Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

Saddle wise best off getting your backside measured (I kid thee not) I was using 135mm saddles an had issues with discomfort, got measured turned out I was using one too small hence the numbness. Now rocking a 143mm,
Put it this way, I did 60 miles today an no numbness issues at all.

 

Who knew...?

 

That i will do!

 

Went for a Charge Spoon. Looked on Youtube on how to measure myself etc. Its not prefect size i dont think maybe 5mm bigger but i will give it a go at 145mm.

http://www.chargebikes.com/spoon/

Thanks again guys for advice. Who knew your jacksy needed measuring!!

 

The phone cannot deal with this orange, Its basically florescent orange

 

I like the chest impaler handle bars...

 

Yeah ill chop it down at the weekend. Got plenty left to do on it.

 

Can't beat an orange bike

 

No hi-vis 'belt' req'd for night riding, either...

Do all forksets require trimming to length, these days...?

 

Depends but yeah, usually forks that are sold separately are usually super long. I've had to cut quite a few sets of BMX forks because I'm not 8ft tall.

You can use spacers but it starts looking stupid after about 15mm.

 

My bike building days stopped before bar stems became 'clamp on'* only...

*Threadless is the term I was looking for.

 

Yeah I hadn't used one before but during the 90s they were the best thing to happen to BMX.

Hate quill stems now.

 

Still dunno how headsets work, these days; does the stem actually hold the fork in...?

 

Yes. Modern bikes have internal headset. IE the frame is the cups. From bottom to top - crown race on fork, bearing into frame, put fork in. Then bearing, pinch piece made from alu then top cap.

Then you put the stem on which is usually double pinch. Then you fit the stem cap, insert the bolt and do it up to preload the bearing. Then you do up the stem onto the fork.

The best part of all this for a pro BMX rider is the fact that the top bolt and stem cap make it almost impossible to pull the stem out of the fork. It's also incredibly strong.

 

Aheadsets and clamp-on stems are OK for MTBs and BMX but, I would still prefer an old school headset and quill stem for a road bike. Much neater looking and, I believe, easier to adjust precisely.

On my last road bike, built on a made to measure frame from Argos Racing Cycles of Bristol, I used a nice, very light, Campagnolo Record headset and a Cinelli XA stem, like this:


PS, That was so long ago that the frame cost £312 whilst a similar frame now, would set you back around 5 times as much...

 

I've done time trials and hill climbs on the road and done a few MTB races, always with a quill stem and never pulled the stem out of the steerer. I did snap a handlebar once, cheap SR bars, always used Cinelli after that.

 

90% of the time with BMX you are yanking on the bars. Be it a bunny hop, hop to rail or grind and jump yeah, you're pulling up. Hard.

Most of the time you'd crash and the stem would twist, but I've pulled the bars clean out a few times. Unfortunately like many older designs on bikes older stuff just loves to come loose. The stem bolt would eventually stretch and then start to drive you nuts.

Kinda like old unsealed headsets and loose ball non locking bottom brackets. They need 24/7 attention. And old side pull brakes etc. All. PITA. Mind you one good thing did come of that. If old bikes weren't so cack I wouldn't be so good at building and fixing the bloody things

 

Much depends on the level of kit you are using. I was obsessed with cycling and all my money went on it, so I used the likes of Modolo, Mavic and Campagnolo Record. Such high-end parts, in the 80s, were beautifully engineered and finished and, worked with great precision and smoothness. Not only that, they lasted a long time and spares were easy to come by. Newer manufacturers, based on what I have read here, should be ashamed of the unreliable and short-lived components they are churning out.

 

Really depends on the kit, so with Shimano if you want something that lasts you need to make sure its Japanese Shimano, not Malaysian.

It is weird though I have a very expensive electronic groupset on my road bike, another forum I'm on theres a guy who was caught in the recent Spanish flooding, his bike was nigh on duly immersed in water for days. water receded, bearing are all shot to pieces in the wheels crank and headset, mech all fired up fine and are shifting flawlessly.


I think some of the quality issues people get are due to a combination of factors, things like less intensive QC, and the fact theres more people out there also mean theres more possibility of failures. Also now with MTB people are going more extreme things than they were say ten years ago.
Plus the kit is at times stupidly complex, for example I went to my LBS to help do some bits, they have a 12K bike in, electronic groupset, including a seatpost thats controlled via the same system, and a Fox Brainbox which is basically an automatic suspension adjustment system, for a push bike. It came in because the gearbox (its an e-bike) was whining. Oh and chuck quarq tyrewiz into the mix with it as well, only thing missing was a pedal power meter (crank ones don't work on e-Bikes)

 

I always used to do my best to buy stuff that wasn't a known brand... if what I (thought, many times) I wanted didn't exist, I went for the closest available; I seem to remember wanting an 11-17 7-speed cassette, but had to settle for the closest 'within budget' Shimano part instead.

I always had a dream of an 'ideal drive train' of a 55-42 to 11-21, but I dunno that the former part wouldn't require pro-racing budget to obtain...