooth and hum like a disc wheel as you ride along. On the Viscount they are classic chrome Rigida Superchromix rims that I tidied up, a vintage chrome flip-flop hub at the back and a chrome Sturmey Archer hub at the front. I laced them with double-butted stainless spokes and they really look the business.

[/show off mode]

I've not yet come across an old hub that wouldn't rebuild. Even the ones that are stiff an notchy. Take all the balls out, clean out the old grease and you'll find it's all full of debris. Repack it with fresh grease and put it back together and it'll be perfect again.
 
Regarding my rubbing noise further up, I've been out on my lunch break to do some testing and discovered that the rear left brake pad touches the rim, but only when I put weight on the saddle.

Not sure what this means, but I presume it's not normal. I've adjusted the calliper so that the pad sits further away from the rim. This has stopped the rubbing but presumably not solved the issue of the distance between the pads and the rims changing when I sit on the bike!!
 
Robbie G said:
Regarding my rubbing noise further up, I've been out on my lunch break to do some testing and discovered that the rear left brake pad touches the rim, but only when I put weight on the saddle.

Not sure what this means, but I presume it's not normal. I've adjusted the calliper so that the pad sits further away from the rim. This has stopped the rubbing but presumably not solved the issue of the distance between the pads and the rims changing when I sit on the bike!!
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the bike will flex somewhat under your weight
 
I'm fuming right now.
My Brompton's back wheel was replaced in January but it hasn't been right since as my chain keeps skipping. I've taken the bike in for repair several times now but the mechanics couldn't see what was wrong, even when I pointed out that the sprockets turned like a buckled wheel despite the wheel itself being true. They said it's normal for the sprockets to do that! They looked again today and finally said that the back wheel was abnormally worn internally :(

What do you think caused this? A replacement won't arrive until Friday so I'll be using Boris Bikes for the rest of the week :/
 
Got myself some shorts from PlanetX that a few of you guys got.

Gave myself a massive fright:
Forgot that i had ordered the shorts, was looking at the new RT-57 carbon bikes and comparing them to Canyons.
Outlook pops up 2 notifications: PlanetX saying your order is confirmed and paypal receipt for the order. There was a couple of seconds of panic where i thought i had accidentally bought a bike before i remembered about the shorts :D
 
Jonny69 said:
They've got hub gears haven't they? It's probably through a lack of lubrication.
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Some do but mine is just a two speed so it uses dérailleur gears. I guess the lubrication issue could still apply. I'll ask when I pick up the bike on Friday.
 
touch said:
Got myself some shorts from PlanetX that a few of you guys got.

Gave myself a massive fright:
Forgot that i had ordered the shorts, was looking at the new RT-57 carbon bikes and comparing them to Canyons.
Outlook pops up 2 notifications: PlanetX saying your order is confirmed and paypal receipt for the order. There was a couple of seconds of panic where i thought i had accidentally bought a bike before i remembered about the shorts :D
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LOL :)

Oh, and Canyon every day of the week between those two.
 
I was driving quite a lot over last 3 days.
Im a cyclist on a daily basis and driver from time to time...

I think that every single cyclist should be using lights...amount of people cycling in central london without any lights in the evening is atrocious !!!

They should be given tickets !

Dont think they realise how dangerous it is not only for them but others...
 
bastic said:
I was driving quite a lot over last 3 days.
Im a cyclist on a daily basis and driver from time to time...

I think that every single cyclist should be using lights...amount of people cycling in central london without any lights in the evening is atrocious !!!

They should be given tickets !

Dont think they realise how dangerous it is not only for them but others...
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It's a pet peeve of mine that the police seem unwilling to pull up a) cyclists without lights and b) non-cyclists stopping in the ASL, makes me rage.
 
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