AlexD's modest array of bikes

You have PM. Currently looking at nicer stems and need to find out the seatpost size I need. I imagine I’ll decide the rear mech needs to be nicer at some point, too.....

Aargh!!

Just when I thought I’d talked myself out of spraying my daughter’s bike with CNC/crabon/purple ano...

The only reason I’ve not full ano nightmare is the pink frame. Not sure what colour to match to it. Gold?

Green?

Blue!

It currently has a bronze (?) top cap on it which I had lying around. I hadn’t really noticed before but it’s almost the inverse of my genesis.

They’re only a few quid on the ‘bay so I’ll grab a green one and see how that feels...

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Question: considering going as cheap as £15 for a carbon seatpost off Amazon.

Bad parent or rad parent?

Rad

Right. I need to get brakes on the Giant. What’s the canti link solution of choice then? I found the y type (?) really easy to set up but the fact it exploded after not much use makes me nervous about using them again. Was I just unlucky? Am I better with a separate bridge thing and link cable, like on tektros?

I have one of those if you want it, stupidly bought 2......

Which one you got? And wouldn’t buying 2 be normal practise for something you need a pair of?!

I’ll stop by tomorrow eve.

Ok cool! Will you be on delivery rounds? If so I’ll put an order in :-)

I will.

Awesome kid bike. Good move swapping the grip shifter, I remember my kids struggling with those things when they were smaller.

Genesis also rad, and the giant. Why no proper v-brake love though?

I’ve never set v brakes up before and I think I just got in a grump trying to do them, not being able to get them quite right, then realising I’d need full size Vs anyway. Superficially, I much prefer the look of cantis so if I can get them braking well with better pads that’s good enough for me!

The genesis is probably the bike i own with the least character, but it’s just so much fun.

Absolute squelch-a-thon this morning. I’m amazed my bottom bracket is still fine, with the amount of submersions it gets. Nice to have a chance to use my new brakes properly - the difference is night and day from my old Spyres.

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Got the Giant roadworthy again. Many thanks to @Matisse for swinging by with a pair of these little cam things. Super easy to set up, once I’d drilled out the other side of the fork, which didn’t have a hole!

Havn’t put one on the back yet as it’s already set up with the straddle thing that didnt explode.

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Interested to see how it compares to the previous set up. I’m assuming you get less judder with these. Hopefully less squeal too, as it was pretty bad previously.

Glad to see they worked for ya

Never seen those before, what’s the idea? That you can adjust each side separately?

I think there’s improved mechanical advantage? Also it helps having the fixed point where the cable stops nearer to the wheel, as opposed to on a stem or steerer like it usually is.

With regards the squealing, give the pads a slight toe in, that usually helps.

I had done that and it helped a little but not a lot. I do wonder if decent pads might make a difference - on the shopping list!

Make sure everything is clean (rims and pads), but yeah, a good set of pads does help, I'm currently running the Swissstop blue compound for alu rims, great stopping power in all weather conditions, also found Koolstop salmon and Shimano Ultegra to be fairly decent.
Stock Tektro pads are too hard, last ages but not great performance wise.