Cycling UK Forum

Front derailleur cage catching on RH crank?
Front derailleur cable catching on pedal/shoe/trouser leg etc?
Stiff chain link?

You'd have thought after 40 years of riding bikes I wouldn't have too many new places to find a click, but life is full of surprises!

Tim at Berwick Cycles in, er, Berwick, has the deal going with Velorim. 20 pence per tube and they get to Velorim for recycling. I dropped a pile of worn out outers, inners with ripped valves and assorted wheelbarrow tubes on him. A couple of quid and no landfill or incineration. Plus you catch up with the LBS gossip!

Thanks folks - much appreciated.
Nick

I have a pair of RSP Cadence pedals (alloy not the carbon ones) with a little play in them. When I put a bit of extra pressure on them (standing up say) they both produce an loud knocking sound - or at least I think that's where the noise is coming from ....!

Before I lay into them with a mole wrench and lump hammer, can anyone confirm whether or not they are a serviceable item? They have a very pretty knurled nut holding them together rather than something I can securely get a spanner on.

Yes the chain's already too slack for my liking in the small-small so rationing the use of the small chainring is no big deal.
cheers

Those charts are very interesting - not seen them before. Just the analysis I need.

[quote]This looks like a much better set of gears for many types of riding using the triple, with smaller double-shifts, and I'd be using the big ring on the flat whenever the conditions were not unfavourable. The middle ring would get a lot of use on draggy climbs and into headwinds etc.[/quote]

and this sounds just like me.

In nice conditions (flat, no wind) I tend to use a 75 to 85 inch gear and try for a cadence of about 80. On that basis the double has maybe 1-2 usable gears one per big ring while the triple has several more, spread more evenly across the 50 and 39 rings. That makes a pretty conclusive case for the triple for my type of riding, even with the 12-27. If I want some lower gears I can always replace the cassette with the 11-32 on the triple (just, with a little jigerypokery). I might even have used that 11 last weekend, running downwind across the Borders.

And now I've got the new rear derailleur and a straight hanger on the frame and removed the spacer that made the old bent hanger work with the bent B screw, everything's running very nicely thank you. Even the much maligned front indexing and trimming is acceptable! So the triple stays for now anyway.

cheers
Nick

Thanks Brucey, that archive index is really useful. Eminently sensible advice too - keeping the triple does make it a more flexible proposition, and since it all works just now, why disrupt it all?

cheers
Nick

I wonder if I could beg some more help for my Synapse upgrade project?

The new (to me) 2016 alloy frame is now up and running pretty sweetly with this setup:
Shifters: STR700 (not 6500 as per my previous post!)
Front Derailleur: FD5603
Crank: SC5603 50-39-30
Rear Derailleur: RD5600 12-27 10 speed
Front Brake: 451 for the reach
Back Brake: 5600

However, of all things, a terminally bent B screw (currently eating its way through the hanger) is bringing forward the next stage of the project: the move from triple to double. Of course, I would like to change as little as I can possibly get away with but in the end I would like to have 50-34 on the front and 11-32 10-speed at the back, or something very similar. I have ordered an RD 5701 GS (and a new hanger) which would then have the required capacity once I have a double up front. But what to do at the front? I'm struggling to find compatibility information for the STR700 shifters. There is some in the usual Shimano places but it doesn't appear to be as complete as for the 5600/5700 class kit.

My preference would be install FC5750 50-34 and cross my fingers that it could be made to work with the FD5603 / STR700 combination.

I understand the STR700 can be configured to work with doubles or triples, but equally I read the 5750 crank has the chainrings 1mm further apart than the 5600, and I'm unsure how critical that could be. Feels like a rounding error ... I wouldn't object to replacing the front derailleur, but, as ever, any more than that probably means getting spendy.

Am I barking up the wrong tree with this or am I overthinking things and this is just all going to work because Shimano?

Thanks again!
Nick

Edited for completeness to correct the new rear derailleur - 5701 not 5750!

I take Rampiril too, and I'm finding the current dose is enough to drop my BP considerably after exercise. So a triple dose plus exercise leading to low BP would not be too much of a surprise. On one occasion I missed two days worth then as soon as I started again, BP through the floor in a couple of hours - most alarming. Highly recommend the daily box for keeping track of consumption!

What a great source of information this forum is! With the help of Brucey ( and others) I've managed to shoehorn a Shimano 105 5600 groupset from a 13 year old nameless alloy frame onto a 2016 vintage Synapse alloy frame. The shifters of course work just fine, the internal routing seems not to be a problem, and even having to replace the front brake caliper with the longer reach R451 unit was made risk-free because of a conversation on this site.

What makes the information really useful is not just knowing what the right answer is but also understanding the context for the inevitable follow up questions.

I just wish I had done this years ago! The new frame (lighter! stiffer! much more compliant!) makes me about 5% faster on selected Strava segments and even tames the cobbles round Kelso town centre.

The next project is to convert from triple to double and I'll be avidly reading all I can find on compatibility. I think from what I've seen if I can find a 5601 shifter and an inexpensive 10 speed double crank I'll be in business with minimum stress.

Thanks Brucey - good to know you think it's worth a try. A test run inserting cables into the frame didn't throw up any blockages, burrs or other obstructions. As you say not a lot to be lost by trying and at least I'll have cables threaded for the next one if the 5600 doesn't work!

No, not another "how do I get the cables in" query!

I've managed to pick up a Synapse 2016 frame hoping to transfer over a battered but operational 105 5600 groupset. Reading though the Shimano installation notes for the 5600, they mention the inadvisability of installing the 5600 shifters using internal cable routing due to friction affecting the gear changes. The same note appears on the 5700 instructions too even with the improvements to cater for routing the cable through the handlebar tape.

So my question is: is it worth even persevering with the 5600, upgrading to the 5700 shifters, or just upgrading the entire setup to seomthing more current (and expensive!) ? If you have an alloy Synapse with internal routing from 2016 what set up do you have?

The A1 at those crossings is single carriageway 60mph. West Mains has a dedicated cycle track crossing with a central refuge away from the Holy Island road junction; the crossing at Belford is an offset road junction with no extra provision for bikes. Not usually too challenging crossing at either of these places.

Isn't at least part of the problem with headlights is the regulations that specify minimum wattages for different classes of vehicle? This was all very well in the days of incandescent bulbs but now with LEDs, the light they output per watt of electricity input has increased enormously.

We now light our whole house with LEDS. With them all switched on they use about 250 watts. Previously it would have taken a couple of kilowatts with them all lit up.

Legislation needs to keep up with the technology, and move from input specification to output.

Not only is the road closed in winter, it also forms a ski piste down into La Thuile!