do i buy a thing

my experience is that second hand brifters are nearly always pants.

Buy new. SRAM Apex is an excellent choice btw. You'll probably want to do the whole drive train (derailleurs, chainrings, cassette, shifters); manufacturers are working there hardest to make mixing and matching an unsatisfying experience.

What do you currently have?

shimano 106 maybe

I take it I could fir sram apex to an old 90s steel frame easy enough?

It's an 8/9/10 rear spacing, right (130mm)? Shouldn't be a problem. A turn of he 90s frame might be 126mm, you might need the stays spread then.

worthwhile endeavour? cost effective? buy a new bike instead? yay nay?

The gruppo will certainly be cheaper as a part of a new bike but the whole new bike will undoubtedly be more expensive. It really comes down to how much you like the current frame and wheels.

u could try some retroshifters?

can't shift from the drops, but I don't think I have ever done that? nb I haven't tried the retroshifters, just think they're a neat idea

what’s a fair price for a 2005 full carbon focus cayo, w/full ultegra groupset & mavic krysium wheels

also what’s the best 1£k tourer? long-haul trucker?

lugging my anchor bike up a looooong vertical runup today and fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck i want to buy a new cx frameset. just got my bonus, so i _could_ justify spending a bit of it on a frameset, but frankly, i suck at cx and will i really race it next year? A POUND AND A HALF THO. i'd be mid 17 lbs with clinchers, i'd love that. gah.

i suppose i could save it for a new actually light road bike, but... i'm ok with my road bike, it's sort of a classic and handles amazingly well. if i got this cx frameset and put light clincher road wheels on it, it'd be half a pound lighter than my road bike or more.

I want a steel-framed single speed with drop bars. But I don't want a divorce.

buyyyyyyyyyyyy ittttttttt

what bike you thinking about?

i don't have a bike for dirt. want one. guess i could put knobby 25s on my roadie but.

Genesis Day One, or Kona Paddy Wagon, or Genesis Flyer, or On-One Pompino... Probably erring towards Genesis Day One, as I like the flexibility, and a mate has an Equilibrium which he swears is the best bike ever.

Basically I lust this - http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/adventure/urban-cross/day-one-disc

Cool bike. Pretty steep seat tube and short tt. I ride my steel sscx bike more than the rest of my bikes, its a great long haul utility bike but mine has gears. I rode it ss for a bit but for hauling gear the ih. Gears are useful.

I guess the tt isn't short really, id be a size up from my usual tho, on a 58. Does it have sliders on the back for the disc adjustments with chain wear?

Could you explain what all that means to someone who is basically an idiot? i.e. what effect would the seat tube and tt have? What do you mean by sliders and chain wear? I literally just ride and clean my bikes and trust LBS to service them regularly...

so many cool bikes in the genesis range.

hunt3r you should upgrade CX frame then just put on wide slicks when weather's nice. or become a gravel grind specialist!

i bought a thing: those TRP mini-v brakes for the crux. been on for two months or so now.

+ proper raw stopping power, god the difference is amazing
+ well-finished; probably nicest components on bike (drivetrain is tiagra 9-sp, deore lx mix). barrel adjuster included, some ti bolts in there I think, nice road-style pad holders, pads themselves are decent. big contrast to local conversions i've seen that have had to be re-machined to clear road forks, etc.

- setup seems finicky (got the shop to do this)
- bit of a pain to get open for wheel changes, much more difficult than proper Vs on my old flat-bar
- expensive, I guess

deal-breaker for many would be lever feel - it's a bit more indistinct than with cantis but I'll take the extra power every time. didn't really feel I took long to adjust to how they work.

all it means is that the rear disc caliper is set up so that it slides back and forward in tandem with the wheel itself, because the wheel will be moved periodically to adjust for chain wear on a ss. if the wheel gets moved back to adjust for chainslack and the disc caliper is static, the disc will hit the back of the caliper. i have to think genesis have it all figured out nicely to make easy adjustments.

yeah guys i bought the frame set, it's my reward for finishing fourth to last on the weekend, instead of actual last. like the scattante, it's a mailorder house brand frameset (sette), so nothing fancy, but it will convert easily as it has cantis and a 68mm english bb. i will move all my old gear onto it, and set up the scat as a single speed cx with antique parts I have in my bin (for example, a 1992 suntour xcpro microdrive crankset!). i think the only things i will need to find are a drop bar and a new chain. maybe i can sell it.

gravel races are cool but most of the interesting ones are long and i don't have that kind of free time. a woman i work with did kanzaa last year, that's 200 mi on shit dirt country tracks, i truly cant imagine. i've ridden all the way across usa, and even on that trip, i never did more than 130 miles- and that was definitely paved.

excellent buy i'm thinking about mini v for front. you can use them in colorado pretty reliably as there is not too much muck here. oth, when you do get mud, it is not greasy slippy mud, it is clay based adobe cement, and woe to him who finds it.

i like to use a fork crown cable stop, they almost never shudder with regular cantis, but this new frame has a headset hanger, which usually suck and shudder like hell. oth, the new frame as a 1.25/1.5 tapered headtube, which should be stiff.

because the wheel will be moved periodically to adjust for chain wear on a ss

Having never owned or properly ridden a ss, can you expand on this? Not realised this was an issue. Is it something one needs to do as a regular act of maintenance, like cleaning?

i've ridden all the way across usa

braggin

also: say whaaaaaaaaat

as the chain wears, it'll "stretch" (nb it does not actually stretch), and the rear wheel will need to be moved further back to keep the right amount of tension (which, on a geared bike, is maintained by the rear der)

every how many hundred miles on avg?

no clue. I am terrible man for the chain maintenance

it's not very often, i probly do this on my commuter like, every 500 or 600 miles? maybe less frequently than that?

i was not self contained on the trip, gbx, i worked for a cycle touring co for 12 weeks, anacortes, wa to belfast, me. i could just finish my morning chores and get on my bike and ride.

wd all these play nicely together and wd they go on my concorde OK. my new wheels are 10sp compatible

crankset - 50 - tiagra
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-tiagra-4650-compact-10sp-chainset/rp-prod67233
shifters - 54 - tiagra
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-tiagra-4600-double-10-speed-sti-lever/rp-prod69504
front derailleur - 18 - 10sp 105
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-105-5700-double-10sp-front-mech/rp-prod50487
rear derailleur - 29 - 10sp 105
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-105-5701-10-speed-rear-mech/rp-prod85966
bottom bracket - 11
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-4600-tiagra-bottom-bracket/rp-prod67221
chain - 13 - 10sp 105
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-105-5701-10-speed-chain/rp-prod50457
cassette - 15 - 10sp tiagra
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-tiagra-4600-10-speed-road-cassette/rp-prod67228
brakes - 32
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-tiagra-brake-caliper-4600/rp-prod67224

225£ for tiagra/105 mix seems p.good when sora is 210 online

Should do, if you I'd see about 105 shifters although that setup should be compatible.

been offered dura-ace shifters & mechs for the same price. second hand but tempted

not sure now - my concorde is columbus aelle, so fairly heavy. I guess if I upgraded the group on it, I cd transfer the parts to a better frame in time

think it's DA7800. and there's an offer of ultegra cranks too, which wd get me most of the way to a full group. just leaves the 'consumables'

hmmmm

I bought a groupset but

I think I might have bought the wrong threaded bb : /

So....

I got a turbo trainer a few weeks ago. I like it, but I fear it is wearing my rear tyre down quite quickly. Effectively, I only have one bike (my heavy 'winter' bike is now a heavy commuter bike, with carrier fitted and pedals that you can't clip into) and only one set of wheels. I know there are turbo-specific tyres that you can buy, but obviously I'm not going to change the tyre on my wheel every day as I alternate between riding on the turbo and riding on the road. So such a tyre would only be useful if I had another wheel.

So I face a choice: should I buy a cheap back wheel (and cassette), stick a turbo tyre on it and use this exclusively when I want to use the turbo? Or should I upgrade my wheels and use my old rear wheel as the turbo wheel?

My existing wheels are nothing special - Mavic Aksium. I was asking at my local bike shop and new ones of those cost something like £220, I think. To get a cheap new rear wheel, plus cassette, plus tyre, plus inner tube was something in the region of £150. To upgrade to the unpronounceable Mavic Ksyrium would be approx £400. The weight isn't hugely different, so I'm not convinced this would be worth it. I can't even remotely justify spending one or two grand on wheels to get the really good ones.

But....

At my cycling club last night someone was telling me that he got his frame from Velobuild. I don't fully understand it, but it appears to be some kind of forum that somehow acts as a bulk purchaser from China and so gets you products for about a third of what they ought to cost. He got a carbon frame this way and is very happy with it. He reckons I could get carbon wheels weighing just 1300g for only about £300-£400, when they should cost over a thousand. This sounds very tempting. Does anyone know anything about Velobuild?

Also, on a practical level, the velobuild wheels I was looking at earlier said they should be used with SwissStop yellow brake blocks. These are for carbon rims. I've been recommended SwissStop before as the best brake blocks available, and I currently ride with the black ones (for alloy rim, which is what I've got). Hypothetically, if I was doing a circuit race with carbon wheels and got a puncture and took a lap out to put my spare (alloy) wheel in, would these yellow brake pads work OK with the spare wheel?

I decided against it: the more I read about carbon wheels, the more I thought they might not be worth the risk/hassle (especially with the additional complication of trying to get into a group purchase of an unbranded product from China). I've just blown my budget massively and ordered some Fulcrum Racing 1s (lightweight aluminium). I can't really justify the expense, but I feel giddy with excitement.

I think you did right. If u are racing carbon brake tracks with carbon blocks and you sub in an alloy wheel, you really shouldn't use the blocks on carbon. Metal filings from the alloy get embedded in the block and then score your carbons to hell. Whether the carbon pads work on the alloy anyway is prolly dependent on the pad. I ended up on corks with alloy by accident once and it was veery bad.

Several yrs ago I bought some yushin 60mm deep tubular wheels direct from china for under $450 all in, out of curiosity. Cheap but adequate hubs, good tension, great truing, ride nicely. I use them for tt race only, so they've not been ridden much.

Would not buy a clincher carbon for general or racing use from anyone but a premier manufacturer with good rep and warranty tho.

Sorry it's "yushin". Looked at their current site it's much uh busier now and prices even lower lol. Somehow that's even sketchier to me, but still...my experience was fine. Man I now remember that I had to western union direct to I think maybe guongzhao or something, and thinking as I sent it that it was one of the dumbest things I had ever done.

Gah, it's YISHUN.

Right, Y-u-s-h-i-n, got ya

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/Levyashin01.jpg/332px-Levyashin01.jpg

GOAL

Totally agree on no-carbon clinchers except from reputable manufacturers. Also on the call not to get the mysterious chinese wheels. Not least because you can get no-name chinese wheels shipped direct for cheaper. Having a separate wheel for the Turbo definitely helped me use it a little more often.

Off work today and managed to dodge the rain for long enough to ride over to the Hog Hill circuit and do a little bit of trainig. A few laps in and my gears made a horrible crunching sound as I tried to change into the small ring on a short, steep ascent. Half a lap further on, at the next steep climb, I realised I couldn't change onto the small ring at all, even though my front mech was clearly shifting across. On further investigation I discovered that the crank was rubbing against the mech every revolution when it was in the big ring. I asked for assistance, but fiddling with the limiters had no real effect. Eventually the kindly bloke helping me out realised that my cage was far wider than it should have been (must have got distored during the horrible crunching incident) and after squeezing it back in with pliers everything was fixed. But what on earth happened in the first place and why?

Also, a confession: when I got home I decided to carry out a rare wash of the bike which involved taking both wheels off. The rear wheel was incredibly difficult to remove and impossible to put back in again. This was very odd. It seemed to be something to do with the metal skewer which I had put in there last month (supplied with the Cycleops turbo trainer I bought). I removed the skewer and realised that I had idiotically not noticed there were two little springs, and so, thinking there was only one, I had put both of them on the same side (opposite the quick release lever). I really don't know what I'm doing.

Never heard of that during a downshift. Did you by any chance try to force another upshift by accident first, or maybe you also hit the upshift lever by accident while hitting the downshift trigger? If you had very little clearance between the cage and crank arm and there was a little travel left before hitting the limit screw, I can sorta imagine that happening, but otherwise- weird.

Wrt the springs, the issue I usually see is putting the spring onto the skewer in wrong orientation, which causes surprisingly significant problems.

Re: wrong skewer orientation - you mean big-to-small instead of small-to-big (or vice-versa)?