Road Cycling

Soldato
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18 Oct 2002
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Notts
How about Cycliq Fly12 camera/light for £143 from ProBikeKit if you use code 'cw10'?

Apologies, my hugely vague post should have specified that I meant complete bikes.

Anyway, just pulled the trigger on a Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc 2017 which has dipped under the grand mark at Rutland. Couldn't resist!
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2006
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5,386
Cube do tend to size smaller than other brands. I've got an Agree and it's 56cm but in many other brands I'd be 54cm or even 52cm.

Best bet is to compare the stack/reach of your current bike vs the Cube.
 
Soldato
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9 Nov 2005
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Southampton
Went with 56cm, which is what Rutland/Cube recommended, and is my normal size. Why do you say a larger one is needed?

I'm 5'10" with ~32.5" cycling inseam, all torso and fairly stumpy legs for someone that tall! Normally I'm a 56cm frame, but the 58cm Attain is great due to 389mm reach and 610mm stack... And that's with the stem pointing down, if I flipped it the bars would come another 1-2cm closer to the saddle.
 
Soldato
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Don’t have a road bike currently, just a mountain bike. Used to ride road on a flat bar which isn’t directly comparable, and don’t have the geometry details for the flat bar bike anyway. I’d rather be in a more relaxed position anyway if that helps.
 
Man of Honour
OP
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16 May 2005
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Manchester
I've managed to bag a cheap second hand Genesis CDF, pick it up next week!

After today's ride it will be very welcomed, another 5 bergs off the list. Nearly done Flanders region now.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1289893730

Also, any winter boot recommendations (SPD), I'll be commuting on the CDF.

Check out the Specialized range of winter SPD boots. They're meant to be very good. Avoid the Sidi range (for winter boots at least). I love the summer Sidi shoes I have but the winter ones aren't that great at being winter boots. Warm but not waterproof.
 
Soldato
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Caporegime
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28 Jun 2005
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On the hoods
I’ve just fitted some crud racepac guards to my cross bike. I’m not optimistic. The rear seems ok but the front seems like junk. You need a lot of clearance between the downtube and tyre, so it’s fine on bikes with front suspension or if you had a long fork, but it’s not looking good on mine. I might have to trim the guard back or I’m going to catch it when I’m turning. It’s that or I put proper fitted guards on there but I’m not sure that’ll be that great when I’m taking it off-road.

Stupid mudguards.
 
Caporegime
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On the hoods
I hear that.

Just fitting full guards to my single-speed now and realising I don't know how you are meant to get the rear wheel out when you have horizontal drop outs with a guard fitted!

Apparently it can squeeze out with a flat tyre.
Horizontal dropouts? I had those on my pompino. Depending on the length of the dropouts and how long you set the stays you may or may not be able to do it. On mine I couldn’t, so I had to have an Allen key to undo the mudguard stays, which isn’t ideal. It would put me off having another bike with track ends if wet weather use was on the cards.
 
Soldato
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18 Oct 2002
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8,420
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Hereford
Removeable guards like the SKS Raceblades would obviously work...! I tweaked mine on the Defy so they mounted on the mount points rather than on quick releases. Made them much more solid.

In other info, got my Zipp Course 30! They're SUPREME! Pics to follow...

Waiting on rotors to be delivered and still not decided on tyres yet... I may fit a 32mm tyre I have here to confirm they'll fit under my guards. Currently running 28's but want to go larger, but not many available in 30mm. I'm undecided on Tubeless at this stage. I think I will for a 'summer' set of tyres but for winter I think I'll continue with tubes. They're half the price for a tyre which will get abuse commuting with all the winter debris around, which just seems to make more sense at the moment.

Does anyone use time xpresso pedals and if so what are your experiences with them? Looking at them and would be moving from shimano 6800s.
Only change the majority make from SPD-SL is to Look Keo. Did the same myself and not looked back! Only other change I would consider is to Speedplay.

Euurgh. Front wheel washed out from under me on what I assume was some ice that I didn't see on the way home from work. Goodbye skin (and Apple Watch) :(
Ouch! Heal up & hope that's all the damage.

Damn thing, I thought I could use the subscription to watch it on my fire stick but Amazon have removed the app and now have a channel which you can’t login to but have to purchase access via your Amazon account. The crooks are charging £4.99 a month as well.
Yeah I previously got peeved off with Amazon and keeping Prime just for me to view Eurosport via my Firestick. Cancelled prime and now cast Eurosport from my mobile app to a Chromecast without needing any additional subscriptions. It can be a bit flakey at times but I've put that down to my old S5 handset running in power save mode and getting signal interupted by me also doing other things on the S5 while it's casting.

On Iplayer from 19th https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09glhsh/britains-cycling-superheroes-the-price-of-success
You can see Sutton commenting on TUE's and Brailsford - all pretty damming
Yeah watched that on saturday, really made themselves look guilty of 'playing in the grey area'. To be fair they both copped more stick than they probably should've, equally they are at fault for the lack of info/deny deny deny policies in place.

Anyone seen any out of the ordinary deals on bikes, or is it all hype as with other retail sectors?
There was a good list of Black Friday deals on road.cc I went through last night. Lots of bikes from various places.

Also, any winter boot recommendations (SPD), I'll be commuting on the CDF.
Congrats on the CDF, great bike!

Northwave Celsuis. I'm a Sidi Hydro boot owner and in the process of swapping them for Northwave. Much more comfortable & exactly the same features for half the price!

I think Gaerne or whatever the brand is, have well regarded boots. Shimano too. I'd consider them all the same as the Northwaves though - it's the neoprene cuffs at the top which let the wet in during heavy rain, not the boots themselves.
 
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Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2006
Posts
5,386
Soaked it in some 'special' WD40 (Fast penetrant thing) last night and this morning I put a long spanner handle on top of the bearing and gave it a few light taps with the hammer and it's popped out! :)

Now I wish I had some calipers (any recommendations?) and I'd properly measure the tube size. I have ordered an FSA Orbit No 42 hoping that it is IS42 and IS52. However since I noticed on the writing I can see on the top bearing there is a 36. 36 degrees? Not sure that's correct as that eBay photo doesn't show a 36.. it could be the wrong photo though.

This is my frame: https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/cube-agree-gtc-race-frame-carbon-n-white-n-red-637778
They say there it is an IS40 and IS52 :confused:

Hopefully this new headset turns up quick enough and I can compare it for size. Otherwise I might have to see if anywhere local has the correct headset in stock.

So it turned out the headset is actually an IS41 upper, IS52 bottom. Judging by Cane Creek finder that's what it was in 2012 for my frame, then 2013 it was IS42 upper... seems they went back to IS41 by 2015.

I got some replacement bearings from Sigma Sport and now my headset is silky smooth! I didn't realise they could be so smooth :D
I guess that's the problem with running two kinda old bikes and gradual wear not being noticeable... I now need to sort out my MTB's headset!

Sigma gave me a 35mm recessed brake nut too but it barely had any thread engagement so I'm going to have to try source a 40mm+ one somewhere.
 
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