Cycling UK Forum

ANTONISH wrote: ↑22 Mar 2025, 9:27am

Cyclothesist wrote: ↑21 Mar 2025, 9:06pm

cycle tramp wrote: ↑21 Mar 2025, 8:33pm

No undercrackers? Think you might be mixing up your daily life with some 'specialist' clubs in London..

Underwear with prominent seams can chafe and break the skin for anything other than short rides for many of us. That's a fast pass to saddle sores, skin abscesses and worse.
There are a few leather bottomed pachyderms out there that seem to be able to get away with wearing just about anything, even jeans while cycling. Like pro cyclists they're not your average human, more a sort of genetic freak . Don't copy them!

It's quite easy to find underpants without prominent seams.
I don't think I'm a genetic freak - I just use my own judgement and common sense.

Cycling sites and fora have many articles and threads on saddle sores and a common recommendation is to wear cycle shorts against bare skin snd use chamois cream. For many of us any non flat seam can be problematic for longer cycling trips. Good for you that it's not. That's a very lucky position to be in. I think you've self identified which group you fit in to in my previous post .

I have found that even if you find a chainring with the correct bcd, arm count, symmetry, 'speed,' and tooth count that fits the spider that's not the end of the story. Different manufacturers can have subtly different ring spacing. So replacing say the middle ring of a triple with that of a different manufacturer can introduce the possibility of the chain riding between 2 rings on occasional shifts. (Looking at you FSA spider with replacement Spa ring!).
I think you can guess how I know

pjclinch wrote: ↑22 Mar 2025, 7:35am

atoz wrote: ↑21 Mar 2025, 2:33pm Actually shoe sizes are standardised, just not EU sizing. The system is called Mondopoint. It's used consistently on sports shoes on labels along with nearest EU and other systems. For example I am typically a Euro size 43 in Shimano shoes but the nearest Mondopoint is 27.5. Of course it varies across manufacturers. See this chart https://www.gearx.com/knowledge/snowspo ... t-measured

Mondopoint is used for ski boots, as the link shows.

It remains the case that e.g. Scarpa Mondopoint 27.5 fit me better than other Mondopoint 27.5, because the lasts are different shapes.

You can't accurately describe everyone's feet with a scale of single numbers because that doesn't account for different shapes at the same nominal size.

Pete.

True but a second measurement point say across the metatarsal heads would go a long way to making fit a lot less a trial and error process. I'm surprised the online stores haven't pursued this to reduce their returns/restocking costs.
The current approach is akin to describing a chainring by only listing its tooth count, ignoring arm count, bcd, and symmetry. We'd think that bonkers but are resigned to a similar nonsense for shoes. Highly illogical.

cycle tramp wrote: ↑21 Mar 2025, 8:33pm

rareposter wrote: ↑21 Mar 2025, 8:51am Also, what were you wearing? Padded shorts should be worn next to the skin - no underpants - and again, they're something you need to get used to.

No undercrackers? Think you might be mixing up your daily life with some 'specialist' clubs in London..

Underwear with prominent seams can chafe and break the skin for anything other than short rides for many of us. That's a fast pass to saddle sores, skin abscesses and worse.
There are a few leather bottomed pachyderms out there that seem to be able to get away with wearing just about anything, even jeans while cycling. Like pro cyclists they're not your average human, more a sort of genetic freak . Don't copy them!

There's quite a lot of variation in terms of anatomy and what is a comfortable saddle for a given individual. A saddle with a pressure relieving channel can be good and is worth a try. Getting the right width of saddle is also important for many to ensure the weight is borne on the ischial tuberosities (aka the 'sit bones') rather than the soft tissues of the perineum. You can measure your own sit bone width using a piece of corrugated card board big enough to sit on , some chalk and a rule. Place the cardboard on a stair tread, sit on it in just your undies and lean forward slightly to mimick your cycling position. Stay like that for a few seconds. If you now take the card and using the side of the chalk stick shade over where you've been sitting you'll see 2 depressions that the chalk misses. That's the impression of your sit bones. Measure the distance centre to centre between the depressions to get your sit bone width. Usually your saddle width needs to be at least 20mm more. That's a useful starting point. The average male sit bone width is around 120mm, but with wide variation, females slightly more but there is huge overlap between the sexes. You can't reliably guess someone's sit bone width based on body build and sex, you have to measure it.
There's a lot of personal variation so a degree of trial and error is unavoidable in the quest for a perfect saddle.
The earlier comments about not suddenly upping your mileage and saddle time are apt.

We've all been there. Often we learn more from a mistake than getting it right first time. You'll be an expert on chainring sizing at the end of this!

Interesting, thanks!
I see Mondopoint is heel to toe length (in mm, though sometimes cm) to the nearest multiple of 5mm (though sometimes includes 7.5mm steps too).
I wonder why it's not more widely quoted by shoe manufacturers and retailers?

I keep the old but still usable quick links in the spares and repair kit for use in roadside emergencies as a get home fix. Then I'd replace the link with a new one (and most likely a new chain unless it was just a QL failure).
I wouldn't reuse old QLs as a matter of course. The apparent elongation of the used QL in a run of 100+ new chainlinks isn't the main concern. The little pin groove and the thin shoulder of sideplate that articulates with it wears with each unclipping/clipping. Using a worn QL may risk 'unscheduled disassembly' miles from home. Though hopefully not falling from the sky in a fireball.

Brucey suggested rotating the QL pins 180° to present an unworn area of pin groove to the articulating side plate. I've not tried that yet to assess its practicality but it's possibly ingenious if you can avoid chewing up the pin in the process. That won't do anything for the sideplate wear though.

QLs are cheap. Bottom line it's your call.

There's a natural comfortable effort and cadence that varies between individuals that we tend to instinctively achieve by selecting the appropriate gearing. So changing the chainring often means that we just select a different rear sprocket than before as we cycle. The main difference is at either end of the cassette where a smaller chainring means an easier climbing gear but possibly an increased chance of spinning out on fast flat or downhill sections. A left shift of the available gearing range in effect. The reverse is true for a bigger chainring.

I used Biopace rings in the 90s and TBH I didn't notice any real difference compared to round rings. Most people felt the same and the whole idea was quietly dropped by Shimano.

Let us know how it goes. The ring spacing might just be the important factor in this instance.

Superglue dries hard so you can end up making a thorn shaped superglue plug in your tyre that gradually eats its way in to the inner tube as you cycle. Even if that didn't deflate your enthusiasm it's not a fix that lasts more than a few days cycling at best. The cuts will open up again.
I agree that your best option is to buy a replacement tyre and bin the faulty Rubino.

I gradually replace all the standard cap screw bolts (bottle cage, rack bolts, stem bolts etc) with stainless steel ones if the originals begin to rust. You can't do that for crank bolts as they're generally made of a special high strength steel alloy. Rinsing the salt off the bike after every ride on a salted road makes a huge difference. I use a hose with a 'shower' type spray pattern.
After that a quick spray of GT85 on derailleur pivots, springs and bolts. Take care not to get any over-spray on disk rotors or pads.
Wipe the chain, relube if necessary and wipe again.

It very much depends on the model of rear derailleur. RDs have a maximum and minimum sprocket size and an overall capacity. The slant angle tracked by the derailleur and the length of the cage determine the max sprocket size and the cassette range that can be accommodated. There's no one answer that fits all RDs. Megarange cassttes are designed for long cage MTB derailleurs.

If all else fails you could try fitting an anti chainsuck device. They were all the rage in the 90s. I still have an anodized purple one fitted to my ancient MTrax Ti 3000.
They're not so common now but ebay and others have some available. Something like this: