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My new bicycle

I've decided I'll just send it back for replacement as I actually really like the wheels. Open Pros are good and tough, a friend has been touring all over Europe for years on a pair, and they need to be as potholes don't get fixed around here these days, or if they do it is really badly, plus I got a decent deal in the sales. I've been running a set of Merlin-built wheels on my MTB (XT/Mavic XC717) and really like them. I also remembered I still have my original Shimano R500 wheels (I was using them on my rollers), and whilst I can't use the back one due to moving to an 11 speed groupset I can use the front, so I can still build the bike while I wait for the rattly front wheel to be replaced.

The next PITA is for some inexplicable reason Shimano have changed the size of the bottom bracket casing between Ultegra 6700 and 6800 so my bottom bracket spanner is now useless...
 
If it's just a lost nipple you should be able to get it out (assuming there's enough gap to allow it to pass the other nipple heads in the rim box section interior). Take any rim tape off if it's on there and hold the wheel with the valve hole downwards and give it a shake and a bash with the heel of your hand to make the nipple jump around inside...the nipple should gradually make it's way down past the other nipple heads. Once it's down near the base, shake or tap the rim until it drops out through the valve hole (that's the only place it can come out). Once it's down above the valve hole poking a spoke or similar up through there to tip it and allow it to drop through works well too.

If it won't initially move past the nipple to either side, then the gap isn't big enough. It's also possible that it's not a nipple but the tab used to join the rim ends during the manufacturing process has come loose.

I now use a spoke temporarily threaded though the wrong end (nipple head) to hold the nipple whilst inserting to prevent this happening when building wheels. It's slower to build this way but less hassle than dealing with a nipple that's stuck inside the box section.
 
TCar said:
if you are going to do by mail Harry Rowland probably built more wheels than both of them combined many times over. He only builds strong sensible wheels from known components.
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Not withstanding the response, another vote for Harry who has built all my touring and winter wheels for me for the past 20 years. And picking them up has always been a joy.
 
jimification said:
If it's just a lost nipple you should be able to get it out (assuming there's enough gap to allow it to pass the other nipple heads in the rim box section interior).
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+1

A bike I purchased for my son had the same problem, took me about half an hour to finally get it out but less hassle than all the posting and waiting for another rim.

I have been running 32 hole Open Pros with Record hubs for the past few years and they build into tough, light rims, have used them for light touring too.

I had Archetypes before, to be honest they were more comfortable using the same profile tyre due to the wider rim. They also felt stiffer too. However, the rim did have some sort of reaction to the salt on the roads after a winter season (they don't even put much salt on the roads here in Irelans). Structurally it was fine, but just looked naff. I have read that the later versions are not as built to such tight tolerances as the first ones. They sure were nice rims and would probably rate them higher than OPs overall.

Malcom at the CycleClinic appears to like the Miche hubs too. The bearings in these are not great, I replaced the stock ones with FAG when they wore out. Rolled along much better.

P.S. Check that the 11 speed cassette won't fit onto a 10 speed hub, it might well do without any issue.
 
Tony your BB spanner will work fine, you just need the step down adjuster for the smaller ends. A couple of quid from eBay. Shimano tool. tl-fc25
 
halvis said:
P.S. Check that the 11 speed cassette won't fit onto a 10 speed hub, it might well do without any issue.
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Only if it's a compatible hub with a spacer for use with 10 speed cassettes.

All Mavics for example.

So a 10 speed Shimano cassette comes with a spacer, (this is always needed other than on a very early 10 speed Dura ace hub, IIRC). And then there will be an additional spacer supplied with the hub to narrow it to 10/9 speed from 11.

Of course there are 11 speed cassettes available that fit 10 speed hubs, Google will help further confuse that issue.

Paul
 
Tony L said:
... the front rim rattles really loudly and irritatingly, a loose bit of metal in there somehow, right at the opposite side to the valve hole so I'll never shake it out. ...
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My rear wheel developed an enormously irritating click - which went away with speed. Most of my points are made above - it took a while to find the original e-mail.

Rohloff (I thought it was a Speedhub fault) were most helpful:

'You haven't mentioned which gears this noise is occurring in, nor whether or not this occurs when pedalling, coasting, forwards or in reverse. I am guessing however from past experience that this type of problem happens in all gears in all directions when the wheel is rotating and only disappears when the rotation speeds up or when the wheel refrains from rotating. Please inform me whether I am wrong with this presumption. If not then the problem is most likely nothing actually to do with the SPEEDHUB itself.

My guess (and past complaints similar to yours) turn out to be a problem with the rim and/or spoke nipples. The usual cause of such a problem is when a spoke nipple breaks off. This slides up and down the spoke itself and so clicks twice with every wheel rotation - once at the top and once at the bottom). When the wheel rotates faster, the centrifugal force holds the broken spoke nipple in the outer most position and hinders this from sliding up or down and creating the noises that you mentioned.
Please check that all the rear wheels spoke nipples are correct and nor broken or missing. Replace if necessary.

The other cause of such a problem is that a nipple or a part of the rim joining pin (or other foreign bodies or aluminium fragments) have fallen into the hollow area of the rim and move about at low rotation speeds causing these clicking noises. Again, at high RPMs, these objects get stuck in one position due to the centrifugal forces and will stop making these noises.

Please remove the wheel from the bicycle in this case, remove the tyre and shake the wheel to hear if the noise is present and to hopefully shake out any foreign objects that may have got caught. Refit the tyre and the wheel and see if the noise has gone. I believe that your wheel should then be silent. If not then please simply get back in touch and I will see what I can do.'

I can't recall how but I introduced some (super) glue and managed to lock the fragment to the rim - in my case it appeared to be, in part, a weight to counterbalance the inevitable valve opposite.

If you've just bought - it shouldn't be your problem but self-solution may be less hassle than return.
 
I think I've built a bicycle:

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Not quite complete as it is missing its new front wheel and titanium seat-post, but the rest of it seems to work. The weather is too crap to take it outside and looks like it will be for a while, but I've had a ride on the rollers and it seems very good.

I've only got the carbon stuff torqued to 4nm so far. Lynskey say the steerer is good to 6-8nm, the stupidly expensive Easton stem can take 5nm at the front, 9 at the back, but I'm hoping 4nm with the paste is sufficient for me as I've cracked nothing so far! Maybe go to 4.2nm once I'm confident everything is in the right place.

PS The iPhone picture perspective makes the bars look bigger than they are for some reason.
 
Looking very nice. Now it needs some mudguards to get you through the next 3-4 months of winter / early spring :)

Or put it on a trainer, setup a big fan and watch recordings of last year's grand tours.
 
I traded mudguard mounts for the more relaxed geometry so this one is a summer/dry weather bike only - I have a set of Kreitler rollers in the hall so it is an indoor exercise machine for a while. It is annoying as last week had some really nice winter sun and dry roads, though looks like that is long gone now.
 
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Finally a nice day so I got a chance to try it outside! It is complete aside from the fancy Lynskey titanium seatpost which is still on order. It feels great; the geometry and setup is comfortable - I had a pocket full of allen keys that I didn't need! I haven't quite got the over-complex 6800 front-derailleur 'trim' set up right despite having set it with a ruler at home, but I should be able to dial that in - it shifts perfectly, just rubs a little at the big and of the cassette. Nothing cracked, broke or fell off and other road users stayed out of my space so all in all a good day. I have it fitted with Moon Nebula lights front and rear which I'm using for daytime riding from now on.
 
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i-s said:
Reaching the Summit of cycling prowess Tony?
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Very well spotted! I just cycled up to Todmorden; a reasonably flat 22 mile round trip. My usual route is up Blackstone Edge through Mytholmroyd and into Hebden Bridge and then back on the flat through Tod, but I didn't fancy the huge ascent/descent until I was sure everything was bolted down firmly and working right. I'll likely do that run next time out.
 
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A year and a half later and I think I’ve now finally got this setup exactly the way I want it! Main difference being the bar rotation, though some other nips and tucks elsewhere too. I had the bars and levers pointing up too much previously thinking it made for a more comfortable ‘hoods’ riding position, but I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t much like riding there anyway, and it made for a rather uncomfortable ‘drop’ position. I think what I have now is far more correct for these rather old-school round bars, they certainly feel far better in the ‘drop’ position and I can stay down there for far, far longer now, and much to my surprise the ‘hoods’ position doesn’t actually feel any worse! I certainly far prefer the geometry of this bike to the one I lost in the crash. The longer steerer tube really helps giving quite a flat top of bar riding position and allows for the rather more aggressive round rather than ‘ergo’ bars (i.e. a deeper drop).

PS The pic is straight out of the iPhone from a run up to Halifax on Tuesday, to make a point about geometry I should really have cropped/rotated it to get the bike level (Halifax is exceptionally 3 dimensional, it has some quite ridiculous hills, especially if arriving via Sowerby Bridge).
 
if it works, don't change it. but, if you want the transition between the bar and hood to be flatter, you could always get a stem with less rise, and rotate the bars upward, something like this...
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