Cycling UK Forum

Having long legs and pedalling fairly slowly I find I prefer 180mm cranks and would try 185s if I could find them, but the choice isn't there. 9.5% of my height would be 186mm according to the Obree formula. 20% of inside leg length (the other formula I've seen used) would be ~183mm. Does anyone sti...

Trust Shimano to maximise incompatibility

I tried to break in a Spa saddle but gave up after about a year when it was clear that the leather wasn't going to soften or move in the slightest! I had bought it from another rider who also failed to break it. Bearing in mind I'd previously owned 3 Brooks saddles I knew what to expect with the br...

I tried to break in a Spa saddle but gave up after about a year when it was clear that the leather wasn't going to soften or move in the slightest! I had bought it from another rider who also failed to break it. Bearing in mind I'd previously owned 3 Brooks saddles I knew what to expect with the bre...

Why might v-brakes be better? They're not. They both have they're issues. Setting up canti's is easy, and once done they function every bit as nicely as any other rim brakes. Don't take advice from people that reckon they're awkward to set up - they've just admitted they don't know what they are do...

Problem I found with mine is the spokes are too far away from the fork leg to allow a cycle computer sensor to work properly!

Spoke to Spa today and will take bike back to shop next time I'm in the area (June) for them to take a look. measured seat tube at 27.31mm diameter, one nominal '27.2' seatpost was between 27.02 - 27.08mm and the other around 27.14 - 27.18mm. So it seems the seatpot I bought for the bike is a little...

I'm currently building a Spa Cycles Aubisque frameset and on inserting my 27.2mm 'Pro'-branded seatpost found it to be a very loose fit, the seatpost can be rocked inside the seat tube and the (separate) seat tube clamp had to be significantly tightened to grip the seat post. AFAIK the recommended s...

Thanks Brucey, some interesting information there. Have to say I was confused by the Shimano disc rotors I've fitted saying 'resin pads only' but looking at the OE Shimano pads they clearly contain bits of coppery-looking material, so seem to be semi-metallic. I naively assumed 'resin' meant 'organi...

I just fill my freehub with the same grease I use in the wheel bearings, by removing the rear seal of the freehub body and forcing the grease through by hand while rotating the bearings (I use Silkolene Pro RG2 motorcycle bearing grease, cheaper than cycle-specific greases). It's a little thick to b...

Spa cycles do decent quality 'zicral' (7075 ali) chainrings in 110PCD for sensible money. The teeth on mine all appear to be full height. Obviously thinner than a 1/8"-chain-specific 'ring but given the apparently poor quality of common 1/8" chains perhaps you'd be better running a 3/32&qu...

Hi, I hope you don't have a stack of PC830 chains; they are the cheapest chain that SRAM make and they lack proper hardening on the pins. Even with good lube they wear out in ~500-1000miles. cheers Is this typical of sram pc830, Bad batch? Brucey's comment is relevant I think. certainly appears the...

I'd suggest it's irrelevant. What? 32 vs 36 ..... or ....... 8 vs 64? Same rims, different drillings. Hey, we think along similar lines :wink: Though I found out today I'm suffering from chain stretch :shock: . Only done 499.30 miles since 15 December on a Sram PG830 chain and found out today, that...

is the soil especially abrasive where you are? Or is it very hilly? The wear rate of your rims seems a fair bit higher than average....? cheers Don't know, based in South Somerset, but my commuting bike tends to stay cleaner than my weekend bike as it will be cleaned at shorter distance intervals (...

Can only say that weight doesn't necessarily seem to correlate well with braking surface thickness. The Kinlin XM250s I returned measured around 1.3mm thickness and weighed around 480g. The Exal LX17 (also 17mm internal width) has a specified eight of 575g but also measures down to 1.3mm in places, ...