I'm looking at a bike on gumtree for our 4year old.
The description states "some scratches from a towbar" and this is the pic...
Those look a bit deep to me ("gouges" perhaps, more than "scratches") - what do the experts think? Do you think any strength has been lost there?
As Jonny noted, not that deep and headtubes are generally quite robust. Especially on a kids bike. It's not like that area is subjected to many stresses and such anyway. It's not like a chainstay.
The kink on the brake cable makes me think you'll want to replace that, although the rest of the cable looks clean & tidy. No real rust but a bit of discolouration on the noodle. Still, have seen and used far worse. Some scratches from mudguards, worth checking it comes with them if you want them as they do tend to be model specific on smaller bikes? Looks to be in tidy/good condition anyway, tyre has loads of wear, rubber on noodle/brake isn't perishing. Very little dirt/rust/discolouration so at a guess has mostly been ridden in dry weather and kept inside/garaged.
Best small/medium sized tyre levers.... GO!
Couldn’t get my tyre back on the rim without using a metal mtb lever. That’s no good at the roadside.
The standard plastic Park Tools TL or whatever they are. Amazing levers, I still have my originals I bought after breaking a load of cheap levers on wire bead schwalbe marathons. They survived that years ago and have done a number of tubeless mounts & unmounts now too. Actually bought another 2 sets when they where on deal for £3 a set last black friday (or was it the one before),
so the £2 on Sigma for them is a great deal. They're so robust one of my 'spare' sets is still in it's original packet. Buy them, you'll never want/need another lever again.
I'm very tempted to buy some touch-up paint and go for it.
Nail varnish.
So on the Vector 3 front yet again...
Cleaned and brand new batteries in them last night ready for 2.5 hours this morning.
Half way through the ride, cadence drops, power drops, Complained the battery level was "low" and then completely lost connection to left pedal.... I've honestly had beyond enough of these ******* things. Just switched off the sensor on my head unit. Life is too short for this ****.
Go crankarm if you can. Just far less to go wrong! Just how often do you need to switch your power meter around between bikes. For me that answer was 0, for others just having the consideration/awareness. That's also kinda why I went crankarm, rather than spider, as it's quite easy/quick to switch between bikes if I go that way in future, providing it's Shimano (also why I went Shimano cranks when swapping to make it even easier). It's almost as easy to swap a shimano crankarm on a bike as it is pedals, if I want to take it on holiday etc...
It's a ridiculous situation that nobody should be finding themselves in with a "premium product".
Utterly. Especially from a company like Garmin, but equally, there's very few of their products without huge design flaws, massive production fubars, buggy software/firmware etc etc. They're a joke, but without much previous competition they got away with it. They deserve to lose out of many of the markets they're the pescribed 'leader' in.
What are you guys running? From my brief hunt thus far I see the SKS raceblades might do the trick as they don't have anything physically between the caliper and tyre. So those should work but just wondering if anything else I should look at based on others experience/opinion?
SKS every day. I've extensive experience with Raceblade Longs (formerly 'Longboards' and sometimes branded as XLongblades. WTF.). Really recommend them! Fitting is great for tight spaces. Mine where so tight on my Defy that when I rode over cut grass it jammed it up and I had to stop and remove it ~400ft into the start of a Sportive.
Clearance was that close that I had to run Mitchelin 25mm's as Continential 25mm's where marginally bigger so caused rubbing... Could also be worth noting if you're that marginal on room.
You get some noise from them, but from all the ones I tried they where one of the cheapest, best firt/coverage, most solid and dependable. SKS are amazing support too and will send you spares, quite often for free.
Race blade longs may fit as they only need to fit a thing metal part under the caliper. Worst case scenario I've saw this part being fitted to route over the caliper kinda like PDW guards do.
We've bought in a few guards the other week but I've not tried them as yet.
https://www.vanillabikes.com/produc...MIoNKH3diW5gIVyrTtCh0KOQ-OEAkYASABEgJ8PPD_BwE
They do fit really quick but I'm not sold on my arse not getting wet with the gap they leave.
Not seen that one before. But seen several similar, some even made of carbon for an ultralight temporary guard. It's an interesting design as it's mounted on the axle you should be able to adjust the position think you could even get it against the caliper to protect your arse more (rather than how that one is fitted to protect buddy behind).
don't really plan on riding it much as I'll be doing the JustEat deliveries.
How are you finding that? You're paid per delivery right? I'm considering maybe trying it over the xmas period. Actually considering taking the Chariot & loading it up. Imagine if I could do Dominoes and fill it with Pizzas... Probably get 15 pizza boxes in there!
11 speed 5800 chains on amazon for 6.49, yes not the best spec, but a bargain i think, i have stocked up
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017SOKT7O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
EDIT: all gone now
Average chain. But good spot as that's an amazing price & hope you abused it!
