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New wheels needed and
New wheels needed and possibly new shifters. R500 are ten-speed only. If you want to swap back to a compact it’s easy enough, you may need to shorten your chain (you’ll need a new chain to swap to a non-compact chainset)good tips and advice here folks, thanks for all the help. Definitely need to look into some of this stuff. I figured my triban 520 wheels wouldn’t be the ideal steal for thieves but as someone else said, it if can be quickly stolen people will take anything!Think by the sounds of it i’ll get someone to fit the mudguards for me, sounds like too much hassle for a bike newbie and don’t want to mess it up.
My LBS mechanic hates doing mudguards and he’s got 20 years experience – he gives them to the apprentice to swear at. Some are better than others but there’s nearly always something that needs fettling – extra bolt, spacers, bending stays, and so on. The single stay designs are the easiest to fit.
Personally I love fitting them but I’ve done a lot and there’s satisfaction in mastering something that others are wary of. I’m a bit OCD about them – seeing badly fitted mudguards is like fingernails on a blackboard for me.
Just one further thing to add
Just one further thing to add, don’t get hung up too much on groupset differences. Yes 105 is just heavier/cheaper Ultegra and you get 11 speeds like the pros but that comes with a small but significant price premium. Tiagra gets you everything for less money at the cost of 1 cog and a bit more weight. Even Sora level (1 cog less than Tiagra) is ergonomically very similar to Shimano’s more expensive groups.
The point is that the bike will handle, stop, and go the same regardless of what group is on it these days and unless you’re racing you really won’t notice the difference in available gears, particularly with wide-range cassettes available. There are a lot of really excellent frames in your budget dressed up with lower-end Shimano groups, don’t overlook them just because of that.
Are you commuting? And if so,
Are you commuting? And if so, are you going to ride through the winter? Whilst the disc brake debate is controversial I think that’s the use case where it makes most sense.
If you’re just leisure riding with the occasional sportive I’d go with rim brakes – modern caliper brakes are awesome in all but the foulest of weather, easier to set up than discs, and less prone to squeal. Bike will be lighter by a few grams too.
There’s always going to be a better deal somewhere.
Personally with £700 in my pocket I’d be looking at eBay for bargains. You’ll find 2 year old race bikes that originally cost over £2k available at that price. The thing with buying a brand new bike is, particularly if you’re commuting, it’s going to pick up dents and scratches pretty quickly. Buying 2nd hand isn’t difficult – check the ownership, stick it on a stand and check the gears, check for chain stretch, check the hubs for play and you’re good to go.
The 540 is an excellent bike but Decathlon’s prices have crept up to a similar level to name brands. Specialized Allez springs to mind, and some of the Giants. It also comes with a 52/36 chainset – how fit are you? 36/28 lowest gear might be a struggle if you’re regularly riding in the hills.
There were some very good deals in an article on this site yesterday, have a look at some of those. There was a Pinnacle Arkose which is a cracking bike.
Confusing pricing – I can’t
Confusing pricing – I can’t work out which package I need to reproduce the capabilities I actually use in Premium. Don’t really do Live Segments and don’t need Beacon or mapping.
I use bolt croppers on
I use bolt croppers on mudguard stays.
If you’re going to go for the Ortlieb panniers there’s usually a discount available from the Sustrans shop (or just get 2nd hand on eBay – panniers will be dirty within days so I don’t really see the point of buying brand new). I’ve got some Carradice ones. Altura or Endura usually have good budget options. Pretty much any rack will do you, but I’d recommend that you get one with a three support configuration – having a leg going down from the centre of the rack means you can use the anti-sway clips on panniers to stop them rattling around.
As to lights if you’re intending to commute through the winter go with a dyno setup if you can. £100 tops for a fit and forget solution to lighting, and having a light down at the fork crown is much better than dazzling oncoming drivers and peds with a bar or head-mounted one. If you’re running a rack and panniers you can mount the rear light on the rack and have a very neat and reliable setup.
Lights and the dyno wheel are best imported from Germany – have a look at Taylor wheels. Best lights for the job are generally B&M – I’ve got a Cyo Premium https://www.rosebikes.co.uk/b-m-lumotec-iq-cyo-premium-t-senso-plus-front-headlamp-709235 that more than copes with unlit country lanes.
Fitting mudguards is a bit of
Fitting mudguards is a bit of an art, you might want to let Decathlon do it for you if you’re nearby, or your local bike shop (LBS). I’ve got Tortec Reflectors on mine – brilliant for commuting, loads of coverage and reflective strips on the sides which are a massive safety improvement after dark.
I had a Saris Bones 2 for a while with hatch huggers which stop the metal clips from rubbing your paintwork. You can also lock the bike to these.
I doubt anyone would nick the wheels off a Triban 520. I’ve got an Oxford Shackle and cable (SoldSecure Gold) but hardly ever use it, too much of a faff and when I was commuting my work bike parking was secure enough not to use a lock.
Since the recent https/cookie
Since the recent https/cookie change I’m prompted to accept the cookie/ad preferences on every.single.page.
Android OnePlus 6, in Chrome.
That’s a pretty big
That’s a pretty big difference. Try your hardest local climbs using the 26 or 27 cog, as that’s the rough equivalent of 36/28.
Find out whether the cage on the new bike is SS or GS – if GS you can go up to a 32 cassette (Ultegra 6800) or 34 (R8000), but might need a new chain.
Do you ever max out 50/11 on descents/flat?
You might also take a while to adjust to the right cruising combination, I’m very used to 50/34 and found I was falling between combos when I ran a CX 46/36 chainset. Constant swapping of cogs around 18mph average was annoying for a while.
On the plus side, if you’re handy with a spanner all this is changeable for not much outlay. Sell/swap the group and fit the bits yourself, couple of hours work tops.
spaceford wrote:
Hi kil0ran,
There doesn’t seem to be an option here for direct messaging.
Could you shoot me an email to matthewblandford@yahoo.co.uk and I’ll give you my contact details and sort you out for postage.
many thanks,
YHM
On-One/Planet X have a bunch
On-One/Planet X have a bunch of frames/bikes that fit the bill too:
Space Chicken, Full Monty, Mystique
Space Chicken and Mystique are full carbon and you’d squeeze a self-build under budget. You should be able to build up something just over 10kgs.
[quote=CXR94Di2]Fairlight Faran with 105 Shimano. covers your requirements https://fairlightcycles.com/faran/faran-105-hydro/?v=7516fd43adaa%5B/quote%5DWith a raw 3.5kg frameset (for a medium with no headset) good luck getting that under 10.5kg, it’s also not a particularly good frameset for fast rides, simply because it’s a touring type frame.
As an owner, I’d agree. It’s a tourer/commuter. Lovely, but not fast. Mine’s called Baymax for just that reason.
The Genesis Fugio fits the bill – https://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/adventure/adventure/fugio – available as a frameset so you could get it in under budget, or there’s a 1x option that should be under budget as a complete build.
spaceford wrote:
Thanks for all your comments.
The crank arm is definitely the right side ie. the one connected to the cogs.
The arm is 170mm.
I will probably look into fitting a helicoil, but
kiloran – that’s a very kind offer. Yes, it is an Ounce brand chainset. I’m not quite sure what you mean by the “BB”. What kind of difference would it make if your crank arm is a few mm longer than my original?
Probably very little difference, young bodies are more flexible. I’ve just checked, mine are 175mm. Might just need a tiny drop of the saddle. If you can reply with your contact details I can get it in the post to you ASAP
The crankset on the Triban 3
The crankset on the Triban 3 was usually a B’Twin own-brand Ounce model.
I’ve got a used one in the shed you can have for the cost of postage. It’s probably a 172.5 as it came off a large bike, might be 175.
Something like this will do the trick:
https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s109p2000/SPA-CYCLES-XD-2-Touring-Triple-Chainset
Word of caution – stick with square taper rather than trying to remove the BB from the Triban. The cups for that BB are plastic and you are absolutely guaranteed to round them off trying to get it out. I ended up having to dremel mine out.
Buy people’s near new cast offs, there’s loads about at silly cheap prices. Have seen a pair of mint condition Dura Ace STI for £78, a pair of new 6800 STIs went for £85 on ebay recently, 4700 groupset for £128.This. The only brand new component I’ve bought for both my bikes is a Tiagra rear mech needed urgently due to a catastrophic failure two days before an event.
Both groups I purchased were brand new and removed from frames being upgraded to Ultegra/Dura-Ace – think the 4700 group was £135 including a nice set of Specialized bars!
Just need to be patient and buy at the right time of year (which is now) – prices do go up a little over the winter as Christmas looms and projects materialise in the shed.
