Goodbye stranger Saturday thread

pinno

Meh. Lost tinternet connection last night after hours of cross referencing accounts (unsuccessfully). Works one way but not the other.
Later, Goldilocks and the 3 bars with my (currently) very troublesome toots. I'd leave them with the wannabe MIL for a week just so they get a different perspective but that would be child abuse.

Laters.

chris_bass

Bit of turbo this morning, off into Birmingham to meet the Mrs, look at bike bits (she isn't aware of this yet) might try and see if I can have a go on a bike with sram on Steve's recommendation. Then pub later. So not bad really.

pinno

Birmingham? Sram?... :roll:

Now how can I bring light to the savages...

bikes`n`guns

Few pints last night, so a gentle shake down run on the new Planet X today .

sungod

rather hungover this morning, went to sushisamba, an evening of much bolly, port, cocktails, and just a trace of food

considered hill repeats, went up to highgate, but after the first one decided i was in no fit state and headed back to do a few laps around regent's park before settling down outside the cafe for espresso and a lovely jamón serrano and cheese toasted croissant, yum

slowmart

58 miles with no cafe stop. WTF is that all about?

Just sat chilling but totally goosed as the pace was rather quick this morning with a back drop of missed rides and unridden miles for the last few weeks. Thinking of the soon to be ordered curry, couple of beers and a night in with my better half..

Have a great bank holiday fellow degenerates, losers and two wheel enthusiasts.

Stevo_666

Chris Bass wrote:

Bit of turbo this morning, off into Birmingham to meet the Mrs, look at bike bits (she isn't aware of this yet) might try and see if I can have a go on a bike with sram on Steve's recommendation. Then pub later. So not bad really.

Somebody taking my advice on road bike stuff is a bit of a first

CB, let me know what you think, be interested to know. I just cant see why two levers are needed when one will do...

Spent 5 hours driving North through Bank Holiday traffic then doing a load of shopping and other stuff. Now watching the Arsenal game on SKY (don't worry Pinno - no spoilers )

veronese68

Evening folks,
Tired after a day of doing stuff and fixing stuff, or at least trying to. One of the poxy igniter thingy on the cooker is broken. Tried to swap them around but of course the broken one is a different size to the others. Smeg cookers are exactly as the name implies, smeg.

chris_bass

Stevo 666 wrote:

Chris Bass wrote:

Bit of turbo this morning, off into Birmingham to meet the Mrs, look at bike bits (she isn't aware of this yet) might try and see if I can have a go on a bike with sram on Steve's recommendation. Then pub later. So not bad really.

Somebody taking my advice on road bike stuff is a bit of a first

CB, let me know what you think, be interested to know. I just cant see why two levers are needed when one will do...

Spent 5 hours driving North through Bank Holiday traffic then doing a load of shopping and other stuff. Now watching the Arsenal game on SKY (don't worry Pinno - no spoilers )

i like it actually, definitely considering it. looks good too.

Stevo_666

CB did you try Rival or Force?

Not cheap but lighter than Shimano equivalent I think. Main thing is whether you like the way it works.

(PS yay, none of this Campag shyte :P)

I found a roadie bike I like but they don't do it in SRAM flavour any more so may defer for now. Ho hum.

pinno

Stevo 666 wrote:

(PS yay, none of this Campag shyte :P) 1

I found a roadie bike I like but they don't do it in SRAM flavour any more so may defer for now. 2

1. That confirms you are a crudder/Philistine if it hadn't been confirmed already.
2. They don't do it in Sram flavour anymore 'cos it's shyte.

Stevo_666

No sh1t Sherlock

I googled the phrase 'Campag Snob' out of interest and got a lot of search results

pinno

Stevo 666 wrote:

No sh1t Sherlock

I googled the phrase 'Campag Snob' out of interest and got a lot of search results

Style is temporary, quality is permanent.

Stevo_666

Pinno wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

No sh1t Sherlock

I googled the phrase 'Campag Snob' out of interest and got a lot of search results

Style is temporary, quality is permanent.

Quality might be, but not so sure about poor old Campy
http://road.cc/content/news/141525-campagnolo-strike-threat-1-5-jobs-cut-vicenza-hq
Stock up while you still can...

pinno

Stevo 666 wrote:

Pinno wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

No sh1t Sherlock

I googled the phrase 'Campag Snob' out of interest and got a lot of search results

Style is temporary, quality is permanent.

Quality might be, but not so sure about poor old Campy
http://road.cc/content/news/141525-campagnolo-strike-threat-1-5-jobs-cut-vicenza-hq
Stock up while you still can...

Unfortunately, that's the way of the world. A lot of stuff is produced in Taiwan - FSA for example but FSA is actually very good quality. Pinarello's are made in the far east - sacrilege some might say. However:

[On SRAM] "The company grew organically and through acquisitions to become one of the largest high-end cycling component brands in the world, selling under the brands SRAM, Avid, RockShox, Truvativ, Quarq, and Zipp. Their components are manufactured primarily in-house, in factories located in Portugal, Taiwan, China, and the U.S., and distributed and sold as Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) equipment and aftermarket components in high-end markets globally."

I like the oxymoron - "... in-house, in factories located in Portugal, Taiwan, China, and the U.S."

All the R & D on the West where there is the network of expertise but production where it is cheap. Common business model.

Stevo_666

In that link of mine it says Campy are decamping production to Romania to stay competitive. Sounds like moving to Romania might be a bad idea as some of the Campy snobs might not want to something that says 'made in Romania' on it

But apart from being made in Italy for now and looking a bit tarty, why buy it over Shimano or SRAM?

veronese68

I like the made in Italy bit, but I wouldn't buy a new bike without discs so Campy wouldn't even get a look in if I was in the market.

Stevo_666

Veronese68 wrote:

I like the made in Italy bit, but I wouldn't buy a new bike without discs so Campy wouldn't even get a look in if I was in the market.

So they don't do MTB groupsets and they don't do disc brakes? They're going the same way as Marzocchi...buy now while they're still around.

pinno

Stevo 666 wrote:

But apart from being made in Italy for now and looking a bit tarty, why buy it over Shimano or SRAM?

Compatibility for one. If you already have Campag on one bike, why buy Shimano or SRAM? I have always demoted my old groupset and wheels to the Winter bike when it's getting on a little or I just fancy some new bits.
In terms of wear and tear, Campag is far superior. I rode Shimano before I could afford Campag.
If you want proof, have a look on fleabay - second hand Campag really holds it's price - whatever age, whereas Shimano doesn't.
It's a roadie thing. It's an argument that has raged for decades, so you won't understand.

When you weigh 67kg's, you don't need discs. They pro's have hurtled down the mountains for donkey's on rim brakes with only a few miss-haps, so why the farq do you need disc brakes unless you're too chunky to ride a bike [ ] and you live in Blighty?.

Stevo_666

How many of us lot weigh 67kg? Ask any mountain biker, rim brakes are shyte.

Campy is very small compared to Shimano and SRAM for a reason

pinno

Quality not quantity.

Stevo_666

Pinno wrote:

Quality not quantity.

I hear a lot of Campy snobs say that. Ever heard of purchase justification

pinno

Stevo 666 wrote:

Pinno wrote:

Quality not quantity.

I hear a lot of Campy snobs say that. Ever heard of purchase justification

Have you ridden 24+ years on Campag?

Being reasonably good with fettling and having fitted, maintained and serviced a lot of bikes [unlike some] with Shimano and Campag, you see the difference. two friends with Campag furnished bikes come back once in a blue moon for a chain whereas the others...

One guy has a Ridgeback* with Ultegra on it. He commutes about 9 miles per day. Not a lot and recently (well, November) I replaced the front mech, rear mech, gear cables, chain, cassette and both sets of wheel bearings. It was an inch more economical than getting a whole new gruppo. The SPD's, the chainset.BB and the wonky brake calipers will be next.
I fitted a DA groupset to another friends Look 361 frameset. So silky smooth from the off but slowly but surely, fettling problems and wear. Supposed pre-stretched cables that stretched and so the indexing needed constant tinkering. He's done 2 (summer) seasons on it - IRO 9,000 miles, replaced 4 chains, an inner chainring, 2 cassettes (just two weeks ago was the last TBF) and it's ready for the bin.
The gear levers are loose, especially when shifting between the 14, 15 and 16 tooth sprockets - obviously the most used.
Shimano wears out and Campag wears in.

*Ridgeback are a bit naughty - the brake calipers and the triple Chainset aren't Ultegra. Sold as 'Shimano throughout', yeah okay...

veronese68

Pinno wrote:

They pro's have hurtled down the mountains for donkey's on rim brakes...

That argument always makes me laugh. I'm not delusional, I know I'm not a pro why would I give a flying fig what the pros do? I ride in the real world where lots of unpredictable things happen because people are idiots, so I want good brakes whatever the weather. The fact that the best brakes aren't chewing up my wheel rim is an added bonus, never mind that I don't have to adjust them as they wear. One of the criticisms of disc brakes for pros was there would be riders with different levels of braking in the pack which could cause accidents. I don't ride in a pack so it doesn't bother me, oh and hang on that means they are criticising disc brakes for being better. How can having better brakes that don't wear your rims and don't need adjusting for wear be a bad thing? Oh, unless you think you're about to be called up for the Tour de France.

pinno

My argument about rim brakes vs discs was that at 50mph plus going down the side of the Galibier with rim brakes with hardly a fatality and I am not riding in the Alps...
You commute through the big smoke with potholes, cabbies and more tw@ts than you can shake a stick at. Horses for courses.
'

pinno

Those who have never ridden Campag say it's not for them...

Stevo_666

Pinno wrote:

Those who have never ridden Campag say it's not for them...

I'll give them a pop as soon as they make stuff for mountain bikes. And disc brakes.

Wheelspinner

Campag did make MTB stuff at one time, about 2006-2008 I think. I presume they decided their core clientele was not really interested so shelved it.

sungod

do you chaps want to have the full argument, or were you thinking of taking a course?

Stevo_666

Wheelspinner wrote:

Campag did make MTB stuff at one time, about 2006-2008 I think. I presume they decided their core clientele was not really interested so shelved it.

You mean they sold sweet FA?

Wheelspinner

Stevo 666 wrote:

Wheelspinner wrote:

Campag did make MTB stuff at one time, about 2006-2008 I think. I presume they decided their core clientele was not really interested so shelved it.

You mean they sold sweet FA?

I would guess that had something to do with it, although doesn't mean it was a bad product. I think they were only ever targeted at the hybrid/touring bike market rather than proper MTB stuff anyway. It's a bit like Italian made MTB's though - Wilier, Pinarello, Bianchi and even Colnago all make them, but they don't exactly sell loads...

I did have some sets of the Campag flat bar 10 spd road Brifters, Chorus level carbon lever things which were just beautiful for the road triple groups.