Today I did something to my bike thread...

Alek

Following Colm18's report from the mountains, installed these on a spare wheelset:

athlone Sean

Striped bar tape fitted but looks terrible. Back to black tomorrow.

iwillhtfu

athlone Sean wrote: »

Striped bar tape fitted but looks terrible. Back to black tomorrow.

I never got that look. Bar tape should be black or white unless you have a Bianchi.

NeedMoreGears

Replaced drive side ball bearings on the rear wheel - horrible mess of gunk in there. Non-drive were fine.

Also replaced front/rear pads - great to have brakes again.

Macy0161

More last night than today - finally fitted my aliexpress speed and cadence sensor to the turbo bike. Not as neat as the Garmin set that I subsequently picked up as an Amazon Black Friday deal, but works and was picked up by my Garmin computer. For €24 no complaints!

My favourite sunglasses for the bike, a year ago, snapped at one of the arms. I glued it into place (and used some duct tape) to keep it in place. Worked fine for that arm, but the other arm snapped a few weeks. Rather then just gluing and duct taping it, I used (most of) this method to fix it.

They look alright (repair can't be seen from the front) but most importantly, I have my sunglasses back! They don't close of course, but they'll do.

Unknown Soldier

Replaced motivation and anti depression sensors.

Set motivation to high

dancrowley

Gone from 50/34 up front to 53/39. Check out the inconspicuous KMC link :pac:

triggermortis

Cleaned the commuter, put on all new brake pads on and replaced the brushes inside the front crudcatcher mudguard as the rattling was getting SO annoying.
Forecast here for tomorrow morning is -7 I'd better layer up!

jon1981

Swapped out my worn 23mm GP4000s for 25mm ... let's see if all this "rolls better" malarky is true!

delynet

jon1981 wrote: »

Swapped out my worn 23mm GP4000s for 25mm ... let's see if all this "rolls better" malarky is true!

Double check they don't rub off the frame. I bought a set for my Boardman Team Carbon and the rear one was rubbing off the front derailleur mount. I suspect they are more than 25mm when inflated

Alek

They are. My 28mm version is 31mm, I've read that the 25mm is 28mm.

Eamonnator

I have Grand Prix 400S IIs on my Mavic R-sys. wheels
They are 700 X 25
At 110psi they are 26.5 mm wide.

jon1981

delynet wrote: »

Double check they don't rub off the frame. I bought a set for my Boardman Team Carbon and the rear one was rubbing off the front derailleur mount. I suspect they are more than 25mm when inflated

I had to reposition the brake rubbers slightly as they were slightly touching off the side wall of the tyre. Doesn't seem to be affecting anything else and even my rear SKS quick release race blade still fits.

jon1981

Oh and also put in two new tubes. My luck finally ran out when using tyre levers. Pinched the damn tube when putting the tyre back! Found a short video on youtube about how to put a stiff tyre on the wheel by hand, not that difficult in the end!

The crux of it - make sure the piece of tyre at the valve is the last piece to push over the rim. Basically start opposite the valve and work your way around and the tyre should just slip over it.

Mec-a-nic

Another bike, another lighting upgrade. Since LED lights are so good now, I swapped my dynamo driven 2.4W halogen lamp for a 2.4W Hartmann One LED (75lux) AND a 0.6W B+W rear light. The lower rated dynamo is easily able to drive both lights - and the photo shows their standlight features (they stay lit for 5 mins during any stops). Details can be found from my previous upgrades.



Anyone need any halogen lamps?

delynet

Bought a Corima disk from a Boardsie

route66

I replaced the Tiagra/FSA groupset on my Felt Z6 with a Shimano 5800 series 105. Most of the work was done last weekend, with today reserved for some fine-tuning and bar-tape fitting before a nice 30 km ride to make sure it all worked.

It did!

There was nothing wrong with the existing setup but a combination of very positive reviews and a Wiggle sale on groupsets tipped me over the edge. The fact that I originally wanted the 105-equipped Felt Z5 was also a factor; when I went to order the Z5 2 years ago (2nd time around on the bike-to-work scheme), it was out of stock, so I "settled" for the cheaper Z6.

Anyone who has read of my various fumbled efforts to work on my bike in this thread may wonder if a full group-set replacement was just a little bit ambitious. If I'm being honest, I suppose I was being a bit eager, but it all worked out OK in the end - both the removal of the old kit and the installation and tuning of the new.

I spent lots of time researching how to replace internal cabling and even when I started working on this, I still wasn't too sure of what I was doing and was worried I'd end up being unable to get the cables routed. This also worked out OK. Felt use "straws" for both front and rear derailleurs and these were in place in the down tube and I was able to reuse them. The rear brake cable was routed in the top tube and had no straw but it was easy to fish out the cable at the exit point.

Measuring and cutting the cable outers took a bit of time - but only because I was being ultra conservative; measure 10 times, cut once and all that.

The front and rear derailleurs took a bit of time to adjust but I got it right in the end. The front one was especially tricky. Unlike my old Tiagra, there are no in-line adjusters in the 105 gear cables, and the only adjustment possible was where the cable is attached to the FD. Let’s just say I spent a lot of time loosening and tightening, trying the gear change, and on and on ... I have ordered some Shimano in-line adjusters but I probably won't bother with them when they come in. One thing I did discover was that you can’t accurately gauge exact adjustment points on the bike stand – everything feels much better on the road.

The Hollowtech II bottom bracket was easy to install, as were the cranks.

The brakes were the easiest component to install – I like the click on the adjuster used to open the calliper,

I have Shimano Ultegra wheels and these are 11-speed compatible. I used 2 shims on the 10-speed cassette but simply removed these with the new 11 speed one. I went for the 32-11 cassette option as I do like my hills and although I coped fine with my old 30 on the 10 speed, the 32 should allow for a faster cadence at least. Dunno will it make me any faster though …

Today, I did a quick spin down the road just to make sure the shifters were in the right position before I put the bar tape on. This was easy enough to install but I had to redo some areas to get it right.

With everything in place I went out for a 30KM ride. Nothing fell off and the weather was even nice!

But is the 11 speed 105 Groupset better that my old 10 speed Tiagra/FSA setup?

Yes – gear changes on both front and rear derailleurs are noticeably better. The “clunk” when changing down on the Tiagra FD is no longer there and the rear derailleur seems almost “digital” in that it snicks up and down very positively; it also allows multiple downchanges at the same time. I can’t say I noticed any difference with the brakes but the new ones just replaced slightly older series 105s so that’s no surprise. It’s the same story with the crankset, maybe it’s because I don’t push hard enough to appreciate the extra stiffness, but I suppose they do look nice!

I weighed my bike before and after with pedals removed as is the norm. With the old groupset, the bike weighed 8.1 kilos and with the new, 7.7. The official standard weight for the bike is 8.5 kilos but before it put a wheel on the road, I replaced the wheels with lighter Ultegra 6800 ones, the tyres with GP4000S and swapped out the Tektro brakes with 105s, so I guess that must have saved .4kgs and the new groupset the same again. And yes, I know, weight saving in areas that are not part of the rotating mass pales into insignificance compared to what can be achieved by just eating less cake …

Tiagra removed:


New 105:


Before:


After:


Clean - for how long:

TonyStark

route66 wrote: »

The front and rear derailleurs took a bit of time to adjust but I got it right in the end. The front one was especially tricky. Unlike my old Tiagra, there are no in-line adjusters in the 105 gear cables, and the only adjustment possible was where the cable is attached to the FD. Let’s just say I spent a lot of time loosening and tightening, trying the gear change, and on and on ... I have ordered some Shimano in-line adjusters but I probably won't bother with them when they come in. One thing I did discover was that you can’t accurately gauge exact adjustment points on the bike stand – everything feels much better on the road.

Faced the same issue when I went from Tiagra but I got the LBS to put an in-line adjuster onto the cable for me. I found that there was a little slippage with cable stretching slightly.

Sarz91

Not the bike as such so I'm not sure if it counts. I picked up a set of titanium spindles ages ago off of a vendor on eBay for speedplay zeros. I finally got around to fitting them yesterday and they look pretty decent. Pretty happy with the €120 saved.

route66

When I fitted the 105 groupset last weekend, I read somewhere that the reach on the shifters is adjustable. I also noticed on my installation cycle that I was stretching to reach the brakes, so I decided to give it a go.

It's really a simple job, and a quick confirmation check on the internet later, I was ready to go. It's a good idea to put some selotape on the levers first and mark the starting position with a pen. This makes it easy to check that you have adjusted both shifters by the same amount and can be easily remove afterwards. This adjustment will take up slack in the brake cable and the brakes will probably require adjustment afterwards as it will bring the blocks closer to the rim as you adjust the lever closer to the bars. To get going quickly, I just slackened off the adjustment with the lever at the caliper first.

Selotape marked with pen to show starting position. The adjustment on the 105 shifters is on top of the lever - just peel back the cover:


With nearly all the adjustment taken up:


The pictures are not great, but it did make a difference.
Before:



After:

Mec-a-nic

In a fit of optimism with the sun out and winter 'over', the commuter was scrubbed clean of its winter coat of grime, chainset cleaned, new brake blocks fitted and saddle waxed. The MTB got its slow puncture removed by replacing the rear tyre with a new Schwalbe tubeless that I had bought and misplaced 6 months ago...

Alek

Built a wheel truing stand with a mate. Did not turn out 100% straight (uncalibrated saw! who would think....) but once the wheel is clamped, is rock solid and a pleasure to work with

Weepsie

This whole thread reminds me of how crap I am at fixing things

cdaly_

Alek wrote: »

Built a wheel truing stand with a mate. Did not turn out 100% straight (uncalibrated saw! who would think....) but once the wheel is clamped, is rock solid and a pleasure to work with

Lovely job. I made mine out of old kitchen cupboard (and the dishing gauge out of an old election poster). Do get yourself a proper spoke key though, those cheap ones tend to round the nipples...

Alek

those cheap ones tend to round the nipples...

Cheers, learned this the hard way last night A set of Park Tool copies are on the way.

The other thing is that the new tension meter that arrived today reads higher than the one on the picture, borrowed from a fellow boardsie... So it seems instead of 120kgf max tension I've built this wheel at 148kgf... quite far beyond the rim specs... Need to tune it down tonight I guess.

route66

Alek wrote: »

Built a wheel truing stand with a mate. Did not turn out 100% straight (uncalibrated saw! who would think....) but once the wheel is clamped, is rock solid and a pleasure to work with

I'm seeing a generous glass of whiskey and an opened jar of pink tablets.
Are you shure it waj jusht the shaw, the saw, that was uncal, unconibrated, uncontibrated, calerated, unconabrated, eh, like ...

Nice job by the way!

Alek

I'm seeing a generous glass of whiskey and an opened jar of pink tablets

Are you sure? Do you want to say you are seeing things, like, I don't know, a lego castle? Man, I'd be worried...

:pac:

(Cheers, you gave me a laugh )

jon1981

New Wheels

Zondas!

Gallant_JJ

New crankset and Q rings on the TT bike.