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The Allez and the Giant have
The Allez and the Giant have compact cranks. If you’re just starting out, they should get you up the hills more easily than the 52/39 on the Tarmac.
The Allez and the Giant have a very upright position. The Tarmac is more stretched out.
All depends on what you like doing.
As to buying, make an offer about 10% less than the asking price. Most sellers will accept straight off.
There are now three sizes of Shimnano external bottom bracket cups!The original Hollowtech II (10 speed) – 16 notch x 44mm
Ultegra and below (11 speed) – 16 notch x 41mm
Dura Ace (11 speed) – 16 notch x 39mm
Got to love industry standardisation!
I think Shimano were worried that they were missing a trick, what with Campag needing a new tool for just about every occasion.
All Campag external threaded BBs use the same tool as the original Shimano Hollotech II, from Veloce through to Super Record.
You don’t need a specific 650b bike to run 650b wheelsErrr yes you do, rim brakes can’t be adapted to 650b. And most of the standard bikes ever made take 622 (700c) or the old 635 rims and have rim brakes. You can only swap wheel sizes with disc brakes.
Don’t take a carbon bike in a
Don’t take a carbon bike in a Cat 4 race. There are too many crashes.
What you want is a proper alloy racing frame, like a Canyon Ultimate AL, Bowman Palace, Cinelli Experience, etc. Plenty of stiffness where it counts and not as fragile as carbon when push comes to shove.
Take it up with Ebay as a
Take it up with Ebay as a ‘not as described’, upload pictures, they’ll sort it. Don’t do anything to it yourself.
I bought a carbon frame that was shipped without spacers, and of course, the chain stay was cracked. Ebay asked me to send it back tracked and as soon as it was recorded as ‘delivered’ they gave me a full refund.
IMO, fad. Periodically the
IMO, fad. Periodically the bicycle industry has to invent a new niche, so they can sell new bikes. Basic capitalism. Create desire for new things you didn’t know you wanted.
It goes something like this:
1970s – 10 speed ‘racing’ bikes
1980s – BMX
1990s – Mountain bikes
2000s – Flat bar road bikes
2010s – Gravel bikes, 1x, etc
Etc, etc.
These are as distinct from mere innovation and improvement, which brought us STIs, dual pivot brakes, alloy parts and then carbon, etc.
Back in the 1970s, I never knew I wanted a 10 speed until I saw one in the LBS.
(ducks for cover)
I built up this for my Other
I built up this for my Other Half using a carbon step-through touring frame from High on Bikes on Ebay:
It’s been a good bike for her, around 8kg and not even expensive thanks to the old parts bin. Long wheelbase so nice and stable. The fork was one I had. Her choice of pedal colour 😉
Get the one that you fancy
Get the one that you fancy the most.
Oh, and yes you’ll normally find a much better bargain second-hand. A lot of people buy expensive bikes in a rush-of-blood-to-the-head moment, then sell them for half what they paid a year later. Checkout BikeRadar forums, LFGSS and Ebay.
I’d love to see an experiment in which you took unlubed drivetrains, lubed but clean and lubed and dirty as hell and saw what the differences were. Probably not much.It’s been done, quite a lot.
This site has a graph, and the losses aren’t much, 1-2%:
Mechanical Resistance on Bikes: Drivetrain Efficiency & Hub Bearings
Take with a grain of salt, it appears to come from an outfit (‘Friction Facts’) pushing ceramic bearings.
This site suggests a larger difference, of 4-5% of the total output:
https://djconnel.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/drivetrain-losses-introduction.html
I can certainly feel a difference when I’ve cleaned the chain (wiping down method only) and lubed it (MuckOff dry).
Maybe some Hunt wheels? They always come highly regarded, something like this ticks your boxes:Hunt wheels are great if you like a freehub that’s as loud as a demented howling thing. Even wheeling it across the room felt anti-social. I tried grease to dampen the noise but it lasted only 15 minutes. Drove me mad in the end – and I like loud campag freehubs – so have sold my Hunts on. Mine also had a very narrow brake track, same width as a new brake pad, so quite a task to set up pads correctly.
The real sign of madness
The real sign of madness regarding roads, is that we evidently can’t afford to fix the roads we have, but we keep building new ones… that way leads to an infrastructure crisis and bankruptcy as in some US cities.
Maybe join a club, so you can
Maybe join a club, so you can talk to members who are knowledgeable of what is available locally, and you’ll get excellent advice – and maybe a great deal on a second hand bike exactly right.
If you like spds and want
If you like spds and want cool shoes then the logical choice is Speedplay, isn’t it? They’re double sided and easy to clip in and out of, and you can walk in them better than SPD-SLs.
I do use SPDs for touring, social rides like the Dunwich Dynamo with lots of milling about, and so on.
That’s not the best way to
That’s not the best way to fold a tub. It should be double, like this:
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/821401-best-way-fold-carry-tubular-tire.html
The key to avoiding chafed thighs is to use a 19mm tub as your spare, not one of your 25 or 28s.
A pair of very strong small rubber bands works wonders in compacting it.
chegue wrote:
2001 Cannondale R600 Aero CAAD4 Just upgreaded with Fulcrum Racing 5 LG wheelset and Shimano 105 11s groupset. Now it is 8,7 kg which I consider quite good for a 2001 bike. But the reason why I uploaded this pic. was to ask which stem setup do you consider the correct or better and why? Thanks :DThe version with the horizontal stem looks much better with that frameset.