First 'audax' bike

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Ian H

Ancient randonneur
The big ring on my 'audax' bike (the one with gears) is all of 46t. I have a TT bike with a 53.
 

jimboalee

New Member
Location
Solihull
GregCollins said:
In the past I've done a few BP's and short Perms, on various MTB's, Nexus hub geared hybrid, and one on a Brompton. and of course on my current tourer. Run what you brung and all that. :laugh:

Don't know why AUK can't have a 'Small wheel challenge'.

I've got a BSA 20 and a 14" wheel Moulton Mini.

And an award for the High Bikes, for that matter.
 

Tim Bennet.

Entirely Average Member
Location
S of Kendal
Shimano/Campag won't do less than a 30T.
Don't know about Shimano but all Campag triples will do 26T.

Greg - you said your bike was going to have Campag. So don't let your experience with Simano Sora and STis in general put you off. Mid range Campag Ergo levers are reliable enough.
 
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GrumpyGregry

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
Tim Bennet. said:
Greg - you said your bike was going to have Campag. So don't let your experience with Simano Sora and STis in general put you off. Mid range Campag Ergo levers are reliable enough.

will have a chat with the shop; seems a common view.
 

andrew_s

Legendary Member
Location
Gloucester
All 5-arm road triples will go down to 24T. The inner bolt circle is 74mm, as on original non-compact mountain bike chainsets. All you have to do is buy the replacement chainring.
Generally, if you go down to 24T, you've also got to drop the outer to 48T.

To revert somewhat, if you are heavy and prone to hitting potholes, you will want wider tyres. If you used 23mm you'd need to keep them at about 115psi to avoid pinch flats, and that leads to a comparatively hard and uncomfortable ride, and insecure handling on rough descents. If you use 28mm tyres, you can drop the pressure to 90-95psi, which helps both comfort and the ride.
With modern "standard" brake calipers (49/50mm), your tyre limit is 23mm with mudguards or 25mm without (generally).
With "deep drop" dual pivots (57mm), you can go up to 28mm with mudguards, or 32 without.
Campag don't make any brakes with more than 50mm reach, which is why many otherwise Campag-equipped audax bikes have Shimano brakes on them.
 
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GrumpyGregry

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
andrew_s said:
To revert somewhat, if you are heavy and prone to hitting potholes, you will want wider tyres. If you used 23mm you'd need to keep them at about 115psi to avoid pinch flats, and that leads to a comparatively hard and uncomfortable ride, and insecure handling on rough descents. If you use 28mm tyres, you can drop the pressure to 90-95psi, which helps both comfort and the ride.
With modern "standard" brake calipers (49/50mm), your tyre limit is 23mm with mudguards or 25mm without (generally).
With "deep drop" dual pivots (57mm), you can go up to 28mm with mudguards, or 32 without.

This thread is so helpful, thank you everyone. I'm a middle-aged mtb-er who bought a touring bike 2 years ago and until then hadn't owned anything road oriented since my viscount aerospace self destructed in 1981. So a really dull question...

Is it effectively the brake calipers on a road/audaxy fork/frame that limit the tyre size to a smaller size than that which the frame/fork can physically handle? So if I ditch the Mirage calipers and put Shimano/Cane Creek/Dia-Compe/Whoever 'deep drop' calipers on I can run larger tyres? In which case the Mirage's and the teeny tyres have to go.
 

Tim Bennet.

Entirely Average Member
Location
S of Kendal
No it's the frame that dictates the callipers. A frame or fork that has clearances for wheels with 25mm+ tyres and mudguards will probably need a 57mm brake just to reach down to the rims.

Whether you then choose to fit big tyres and guards is up to you.

The choice of 57mm brakes is Shimano (the one that's Ultegra standard).
 
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GrumpyGregry

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
Noodley said:
I have 53-40-30 and 13-29.

certainly aiming for a 13-29 Veloce cassette. Will suck and see on the chainrings. I'm sure the guys at Spa can source me some alternative ones if need be later. I doubt I spend much time in the big ring!:biggrin:
 
GregCollins said:
certainly aiming for a 13-29 Veloce cassette. Will suck and see on the chainrings. I'm sure the guys at Spa can source me some alternative ones if need be later. I doubt I spend much time in the big ring!:biggrin:

If you do change, go for TA rings and if you change the middle be sure to get a 'middle' ramped ring.
 
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GrumpyGregry

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
I just went on Spa's website. A Sabbath September Rival - ti frame carbon fork Audax bike - for less than £1500!

*faints*
 

P.H

Über Member
GregCollins said:
I just went on Spa's website. A Sabbath September Rival - ti frame carbon fork Audax bike - for less than £1500!

*faints*

That would be some Audax bike!
Two things to note, SRAM is only double rather than triple.
I read on the CTC forum that SPA charge the customer 10% extra to proccess the cycle to work voucher (Which is probably still better than most shops charging RRP)
 

P.H

Über Member
Tim Bennet. said:
No it's the frame that dictates the callipers. A frame or fork that has clearances for wheels with 25mm+ tyres and mudguards will probably need a 57mm brake just to reach down to the rims.

Whether you then choose to fit big tyres and guards is up to you.

The choice of 57mm brakes is Shimano (the one that's Ultegra standard).

It also depends on the framebuilder so it's worth checking first. If thy have maximised the potential of the brakes you'd get 25mm and guards on std brakes and 30mm (Maybe 32mm) on deep drop. The Enigma Etape compared to VN Yukon is a good example of this, std reach brakes and 25mm tyres on the Etape has more clearance than 28mm tyres and long reach on the Yukon.
 
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GrumpyGregry

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
P.H said:
That would be some Audax bike!
Two things to note, SRAM is only double rather than triple.
I read on the CTC forum that SPA charge the customer 10% extra to proccess the cycle to work voucher (Which is probably still better than most shops charging RRP)

Can't go beyond £1K on cycletowork but wonder if Spa are like Condor and allow 'top ups'. failing that trying to do math to figure credit card interest rates over 12 months....


....no not really. still going with plan A
 
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