The Cycling Thread

my dad has hibernated his cube, it is in his spare bedroom wrapped in blankets!!!

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by krhall

I bought mine to use and it looks cool dirty, but I have an SDOC addiction to feed!

Yes, but once the filth get to the brake calipers & mechs they won't last long.

Help em out a bit by fitting some guards.

Plus buy a couple of chains as they're cheaper to replace than cassettes and chainsets.

That way you'll still have some pennies left over for that new kitchen

I fitted my rear race guard this morning and then did a 40 miler. Was ok, rattled a bit despite it being tightly locked down. Dont think there's a great deal of clearance.

I then fitted my front tonight (This is on a Boardman by the way), and found that the extension on the front of the front guard couldnt be fitted as it wouldnt stop rubbing.

Not a lot of space on the Boardman to get these fitted comfortably. The guards have been sat in the loft for nearly 12 months and probably got a bit squashed so I'm currently trying to stretch the arms a bit to see if I can get the guard not to rub on one side.

[maviczap]

That's what I fount with my Litespeed, impossible to fit even the thin Race guards.

Just bought a cheapo steel hack frame off Ebay for the really filthy weather, I was lucky in that it came with a chainset and I had more than enough bits to complete the rest.

The only upgrade I bought was a set of carbon forks and they were off Ebay as well.

[fizzwheel]

My Van Nic was a bit like that, it was an awful fiddle to get even the crud guards to fit and not rub. I read somewhere that the golden rule with the crud guards is that "if you can get a 4mm allen key between the tyre and the closest point of the frame i.e. the brake bridge" then the cruds will fit.

The cruds go straight onto my LOOK, but my mates Van Nic Euro's was a pain to fit them to.

[Drew Carey]

Reading the recent posts, is it as much of a problem stopping corrosion as with salt and motorbikes? If cleaned weekly would that be fine?

Only ask as if i spend a whack on a road bike for work commute will it desolve before my eyes, or with a decent set of mudguards and cleaning will be fine?

[fizzwheel]

Dunno mines Carbon fibre so it isnt going to rust in a hurry...

Mudguards will help but wont stop the salt attacking the alloy components, just like it does on a motorbike. Stuff like chains and cassettes are replaceable anyway so not to bothered about that, but the chainset / wheels etc are expensive and I'm not wanting the salt to attack those, so the fixie will be coming out once the grit has gone down.

The other option is a clean after every ride, but thats going to get tedious in the winter...

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by Drew Carey

Reading the recent posts, is it as much of a problem stopping corrosion as with salt and motorbikes? If cleaned weekly would that be fine?

Only ask as if i spend a whack on a road bike for work commute will it desolve before my eyes, or with a decent set of mudguards and cleaning will be fine?

Salt tends to get into the pivots of the rear mech and then stops it working, same for the brake caliper which is where mudguards really help.

Same goes for wheel bearings as there's no seals to stop the crap getting in.

I've got a campagnolo front hub with a grease port, so all I need to do is push some fresh grease through every now and then. Its a pity that they don't make hubs with grease ports any more, but its not hard to adapt a hub to have a grease port.

Buy a couple of spare chains and fit a quick link so its easy to fit a new chain, as its much cheaper to buy chains than cassettes & chainrings.

I regularly spray my mechs and brake caliper pivots with Gt50, rather than WD40, but chains will be better protected with a specific wet lube wax.

I replaced a mates bottom bracket which was fubarred after less than a year, it was a cheap one Halfrauds had fitted, so I replaced it with a decent shimano one and used some special foam seals to seal it from the elements.

These seals were specifically for retro fitting to bikes and they work well, but I bought them ages ago and I doubt you can get them anymore.

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

Dunno mines Carbon fibre so it isnt going to rust in a hurry.....

Just watch out for cathodic reaction between the fork ends if its got alloy fork ends.

How long should a chain last?

I reckon I've done about 1500 - 1700 miles on the focus now...