How much bike do I really need, a 6 month experiment?

[matticus]

Can we please just all agree that Gripshifts are the absolute pits??
I'd prefer a manual lever at the top of the seat-tube, like the Good Old Days!

 

[T4tomo]

Can we please just all agree that Gripshifts are the absolute pits??
I'd prefer a manual lever at the top of the seat-tube, like the Good Old Days!

yes utter sh!te, especially on kids bikes when they need to use 2 hands to twist them!

 

[HobbesOnTour]

I don't know one person personally who rides with the standard plastic pedals the bike is sold with.

Well, that's a bit better than beginners or children

I wonder if it's a locality thing?
Having been based in the Netherlands for nigh on 20 years I can't imagine the frugal Dutch putting up with that kind of stuff.
(I'm talking entry level "normal" bikes, not specialised machines that go for large sums).

I also wonder if it's a new thing? My current steed, bought second hand, is a runt of the litter Trek MTB that was heading on for 20 years old when I bought it - still with the original pedals. Did older bikes have better components?

I'm pretty sure it's a motivation thing. If I'm into performance I'm going to want performance oriented components. If I just want to take a spin anything that works reliably will do.

Do the bikes from Decathlon have pedals that are designed to get you home and need to be replaced (as opposed to changed out for personal preference)?

Nowadays I can understand changing out the saddle to something that suits me but when I first started riding as an adult a bike was a bike was a bike, not a collection of different components.
I use tyres that suit my style of riding, which, to be fair, is not exactly common. I've added racks, extra large bottle cages, a dynamo and a longer stem to suit me. I don't expect those things as standard.
But pedals? I'd expect them to be functional and long lasting.

What's considered "old tech" and inferior by many today brought people around the world 40 years ago and more. That's good enough for me.

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

After reading the comments on the pedals I realised that I have just wasted 6 month of my life and in fact did a different experiment!

The bike came with Shimano SP A530 pedals, the ones that you see in the picture which are quality pedals, platform one side and SPD the other and I immediately replaced them with different pedals with clips and straps. When deciding to do the maker's spec' exercise I simply put back the A530 pedals without realising that they weren't standard spec' as they made sense for the bike.

A couple of posters have touched on the comment about Claris, for the sake of clarity I will repeat it

• Claris STI front shifting is worse than downtube shifting

My main problem is that the amount of lever throw needed to change to the big ring and I believe that it is much longer than most other Shimano ranges and the new Claris also has a shorter throw. It hurts my fingers and wrist sometimes if I don't get the right angle.

Also if I adjust the front mech so that there is no chain rub with big ring and the two small sprockets then it can be
reluctant to change from the big ring to the small one when on the larger sprockets and if I adjust it so it changes down rings reliably there is a lot of rub.

However the chainset is not Claris so this could be an issue, and the front mech is a braze on so can only be adjusted for height not angle (which appears to be correct).

Downtube shifters don't stop front mech rub, they just make it very easy to adjust. For those old enough to remember, back in the day when STI was new many pros retained downtube front shifters for a while.

It must also be remembered that I am comparing Claris with a newish Ultegra mech on the broken steel bike and Ultegra Di2 on the Jamis, which is probably a pretty unfair comparison.

If you have never used a downtube front shifter then it might come as a surprise as to how well they work and I do wonder if the Claris design was simply a quite old one pulled of the shelf.

I did not say that I prefer downtube over STI for the rear mech and the thread suggesting an agenda has been modified by a mod so I don't know what has been removed.

I have never changed the saddle on a bike, except once when I wore our a Selle Italia Turbo, I seem to be comfortable on anything, but it is very rare that I ride for over 3.5 to 4 hours.

I think that I did reach a conclusion, the basic bike was very good but the tyres, gears and pedals (ohhps) were so wrong for me that had I not known different I might not have "got" cycling can be fun as well as a means of transport. Oh it weighs around 10.2kg which is pretty much the same as 531 framed bike, yet a 531 frame would cost more than the whole bike.

Bye

Ian

 

[PaulSB]

is it me or has the OP reached no real conclusion in 6 months?

No it's not only you. I've read tge OP several times and cannot find any conclusions whatsoever.