Embarrassing Bike Questions

cjcp

Always Tyred wrote:

cjcp wrote:

jashburnham wrote:

Always Tyred wrote:

For god's sake don't adopt the practice of climbing out of the saddle when in the drops.

Why not, this is called Honking and can be great for short sharp hills, or indeed long ones. I honked a fair bit on the Hautacam during this years Etape, it just felt effective at the time.

Seconded. Particularly if you want speed to take you over the brow, or if there's a descent shortly after the brow as you then don't need to change position to gain speed.

It also worked for Ricco and Pantani, as did other things mind...

How long does it take you to get into the drops?

It worked for Pantani, who was Ricco's hero. I guess that if you practice enough, you could get use to it, but for the rest of the pros, let alone the rest of us? Not convinced.

As with a lot of things, it's probably practice and, as Jash said, it can just feel right at the time. Where I put my hands on the bars depends on how I'm feeling, but if I want to keep accelerating after I reach the top, I often go on the drops.

always_tyred

It just always struck me as being the sort of thing that no one in their right mind would consider doing, until someone who probably wasn't tried it and it worked. Making a push over the top, maybe, but I simply can't see how its possible to get the same leverage for any distance.

How tall are you guys, out of curiosity? (A height related hypothesis has formed)

cjcp

Always Tyred wrote:

It just always struck me as being the sort of thing that no one in their right mind would consider doing, until someone who probably wasn't tried it and it worked. Making a push over the top, maybe, but I simply can't see how its possible to get the same leverage for any distance.

How tall are you guys, out of curiosity? (A height related hypothesis has formed)

I'm 6ft.

It's for short, sharp efforts. I find I can grab the drops harder than I can the tops of the bars by the hoods. A typical example is the steepest hill in Richmond Park. There's about 100 yards of flat after you reach the top where people sit up and recover before you drop into a dip. So, I accelerate to the brow of the hill and carry that through over the flat as far as possible and then have the speed to drop into the dip and using the slope to catch a slight breath there before going up the other side of the dip onto another flat.

I've also done it in the middle of a climb to get away from a group - it was bizarre doing so in a sportif, but it was after a junction where everyone took a wrong turn and the group was just a shambles so I legged it until some semblance of order had returned.

Alternatively, Box Hill is another which lends itself to on-the-hoods uphill sprinting. It has two nice straight sections and the gradient is fine.

Horses for courses I guess. Some people prefer being seated when sprinting on the flat, others like stamping on the pedals and throwing the bike all over the shop.

Eurostar

Always Tyred wrote:

biondino wrote:

To be honest, why the preoccupation with the drops? If its possible to win a tour without using them, it should be possible to commute without using them! I barely touch mine - just occasionally for a "jesus" moment downhill. I feel that I can get about as aero by getting my forearms horizontal on the tops and I'm in a better position to operate brakes/gears.

.

If you're commuting or touring you have a bigger incentive to get lower than a Tour winner does! That's because Tour winners are sheltering in the bunch 95% ot the time. On the rare occasions that they sit in the wind, e.g. TTs, they most definitely get as low as possible.

If your shoulders are as low as they reasonably can be without causing you discomfort it doesn't really matter whether your hands are on the drops or the tops. The important thing is the size of your frontal area.

If you ride sitting up you waste an awful lot of pedalling power but you won't notice unless you go to the trouble of measuring it. And it doesn't really matter unless you want to up your average speed to get somewhere in a hurry. I try to stay low all day when I'm touring because I like to notch up 90 or 100 miles and still have time for long lie-ins and other forms of time-wasting.

If you want to sit up and increase your drag, why not? You'll have a much better view.

msw

Max_Man wrote:

OK another, new to road bikes and feel I have too much weight on my hands/wrists, is it just I need to get used to the more leaned over position of need to adjust my position?

Flats OK
Hoods feel a lot of weight on my wrists
Drops not too bad, quite comfy actually apart from my knees hitting my belly....

I had something similar, felt like my hands were pushing into the hoods quite hard to the point where I'd sometimes get numb fingers. I assumed I might be a bit big for the bike too - it's a compact frame and I'm a funny shape, with short legs and long arms.

But then a properly bikey friend suggested that maybe the hoods were actually too far away, rather than too close, encouraging me to to lean too far forward and take all my upper body weight on my hands. Sure enough I flipped the stem and rotated the bars back a bit and now it's much more comfy. I'm more upright and less streamlined when on the hoods but I find putting my hands right on top of the brakes lets me get my forearms horizontal if I want to go fast. Well, faster.

The Tour of Britain was on when I was having this problem and I was looking at the riders' positions to get some clues - but it looks like it really is a matter of personal preference, they were all different. Didn't notice any of them kneeing themselves in the gut though (I did think it was just me...)

always_tyred

Eurostar wrote:

Always Tyred wrote:

biondino wrote:

To be honest, why the preoccupation with the drops? If its possible to win a tour without using them, it should be possible to commute without using them! I barely touch mine - just occasionally for a "jesus" moment downhill. I feel that I can get about as aero by getting my forearms horizontal on the tops and I'm in a better position to operate brakes/gears.

.

If you're commuting or touring you have a bigger incentive to get lower than a Tour winner does! That's because Tour winners are sheltering in the bunch 95% ot the time. On the rare occasions that they sit in the wind, e.g. TTs, they most definitely get as low as possible.

If your shoulders are as low as they reasonably can be without causing you discomfort it doesn't really matter whether your hands are on the drops or the tops. The important thing is the size of your frontal area.

If you ride sitting up you waste an awful lot of pedalling power but you won't notice unless you go to the trouble of measuring it. And it doesn't really matter unless you want to up your average speed to get somewhere in a hurry. I try to stay low all day when I'm touring because I like to notch up 90 or 100 miles and still have time for long lie-ins and other forms of time-wasting.

If you want to sit up and increase your drag, why not? You'll have a much better view.

Is that why aeroplanse are lilke pointy and stuff at the front?

UnworthyPapaLazaru

Could this drop out be converted to SS or fixed??? Not quite horizontal not quite vertical...

and just for the sake of it

whyamihere

Yes, that bike can go fixed. You might want to get some slightly newer axle nuts though...

nicklouse

UnworthyPapaLazaru
easy.

UnworthyPapaLazaru

Good. Thank you gents.

The frame will get stripped and painted and fixed up to a mtb ss/f 26" hack!

Here it is



old style BB. Will this be easy to replace?

redvee

UnworthyPapaLazaru wrote:

old style BB. Will this be easy to replace?

Yes, in theory the only job LBS might be needed for is replacing the headset if you go from threaded to threadless. The current headset should need new bearings and greasing. The BB will be changed from a cup & cone to a cassette type, should still be able to get a tapered low end Shimano BB.

UnworthyPapaLazaru

Thanks Redvee.

This kind of thing for the BB?

http://harriscyclery.net/itemdetails.cfm?ID=1335

Looking into your threaded to threadless comment and will come back later and pretend to know what Im talking about...

Cheers

Bugly

cjcp wrote:

Coriander wrote:

Do I find it so difficult to use the drops on my bike because I'm totally inexperienced in doing so or because my saddle is at about the same height as my handlebars?

You may find it difficult if your bike is not a ladies frame. (Dont mean the old u style). Women tend to have a shorter upper body for a given height then men. Most frames are designed around a man with a longer top tube then most women find comfortable.

So you may be stretching too far forward to compoftably reach the drops. Other factors may be your flexability (mine sucks) depth of the drop and shape of the bars themselves, some of the newer style bars have very short flat portions on the drop making holding the drop uncomfortable.

Good postion (classical) is a flat back arms flexed and hands in the hooks of the bar for easy braking.

For good positon dont base yourself on what you see in a road race stage in a tour rather go and watch a criterium, the riiders there usually have fantastic position on a bike.

redvee

Didn't look at the BB :oops:, yes you'll need an adapter of some description to go from one piece crank to a normal MTB 3 pce crank, though you can get 3 pce set ups for BMX BB shells though they aint cheap. You're going SS so just buy a BMX ring to go on the crank.

nicklouse

why change the bb?

just sort the bearings and reuse.

UnworthyPapaLazaru

I'll try and use rather than replace, so I might try and clean the bb up a bit and maybe replace the crank arm. BMX ring or a power disk should do the trick. Ive been reading the Sheldonn Brown website all night!

EDIT - typed my message before reading yours. I was thinking the same thing. Cheers

And another question, Is it easy to get rid of rust?

nicklouse

yes an no. and how much do you want to spend?

If the frame i would just take it to a powder coater and get them to sort it, they should blast and coat it.

But you would need to get the bike stripped down.....

Coriander

Ok, am very proud of myself - I, all on my lil' own, changed my front brake pads. Which wasn't bad, considering at 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon I was blissfully unaware of the existence of brake pads. It was traumatic and I did have to go and lie down in a darkened room so I'll leave the rear ones for another time.

Well, when I say I did it all on my ownsome, I sort of did. I did change the brake pads (why so many washery, nutty bits???) but then I just couldn't get the wirey bit back into its holder. No matter how hard I pushed. ANd then I wasn't strong enough to undo the screwy thing that held it in place. So I had to cycle round to my best friends's without brakes and get them to do it for me.

How do you do it??? It needed three hands.

lost_in_thought

Cori - if you're not on a giurl-specific bike, you may well find your discomfort in the drops is due to the fact that you're overstretched. Us girls are often longer of leg and shorter of torso compared to blokes, so a bike that's right in the leg my be too long for a girl. Try moving your saddle around, mine's all the way forward at the minute, and I'm fine in the drops, although I don't do it much.

Also, fo rthe chap who felt he had too much weight on his wrists, move your saddle around. If it's tilted too far forward it'll push your weight onto your hands which is more noticeable when your wrists are at a funny angle like on the hoods or drops.

Question: When I'm really accelerating and gripping the hoods for leverage, my whole bar seems to flex. Is this normal? Does it matter? Are some bars stiffer than others? It's a bit odd...

Coriander

Hey, L-i-T - yesterday when looking for a screw for my bike I found some of those things I mentioend to you - the thingies that move your brake forward a bit so you can reach it more easily. Did you ever enquire about any at your LBS? If you still haven't had any fitted, I'll bring 'em with me to the next meet up for you if you like.

I have them because the guy ordered 4mm and 8mm ones for me and I needed the 8mm ones, so the others are going spare.

Glad you had a nice holiday. I'm off to Cape Town for 2 weeks at the end of October, it seems soooooooooooo far away.

Coriander

Yet another embarrassing question :oops:

On my frame is a hole where a screw goes to fix my rack and mudguards in place. On the chain side this hole seems to have lost its thread - the screw tightens then slips a little and is untight again. I'm losing a screw a day (I'm sure there's a double entendre in there somewhere).

Is it possible to put thread in the hole again? If so, do I need to take it to a bike shop?

always_tyred

I remember the firs time I got carbon forks, I was shocked to be able to see the movement of the front wheel as the forks absorbed the bumps on a long descent. In retrospect, they were pretty flexy forks because I don't see that with the current set. So yes, parts vary in stiffness.
If the bike you are experiencing this with is the one linked to under all your posts, my guess is that its actually the stem that's flexy, or a combination of everything at the front of the bike. Even wheels can contribute to the sensation.
If it handles okay for you, I wouldn't worry about it. The alternative is to ride a bike that feels like holding a hammer drill. (I'm sure you diy girls have done that!)

biondino

Cori, why did you have to take the wirey thing out at all? I guess cartridge brakes may be different but on my calipers it's really simple to remove one set of pads and insert the new set, bit of a fiddle with positioning, tighten the bolts and voila.

always_tyred

Coriander wrote:

Yet another embarrassing question :oops:

On my frame is a hole where a screw goes to fix my rack and mudguards in place. On the chain side this hole seems to have lost its thread - the screw tightens then slips a little and is untight again. I'm losing a screw a day (I'm sure there's a double entendre in there somewhere).

Is it possible to put thread in the hole again? If so, do I need to take it to a bike shop?

You can re-tap it, but then you'll find that normal sized bolts don't fit. Personally, I'd just get a small nut and bolt from a hardware store. Space might be tight on the inside of the fork, but its worth a try because its going to be cheaper.

Coriander

CJ reckoned on Friday that I have cantilever brakes. I couldn't get at them unless I undid the thing over the wheel.

It's all too hard - I'm going back to kittens and embroidery.

nicklouse

Commuters of the world a question.

Would you like your own commuting tech section or are you happy with this topic as is?

cjcp

Coriander wrote:

CJ reckoned on Friday that I have cantilever brakes. I couldn't get at them unless I undid the thing over the wheel.

It's all too hard - I'm going back to kittens and embroidery.

Cori - you've not got true canti brakes of th sort you find on cross bikes - you've got V-brakes - the sort you find on mtbs. You just need to unhook the brake so they fall outwards, then replace the blocks. If you can't re-hook them, pull the brake lever and then try again. I've found that this performs some sort of readjustment. I hate changing my brakes on the mtb; t's a real balls-ache.

biondino

nicklouse wrote:

Commuters of the world a question.

Would you like your own commuting tech section or are you happy with this topic as is?

I haven't noticed a tech section being lacking, though it might make things a bit tidier? No feelings either way really.

ride_whenever

lost_in_thought wrote:

Question: When I'm really accelerating and gripping the hoods for leverage, my whole bar seems to flex. Is this normal? Does it matter? Are some bars stiffer than others? It's a bit odd...

It is normal, but is probably worsened by the huge gearing that you push

Coriander

cjcp wrote:

Coriander wrote:

CJ reckoned on Friday that I have cantilever brakes. I couldn't get at them unless I undid the thing over the wheel.

It's all too hard - I'm going back to kittens and embroidery.

Cori - you've not got true canti brakes of th sort you find on cross bikes - you've got V-brakes - the sort you find on mtbs. You just need to unhook the brake so they fall outwards, then replace the blocks. If you can't re-hook them, pull the brake lever and then try again. I've found that this performs some sort of readjustment. I hate changing my brakes on the mtb; t's a real balls-ache.

Ah, thank you, CJ. That's what I did and they did fall outwards. I didn't know the pulling the brake level trick - but wouldn't you still need 3 hands? I think I suffer from having hands that are smaller than the average man, so can't really get a good grip across them.

THough an ex-boyfriend did use to tell me I had docker's hands. Guess why he's an ex.