Current Projects chat and miscellany

I shal restrain my marmite thoughts and revert back to bicycle enthusiasm

Ready for Fixed TTs

Well apart from a small gearing change that's happening this week.

rad.

v. nice!!!

please post in fort owners thread too

Decided to have drop bars on the district for a change,also put ultegra cranks on.

Put the quick release on the levers back.

I'll try and take some better photos next week when the light is better, but for the moment my daily ride is done

finely proportioned, nice job!

oef, that is nice!

very tidy... what size? 62+?

The cockpit looks lovely and neat, those SSR VR-C bars are great for the price and the bend seems spot on for me. Any first impressions?

Cheers chaps, its reasonably large at 62cm yes. I think my favourite thing about those bars is how flat you can get the transition to the levers, i'm getting a pair for my touring bike too, only thing i'd personally prefer is the drop was a tad longer.
The bike as a whole is great, very responsive, i've not used campag stuff before but it seems to be very comfortable, responsive and accurate in the gear changes (which my old sora equipped bike certainly wasn't). I'll have to ride it more but so far so good.

really lovely, super tidy cable routing!

Very tasty Spotter, looks like it'll fly!

DFP - sounds like you should keep an eye out for a 2nd hand boardman cx like mine and dammits, although I've had some issues with braking power (don't know why no reviews pick up on this?) have dammits bb7s and travel agent en route which should sort it. The bike is great fun to ride on or off road, light enough, full ensemble of eyelets, and not a bad looking bike if you ask me...

Get rid of the Sora shifter - I changed the brake for a BB7 - still spongy (but noticably powerful).

Decided to have drop bars on the district for a change,also put ultegra cranks on.

ugly

Get rid of the Sora shifter - I changed the brake for a BB7 - still spongy (but noticably powerful).

Bike already has bb7's on it. What levers do you recommend?

Im not keen on spending any more money on it though.

I didn't have a problem with the BB7 using Shimano 105 (ST-5500) levers. Spend some time getting the brakes set up, they are fussy. Make sure they are absolutely straight, and that there is negligible disc run out, because they only feel good when you have tiny pad clearances. I used Transfil cables, which have longitudinal strands in the outers so they don't compress like spiral wound outers. I might have switched the pads too, EBC Red compound has quite a different feel compared with the general purpose pads which come with stock brakes, which are made to avoid lawsuits from the inept, not to provide the snappiest braking for enthusiasts.

I dont think the pads should be a concern, I have used some well dodgy cheapo cable disc brakes in my time. Unevenly worn pads and BIG clearances too. But they always had great bite.

This feels like a leverage issue.

This feels like a leverage issue.

This sounds like you've already given up on the Kona and are looking for its replacement, in which case you're probably right to reject spending a total of £50 to sort out both the brakes and the reach issue with a shorter stem.

Seat tubes on the two smallest Dew Drops are 74°, so the only way that should feel like you're sat too far back is if you're coming from a 1970s track iron or a triathlon bike. On the other hand, the top tubes on the little ones do look long, which combines with the steep seat tube to give a long reach. Compared with a traditional 73° parallel 49cm square road frame, the "49cm" Dew Drop looks to have a full 5cm more reach, which indicates a 35mm stem would be needed for typical proportional set up with road drops. With only 45mm fork offset on a 70° head tube, it might actually work having a super short stem to quicken the steering working against the long trail, although it might not and it's an inelegant way to go about it anyway. The alternative given your fit is a standard road geometry, but at the top tube length that implies, and with a normal head angle, you'd have even more toe overlap. At this point Ed will rightly suggest that you probably need to go to 650b to get something which has acceptable fit, steering and toe clearance.

I agree. I have never found a 700c bike that fits just right. Only ones have been 650c front which allowed a super short front end without getting toe overlap. I guess two 650/26" wheels would be good. But small bikes like that arent very high, so I would end up with a super duper long seatpost which may end up putting the seat too far back aswell!

My current road bike fits reasonably well, but is quite inelegant. A 54cm horizontal TT but a BMX type stem and bullhorns.

This sounds like you've already given up on the Kona and are looking for its replacement, in which case you're probably right to reject spending a total of £50 to sort out both the brakes and the reach issue with a shorter stem.

Ive kinda given up on it, and I am not only too cheap to spend £50 on it, but I am not spending any more money on bikes for a long time. I will force myself to ride it and get my moneys worth. More or less as it is, or with parts I arleady own.

Like that.