Road Cycling Essentials

[George Hincapie]

Anyone have any experience of buying groupsets? i need to buy a set and my intention originally is to go for full Ultegra (mechanical) in dark gray, im not sure about any others than Shimano tho, are they worth looking at?

Ultegra is a fantastic GS and the one I use. Dura-Ace is the top level (mechanical) Shimano GS and is lighter, supposedly shifts better (marketing guff) and is much more expensive.

There are electronic versions of Ultegra and Dura-Ace. Both are heavier than their mechanical counterparts but offer better shifting and no front derailleur rub. Obviously each are far more expensive.

SRAM and Campagnolo offer mechnical equivalents. Campag also offer electronic GS.

All 3 brands are good, so it's personal preference as to which to go for.

 

[Vonhelmet]

I think i could comfortably go at least 20 miles in almost any direction from here without coming to a set of traffic lights.
Climbing 4-500ft would be a luxry though

Woo, you've got my name wrong in the quote there, someone wouldn't be happy

 

[Vonhelmet]

Buying a groupset at retail works out very expensive, its nearly always worth just buying a new bike with the groupset unless your custom already, and swapping parts between the 2 and selling one

I'm thinking about buying the Sora 2013 groupset on ebay to upgrade my bike. It costs about £200 for the parts, but I'm currently on a mix of 2300 and other random bits, and I can't yet stretch to a full on decent bike, so I think it'd be worth it. That's my plan for this year, along with some new wheels. Should get my TDF to a fairly respectable spec.

 

[One More Solo]

Anyone have any experience of buying groupsets? i need to buy a set and my intention originally is to go for full Ultegra (mechanical) in dark gray, im not sure about any others than Shimano tho, are they worth looking at?

I'd highly recommend trying all the different shifters and seeing what suits your hands best as ultimately that is what will make the biggest difference to your riding experience. No properly adjusted groupset shifts so badly as to make your bike unrideable and the weight differences between equivalent groupsets from each manufacturer are negligible so it's all about ergonomics in my opinion.

 

[[Damien]]

I think I've managed to find a nearby 10 mile stretch of open road with no traffic lights, awkward junctions, roundabouts, nasty bends or anything else to get in the way, apart from climbing about 4-500 feet in the middle of it.

Hook me up with a google link

 

[Vonhelmet]

Hook me up with a google link

A675 from Astley Bridge (back of Bolton - head past Moss Bank Park and Smithills Farm to get there) to junction 3 of the M65. I've only done bits of it before - Astley Bridge to the turning for Belmont, or from Belmont to the M65 - but I'd like to do the whole stretch. I've checked it out on Street View and with the exception of two sets of lights within the first mile it's then pretty much clear all the way to the M65.

 

[Jonny69]

I may have got a bit carried away on eBay and I may have accidentally won a pair of Mavic lo-pro pursuit bars. Yeah, the really awesome looking ones. Oh well, looks like there's a new project in the pipeline, and it's going to be an expensive one

 

[Kimi]

I forgot to mention that ive got Ultegra Di2 on my Canyon and absolutely love it, also ive got 105 on my Boardman, i would go for Di2 again but its to expensive to buy alone, i dont mind paying £600 for Ulterga mechanical group set tho. Its to go on a little project build that im doing with a China carbon frame to learn about bike building.

Its one of these frames but mines in unpainted matt carbon 3k weave

Alternatively i suppose i could buy Ultegra bottom bracket, and cranks, brakes and then use my 105 front and rear derailleurs from my Boardman, can you mix bits like that?

 

[touch]

Its one of these frames

Is that the same mould as a Venge?

 

[Kimi]

I dont think its exactly the same but its very close visually, i think the Venge shifting cables cross at the front but these one go down the oposite way, i know a few people have bought them and made some very nice Mclaren S-Works replicas tho, ill see if i can find a few better pics

 

[George Hincapie]

Is that the same mould as a Venge?

Looks like a Venge replica. I thought the exact same thing.

 

[Kimi]

Heres one somones making of a Mclaren Venge
They come in at 1.7kg painted for frame, fork and seatpost

 

[[Damien]]

A675 from Astley Bridge (back of Bolton - head past Moss Bank Park and Smithills Farm to get there) to junction 3 of the M65. I've only done bits of it before - Astley Bridge to the turning for Belmont, or from Belmont to the M65 - but I'd like to do the whole stretch. I've checked it out on Street View and with the exception of two sets of lights within the first mile it's then pretty much clear all the way to the M65.

Nice one. I might have a mooch up there at some point. I'm still planning on doing that loop we did on sat, but doing (or, attempting to do) the rake while I'm there on whichever day's got the best weather, Thu or Fri. I'll probably still go out on the opposite day for a short one, depends how bad it is out.

I'm hoping to get some nice PRs on segments along that loop. Strava & the HRM on my garmin says I barely got out of zone 2 on that ride (and when I did it was probably chasing down PC that time) so I'm going to push myself this time.

Edit: Also if someone could push arsey off his bike so he stops leading me by 10 or so miles on the base miles challenge every sodding day I'd appreciate it

 

[touch]

Poor effort, battery should be on the bottom of the downtube.

 

[Kimi]

Yea looks crap there, although that is where it is on the Mclaren one.

 

[touch]

As far as i can tell, the battery is on top in all the publicity shots, probably to make it more obvious. It looks like you'd have trouble fitting 2 bottles with it stuck on there.
All of the action shots look like it's mounted under the tube.

Cav runs his on the bottom.

 

[chanjy]

...ill see if i can find a few better pics

Loads if you search for Dengfu FM098 (I think)

 

[Kimi]

Did Mclaren ever say why they went with Di2 ? i mean its a little bit heavier and the project was all about saving weight whilst also improving performance, i guess the weighterformance ratio must be worth it

 

[George Hincapie]

Did Mclaren ever say why they went with Di2 ? i mean its a little bit heavier and the project was all about saving weight whilst also improving performance, i guess the weighterformance ratio must be worth it

If it was just about weight then they'd have used Super Record. Is the Venge frame lighter than the Tarmac SL4?

 

[touch]

Nobody really cares about weight so much anymore. All of these pro bikes are well under the minimum weight anyway so they have to load them up with power meters and di2 shifters to bring them up to weight otherwise they'd just have to stuff the crank axles full of lead weights anyway.