Cycling UK Forum

mig wrote:genuine question. when you get a significantly lower gear like that do you struggle to pedal it?

With 42/26 upfront and 11/34 cassette, my lowest gear is about 20” with which a 15% road incline is hard but doable. With a similar incline on a rough or muddy track it’s get off and walk territory

Before the dreaded C, I was cycling 28 miles a day to and from work. To be frank I was generally too knackered to do any leisure cycling on top of that. With furlough and now working from home, the miles dropped to effectively zero over summer and to be honest I don’t find cycling locally on roads p...

Successfully fitted all the new bits from Spa and enjoyed a ride up Winter Hill ( just north of Bolton for those not familiar with this corner of Lancashire) Approx 1300 ft of climbing on quiet lanes and bridle paths which was very enjoyable with the new gears performing perfectly.

It's just as likely that your current set up gives poor chainline. Depending upon your fitness and the terrain, your 50/34 chainset might be less than ideal and cause you to cross chain, i.e. use the larger chainring with the bigger sprockets and vice versa. The ideal is to spend most of your time ...

I think the policy of using big ring means chain line copromised leading to chain wear.and big ring will wear before inner You might as well have single ring and dinner dish at rear=like the trendy mtbs use. It’s a thought....but according to Shimano spec sheet the medium 105 road rear mech wont co...

mumbojumbo wrote:Triple chainset is way forward but many people regard them as passe.

Not sure I can go triple without a lot of faffing around. Bike has hydraulic brakes with combined brake/gear change. I’ll stick to the compact double and sacrifice some of the higher gears

I had the same problem and my solution was to buy a Spa Super Compact chainset and a 115mm UN55 square taper bottom bracket. The new chainset and BB weighed ~100g more than the FSA chainset and external BB they replaced. Unfortunately I also had to replace the front derailleur, because it was a Mic...

I have a 5 year old Pinnacle Arkrose which made a very satisfactory commuter bike for my daily work trip from Bolton to Manchester. Having been furloughed and working from home for the foreseeable future I have been using the bike for leisure purposes. Stripped down and with some 38mm tyres it has b...

Same up here. I used to live cycling up to Rivington for the peace and quiet. These days it's a race track for bikers and a rat run for everyone else. There's that many parked cars along the lanes around the village and reservoirs that keeping to the left is all but impossible. I miss the 90's. +1 ...

Thanks all for very helpful comment. Just to clarify this is a four arm, Hollowtech 1, Octalink and I have misplaced the middle chainring! I will persevere with Plusgas, clamping and biggest lever I can find approach. Would some heat (boiling water?) help? as I note that the coefficient of expansion...

Many thanks for all the very helpful suggestions. I thought I would opt for a new Spa cycles chainset which means a new square taper bottom bracket. Never having attempted crank removal or bottom bracket replacement I watched a few YouTube videos and bought the requisite extractors. What better way ...

I am resurrecting a 10 year old Ridgeback hybrid ‘Supernova’ that has been languishing in the garage for the past few years. My intention is to create a general purpose bike for lugging shopping around, riding trails/canal paths and maybe do a bit of touring. I have a steel fork on order that has th...

I recently fitted a Fiamma 2 bike carrier to a Citroen Relay rear door. Many of the bolts were too long, poor alignment of bolt holes on the main aluminium frame and holding brackets and a couple of the predrilled holes were the wrong diameter for the bolts. Required quite a bit of faffing and fettl...

it feels very odd to be discussed (even in mostly flattering terms) in a forum. Time was when the CTC had a fully employed technical officer who would contribute to discussions of technical matters but those days are gone. I have considered writing a book but it would be a massive effort and it wou...

Bingo! Problem solved. Thanks.