Cycling UK Forum

Marianne Vos and Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes's SD Worx teammate who led her out for the sprint, were genuinely sympathetic, but they'd have been pure hypocrites if they hadn't been. Vollering lost the win at Brabantse Pijl in 2021 when she flung her arm in the air instead of flinging her bike, losing out in the photo finish to Ruth Winder's consummate 'tits over the saddle' (according to Winder's Trek teammate Tayler Wiles!) bike throw...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JTatOKMWtM&t=130s

...while five days later at Amstel Gold, Vos very nearly lost out the way Lorena did when she 'posted up' only to see Vollering, having learned her lesson, coming by like an express train just after the line - you'll see how Vos did a Disney-style double-take and had a big 'Uh-oh' moment, for sure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAiy_8GF2_I&t=163s

As to why Lorena did what she did, I think she just got overexcited - no way did she wake up that morning thinking she'd win Amstel Gold - it's not a sprinter's race, and even though her climbing has improved phenomenally, if the course hadn't been curtailed due to the accident involving the police motorcyclist, leaving out some of the climbs, she'd likely only have been a bit player. So to find herself 'winning' was maybe just too much for her to keep her head together. That plus, she tends to win sprints so decisively that she legitimately has time to post up, so it's habit. Still made no sense, though!

We all do daft things - anyone who says they've never done anything as daft as that is either lying or else they will before they pop their clogs - and as long as that's the daftest thing she ever does she'll get through the rest of her life just fine.

Audax67 wrote: ↑1 Apr 2024, 2:46pm

djnotts wrote: ↑1 Apr 2024, 9:38am I do hope that this is NOT a 1st April thing:

https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/ribble-h ... 0UK%20Only

Heh. In the wee small hours during a 1000k 10 years ago I really did feel that another rider was with us and riding just out of sight, slightly behind and to my right. Chum who's a bit on the religious side said "well, somebody was". :facepalm:

One of the funniest things I ever read was about a fellow on an audax ride whose pal fell asleep beside him but kept riding. His pal slumped over and rested his head on his shoulder, fast asleep, but they kept riding like that for several miles before his pal woke back up - his pal was still pedalling, but in his sleep!

Brucey wrote: ↑11 Apr 2024, 5:45pm Either way, it is as well to find out what limits there might be to your brakes before your life depends on it.

That's why I opened them up and dug out your thread!

My life's been depending on them for a while, mind you - I found the forum posts I quoted from years ago, when I was learning to set the brakes up and I've been wary since. I've heard a wee 'click' every now and then when I apply the brakes, even from when the bike was new, but there's never been an issue. It doesn't sound as if it's happened to you either, even though you said you used these brakes extensively yourself, or I guess you'd have mentioned it. When I inspected them yesterday, I took a magnifying glass to inspect the ramps and balls and there's no wear I can see, although the ramps/balls were dry.

Even when I keep everything perfectly adjusted, the braking is never as good when the pads are more than half worn than when they're new, although I think that might apply to most brakes. Tektro advise compressionless cables in the tech doc and the Subway didn't come with them, just spiral wound, so I might as well fit some with new cables as well as the new pads and see how good I can get the braking to work. It's not bad as it is, though.

My other Subway with the same brakes took me round 'The Wee Mad Road' (I only found out it was called that after I'd ridden it!) from Lochinver around the Assynt Peninsula to Kylesku Bridge, the bridge in the avatar. The descents around there are as mad as the climbs and the corners and I survived.

Thanks, Brucey. So it's paste I'm looking for, not grease. That tin in the link might not be the right stuff, then. Don't suppose it matters, it's just a tiny amount - you said 'sparingly' in your first post. I'll maybe just give it a smear of Parks grease - I don't run these brakes hot, the bike is just used for transport and gets a quiet life - no mountain descents!

It's just that I came across this post from another forum that came up randomly in an internet search - I found it before you even posted this thread and I've been a bit concerned since, which is why I eventually got around to opening the brakes up, but it's never happened to me and the bike must have done at least 10,000 miles (I've just replaced the pads a few times):

The caliper uses 3 ball bearings that run on 3 ramps. When you press the lever the ramps move, and the bbs push outward against the shallow part of the ramps. For some reason, which I suspect has to do with too high tolerances in the manufacturing process, the bbs will sometimes 'jump' into the next ramp and land in the deep part of it. This results in a 'click' and total loss of braking power. It seems to happen when the bbs have worn a little and it doesn't happen in every caliper. My front Novela never had this issue and it's the one that gets used the most often and the hardest. I replaced the 3 bbs with new ones and put some new grease in. The issue was solved. About 8 months later it happened again with the new owner of the bike. I changed the bbs for a second time and the brake is stopping once more. I don't know how long it will last.

More reassuringly someone else came up with this in response:

I have serviced those brakes a bunch of times and it usually ends up being a "step up bearing" issue - one of the bearings becomes worn, out of round, so no matter how much force you apply they won't hold. You can easily fix it by taking the caliper apart and replacing the bearings, The standard bearings are cheap ss/g100 bearings, so when you replace them use chrome stainless steel, with at least a grade 25, and then those calipers will last forever.

So once I've double checked what size I need I'll get a pack of grade 25 bearings (IIRC they're 3/16" - I've got one of these Park Tool rulers that let you measure spoke length and bb size - I checked one but forgot to write it down!).

I think maybe the 'issue', which would be serious if it happened, might be because the rider isn't keeping the brakes adjusted and the actuation lever is having to move far further than intended, causing excessive wear on the bearings.. That's my theory anyway, you can tell me if you think it's right or not.

You've got a response at last, Brucey, five years later! I remember you posting it at the time because I've got Tektro Novela mechanical disc brakes on my Carrera Subway, which I think are more or less the same as the Io brakes - is the Novela a later, slightly tweaked version of the Io? It all looks very similar but I can't find the grub screws you mention.

I know these basic Tektro mechanical disc brakes have a reputation for being pants but I've found that as long as they're properly set up, bedded in and kept adjusted (and people often don't do any of that, that's the problem!), they work just fine, which was evidently your experience too.

The reason I'm posting this, though, is that this afternoon I opened one up for the first time (before I remembered this thread). I found this YouTube video...



...which is a bit basic - he just takes it apart, cleans it and puts it back together but doesn't lube or replace the balls - but it was still helpful.

What I need to clarify is what grease to use for the balls and ramps:

The PF is actuated by the usual arrangement of three balls (in this case 7/32" diameter cf 3/16" in many others) on ramps. Unlike Avid BB calipers, the shaft of the moving piston is a fairly close fit in its bushing. When new this lot is lubed sparingly with a MoS2 paste lubricant; in this well-used brake the lube was still evident.

I'd to look up 'MoS2 paste lubricant' - is this what I'd use? The balls and the ramps were pretty dry. And just out of interest, why that type of lube?

Thanks.

Out washing my bike when I overheard this exchange between father and daughter over the back fence...

Dad: You're not getting your phone for at least a week."

Kid: "W-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A!"

I know it's not really funny - modern technology can be more of a curse than an asset sometimes - but it did make me laugh.

[vimeo][/vimeo]

Cowsham wrote: ↑6 Jan 2024, 8:57pm I had a black lab pup run beside me on the bike for about a mile and a half -- it seemed to be laughing at me all the way. Looking round with a smile on it's face. I did try talking to it telling it that it was a long way from home but it didn't work. I had to out pedal it -- that mutt could do 22MPH!

Reminds me of a similar (or, well, maybe not!) experience when I was cycling the back way to the town past a farm...

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark shadow that looked like maybe a dog bounding across the garden beside the farm then bursting through the hedge and coming after me...

I thought, 'Sh** - Rottweiler!!!'

But then I thought, don't be silly, it's just a big black lab.....

But then I did a double take and... it really was a Rottweiler! (I later learned its name was Jake, but that wasn't much use at the time.)

I tried to outrun it but that wasn't going to work, but I've had dogs all my life so I resorted to Plan B - I got off the bike, Jake stopped in his tracks and I shouted (hopefully the mods will allow this since it was a matter of life and death), "F*** OFF, YA F***IN' BAMPOT - GO HOME!!!"

Jake tilted his head to the side, thought for a bit then turned tail and headed for home - it worked!

Actually, though, I had a whippet called Josie who used to do what your wee lab pup did - run ahead of other dogs, jinking from side to side, looking over his shoulder as if to say, catch me if you can except he knew they couldn't.

He didn't really care whether he was chasing or being chased - he was like, running is life; anything before or after is just... waiting.

Jon in Sweden wrote: ↑6 Jan 2024, 7:44pm

Cowsham wrote: ↑6 Jan 2024, 7:01pm
Have you ever met one ( moose ) while cycling and did it scare you?

Only once on the road ahead of me. A big bull, but it scarpered before I got within 100m of it.

I did have a juvenile run alongside the car in September. That wasn't ideal.

You may or may not be familiar with an Australian carbon repair expert on YouTube called Raoul Luescher, who has a very dry, deadpan sense of humour - he'll inspect a carbon steerer tube that's had its stem overtightened to the point where it's liable to fail and potentially kill its rider and describes that in his Australian accent as 'less then oideal...'

Also there's a French-Canadian cyclocross racer called Maghalie Rochette who told GCN's Manon Lloyd that she's never in her life seen a moose, which I thought was odd - I thought all Canadians would have seen a moose at some time in their life.

But then I'm Scottish and I've never seen a haggis, at least not a live one, so...

Psamathe wrote: ↑1 Jan 2024, 11:52am Went to see Gryphon shortly before Christmas and mostly the original line-up and brilliant.

That's a blast from the past for me - I'd forgotten about Gryphon!

I bought their album after John Peel played 'Spring Song' on his show - he had eclectic tastes although in this case I think he was just being contrary and perverse. I've always been a sucker for drum rolls and I think that's why it appealed to me - the intro is all drum rolls, IIRC.

It's like the difference between the village where I live and the town where I used to live - in the village everybody says hello to everybody else even if you don't know each other, but if you say hello to someone you don't know in the town they're like, 'Do I know you?'. They don't say that but they don't tend to reply unless they know you - they're not so friendly. I don't know why that is.

What I've found when I've been getting back into the cycling is that I'm not expending any more or less effort than before, just going slower, and even then it's hard to tell since I'm just riding on my own. As I get fitter I'll go faster with the same effort, you just have to accept that either way - it won't get any easier, or not much anyway. My hybrid has a triple 48/38/28 chainset with an 11-32 cassette so I'm never running out of gears, even fully laden, which helps.

Staying warm can be a problem, right enough, especially my feet. I use flat pedals so I'll need to buy a pair of proper winter hiking shoes, maybe even one size bigger than I normally take to let me wear extra socks. I often go for a long walk before a ride - warms me up and lets me judge how many or few layers to wear on the ride. Sometimes if you aren't warm to begin with you never get warm and then you get cold.

Keep at it anyway, Mick. I think the only problem is if we try too soon to do the same as we were doing before. I've never stopped cycling because I cycle for transport - haven't run a car for years and don't use public transport - but I haven't done long rides since before Covid. I know if I build the rides up slowly, though, it'll come. Longest ride in recent weeks was about 40 miles.

We're past the shortest day now so the weather's bound to pick up - years are like that!

rualexander wrote: ↑31 Dec 2023, 4:31pm I never received a discount code from them.
Got the refund but no email with discount code.
Tried contacting them, no response.

That's unfortunate. It was a fairly straightforward process. Still had to give payment details, of course, but the first three months are free. The player seems just the same as GCN+.

Actually I just checked back and the discount code wasn't in the refund notification but in a previous email dated 14/12/23 - 'Important Reminder About Your GCN+ Subscription Ending'. Sorry if I misled you - I got that wrong in the previous post.

kylecycler wrote: ↑30 Dec 2023, 9:50pm Just used the discount code sent by GCN+ on the 19th (with the refund notification). Followed the link in the email, entered the code, so that's the first three months free (applies to the Standard package so that includes the cycling plus motorsports except Moto GP). Will be £6.99 per month after the three months are up.

Had to be redeemed before midnight tonight, though, so if anyone still hasn't, they'll need to be quick (I nearly forgot!)..

Just re-quoting myself to point out that today is the last day to use your discount code if you have one and not yesterday, so there's still time.

Ok I'll fess up, I thought last night that yesterday was New Year's Eve and until now I thought today was New Year's Day - not only do I not know what day it is, I don't even know what year it is!

Cowsham wrote: ↑30 Dec 2023, 11:48pm Maybe it has everything to do with UFO's. What if millions of years ago a UFO landed here but soon as the aliens open the hatch a T-Rex ate them. The one survivor takes off back to Zogg and warns the rest of the universe it's a dangerous hole of a place. That's why we haven't seen anymore of the blighters.

To boldly go where no Zoggian has gone before - and live (well, at least one) to tell the tale.

roubaixtuesday wrote: ↑30 Dec 2023, 10:07pm

Jdsk wrote: ↑30 Dec 2023, 5:46pm Third anniversary of Leaving.


Screenshot 2023-12-30 at 17.44.54.png
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... nances-nhs

Jonathan

The contagion is spreading.

Compare and contrast reality with this description of post Brexit Britain from leading leave campaigner Daniel Hannan.

It’s 24 June, 2025, and Britain is marking its annual Independence Day celebration. As the fireworks stream through the summer sky, still not quite dark, we wonder why it took us so long to leave. The years that followed the 2016 referendum didn’t just reinvigorate our economy, our democracy and our liberty. They improved relations with our neighbours.

https://reaction.life/britain-looks-like-brexit/

Reads like the last hurrah of a loser (or even satire!) - seems unhinged or even detached from reality...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... nances-nhs

(Yeah, I know that Guardian article isn't what anyone would necessarily call balanced, but it really is because there has to be a balance, and as far as Brexit goes I think the scales are just about broke.)

Paulatic wrote: ↑30 Dec 2023, 10:16pm

Pendodave wrote: ↑30 Dec 2023, 9:58pm It's a shame the cross season has been a little underwhelming tbh.

You’ve been watching a different feed to me
Today alone …Lucinda, Ceylin battle and catching Puck underwhelming

I just caught up - Fem was winning with ease last time I watched and it was boring, but yeah, epic!