Road Cycling Essentials

Status
Not open for further replies.
grudas said:
ahh.. boo :) shimano hoods were very comfy, should get new bar tape today so I'll play around with the old one until I get a good feel.

have you seen any info or articles around the net on this? I'd love to find the "proper" way to wrap them, google fu is letting me down a bit today :(
Click to expand...

Not sure there is a proper way as such but the usual recommendation is not to wrap too much tape over the actual body of the levers as this seems to make things worse. I wrap just up to the edge of the body to try and create a smooth transition between the two.

You might find if you loosen off the shifters so you can move them on the bars, there'll be certain positions where the transition is smoother. It's finding a balance between this and a comfortable riding position that is tough.
 
One More Solo said:
Not sure there is a proper way as such but the usual recommendation is not to wrap too much tape over the actual body of the levers as this seems to make things worse. I wrap just up to the edge of the body to try and create a smooth transition between the two.

You might find if you loosen off the shifters so you can move them on the bars, there'll be certain positions where the transition is smoother. It's finding a balance between this and a comfortable riding position that is tough.
Click to expand...

cool, will have to do some experimenting tonight :) maybe a piece of old tape between the hood and the bar is going to help.

thanks
 
SkodaMart said:
My bowel was full.
So bad my bladder was squashed like a pregnant woman.

My wife brought me in early hours of Sat morning.

I'm 6'3", I guess I carried a big gut better than most.

I've not eaten in 4 days combined with the weight lost from my gut.

Can't wait to get on the bike, it will feel like I'm turbo charged!
Click to expand...
WTF! What caused that?

Edit: gall bladder does that?
 
Jonny69 said:
WTF! What caused that?

Edit: gall bladder does that?
Click to expand...

As far as I understand it your gallbladder stores bile which is released when you eat a fatty meal to help digest the fats.

My digestion hasn't been great since I had mine removed, so it's hard to know when things aren't right.

I had been prescribed a medication called Questran which absorbs unused bile in your intestines and passes it out of your system.

One if the side effects is constipation, et voila!!

It would have been trivially amusing, however I had an infection that required antibiotics to shift, it was this that required hospitalisation and further investigation.

Still in hospital, but feeling great now.

Stepping Hill in Stockport, this is twice they have come through for me now, first visit 8 years ago saved my life without a doubt.
 
Don't tell the cyclists the route and give each team a large paper map at the start of each stage.
Lol!

Can you imagine the Chaos! :D


(Just amusing myself from my bed lol)
 
Spotted this on Retro Bike. Didn't get it at first, but read the words and it makes sense. Pretty cool!

Let's start with the pics… Details are below:


.

.

.

.

.

.


This one is hard to explain... I came across this bike as a complete build from the original owner listed locally... it was quite cheap and I really liked the wheels so I picked it up. My original intent was to keep the wheels and sell off the rest... But after getting it home I really started to like the frame…

I already have too many regular geared road bikes so I decided to make this one a single speed… only issue is that this one has vertical dropouts so I would need a chain tensioner… the problem is that they never work properly… soooo why not use the best chain tensioner… a rear derailleur

I put it together with an old super record rear derailleur as a chain tensioner but it was not very usable for the hills on some of the roads around here so I decided to make it into a three speed… this is why you see the crazy setup… without getting too technical, the only rear derailleur that would work for this setup is a Campagnolo Croce D’Aune… This has to do with the cable routing for where I wanted the shifter…. Why did I want it there? This is where campagnolo mounted their first ever shifter… watch this video to see for yourself…

This required my mechanic / machinist to make a little plate with avid roll-a-ma-jig pulley and shims for the shifter. I went with that shifter partially because it’s the coolest looking one, but mainly because it’s the only one with an adjuster on it… this is necessary because there is no adjuster on the derailleur any more…

For anyone who wants to give this a spin take note... be VERY careful when shifting while riding... if you reach too far in the bladed spokes will slice your finger off :p
Click to expand...
 
CAAD5 was as good as aluminium frames get IMO.
Hand welded and filed in the USA

edit: Not sure I will be fitting finger chopper shifters any time soon however!

How about rear stay mounted brake levers?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Vonhelmet said:
As it goes, there's a 54cm caad5 with 9 speed tiagra with a beautiful red and white paint job on eBay for £300, collection from Manchester, at the moment.
Click to expand...

That's hard to beat for £300!
Bargain there for somebody.

Not sure I want the shifters near my hands like that though? :D :P

(Joke!)

I'm a 62 cm frame size sadly.
 
Hmm, showers forecast for the north on Sunday. Could be a wet affair watching the tour... At least it'll be warm. It can't be worse than watching the ToB in Knutsford in the pouring rain in September last year.

I think I'll pop my brolly in my jersey pocket, though :D
 
Quick question.. Stem bolts (fork part)

Normally one bolt goes from left to right and the other goes from right to left.

I wonder if there's any reason for that? Currently my knee hits the tread on the left hand side and cuts through my skin! Was quite bad on triban but the new bike is even worse.. To the point that I have to clean up the blood of my leg when I get to work!

What I'm wondering is if I swap the bolt over so the head is where thread is now will anything happen? It's a carbon steerer so pressure is a bit of an issue that's why I'm asking.
 
One of my stems has the bolts going in one from either side. The other has them both going in from the same side. I looked at whether I could swap one round on the latter stem, but the holes aren't right for that. On that basis I'm assuming it is ok to have them both going in from the one side...
 
Made a commitment with some work friends to go on a cycling trip next year over 7 days flying out to Geneva, cycling to Nice, via Mont Ventoux and the Verdon gorge, then flying back out from Nice. Going to be hard but got plenty of time to train.

In the shorter term, am planning on riding 4 x 100 km rides, one for each of the next 4 weekends starting on Saturday with one of the flattest routes you can find round East Yorkshire! I've already done my first 100 km but am trying to make them more regular occurrences. Small steps and all.
 
Vonhelmet said:
One of my stems has the bolts going in one from either side. The other has them both going in from the same side. I looked at whether I could swap one round on the latter stem, but the holes aren't right for that. On that basis I'm assuming it is ok to have them both going in from the one side...
Click to expand...

I'll swap them over tomorrow then :eek:

sorted the bump in sram levers.. took a while trying different ways with old bar tape, but it's there now!



the way I did it is not to overlap on the hood(the plastic bit) and double tape it next to it where the gap is between the hood and the bar -;

015ae1.jpg
 
The bolts all face the same way on the stem on my Dolan too.

Thinking about it, having them facing opposite sides top and bottom would put a horrible twisting stress across the two sides of the stem. It'll never be a problem because parts are so over a engineered, but it would be better to have them facing the same way so it pulls up straight and all strain happens in the same direction top and bottom.
 
Most stems have opposing bolts. I guess it helps to apply an even pinching force to the steerer tube?

You wont be able to turn one around and have them both on the same side. It's not a nut+bolt that could be flipped, it's a bolt that goes into a threaded hole in the stem and only goes in 1 way.

I cant work out how you're hitting your knees off the stem bolts??? Something is seriously wrong there!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom