Cycling UK Forum

Plastic stiffening inside forms a nice domed top to shed water - good idea except after a few days use it collapses to form a permanent trough to hold water.

Second fault - the rivets holding the top clips on hadn't been finished properly and two went missing. Could be a disaster if you drop a bag at speed but luckily the clips stayed more or less in place.

If you detach the hook catch thing from the bottom rail of the bag it's impossible to re-engage the screw as it is too short. After a lot of fiddling about with tweezers, matches, etc I realised that longer screws is the answer. Just a detail, but might save a lot of fiddling about in a wet field somewhere.

Anybody driving empty back from SE France mid to late August? We want lift for selves and bikes from Die (Drome). Happy to pay - the alternatives are not cheap!

Been off me bike for some time due to knee prob. But back now and seem to have sorted the gears at last. A lot of adjusting, running in and familiarisation probably help, but the biggest single improvement (i.e. not a single missed change or dropped chain since) was when I put on a new chain - but a 9 speed instead of the 10. That seems to be the answer. Come to think I've done this before in the past - with an 8 chain on 9 sprockets and had a similar improvement

Galvanised spokes fail through rust (and other things of course). The most likely site for rust will be at the cross over and the elbow into the hub where there will be wear and a capillary gap to hold water. The bend gets most stress.
Just replace them with SS. I'd do them all so you don't get caught out - if one has gone the others might follow.
I had this prob with my wife's 5 year old Raleigh (some years ago!) but after replacing galvanised spokes with SS they outlived the rims.

irc wrote:Having a ban is not the same thing as a ban being effective. There is a ban on handheld mobile in the UK. Anyone not see drivers using them every day?

Well yes. And large numbers of drivers not using them. A lot of people are put off, including me, knowing that it is illegal and dangerous

It is the conversation that is the distraction, or cause for inattention. Merely holding a phone doesn't cause most people too many problems.

Nonsense. Having a conversation in a car (as long as it is good tempered) is normal and safe. Holding something else other then the steering wheel, even worse - looking at to key in a number etc is obviously dangerous. I tried it once or twice myself when I first got a mobile and was alarmed at how easy it was to get distracted from driving.

Yes - if the rim is wearing very thin and close to collapse. I got this on a mavic rim - had to let out a bit of pressure to reduce the bulge to allow me to get home and buy a new wheel.
Rims often apear to wear hollow as though wearing more in the middle of the braking area. In fact this is more likely to be the rims spreading due to wear and tyre pressure. You may still get a lot of mileage before risk of collapse and a bulge in the rim.

There's this one http://www.transpenninetrail.org.uk/
Training - on yer bike and get some miles in! I don't think there is another way. You could also take your kit to give it a test. Practice map reading? Take a compass - even if you stick to well marked roads a compass can help when you lose the thread, miss a turn etc.

hexhome wrote:Feeling very smug Living in very lumpy countryside with a compact double I find indexed bar end shifters and a low normal rear mech superb. I can shift up or down the full range in one movement. They are easy to use from the drops or the tops. Light to operate, smooth and reliable. Oh, and they were about £120 cheaper than the alternative!

Absolutely! Thats what I've got on my Dawes Galaxy, except the indexing has worn out, but that's no problem they still change perfectly. I can even shift both levers at once and change effortlessly through the whole range in one operation!

cycleruk wrote:.....
I would also suggest taking the bike back to the shop and ask them to test it for you. Or if you know someone with Apex then get them to compare bikes.

It's difficult because the problems seem intermittent. I do several rides with no prob, then out of the blue it starts missing changes. It performs perfectly on a stand and then goes wrong on the road.
Even when working perfectly (i.e. no missed changes or dropped chain) it's a fussy business; one click, two or three clicks, energetic wide swing from low to high on the front changer etc etc. If you can't hear the clicks (wind noise in the ears) or can't see the chain (eyes watering downhill in cold weather) then you'll miss a change and have 3 or 4 goes to get it right again, if you haven't dropped the chain in the meantime.
Basically unfit for purpose. Avoid.

6 months recovering from knee thing, now back on the bike. So how are the gears? Still crap but I'm getting used to them. Avoid SRAM Apex.

uphillbothways wrote:........ Nearly all Apex users would be better off with a triple, ....

Having got the Apex set I have to agree. I will change to a triple as soon as the bloody thing is worn out and I've had my moneys worth!

Brucey wrote:short answer is 'yes'.

You can buy new for less than £200 e.g.

http://www.bikes2udirect.com/B3087.html?specs=1

But new or secondhand, the rear hub/axle may well give trouble eventually, because it isn't a freehub, its a freewheel, with a 10mm solid axle through the hub. So, check this if you buy a used one; if the hub should develop free play for any reason, or the wheel appears to move, again check the axle to see that it isn't cracked; to do this you will have to remove it. Normally they crack, then bend, then break. Rarely, they miss out the 'bending' stage.

It might go for years without this issue, but it is good to know about the possibility ahead of time, I think.

cheers

Yes it does happen. It's happened to me once in the last 60 years of cycling, on a very overloaded but ancient Raleigh. So I wouldn't worry about it too much. Watch out for lightening strikes and asteroids though!

wearwell wrote:OK so that's two unequivocal commendations for the system. There must be something wrong with mine, beyond tuning and adjustment - back to the shop!

Well eventually I spent a lot of time fiddling and adjusting and got the thing to work and managed several rides without a problem!
In the meantime I broke a quad tendon and haven't ridden since, but now getting going again on a Tacx trainer.

I think the prob was that in addition to these gears being problematic and requiring fine tuning, the bike simply wasn't set up properly by Spa. Must have been a Friday afternoon job. I mistakenly expected everything to work perfectly from the shop.