Old v/s Modern bikes

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Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
The speed you ride on a commute or a leisure ride will often remain constant whether you are on a steel bike or a 3kg lighter carbon machine because your pace is mostly governed by your perception of motion. But you will use more energy on to keep the heavier bike moving at that speed.

The law of physics will dictate that.
 

GuyBoden

Guru
Location
Warrington
My main concern is that old steel bikes come with terrible old brakes...........

I have two old steel bikes and one modern bike with hydraulic disc brakes..........
 
Not these days, but I used to and I never replaced a chainring through wear.

I volunteer in a community bike workshop and it is very unusual to find old aluminium chainsets where the teeth on the most used rings are not badly worn in a couple of places, especially mountain bikes, less so on road bikes. We spend a lot of time cannibalising chainrings. OTOH we virtually never come across even very old road bikes where the steel chainrings are worn to a significant extent.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
The speed you ride on a commute or a leisure ride will often remain constant whether you are on a steel bike or a 3kg lighter carbon machine because your pace is mostly governed by your perception of motion. But you will use more energy on to keep the heavier bike moving at that speed.

The law of physics will dictate that.

Until its time to coast, then the greater interia of a heavier bike thpakes back the advantage. Kinetic energy.

The law of physics will dictate that.
 

screenman

Legendary Member
I volunteer in a community bike workshop and it is very unusual to find old aluminium chainsets where the teeth on the most used rings are not badly worn in a couple of places, especially mountain bikes, less so on road bikes. We spend a lot of time cannibalising chainrings. OTOH we virtually never come across even very old road bikes where the steel chainrings are worn to a significant extent.

Am I reading that correctly, are you saying there are a few teeth on the ring worn more than in other parts? Not all the teeth look the same on a lot of new rings.
 
Am I reading that correctly, are you saying there are a few teeth on the ring worn more than in other parts? Not all the teeth look the same on a lot of new rings.

Yes. For some reason we find that teeth in a couple of places wear more than others, more so on mountain bikes. I have always assumed this relates to chain position when the arms are horizontal, putting more pressure on the teeth at the top of the ring when people do not apply equal pressure for the full circle.

I am happy for someone to come up with a more technical answer to an issue we see a lot.
 

screenman

Legendary Member
Yes. For some reason we find that teeth in a couple of places wear more than others, more so on mountain bikes. I have always assumed this relates to chain position when the arms are horizontal, putting more pressure on the teeth at the top of the ring when people do not apply equal pressure for the full circle.

I am happy for someone to come up with a more technical answer to an issue we see a lot.

They are there to assist changes across the rings. A little bit of googling will tell you a lot more.
 

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
Until its time to coast, then the greater interia of a heavier bike thpakes back the advantage. Kinetic energy.

The law of physics will dictate that.
Fine if you can spend 50% of a ride coasting.
 

rogerzilla

Legendary Member
Yes. For some reason we find that teeth in a couple of places wear more than others, more so on mountain bikes. I have always assumed this relates to chain position when the arms are horizontal, putting more pressure on the teeth at the top of the ring when people do not apply equal pressure for the full circle.
Yes, that does happen. On plain singlespeed rings you can move the ring around the spider to get more life from it. Sprockets on s/s, hub geared or fixed bikes suffer the same problem if the number of teeth on the ring is divisible by the number of teeth on the sprocket. This is why prime numbered rings like 47T are often recommended.
 
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