What Have You Fettled Today?

[SteveO69]

Long story short.

Brompton has a suspected crack in the seat tube, awaiting the decision as to it being a warranty repair.

Used my recently converted flat bar Langster for the commute last week and loved it.

With the weather looking iffy this week, dragged out my Racelight TK2, (with Mudguards), not used it since the pandemic. fitted 28mm Michelin Lithion 4’s to replace the knackered Gatorskins, gave it a light clean & test ride.

If all goes well, I may upgrade the 9 speed Ultegra to 11 speed 105 and start using it regularly.

With the Brompton off the road, the commute has gone from a 10 mile each way plus a train ride, to a 16 mile each way no train ride.

 

[RumbaAzul]

Set-up / parts swapping / mudguards etc and cosmetic tw4tting around on the Bergamont 8 Grandurance is done. Needs the inaugural ride now……

View attachment 761634

What happened with this bike? Not heard you mention it since this post.

 

[ColinJ]

I had reduced the tyre pressures on my CAAD 5 because the rough road surfaces here were battering me. (The tyres are 28 mm Rubino Pros.)

The bike did feel a lot more comfortable but the rolling resistance was noticeably higher and I was concerned that I might get a snakebite puncture. I concluded that I had reduced the pressures too much. I checked and found that I only had about 4.0 bar in the front tyre and 4.5 bar in the rear.

I decided to go for better compromise pressures today, increasing the front to 4.5 bar, and the rear to 5.0. The tyres felt significantly less comfortable but rolled better, and I was much less worried about hitting bumps at speed.

The other thing I did was to clean, lube, and adjust the (MTB type) SPD pedals on that bike. I had done this on my other road bike a few weeks ago and it has been a big improvement. The adjustment was to increase the release tensions. I set each of the 4 tensions (both sides of both pedals) to maximum and then backed off each by 15 clicks. That level of tension secures the cleat nicely without making unclipping scarily difficult.

 

[sevenfourate]

What happened with this bike? Not heard you mention it since this post.

Oh it’s still here alright ! I’ve had a few rides on it - and it’s embarrassingly fast / frugal to ride compared to my two other flat-bar / hybrid style bikes. Last 50k I did on it - I swear I arrived home and it literally felt like I’d not even started. And I was nearly 1.5mph up on my normal 15 and bit mph average - feeling like I’d taken it easy too……

I’ve really got into my BMX lately. So been riding that alot. One of the lads i’d intended to go ‘Gravel riding’ with has been super busy. The other injured. So that bikes just taken a bit of a back seat.

I’m making it my mission to make June’s CC 50k Challenge ride - one that will be completed on the Bergamont 😉

Thanks for asking 😁

 

[YMFB]

I fitted my Panaracer gravel slicks, which have been hanging up inside the garage from last year, wished I’d done it earlier.

Cleaned chain and brake calipers, dried everything off, will lube chain tonight (wet) ready for the Hadrians Wall C2C starting Thursday.

Fingers crossed for the weather, but it doesn’t look ideal.

 

[ColinJ]

I was watching a video about bike setup this afternoon. The presenter was talking about getting the bar/hoods angle right to avoid sore wrists.

That reminded me that I have recently had a few twinges in my wrists on rides longer than an hour or so on my best bike, so I decided to take his advice and rotate the handlebar back a few degrees. It looks more comfortable now but I have not checked the new setup on the road yet. If the rain stops for a couple of hours tomorrow I'll go out for a decent test ride.

 

[T4tomo]

I fitted a pair of panaracer gravelking semi slicks. To replace the gravel king SKs I was running, ahead of a week in the Loire.

Blummin tubeless ready beads are quite a battle, but I won!

 

[teeonethousand]

I fitted a pair of panaracer gravelking semi slicks. To replace the gravel king SKs I was running, ahead of a week in the Loire.

Blummin tubeless ready beads are quite a battle, but I won!

I have recently fitted the semi slicks too...I love them.

 

[teeonethousand]

I fitted my Panaracer gravel slicks, which have been hanging up inside the garage from last year, wished I’d done it earlier.

Cleaned chain and brake calipers, dried everything off, will lube chain tonight (wet) ready for the Hadrians Wall C2C starting Thursday.

Fingers crossed for the weather, but it doesn’t look ideal.

We did Silloth to South Shields a couple of months ago....it's brilliant ..have a fab time and fingers crossed for the weather 🤞🤞

 

[T4tomo]

I have recently fitted the semi slicks too...I love them.

I put them on my OH's gravel bike when I re-built that up, as she rarely does anything gnarly, so thought they were grippy enough for any offroad but would be decent on road. Then I got jealous of them...so got a pair for mine

I also fitted my new Look Xtrack pedals, buttery smooth axles. maybe test them tonight

 

[DCLane]

Having had a pair of quick-release Spesh Axis 4.0 disc wheels arrive today that I bought on Monday I added a cassette and an A2Z 160mm centre-lock rotor I had sat around to the rear one. All works fine on the Merida Cyclo-Cross so I swapped the old and cracked Specialized Turbo tyre on the wheel for a Schwalbe One 30mm. It'll keep as a spare and I'm now looking for a boost-hub front wheel.

I don't need the front wheel so that'll be on sale shortly.

 

[ColinJ]

I was watching a video about bike setup this afternoon. The presenter was talking about getting the bar/hoods angle right to avoid sore wrists.

That reminded me that I have recently had a few twinges in my wrists on rides longer than an hour or so on my best bike, so I decided to take his advice and rotate the handlebar back a few degrees. It looks more comfortable now but I have not checked the new setup on the road yet. If the rain stops for a couple of hours tomorrow I'll go out for a decent test ride.

I did feel more comfortable when my hands were on the now (slightly) tilted back hoods.

I also tilted the saddle back one notch. Now the long front section is level, with a slight rise at the back due to the shape of the saddle. The previous (slightly) nose down saddle wasn't helping keep weight off my wrists when riding.

 

[Webbo2]

I did feel more comfortable when my hands were on the now (slightly) tilted back hoods.

I also tilted the saddle back one notch. Now the long front section is level, with a slight rise at the back due to the shape of the saddle. The previous (slightly) nose down saddle wasn't helping keep weight off my wrists when riding.

The tilted in that folk do to be more aero is also supposed to be less stress on the wrists.

 

[ColinJ]

The tilted in that folk do to be more aero is also supposed to be less stress on the wrists.

My bar tape is a bit of a mess so I think I will rewrap it. I might try that idea while I am at it.

I just found this video on YouTube on the subject. I'll see what the presenter has to say on the subject...

 

[ColinJ]

I've watched the video now. There were lots of comments and the overall verdict there was: angle the hoods - yes, but subtly, not to the extreme angle shown in the video.