Planet X London Road

bigmonka

I've got P45 SKS chomos over 37mm continental sport contacts with room to spare - not sure how they size up compared to the marathons though

graeme_s-2

P45 SKS chromos here - had them over the 37mm sport contacts with plenty of room left as well. Currently have them over 38mm Vittoria Voyagers. They look much larger than the 37mm sport contacts and I reckon that's the largest I'd go. I get the occasional rub against the guards, but a better bodger than I could probably get them running rub free.

tangled_metal

My tortec reflectors in 45mm rubbed where the bolt attaching them to the frame near the BB goes. Believe it or not i took it out and somehow the guard didn't rattle without the bolt. I doubt I'd find a bolt with a thin enough head to fit the gap. Marathon pluses are oversized i reckon. Well mine were if PX is right about the frame fitting 37mm tyres with guards. They're 35mm marathon plus tyres. Unless I've got narrow rims they should all fit. The rims don't look narrow to me.

NeXXus

Longboard all the way

redvee

P35 SKS Chromos over 25c tyres with buddyflaps.

mike1-2

Very nearly there with my London Road, everything's on except for the front mudguard which I'm struggling with, mainly the bolt that goes through the fork crown to hold the guard on. How on earth are you guys fitting yours? The supplied bolts aren't long enough to go all the way through, is it just a case of getting a longer bolt in it? Or is there some trickery I'm missing out on? SKS P45 by the way.

bigmonka

Mike wrote:

Very nearly there with my London Road, everything's on except for the front mudguard which I'm struggling with, mainly the bolt that goes through the fork crown to hold the guard on. How on earth are you guys fitting yours? The supplied bolts aren't long enough to go all the way through, is it just a case of getting a longer bolt in it? Or is there some trickery I'm missing out on? SKS P45 by the way.

I think I did something like only having it through the rear hole on fork the crown and managing to hold the bolt with a spanner from underneath up the fork.

mike1-2

Yeah I tried that but it's dead awkward because the guard gets in the way, I think I dropped the nut on the floor about 70 times before giving up.

bigmonka

Mike wrote:

Yeah I tried that but it's dead awkward because the guard gets in the way, I think I dropped the nut on the floor about 70 times before giving up.

That rings a bell too!
Thinking about it, I had the spanner on the nut to the rear of the crown then used a long Allen key through the hole in the front of the crown to turn against the spanner. Wasn't fun but was held tight for a year/4000miles now

tangled_metal

Sounds very familiar. I ended up riding without for a year and half. Still isn't on but I've wrecked the rear guard so have bought a new set. It's not completely being lazy because i only really got guards to stop spray reaching my kid in a Burly trailer i used back then.

BTW I forgot about the bolt at the fork. I'll have the joys of that again this week.

graeme_s-2

BigMonka wrote:

Mike wrote:

Yeah I tried that but it's dead awkward because the guard gets in the way, I think I dropped the nut on the floor about 70 times before giving up.

That rings a bell too!
Thinking about it, I had the spanner on the nut to the rear of the crown then used a long Allen key through the hole in the front of the crown to turn against the spanner. Wasn't fun but was held tight for a year/4000miles now

That's the right way to do it. Once someone else on this thread explained it to me, I thought it was really easy to do.

mike1-2

After the mudguard fiasco I finally figured it out, got a long allen key as suggested and did it that way.

Here it is sans rack and guards:



And here it is how I expect I'll use it 99% of the time.



Well chuffed for the money it cost, it's fairly lightweight even with the racks and guards on so I can't complain too loudly. Lets hope it rides alright.

bigmonka

That looks brilliant Mike - very badass in all black.
What are those wheels you got on?

mike1-2

They're a set of Vision Metron Carbon Disc. Which yes, are a bit overkill on a PX London Road!
However I had them on my road disc bike and I crashed them, smashed all the carbon off them, insurance paid out and let me keep them. Spoke to FSA and they said they could rebuild the hubs on a new set of rims for a certain amount of money, so I thought if I could sell them with new rims I would as I would only make a little back, couldn't sell them for what I would of needed so I ended up getting the smashed up ones repaired for a couple of hundred quid by a company near me, they more or less look as new and have been stress tested so I'm happy enough.
Realistically they have cost me 300 quid which is a decent set of alu rims anyway so why not?

NeXXus

Exactly why not? That looks ace, I'm eyeing up a wheel change for my RTD80, not the Ksyrium Pro Disc are in any way bad!

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Mike wrote:

And here it is how I expect I'll use it 99% of the time.

Is that the http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/BAJOAPR/jo ... nnier-rack by any chance?

I've looked that set of racks at least 3 million times* over the last ~6 months, contemplating said rack as my first ever rack purchase, for my Voodoo Wazoo (with thoughts of using it to buy a decent amount of food shopping immediately after work to cycle home with).

Besides being unsure of the rack's quality or how I fancy the idea of expectation to do sizeable food shops, I am absolutely clueless as regards panniers that would be up to the job of regularly carrying potentially weighty food items! Are any of the ~17+ litre capacity panniers (now seemingly limited to http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/BABSMP/bik ... ro-pannier) on the PX site worth buying, or will they likely fall apart in less than a year?

* This might be a slight exaggeration

mike1-2

No mate, mine is the Tortec Velocity rack, it says it's rated up to 25kg which is fine for me, only reason I got this one was it's very slimline and unobtrusive. I only plan on using my panniers for taking clothes and lunch to work with me, perhaps a bit of credit card touring in the summer so no need for something heavyweight.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Tortec-Velocity ... _24700.htm

mike1-2

NeXXus wrote:

Exactly why not? That looks ace, I'm eyeing up a wheel change for my RTD80, not the Ksyrium Pro Disc are in any way bad!

I've got some of those new Cosmic Disc wheels on my RTD90, they look brill, hub makes a nice sound as well.

NeXXus

Mike wrote:

NeXXus wrote:

Exactly why not? That looks ace, I'm eyeing up a wheel change for my RTD80, not the Ksyrium Pro Disc are in any way bad!

I've got some of those new Cosmic Disc wheels on my RTD90, they look brill, hub makes a nice sound as well.

A Canyon I was looking at come with them as standard, it was love at first sight.

rob13

To all those happy and unhappy LR owners, I'm looking to buy myself a new bike. I want to take it to the Alps and the Lake District and Scotland this year on the back of my van. I also need to pull a trailer with my 3 year old in it but it will also be used to do some solo rides once at the destination.

I have been so close to pulling the trigger on a Croix De Fer however, worry that its a bit heavy for climbing. Take that out of it and I'd have bought it as I'm happy with the geometry of them and love the idea of being Steel.

To fund this new bike i'll have to sell my Kinesis Racelight T2 so it needs to fulfil winter duties also. The London Road is something that ive considered but wondered if anyone else had used it for a similar purpose or had the experience of riding both the CDF and the LR and could comment on them both?

tangled_metal

LR is cheaper, that's why i bought it. Couldn't afford the other. Worked well with child and single wheel luggage trailer as needed. It is very unstable with a rear child seat though. If you are a better cyclist than me then you might last more than 15 seconds before being shaken off the bike!

I use my bike for commuting in all weather's, touring with load and towing a trailer with a child in from age 2 to 4. It's been on the Eskdale Trail off road in the lakes. It'll cope with gravel tracks, roads and a lot of rough roads at that. If you want to tow a loaded luggage trailer don't get a single wheel one. Mine was very difficult to control and i suspected it was something about the bike causing it.

rob13

I rode the Caadx and liked it. Its the same reach and stack as the LR although the BB is positioned differently. I did think it was more road orientated than the Croix de fer I tried. Can't make up my mind whether to pay more for the CDF or less for the Cannondale or PlanetX

tangled_metal

I test rode the caadx. To me it felt twitchy and i got toe overlap. I tried it in a couple of sizes too. Benefits of living near to the largest bike store in the UK which is a major Cannondale stockist.

Back in the day before i first considered getting a new bike, i took a shine to the original Croix de fer since that guy had just broken the round world record riding one. Then looking for a new bike (i "looked" in bike shops for a couple of years before i decided to buy) i looked at a second version. Didn't get it too expensive.

Looking for the replacement for a stolen bike i still considered but didn't buy. I think my issue is it feels over priced for what it is. IMHO it was in at the start of this idea of one bike for different types of surface. Gravel, adventure, etc. Whatever you call it, a tough road bike with fatter than normal wheels. That in think has given it a higher status than it's worth. Plus steel is real hipster cool phrasing applies to all decent steel bikes right?

Personally I'd be looking at one of the new brands or versions of this sort of bike that have joined the bandwagon. Not looked into it but there's more out there such as the US bike brands (smaller ones like vaya?). Not sure how price stacks up though.

Mambojays

I'm planning to get the LR as my one and only road/touring/commute bike. I've also recently did a bike sizing/fit to ensure this bike would fit me well. I'm 5'9" and my bike fitter have suggested I go with size M,

Anybody who is riding a size M, if you could help me with this.

1) I'm planning to use a shimano clipless pedal. Do you think I will have any problems with toe-overlaps? I may also be fitting a mudguard for commuting days.

2) The PX handlebars are listed with measurements from center to center. I'm not sure if they measure from the brake hoods to brake hoods or the bar ends ? I can't tell visually if the bar ends are flaring outwards. I'm planning to get a 420mm hoods to hoods to fit my well.

Thanks in advance for any advise. Looking forward ride more long endurance distance in the future.

keef66

You planning to chop in the T2 to fund the new bike because you want disc brakes and fatter tyres?

Or just want a new bike?

Both are acceptable answers obvs.

bigmonka

Mambojays wrote:

I'm planning to get the LR as my one and only road/touring/commute bike. I've also recently did a bike sizing/fit to ensure this bike would fit me well. I'm 5'9" and my bike fitter have suggested I go with size M,

Anybody who is riding a size M, if you could help me with this.

1) I'm planning to use a shimano clipless pedal. Do you think I will have any problems with toe-overlaps? I may also be fitting a mudguard for commuting days.

2) The PX handlebars are listed with measurements from center to center. I'm not sure if they measure from the brake hoods to brake hoods or the bar ends ? I can't tell visually if the bar ends are flaring outwards. I'm planning to get a 420mm hoods to hoods to fit my well.

Thanks in advance for any advise. Looking forward ride more long endurance distance in the future.

1) I'm 5'8" and ride a Medium with SPD shoes and mudguards. I do get toe overlap but it only took a couple of rides before I just got used to having my feet in the right place when doing particularly tight turns. It really hasn't caused me any problems since the first week of having it which is a year now.
2) Mine's a year old so the spec may have changed, but the bars are definitely not flared. I'm not sure how they do the measurements, but I've found the customer service to be pretty good on questions like that (though less good on dealing with actual issues I believe)

RobinB2

I'm planning to use a shimano clipless pedal. Do you think I will have any problems with toe-overlaps? I may also be fitting a mudguard for commuting days.

I'm running a London Road in a size medium with mudguards and use either Shimano SPD shoes for commuting or SPD-SL for winter riding duties. There is some toe overlap, however as per above, if you're careful in tight turns, it can be coped with. I also tend to have my cleats set towards the back of the shoe, so the toe overlap is probably worse than it might otherwise be

graeme_s-2

Shoe size, shoe style and cleat position can play as big a role in toe overlap as the things that have been mentioned so far. I have a large frame, mudguards and size 47 feet. In my specialized summer road shoes there's a bit of overlap but I got used to it very quickly. In my winter boots it's more pronounced, but after being caught out by it I've been fine since.

rob13

keef66 wrote:

You planning to chop in the T2 to fund the new bike because you want disc brakes and fatter tyres?

Or just want a new bike?

Both are acceptable answers obvs.

Both. Never been totally at home on the racelight, and if I buy one of these itll pretty much replace what it does. I enjoy pushing myself with my riding but I'm no racer. The T2 makes a good crit bike with its position rather than an endurance all roads bike. (alternative gravel terms)

tangled_metal

Just out of curiosity, has anyone wondered if the London Road forks could take some style of front rack and panniers ) very light load obviously)? Perhaps you've tried it?

Now PX say they're not suitable so don't try it or any warranty would certainly go out the window (is there any warranty on PX bike?). It's just an idea bouncing around in my mind. BTW I've seen adventure/gravel bike before with carbon forks capable of taking front rack and panniers so it is possible to build a suitable carbon fork.