Is shortening a stem worse than lengthening it?
Comments
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diamonddog wrote:Ride it and enjoy it now you have put all this work into it.
Absolutely flogged my guts out on it just then and got a lower average speed than I normally do. Five days off, thats all it takes with me. :roll: Then again I have not really eaten today, a tin of tomato soup. :roll:
I just rode it with the brand new chain on the old 11-32T cassette and it was skipping around the middle two cogs, both when pedalling hard and the odd time pedalling normally going over a bump. Thankfully I was anticipating it after the first one.
Remember when I said oh I need to replace my cassette anyway since its done over 1000 miles and someone said thats a low mileage? Well maybe if someone used every sprocket equally then yes, it wouldn't be skipping now, but it skips on the middle sprockets.
When I said my cassette has done over 1000 miles I mean out of eight sprockets, numbers 3 and 4 have done probably 400 miles each and the 32T sprocket the other 200 miles.
I pretty much never even use any other sprockets. If I had a 3 speed with a 32-21-17T cassette I would be no worse off lol.
I have two choices I guess, either slap the brand new 11-28T on (don't want to, almost had a heart attack just then even on the 32T coming up that hill, nearly came back home again after getting halfway up) keeping that new chain on or go back to the chain thats 52 links of KMC Z and 2 links of PC830. I think to stop the skipping I should just put the old chain back on again.
If I leave it I will just end up with a knackered chain that was brand new only a few months before.0 -
chains wear relatively quickly, more so if you don't clean them. And, being a budget bike, a cheap chain again, might wear even quicker. If you change your chain regularly and at least make a reasonable attempt to keep it clean your cassette will last much longer.
I know there's some advice out there to change your cassette with your chain, but that's a load of cobblers, excepting possibly for off-road riding. I change chains regularly, but a cassette change is a rare event for me.
Jam butties, officially endorsed by the Diddymen Olympic Squad0 -
The teeth are all shallow on the cassette.
The only way to stop the slipping on that cassette is put that rusty chain back on.
I will put the 11-28T on tomorrow with new chain.0 -
Rolf F wrote:Manc33 wrote:The teeth are all shallow on the cassette.
The only way to stop the slipping on that cassette is put that rusty chain back on.
I will put the 11-28T on tomorrow with new chain.
What do you mean by shallow?
Scooped out slightly. Problem is even a brand new SRAM cassette looks like that (and the chain wiggles with a lot of back and forth play) so its no surprise it slips after 1000 miles. Its scooped out to begin with compared to what cassette teeth use to look like. Looking at an old 6 speed Suntour cassette the teeth are nothing like that, they are perfectly cut out and with a far deeper profile to it.
I don't know if they have done that in the pursuit of smoother gear changes, but I think next time I am going to get a Shimano one or something. The cheap Sunrace cassette I have got looks the same.0 -
Old 6 speed cassette with deep teeth...
Modern SRAM with more of a shallow curve on the tooth profile...
Just in case you're thinking its some sort of optical illusion here they are together...
< Old Suntour - Brand new SRAM >
< Why?!
I know a cassette should last 3000 miles or whatever it is but riding on the same sprocket nearly all the time, no chance. My cassette is slipping on the 3rd, 4th and 5th sprockets of 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8. So thats something like the 21T, 18T and 16T.
If this brand new chain and PG850 combo slip, I think I might ring up John Cleese and Eric Idle and see if they are interested in coming out of retirement.0 -
Well they are meant to look like that - it gives smoother gear shifts; different teeth have different shapes as the chain is designed to slip easily over some of them. Cassettes aren't designed to slip and the shallowness of them isn't what is causing your slipping!
Why aren't you using the gears more effectively? If you hardly need to change gear at the back, why on earth are you running a triple?!
I could really use that Suntour freewheel!Faster than a tent.......0 -
Rolf F wrote:If you hardly need to change gear at the back, why on earth are you running a triple?!
I only ever use the granny ring on either very long hills (like Snake Pass @ 9 miles up it) or up really steep hills, like that 600M section near me that elevates 60M. I never use it anywhere else.
The 39F/32R combo was always a ridiculously low gear in itself to me, its just that I run out of steam really quick and get on the granny ring pretty quick on steep hills as opposed to standing up and blasting up it which is what should be aiming at doing.Rolf F wrote:I could really use that Suntour freewheel!
Sorry m8 it got sold already, its just that I have still got the pics. Why would you want a 6sp cassette/freewheel?! Because the freewheel is built into it? Look at the range its got, 13-32T on a cassette from who knows what year, late 80s early 90s.
That sold for about double the cost of that new PG850 :roll: then again those are about 1/3 of the RRP.
Can't remember why my dad took that 13-32T Suntour off, or which bike it even came on, I think it must have been too low gearing or something @ 32T. :twisted: Thats my dad though not me, he used to coast along at 18 MPH.0 -
I've got a Suntour equipped Raleigh. But I suspect a 13-32 wouldn't fit it though it would be interesting to try and it would make it an easier bike to ride if it did!
You really should make better use of your gears. What's the point of lugging them round if you don't use them?!Faster than a tent.......0 -
I use all my gears, its just on the flat I am on the same three sprockets mostly.
It got me thinking about those "fixie" bikes, how much distance do they do on a single sprocket? Then again they never have a bike computer on to measure it. A strange class of people. 0 -
Got the chain catcher today, had to cut the bolt down to size (despite it coming with 2 bolts, one was too long and the other was far too long) but its all working well now. It even shifts from granny to middle pretty smoothly.
For some reason after fitting this chain catcher, I had to adjust the inner limiter screw a little bit so the mech travelled slightly further than before, or else it wouldn't change from middle to granny, but that was about it. I know it wasn't the cable because it wasn't changing down with the cable slacker than a... its a family forum. :twisted:
What a right pain those carbon band mounts are though, not because it might crack (which it might), but because when you tighten it up, the FD mech cage is then nowhere near the angle you started out at. My trick to do it was to put a tiny dot of tipp-ex on to start with, exactly lined up with the bottom right corner of the back part of the band mount, only the front part where you're screwing the screw in, moves.
FD's are a pain to setup at the best of times, but with these carbon band mounts they are really fiddly.
Its quite handy having those barrel adjusters on the downtube, use them anytime I am swapping stuff around and affecting the cable. The inline barrel adjusters just slip around, you've got to hold the cable housing to adjust it.
My rear mech now has three ways to adjust the cable lol, an inline adjuster up near the brake lever, the downtube adjuster, then one on the rear mech itself.
Now the bike has been checked and checked and checked again. Its all set for doing 40+ milers.
Getting a carbon frame... I was thinking the other night, I have wanted one of those all my adult life, back in the early 1990s when I was a teenager and carbon frames cost £2,500 thats when I first wanted one, like 20 years ago, more. Its almost weird actually owning one now. :oops: Like it hasn't sunk in.0 -
Your a star Manc33, enjoy your nice bit of carbon. 0
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Just done a 10 miler and love it. I definitely seem to coast along faster than on the aluminium Triban 3 and I am certain its not just the -800g weight difference. Besides, this bike now has a 18650x4 battery pack added over the Triban and STi shifters back on it, so its probably now heavier than the Triban 3 was with flat bars.
Thing is on this carbon frame I seem to be able to transmit power to the wheels better, is carbon that much stiffer than alu? I was thinking of how alu has welding but carbon is all one thing, which adds to the stiffness I guess, on top of it being stiffer because it is carbon.
One thing with it though, it "boings". I went over a bump today with the back wheel and the bike rang like a bell. If I lift it up and hit the saddle, "boing". I hope thats because its carbon and there's not something seriously wrong lol. If something is a harder material or stiffer it will ring like a bell over a softer material. Its just funny to hear it, you can send a shockwave through the bike if you hit the saddle. :?0 -
Must have done about 40-60 miles on this frame now and its been great. Ignoring the fact that it does fit me better (which isn't really important if you get the right size lol) I am sure the power I am putting through the pedals is equating to more efficiency. That is, my average speeds seem to be up over the Triban 3, when I take into account the slightly-annoying-sometimes-and-verging-on-absurd wind every time I have been on the Stelvio. Fancy it being windy for 5 weeks! :evil:
I am shocked at my average time tonight - 13.3 MPH. I mean because thats high, for me. Might not seem like much to most but I was doing about 1 MPH less than that on the Triban 3 with light/no wind.
Maybe its just new bike syndrome and I am putting more effort in without realising it.
Also on those Stelvio rides, I have been blown uphill a lot, maybe that increases average speed although, I am then pedalling 16 MPH downhill on the way back down it, when normally its a 20-25 MPH roll down.
Bottom line is this frame is well worth the money. Also those Claris 2400 shifters seem to work better functionally than the 2300s did, is that to be expected? How much does "entry level" stuff improve with each version? I just assumed it didn't lol. The internals of the 2400 have to differ from the 2300s because of the "STi" blade lever on the 2400s.0 -
Just got burned off by someone on a MTB, was it you?
He went past me at the foot of a hill, I thought "He's gotta be showing off, no one goes that fast all the time on a MTB" so I tried to catch him up, not a chance. He probably got up the hill in half the time it took me, on a sodding MTB as well.
Who are these people honestly. :twisted:
You know what I always tell myself when this happens?
He must have only just set off.
In reality he was probably completing an 80 miler or something.
Average speed over 10 miles tonight: 13.8 MPH. I think the dude on the MTB is responsible for about +0.3 MPH of that. :!:
Thanks for nearly giving me a heart attack and "solid legs" when I got home.
Oh well maybe another 5 years.
Just how long does it take from averaging 12-14 MPH to averaging 18/19 MPH? Years?0 -
Well I returned to road cycling at the age of 50 after a break of 25 years. I've now been at it for just over 6 years and my average speed has gone up from about 12 mph to start with to 14.6 mph where it appears to have reached a plateau. What has increased is the distance I can cycle at 14.6 mph; I can manage all day rides at that pace. I just don't seem to be able to go any faster.0
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keef66 wrote:Well I returned to road cycling at the age of 50 after a break of 25 years. I've now been at it for just over 6 years and my average speed has gone up from about 12 mph to start with to 14.6 mph where it appears to have reached a plateau. What has increased is the distance I can cycle at 14.6 mph; I can manage all day rides at that pace. I just don't seem to be able to go any faster.
I am similar in that I biked a hell of a lot around the late 1990s but pretty much didn't bike at all from 2000 to 2010 and even then I only "took it up" again because someone gave me a bike. I rode that bike about 1.5 miles the first day I got it and had a sore bum lol, it was funny to balance on it etc.
I think I am gonna put those flat bars back on again lol.
I got a MTB in 2010 with flat bars.
I got a road bike in 2012 with drop bars.
Took the drop bars off and put flat bars on.
Took flat bars off and put drops on again.
Got a new frame, thats smaller, kept with drops.
Now my neck is getting stiff etc from it, because I "like" getting on the drops downhill.
So I might again just have flat bars, this time on a bike where the reach is fine (the original reason to swap to flat bars on my older bike).
The flat bars have XTR shifters and I miss their flawlessness. :oops:
I don't seem to really gain much on my average speed between flat bars and drop bars.
I guess on a 4 hour ride you will get somewhere 15 minutes quicker on drop bars, but I have to say I am far more comfortable on flat bars, as long as they have bar ends I think for hand positions they are comparable to drops.
On drops I seem to always end up having the corners of the bars in the palms of my hands gripping it that way, regardless of the reach. I always thought it was the reach but on this newer smaller frame, where I know that is fixed, I am still itching to put flat bars on it again.
People always say "ride on drops for 3 months and you'll be used to it" but I don't even think its that. I can put more power into it on flat bars, I can't get my head around drops at all.
Downshifting on drops is horrible, to the point where I am going to stop doing it, then I might as well have flat bars on it because the shifters are far better. The main advantage with drops seems to be they are more narrow.0 -
Ride on the hoods, it's possible to get 'aero' for the downhills and still be able to brake ok IME.0
