I’m famous! Or at least my Spa Audax is …

[Samuel D]

How cool is this?

They even threw in a link to the Spa Cycles Audax frame in the text, not that many Americans are likely to order it. Course they get readers from all over.

Fun.

[Jamesh]

Nice build!

I'd be tempted by a 725 from spa.

Titanium worries me having seen too many cracks.

What rims btw???

Cheers James

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Kinda looks old fashioned a bit like me
Ouch Whats that chipped chain stay
Saddle looks (looks better not necessarily better) than those honey brooks they stuff on any old gas pipe job.

[Samuel D]

What rims btw???

That bit wasn’t exactly planned, but I wrecked a couple of rims and ended up with an Open Pro C at the rear and Open Elite at the front. It works although I don’t like the wear-indicating groove in the Open Elite. Seems to interfere with the flexy Campagnolo brake arms, causing some light stuttering at a specific braking effort that wasn’t there with a smooth brake track. I hairdryered the rim decals for a cleaner look.

Ouch Whats that chipped chain stay

Eagle eyes! A guy rode into the back of me and his spinning front tyre ground the paint off that stay. Not exactly sure how to touch that up. It’s usually oily from chain lubricant, so maybe no great need? What do you reckon?

Saddle looks (looks better not necessarily better) than those honey brooks they stuff on any old gas pipe job.

Brand new after the previous one got torn up in my bad crash in September.

My cycling is not normally as violent as this post makes it sound, but I had a rough few months there.

[PH]

Are you doing autographs yet?
I hope Spa are grateful for the publicity, though if they get loads of people ringing up asking for one just like yours they won't be!
Your bike is very individual, it seems like a lot of thought has gone into making it simple. It's not my sort of bike, but I like it.

[colin54]

Great pictures Samuel, glad to hear you're back awheel .

[gregoryoftours]

Very nice! I like your writing too. I could never get away with white cotton bar tape.

[Samuel D]

Are you doing autographs yet?

It’s all posing for selfies with the riff-raff nowadays.

Your bike is very individual, it seems like a lot of thought has gone into making it simple. It's not my sort of bike, but I like it.

Thanks. Simple was the idea, yes – but not ultimately simple or I wouldn’t have had gears. Fast and efficient, and simple. Easy to work on. Glad you like it. I like a lot of bicycles that aren’t exactly, or at all, my sort, too.

I find you can tell a lot about a person from their bicycle. Can you tell I lead a life of elegance and danger?

(In my dreams.)

Great pictures Samuel, glad to hear you're back awheel .

Cheers.

Very nice! I like your writing too. I could never get away with white cotton bar tape.

Ta. It only stays white for ten minutes, but that’s okay because I like dirty things. My bike is always kept mechanically sound, but I just don’t have the energy to always keep it clean on the outside. How do people do it?

[reohn2]

Samuel
I like the article and photos,the bike is a clean,parred down very usable piece of art,thank you for the link .

PS,did you fit the 35mm tyres with mudguards?

[Samuel D]

PS,did you fit the 35mm tyres with mudguards?

No, and I didn’t like the clearance even without mudguards (though plenty of people I know ride worse, with the trend to fatter tyres on road bikes. I’ve seen literally 1 mm clearances a few times here in Paris).

The bike would take 33 mm tyres with reasonable clearance, without mudguards. The new fork has considerably more clearance than the carbon one it came with, and the rear has always had plenty of space.

With mudguards, I like quite a lot of clearance. I wouldn’t go much above 28 mm with mudguards. Maybe 30 mm at a push.

(All measured widths.)

[Brucey]

Glad you are back awheel. Fame has its price.....you know you are going to have to keep the bike (and the bar tape) clean now, else folk won't think it is your bike.....?....

…... Open Elite at the front. It works although I don’t like the wear-indicating groove in the Open Elite. Seems to interfere with the flexy Campagnolo brake arms, causing some light stuttering at a specific braking effort that wasn’t there with a smooth brake track....

Does the groove in the rim produce a ridge on the brake block? If so I eventually find that the (similar in some other mavic rims) rim groove can wear in the sides so that it becomes more 'V' shaped and then it is less of a problem. But that is with cantis, your side pulls may be different of course. I also note that the rim is more than half-worn by the time this happens of its own accord. Overall, I'm not convinced it is a good idea to have a groove; it seems to me that it leads to slightly worse brakes because the brake block never matches the rim as well. BTW adding a light chamfer at the back edge of the brake block may help suppress a stutter, although it may also be slower to clean water off the rim too.

Nitpick alert; OK, it is not a shimano chain or a shimano quicklink, but is it the right way round? Maybe it doesn't really matter much but I recently surveyed the various fitting instructions and (in links that could be fitted either way, i.e. without 'humpbacked' side plates) there was a majority for fitting the QL the other way round e.g.



A convenient way of remembering this (eg with an unmarked QL) is to think 'Rivet first, Slot second' as the chain is viewed/moving normally. If you think you might forget you will know it is this way round because 'R' comes before 'S' in the alphabet.

cheers

[gregoryoftours]

Is the quick link supposed to be installed this way around to prevent the link jamming and opening during chain suck, or are there other reasons?

[Brucey]

Is the quick link supposed to be installed this way around to prevent the link jamming and opening during chain suck, or are there other reasons?

Honestly I don't know, but my suspicion is that they think the link is more likely to be twisted hard (such that it might pop open) one way rather than the other. Note that there are subtle differences in QLs, so they may not all behave in the same way; shimano ones have an extra 'pip' on them but I note that this is shared by some KMC quicklinks too.

cheers

[Samuel D]

Does the groove in the rim produce a ridge on the brake block?

Yes, but the ridge fades toward the front, showing, I think, that the long arms of the brake are bending forward as the rim tries to pull the pads around with it, and that bending lifts the front of the pads far enough to pop the ridge out of the groove there, periodically wearing it away. I’ll try to get a photo sometime of a worn pad face. It’s an interesting look.

Certainly the arms of these callipers visibly bend forward under hard braking. (They don’t bend in the other direction much more, if any, than Shimano BR-R650 arms, so the levers actually feel pretty firm. Though I know the low mechanical advantage is part of the reason.)

Nitpick alert; OK, it is not a shimano chain or a shimano quicklink, but is it the right way round? Maybe it doesn't really matter much but I recently surveyed the various fitting instructions and (in links that could be fitted either way, i.e. without 'humpbacked' side plates) there was a majority for fitting the QL the other way round

Interesting! I hadn’t even thought about the orientation, not having been told to do so by the user manual (unlike for Wippermann Connex chains, for example). Now that I look on page 20 of this PDF, the orientation appears to match mine. So now I’m in a minor quandary.

Edit: changed “groove” to “ridge” in first sentence for better clarity.

[slowster]

The quality of your article puts a lot of the professional bike reviews I have read to shame. I particularly liked the photographs. That was a good choice of location and you've used it to show off the bike very well, especially the contrast of your bike with the natural colour and rough texture of the walls.

It's a pity Spa do not offer the Audax frame with a choice of steel fork. I think they will supply it with the fork that comes with their Tourer, but that has lots of rack bosses which would spoil the appearance of the Audax frame. Nice steel forks for caliper rim brakes with mudguard eyelets seem to be very thin on the ground nowadays.