New Vendetta V20
- Thread starter Abbott Smith
- Start date
Abbott Smith
Guru
Jeremy,
It is the same chain. I checked it yesterday morning before my 12 mile trail ride and insured that the qwik links were fully engaged. No problems with that ride. This morning had one minor skip early in the ride and then no problems until the disaster.
Spoke with the friend who helped me build the bike and we think we figured it out. Needed a bit more than one SRAM chain to deal with the larger cog set we used. I bought one chain and my friend spliced in a chunk of another he had in his parts. Turns out the spliced segment was not the same size. I didn't realize he'd done that or I would have bought a second chain.
It appears to have failed at the link between the two sizes. Didn't even occur to me to check that the links weren't the same size. The RD I broke was one he provided and I happen to have a spare. So,at the end of the day, all I'm out is the broken RD hanger and some chain. I have a spare RD hanger. We were going to recable the derailleurs tomorrow to clean up the routing anyway when we tape the handlebars. Replacing the hanger and RD will add maybe 5 minutes to the job.
Annoying, but it could have been a lot worse.
Abbott Smith
Guru
Update:
Sigrditha is back on the road. New RD, chain, RD cable routing and new bar tape. I'll take pictures tonight and get in a short shakedown ride.
Sigrditha is back on the road. New RD, chain, RD cable routing and new bar tape. I'll take pictures tonight and get in a short shakedown ride.
Abbott Smith
Guru
As promised, Pictures!
New RD works great. Quick shakedown ride around the miniloop. Added cornering drills, more pedaling u-turn practice and tonight I added the steep cul de sac. Two trips up the short hill worked great. Intentionally did not hammer the hill to get a feel for going slower and trying to spin. I also focused on maintaining my line.
Next up will be the 11-16% grade 300' climb up to the top of Education Hill. Probably going to shoot for tackling it Saturday. Then Sunday will be a 35 mile training ride with the JDRF NW crew in the farmland around LaConner, WA. Not bad progress for my first week on the bike.
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
Always good. Some others should chime in but to my eye; that last section of housing by the rear derailleur looks about 1-2 inches short and that might bind up your shifting; it will work but it will shift harder coming up from 11T heading toward 15R. Next maintenance window after you have a 1000 mile in you might want to lengthen that and replace the cable. NOT something that has to be done now as it would be wasting a shift wire. Good lesson here leave the derailleur wire LONG if you can for the first 200 miles. I did the exact same thing last season and changed it at about 900 miles
Sir you are braver than me; I avoided anything like that for quite awhile. We need photos of said hill cause it will indeed be and Education
Rick Youngblood
CarbonCraft Master
I concur! Uphill slow speed handling is easier to learn after you have mastered the flats. It came easy for me after becoming one with the bike.
Abbott Smith
Guru
Ratz,Sir you are braver than me; I avoided anything like that for quite awhile. We need photos of said hill cause it will indeed be and Education
I can do better than a picture. My hill is one of profiled climbs in the region. Here's the gradient breakdown.
http://www.bicycleclimbs.com/Default.aspx?ClimbId=53
I live at the intersection between the 18% and 16% sections. If I want to ride from my home I don't have any choice. This is the only road out of my neighborhood. There are three other side streets up the hill but they all have significant 20%+ grade sections. This is my reality. Ignoring it or fearing it won't get me down the road. So I face it head on.
jond
Zen MBB Master
hi a
i am like you learning on the vendetta and i can say it is a challenge so very worthwhile. i have 1300klm on the clock and will not consider myself a true pilot till after 5000klm have passed under the wheels. keep riding and reporting it is great to see your progress. wait till you get the hang of steering with your legs whilst relaxed. keep doing the low speed figure 8s.
cheers jd
hi abbot i have a friend here in australia with diabetes type 1. he is an inspiration to us mere mortals. his active management of his diabetes aged 42 is a science for sure but he is not held back at all far from it. i have watched him first hand cycle 410klm within 14 hours. so on your vendetta you will be able to do it in 12
i am like you learning on the vendetta and i can say it is a challenge so very worthwhile. i have 1300klm on the clock and will not consider myself a true pilot till after 5000klm have passed under the wheels. keep riding and reporting it is great to see your progress. wait till you get the hang of steering with your legs whilst relaxed. keep doing the low speed figure 8s.cheers jd
Abbott Smith
Guru
Thanks Jondhi a
hi abbot i have a friend here in australia with diabetes type 1. he is an inspiration to us mere mortals. his active management of his diabetes aged 42 is a science for sure but he is not held back at all far from it. i have watched him first hand cycle 410klm within 14 hours. so on your vendetta you will be able to do it in 12
cheers jd
Since hooking up with the JDRF and the Sports and Diabetes Group NW, I've met dozens of other athletes with T1d. Three of my coaches have T1d. The past six months have been a revelation for me and my health. Just being able to get back on a bike again has meant everything to me. I've been very successful since hooking up with the JDRF in managing my illness while participating in athletics but every once in a while it asserts itself with a vengeance. Breaking my brand new bike sent me on an emotional roller coaster that amplified an already low BG. But I know what to do when that happens and we got me through it.
And my bike is back on the road with only one day of lost riding time. I'm having a blast on the V20 and looking forward to my first serious road ride tomorrow.
As for inspiration, I need to look no farther than my main coach. He's two years younger than me and last year went mountain biking in the Himalayas.
jond
Zen MBB Master
hi abbot having fun on the v20 is all cycling is about. lets pray for a cure for type 1. lots of work going into it. mountain biking in the himalayas wow. now that is inspirational. here is to your continued learning and enjoyment of the vendetta. thanks for sharing your experience abbot on this great forum.
Abbott Smith
Guru
Keeping Pace
Sigr-D continues to amaze me. Yesterday we were back on the road with the JDRF NW crew. 38 miles through the farmland southwest of Mt Baker. (This is flower country with spring bulbs being the primary crop.) Cruised along at 15-18 mph depending on the road surface. My heart rate locked in at 110-115. Did about 450' feet of rolling hills and through it all the bike glided through the landscape. Somewhere around mile 15 I stopped thinking and just rode. Laid back and just watched as a bald eagle circled above me catching a thermal. This bike feels right.
Worked on a series of things throughout the ride: holding my line, hills, cornering while reclined, spinning while climbing, matching tempo with the DFs, hand position and removing my hands to do things like drink.
Need to make some adjustments. We installed the top tube upside down. Put the water bottle cage right in my sight line. In fact all of the cockpit items need to be rigged under the handlebars. Fortunately one my friends offered to carry my bottle so I could see better. Really helpful. The seam between the seat pads is awkward because it doesn't provide padding when I sit up. A bit sore in the sacrum area after the ride. And I want to add more storage. And will need to be very careful with the sunscreen on my face. Got a bit burned even with it.
But none of this dampened a glorious day in the saddle.
Charles.Plager
Recumbent Quant
Like a fish to water.
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
Ventisit Seat Pad solves that problem and the hot sweaty day problem. Highly recommend if you don't already have one on backorder from Robert.
DuncanWatson
Well-Known Member
Abbot,
It is good to see how well you are adapting to the Vendetta. I can't wait to see it in person again.
It is good to see how well you are adapting to the Vendetta. I can't wait to see it in person again.
Abbott Smith
Guru
Wish my budget was +1
Rick Youngblood
CarbonCraft Master
For me the Ventisit pad is a must have, like tires and wheels.
JOSEPHWEISSERT
Zen MBB Master
Hi Abbot, I'm a very new Vendetta-lover also - and now an ex-DF rider. I just wanted to share some of my experiences over the last few weeks. I apologize in advance for the long-winded novel, but my wife has just about heard enough of my Vendetta stories. I think she is becoming suspicious of my new love affair. First, I found the Vendetta neck rest very harsh on my eyeballs whenever I rode on anything other than pristine pavement. The problem was that the vibration went from the road to the wheel to the frame to my neck and head and then to my eyeballs. So I bought a large Volae carbon seat (I'm 69.5 inches tall) as recommended by Rick Youngblood (a truly amazing guy when it comes to customization). I also purchased the Ventisit seat pad to fit the Volae seat to be both comfortable as well as to allow sweat to evaporate (it works beautifully and I highly recommend it as others have done so here). Then I made a slight modification to Rick's design by adding strips and blocks of Sorbothane under the seat between the seat and the frame. This is an advanced material that acts like both a liquid and a solid and therefore absorbs vibration better than other materials (imagine trying to hammer in a nail with a water balloon). For a headrest, I bought the ADEM headrest as recommended by Rick Youngblood. The tricky part was determining exactly where to drill the four holes in the seat since the seat is all curves. By attaching the headrest to the seat and isolating the seat from the frame with Sorbothane, I can now go over extremely recessed manhole covers and other road imperfections and not even be bothered by them. It is as smooth as silk. I still go up and down on the really rough stuff, but it feels great. Regarding tires, I used to ride 23 mm tires at 120 PSI on my DF. After doing some research, I found that wider tires would roll faster and be more comfortable (basically). So I installed 28 mm Continental Gatorskins and larger tubes. The wheels are now a little heavier, but they are more comfortable at 100 PSI, roll faster, and are less susceptible to flats due to the tubes, the tires, and the pressure. Regarding water bottles, I tried the cage on the boom but found I hit it with my legs sometimes and that it was annoying. I also did not like the extra weight on the boom. If I need to have three water bottles at some point, I can always easily mount a cage under the boom if I have to. So then I purchased a couple of Minoura strap-on bottle bosses from Amazon. I had tried a different design, but the Minoura product functioned much better, although it is not as easy to install or adjust. I angled my bottles so they wouldn't bounce out and so they would still be pretty aerodynamic. I purchased the Cateye BC-100 water bottle cages ($6 each on Amazon) and mounted them on the Minoura bottle bosses. These are the best I could find as far as not dropping bottles. But they will still drop bottles eventually on rough roads if they are mounted horizontally, but not if mounted at an angle. Then to the bottles. I bought some 24-ounce CamelBak Podium bottles, which are amazing. They don't leak and can blow some water into your mouth when you need it. I mounted the bosses, cages, and bottles to the frame down under the seat on the left and right sides so that I could reach them while riding. I'm still learning to drink without killing myself, but the part I am working on is getting the bottle back in the cage. The difficulty is not being able to see the cage, so I have to learn where the cage is and at which angle to hold the bottle when I put it back in the cage - just something more to learn. The reason I mounted the bottles on the frame instead of behind the back of the seat is because I wanted the weight to be low, centered, and to not negatively affect my seat weight, which would happen due to the leverage of the bottles behind my back. One last tweak: I purchased a bar-end shifter and mounted it on the right-hand side - this is for shifting the chain-rings. I like this much better than a brifter for chain-ring shifting. I also found it much easier to tune. I bought a cheap brake lever for the left hand and I still have a brifter for the right hand brake and cogset shifting. So I do all my shifting with my right hand. If I would have known how great a bar-end shifter is, I would have put one on my DF years ago. So my goals are comfort, eliminating all of the medical problems that can be caused by a DF, and to be even faster. I've been making great progress and feel much more in control than I did at first. I am past the WHID moment (what have I done?) after crashing three times in the first two rides. But now I am much more stable. I went out riding a couple of different times on my V with strong riders who were on carbon DFs. The most recent was 100 miles yesterday with a fresh victim. The result was that a strong climber can match me in climbing (my Vendetta is about 10 pounds heavier than a comparable carbon DF) and the steeper the climb, the more advantage the DF rider has. I expect that as the frame technology changes and allows a much lighter Vendetta, this climbing disadvantage will eventually be drastically reduced. But - I can easily drop a strong DF rider on the flats. This is extreme to the point of ego damage. I can ride along without working hard at 23 to 26 mph on the flats, while the DF rider is dying trying to draft me (which is pretty much pointless) until he blows up and becomes a distant point in my two mirrors. (Of course I eventually slowed down and waited even though the V kept telling me to "keep going there's no reason to slow down." But I'm not a total dick!) So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I can't wait to get out on the roads again on my "V for Vendetta".
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Rick Youngblood
CarbonCraft Master
Joseph, thanks for the update, and great to see that you are getting along nicely with your new Vendetta. I image that you will get faster and faster as the miles pile on, and I wouldn't be surprised if you updated with future news that you are climbing faster than your DF counterparts.
