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Can’t comment on the Merida,
Can’t comment on the Merida, but I’ve got an Allez Elite in black/chameleon as my ‘shoulder season’ bike (for wet days that aren’t icey/salty, the luxury of choice!).
It’s great, although tyre clearance/mudguard clearance isn’t as great as Specialized would have you believe, 25c tyres are the max you can practically run in there (although they measure up 27mm wide on the DT rims). Thankfully because the rims are quite wide it seems you can get away with lower tyre pressures, so the 25s are pretty comfy overall (70psi, 85kg rider). Mudguards do fit but my SKS Bluemels required a bit of butchery to get the best clearance.
Brakes are fine actually, but since it was my wet weather bike I stuck fancy Swisstop BXP pads on them, probably helps. Also give them a wee squirt of GT85 between the pivots sometimes as the butchered mudguards still let a bit of dirt and grit get to the brakes. Always keeping my eye out for some cheap Ultegras though, would be the first thing I upgraded.
I stupidly swapped the cranks for some cheap Tiagras, just to get my preferred length. Only when swapping did I realise how light the stock Praxis cranks were, definitely keepers! Easy to sell on thankfully.
9.2kg with mudguards and Conti 4Season tyres. Would definitely be my pick if I could only keep one bike.
I use the cheaper open cut
I use the cheaper open cut out discs which are a few quid a pair.Which ones? I’ve run various rotors including the Magura Storm SL which are more cut-out than rotor! Admittedly that was with different brakes (same bike though), but they didn’t do much for the noise.
Still tempted to try sintered pads as I remember them being relatively quiet in the wet on my mountainbike, but I tried sintered pads in some SRAM brakes recently and they were awful, squeeled in the wet AND in the dry!
Also worried about using sintered pads on a rotor that has already been bedded in with resin pads…
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As for bedding in, what a load of crap that method is, I’ve never done it and never had any problems.Agreed, I’ve never gone to those lengths before either, was just experimenting to see if ‘perfect’ bedding in as per manufacturer’s instructions would make a difference. Obviously not.
Although someone mentioned above that resin brake pads wearing out quicker, apparently this is related to bedding in, i.e. un-bedded pads can be soft so if you use them in wet/gritty conditions straight away they’ll disappear quicker.
carbon rimsYeah, I totally get running discs with carbon rims, although if I was spending carbon rim money it would be on a Sunday best bike that would be unlikely to see early spring Scottish gravel conditions!
Lol, I had to leave this
Lol, I had to leave this thread alone, I don’t know why I keep starting threads about disc brakes because I just get myself irritated by them!
I think I’m just getting annoyed as I keep hearing about these mythical brake set ups that work perfectly and silently in wet and dry, but no amount of experimenting or money on new brake set ups seems to get me any closer.
I’ve faced the mounts and set the brakes up using a Hayes alignment gauge which gives a perfectly equal gap between pads and rotor on both sides. Not much more I can do there. Will take the pads out and give them a wee toasting over the gas hob to burn of any contaminents but really don’t believe it’s necessary, they’ve barely been used on the roads and I run a strict ‘no-aerosol’ policy in my garage (slightly tongue in cheek comment..).
I bedded each rotor/pad combo in on the front wheel on a long gradual tarmac descent, on a dry day, never once coming to a complete halt, performing at least 20 hard almost-stops. I really was that anal about it.
I do agree with longasballs though, I don’t think the complete market saturation is all to do with the supposed benefits, there must be something in it for the manufacturers, possibly just the mark-up on new hydraulic discs improving their profit margins… The tyre clearance argument is a non-issue, I run 38mm tyres and mudguards under a set of mini-Vs with clearance to spare, so I don’t buy the argument that wide tyres NEED discs.
Will just wait patiently and hope for a minor resurgance in rim brakes, similar to threaded BBs making a gradual return after a few years of press-fit ubiquity. Or hope I win the lottery and get something really nice and custom (posts Heretic pic again…)
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MetathesiaphobiaNope, but kudos for googling a clever word to be dismissive with
Bed them in properly, quick clean now & again, and they are fine.The usual advice, but they’re as well bedded in and as well looked after as a set of brakes could hope for. Anyway, I thought disc brakes were supposed to be low maintenance?
My physio seems to be a
My physio seems to be a massive fan of wall sit (combined with lunges and single leg dips as part of a rehab routine for a sore knee).
She has been lecturing me that (at the ripe old age of 35) I need to start a strengthening routine to see me riding into my 60s, and wall sit, lunges, squats etc. are her favoured exercises.
I think my knee is still too tender for the lunges and dips, or at least I need to do less weight or not go as low…
I tried on my Trek , using
I tried on my Trek , using some Nitto ‘commuter’ bars.
Can’t say I was in love with the results, certainly didn’t seem to offer any more comfort.
Back to flats for now, think there’s some old butterfly bars in my dad’s shed which I’m intrigued by, when I see bikes locked on the street with them part of me wants to give them a try…
I’ve got an unused set of the
I’ve got an unused set of the super-long axles for sale, as soon as the replacement right axle turns up tomorrow…After all this I’ve discovered it wasn’t the pedals, it was pushing a bloody singlespeed around all the time!
Credit to Dulight, a new axle
Credit to Dulight, a new axle is in the post, literally hours after they would have recieved my email with pictures of the faulty axle.
Had secretly been hoping for a refund as I’m now in two minds about whether I even need/want Speedplay pedals any more (on going physio means I’m now getting on with my existing Looks better than I was…).
Anyway, credit where credit is due to Dulight.
Pilot Pete – did you ever
Pilot Pete – did you ever have any QC issues with Dulight?
Just received my replacement superlong axles. One axle looks great, no complaints, but the other has an allen key socket that appears to have been machined on a Friday afternoon, by the work experience boy, who was drunk.
I actually think it will work fine as the flats appear to grip the allen key deeper in the socket, but at the visible end two of the six sides make no contact with the allen key!
Wondering how much of an arse-ache it will be returning/swapping, or if I should just experiment with them and then purchase bona-fide Speedplay axles once I know the length is right…
Just to add my recent
Just to add my recent experience, a Continental 700×25 measures up as 27mm on a DT R460 rim. A 700×28 measures up as 31mm.
When frame manufacturers advertise clearance for 28mm tyres, they mean tyres which actually measure 28mm, so not a tyre badged as 700x28mm, d’uh!
Swapping wouldn’t be too
Swapping wouldn’t be too tedious I don’t think, mainly once a week from the commuter to the weekend/turbo bike.But at £140 all in I could probably stretchto two sets eventually…
Need to give sore knee another 4 weeks recovery, then will experiment with a 20mm extender first…
Anyone know anywhere in Central Belt Scotland to get ‘fitted’ for Speedplay?
Certainly makes it seem more
Certainly makes it seem more attractive, I’d heard bad things of some of the aftermarket axles, poor machining leading to accelerated bearing wear etc.
My other concern was needing a set for every bike, but did a bit of reading and see no reason why I can’t swap the pedals between bikes, painful experience stripping threads as a teenager means I’m clinically careful now when fitting/removing pedals!
I can find the zeros for £100
I can find the zeros for £100, and replacement axles for £100, although only in one size. RRP one the axles is £150…Captive market I guess…
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Even in this digital age (I plot routes on Strava and download the GPX to OsmAnd (free offline maps for Android phones)), there’s nothing beats poring over a 1:50,000 OS map, studying contours and points of interest. That often informs my digital plots.And as well as being still the easiest way to absorb geographical information, they’re things of beauty.
You’re preaching to the converted! Love my collection of OS Maps, and you’re right, I should use them more for my road route planning, they’re all in a cupboard with my hiking gear…
Can I ask what you use to plan and download?Strava to plot, download GPX, import and create course on Garmin. The Garmin course plotter is terrible, seems prone to re-plotting your route when you’re not looking! I’ve not had too many disasters doing this, occasionally have to stop and consult phone just to check where I am…
