New answers tagged road-bike
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Counterintuitively, one pump of air in the tube may help separate the two beads of the tyre, allowing you to grab just one with the tip of your tyre lever.
I have a bunch of tyre levers, and some are good while others are dreadful. See if you have one with a flattish front, not a spoon or bill shape.
It can help to use some cable ties or velcro straps to ...
4
Welcome to Stack Exchange! I don’t mean to write a trivial answer, but unfortunately the answer is that you would just buy a new quick release. You can often buy just a front quick release. You could try asking on Facebook marketplace or your local Craigslist. Frequently, cyclists will have some spare QRs lying around. Naturally, your bike store can often ...
1
The brightness of lights is measured in lumens.
The numbers there refer to the maximum brightness (full power).
Cheap lights will have lower maximum brightness and smaller batteries.
So HL100 = 100 lumens maximum. It has a 420 mAh lithium polymer battery, which has an average voltage of 3.7V.
The HL500 = 500 lumens maximum. It has a 2000 mAh battery, with ...
1
So you're riding at night - are the routes lit by streetlights? Or are you riding in pitch darkness?
The former would recommend two "be seen" lights for the front and two for the rear, and the latter would require at least one Seeing light and a backup for the front and still two on the rear.
I'd strongly recommend adding some combination of spoke ...
2
Looks like this frame might designed for derailleur cable setup, probably with down tube shifters. It looks like there is a cable housing stop on the chain stay, and the dropouts do not allow for chain tension adjustment. Even if the frame isn’t set up for derailleur cabling, there are bolt on cable housing stops available.
The rear dropout spacing magic be ...
11
Yes. Absolutely. Simply install an internal gear hub.
Prices for internal gear hubs are basically what you want to spend: You can buy decent second hand IGHs (SRAM 7 speed, 300% gear spread, super reliable) for as low as 25 Euros, or you can invest roughly a thousand euros into a new top-of-the-list IGH (Rohloff, 14 gears, 500% gear spread, super reliable, ...
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Sturmey archer make 2, 3, 5 and 8speed hubs with a 120mm spacing for a track bike. The 2 sp requires no cables.
Older hubs are available in a 120 spacing to take a freewheel (up to 5sp?) and SunXCD makes a 120mm cassette hub. You would need a bolt on hanger to use either of these.
Hope that helps.
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The bike in the question is not what is considered as "track drop outs".
For that bike, depending on the rear wheel spacing, it should be relatively easy to convert back to geared.
I would suggest, leaving the front as a 1x system. This is subjective, but I would just get a relatively moderate ring on the frontm between 40t to 46t depending on how ...
1
It's not ideal but is doable.
Biggest factor being the rear hub spacing.
If it's 120mm horisontal dropouts (the standard for track frames) then the best thing would be to get a 120mm internal geared hub such as the Sturmey Archer S-RF5 5Spd Hub (other available).
If, for any reason, it has 130/135mm rear dropouts (as found on jump bike and other single speed ...
4
The jagged and uneven edges you are seeing around the straps are merely cosmetic. At best they are at the minimum tolerance for manufacturing quality and at worst are an isolated case of tolerances going wrong during production.
Either way, as long as the integrity of the foam in the helmet is not compromised (by virtue of crashing or the like), then it is ...
3
It looks like a well made steel frame that probably has good quality butted tubing and seems to be quite racy with a fairly tight geometry. Looking at the Campagnolo dropouts doesn't tell us much as they were in a long production over decades. The sloping fork crown and the recessed brake nuts date this to being an 80s or even early 90s race frame. The seat ...
1
As noted in the comments, you could do this to enable the 46 but the 11,12,13t sprockets would be a long way from the derailleur in those gears as the derailleur isn't designed for that difference. Try to imagine the shape of the pyramid of the 11-32 and the 11-46.
Derailleurs are designed around specific pyramid slopes.
This could work fine on a 18-46 ...
10
The other answers and comments are excellent.
Adding a video on how rims are commonly made and a picture of the seam.
A double wall aluminum rim starts life as a straight piece of extruded aluminum.(Factory Tour: Velocity USA Bicycle Wheels)
The bar is bent to shape (about 3:51 in the video)and cut to length (4:13). The ends are joined together with a sleeve ...
18
That is the seam where the two edges of the rim were jointed. Cracks, as you have noted, do not form in such a perfectly uniform way.
As long as the edges remain closely butted together as they currently are, you are good to go.
2
I don’t think the wheel set will be much of an upgrade. I see them for 141€ in Germany and they are quite heavy at 1826g. They also don’t look like they make up for the weight with better aerodynamics. Edit: Something like the Vision Team 35 Comp SL or Fulcrum Quattro LG would probably be an upgrade, especially since they are more aero which should benefit ...
2
$1K USD new would get you in the range of 9 speed Sora with a low to mid-range aluminum frame, so it wouldn’t be too bad of an option either. In the used market, you could likely get 105 11 speed mechanical on a mid-high end aluminum frame.
Those Campagnolo wheels appear to come with the campy freehub body, so you’ll need to factor in the cost of a ...
0
From various reviews it sounds like the frame of the bike is quite nice. It’s the wheels and the Claris groupset which are bad. So unlike other answers and comments have suggested, I think it makes sense to upgrade or at least properly maintain this bike instead of selling it.
You are correct that upgrading to 11 speed Shimano 105 would require you to change ...
2
With the spec I would suggest new tyres.
Your current ones are mid-range, wired, and fairly heavy. A top-end tyre will for absolutely certain give you more performance benefit than any amount of drivetrain upgrade.
Review the list here and reviews here. You want 'TT' type. https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/road-bike-reviews
It still is not clear which ...
0
Typically on a bike of this type, the supplied wheels are fairly low grade as it's not a headline component for the bike (like the groupset is). If you spent most of your budget on a set of quality factory wheels eg. Mavic, DT etc or handbuilt race wheels and the rest on very nice tyres from high-up in any manufacturer range, you will have an upgrade that ...
1
If you want to upgrade the bike to 105, then the bike must have a sub 105 drivetrain, which means it must be 10 speed Tiagra, or a lower 9 speed group; and have rim brakes,
You can’t mix drivetrain components of different speeds, so you’ll have to replace the shifters, derailleurs, cassette and chain in one go. There is no prioritization possible.
After that ...
6
You can buy new components to improve your comfort, performance, or to reduce weight in general.
Comfort is simple but important: if you find that something does not fit you, replace it. Examples: saddle, stem (longer/shorter etc to change reach), handlebar width, tires (if you want a plushier ride, have wider tires) etc. Don't forget about shoes, helmet ...
3
It is possible that the rear derailleur low limit screw was misadjusted such that holding the shifter down allowed the RD to get snagged by a spoke. That is a fairly common cause of what happened.
Another possibility, also common, is the hanger (what you are calling the dropout) got bent inward for whatever reason, usually uncareful handling of the bike or ...
0
A 11 speed freehub should be 36.75mm deep. That's 1.8mm wider than a 8/9/10 speed freehub. I think that's measured to the upstand, not to the end of the rib.
8/9/10 speed cassettes are all the same width and should be interchangeable on the same hub.
So given you have an 8 speed cassette now, your cheapest upgrade path is to go to 10 speed, which should ...
0
I've dome something similar, upspeccing a 3x5 speed MTB to 3x9 deore.
The parts came to me free because they were salvaged from a wrecked frame. All I needed was new cables and grips, and a set of spokes.
I had to rebuild my 26" wheel onto a hub that was sized to take a 8/9/10 speed cassette, and this needed different length spokes.
The cassette, ...
0
Presumably you are planning to upgrade the older frame to a newer complete 11 speed groupset. Makes sense as 105 rim brake groups are relatively inexpensive now.
In 2007 11 speed road groupsets didn’t exit, so we can assume your Giant had a 10, 9 speed or less groupset, and a 10 speed or less compatible hub.
When 11 speed groups were introduced the width of ...
12
If the OP's bike has a short cage Shimano rear derailleur, then officially, the maximum cog size is 30t. Going down to 28t is definitely fine, but going over 30t is not technically OK. Shimano's compatibility specifications are known to be conservative, however, so in practice, a 32t cog should work. I would caution against exceeding the maximum cog size by ...
10
Going down to 11-28 should be fine. Going up to 11-32 will probably be fine. If it were my bike, I would just give it a try and hope for the best, but I tend to be a little cavalier about the possibility of breaking stuff.
You'll need to check the specs of your derailleur. There should be a min and max low cog listed, make sure you are within that. ...
1
Is 20mm really the inside width of your rim? Would be unusually wide for a road bike (I think currently around 17mm are most common). If it’s really 20mm inside width you can mount anything from 32 to 63mm wide tires on that rim. According to Schwalbe as narrow as 25mm would also be okay: https://www.schwalbe.com/files/schwalbe/userupload/Images/FAQ/...
6
If the wheel was impacted enough to require truing it’s plausible the hub was damaged. The axle might have been bent, bearings damaged or the freehub mechanism.
You can easily check for bearing problems. Take the wheel out, turn the axle manually. Feel for play or roughness in the bearings as the axle turns.
Hold the axle ends and spin the wheel, check for ...
3
It’s not bad, it’s cosmetic only. It’s just surface corrosion that’s got under the clear coat. Do you live in area where salt is used on the roads? Perhaps the previous owner was not good about cleaning under the bottom bracket shell.
You can halt this by making sure to thoroughly clean the bike regularly and use something like WD40 in vulnerable area to ...
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