Le Tour de France 2015

[jjb1970]

No, but it is about cycling and since the TdF has ended I think people are quite enjoying continuing to talk about their passion for cycling on subjects other than the TdF. Maybe we should start a cyclists thread.

[njee20]

 

 

Building from a frame is still quite viable as is buying a bespoke custom steel frame but custom carbon is very expensive. I'm an enthusiastic cyclist but I have to say that I think the prices of some of those custom marques are a bit silly

 

Prices full stop have gone through the roof for top end, custom or not. A WyndyMilla Lightning Seed (made by Sarto Antonio) is £2200 for a frame/fork with full custom geometry. For comparison the new Trek Madone 9 RSL is £4100, or £9750 for the full bike. You want to change to custom colours and what not you can add another £500 to that, and that's not custom geometry.

 

Sorry, continuing the off-topic discusion, agree with JJB though, nice to chat bikes. There is a cycling thread somewhere I'm sure, but I can't imagine too many people expecting a continuing discussion into a race that finished a week ago

[jjb1970]

That is one thing I guess bikes have in common with model trains, price inflation   I guess some reasons are the same too, rising costs in the Far East. There are some bargains, Planet X offer some cracking bargains for example. Their On One Pickenflick titanium cyclocross bike seems insanely cheap, a titanium frame, carbon forks and genuine SRAM Rival or SRAM Force CX1 build for a price that'd look about average for an aluminium framed bike. Enigma do some lovely frames which whilst not cheap are not outlandish and Mercian are still on the go. I've often fancied going on one of Dave Yates frame building courses and building my own but never actually do it.

That said, I have to say my Trek carbon has been a superb bike which has been a joy to ride and very durable despite the reputation of carbon for being a bit fragile. That was just off the peg, I replaced the stem to get a more comfortable position but other than that the only changes have been consumables and swapping between wheels and it really has been marvellous.

[njee20]

Yep, part of the reason I can't find a new road bike to tick all the boxes is that I've had my existing Trek Madone SL for 10 years, and still love it! It's not exploded and killed me once. The few things I've tried have fallen short of the mark.

 

Tempted to just buy a Chinese carbon frame and stick some nice carbon wheels on and a Dura Ace Di2 group set, happier taking a punt on a £400 frame than a £4000 one!

[Kylestrome]

I think that it would be rather fun to restore this frame, then tap out to a race and see Keith Butlers face.

 

How would you go about restoring it? Are you aiming retain the original decals?

[jjb1970]

I think that was the real killer for custom frame building, the off the peg stock frames from the bike companies are so good that there is little to be gained from custom building and they have a lot of money to spend on product development. And I've found that by playing with the stem, handlebars and seat height/position it is possible to get the right position on stock frames just as well as a fully custom one. Trek do make a terrific frame, they know a thing or two.

[brightspark]

How would you go about restoring it? Are you aiming retain the original decals?

I think strip it down to basics....that means getting the seat-post out. That is stuck in good, I have been soaking it in fine oil to assist when I get it into a workshop.

I found an on-line shop that does replacement decals (Transfers in when I was a lad).

It can't be any harder restoring one of these than building a loco kit.

[Bernard Lamb]

I think strip it down to basics....that means getting the seat-post out. That is stuck in good, I have been soaking it in fine oil to assist when I get it into a workshop.

I found an on-line shop that does replacement decals (Transfers in when I was a lad).

It can't be any harder restoring one of these than building a loco kit.

You can transfer decals but you cannot decal transfers.

Several people have stock or can run off transfers for just about any frame as there is quite a market amongst collectors of old bikes.

Best idea with the seat post is a bit of heat and melt it out if it is alloy. Or drill a hole through it for a bar and a bit less heat if it is steel. I would be very wary of using the stem. Alloy from this time was liable to break down into various metal compounds and all strength would be lost. You need an old Campag. or even a Simplex nylon gear mech. as any fixed bike from that period would have had track ends.

Bernard

[jjb1970]

You can still buy good quill stems such as the old Cinelli models. Whilst they might not be strictly correct for the frame, these days the fact that the quill stem is all but dead except for old and purposely retro bikes means even a new Cinelli stem would still look suitably retro I think.

[brightspark]

Warning about old rims. Especially on a trike.

 

BANG, thud thud thud.

Fortunately this time on a Trike but would have had me on the deck on a normal bike.

I had suspected that the wheels were a little old, and (it occurred to me afterwards) two brakes on one rim double the wear /heat and stress.

It also happened just outside my house as I was about to go off a long (intimidating ride). So a quick walk back and change of wheel to something newer.

 

So that's a 22mile out and back ride clocked up now. I just need to master fast turns.

 

With that rim in mind I shall steer clear of the old aluminium stem. (Steer clear...get it?)

 

Andy

[Bernard Lamb]

Hi Andy,

I find modern rims totally unsuitable on the trike.

Older rims like Mavic Open Pro seem to wear much better.

I am using a Campag  Zonda for racing and after a longish ride in the wet the other week and around 300 miles in all, it is showing signs of wear. it did have some use on a bike before that.

If you put a straight edge across the wall of the rim and can see more than 0.5mm concavity section then I reckon it is getting dodgy.

It is actually showing wear on one side rather than on both. You could write a technical paper on why that would happen.

I don't think rim wear can ever be an judged as an exact figure  as road surface and tyre pressure are going to play a part.

I have seen a few rims explode and tend to be over cautious these days.

Rode a 25 on the trike yesterday and managed 1;08:25 so feeling quite pleased with that.

Bernard

[jjb1970]

There is still a lot to be said for traditional wheels, a pair of well built wheels using rims like Mavic Open Pros and decent hubs will be competitive on weight with quite a few more modern wheel sets and have a nice feel to them. That said they are very much down to the builder, I've had hand built wheels that stayed true remarkably well and were a joy to ride and others that needed to be retried almost as soon as finishing the first ride and which left me with a feeling that it was probably best not to try going too fast on them. I do find modern wheel sets much more consistent in terms of build quality and have never had a shimmy (as I call it, don't know it is the correct word) on my Easton or Shimano wheels. Although that maybe just luck. I'm drawn to going for disc wheels on my next bike.