Road Cycling
- Thread starter FrenchTart
- Start date
Yup they're pretty dire (well, the coating is), I've always replaced with Jagwire or Lifeline cables and never had any issue.
Great effort & great ride! climb looks brutal! Maybe one day...
I'll be riding all through the winter now I can run wider tyres and full guards, have spent too much on wet weather gear not to! One of the main things I'm going to do is stick to the same 2-3 routes in daylight/night so I'll mostly know where the bad potholes are. It's not like we really ride through the stinky british winter for enjoyment is it?!This will probably last as long as it takes for a full speed pot hole hit like last yearThe alternative though is Zwift and the turbo...
Thinking about my sportive again, I was shocked at the number of mechanicals I saw. Shed loads of punctures right from the off, maybe not so surprising as we set off on wet country lanes that looked like they last saw a car in the 20th century plus a couple of small gravel sections. What was more of a shock was a load of snapped chains and a couple of derailleurs seemingly just falling off
See tons of mechanicals all the time now on group rides, most of it from newish riders so I always put it down to inexperience/badly maintained kit.
Workstands are awesome aren't they!
SRAM and Shimano 11 speed are pretty interchangeable. I think that goes outside of 11 speed with certain ranges as I recall an old Carrera having Tiagra/Sora and an SRAM cassette... SRAM QL's are also the least expensive!
Went out on sunday as I failed to get many miles in through the week, still came up a few miles short of my 100 mile weekly goal but not far.
https://www.strava.com/activities/683609247
Ventured out to Pencombe hill as I've not ridden it for a year or so and was interested to see how far away it is and the route to get there from new house. Climbed it once seated and fairly reserved, descended and put a second proper effort into it. Nice PR, almost a minute faster than previous. Not the best of routes, strong headwinds in places and lots of junctions/crossings but quiet none-the-less. Think climbs to the south (Gospel, Dorstone & Bredwardine) are closer and easier/quicker to get to, just a shame they're more brutal & not as enjoyable!
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2-3 uses I think? I've got one which has done far more, still 'snaps' together strong enough for me to keep using it. When they get too easy to snap together I tend to replace...
Not tried a KMC one though. Always thought Shimano were '1 use', but not sure if that meant the pins or the KMC QL's?
Not tried a KMC one though. Always thought Shimano were '1 use', but not sure if that meant the pins or the KMC QL's?
A set of master link pliers has to be one of the best things to buy. I used to mess about with needle nose pliers for a while.
Bought the Park Tool ones and wow, it makes an annoying job a doddle, and such a cheap tool.
Along with a chain whip, one of the first tools you should buy!
Edit: I reuse the SRAM ones and never had anything bad happen... Change chains every 6k km.
Bought the Park Tool ones and wow, it makes an annoying job a doddle, and such a cheap tool.
Along with a chain whip, one of the first tools you should buy!
Edit: I reuse the SRAM ones and never had anything bad happen... Change chains every 6k km.
SRAM and Shimano 11 speed are pretty interchangeable. I think that goes outside of 11 speed with certain ranges as I recall an old Carrera having Tiagra/Sora and an SRAM cassette... SRAM QL's are also the least expensive!
Campag too. the sprocket distances (mm) are
C: 3.69
SR: 3.72
SH: 3.76
so across the whole cassette the difference is less than a millimetre, and the float in the top jockey can easily take up the 0.07mm (at most) between sprockets.
It wouldnt surprise me if both Campag and Shimano cassettes were within manufacuring tolerance for the SRAM "middle ground"
plenty of clever people have spent a fair bit of time testing it and it always seems to work perfectly. Dead useful, especially with the price of campag 11 cassettes
there's a whole world of other odd hack combos out there. an 11s campag shifter with a shimano mech will shift shimano 9 perfectly for example
This was mainly on expensive kit. Then again I guess throwing money at buying a bike doesn't always equate to looking after it afterwards.
I did feel for one guy when his clumsy mate knocked over his clearly brand new Felt. I don't know much about this end of the market but I do know it had DI2, was a carbon aero frame and by the look on his face as it hit the ground, clearly quite expensive
The four of us noted just how close some of the club riders passed us. One group especially we swore would have clipped us if we didn't swerve to avoid them.
I'm rubbish at riding on the wheel of the bike in front so I just accept I'm not going to get a tow and sit a bike length back. Problem was I had two guys get into that gap and then instantly slow down causing me to drop off our group. I didn't want to go straight round them again in case they thought I was playing silly buggers but after it happened for the fourth time I saw red and nailed it to the front of our group. Problem was I was carrying so much momentum that I ended up dropping our group too
Other than those annoyances (and a few others I won't bore you with) it was a good day out.
Picked up the Birzman Infinate Apogee as I wanted a pump & co2 combo. Not 100% taken with the chrome looks of it but not tried it on my bike yet. Any other comob's (with a carrying bracket & shutoff valve) I should be looking at without spending a fortune?
Lezyne cfh or bontrager air rush. The lezyne is more expensive (£30 vs £25) but it has a flexy hose which makes pumping miles easier. I have the bontrager but haven't used it in anger yet. The bontrager bracket holds two co2 cartridges, like your Birzman, which is handy. Not sure if the lezyne one does that.
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Anyone else seen the new Allez Sprint?
http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Specialized-Allez-DSW-SL-Sprint-Expert-700c-2017-Road-Bike_96594.htm
Seem's like a lovely bike!
http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Specialized-Allez-DSW-SL-Sprint-Expert-700c-2017-Road-Bike_96594.htm
Seem's like a lovely bike!
Same here, never any issues.
Proper deep winter clean/new season prep, or if I buy a Dura-ace chain which I usually do swap it onto it.
Great info - hadn't really appreciated how close the tolerances are! Although does explain why you're best avoiding Campag/Shimano if possible. Bodes well for SRAM being the consumable component of choice for both (like me with my chains!)
The club guys passing close is usually a 'good sign' - they're riding close because they're putting an effort into the overtake and think you're a proficient rider from a club! Many club guys get very accustomed to riding in close proximity due to only riding with clubs and/or racing. It can be frustrating/annoying if you're not used to it, as at the end of the day you don't know them and have no idea of their bike handling skills. The last thing you want to do is trust their's if they clip you!I'm rubbish at riding on the wheel of the bike in front so I just accept I'm not going to get a tow and sit a bike length back. Problem was I had two guys get into that gap and then instantly slow down causing me to drop off our group. I didn't want to go straight round them again in case they thought I was playing silly buggers but after it happened for the fourth time I saw red and nailed it to the front of our group. Problem was I was carrying so much momentum that I ended up dropping our group too
Not quite sure why those guys were jumping into your gap, maybe they thought it was a chaingang! But that wouldn't explain the slowing down!
Refitted the chain when stripping a frame to spray. And also another to swap/upgrade group set parts (derailleurs).
Could just be you've work to do and don't want it dangling about getting in the way making everything less clean
Refitted the chain when stripping a frame to spray. And also another to swap/upgrade group set parts (derailleurs).
Could just be you've work to do and don't want it dangling about getting in the way making everything less clean
Fair enough. Was just wondering if there is something I probably should be doing that I'm not
I have one of those. You probably already know this but you mentioned a shut off valve, the Birzman doesn't have one of these. It is a one hit wonder that dumps all the gas in one go. I've had to use my one a few times and I've never used the pump apart from to give a new tubes a couple of puffs before fitting, CO2 has done the trick every time.
Trying to copy me?
As the Birzman doesn't have a shut off and I'm not happy with the colour I'll return it and get the Lezyne. Have mudguards to return anyway so even less hassle to return it!
Fair point, another reason for returning it.
Ideally I want a shutoff as I'll be running lower pressures and wider tyres...
Have my current 28mm Pro4E's pumped up at 90psi and it's too hard so dropping them down a bit. I'm thinking with the shutoff I can either start with pump, or finish with it - as the cartridge will fail to fill, or overfill? (thinking air volumes between 23-25mm which these cartridges are rated against at 120psi & 28mm-32mm tyres I'll be running that I only want inflated to 80-90psi). It's all a bit of an unknown for me at the moment... I needed a new portable pump, so I wanted a combo to play with co2!