VELOFUNFR

Most recent activity

• Surly Steamroller owners...

  in Bikes & Bits • 10 years, 9 months

  

  Hello,

  I'm on a 59cm with 175 mm (FSA Gimondi) + Crud mudguard : no problem at all

  Luc

• What's your favourite gear ratio?

  in General • 10 years, 11 months

  

  48x18 (FSA Gimondi / Shimano Freewheel) but I live ine a very hilly part of Paris. This allow me to climb even tired after a working day, under the rain without problem
  This ratio 48x18 is too low for flat area, If I lived in a flat area I'd use at least 48x16

  On the flat at reasonnable spinning average speed is around 23/25 km/h and donwhill would require a huge lot of spinning (it's the reason why I use a freewheel)

  Luc

• Transmission database - for all your crank / bb / bottom bracket questions

  in Mechanics & Fixin' • 11 years

  

  these are your best option price wise and quality wise
  http://velosolo.co.uk/shopcrank.html

  the "VeloSolo CNC Road and Track Chainring SILVER anodized" will probably look quite good with the gimondi's but 48t to 38t is a bit of a massive jump if you're not changing your cog, maybe 46 or 44 would be a bit more of a progression?

  Thanks a lot !!!!!

• Transmission database - for all your crank / bb / bottom bracket questions

  in Mechanics & Fixin' • 11 years

  

  Hello guys

  I've a dumb newbie question.

  I have a FSA Gimondi crankset with a 48T chainring.
  It's a little bit too much for me, I'd like to put a 38 or 42 T chainring.

  Does any 130mm 5 bolt fit or do I have to order a specific one (there is not info on FSA website)

  Thanks in advance

• Surly Steamroller owners...

  in Bikes & Bits • 13 years, 6 months

  

  i think you meant weight in the rotating components.

  Hello

  Yes it's what I mean, and (important point) in the context of a urban situation where most of the effort is used to accelerate.

  I'm no specialist in physics but I don't think the difference in rotating/non rotating part is huge when for example climbing a mountain. In this case, a gram is a gram, rotating or not (even if sometimes to regain some speed the climber has to accelerate).

  In urban situation where the main point is to accelerate again and again and again, the moment of inertia becomes important.
  And to be precise I suppose that the place of the weight is important. A rim, a tire or a tube can cause a big variation in this moment of inertia, I doubt a hub can.

  This is easily verified in real life when using heavy tires (I remember using Schwalbe Marathon Plus on one of my hybrid bikes… the first day it was a huge surprise..)

  To this we need likely to add friction , tires rolling resistance, global behavior of the wheel like (lack of) lateral stiffness that can translate part of the effort to a lateral movment instead of a forward movement, same consideration about stiffness applies to the frame itself (highend road race frames are.. stiff.. really stiff...)

  The weight is not always the enemy. When riding on the flat out of this repeated acceleration context, it is of low importance, and when riding down hill, a heavier set will go faster.

  But at the end, what I wanted to say was just that we can safely love Mr Steamroller even if it is slightly heavier than other frames.

  Luc

• Surly Steamroller owners...

  in Bikes & Bits • 13 years, 6 months

  

  No shit Columbo!

  Strange but true. The cyclist weight is an adaptable point much more important than the frame weight (except for highly fit people like road racers.. I’m not one of them by far).

  Instead of hunting some grams on the frame it's far easier to hunt for some kilos on the cyclist :-)

  Moving parts are a completely different beast, they decide if you accelerate quickly or not (inertia...).

  Frame weight is likely an important point for a road race bike used on long distances with very few stops, and likely long climbs by a very fit road racer.

  I doubt than a steamroller (or any urban bike) is used in this situation. Most of them are used in a stop/accelerate/stop/accelerate/stop/accelerate sequence. In this case inertia of moving parts is far more important than frame weight.

  The way I formulated my sentence is probably confusing (English is not my native language) I meant , that, if one wants to tune the set up, first he has to check for weight in the moving parts, second, lower his body weight, and third only, complain about the steamroller frame weight.

  So let's love Mr Steamroller !

  Luc

• Surly Steamroller owners...

  in Bikes & Bits • 13 years, 6 months

  

  Dear My Steamroller,

  you're heavy but wonderful and that's why i love you

  kisses

  kboy

  Hello,

  To be clear the frame weight is of very low importance.
  On a bike, what is important is moving parts weight.
  Power been equal, you will be faster on a heavy frame with light moving parts (wheels) than on a light frame with heavy moving parts.

  Even more than moving parts weight , inertia is the key. It's the reason why folding bikes, that are very heavy can reach their maximum (ok in this case this maximum is low) speed rather quickly with their small heavy wheels and their heavy little frames.

  So you can safely love Mr Steamroller, even if it shows a little round belly :-)

  Cheers

  Luc

• Gitane owners

  in Mechanics & Fixin' • 13 years, 7 months

  

  greetings all ..
  anybody knows what an originals color of gitane track mexico?

  cheers !! :)

  Hello,

  There is a pretty good Gitane forum at gitaneusa.com. Its rather collection oriented more than road use oriented but its a very good starting point.

  Hope this helps

  Luc

• Surly Steamroller owners...

  in Bikes & Bits • 13 years, 7 months

  

  Got mine pretty much how I want it now, one week after I built it up I'm happy to post pics. Took me a few days to decide on a stem/bars height but finally cut the steerer yesterday. Fitted full length mudguards today but these pics are from yesterday before I put those on.
  I got the full bike and swapped over some bits from my last bike but still think it broke even cost-wise (I got my store discount and sold the parts I took off), plus the bits I changed were all upgrades.
  So, we have a 2010 Steamroller with original wheels, brakes, seatpost. Upgraded Hope headset, SRAM crank, White Industries freewheel, FSA stem, Cannondale OS bars, Tektro levers, Charge saddle and Halo Berlin Courier tyres.
  I haven't looked back over this thread but it was only a few weeks ago I was wondering if I should get another Surly, you all said basically it's a no brainer and you were right.
  It rides like a beauty.

  

  

  Congrats, it is more or less exactly the Steamroller I want to build.

  Therfore I have a few questions :

  • The crank is a SRAM S300 right ? does it fit OK for the chaineline ? no problem ? It looks serious and moderately priced but I was a little bit upset by the external bearing cups.

  • which headset did you use ?

  Thanks in advance

  Luc

• Track or SingleSpeed Cranksets

  in Bikes & Bits • 13 years, 7 months

  

  Hello,

  Does anybody know if a SRAM S300 will have a correct chaineline on a Steamroller (I'm planing to build, not sure yet.. maybe I'll end with a Fuji) using Miche Xpress wheelset ?

  Thanks in advance

  Luc