Cycling UK Forum

Thanks for the heads-up about this, Natural Ankling. I had another look and found this: https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/3729/PKSwiC.jpg TI = September 1995. Not sure how I missed that except that I’ve made it look a lot clearer in the photo than it is in real life. The stamp is so shallow tha...

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:This is an Alivio bottom pull, with a TU ZB Stick on label. Date code YL, December 2000.

Ah. So the “TO” on mine might not be the date code even though “T” indicates a plausible year (1995).

Where did you find the “YL” code on yours? (I can’t see it in your photos.)

Is this what you’re looking for?

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gear-spares ... oy-frames/

That’s for SL-6400, if that’s what you have (you show an exploded view of a Dura-Ace part). I think there is another sort for frames with narrower down tubes.

I don’t believe it’s plausible that tilting the saddle up reduces weight on the hands by loading up the perineum. Consider the distance between sit-bones and perineum as a proportion of the distance between sit-bones and handlebar. It is tiny. Let’s say 100 mm versus 700 mm for the sake of argument....

Choolie wrote:What is the part that keeps the cassette on the freehub body?

Cassette lockring. But it should come with the new cassette.

Is the freehub body missing too?

Best to figure out why the chain slipped between the cassette cogs (not between the cassette and the wheel?). Otherwise it might happen again.

On a 5 minute each way shop trip as opposed to 4 hours on the bike? Unlikely. Think you were right to just get new tyres at this point. I don't think that's right anyway. If the rim is held from moving and the tyre keeps going it's going to move forward in relation to the rim. What’s making the tyr...

Kask Rapido. Loads of ventilation. Good quality in all regards. Fit tends to be good for heads slightly on the long side compared to width. Not so much for a round head, seen from above.

In which direction has the valve stem tilted? Leaning towards the rear of the bike with the stem a the 6 o'clock position. I've been theorising that it's moving under braking: the rim is being stopped from turning, but the tyre keeps moving because it's slipping. If the rim is stopped by braking an...

If all Shimano hubs are of the basic design shown in the video mentioned in the comments, from about 6:32 to 7:45, it’s not clear to me why they couldn’t be serviced in the field. I thought it was trickier than that to get at the plug-side bearing.

In which direction has the valve stem tilted?

How on earth people ride saddles with the nose slightly up as I see quite often is beyond me, I wouldn't get past the end of the street! It may be that their sit-bones protrude farther relative to their soft tissue. So they effectively sit higher on the saddle, giving their perineum and penis more ...

You omitted some variables: large differences in rolling resistance by tyre model, different states of chain lubrication and cleanliness, fairly huge differences in drag that cannot be predicted by settings 1, 2, and 3 or drops versus hoods, and all sorts of things that change with temperature. Et c...

Thanks very much - so basically when I remove the old left crank, just make sure to use whatever spacers are already on there? Right. Don’t remove the spacers just because a pair of 105/Ultegra/Dura-Ace cranks wouldn’t come with them. With the longer spindle of your Claris triple crank, you will ne...

I believe it will work. However, you will likely need to use your existing left and right spacers with the new left crank. That may be obvious since the spindle is attached to the right crank, not the left; just making sure. And the Q-factor (tread width between pedals) will possibly be a little dif...

Going to down-tube shifting wasn’t so much a reversion as a new thing for me, since road bikes in my time always came with STI shifting. I found I preferred down-tube shifters, albeit with indexed rear shifting. I think friction-to-indexed was a bigger change in strict performance terms than down-tu...