Forum Replies Created
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Replies
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Really?
You can, but haven’t you heard of the light bulb effect? Makes cornering more than a bit iffy.
Basic stuff, mun.
Go and have a look at the nearest mountain bike and then report back.
Or indeed the nearest gravel bike.
All that guff about the ‘light bulb effect’ to get us to buy wider road rims, then they put 45mm tyres on a 20 mm gravel bike, at low pressure.
It was bull.
My guess from what you’ve
My guess from what you’ve described:
1. Wider rim as nniff says. Slacken off the brakes before you go retensioning the spokes and cracking the rims.
2. Softer wheels, i.e. with more lateral flex, no bad thing, they can be more comfortable for long rides than super stiff racing wheels.
3. If there is movement in the hubs, you should be able to move the axle laterally with the wheel off the bike. If they’re quality hubs there should be bearing pre-load available, usually a threaded section on the non-drive side with a pinch bolt.
4. You’re just pumping out amazing huge watts and showing off about the rims hitting the brake blocks ;-))))
Do you cycle to work? If you
Do you cycle to work? If you do, start by lowering the stem on that bike, 5mm at a time. I eventually got quite a bit lower at the front doing that, then copied that setup to my road bike. The bars are now about 75mm lower than the saddle.
The irony is that when I dug out my 1973 Raleigh, the set up was exactly as I’m now riding, 46 years later… and the rule was then, “bars 3″ lower than the saddle”. Maybe some things never change!
If all else fails there’s a
If all else fails there’s a saddle swap in the Bike Radar forum (apologies for cross posting!). Loads of people wanting to exchange saddles to try to find “the one”.
I have an Excel spreadsheet into which I have entered many bike stats – it’s past column AG. Eep.So glad to hear I’m not the only one to have done this 😉
Best way to compare various bikes!
Whatever anyone says, wider
Whatever anyone says, wider rims are miles more comfortable. Running a 23 on the front on 18.5 wide internal rims on two bikes now, absolutely zero problems of any description.
I’m normally quite skeptical about ‘innovations’, but this one works.
My rim brake carbon wheels
My rim brake carbon wheels howl when I brake hard. At least the pedestrians hear through their headphones!
The two key measurements are
The two key measurements are Stack and Reach.
Reach gives you the distance from the bottom bracket to the steerer. If it’s too big you’ll be stretched out awkwardly and to compensate will have to run a short stem and push the seat forward. You probably won’t be able to get comfortable and pedalling won’t be efficient.
Stack is how high the top of the steerer is above the bottom bracket. If that’s too small you’ll be bent over in with the bars in a possibly uncomfortable ‘too low’ position. To compensate you’ll need a naff stack of spacers under the stem or an inverted (riser) stem.
I’d suggest measuring a bike you’re comfortable riding using the same criteria as the bike you’re interested in, put those figures in a spreadsheet, and compare that other bike with the one you know. Then you can be sure that you can set up the new bike to be comfortable.
Gloss is much easier to clean
Gloss is much easier to clean. Stop worrying and ride your bike!
My suggestion to the OP is to
My suggestion to the OP is to commute on the bike. When I first started 10 years ago, a mate said ‘now just make sure you do it every day’. That was the best advice ever: It’s really never too cold, I arrive at work flushed and warm and ready to go, and flog the bike on the way home as a workout. Just make it a habit, you’ll be fine with a waterproof jacket, mudguards and overshoes, warm as toast by the time you get to work, whatever the weather. I look forward to my ride in and my ride home. You’ll pile on the miles over the year compared to the Sunday warriors too.
As has been mentioned, doctors first. Get them to run a ‘full’ blood test and you may find an answer you didn’t expect. Mine was an underactive thyroid, it started with my mood first but took my immune system down for a bit as well. I went through a period of getting hit with everything but after a year or so I’m back to normal so of. Plenty of things feed into mood though.Don’t be afraid to try different doctors as some are utterly useless.
Late last year I was diagnosed – by a new, young GP – with adrenal insufficiency. Other GPs had missed it for years. It means your body doesn’t produce enough cortisol, which leaves you flat as a pancake and lacking the energy to even think of doing anything, let alone doing anything. I was needing 2 coffees and 4 cups of tea to get through a day at work and then flat on the sofa most evenings and weekends. Hopeless. If I ever got ill – flu or something – I was ending up in hospital overnight. Shocking.
To cut a long story short, they found a problem, prescribed a treatment, and I’ve been of beans since and feel a decade younger. I’ve done all the bike maintenance jobs I’d put off, replaced dodgy bearings, sorted out my bike spares, cleaned the chain, the transmission, adjusted the gears and the brakes so the commuter feels like a new bike.
So: see a doctor, and make cycling a habit. Yes, you can work from home, but it’s more fun at the office.
A colleague at work has a
A colleague at work has a Specialized with an earlier version of the Future Shock and has had no end of problems with the headset in the long term. He says it has small bearings inside that continually have to be replaced. Hopefully it’s all fixed now. Tell us how you get on in the long term?
Plus 1 for Hunt with the
Plus 1 for Hunt with the latest hubs. So loud it was embarrassing wheeling the bike through our office foyer every day. I sold them!
Campag hubs with a Campag spline are noisy too, but nothing like as loud or insistent as the Hunts.
+1 for DCR wheels. David has
+1 for DCR wheels. David has just built me a set with his own rims on some nearly new Campag Record hubs I got on Ebay a while back. They’re stiff, lively, super smooth because of the excellent hubs, and repairable.
The sad reality of factory wheels like Mavic, Campagnolo Shamal and Zonda and so on, is that matching replacement rims are so expensive that you’ll throw the wheels out while the superb, serviceable hubs still have years of life in them.
I’ve bought Speedplay
I’ve bought Speedplay stainless pedals second hand off groups or Ebay. They seem absolutely fine. Haven’t worn any out yet. Have four sets now! Have thought about those Ebay special titanium spindles but haven’t gone there yet.
I have to turn right off a
I have to turn right off a main road on my way home which leaves me stuck in the middle of the road with my arm out waiting. It’s surprising how often drivers will actually stop to let me turn right. Even black cabs!