Forum Replies Created
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+1 for Bikely. Very useful
+1 for Bikely. Very useful site, and all routes give you total climb and the route profile.
Try finding the cheapest
Try finding the cheapest item, like the Cateye bell, and sacrificing it to the greater good. Or try the forums and see if anyone has a dead light you can cannibalise.
+1 for checking the
+1 for checking the derailleur hanger. The tool for that (Park Tool DAG-1) is around £50, so take it to the LBS.The wheel alignment problem sounds odd. Get them to check the frame alignment too. Something might be wrong!
Giordana FR-C. Best jacket
Giordana FR-C. Best jacket I’ve ever had by a mile. Intelligent design with different materials for different purposes:
– Dense woven windproof on the front
– Waterproof on the shoulders and fronts of the arms
– Roubaix fleece on the back.
Absolutely outstanding and lot less than a Gabba (which I’m sure is amazing BTW).
As @hill_climb says, a tight
As @hill_climb says, a tight angle around the bars under the tape can be a real problem. Some bars have way less than the recommended minimum 80-100mm internal radius. Sometimes they are installed without Shimano’s recommended plastic cable tunnel. It’s also better to run the gear cable on the front, next to the brake cable, than around the back of the bar. A tight cable radius made my 6700 setup (virtually identical to 5700) initially absolutely horrible. The rear mech would take 5 turns of the crank to get to the correct cog. Really annoying!Also make sure when you put the new cables on, to flare out the hole at the end using the tool on the side of the Park cable cutters, or a spare bit of wire. A tight cut on the end of the inner can produce a dreadful grating cable motion. And if you’ve moved the bars, you’ll find that you need to recut the cables to get the best large radius on the cables leading to the down tube. Best if the two gear cables cross under the stem and enter on the far side of the downtube, thus crossing inside the downtube to exit on the correct side of the bottom bracket guide. If you see what I mean!
Go to a bike shop and try
Go to a bike shop and try them out. Or at least, try something out, make a note of the geometry if it works, then try to match that. Buying without testing, or without a very clear idea of geometry, is a risk.
I don’t want to get personal,
I don’t want to get personal, just to put it all in perspective regarding marginal gains. At 6′ 4″ (193.04cm) you have a BMI of 28.2, which is in the ‘overweight’ range:http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/BMI/bmi-m.htm
The maximum BMI in the ‘healthy range’ is 25, so your maximum healthy weight would be 93kg.
To become competitive you probably need a BMI of about 22.7 (the average BMI of nine cycle racing champions including Merckx, Altig and Gimondi, see http://www.etape.org.uk/BMI1.htm) which means a weight of 84.5kg…
So just enjoy riding your bike! Don’t worry about your weight, or your bike’s weight, unless you want to race.
Sounds epic! Spirit of the
Sounds epic! Spirit of the V!!
British Cycling say the
British Cycling say the greatest climbing improvement you can make is to lose weight… losing a couple of kg will make a big difference for next to nowt, whereas as taking 2kg off a typical bike will cost you a couple of grand, at least.Cruel but fair:
“Bodyweight
It’s no coincidence that the most explosive and best climbers tend to be rake thin. If you’re carrying a few excess pounds then, some sensible weight loss, is one way to guarantee better climbing performance. Don’t try to crash diet though as you’ll compromise your training and, if you lose weight too quickly, you could end up losing muscle mass, power and end up climbing worse. Nigel Mitchell, Great Britain Cycling Team Nutritionist and Insight Zone expert, gives advice about safe, sensible and effective weight loss during training in our Power to Weight Ratio feature.”Remember that Wiggo had to lose 10% of his weight to be competitive in the TdF.
They go on to say:
“Bike Weight
Once you’ve trimmed down your waistline, shedding some weight off your bike is a fun but expensive way to improve your climbing performance. Before you start obsessing about titanium bottle cage bolts though, remember that the most significant performance gains are to be had by reducing rotating weight. Upgrading your wheels is usually the bang for your buck most effective way to buy some uphill speed. Additionally lower spec and heavy wheels, relative to the rest of the bike, are a common way for manufacturers to produce attractive looking packages, so it’s not unlikely that your wheels aren’t doing your bike justice.”All at http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/insightzone/techniques/climbing/article/izn20130115-Road-Climbing-Strong-0 (may need to log in).
A good set of lightweight
A good set of lightweight hand built wheels shouldn’t set you back more than about £300, and as she’s probably quite light she can have the lightest wheels you can build. Say, Novatec hubs, Sapim CX-ray spokes, Kinlin XR200 rims, which would add up to about 1350g.They’re currenly £287/pair at The Cycle Clinic:
(I’m not related to them! I’ve been looking for hand built wheels)
The Argon 18 if it’s a
The Argon 18 if it’s a Gallium Pro has one of the lightest frames made, at 790g… but the frameset costs £1,800 so I doubt it’s that one.
Isn’t the 6 speed hub wider
Isn’t the 6 speed hub wider than the 5-speed? I seem to remember running into that problem with my 1973 Raleigh Record, I found out to my chagrin that I couldn’t fit a 6-speed on because the axle was too short. Those were screw-on though, maybe the Uniglide is different.If you want to keep it authentic, a local wheelbuilder could build in a new hub for you for a few quid, probably.
Or if you want to revolutionise it someone on the Bike Radar forum is selling a pair of Shimano wh-r550s for £50. Absolutely bomb-proof wheels with cup-and-cone hubs that you can rebuild easily. Take 8, 9 or 10-speed cassettes.
Plain steel at the top, it
Plain steel at the top, it has rubber bushings that allow it to move sideways on the axle very slightly and cushion the shift for that characteristic soft Shimano shift action.If you like a crisper shift, swap out the top one for an aftermarket ceramic bearing jockey wheel and get very crisp shifts indeed, you’ll need to refine your shifting technique, but after that you’ll appreciate it.
I’ve suffered from a bad back
I’ve suffered from a bad back since 1986 when I attempted to pick up something that was much heavier than it looked… long story.Anyway, when I got a road bike again about 4 years ago, typical Mamil, I had the bars up quite high, and struggled to find a comfortable saddle. One day I had the idea of lowering the bars, and then started lowering them more and more, month by month. I now can now ride with a -10º stem stammed on the headset with no spacers on a bike with a short head tube.
Meanwhile my back has hugely improved from the regular exercise, and I can go for long periods (touch wood) without a relapse. If it is hurting, I find the lower position on the bike more comfortable than walking, because there’s less weight on the saddle. A side benefit is no probs with saddle comfort too.
So my advice is, try it lower, bit by bit, it may actually take some of the weight off your lower back.
+1 for what he said above.
+1 for what he said above.