advertisement


Advice... returning back to cycling.

I ride 42 x 10-42 on my daily driver. It's a gravel bike with relatively steep geometry, two sets of wheels, one with 28mm slicks and the other with 33mm knobbies. I occasionally feel like I'm missing the perfect gear for some climbs but hardly ever spin out on the way down. I have a relatively high cadence though, 95-120 rpm typically, but I'm good to 36mph without ever feeling like I'm massively spinning out.

I used to run 11- 28, 53/39 on my road bike.
 
To the OP, as someone who trained and raced pretty intensively between 1998 and 2008 (and is thinking about getting back into it) I'd say please don't worry too much about what you're riding - as long as it fits.

One of the things that really turned me off road riding in the mid/late 00s was the obsession with (and obscene amounts of money spent on) kit - and the kinds of wannabes that were attracted as a result.

If bikes range between (let's say) 10kg and 6kg, at worst they will represent a relatively small proportion of the moving or lifting weight. And IME older groupsets are more reliable that the latest efforts.
 
I ride 42 x 10-42 on my daily driver. It's a gravel bike with relatively steep geometry, two sets of wheels, one with 28mm slicks and the other with 33mm knobbies. I occasionally feel like I'm missing the perfect gear for some climbs but hardly ever spin out on the way down. I have a relatively high cadence though, 95-120 rpm typically, but I'm good to 36mph without ever feeling like I'm massively spinning out.

I used to run 11- 28, 53/39 on my road bike.

Just out interest @sq225917 what gravel bike are you riding? Asking as the Open Upper is still on my shortlist.
 
Probably not an open upper. More like a planet x special.

By the way, if you want to spend a bit less Open make the Up frameset which is a couple of hundred grams heavier than the upper but a thousand or so cheaper.

I’m quite interested in what groupset sq is using...
 
As Neil says, sq will be on a planet x, as he works for them. If I were in that lucky position I'd have a garage full of them. As it is I have a set of their carbon forks on my roady.
 
Both Planet X and Kinesis (if they're still going) make very good bikes.

Apart from my old Sigma team bike, I have a Colnago EPS sitting in my hallway. I can't countenance selling either, because that would be to countenance decrepitude.
 
I ride a Bish Bash Bosh, which we no longer make. Groupset is sram Force 1x hydraulic, with xx1 cassette and absolute black 42 oval front ring.

My only quibble with force is disk clearance on the pads when its dirty.

The space chicken is pretty close to the one up, apart from price. Dropped drive side stay, full carbon, very similar geometry, 700c or 27.5" wheels, rack mounts, 3 cages, all that bike packing stuff. Usually around 1500 with force. Throw a carbon post and bars on it and it can be pretty damn light.
 
I ride a Bish Bash Bosh, which we no longer make. Groupset is sram Force 1x hydraulic, with xx1 cassette and absolute black 42 oval front ring.

I had a look at the space chicken and could not see the 10-42 cassette option, just the 11-42 option. Do PX offer the 10-42? For me that would be perfect as i live in a hilly area and am looking for a >1:1 climbing ratio and also as tall as possible gear for descending when on road. As wide a range as possible basically.

If px do this and can ship to CH (do you take the VAT off?) you might have a new customer.
 
And IME older groupsets are more reliable that the latest efforts.

I'm interested in this comment - could you expand? Do extra speeds mean less reliability (it would seem somewhat intuitive since tolerances will be less). Are 11 spd groupsets worse than 10 spd ?
 
Dub is just smaller bearings that can be made to fit almost any bb shell. A really bad idea.
Reminds me of the late and unlamented Isis bottom brackets of 10-15 years ago. They were supposed to be better than the outgoing Shimano sealed BBs, you needed a (different, of course) special tool to release them, they were more expensive, the bearings were smaller and they didn’t last as long. I can’t remember whether I managed to swap the BB alone there or whether I ended up changing the spider too. Cue lots of fiddling about in the bits box while I selected 4-spoke versus spiders, chainwheels and piles of everything else.
 
All these push fit bb's are there for one reason only, to simplify frame manufacture are reduce the number of expensive process steps, and it let's them offload the weight of a good bb onto the chain set and not their super light frameset.
 
I'm interested in this comment - could you expand? Do extra speeds mean less reliability (it would seem somewhat intuitive since tolerances will be less). Are 11 spd groupsets worse than 10 spd ?

Yes, the tolerances are less. I Iived with three generations of Dura Ace (for example), and while it became slicker and you had an extra cog or two, it needed more tweaking and maintenance to stay true.
 
10 speed was the best for me, sram red and dura ace were the best groups they made, 11 and 12 speed feel too delicate, less positive.
 
After years of no road biking and some mountain biking I went for a new carbon framed bike (Specialized Roubaix). My old steel frame had non indexed downtube shifters, the new bike has indexed integrated shifters (but not electronic). The newer technology including the frame is amazing but... whatever bike you get look into the Garmin rear light / radar system. I gave up road biking after being knocked off the bike by as as*hole pickup truck driver who never stopped, which made me move to mountain biking. The new Garmin systems give you an audio and visual warning or approaching vehicles with distance and speed and so far has proved amazingly accurate. If its a choice between an upgraded crankset or the Garmin rear radar, the radar wins anytime.
 
10 speed was the best for me, sram red and dura ace were the best groups they made, 11 and 12 speed feel too delicate, less positive.

I am still using 10 speed original SRAM red mechanical on my road bike. 50,000km on the clock and it never, ever needs adjustment!

About 10 chains have been used, four cassettes and a new set of front chainrings. I can't break it.
 
I’ve had similar performance from an old XT rear mech on my mountain bike turned commuter. It’s 20+ years old, ~20k miles on and off road, though replaced for MTBing in 2006 and on “light duties” since. Only now is it starting to get a bit glitchy, when the chain tension is good it’s fine but on smaller gears, especially up front, I get the chain slipping. I suspect the mech can’t maintain tension because the springs are getting droopy. I’ll have a look this weekend, I’m not sure if you can replace the springs alone. Equally it might just want a clean, the bushings on the parallelogram aren’t worn so it still shifts well enough.
 
Many years ago I had a recumbent built for me by Optima Cycles in the Netherlands. The two chaps who ran the business were rather scathing about Shimano with the comment that 'Shimano wears out whilst Sram wears in'. Most of the bikes I have owned seemed to have had European components so I can't comment on the veracity of their statement but I thought it was interesting as it seemed to come from their experience rather than prejudice.
 
Dunno about that. All my experience of Shimano is in the mid to upper ranges, so STX-XT on MTBs and 105 on roadies. I always find their stuff very well engineered and hard wearing, at least on the upper ranges. Other stuff I have tried has been variable, other than SRAM chains which are fantastic.
 


advertisement


Back
Top