Ben from Ben-e-fit in Orpington is the best in business but he's in Kent and long waiting times to get a slot with him
check out latest vid from Alec on his fit with Ben
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-suGomMptm/
Road Cycling
- Thread starter FrenchTart
- Start date
check out latest vid from Alec on his fit with Ben
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-suGomMptm/
Soldato
yeah the ones I found use Retul system for the fits, presume that is not recommended then?
Ben from Ben-e-fit in Orpington is the best in business but he's in Kent and long waiting times to get a slot with him
check out latest vid from Alec on his fit with Ben
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-suGomMptm/
thanks, I'll have a look. Honestly, not too worried taking a drive.. just need to figure out how to get my actual bike inside my stupid car.
thanks, I'll have a look at vankru!
Give him a call and ask questions
https://www.ben-efit.com/hes great, loves a cake if you get to see him bring some
loves a chat that man
wheels off the bike and should fit in to any car LOL
you can mention that Lukasz - Wookie recommended him
you might get less abuse from him that way
or more LOLNot that it's not recommend, just that a bad fitter will always be a bad fitter no matter the system they use.
Soldato
Wheels off they should fit into the civic i'd have thought?
HRV is a good metric, worth understanding it and how it can impact things... But measuring 'low' and 'high' on it do mean different things and low isn't necessarily 'bad'. But it is also very sensitive to minor variations. A slight shift in sleep pattern or even position can have a change on HRV and the measurement (depending when your device takes it). Massive thing for me was measuring it as a 'snapshot' in the mornings with a chest strap. Can't even recall the freebie app I used, but it took you through breathing exercises and you could see the big difference it made to just a simple measurement.Yeah, it's possible but it's pretty rare i ever get ill generally and it's been dragging on for quite a while and coincided with the temps constantly being >30c inside the house, especially my office as mentioned. Sleep hasn't been great, but again i can't think of any reasons for that other than heat. I go to bed at a fairly constant time each day and feel like i sleep ok, albeit with waking up a lot more than usual during the night, but then no matter how i sleep i just wake up feeling groggy and unrefreshed.
Interestingly my Garmin reports my baseline HRV has progressively been getting higher. I don't really know enough about the metric and unsure if it says much in isolation, but my typical baseline was always around 60-70 and has been since i got this watch ~18mths ago, but it's now steadily climbing upwards into the 90's. Reading this suggests it's potentially being in recovery after a harder section of training, which might go in line with the reduced volume recently.
Work wise i've been pretty rubbish truth be told, i've generally been finishing bang on time and not putting in any extra to get things done and things whilst not slipping are going to start at some point. Productivity is definitely down, but again i think it's temperature. It's currently 34C in here and not conductive to working! Hoping September starts a drop
I like the way my Whoop does it (during your later sleep times just before you wake up - so I think I does a rolling measurement), but do still question it at times. Mostly because I know how easily I could measure it different times when doing it myself...
What's the big problem with you getting AC, or not for that matter...?! Even just a simple/cheap portable unit at least to help you work/sleep? I get AC'ing a fixed install isn't cheap, nor cheap to run, but a portable unit and with stuff like smart meters you could then make sure it's not costing you a fortune for a bit better 'quality of life'?!
Ben from Ben-e-fit in Orpington is the best in business but he's in Kent and long waiting times to get a slot with him
check out latest vid from Alec on his fit with Ben
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-suGomMptm/
This popped up on my insta earlier, good little insight into it - especially from a rider like Alec who is an absolute machine on a bike - but to read how a fitter enables him to gain even more of an advantage.
Pretty much. I like RETUL as to me it's very 'techie' and less 'black arts'. If anything it's a standard to judge fitters against, anyone trained/qualified on RETUL shouldn't be a bad fit, as it provides that baseline of 'science' around fitting. Basically it gives the fitter the tech to video and map your joints and measure angles, while also using the 'jig' of an adjustable bike to play around and test things.
But a good fitter should be able to tell a lot about you just by looking at you on the bike. If anything the RETUL then backs this up and gives them actual 'numbers' to work with along with the knowhow on what to improve. That's really where the sports science comes into it - knowing the human body and being able to assess a rider (flexibility/movement/ability/adaptions) is just as important as having numbers to match against a bike which fits them.
A real fitter brings comfort but also efficiency from a rider by optimising their position. That should also bring improvements and power gains.
Soldato
We have it in the lounge/bedroom. The lounge is just a big room (Maybe 40m2) and the single unit doesn't seem to have the power to cool it effectively. Similarly we have a unit in the bedroom, and it does bring the temp down, but my wife is quite sensitive to the impact of them. She doesn't sleep well, so the noise doesn't help, and then she seemed to get headaches from having it on too much. Unsure if it's a humidity issue or something else. She generally switches it on for an hour at a time a few times during the night, although if she sleeps well and if it's warm i can often wake up covered in sweat but don't want to disturb her by messing about turning it on.
My office, i should've really bought a portable unit by now. It's not a tiny room. Maybe 10m2 but then i have all home networking stuff in here along with some erm...grow lights which all kick out a decent chunk of heat. I've a temp/humidity sensor connected to my smart home and even over night when the lights are off it doesn't drop below 32c.
I think the main thing which was stopping me was cost for something only really needed this summer. I survived May/June and then it got properly bad mid July. I figured it'd cool down early September so seemed daft buying something for only 6 weeks.
Hoping that next summer we'll be in our actual house which is being built with ducted central air so we can set it at a nice steady temperature of 21c or so and then just have the whole house nice and consistent and without the issues of AC where you get blasted with cold air if you're positioned wrong!
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thats pretty much Ben.
when i went for a refit with new bike, and I've lost significant amount of weight, it was quite simple. all done by look and feel and right questions
Associate
i can get two bikes with wheels removed in my astra so that should be doable id have thought !!
Caporegime
I borrowed a yaris from a garage that was doing some work on our car and as long as you chuck the seats down, most bikes fit in any car. I don't think I even had to remove either wheel.
Soldato
the seats don’t fold down in the civic.. has bracing behind them
but maybe wheels off it’d fit..I've gone full circle!
long TLDR: House purchase taking priority as now we're seriously looking and our nursery fees have basically been reduced to 0 (or close enough i don't care). Don't feel sensible/comfortable buying a fancy bike just to keep in a fairly unsecure shed.
So I'm back to thinking about just buying a Di2 groupset and upgrading my bike. Just wondering how feasible it is if I do it myself. Would all the tools I need outweigh the cost of a bike shop?
long TLDR: House purchase taking priority as now we're seriously looking and our nursery fees have basically been reduced to 0 (or close enough i don't care). Don't feel sensible/comfortable buying a fancy bike just to keep in a fairly unsecure shed.
So I'm back to thinking about just buying a Di2 groupset and upgrading my bike. Just wondering how feasible it is if I do it myself. Would all the tools I need outweigh the cost of a bike shop?
Soldato
Guess it depends on whether you have anything at the moment?
What are you thinking? You could probably keep your existing cranks so that avoids having to fit a new crank/BB, same with your cassette. All you'd really need is some allen keys to remove the headset and various derailiuers. You'd already got the hydraulic cables for brakes etc too, so just need to swap shifters, run cabling for the DI2 and replace the front/rear derailieur.
Don't think i've missed anything there.
EDIT - Maybe easier to run cables to rear derailier without the BB installed, but my frame has a removable access door thing on the underside that helps with that. Unsure if yours does too?
Main thing is probably how much time you can commit to installing, realising something is wrong, re-doing it before you're happy with it and potentially being without the bike, vs what the bike shop could do in a couple hours and potentially have it back same day. I know with kids etc it can be difficult to spend that amount of time slowly working through it
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Assume I have nothing but a bike stand and basic allen keys.
As for what I'm thinking, whole group set switch. I want easier gears so changing from 52/36 to 50/34 up front and 11-34 at the rear. So I would need to take off and change the cranks.
Would the BB need replacing or can I continue to use the same one? if I look under the bike there is a plastic cap but I've never tried to remove it so no idea what is under there.
Yeah, I was thinking if I could just reuse the existing brake hoses as I can't imagine they'd have changed and I could use the shifters wirelessly getting rid of the gear cables.
Edit: just found a handy better shifting document. I'll read through that instead of working
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Soldato
Shouldn't need to replace the BB, although depending on the type it could make life easier. to route cabling. Mine is threaded so would just unscrew. Unsure of the process for any compression styles though.
I've got this and i don't think there was anything else i needed. A torque wrench might be useful but i didn't personally use one although i do own one.
If i was you i'd buy the above and give it a go myself, then get a bike shop to give it a once over afterwards. That way you've got the experience but have the safety net of someone confirming everything is ok. That's the approach i took, and then you have the knowledge for anything in the future.
I've got this and i don't think there was anything else i needed. A torque wrench might be useful but i didn't personally use one although i do own one.
If i was you i'd buy the above and give it a go myself, then get a bike shop to give it a once over afterwards. That way you've got the experience but have the safety net of someone confirming everything is ok. That's the approach i took, and then you have the knowledge for anything in the future.
I would get bike shop to do it, esp if you have to run cables internally etc.
always can go back to them if something goes worng etc
Caporegime
This is the way
Its not that hard to fit a new groupset, especially di2. I think most of the time on mine was spent faffing with feeding the cables through the frame for the disc brakes and then the di2 cables because they had loads of cable ties to stop rattling on them so they got caught a lot. You won't need to change your BB at this point in all likelihood but best to check that when you have the cranks out.
The only special tools you should need are the shimano crank pre-tensioner cap tool for the little cap that screws into the non-drive side crank to preload the cranks to the BB bearings. Then a cassette/lockring tool for the cassette which I assume you already have.
Outside of that, its all hex keys and I think an 8mm wrench for the hydraulic hoses. Oh and you will need to bleed the brakes afterwards.
Better shifting is a great resource.
You might need to buy/you might have all the blanking bits already for your frameset as there are a load of ports you don't need to use when you move to di2.
Looking at it, i think this is why I decided agaisnt it in the past, I think I'd have to go SRAM Force as I'm not sure where the battery would go. I know the seat tube is the common answer but it seems when from the factory, Canyon do it in the downtube.
Though I suppose if I wanted to do it myself and stick with Shimano I would have to remove the BB to run the cable from the seat tube to the front and rear derailleurs?
Maybe the local bikeshop is the better solution. But I think this is the better long term solution for myself. Then when we have the new house and a properly secured space for a bike I can get an all singing all dancing once then
And I would absolutely need a blanking kit to get rid of the two holes for the shifters.
Though I suppose if I wanted to do it myself and stick with Shimano I would have to remove the BB to run the cable from the seat tube to the front and rear derailleurs?
Maybe the local bikeshop is the better solution. But I think this is the better long term solution for myself. Then when we have the new house and a properly secured space for a bike I can get an all singing all dancing once then
And I would absolutely need a blanking kit to get rid of the two holes for the shifters.
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Soldato
sram AXS range ones the battery sits on the components so no need to worry about where it goes.
All points bang on the money. Not a huge amount of tools needed... Hex bolts generally throughout on Shimano, definitely need a torque wrench (shifters to bars/derailleurs to frame/refitting seattube/refitting crank arm).
Hydraulics are fine left as they are - providing you're not moving shifters/changing bars/etc (don't need to change length).
The access door at BB will be very frame dependant on how useful it is. I actually tried to wire mine without removing BB (which I've done a lot of times) but just too awkward to thread cables so ended up removing it. My frame not designed for Di2 so quite awkward, took probably 5-6 hours total, over several nights.
Bettershifting guides are very good and hate to say it - 'it's as simple as you think it is' as well as one of those jobs which seems to take longer than you think. You can't rush it - certainly if you're a bit of a perfectionist, but you also learn a bunch about it (& your frame) by doing it yourself.
You might find your chain cut for 52/36 & 11-32 switching to 50/34 & 11-34 it reaches ok. Not a massive difference in 'gear inches'...
Little plastic cover could be enough, but may depend on your frame. On my Giant and Specialized it is generally there to aid cleaning, so contains a drain hole, so 'sediment' which is washed into your frame can drain out - but if there's a blockage it's easy to get to. Or if you drop something inside... But it's not very big for accessing things. I tried & failed!
Fitted my battery in my seat tube. Frame nor seat tube designed for Di2. No problem for a tinkerer... Mine is jammed in there wrapped in bubblewrap, with a couple of zip ties around it so I can pull it out... Secured with a plastic 'bung' (actually a cap from a tube of loctite with electrical tape wrapped around it). No problems (fitted in June 2023).
LBS is 'easier' but it still takes time... Experience helps a little to reduce that, but it's still a lot of 'hassle' so expect whatever their workshop cost is for 2-3 (maybe 5) hours.
I fitted one of the little black covers on my RD cable. Never fitted well and fell off after a few months. Waste of £9. Wrapped some electric tape around it to create my own and keep the wire in place. Left the 2 openings on my downtube open to the elements, figured the water they collect helps clean the internals. Due to my frame colour almost impossible to get some (as frame doesn't have Di2 kit available). Maybe could make something as I did eventually find some nail varnish very close to my frame colour, so just need to cut something to shape and paint it...
Generally - notice a theme here... It's a very good 'learning curve' if you like tinkering and expect to maintain & troubleshoot your own setup. You learn a bunch about it from fitting it, while also specifically fitting it to your 'needs' (and to a finish you're happy with) if you're prepared to spend the time doing it. If you're not the sort of person who enjoys stripping things down 'the process' to maintain and understand them to save some money (like replacing bearings yourself) then you won't enjoy fitting Di2 - your time and money/frustrations are better spent paying someone else to do it!