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Pollution tax. Call a spade a
Pollution tax. Call a spade a spade.
Beware of old Raleigh bottom
Beware of old Raleigh bottom brackets, they used their own proprietary standard 26tpi on all threads, including the bottom bracket. The modern BB will be 24tpi. While some have reported success at screwing new cups in, you’re better off getting your BB refaced and a 24tpi thread cut at the same time.Oh – I see it’s not a Raleigh. OK, ignore this.
I swapped a Tiagra 4503
I swapped a Tiagra 4503 triple for an Ultegra 6600 double, and saved about 400g in weight. The Ultegra felt sprightlier, and you do notice the difference between machined chain rings and pressed chain rings, whatever anyone says. So if you buy a good Ultegra crank second hand and sell the old Tiagra triple to someone building a tourer, the changeover can be relatively painless in my experience, and the improvement noticeable.
Ride to work at pace, ride
Ride to work at pace, ride home from work hard and fast to work up a a sweat. Lost 4.5kg so far over 2 years and it stays off. Even though I’m only doing 8km a day round trip the changes are really noticeable. The OH is well impressed by the new physique… Hills are SO much easier and it was a lot less expensive than taking 4.5kg off the bike.Ideally I want to lose 4kg more to reach a BMI of 22.5 which is in the middle of the healthy range for my height.
As regards technique, if I’m doing a quick 100km I will stay in the big ring and stand up on hills to keep the speed up. If much longer, I tend to save energy by a quick drop into the 39 and spin up. Standing uses much more energy.
Buy the one you want, it will
Buy the one you want, it will make you happiest. It’s the no. 1 rule.
I had the same problem, they
I had the same problem, they sent the wrong item. No response to email requests, so I phoned them. I had to return the item to their address, then they sent the new one, but they didn’t refund the cost of my return, which was poor given it was their mistake.
It says 26 max at the rear,
It says 26 max at the rear, but you can almost certainly go to a 27, Shimano are conservative. They used to say 27 max for Ultegra 6600, but you can run a 28 without probs.
My nephew is still riding a
My nephew is still riding a 1990 Look 196 carbon monocoque bike. Solid as the day it was (over) built.
Well as I understand it
Well as I understand it energy bars have very low fat, high carb/sugar. So you get plenty of carbs but no fat. Fish and chips is usually pretty fatty, though usually poly-unsaturated fat (unless done in beef dripping as you sometimes still find in Yorkshire).I think a reasonable balance of real food, bananas and organic bars isn’t too bad.
I’m staying in a pub in
I’m staying in a pub in Swaledale with the route past the front door. They phoned and said to come up on Thursday, as the route will be closed on Friday.
You need them to adjust the
You need them to adjust the cleat height sometimes, as the sole comes into contact with the pedal. I couldn’t get my Look Quartz cleats to connect until I added the thin shim, for example.
Bear in mind that some metal
Bear in mind that some metal frames these days are incredibly thin, 0.4mm on some, which is basically bacofoil plus a bit. If they get dented they are likely to suffer stress fractures after a while, and if they break it’s not practical to weld up material so thin, so perhaps won’t last forever.Steel frames on the other hand can be heated up and the braze melted to take out a damaged member and slip in another. Carbon can be repaired by several small firms in the UK.
The Canyon Ultimate AL 9 is
The Canyon Ultimate AL 9 is an absolute blinder, lovely bike, just wants you to go harder and faster all the time, but will happily pootle to work if you want. Both stiff and comfortable, how they do it I don’t know.
Personally I’d go for the
Personally I’d go for the Planet X, because it comes with and almost complete Shimano Tiagra 10-speed groupset and Shimano’s excellent entry-level R-500 wheelset with Continental tyres.The Ribble by contrast has Shimano Sora 9-speed and a Rodi Airline wheelset. My mate’s bike had a set of Rodis and they were heavy.
You could also have a look at the B’Twin Triban range, very highly rated by this site and by owners, and around your price point, available from Decathlon.
But ultimately, go for the one you want!
+1 for try-before-you-buy. I
+1 for try-before-you-buy. I see near-new bikes on sale all over ebay and elsewhere because people bought bikes they didn’t really get on with.And +1 for build-your-own.
The key thing for starting out is to maximise the quality/price relationship, because you’ll quickly tire of any compromises, and then be on the hunt for a better bike, and have to sell your near-new bike at a heavy discount.