Today I did something to my bike thread...

gadetra wrote: »

Well it's not just the shoulder muscles that add weight I suppose we are evenly proportioned though, I suppose it's my cycling stye that adds pressure-I am comfiest down on the drops and tend to stay there a lot. I do vary it a bit, but not enough probably.

Is cork as shock absorbent as gel? The sister said she wanted some for her bike too. She wants pink. I showed her multiple non-pink options. She still wants pink. I am disturbed. Her bike is red. I see a large clash in her future!

I find cork does the job with padded (not gel) mitts or even just my neoprene winter gloves (I heart them).

I spend a fair amount of time in the drops (less so on the Tifosi but still) and have found that when my hands are getting numb moving back towards the end plugs helps a lot.


Edit: have you tried cold water for the post ride numbness. I used to get numb/micro shakes after using a punch bag. Cold running water sorted it out (apparently it was the result of a souped up blood flow to the surface).

Got an old Shamrock Cycles Ltd racer yesterday from a friend which hadn't been used in ages (drop bar shifter style bike) and didn't realise that it was not indexed so when I attempted to change gear I managed to rip the smallest cog of the rear hub.

Took the rear wheel off and fixed the cassette, cleaned the whole bike up and removed the brake pads (buying new ones tomorrow) and a few weighty accessories.

Plan to start cycling everywhere on it and wanted to strip it to the basics. Havnt cycled since I was a kid an never really worked on a bike before so I was happy with the end result.. God bless wd40, nearly wrecked the thing unscrewing a few bolts

Got the new SRAM Rival 22 groupo fitted :-)

Bit of bling thrown at the rothar today. I'll look the part at least

Before


After


I think I might need to upgrade the frame next. Ground up

I fitted Zipp Service Course CX bar tape and a black Prologo Kappa EVO PAS saddle to my bike. I have a new pair of all black Michelin Pro4 SC tyres ready to go on too. No more coloured stuff for me.

New wheeeeeels!



Hopefully they'll last longer than the Fulcrum 7's and the Aksiums before them.

Also, not directly to the bike but got some shelves and boxes from ikea and took care of the mess in the tool/spares shed. Now it's all in nice transparent boxes sitting on shelves and some have even labels on them.

Bought the Saris bike rack and fitted it today. Now to get a suitable bike lock

I built a fixie/single-speed cyclo-crosser this weekend

The rear wheel is my first ever wheel build. It's a Miche fixed/free track hub with DT Swiss Competition spokes and an Ambrosio road rim. I wanted to build my own so that i could get a decent fixed/free hub but with a fairly cheap rim. I also thought it'd be fun and it was.

Here's the wheel before tensioning.



I've only done about 10k on it so far but it hasn't moved a mm and I'm hopeful that it won't - I read the excellent wheelpro.co.uk wheel-building book and made absolutely sure that there were no twisted spokes or large tension variations.

The fixie/single-speed cyclocrosser is an On-One Pompino frame that was on a great sale price of 120e. It can take 35mm semi-slicks or 32mm knobblies.

I've got Tektro mini-v brakes because I've heard too many bad things about canti-brake stopping power and v-brakes certainly aren't lacking in that. Even if modulation is a bit lacking. Both are good for cyclocross but I like strong brakes on the road.

It has a On-One 42 tooth single-speed chainset and a 1/8" track chain, miche sprocket and free-wheel on the other side. The chain-set and sprocket should give an indentical 42mm chainline. I doubt it's as perfect as the theory but it does look really straight. I went 1/8" chain width as there was a better selection of sprockets in that size. 3/32" would have been fine with me too.

It's got 42/17 fixed or 42/18 free-wheel. I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep up with the club group spins on the 42/17. The flat will be grand it's uphills and down-hills that I'm worried about

Here it is part way built


and here's the finished beauty



I just need to cut the fork when I've a better idea what height I'll want.

Currently running 28mm GP4 Seasons

I thought it looked great and my wife did too until I wrapped it in the spare red bar tape that I had lying around. She then told me it looked like a clown bike!

So I think some new bar-tape is in order

Apparently Orange goes with blue, as does Navy. I inquired as to whether Navy isn't actually already blue but had it clarified to me that it isn't. Silver, white or possibly purple are also acceptable. Black too but that might make the bike look a bit dull and while I want it as a fixie winter trainer/SS crosser, I think that it should still be a bit colourful. It is a fixie after all!

Any advice on bar tape colour? Or should I stick with the Clown Bike look

So today Wolfgang finally replaced his 20 year old legs and errr feet (Shoes? - Sorry my Gadetra is far from fluent) with a set of slicks. It makes my beater look worryingly like something worth stealing...it already turns out good old Wolfgang weighs about half of one of those Funked up Fixie things.



The conti tyres also come with Continental's controversial new "Lighting up in the presence of evil function"

gadetra wrote: »

They're his shoes. And they are lovely. His Wheels are his feet. God :rolleyes: . I'm gonna have to do a bike anatomy diagram. It's like no one knows this stuff :pac:

But but you referred to the Sciroccos on my Tifosi ''as lovely new legs'' I'm starting to question whether Gadetraese is even a consistent language!

Cleaned up my second hand bike I bought in a bike shop last week. Degreased chain and cassette and cleaned all the gunk on the crankset. The bike was not looked after by previous owner. I washed it down dried it polished the alu frame and it now works like new and looks well. Also cleaned down my winter bike but I always look after that. Sprayed wd40 into all bolts and screws to stop corrosion and then dried the bike and polished it. Great days work down.