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Today February 2019

bloaker

Sincerely A Dick
Nov 14, 2011
3,643
5,770
Am I really the first???

Conditions this morning were pretty nice.
Some ice on the trails but nothing dangerous.
Not a long ride, but some much needed quiet time.

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Lovely weather today! No riding as I was looking after my daughter. I ended up spending two hours this afternoon sat in the car while she played at a friend's house. I would have waited at the in-laws but my father-in-law was sleeping under the kotatsu with his jack russel perched on top and every time I tried to get in the dog started growling at me!

Oh, any takers for my Monday ride?
 
So.... I just walked outside and right back in.
I will be wearing shorts again, but today I am putting a wool jersey on. My legs rarely get cold, but once my chest gets too much cold air, I am done. Not that I cannot ride, I just don't want to at that point.
 
A friend of mine who lives in Montreal told me a few years back that "when it gets to -30 degrees, the children are no longer allowed to play outside" :flip::warau:;) When I was living in Toronto, we also experienced a cold wave, where I learnt from German news that our neighbors who were literally living in the street across from us had no electricity. I think our low was also -30 degrees or so. (It is quite uncanny if you recognize the intersection you pass pretty much every day on a news program from another continent — and you had no idea what was happening.)
 
So.... I just walked outside and right back in.
I will be wearing shorts again, but today I am putting a wool jersey on. My legs rarely get cold, but once my chest gets too much cold air, I am done. Not that I cannot ride, I just don't want to at that point.
:tup
It is better to be overdressed than underdressed. You can always partially unzip your outer layer, remove leg warmers and some such. That is way better than having to endure all sorts of suckage that is riding with frozen fingers or a cold core. Plus, you can get ill, especially with a cool core.
 
27km of up/down/up/down/up....
Ran into a bunch of other riders I know, so a little more chatting this morning than normal.

I ended up going with a wool jersey and a light jacket. This was perfect for the first 3/4s of the ride.
I started getting chilly toward the end, but assumed it was wind of something... but when i got home, I realized my jacket and jersey were soaked through with sweat. I am also suffering hours later from a stupid dehydration headache. I drank water the entire ride, but for whatever reason I am suffering today.

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27km of up/down/up/down/up....
Ran into a bunch of other riders I know, so a little more chatting this morning than normal.

I ended up going with a wool jersey and a light jacket. This was perfect for the first 3/4s of the ride.
I started getting chilly toward the end, but assumed it was wind of something... but when i got home, I realized my jacket and jersey were soaked through with sweat. I am also suffering hours later from a stupid dehydration headache. I drank water the entire ride, but for whatever reason I am suffering today.

View attachment 17256
I hear you,it is always a problem to get another water into your system when it is cold.Having a gulp of cold H2O is always not the first thing on riders' minds particularly when our fingertips are freezing off.Well done for getting out both Sat/Sun.
I have just come back from a weekend up the Edogawa and back both days.I think this morning was colder than yesterday.
 
First order of business was to clean off the kilogram of Chiba mud that I brought home on the train attached to CX bike. Then noticed that the rear tyre on commuter was worn down to the threads. Ooops. Switched that, then it was time to head out to the Tamagawa for a gentle loop with my Half-Fast crew.

Where did the weekend go? Oh yeah - I was cycling through it all. Can I have another weekend, please?

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After chatting with @Sibreen the other day, I actually got round to doing a bit of reading about gears (see here and here for beginner links). It appears I've got a Sora 50/34 crankset with a 11/28 casette on the back - the other crankarm is Tiagra, btw. I'm also pretty sure the crank length is 170mm. I'm 182cm tall with pretty long legs. This is not a great setup for climbing, right?
 
This is not a great setup for climbing, right?
You can make things a lot easier, for relatively little investment. A 32 gear on the back would make a massive difference in keeping your cadence up when climbing. You could just get an old cassette and MTB derailleur. But a new 105 groupset would transform your bike...
 
50/34 crankset with a 11/28 casette on the back
I got even bigger gears at the front (52/36) and same as you at the rear 11/28 and love climbing and don't have problems with it with this setup. 28 cassettes are newcomers, it used to be 23 or 25 only just several years ago no?
 
32t came about on SRAM with Wi-FLi. With 10sp, SRAM also had the same pull ration for MTB and Road, so you could run a road shifter and have all access to MTB gear ratios and rear derailleurs. My fargo runs this setup.

Shimano was a little slower to adapt, however not far behind and those of us that experiment were able to run 9sp derailures with 10 speep shifters/cassettes because the cable pull ratio was close enough.

Lastly, my road bike is all campy 11sp. I was able to pick up an 11-29 cassette for it 6 year ago. Not sure when it became available, but I ordered it when I realized I was just a bitch and couldn't climb.
 
After chatting with @Sibreen the other day, I actually got round to doing a bit of reading about gears (see here and here for beginner links). It appears I've got a Sora 50/34 crankset with a 11/28 casette on the back - the other crankarm is Tiagra, btw. I'm also pretty sure the crank length is 170mm. I'm 182cm tall with pretty long legs. This is not a great setup for climbing, right?
Actually it's quite good, the only easier roadie setup is 11-32. But if you have Sora shifters, then you only have 9 gears, so an 11-32 cassette will be quite gappy. And depending on where you live and ride, you don't actually need the 32 sprocket in the rear.

However, there is one thing that concerns me: if your crank length is 170 mm, this would indicate to me that you are riding a frame that is too small, especially if you have long legs. Without knowing you personally, but I reckon you'd fit a 56 cm frame (at least I would start from there) — and those almost always come with 172.5 mm cranks. Usually 170 mm cranks are supplied with bikes that have 50-53 cm frames. 54-58 cm frames usually come with 172.5 mm cranks and even larger frames with 175 mm cranks. Just to be clear: the difference crank length is not really a huge deal, but the frame size is. If you are riding a bike that doesn't fit you, you will be hurting.
 
I got even bigger gears at the front (52/36) and same as you at the rear 11/28 and love climbing and don't have problems with it with this setup.
The de facto new standard on many Shimano-equipped bikes aimed at advanced riders is 52/36 in the front and 11-30 in the back. You get half an extra gear on the top end and have essentially the same ratio as 34/28 for climbing. For undulating terrain, I never shift out of my big chain ring (50 up front and I usually go to 28 in the rear with one gear to go). For long sustained climbs I think 34/28 or 36/30 is better. On recovery rides or for cross chaining to start uphill at a traffic light, I do appreciate 50/32, though. And on one or two climbs (~900 meters of elevation) I do use my bail out gear 34/32.
28 cassettes are newcomers, it used to be 23 or 25 only just several years ago no?
You'd also have less gears to choose from. The gear spacing of an 11-speed 11-28 cassette is identical to that of a 10-speed 11-25 cassette. But I don't think that adage no longer holds much water. Pros use 11-32 cassettes regularly on certain stages for good reason. Yes, they usually have larger chain rings, but having a larger gear spread means less grinding (higher cadence), but not necessarily that you are slower.
 
Cheers for the helpful replies! I've got a bit more of an understanding of how things work now.

@Half-Fast Mike the 105 11-32 does look helpful though I'd probably need a whole new groupset as I only have nine speed at the moment. I've been having a look at the Spesh Diverge recently and I noticed it comes with 11-32 at the price point in interested in.

@luka so that's the sub-compact you have? I notice they put those on the more expensive performance road bikes - tarmac expert and the like. That would give you more power on the flats/non-technical downhills, right?

@bloaker interesting history lesson. I wish I had your wrench skills!

Just for interest (probably) I'll have a bit of a look at 1x stuff now. @saibot did some good videos on that when he was modifying his bike before, so I'll probably rewatch them now I know more about the subject.
 
Just for context, here's my bike:
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@OreoCookie The frame's pretty big as far as I can tell, but the components did come from a smaller bike I think. There's also other issues: the drive train has gotten a bit worn and also I'm still not great at tuning it up. Lately, I've been getting some really clunky gear changes. This might also be down to my gear changing technique. As far as my typical rides go, I'd say it's probably a 50/50 split between steep hills (and downhills) and the flat. The bike weighs about 10kg - maybe a little more. I weigh 75kg.
 
@stu_kawagoe
I can't really "see" the frame size, although your saddle seems to be in a very extreme position and the bike very old (it still has a quill stem). The derailleur and the shift levers seem quite new, though. I can't diagnose your bike from that picture, but a worn drive train could be due to a worn chain and/or a worn cassette and chain rings. When was the last time you changed the chain? Also from the picture I can't see whether your cranks have bolts or rivets that affix the chain rings. On cheaper Shimano cranksets, the chain rings are riveted to the crank, and you need to replace the whole thing. Given the age of the frame and the level of components, I think you should think about getting a new bike. Because if you need a new drive train and have that installed, even if you go for Tiagra, you are almost half-way there for getting a new bike that also comes with a new frame and new wheels.

If you do, make sure to go to a place that knows how to do a bike fit. I usually test the employees by asking them what size they think I should get. If their answer is something along the lines "I don't know." or "Don't you know?", then walk away. Sizing isn't rocket science, you just need a tape measure. Getting a properly sized and fitted bike is so much more important than 105 vs. Ultegra or carbon vs. aluminum. Given your size, note that this limits your choices somewhat, many manufacturers only sell up to size 54 cm (which I think is too small). However, it is in my experience exceedingly rare that they have a bike in 56 cm on display and even rarer that they let you test ride a bike.
 
@OreoCookie

You're right: I do need a new bike. It's served me well though as I've put 7,000km on it since I bought it second hand in December 2017.

Yep, the seat position is extreme! I think the bolt has started to wear and it gradually starts to tilt forward with use. I'm also not to fussy about riding position because I'm lazy.

I got measured at Y's Road last year and they recommended a size 56, which is at the top end for bikes in Japan. It's all moot, though, because I don't have the money to buy any of the the bikes I want (say for around 300,000 yen), and it doesn't seem worth it to pick up an entry level bike as I don't think it'd be much better than what I have. BUT the problem will come when I have to keep replacing broken/worn out parts on my current steed. False economy, right?

Oh, my plan a while back was to replace the group set with 105, get the frame and fork resprayed at Swamp Thing (notice my fork only has the original grey undercoat), replace the seat/seat post (the post is actually the original Dura Ace that came on the bike) AND replace the wheels with those decent value Campagnolo aluminum clinchers. Total cost about 150,000 yen. Obviously, that's replacing nearly all the bike Ship of Theseus style! My wife understandably nearly choked on her miso soup when I mentioned that idea to her. It is a good idea but something you do when you already have a proper bike and you want to add another "character" bike to your collection. (Oh, my mate still has all the Dura Ace parts from when he bought the bike so I could also put those on for full retro flair.)

Anyway, I love my bike and hate my bike at the same time.

There ends my thought for the day:)
 
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