Road Cycling

[Trifid]

As an ex-farm Boy I've never understood peoples fear of cattle...! Yes they're big, yes they can be dangerous, so is it just fear of the unknown? Or fear of something big? If you just consider them a dumb simple animal that doesn't realise how big they are you can't go far wrong with them (they're not as clever as a dog/cat/3 year old kid). I get they're very easy to get hurt around if you don't respect them or understand what they'll do, but they're not exactly clever enough to be evil incarnate!

You can easily out-think a cow, hell I used to be able to out run them and a large part of that is understanding them and their decision making. You can easily think faster to know their decisions before they get there themselves! Sheep are cleverer and a little faster - while being able to turn faster, but you're not scared of them are you?

Sorry, I was taking the **** out of the governments misplaced focus on dangerous cycling compared to dangerous drivers. In other news, I'm guessing that has been thrown out this week with the closing of parliament.

 

[Martynt74]

Thanks. Actually picked up a BNIB set of Bont Vaypor for £35 so happy bunny when they arrive. Certainly for that price I'll give them a go! Can go back to looking at £200+ Lake's when I actually see a pair of them I like the look of...

Bargain, i've been looking at Bont due to the "foot shaped" design. I wear Altra/Barefoot shoes generally so they look handy. Going to order about 5 pairs from BikeInn i think and hope for the best.

 

[Martynt74]

Can you not get the LBS to do all the following up and 'hassle factor'? I thought normally they dealt with Giant as you as the end customer wouldn't be able to? They you can just hassle them to get it resolved!

I guess impatience? More likely to get somewhere yourself than hoping the LBS are as persistent?

 

[fez]

No idea if you've got a faulty checker but it's not uncommon for a new chain to measure 0.25 on my checker and I'll nearly always have worn my chains over the 0.75 before I change them... Getting similar mileage to that - but ridden all conditions, through the winter and with usual wet lubes. I treat a chain as a consumable - so what if I'm changing 2-3 a year when it could be 1-2. When I only have to 'service' them with a chain cleaner every month or two using my normal degreaser and a lube every couple of weeks I can afford to change them sooner when they're ~£20 a pop...

I think it probably is faulty. I have a new chain on the way at any rate and I will check that. The tip of the checker doesn't look at quite the right angled compared to pictures and it almost looks like there is a slight distortion where there would be if it was bent slightly. That could just be my imagination. The other thing that made me suspicious is that the old park tool checker seems far more robust than the new one. The new one can be relatively easily bent.

Can you not get the LBS to do all the following up and 'hassle factor'? I thought normally they dealt with Giant as you as the end customer wouldn't be able to? They you can just hassle them to get it resolved!

The giant dealer are dealing with Giant UK on my behalf but they haven't exactly been brilliant themselves. Got an update finally yesterday that they have refaced it and its going back to the dealer and should be there early next week. Fingers crossed I was wrong and the refacing has fixed it all but I am sceptical. Should be pretty easy to test. If its still not right I will just demand a replacement. Not losing it for another 5-6 weeks.

 

[Roady]

Sorry, I was taking the **** out of the governments misplaced focus on dangerous cycling compared to dangerous drivers. In other news, I'm guessing that has been thrown out this week with the closing of parliament.

Ahhhh, gears grinding just now caught the link between the two!

The couple of people who've mentioned it to me I've laughed and said something along the lines of "oh if that's the case then same laws for cyclists as cars I'm all for. It will mean the 3-4 cyclists a year on average who kill someone 2-3 of them will get off on technicalities and the other one probably deserves to be in court. What about the 11,500 or more car drivers who kill people? That is probably the bigger issue if 3 quarters of them are escaping prosecution"

Bargain, i've been looking at Bont due to the "foot shaped" design. I wear Altra/Barefoot shoes generally so they look handy. Going to order about 5 pairs from BikeInn i think and hope for the best.

I'll let you know what they feel like - will compare to my Fizik, Giro, Sidi and Shimano

I think it probably is faulty. I have a new chain on the way at any rate and I will check that. The tip of the checker doesn't look at quite the right angled compared to pictures and it almost looks like there is a slight distortion where there would be if it was bent slightly. That could just be my imagination. The other thing that made me suspicious is that the old park tool checker seems far more robust than the new one. The new one can be relatively easily bent.



The giant dealer are dealing with Giant UK on my behalf but they haven't exactly been brilliant themselves. Got an update finally yesterday that they have refaced it and its going back to the dealer and should be there early next week. Fingers crossed I was wrong and the refacing has fixed it all but I am sceptical. Should be pretty easy to test. If its still not right I will just demand a replacement. Not losing it for another 5-6 weeks.

Fingers crossed your checker then... Got some verniers you could measure link distances with, as that's all it's doing... Enough google searching should turn up what to expect/method etc. Or even try it on a friends chain which they can tell the age of (find someone with a new one!)

If it's facing then should be fairly easy for the LBS to check - but I thought you said it needed tapping too? Would think the LBS 'tests' torque of anything that's been re-tapped as a matter of process... But would certainly be worth asking them what they level they test it to...

 

[fez]

The couple of people who've mentioned it to me I've laughed and said something along the lines of "oh if that's the case then same laws for cyclists as cars I'm all for. It will mean the 3-4 cyclists a year on average who kill someone 2-3 of them will get off on technicalities and the other one probably deserves to be in court. What about the 11,500 or more car drivers who kill people? That is probably the bigger issue if 3 quarters of them are escaping prosecution"

Those 2-3 a year are probably not at fault for the death either. The guy who killed the old lady recently wasn't prosecuted because she basically just stepped out in front of him. When people talk crap about cyclists I am more than happy to engage with their bizarre and almost entirely wrong views.

If it's facing then should be fairly easy for the LBS to check - but I thought you said it needed tapping too? Would think the LBS 'tests' torque of anything that's been re-tapped as a matter of process... But would certainly be worth asking them what they level they test it to...

I personally don't think that facing it will fix the issue. Essentially the caliper was sinking into the carbon when tightened to spec. And by sinking, it was dropping around 2mm into it. You could see the carbon giving way and the paint cracking as it went down. That doesn't seem like something you should be refacing. I will see when I get it back on Monday/Tuesday though.

They are flat mount so no tapping required.

 

[Trifid]

Emergency trip down to the bike shop after prepping my bike for the weekends outings as the end of the valve core broke apart. One free valve core later and it is slightly longer then the other one and didn't go in very nicely and was difficult to pump up. Hopefully all is good using it this weekend...

 

[bastic]

There was mention of dangerous driving...
Had few close calls today...started with e-mustang beeping at me when descending... Showed him thumbs up and when he started to overtake, the finger..so he decided to start slowing down in front of me and open the window.. sure he was ready to greet me with lovely words how beautiful my bike is but i slowed down when I got to his side window as he was getting to close... He them sped up ... Last occurrence was on last home stretch...south circular, going downhill... On crossing , BMW from opposite direction decided that I'm invisible and started turning in to my way... Not sure I would make the safe breaking without disks...ended up 2ft away from her bonnet... She just sat there like nothing happened...

 

[labbby]

how did everyones ride London's go ?

 

[AndyCr15]

I've had a pretty productive BH weekend.

Saturday 81 miles. Great route, great weather.
Sunday 40 miles. Not a great route. Winter bike back out and stuck to main roads to avoid any possible floods. Only 1 other club member riding. Generally dry until the last 10 minutes when it bucketed down.
Monday 63 miles. Weather much better than I expected, summer bike back off the wall. A route I've not done for about 2 years, but I realise it's some great roads. The first coffee stop is on a main high street, which I'm not a fan of... but I got there too early today anyway, so only did the one-stop. Was nice that I bumped into a club mate within the first couple of miles and we rode together to the first (non) stop. Got a little wet about 14 miles out, but dried quick.

 

[Trifid]

I've had a pretty productive BH weekend.

Saturday 81 miles. Great route, great weather.
Sunday 40 miles. Not a great route. Winter bike back out and stuck to main roads to avoid any possible floods. Only 1 other club member riding. Generally dry until the last 10 minutes when it bucketed down.
Monday 63 miles. Weather much better than I expected, summer bike back off the wall. A route I've not done for about 2 years, but I realise it's some great roads. The first coffee stop is on a main high street, which I'm not a fan of... but I got there too early today anyway, so only did the one-stop. Was nice that I bumped into a club mate within the first couple of miles and we rode together to the first (non) stop. Got a little wet about 14 miles out, but dried quick.

Very nice, I'm rather jealous of the amount of miles you were able to get in.

I'm nearly 2 months in from getting sick and still not 100% but a new asthma medication has enabled me to do some fast rides again, an old school friend joined us on Saturday for a nearly 40 mile ride (apologies to his wife as we did say it was going to 30!) and he ended up setting Strava PRs for 20, 30, 40 and 50km.

 

[fez]

Final update on the TCR frame issue debacle. Giant UK sent it back to the local dealer who stuck a brake caliper on it and lo and behold, facing damaged carbon didn't solve the issue

Took them a month to not fix the issue. Apparently they don't have any brake calipers in their repair shop to check these things...

They have given me three options. Replacement in raw carbon of the borked frameset, complete refund of the frameset or the 2024 frameset which has integrated cables. The caveat on the last option is that it won't be in stock for another 3-4 months.

I have a bike fit on Thursday so I will probably make my decision after that. All in all though, an outcome I will be happy with but dear lord it took a long time. I am tempted by the latest model frameset or the full refund. I could take the refund and probably find a much cheaper price for the replacement frameset as its "outdated" now and the boring colour scheme. That was one of the main reasons I paid so much for the frameset so losing that is sad.

 

[#Chri5#]

Question for anyone with Di2 - have you added satellite shifters (eg SW-r9150) and did they turn out to be a worthwhile addition (given the cost of around £100)?

I need to replace the bar tape on my Synapse and it's obviously the ideal time to add them for shifting when riding on the tops / flats. I have the "hidden" buttons on the shifters set to change up/down on the cassette as I don't have the BT module to change Garmin screens.

 

[Shadowness]

I can't see why you'd ever need them. For a TT bike yes, when's a pain to shift positions, but to simply and quickly shift the usual way, even when on the bars really isn't a big effort.

Much better ways to spend £100 imo

 

[labbby]

I did the SRAM equivelent on my TT bike for obvious reasons and it works great. The only time I think I would go for it on a road bike is if I lived abroad in the mountains, I'd think the climbing version of the satilite shifters would come in handy.

 

[bastic]

thats bad customers service...
new TCR colours are still better than what they had even in th elprevious years...been to their shop not long ago here close to st pauls , but if you dont like their colours thats hard...

will they give you full price back for a new frameset ?
for 3.5k you can find another frameset that you like...but will it have same BB so u dont need new crank etc?

Spec had some different frames on sale even last week, but you might noe be a fan of them

tough decisions...

 

[fez]

thats bad customers service...
new TCR colours are still better than what they had even in th elprevious years...been to their shop not long ago here close to st pauls , but if you dont like their colours thats hard...

will they give you full price back for a new frameset ?
for 3.5k you can find another frameset that you like...but will it have same BB so u dont need new crank etc?

Spec had some different frames on sale even last week, but you might noe be a fan of them

tough decisions...

I paid about £2400 for the frameset so I assume I would get that back. I was considering buying the same frameset ie. last get at a good discount but it seems hard to find any in stock let alone at decent discounts. I like that paint job for the '25 version they are offering me and lets be honest, any top end frameset these days is almost guaranteed to be internal so going down a different path on frameset doesn't avoid that issue.

I'm not 100% wed to the TCR even though I really like them. What framsets did specialized have on offer?

 

[Martynt74]

How about a nice manly design?

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Also my location searches are all over the place, but this is stunning

2023 Scott Foil RC Pro HMX Frameset

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As you say, i think having the bike fit on a jig to determine the ideal geometry and then plug it into one of those tools to find out what works best for you.

 

[-westy-]

how did everyones ride London's go ?

All good for me - first one so wasn't 100% sure what to expect. But went well, had some bad stomach cramps around mile 80 so had to take a more lengthy break - but finished in reasonable time. Lots of weather warnings, but turned out to be nice on the day! Still a little sore today, but mainly shoulders/arms.

 

[manic111]

how did everyones ride London's go ?

It was tough! Super early start in torrential rain, and within the first 15km I broke a spoke and my back brake started playing up. Zip tied the spoke to another, and managed to limp round to the first mechanic who sorted the brake. I was feeling pretty rough as well, and it took me a long time to feel like I was getting going, but started to feel good around 40 miles in (and the sun coming out helped). The friend who I was cycling with, and who had very kindly stuck with me thorugh my mechanical failures started getting pretty bad cramps from around 55 miles, and is diabetic so we had another long stop for him to refuel and I spent the next 10-15 miles with him drafting me. Then 70 miles onwards had some long draggy hills into the wind, which was pretty brutal given that it was already my longest ride by that point.

Moving time of 6.02, and total time of about 7.30, so all in given the conditions not bad, but I think I could have been a fair bit faster.

It's motivated me to finally pull my finger out on the bike front though - put a deposit down on a carbon Cannondale Synapse 3, just awaiting my cycle to work voucher before picking it up!