I'm struggling for miles at the moment, as life has been getting in the way.
I got up this morning to a really nice day and intended to get out early, but did a job on my van first. As my hands were already oily I decided to have a go at the bike. It has been in need of some work for a while. The freehub and bearings on the back were borked. It's an allez with the cxp22 wheels with dodgy hubs. I had bought a set of Shimano 501 wheels on a cheap deal, but didn't want to put them on until the weather was better. On a whim I decided to go for it today.
It turned into a long drawn out process. The wheels have a 30 mm rim, and none of my tubes had long enough valves. I had a trip to Edinburgh Bike and got tubes with long valve stems. I fitted tyres and tubes then when I fitted the wheels to the bike the front wheel was spinning well, but the back one wasn't. Closing the QR seemed to tighten the cone a bit too much. So I had to fiddle with the lock nut and cone. Then the back brake was quite difficult to set-up, even after I installed a new set of brake pads. The spring is on the way out, and the brake probably needs replacing, but I can't make up my mind what to replace it with. Same again or upgrade? I'll probably change the Tiagras for 105s - so looking for a bargain, but I certainly wasn't going to get them here for today. Then the gears were a nightmare. The mech had probably taken a bit of abuse, and may have been bent, and it decided the cage was going to rub against my new spokes!
I had a new spare Tiagra mech that I picked up cheaply some time ago, but couldn't make up my mind about fitting it. If I upgraded the brakes then I might have sold the Tiagra mech on and bought a 105 mech as well. Deciding life was too short for indecision I just fitted it. It went on well, indexing is good and I'm left wondering why I didn't do it earlier. The bearings on the old wheels are unbelievably bad. Trying to turn the axle is a bit like stirring glue.
So eventually I got out about two o' clock and did a couple of hours. First time for months with bibshorts, and I probably should have gone for short sleeve jersey as well as it was very warm. It was quite windy, and my legs haven't had enough miles in them over the last few weeks, so it's hard to tell how they are. First impressions are that climbing may not be as good as it was on the original wheels, but on the flat the aero rims and bladed spokes certainly seem to make a difference. The tyres (swopped specialized turbo elites for Michelin prorace 3's) don't seem to have made much discernible difference.
Apologies for the lengthy tale, but I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing, and hopefully will get some more miles in now!
I got up this morning to a really nice day and intended to get out early, but did a job on my van first. As my hands were already oily I decided to have a go at the bike. It has been in need of some work for a while. The freehub and bearings on the back were borked. It's an allez with the cxp22 wheels with dodgy hubs. I had bought a set of Shimano 501 wheels on a cheap deal, but didn't want to put them on until the weather was better. On a whim I decided to go for it today.
It turned into a long drawn out process. The wheels have a 30 mm rim, and none of my tubes had long enough valves. I had a trip to Edinburgh Bike and got tubes with long valve stems. I fitted tyres and tubes then when I fitted the wheels to the bike the front wheel was spinning well, but the back one wasn't. Closing the QR seemed to tighten the cone a bit too much. So I had to fiddle with the lock nut and cone. Then the back brake was quite difficult to set-up, even after I installed a new set of brake pads. The spring is on the way out, and the brake probably needs replacing, but I can't make up my mind what to replace it with. Same again or upgrade? I'll probably change the Tiagras for 105s - so looking for a bargain, but I certainly wasn't going to get them here for today. Then the gears were a nightmare. The mech had probably taken a bit of abuse, and may have been bent, and it decided the cage was going to rub against my new spokes!
I had a new spare Tiagra mech that I picked up cheaply some time ago, but couldn't make up my mind about fitting it. If I upgraded the brakes then I might have sold the Tiagra mech on and bought a 105 mech as well. Deciding life was too short for indecision I just fitted it. It went on well, indexing is good and I'm left wondering why I didn't do it earlier. The bearings on the old wheels are unbelievably bad. Trying to turn the axle is a bit like stirring glue.
So eventually I got out about two o' clock and did a couple of hours. First time for months with bibshorts, and I probably should have gone for short sleeve jersey as well as it was very warm. It was quite windy, and my legs haven't had enough miles in them over the last few weeks, so it's hard to tell how they are. First impressions are that climbing may not be as good as it was on the original wheels, but on the flat the aero rims and bladed spokes certainly seem to make a difference. The tyres (swopped specialized turbo elites for Michelin prorace 3's) don't seem to have made much discernible difference.
Apologies for the lengthy tale, but I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing, and hopefully will get some more miles in now!
