Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
Wheel upgrade
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Which reminds me.
The headset needs tightening. There's nothing like a bit of a front wheel shimmy at 40mph+ to add some excitement into your life.
You took a TT bike down Sa Calobra? Chapeau. Nuts, but chapeau.
I just googled descent of Sa Calobra on bike. Engineer has cojones. Feck that!
And Chapeau!
The only reason for going down there is for the ride back up!
Michael Hutchinson's twitter feed contains a lot of interetsing stuff on aero vs weight etc. and there appears to be little doubt that for TT/triathlon bike legs aero trumps weight every time, hilly course or not.
Road racing is different because you can draft which reduceds the aero benefit and there are numerous accelerations when weight really counts (compared to pushing out a steady speed).
The latest interesting nugget I got from him was that you really need to be careful about not running your chain at an angle by choosing to run big ring big cog rather than dropping onto the little ring due to the extra energy required to move the chain when it is being bent sideways - and that one is free!
That last one always seems obvious Mr D but you always see loads of people running big-big or small-small who seem to have forgotten that they have a front mech as well.
That's what happens when you only ever use your right hand, I suppose.
All interesting reading but am still trying to figure out how I can know what will fit on an ancient 80s road bike. Yes I am completely binkers but you know.. Pirate (wannabe)
Ali, don't decry a 1980's frame just because of age. I've got a lovely frame made from double butted lightweight steel, and overall it weighs barely more than my aluminium framed road bike. The forks are a bit heavy though. The frame itself looks very thin by comparison with today's carbon and ali chunky things, and thin is good. The best way of checking fit is to go to a bike shop. There are some key measurements, and I may forget something:
-diameter- almost everything today is 700c, and this was becoming the standard in the 80s. My old bike is 26x1.75" and nothing fits!
-width - I'm not sure whether a modern 10 cog rear wheel will fit in the gap left by an 80s 5 cog rear mech. I think that it should do.
-chain size- these days your chain has got to be brand matched to your cogs, both front and back. A Shimano 7/8/9 speed cog block needs a chain to match, and the front cogs may (not sure here) need to match too. Certainly they would need to be Shimano.
-How they fit these great big stacks of cogs on the rear is to really dish the rear wheel , and they make the chain thinner. Then there's a 10 cog or 11 cog stack! The result is that people now snap chains during races.
Recommendation: Keep the old bike for when you get a winter training turbo. Ogle new bikes and start saving up for a 1 year old model. Just my view.
Not quite. A 10 speed KMC chain will fit 10 speed campy, shim or sram and work just as well if not better than the own-brand ones.
Chainrings (the cogs at the front) will work across brands provided they're matched to the right BCD (bolt circle diameter) which is basically how the bolts attaching the rings to the right crank are arranged - there are various BCDs depending on whether you have Shim or Campy, regular or compact. But you could take a shimano chainset with shimano chainrings and it'll work fine with a campag chain. My TT bike has an FSA chainset, shimano front mech (operated by a campag shifter), KMC chain, campag cassette & rear mech. The engine is still the weak link.
OK, I live and learn.
How about a simple version: A wheel designed for a campag block won't take a shimano or SRAM unless you use a VERY big hammer. That's true isn't it?
If you have got a road bike and you want fast wheels but not deep rims Planet X have got Shimano RS80 C24 carbon wheels for sale at £339 they are not deep rim but are light fast as feck and climb like mountain goats I have had a pair on my roadie for 6 months now and they were significantly better than my old Promotes and they were not to shabby as wheels go, for the price they are a steal the rims are the same as the mega bucks Dura Ace equivalent
Think your right on that one Blisters but some people seem to possess massive hammers
Thanks Blisters, my frame and forks are double butted steel it's a Raleigh 531 frame and firks so not bad. Got shimano front chain set and and a sun tour ultra block behind. 700c wheels so that's OK but as you say fitting a modern wheel and hubs and finding a small enough rear block would be the tricky part. if I stick at it after Outlaw I think perhaps a new bike might be my next step.
Thanks everyone for the advice, especially IC5.
Ordered a pair of white Planet X AL30`s, a pair of Conti Ultra Sport Tyres (white also, should look the nuts) and a new cassette.
I`ll report back the (if) performance benefit of the change asap.