The Bikes
The Bike. It is the central tool in pursuit of our craft. A Velominatus meticulously maintains their bicycles and adorns them with the essential, yet minimal, accoutrement. The Rules specify the principles of good taste in configuration and setup of our machines, but within those principles lies almost infinite room for personal taste.
It seems in some ways like a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, the way we honor our machines. We love them to a point that lies well beyond obsession. Upon these machines upon we endure endless suffering, but also find an unending pleasure. The rhythm, the harmony between rider and machine, the outdoors, the wind in our faces and air in our lungs.
The Bikes is devoted entirely to our machines. Ours, The Keepers, and yours, the Community. It features articles devoted to our bikes, and proves a forum for uploading photos of your own machines for discussion. We will be harsh, but fair; this is a place to enforce and enhance our observation of The Rules.
If you’d like to submit an article about your own beloved bike, please feel free to send it to us and we’ll do our best to work with you to include it.
- Rule #12 and the Cascade Effect
That is a very reasonable opening salvo for the Rule about bike ownership. Three is good and certainly a minimum, and we are talking road bikes here, if there was any doubt. They naturally become ordered: the #1 is ichi-ban, top dog, go-to bike for every and all rides. #2 was the old #1, ... - Guest Article: Black Is Not The New Black@kogalover is singing my song here. Bikes are beautiful. ’nuff said. VLVV, Gianni With all those posts on riding in winter and being visible, either by putting Eyes of Sauron or other car melting devices on one’s steed, or by even considering a YJA instead of donning plain black kit, it was about time to finally get ...
- Dialing in the StableThis was going to be an article about Rule #45. It is amazing how much time is wasted and matches burned when professionals stop for that second bike change to get back on their #1. With all the jigs available to team mechanics it would seem they could set up five bikes exactly the same. And ...
- Matching the drapes to the rugAs a longtime titanium bike owner, I’ve always been jealous of a beautiful painted frame but Ti and carbon frames don’t need paint like a steel frame needs paint. But I want some painted beauty. It’s like buying a white car; I can’t do white, need some color. So between a Ti frame and a ...
- Festum Prophetae: Waiting for the HourEveryone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. – Mike Tyson The one thing everyone should always plan for is that however well-conceived a program might be, things will never go to plan. The high level plan for my Festum Prophetae Hour Ride was as follows: Have a custom Hour Bike built by Don Walker. Because reasons. Reasons like custom ...
@Mikael Liddy
Glad you had a good week Mikael. They are a great frame, as you say not an ultra light but climb like scun cats, very nippy handling and robust, I keep seeing friends break 700g Cannondales and Cervelos by just looking at them whilst I hit a kangaroo at 55km/hr on mine with barely a scratch to the bike.
Good luck with the claim and subsequent shopping.
@Mikael Liddy the good thing about that is you can get a bike that will fit better.
@RedRanger yeah the Medium/Large frame of the Giant seems much better suited for the dimensions I require compared to the Large of the Fondriest. If I go down the new bike path, the next frame will definitely be a size down.
@Mikael Liddy Glad to hear you’ve got a ride. I’m also eager to get your thoughts on Di2. Nobody else on here seems to ride electronic, in fact I’m actually surprised there’s not a rule against it.
@Nate
Cyclops lives in Idaho, doesn’t he? Is that his new rig? Love the bottle cage placement and riding out of the saddle must be a blast!
Found this posted on FB – as folk there are saying, braking must have been “interesting”….lateral stiffness could have been a bit of an issue too.
It’s tempting to assume that the state of the tyre reflects the success of this project and not that someone has put on a new tyre……..
@Skip the shifting of the gears themselves is brilliant, but I can’t say I like the shift buttons in place of the mechanical levers, there’s just no feel to them & it’s very easy to jump 2 or 3 gears at a time.
@Nate And/or, relocate the bars to the tip of that front fender. Then Frank could really start to feel at home on it. Esp for the cobbles. Elegant, timeless. Less is more, and all that.
@Mikael Liddy
how tall are you? I just picked up a Giant tcx frame(pictures coming in do time) also went with the same size.
@RedRanger about 183cm
@Teocalli
Ideal for post prostate procedure or………….., before that hot date later in the p.m.
Nearly there, just a few bits in the post to finish. Can’t decide whether to put white bar tape or leather, opinions? Cables will be white. Tyres in the post.
Can you spot the aberration I need to fix?
@Teocalli
Your house is on a severe lean, other than that …
@Teocalli personally I’d suggest that saddle is slightly pointed down…but as Barracuda points out your house appears to have something of a lean to it so it makes it hard to get a good reference point.
Quick update on the warranty claim. The Taiwanese Italians have finally finished celebrating the lunar new year & have decided that I can have a replacement frame, if I’m ok with waiting until mid April for it to arrive!!!
While I was chatting to the rep about it I brought up the size issues I’d had with the current frame size and the possibility of going down a size. Essentially it’s a no go unless I want the seat post sitting about 1.5cm below the minimum insertion point. The seat tube on the next size down loses 3cm in seat tube height and on my current set up I’ve only got 1.5cm to play with.
As it happens a mate has just taken delivery of his dream bike (custom fitted Baum anyone?) and has a 2012 Cervelo R3SL team edition that is suddenly surplus to requirements. He’s happy for me to borrow it for a few weeks with a view to buying it at mates rates & it would appear the geo is a much closer fit to what I need.
Pretty tempted to say “thanks but no thanks” to the guys from Fondriest (it’s not like the design flaw that caused the issue has been changed) & organise an insurance payout instead to arrange the purchase of the R3…
@Mikael Liddy sounds like a great idea to me. I do like Cervelo R3s myself.
@Mikael Liddy
Do the ikea lady run, grab the Baum and “start the car, Start the car ”
Its a no brainer, if the R3 is close to the geo you want, tell the Fondriest gentlemen to politely shove it.
When do you get the test run ?
But we do like a tasty Baum. Bucket list for me
@Teocalli
The front derailleur cable length and adjustment. The lever is waay too far past it’s required position for the big dog.
Maybe add a couple of extra links to the chain?
@Barracuda had hoped to do a swap tonight by dropping him off to pick up the completed dream bike & taking his ex #1 home. The 36hr biblical downpour has put a rather damp spanner in those works!
@Mikael Liddy
April? Are they serious! What are they doing, opening a new carbon mine before they can make a frame for you? That’s fucked?
@Daccordi Rider most ridiculous part is that the rep has mentioned that he’s expecting a delivery of frames next month to top up his stocks (he doesn’t have one of mine currently), but mine most definitely won’t make that shipment.
@sthilzy
Yeah I had just put on the old chain prior to sorting things out and as the new setup has a triple chainset with a long cage rear mech to compensate for the block being 14-22 (and me being old and the bike not light) it was a bit short, fixed with a new chain. The lever only just has enough pull to take a triple and I have not tensioned everything up fully either nor done a proper fitup for the saddle. For the rest it’s the camera angle as our house is (reasonably) square.
@Mikael Liddy The words dickhead, and not making a genuine effort come to mind.
Is this nose level? 10.5 cm above the tops.
@unversio Assuming the top tube is level, you may need to tilt the saddle back a bit so the nose is level with the rear. I have Turbomatics on a couple bikes and with the tail that high I slide forward.
@unversio
I ride a Rolls, which is also a classic design, and it’s the middle third of the saddle’s length that needs to be level for me. That means the nose looks like it’s pointed slightly up, but it solved all comfort and sliding issues for me. I found a short little spirit level (about 6cm lengthwise) that helps.
@andrew Nose can come back up one half of a hair before the test ride. Thanx
@unversio
No worries, I hope it works out. It’s continually amazing to me how much difference millimetres (or even fractions thereof) seem to have on the feel of a ride, saddle and cleat position especially.
@Mikael Liddy In Europe there are regulations on how long a manufacturer has to replace warranty parts. (30 days for parts made outside your country in Spain) I’d look into the consumer regs in Oz to see if you have some other defense. This is definitely not cool on the part of Fondriest and their rep.
OK first post here – thought I’d share my new pride n joy. Moots Vamoots CR with Campag Chorus, Enve handlebars, stem and seat post and Archetype wheels (and all with the mandatory Chris King headset, hubs etc).
Ian
@IanF Very nice. Those wheels complement the frame and fork colours perfectly.
But it appears to be going backwards (the bit of Rule #26 that didn’t need to be spelt out).
@IanF nice build you have there! As @Chris mentions Rule #26, drive side please.
Handsome bike.
So having worn out the first chain on my DA 11-speed at 3250km (they say good for 4500), I thought I’d give a quick assessment. My SLR01 came with 52-36 and I paired that with an 11-25 cassette for the DA C24 climbing wheels, and 11-23 in the relaced Zipp 404’s on a Chris King Hub. I was concerned I wouldn’t be strong enough for the faster cassettes, I was riding 11-27 and 12-28, but have found that the 36 inner ring is just too small and have replaced it with a 38, now the whole package works so much better, I’m using more of the cogs on what is a very expensive cassette, the shifting up front is better, there is less slack chain when using the inner ring and makes the faster gears more effective on the 38. The Big ring is a much more tameable beast at 52 rather than the SRAM Red Flemish Compact I was riding, I do use the 11 much more than before although any long descent at speeds over 65kph I wish I still had the 53, I guess I just get to escape velocity sooner and practise my aero tuck for longer.
It’s a pretty sweet transmission and the last two rides on a brand new chain really highlight the crispness of any gear selection, is it better than the Bro-set? probably not so much, hard to compare as the systems are quite different and the DA has 1 more gear, if it is the group-set on your next ride I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, just get the LBS to swop out that 36…
@piwakawaka
I’ve got the SRAM 22 with yaw front. Annoyingly they don’t make an outer ring to suit the 36. They supplied a 36/50 to my surprise. The whole front shifting was rubbish dropping chains, jumping and bumping. Sick of it, I convinced them to sent a 34, since the 50 had written on it “for use with 34 only” regardless of the distributors insistence it would work fine. With a 34/50′ it works perfectly. No idea why they make a 36 but no 52 suit it when the shifting is plainly shots when coupled with the 50 not being designed for it… I’m at the point of going to Praxis rings to get a proper mid compact. Shimano, as you know make many combinations, SRAM apparently couldn’t be bothered beyond a 34/50 110bcd and a 39/53 130bcd.
Is there really that much difference between a 38 and 39? I suppose you cannot get a 39 in a 110BCD.
@Puffy Surprising, since I’m looking at a SRAM Yaw 52 ring right now. In 110BCD. And it shifts great with the matching 36.
A 36-50 makes lots of sense, as do 39-50s, for those who want tight gearing. A Masters racer, can’t remember the name, broke 50min for a 40km TT riding the latter setup on his compact…
I haven’t really worked on this much since the beginning of winter, but I’m slowly making progress.
I love the building of your own bike… shame I can barely build a club sandwich that looks any good.
One question I’m currently pondering is whether to swap my 52/42 chainrings for a 53/39 set, while also going from 170mm cranks to 175 (I’m 1.88m with about 89cm of inseam). I figure I’d get more top and bottom end, and more than offset the slight decrease in cadence for a given speed with the longer cranks.
Any thoughts welcome, including anyone telling me there’s no need, 5mm of crank length isn’t important, I’m not strong enough to need a 53T, etc. etc.
@andrew
With regard to the chainrings, if you are doing it for a bigger gear, don’t bother. There is virtually no difference between a 52 and 53 on the bike. If your lowest gear isn’t small enough, I think it makes more sense to invest in a spare “climbing cassette”. That would be cheaper, especially if using campag because replacement chainrings cost more than buying a completely new crankset for some reason! Also, the FD should shift quicker with 52/42 because its not as far a jump.
As for the crank length, your legs are 3 inches longer than mine, so I can’t relate. But keep in mind, “you spin to win”. Maybe 172.5?
@tessar
What what what? The Austrlian SRAM importer, and the SRAM website knows of no such thing. You’ve got a 110BCD, SRAM 11 speed 36/52 outter ring? The 52 actually has “use with 36” or something on it? Hrmmm I’ll have to make a phone call. On the other hand, I could just get the Praxis anyway since they are supposed to be better.
36/50 is my prefered becasuse I like the fact that there is plenty of overlap. On the 34/50 you have to go from the 11 up to 19 for a similar cadence. I like to spin, so I’ve yet to need higher gearing in even flat races but it certainly helps in the hills.
Opinions welcomed.
Looking to replace the standard Oval branded bars on my Fuji SST as I dont like the feel or shape.
Going back to bars I know and have had previously, but, to go alu or carbon ? That is the question.
3T Ergonova Pro’s are available in both, pro’s / Cons of each = coin versus bling and slight weight reduction.
Any Velominati have strong views either way ?
@Barracuda Saw recently on some bike tech site (can’t recall which one), Pro’s prefer alu bars.
Might be bullshit, but I read they prefer them because in the event of a crash, you can finish a race with a bent bar, but not a snapped bar.
@Barracuda, @sthilzy, @Weldertron
Weldy, that is indeed bullshit. The problem there is that the alu bars will snap just the same as a carbon bar under the kind of load that would snap a carbon bar. Besides, they usually get a new bike anyway under those circumstances.
Having ridden 3T Rotundos in both carbon and alu, I went back to alu for the simple reason that while they are heavier, they are also stiffer. Easy as that.
@fignons barber
Excellent, thanks for all that! The quicker FD shift is something I hadn’t thought of, too.
@Puffy
Ah, I missed the 11-speed bit. Wonder if there’s really a difference – I noticed differences when replacing derailleurs, but I’ve switched between several decent chainrings and cranks – Shimano 7800, SRAM Yaw, and now previous-gen SRAM Red rings on a power-metering crank – and as long as everything’s set up alright, it shifts fine enough for me. I’m also a spinner – the 52/36 goes on the TT bike ;)
@andrew What vintage is your 52/42 from? Sounds like an older setup, in which case more modern rings will more than offset the larger gap. The crank length is definitely reasonable – I ride 175mm on the road-bike and I’m nearly the same size – just a smidge shorter inseam. I’m riding 170mm on the TT bike, and standing climbing and accelerations are a touch easier with the longer cranks.
@tessar Good to know, cheers. It’s a 1056 Group-San, so early ’90s, and the 53/39 rings and cranks I have my eye on are from the 600/6401 group, so same sort of era with the pre-Octalink attachment.
@frank All mechanically astute one(s). Open to trade parts or items if enthused by digging up an agreeable “swap”.