Getting Off the Fence
- Thread starter GetBent
- Start date
Is it OK to use 18/25 tubes in a 28mm tire? Since I switched to the 28s, I do not think I will go back to the 23 or 25 tires. Which means I have a few tubes....
HELP!
I am still having problems with rubbing the inside of my legs on the water bottle. (Mounted using the standard Cruzbike mounts on the underside of the boom.) I tried moving it forward as far as possible, but that did not help much. Now that I am doing longer rides, it is getting really annoying. Is there a long, thin water bottle that would fit better?
Finally swiped the computer off of the Tarmac and installed it on the Vendetta. As expected, the "V" is faster downhill. (Using the wheels and computer from the Tarmac, so the difference is clearly the frame.) Surprisingly, in spite of the Vendetta's slightly higher weight (4 lbs) I was faster up my "nemesis" hill. I think that the reason is that the lower gearing allowed me to maintain a higher cadence. (33/48 - 11/27 vs 30/46 - 11/32) Or maybe I just wanted to beat my Tarmac time with the "V".
HELP!
I am still having problems with rubbing the inside of my legs on the water bottle. (Mounted using the standard Cruzbike mounts on the underside of the boom.) I tried moving it forward as far as possible, but that did not help much. Now that I am doing longer rides, it is getting really annoying. Is there a long, thin water bottle that would fit better?
Finally swiped the computer off of the Tarmac and installed it on the Vendetta. As expected, the "V" is faster downhill. (Using the wheels and computer from the Tarmac, so the difference is clearly the frame.) Surprisingly, in spite of the Vendetta's slightly higher weight (4 lbs) I was faster up my "nemesis" hill. I think that the reason is that the lower gearing allowed me to maintain a higher cadence. (33/48 - 11/27 vs 30/46 - 11/32) Or maybe I just wanted to beat my Tarmac time with the "V".
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
This solves the problem. Yeah it's $80 but it works and they are super durable cages. The replacement bottles are easy to come by on ebay for $10. Giant has an exclusive in the USA they are sold under other names in the rest of the world for $65
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/airway-aero-water-bottle---cage-kit
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/airway-aero-water-bottle---cage-kit
super slim
Zen MBB Master
You are increasing the risk of punctures, as the tube thickness will be less than designed!
I go the other way using a Schwalbe SV17 28 -47 tube (150 gms) for max tube thickness for a 700 *28 tyre.
This would increase the rolling resistance a bit, but as a slow rider, I hate fixing punctures.
A SV16 28 -35 weight is 135 gms,
A SV15 18 -25 weight is 105 gms
I go the other way using a Schwalbe SV17 28 -47 tube (150 gms) for max tube thickness for a 700 *28 tyre.
This would increase the rolling resistance a bit, but as a slow rider, I hate fixing punctures.
A SV16 28 -35 weight is 135 gms,
A SV15 18 -25 weight is 105 gms
Last edited:
Thanks! Looking for one...
I thought so, but figured it would not hurt to ask.
paco1961
Zen MBB Master
Can’t figure out how to repost but for water bottle mount check the thread posted in the road series forum. I hated the bottle on the slider so mounted two below the S40 seat using the rack bosses and a piece of Velcro -one on each side just finished a very hilly metric century and the bottle cages worked like a charm
Getting ready for winter rides. Running BFTs (big fat tires) and managed to recycle an old bike bag big enough to hold a full set of rain gear and a poly pro turtleneck. Because the only thing that sucks worse than getting caught in a squall is getting caught in a squall while changing a front tire. This set up has survived two 50 mile rides, so I think I am good to go this winter. But that carbon case would be so much more cool.
The weather broke a few weeks ago, and I have had several 35 - 50 mile rides. Decided I really need to work on hills, so went out today for a ten mile hill ride. The idea was to go out strong for the first five miles, then kick the hills the last five miles as hard as I can. Things did not go so well.
Hit 37 mph on a down hill in my top gear, then while remaining on the large chain ring started down shifting the RD to try to maintain speed up the next hill. At about 14 mph there was a horrible noise and vibration. Braked hard and came to a stop. RD went into the front wheel spokes. Had to walk it home. The good news is this did not happen going down hill.
Have no idea what happened. Too disgusted to take things apart tonight.
Hit 37 mph on a down hill in my top gear, then while remaining on the large chain ring started down shifting the RD to try to maintain speed up the next hill. At about 14 mph there was a horrible noise and vibration. Braked hard and came to a stop. RD went into the front wheel spokes. Had to walk it home. The good news is this did not happen going down hill.
Have no idea what happened. Too disgusted to take things apart tonight.
Andrew Wilson
Guru
bummer, glad you didnt go down 
Problem solved, the V20 is back in operation, but the mystery remains.
The RD hanger was bent inward, allowing the RD to contact the spokes. I have no idea how that happened. My only crash was ages ago when the rear tire blew. The prior ride was a 35 mile hill ride. Everything was fine. Also, there was no problem at the beginning of the ride. So what happened?
My best guess. I think that there was some sort of anomaly which caused the chain to jam, putting a lot of tension on it which bent the hanger. But that is only a guess. It is still a mystery to me.
That is one tough RD. In spite of the beating it took, it still works fine, other than a little wobble in the lower idler wheel.
So now I have a good excuse to upgrade the idler wheels, right? Anyone have any suggestions?
The RD hanger was bent inward, allowing the RD to contact the spokes. I have no idea how that happened. My only crash was ages ago when the rear tire blew. The prior ride was a 35 mile hill ride. Everything was fine. Also, there was no problem at the beginning of the ride. So what happened?
My best guess. I think that there was some sort of anomaly which caused the chain to jam, putting a lot of tension on it which bent the hanger. But that is only a guess. It is still a mystery to me.
That is one tough RD. In spite of the beating it took, it still works fine, other than a little wobble in the lower idler wheel.
So now I have a good excuse to upgrade the idler wheels, right? Anyone have any suggestions?
3bs
whereabouts unknown
by no means am i a racer, but i am a speed freak and i am a tinkerer. i have some trouble moving from mbbfwd to rwd and back again when it comes to the v20. but, the v20 is worth the hassle. so here are some ideas.
1. s versus v
one of the best suggestions the parkers gave me when i was asking the s versus v question was to get the v and then use a wedge to get the seat angle, because you can always take the wedge out. so if you like to go fast but sometime you dont, and you like to be aero but sometimes you dont, get the v and then cut a wedge. i got the v and have cut probably 10 wedges as i play around with seat angle. my current favorite is ironically almost exactly the thor shape for the fast thor seat. i have a thor seat, but the first time i mounted it i didn't like how it felt, so i took it off. i think it is the wrong size for me, as i have a thor seat on another bike that feels great. i am also working on an on the fly adjustable seat but thats another post. current set up is v20 with a stock seat and a wedge.
2. drive line.
when i first built my v i took parts off of my dead parts shelves. i settled on an old ultegra 3 x 9 groupset. it was a great way to start from a price standpoint (zero), and it allowed me to learn the bike to pick my next step. the next step after listening and talking to as many users as i could was to forgo electrics for the time being and given the variety of terrain, and my own pedaling style, go 2 x 11. i ended up doing SRAM force 22 groupset with 165's wifli 50/34 rings and 11-36 cassette. that has given me great climbing power and keeps me at around 5 mph in crappy climbs. but, the 50 big ring was not enough to get me where i wanted to be in the early parts of good downhills and did not give me enough gear to pick up fast enough at the end of a big coast, so i went to wickwerks 53/34 front rings. this combo also gives me more fine tuning on ratios as the standard has 5 dups and this only has 1 dup. the ramps actually work to bring that little chain up.
3. handlebars.
i tried three bars and settled on the stock bars with 2.5" trimmed off the ends. the positioning is so comfortable that i rarely change grip location. totally not what i expected.
4 wheels.
i tried four sets of wheels, and really like them all, but my favorites are Reynolds attacks, even though they have gotten some bad reviews lately, my only complaint with them is that my favorite tire does not go on them very easy. but my second favorite tire goes on just fine.
5. tires.
my current favorite is the schwable g one speed in 30-622. - fits fine on the vendetta and roads around me suck. tire is fast and yet pretty big. my second favorite is the schwable ones -hs62a in 28, but they have come out with that in a 30.
that is the current set up for whatever its worth.
1. s versus v
one of the best suggestions the parkers gave me when i was asking the s versus v question was to get the v and then use a wedge to get the seat angle, because you can always take the wedge out. so if you like to go fast but sometime you dont, and you like to be aero but sometimes you dont, get the v and then cut a wedge. i got the v and have cut probably 10 wedges as i play around with seat angle. my current favorite is ironically almost exactly the thor shape for the fast thor seat. i have a thor seat, but the first time i mounted it i didn't like how it felt, so i took it off. i think it is the wrong size for me, as i have a thor seat on another bike that feels great. i am also working on an on the fly adjustable seat but thats another post. current set up is v20 with a stock seat and a wedge.
2. drive line.
when i first built my v i took parts off of my dead parts shelves. i settled on an old ultegra 3 x 9 groupset. it was a great way to start from a price standpoint (zero), and it allowed me to learn the bike to pick my next step. the next step after listening and talking to as many users as i could was to forgo electrics for the time being and given the variety of terrain, and my own pedaling style, go 2 x 11. i ended up doing SRAM force 22 groupset with 165's wifli 50/34 rings and 11-36 cassette. that has given me great climbing power and keeps me at around 5 mph in crappy climbs. but, the 50 big ring was not enough to get me where i wanted to be in the early parts of good downhills and did not give me enough gear to pick up fast enough at the end of a big coast, so i went to wickwerks 53/34 front rings. this combo also gives me more fine tuning on ratios as the standard has 5 dups and this only has 1 dup. the ramps actually work to bring that little chain up.
3. handlebars.
i tried three bars and settled on the stock bars with 2.5" trimmed off the ends. the positioning is so comfortable that i rarely change grip location. totally not what i expected.
4 wheels.
i tried four sets of wheels, and really like them all, but my favorites are Reynolds attacks, even though they have gotten some bad reviews lately, my only complaint with them is that my favorite tire does not go on them very easy. but my second favorite tire goes on just fine.
5. tires.
my current favorite is the schwable g one speed in 30-622. - fits fine on the vendetta and roads around me suck. tire is fast and yet pretty big. my second favorite is the schwable ones -hs62a in 28, but they have come out with that in a 30.
that is the current set up for whatever its worth.
Mystery solved!
I was loafing down a shallow hill (1% according to the computer) when a cyclist headed in the opposite direction waved to me. I waved back, then my cranks locked up and I had to coast to the side of the road.
What happened is that as I put my left hand back on the bars, I accidently bumped the shift button as I up shifted with my right hand. This resulted in a dropped chain. There is a light mounted to the fin on the bottom bracket, and a bolt with a lock nut protrudes towards the chain ring. There is enough space for the chain to fit between the bolt and the chain ring, but not much. The chain hung.
So that is how the RD hanger got bent. I dropped the chain, it hung, and since I was pushing hard the sudden stop over stressed the RD hanger, bending it and sending the RD into the spokes.
It will be a relatively easy fix to modify the light mount, should be done before the new chain arrives...
I was loafing down a shallow hill (1% according to the computer) when a cyclist headed in the opposite direction waved to me. I waved back, then my cranks locked up and I had to coast to the side of the road.
What happened is that as I put my left hand back on the bars, I accidently bumped the shift button as I up shifted with my right hand. This resulted in a dropped chain. There is a light mounted to the fin on the bottom bracket, and a bolt with a lock nut protrudes towards the chain ring. There is enough space for the chain to fit between the bolt and the chain ring, but not much. The chain hung.
So that is how the RD hanger got bent. I dropped the chain, it hung, and since I was pushing hard the sudden stop over stressed the RD hanger, bending it and sending the RD into the spokes.
It will be a relatively easy fix to modify the light mount, should be done before the new chain arrives...
super slim
Zen MBB Master
You need one of these!!!!
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/au/en/lifeline-chain-catcher-double/rp-prod155614
I am glad that you did not fall off the bike!!!
super slim
Zen MBB Master
You need one of these!!!!
I hate chip seal!
Out for a ride, and a section of road had been chip sealed. Figured I could go through it by slowing down and moving to the area that the cars had packed down. Unfortunately, a large truck came up behind me before the end, so I moved to the right. Yup, you guessed it, hit a pile of loose gravel and went down hard. The weird thing is that most of the force of the crash seemed to have been taken up by the front light which is mounted to the fin on the bottom bracket. The fin was twisted about 45 degrees which blocked the crank arm keeping it from rotating, and the rear of the light was forced into the inner chain ring, which put a big bend into it. Had to walk it home.
Ordered a new chain ring. Just before hanging up with the folks from FSA, asked if I needed a special tool to remove the chain ring. Yup, needed one, and it was out of stock. Every online bicycle store that I could find was also out of stock. Found out by accident that the FSA tool is the same as a Cannondale tool. It just arrived. Hope it actually fits. Grrrr.
Out for a ride, and a section of road had been chip sealed. Figured I could go through it by slowing down and moving to the area that the cars had packed down. Unfortunately, a large truck came up behind me before the end, so I moved to the right. Yup, you guessed it, hit a pile of loose gravel and went down hard. The weird thing is that most of the force of the crash seemed to have been taken up by the front light which is mounted to the fin on the bottom bracket. The fin was twisted about 45 degrees which blocked the crank arm keeping it from rotating, and the rear of the light was forced into the inner chain ring, which put a big bend into it. Had to walk it home.
Ordered a new chain ring. Just before hanging up with the folks from FSA, asked if I needed a special tool to remove the chain ring. Yup, needed one, and it was out of stock. Every online bicycle store that I could find was also out of stock. Found out by accident that the FSA tool is the same as a Cannondale tool. It just arrived. Hope it actually fits. Grrrr.
Rod Butler
Well-Known Member
I started out with the same water bottle set up but after some rough trails and loosing a couple I switched to 'side opening cages', which in the same configuration, has the opening on the top side....if you get my drift(?). A little bit of getting used to but more secure.
