Cycling UK Forum

reohn2 wrote:particularly like the Allen retaining bolt instead of Shimano's slotted bolt which has always puzzled why Mr S persists with it

Me too. Anyone know why? Though Shimano must have done something right in the design because those screws have never loosened in my use.

Those aren’t the “racing rims” that interestedcp limited his list to. But how many consider an Open Pro a racing rim nowadays? I haven’t seen one at a race recently. On the other hand, you could race about as well on some of the Mavic rims Brucey lists, so arbitrary categories don’t concern me too m...

Cyclists often use lower gears to enable or encourage slower climbing. It is the slower climbing rather than the lower gear that provides the bulk of the comparative ease. I have experimented with these things and noticed that you can climb aerobically in a high gear if you have the discipline to do...

Making a 36-hole rim alongside a 32- or 28-hole one doesn’t cost much more. The machinery is the same; you just set it up to drill more holes and put in them eyelets and sockets that you need to source anyway. Machines that make spokes don’t know how many go in a wheel, and hubs are the same as each...

Would these work with the calipers https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/product/component/sora-3500/BL-R400.html??? Not ideally, because those are Super SLR and your callipers are New Super SLR. The levers don’t pull quite enough cable. I bought a set of those TRP levers from PlanetX last year and paired...

For a moment then I thought the BR-R561 was (at long last!) a 57 mm drop calliper for New Super SLR cable pull (or the similar SLR EV, although I think the cam action of that one is slightly different throughout the pull?). In addition to the mushy feel that this lever-calliper combination would pro...

There are a couple of explanations of how the spring functions in a Simplex Retrofriction lever at the bottom of this article - http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/components/simplex-retrofriction-components.html . That’s a neat principle of operation! There are probably other parts of the bicycle...

Lower gears on road bikes have become commonplace at about the rate that the increasing sprocket count has allowed without compromising top gear and close ratios. At best you can complain that the top gears have recently become too high (with 11T and 12T sprockets) and that lopping off the top two g...

I think road bikes lacked easy gears because buyers were usually young, fit, male, riding in a group, and often racing. It was also technically difficult to give racing bicycles a large gear range. The top gear was fixed at 100" or a little higher because that was needed for every sprint finish...

foxyrider wrote:52x13 is probably the most used gear on the road bike.

That’s a taller gear than Bradley Wiggins used for his hour record. That said, he only averaged 54.526 km/h for that. I suppose you’re moving a bit quicker?

Shimano 7-speed cassettes have among the most rational tooth-counts of any they have made. You can get almost any largest sprocket you desire without having to waste gears on 11T and 12T cogs at the other end. Here are some varieties of the CS-HG50-7 in ascending largest sprocket: 13–26 (13, 15, 17...

To have the cap as close as possible to the top of the steerer tube while not touching it, the tube does need to be cut (or filed) square. But I saw them freehand too for want of a guide. The result has always been good enough for me. You cannot fine-tune the gap infinitely anyway, since spacers are...

My Campag Ergos on Mercian are getting worn out and the bits that are wearing aren't available any more, so when they give up the ghost completely, I'll be fitting Tektro brake levers and reverting back to the original Campag friction DT shifters that I used to use. Zinn’s latest column suggests it...

The 5th edition of Zinn’s book omitted some 4th edition material that was made available in a downloadable PDF instead. Details here.

The only scenario I can envisage when I would want shifting at the brake lever is climbing a hill off road and out of the saddle on tricky/technical terrain, i.e. when I would be gripping the hoods at all times. An American friend recently converted his 1980s Raleigh from down-tube shifters to STIs...