Cycling UK Forum

Jezrant

My brother in the US swears by the Showerpass, but he got it at US prices. I use a Rab jacket with the same, excellent, 3-layer eVent fabric. You can find them if you shop around for a little over £100 new. It's not a cycling-specific jacket but sleeves cut long enough. Available in a nice shade of blue (or low-visibility black). Rab clothing tends to be cut for tall and thin people, so try first before buying. I think the model I have is called Alpine Latok or suchlike. Also more obvously doubles as a great jacket for hillwalking etc. Worth a look.

edit: although I have friends in Scotland who also swear by Paramo gear like what the previous person says. and they're made by women co-ops in South America rather than slave factories in China.

Jezrant

CJ wrote:
Mick F wrote:The thing is, derailleurs were invented for the racing world...

Not so actually. You really should read The Dancing Chain by Frank Berto.

Variable gears have always had much more appeal to the practical cyclist than the racer. Internal gears and derailers (sic) were both invented in the early 1900s and both used mainly for touring and transport, in order to reduce the labour of climbing hills. The athlete-on-wheels meanwhile continued to prefer (as some still do) the aesthetic of a pure, uncomplicated machine, wherein selection of the optimum ratio for the course and the day was part of the skill - and still is on the velodrome.

Between the wars, development of the derailleur (note the change in spelling) became concentrated in France, where various systems were invented and promoted by cycletourists such as "Velocio". Contemporary racing cyclists, on the other hand, took vainglorious pride in the speed with which they could perform the laborious and filthy expedient of removing and flipping their rear wheels at the bottom of every big hill, in order to engage the slightly bigger fixed sprocket on the other side. Derailleurs were, in fact, deprecated as "the tourists deviation" and their use was forbidden in competition. So the tourists organised their own competitions to stimulate development.

Eventually the racing authorities came to their senses over this matter (if nothing else ) and the rest, as they say, is history.

So derailleurs are OUR gears, and I do wish these johnny-come-lately racing types would leave them how we like them: wide-ranging and low.

Fascinant. There must be a case that could be made at the European Court of Human Rights.

Jezrant

Hmmm hubgears, we've been there before, and Miss Rohloff is too pricey and too fiddily. I'll stick with my Racing T thank you.

Jezrant

I knew some smartass was going to dig up some obscure earlier examples.

Anyway, you get the point. Triples have never been a major feature in racing, and Campagnolo has always been primarily about racing.

Jezrant

This seems to be a strange subject to be moaning about. As everyone knows, Campagnolo has always focused on components for racing, with the Record groupset as its flagship line. If you look at Campagnolo's history, triples are a fairly recent development starting with the Racing T. Those of us who like Campagnolo components (we seem to be a minority on this forum) frankly should be grateful Campagnolo ever invested in manufacturing them. As for wearing out, well, Campagnolo components are famous for their longevity. If you are really worried, a spare chainring or two should see you through a few years.

Jezrant

CREPELLO wrote:Yeh but that's the spare parts catalogue.

However, I've found the Triple Comp group here. But I'm not sure why there isn't a long cage TC rear mech, which is needed to complete the setup. I do use a medium cage Centuar myself with a triple chainset, except with a 28T rear cog, not 29T. Perhaps Campag have discovered that you can push the medium to the limit ok. It's obviously make do and fix in austerity Italy. Well, that's what I do with all my Campag gear, none of which is compatible with what Campag designate.

Yeah, I know it's the spares catalogue, but it's the 2012 spares catalogue, so presumably they haven't discontinued the triples. The bit you've linked is old, although I guess they've left it there for the same reason.

Jezrant

Valbrona wrote:I can't find a triple in the 2012 Campag cat. Either Shimano or Campag are doing it wrong.

The triple crankset is listed in this bit of the 2012 catalogue:
http://www.campagnolo.com/jsp/en/doc/doccatid_3.jsp

Jezrant

A Real Cyclist™ rides a fixie.

Jezrant

I've never found plastic saddles especially comfortable. I've ridden road bikes with Turbo, Turbomatic and Rolls saddles, and MTBs with Specialized, WTB, and SDG saddles. None was as comfortable as a B17.

Jezrant

some interesting comments, but a lot of fence-sitting here.
Brooks make a quality product in the UK. If you want a beautiful leather saddle that will last for years, buy Brooks and support British jobs in the process.

Jezrant

Curious to hear peep's opinions on this one. Popped into a well-known shop the other day (happens to be my LBS) looking for a new B17 to replace a Pro I sold on this forum. The chappie at the counter said they were planning to market their own Chinese-made leather saddles that would cost less than a Brooks. He thought they could sell tons of them. I suppose this is just the way the industry works these days with enterprising businesses undercutting each other with cheap imports from China, but I hope in this case it doesn't succeed. Brooks may have Italian owners, but they still make their very fine saddles in this very fine country. It would be very sad to see those jobs and skills lost. Just my opinion.

Jezrant

There is a trick to adjusting the saddle angle with this kind of seatpost clamp and that is to have the saddle set level on the lower part of the clamp while it is completely loose. If you don't do this first, you will be struggling to unwedge the lower part of the clamp to readjust the angle. It sounds pretty obvious, but there is a natural tendency to tighten the bolt slightly and then readjust the angle. If you do that, it will take ages to get it right.

As for the difference in layback compared with other seatposts, I'm fairly certain it's at least 15mm. As far as I can tell, most of the seatposts with setback have around 20mm to 25mm of setback. This one has 40mm. Measuring this with a degree of accuracy isn't much harder than measuring, say, the length of a top tube centre to centre.

Still, it's easy to imagine how the tiny step adjustments might not work optimally in some cases, and I totally agree that a better design, in principle, is a clamp without steps.

Jezrant

The seatpost clamp is fiddily, and the notches for adjusting the angle of the saddle definitely don't help, but I had no trouble getting my Brooks saddle level. The other thing to be aware of with this seatpost is the 400mm length. If you have a small frame with water bottle bosses on the seat tube, you may not be able to get the seatpost low enough for your saddle height. However, compared with my Campy seatpost, which has a pretty standard 25mm setback, this one does give at least an extra 15mm without forcing the saddle back on its rails. I promise not to deride or make a mockery of that difference ever again.

Jezrant

sorry you didn't have any luck with campyoldy.
I've also used these guys in the past:
http://www.thethirdhand.com
might be helpful for someone else.
strange you couldn't find the cones in the UK.
btw, campy bearings were always given in imperial.

edited to sound less pompous

Jezrant

A handful of people repeatedly complaining on a cycling forum means nothing more than that. A proper survey of a random sample of people using Brooks saddles on touring bikes would be more meaningful. The majority, I suspect, are happy with their pedalling position.

For the small minority of unhappy touring cyclists who are sadly unable to find a comfortable pedalling position with their Brooks (or whatever saddle they’re using), the 40mm layback seatpost I mentioned in the OP should hopefully do the trick. If it doesn’t, they’re riding the wrong frame (or there’s a deeper problem that will never get solved with mechanical tweaks).

Bye now. I'm off for a ride in the Dales.

Cycling UK Forum

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