The General Bike Question Thread

Bar tape: black

Two other questions from me which kinds of bug me.

1. Why are there so many cranksets that you see for sale with "heel rub". I mean if your heel is rubbing off the cranks (even with overshoes) then surely your shoe or bike fit is an issue and it must feel brutal when cycling?

2. With the popularity of compact crank sets why are there so many bikes running cassettes with 30 or 34 sprockets. Where in Ireland would on a roadbike would you need gears that low.?

1. it doesn't take much rub to remove the coating off a crankset. The rear question is why do manufacturers insist on coating cranks instead of leaving them in their natural state.
2. it doesn't matter how low your lowest gear is...at some point you'll wish you had a lower one! :)

Is there any way to fix this? I'm between jobs right now so cant afford to replace things.

I need the bike for a 30 min commute too 😢

Don't know it ...just googled it.

Here's a better one in Kerry

https://pjammcycling.com/climb/3128.Short-Mountain-South

I have done it but not for a loooooong time.

but aside from the lower gearing which anyone might need occasionally, the cassette having this range surely puts an annoying gaps between gears?

do you live somewhere very flat? I live in Wicklow and I use the big end of the cassette a lot. These days even the pros prefer to spin up hills than grind away in a big gear. Most people would struggle to get up any sort of steep hill in 39x25.

probably the same reason 1X setups have become more popular - less maintenance/complexity and less to go wrong.

I have a triple on my 12 year old road bike - it's fine. I can't remember ever dropping the chain or having to do anything with the front derailleur, and I spend 75% of my time on the middle ring. But I'd get more or less the same spread of ratios with a compact and a couple of larger cogs on the rear (my easiest gear is 30/28; on a modern bike 34/32 would be about the same).

Absolutely bang on. The bike industry is gone bananas, poorly fixing sh1t that ain't broke to divert attention away from massive price increases and massive weight increases, while sneaking **** Claris groupsets onto 1100 euro bike builds with cable operated disk brakes.

Just like Giant sticking aero bars and deep section rims on everything so that you think 4000 euro is good value for 105. 😡😡