Forum Replies Created
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harragan wrote:I bought a
I bought a work stand yesterday and the cashier very clearly told me to keep hold of the receipt just in case. I’ve not put it up yet but for £25 I don’t think I can complain.Their cycling clothing is alright. The fit is always a little odd. I prefer Aldi but I’m skinny.
Definitely keep the receipt. Take a photo of it, and email it to yourself for future reference. As they are printed on thermal paper they will fade out to nothing after a year or so.
I purchased two stands two years ago, and have ***thrashed them***. One cracked at the clamp last year, and I got it replaced. The other has now got an issue where the base-foldy-concertina plastic bracket comes away from the main pole when lifted up – so I’m going to get it swapped – for free – tomorrow. If there are any left. If not, i’ll wait until next time. 3 year warranty FTW!
To replicate the
To replicate the functionality a phone gives you requires purchasing the colour touch-screen 810 or 1000 Garmins. And you still need to take a phone for phone things.If you have a spare £250-odd, sure, get a Garmin. Otherwise, with a quality mount like Quadlock, maybe using the Universal mount + a 3rd-party case like an Otterbox, Lifeproof or my fave, the Uncommon Safecase, you are sorted both on- and off-bike. Which, let’s face it, you need to be as well.
With judicious management (turn off WiFi, mobile data, turn down screen brightness, turn off screen unless using it for navigation that minute) you can get 18+hrs from an iPhone. Or carry a small extra battery and go for days. The Topeak one is genius and does 2.5 charges from flat for an iPhone 5. It will run an iPhone in full-brightness always-on all data-on for 16hrs and still leave you with 100% battery.
There’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer to the Garmin-vs.-Phone conundrum – just what works for YOU and YOUR riding needs, TODAY.
SKS Raceblade Longs.
SKS Raceblade Longs. Absolutely cracking mudguards, clip on/off in seconds, just as sturdy/strong as the permanently-fixed ones.Most of our club use them. I leave the fittings on year-round, as even in the middle of summer if it’s pouring down mudguards are a benefit.
Note there is a total difference between ‘Raceblades’ and ‘Raceblade Longs’.
If you have an iPhone 4S or
If you have an iPhone 4S or newer, or a new-ish Android, SportsTracker sell Bluetooth Smart/LE cadence/speed sensors for £27 on Amazon. We have two in the house now.Seem to be the same as Wahoo et al, but not £40+.
Shamblesuk wrote:I believe
I believe the reactivator of this discussion is trying to consider between 105 10 speed and Ultegra 11 speed, in which case no argument – go for Ultegra. The new 11 speeds are a massive development on 10 speed. I’ve gone from Dura Ace 7900 to Ultegra 6800 and the smoothness difference is amazing. Especially on the front mech.105 5800 is 11-speed. The pretty universal consensus is that it shifts/brakes the same as Ultegra 6800, and the only difference is weight.
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:
WouldWould that still be the case if you changed the chain at 127.4mm for example, or is it just inevitable.
…
Performance in competition is my goal, and a worn chain is worth anything up to a minute over an hour crit, which is not time I’d be willing to give away.
The 127.5mm wear point has been arrived at through decades of trial, error, assessment etc etc. The wisdom of millions of cyclists and mechanics, distilled down into one easy-to-grasp measurement point. Like anything, yes you could swap it sooner at a lesser wear point, and in theory gain an advantage. Taking that logic to an extreme, you could buy a new chain every week, and maybe have your cogset/rings last 20,000km. But you’d have paid for a new chain every week.
127.5mm is the sensible tipping point, beyond which the cost of new chains is eclipsed by accelerated wear on everything.
I get your argument WRT power loss due to chain wear, but can’t find any easily-spotted science to equate chain wear with power loss. I *can* find lots on cog size vs. efficiency – a larger cog is considerably more efficient – I’m guessing needs paring with a larger chainring. Get outta that 11T 🙂
crikey wrote:
As noted above,
As noted above, as the cassette ages, the chain wear accelerates which I would take to mean that using new chains on part worn cassettes is sub-optimal in terms of efficiency…Financially there is no question that using a chain and cassette together is far less expensive than changing chains. In performance terms I’m sure some will insist it’s worth it, but I don’t think it is.
If you simply run 1:1, once you get beyond 128mm for 5 links the wear will accelerate quickly, and you will strike shifting/slipping problems much sooner than had you replaced the chain at 127.5mm. At that point you have no option but to replace everything or run it into the ground as a collective, because any new chain, cogset or ring will be knackered by the rest of the drivetrain very quickly.
So you might only get 5-6000km out of a cogset (Tiagra 10spd list £25, average-spec chain £10) instead of spending just £10 on a chain and having the cogset continue to live on and shift cleanly.
Oh, and your chainrings (Tiagra £20-£27 each) will be knackered much quicker too. Another rule of thumb is to replace chainrings the same time as cogsets.
If you’ve gone 10,000km between cogsets, spending circa £90 on a new cogset, chainrings and chain plus another £30 on three intermediary chains means you’ve done 10,000 trouble-free km for £120 all-up.
Much more cost-effective than doing cogset, chain and probably rings too, twice over (~£180 – plus shifting/skipping towards end of life).
The wisdom of changing chains once beyond 127.5mm is born out of years of wisdom* and cost-effectiveness.
* not mine – Saint Sheldon Brown et al
Spend £8 on a cheap set of
Spend £8 on a cheap set of digital calipers.Measure your chain over 5 full links. New it will be exactly 127mm. When it gets to 127.5mm, think about replacing soon. If you let it get to 128mm, your cogset is probably stuffed as well.
I’m now onto my 4th KMC X9.93 chain (never paid more than £10) after about 10,000KM (Tiagra cogset)
Chain wear before hitting 127.5mm, in order from new:
3,600km
3,200km
1,900km
1,300km (more than half-worn)As you can see, as the cogset wears the chainwear accelerates. When this 4th chain reaches 127.5 I’ll probably get a new cogset as well. And BB. And chainrings. and wheel bearings.
All this pretty much aligns with the rule of thumb of 3 chains to a cogset – if you catch the wear in time.
Noting that I have never had a skipped chain. Ever.
Some of the posters above seem to be erring on the side of uber-cautious, to their expense. The marginal gain of a slightly less-worn chain is probably up there with not having a beard or waxing your sunglasses for improved aerodynamics. Just keep it clean.
notfastenough wrote:KiwiMike
Both my bikes run 105 (5800) and the difference in the performance between the two was huge. The newer of the two group sets shifted like a dog whist the older set was light as a feather. If you were blind tested you’d think they were different groupsets.The only difference between the two was that i was using 2 year old jagwire cable outers on the new groupset whilst the older set was set up with brand new cable outers.
THIS.
Swap out your cables every 1-2000km. It’s £10 worth of hardwear* and 20 minutes, max. for a vastly improved experience.
* a lot less if you buy in bulk.
Are you just referring to swapping the inners though? Swapping the outers necessitates new bar tape and the time to fit, surely?
Zombie thread resurrection 🙂
Have unwrapped and re-wrapped my bartape quite a few times (Brooks leather) – not a problem. If you were going down past the hoods and re-doing the drops/bung, yes that would be nasty.
@ JonnyGlasgow9, any update
@ JonnyGlasgow9, any update on Whyte’s response to your cracked frame?
I’ve had a tyre boot from a
I’ve had a tyre boot from a defunct Gatorskin (bit of sidewall) on a GP 4 Seasons for about 3,000km now. Works just fine. The sidewall cut was long enough that the tube could bulge through – maybe 4-5mm. That’s £40 saved right there.Always keep a 5cm strip of old ture sidewall in your saddlebag, for when you nick a sidewall.
I’ve been wearing a pair of
I’ve been wearing a pair of Shutt VR’s Roubaix tights for the last two years. Genius kit. Was out in -3.6ºC this morning in them, quite toasty.Only bugger is – they don’t seem to sell them anymore!
Super Domestique wrote:
How
How on Earth is the view of someone who works in the sport and quotes from racers irrelevant?
That is like saying the opinion of a cycling journalist is irrelevant!I take bike mechanics naysaying discs based on supposition like I take panelbeaters bemoaning better highway design because they maybe get less work out of it. Sure it’s the same overall industry, but that doesn’t make any one individual’s view gospel. Give me stats on the occurrence of injury due to flailing rotors, say as compared to chainrings. Let’s face it: the rotor is pretty small, tucked in behind the triangle or fork, surrounded by a much larger rim, and only on one side of the bike. You’d have to be ***spectacularly unlucky*** to have a crash result in a debilitating rotor-related injury. Where do most crashes happen? In bunch sprints or on the flat, where no-one’s on the brakes so no heat issues. Not when descending cols.
HalfWheeler wrote:@
@ KiwiMikeHow long is a mtb peloton (for want of a better description)? One rider then a gap of 10 or 20 feet, then a small group, another gap, this time 5 seconds or so, more riders with gaps of 2 feet, 10 feet, 50 feet, etc, etc?
Rather different in a road race. Scores of riders inches apart, numbering 80 in an amatuer event, double that in a pro race, overlapping, travelling up to 30 mph on the flat (44 ft per second). If the guy that is 12 inches in front of you can stop at half the distance you can then it stands to reason that there is potential for near misses or actual crashes
My guess is that there will be disc brakes in the pro peloton one day but all the teams will make the switch in the same season.
As others have said, why isn’t this stopping power disparity an issue now – someone on carbon rims, in the wet, on old pads vs. someone on brand-new alu rims, with hydraulic rim brakes and Kool-Stop Salmons. Hell, compare Stock Sora’s with dual-pivot Ultegras. Massive difference. What if the person in front has been feathering their brakes/drying their rims ‘cos they know a turn is coming?
Sorry, I just do not buy this pile-ups-a’-comin’ doomsaying. If someone’s 12″ in front of you and they grab a handful at 30MPH, it doesn’t matter WHAT kind of brake they or you are using – you’re all going down.
mtbtomo wrote:Its no
Its no different to group rides / peletons now – not all brakes stop as well as others, some on carbon rims, some on alloy rims, some on Shimano calipers, some on non-branded etc etc. Its down to the rider and how they ride responsibly in a group.Slamming on the brakes in a group will cause carnage whether they’re calipers or discs and regardless of what type of brakes the guy behind has.
THIS.
The last word on the canard-strawman-hyperbolic-discs-will-kill-us-all argument that a difference in stopping power amongst ***professionals*** will matter. You can’t say that the weakest part of the whole momentum-shedding game is the matchbox-sized interface ‘twixt rubber and road, then claim that no, it’s the thingy slowing the rim down that’ll get ya.
Do half-disc’d-half-canti ‘cross racers pile into each other at every corner? No. No they do not.
I ran New Zealand’s UCI-sanctioned MTB race series for three years. In that time we had loads of crashes, DH and XC – but I don’t recall a single injury from discs. Broken limbs, concussions etc yes, sliced up folks no. And in 15 years of riding / falling off MTB’s along with hundreds of friends and acquaintances, I can’t recall a single disc-related injury.
It’s just not an issue.