Component advice requested

[cycletourista]

Hi all,

I've been reading this forum for some time now and am getting really excited about buying and building up a Silvio. But I need some imput re: component choices.
I'm pretty set on the Sram Rival groupo.....great price and quality, but I'd like to have some feedback on my choices.

1) 52/36 double crankset w/65mm cranks
2) 12/25 Cassette

I do a fair bit of group riding and want something geared to keep up with the big boys as well as to not leave me stranded on the hills. I hates walking up hills! :evil:

By the way, I am 54 year old female who just took up road biking this year, but I'm selling my road bike to help pay for my new Silvio.
Unfortunately not enough of my bike's components are compatible to make it a worthy donor bike.
Besides, there is something wonderful about opening all those boxes of brand new parts!

And a special shoutout to Maria. Truly an inspiration! You are my idol!

Cheers,
Karen

 

[Mark B]

Hi Karen!

Welcome to the forum!

Why won't your current road bike's components work? Care to elaborate?

Your choices look pretty decent. I prefer triple setups because I don't like shifting the front derailleur that much, but that seems to be just me.

Mark

 

[Drew]

Karen

I'm the new guy here so I'll leave the advice to more seasoned Silvio owners.

I did want to share this link with you in case you had not seen it before. It is a gear calculator that will give you gear inches, ratios and speed calculations. It really helped with my gearing selection.
Drew


http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

 

[Doug Burton]

Hi Karen,

I can enthusiastically recommend SRAM Rival for the Silvio.

Maria's yellow record bike used Rival components and this was my first experience with them; I was very impressed and they worked exceptionally well.

Best,

Doug

 

[WhiteSilvio]

cycletourista wrote: Hi all, ....edit edit.....
1) 52/36 double crankset w/65mm cranks
2) 12/25 Cassette

I do a fair bit of group riding and want something geared to keep up with the big boys as well as to not leave me stranded on the hills. I hates walking up hills! :evil:

By the way, I am 54 year old female who just took up road biking this year, but I'm selling my road bike to help pay for my new Silvio.
Cheers,
Karen

Hi Karen,
Firstly welcome to the forum.
Something to consider, or at least keep in mind.
The cassette you have in mind.

It is worth remembering that Shimano make a 12-27 cassette, which gives you that little bit more on the hills, and the interesting news is that Shimano have introduced an 11-28 cassette, which gives an even wider spread, particularly at the lower end. I may well opt for this next time I have to replace cassettes. My experience suggests that one really needs something fairly "lowish" for some hills, IMHO.(All are 10 speed cassettes)

When I set my Silvio up I had 50/34 front rings, with 170mm crank arms (compact crank) and an 11/23 cassette. (I thought this would give me a good coverage, slightly better than the 52/39, 12/25 combination I had had on my DF bike.)
However after a long break, over a year off, for medical reasons, on any bike, I struggled with this combination up hills, although I have to say the 50 to 11 combination was a blast down hills, where the aerodynamics of the Silvio really shines!!

So I felt I had to swap the cassette over to a 12-27, which I did, and this allowed me to cope with all but the very steepest hills.
[I have the other cassette (11/23) on a spare set of wheels (from my DF) bike and I am going to experiment with this for some runs to see if it/I cope with some of the hills okay now that I have a bit of "fitness" back after over a year and very nearly 7000km on the Silvio.]

I hope I haven't confused you. This is one of those topics that could and probably will cause a lot of conjecture. I think personal preferences come into play.
Over time needs change as one develops different skills. Riding a Silvio isn't quite like riding a DF bike, and the riding technique will have you going ahead of the pack at times and falling back at others, assuming that the people that you ride with are of similar ability. Since I only get to ride with DF riders this is sometimes frustrating. I can't quite keep with the really fast boys, except for the first half hour or so where I am often ahead, but I am not too far behind, certainly ahead of most. It means that I get to ride on my own a fair bit until the riders regroup.

I believe that the Shimano cassette is compatible with the SRAM gear, assuming that it is 10 speed. For some reason I have the impression that SRAM don't make cassettes, and actually use Shimano gear. But I'm quite happy to be corrected on that point. :shock: Doug and others will know.

Anyhow all the best,
John R.

 

[cycletourista]

Hi all,

Wow, thanks for all the good advice guys.

Mark,

My road bike (which is now sold, by the way) had Shimano Sora shifters, which apparently do not work with the handlebar setup on the Silvio. Seeing as how the shifters are probably the most expensive component to replace, I decided that it would make more sense financially to get my money back out of the DF and essentially have the new Silvio components, wheels , handlebar, etc. paid for. Besides the bike is now going to a loving home. Oh yea, and I didn't think I could convince my husband to help me cannibalize a perfectly good bike. LOL

Drew,

Thanks for the link to Sheldon's site. I'll see if I can wrap my head around the gear calculations, though I have to admit that numbers are not my forte. :? BTW, I'm just west of Ottawa.

Doug,

I was just checking out your blog with the specs of Maria's and Jim's bikes. I was interested to see that Maria was running 175mm cranks. In your opinion, is there any benefit to running 165mm cranks?
Quite a few recumbent riders swear by them (especially for us shorter folks).

John,

Interesting insight into the dynamics of gearing and climbing. Sram has a 12-27 cassette which from the sound of it might be the way to go, especially with the compact double. I'm pretty strong on hills on the very light roadbike and not too shabby on my VRex. Both 9 speed w/ triple chainrings, although I very seldom use the smallest ring on either bike. Very excited to have one bike that will combine the speed and agility of the road DF with the comfort of the recumbent.

I did my very first century ride a couple of weeks ago, 100 miles (160 kms) in 7 hours on my VRex.
Next year I plan to do it a in much faster time on my Silvio!

Cheers,
Karen

 

[Drew]

Karen
Can't say I've been to CP but I have visited Smith Falls. I am a bit envious of area you have available for riding. Looks like you and I are the charter members of the Silvio Owners Club of Ontario.

Drew

 

[Mark B]

I live pretty close to and have ridden in Ontario...... California! :lol:

Mark

 

[Doug Burton]

Hi Karen,

Most of our Silvios have been built with 170mm cranks. I'm 5'6" and those work well for me.

We are building a research Silvio for Maria (Which I'm referring to as the Silvio 12HR) on which we will test 165mm cranks with Rotor Q-rings. 175mm cranks are generally too long for me, although when I tested them with some old Biopace chainrings they seemed to work better for me.

I used a 165mm triple on my red kit bike when I used it for the MS150 in 2006 and it worked exceptionally well.

Best,

Doug

 

[Lief]

Karen,
Welcome.

I recently bought a Silvio and outfitted it with all SRAM Rival components.
I have had trouble with (my LBS) the adjustment for the front derailer (Sheldon Brown spelling), nothing they do seems to get the adjustment right, either off the top or dumps off the bottom. I haven't had it back to them in a while but it NEEDS to be fixed.

After a mixup (that I am fine with btw) with Jim P. on my order I stand now with a 170mm crank, a 53/39 double chainring, and an 11-28 cassette that gets me up any hill I need it to. It wasn't that way at first, I HATE Walking too, especially around other roadies, but I did it a few times in the beginning.

The steepest ones are a challenge in balancing and wheel slippage (700x23C tires) but it can be done. It took me 200-300 miles to find out from John Tolhurst how to climb hills without slippage and it took 400 miles to internalize the fact that my front wheel is the drive wheel. Until 400 miles I would find myself taking one-last-power-stroke on an uphill right before my BACK wheel hit the bump.
This turns out to be almost exactly the time when my front wheel hit the bump, which would inevitably cause me to spin out and lose forward momentum.

Now that I have internalized (paradigm shifted) that, I take that one-last-power stroke BEFORE I hit the bump with my front wheel, and then apply power while my REAR wheel is rolling over it.

Sounds simple but this was my most difficult transition moving to FWD.

I have 850 miles on my bike as a commuter and I can say, the 53/39 setup is working. There are times when I wouldn't mind another bottom gear but I don't ever need it. I could see the possibility of some knee strain if you don't spin enough, and it is harder to spin more with this setup on hills.

I can absolutely fly downhills but I must say the aero of this bike outstrips the pedals pretty fast and if you don't have the room to pedal all the way up to 40+ mph (and instead coast up there) it is a pretty shaky feeling trying to *start* pedalling at the 110+ cadence you would need to pick up more speed. I am only now, after about 650 miles, able to feel more or less comfortable with high cadences like that at speeds of 35+.
Before that I just felt like I was gonna shake myself out of my rims and wreck.

This morning, in the rain, I cruised on the flat, with no wind, for about 3 miles at about 23-24mph, pushing hard but with more in the tank. Only the hardest racers on my route are tracking that speed and then they are crouched into the unholiest of positions. I really feel kinda sorry for them.

Next challenge for me is no-hands riding.

Yer gonna love it and yes, Maria is an amazing inspiration.

 

[cannondale]

Double post

 

[cannondale]

I have just purchased a previously owned Silvio frame and have a question about the handlebars, shifters and brake levers.

I have index (twist) shifters and brake levers that I want to use on my Silvio that came from my old bike. The components came off of a mountain bike handlebar. What type of handlebar do you recommend for such shifters. I am 6'2" so I will need bars that are wide enough that don't create an issue with my knees. I don't want to use a flat bar for various reasons.

Thanks

 

[Doug Burton]

Hi Cannondale,

DefJack is the master of alternative shifters and bars on the Silvio.

I think what you want to do is described in this post:

http://www.cruzbike.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1882

I'm sure Jack would be glad to share is experience with you.

Best,

Doug

 

[defjack]

Check out the Silvio brag board.Cruiser bars work great with plenty of clearance the steel ones are stiffer.You also need to use road brake levers like the ShimanoR550. The Silvio also uses a wide bar clamp so you will have to widen the clamp area on the bars.I used 1/2in aluminum shims and JB weld. Jack

 

[cannondale]

Has anyone used the Rans X-Stream style handlebars on their Silvio? They look to me like they should fit and allow the use of the twist shifters and mountain bike brake levers

 

[Mark B]

Cannondale,

You can shim whatever you want to shim. That being said... I think Campagnolo is the cat's meow. Even the older stuff; it's cradle to grave componentry.

Mark

 

[cannondale]

Mark,

I am not interested in shimming anything to put this bike together. I am looking for a set of handle bars that will fit, without shimming and allow me to use index/twist shifters and mountain bike brake levers. Rans has some interesting looking handle bars that they use on their bikes. The bars do allow twist shifters and MB brake levers. The only thing I want to know is has anyone used any of these handle bars on their bikes.

The components that I am going to use are Dura Ace and Ultegra parts from Shimano. This leaves me to do some searching for the right handle bars.

Cannondale

 

[defjack]

You could use a Rans B39 bar but you will still have to shim it or use a short mt. bike stem. The Silvio stem works great on road bike bars but mt bikes have a narrower clamping area.So you have 2 choices for using mt type bars. New stem or shim the bar.With a stem you will need a 1 1/8 stem and either drill or file out to 1 3/16. Also road brakes wont work with mt bike levers only 20$.I can post a pict of my shim if you want. Jack

 

[defjack]

This is what I did.The bars dont slip at all. Jack

 

[cannondale]

I have a mountain bike flat handle bar that is 31.6 in diameter. Due to 2 neck surgeries I had to use the MB handle bar so I could set more up right. I also used index/twist shifters with MB levers. My Cannondale was all road bike with the exception of the handlebars and shifters/brake levers. If I can find the right handlebar I belive the shifters/brake levers should work.