I agree with Leroy. Would avoid anything below Tiagra on groupsets.
Put it this way, if you dont want to spend hours and hours getting your rear derallieur perfectly indexed on the cassette, its 105 upwards. I thought the Tiagra on my bike was ok until I got Ultegra and could see the difference.
Whilst we are on groupsets, can I chuck SRAM Rival into the equation. SRAM equivalent of Shimano 105. Infinitely more reliable, rarely need to adjust the gears and also have double click shifting. Would never go back to Shimano now.
Also if you are looking at that price point try and get something with Fulcrum wheels. Will be heavy at your price, but have found them to be totally bomb proof.
Squeaking disc brakes. Driving me mad. How do I fix this. Thanks.
Suspect it's dirt/grease on the pads or rotors, or that the pads have some glazing on them. Get a decent quality pad degreaser, clean the rotors and pads thoroughly then apply the degreaser to get rid of any shite on them. If the pads are glazed, you might be able to resurrect them using a bit of sandpaper to rough up the surface, but you'd be better off just replacing them.
This is what I got, managed to get it closer to the sale price last year. Excellent bike, Orbea is a tip top brand, wheels are a bit shite, but will upgrade soon.
Aye - prices have gone up drastically since Brexit. I was looking at an S5 for racing next year, the spec I wanted was just shy of 3500 last year, it's now around 800 quid more expensive. It's also ruined sale prices - generally get last year's model for about 35% less but now I'm only finding 20% or so discounts
Orbea are a really good brand - and that bike looks like it uses the same frame design as the Orca, which is a nice aero frame. Guy I race against has the most bling Orca you could ever hope to see - has a paint job that washes from silver to blue to orange. Looks the nuts.
Just wanted to say thanks for the advice a couple of weeks ago. I got my new bike and am very pleased. It's a Reid (Australian) Falco elite. It's got a full 105 groupset and goes really well. I'll need to change the tyres pretty quickly but all else is good. Cost £549 for alloy frame, full carbon fork. Now for the Lycra!
Did 345k yesterday on a London Orbital ride. Great, very very long, ride. Rode with a TCR vet, and spent the day learning as much as I could about do's/don'ts and talking about his memories of Mike Hall. Whatever decision is taken about the TCR this year and going forward will be the right one.
@Anna_Kissed popped in to HH on sat. New grandstand looks great, looking forward to days watching racing in the sun and cracking on with my accredidation too.
Hat!
That's a hell of a lot of mileage. If you're looking for something of similar stature in the spirit of the randonee, have a look at Chase The Sun. Starts on Sheppey (don't worry, you'll leave it as the sun is rising, so won't have to encounter any of the locals) and ends in Burnham - idea being to do it before the sun goes down. Almost bang on 200 miles and a cracking day in the saddle
Nice - I'll check it out.
Preliminary goal for the tcr is 300-320km a day, so these long rides are essential. Feel an awful lot better than I did after 330 (admitally hillier) km at the start of March.
You in for the FW? Hoping it will be the first run out on the new Rourke....
Yes, I'm doing the Fred. Went out and bought a 32t sprocket so I have a chance of getting up Hardknott
Wimp ;-)
If my new bike arrives i'll be on a 36 - 28, but if it's not ready i might have to use my 39 - 25 current set up ffs!
You guys are well hardcore. And I'm with @Leroy Ambrose when it comes to tactical ratio selection. Like when the Spanish guy pipped Wiggo & Froome to the Vuelta in 2011 (?) by spinning a smaller gear than the Sky team's selection. Was it up the Angiliru? Mind you, as an old geezer, my 32 stays on, just in case.
Jimmy Seed (sorry to bang on) signed up with The Sunderland Cycle Corps in WW1, but was switched to the Leeds Rifles for active service.
Not that that has anything to do with anything.
PS 11/4 for Sagan for PR seems a bit tight.
Just saw this sorry...... Cobo went up quicker because he was doped up to the eyeballs. It's easy to spin when you're EPO'd up to the eyeballs, or doped up like Lance and Cobo. Only one other rider stuck with Piepoli and Ricco in the TDF up the Hautcam in the 2008 TDF. Who was it? Oh yes Cobo.... on the same team as them as well.
That was bloody hard work. Almost 11000 feet of climbing, 30% gradients, descents so dangerous you couldn't go down em faster than 10mph. 7 hrs 16 mins saddle time in total, 8 and a half hours overall with stops, eating etc
I got round in 7:16 on the bike - but stopped loads of times for clubmates - ended up finishing in about 8:45 or thereabouts. We were in Chorley kit - eight of us altogether. All round safely in the end, but our climber (who wins hill climbs round here for fun) basically rode it on one leg, we had another young lad who's coming through who will be a monster of a rider who cramped up really bad toward the end and we waited for the slower riders to come through as well. Was nice to sit on the hairpins at Hardknott for about 20 minutes watching the crawling trickle of riders/walkers slowly inching up it - the good weather certainly helped
Didn't see any Brixton riders, so must have missed you on the road. Had to unclip on Honister after wheelieing and nearly toppling over, but luckily it was only about 10 metres from a slightly flatter bit so was able to clip back in and get going again. No chance on Hardknott when someone stopped in front of me so had to walk the steepest hairpins - at least I can go back and do it again with the club as we're only an hour or so away. Thought Newlands was horrible - watching it stretch out ahead of you for what looks like miles was particularly grim. The rest of them were OK, but the attritional nature of the constant ups and downs made the last 15 miles in general pretty harsh. Feel sorry for the fella who binned it into the ravine coming off Hardknott or Wrynose (I forget which) - mountain rescue were hauling him out as we came past. Those descents were evil.
Nice. Didn't see any of you guys so must've missed each other. I started off stupidly early. Was nice being on my own - just made sure i got on some wheels for the A66.
Heard about a few of the horror crashes, can see why they try and hammer home the need to be careful on the descents. For the first ever time it made me want discs. I lost a bottle coming down honister, by the time i realised what had happened it would've been a 200m at 25% to go back and get it.
I've got a mate doing the triathalon X in a few weeks - which is the swim, the full FW course then a run up and down scaffel pike. I'm going to pottle around and watch bits of it and laugh at him for being an idiot for signing up for it.
Definitely makes me want to live somewhere with real hills though - nothing in london/kent/surrey can really prepare you for those. Drive back to London last night was less fun!
Yeah, we set off at about 6:30, so not the earliest, but early enough for it to be cold going up Holbeck and Kirkstone. The A66 was fun. I'm in my element there - strung out my whole club plus about twenty other riders who were clinging on for dear life before we dropped them on the way up the rise the other side of the descent. Was nice to be doing 65k/h going uphill
One of my mates stayed up overnight, so we had a meal with him and let the traffic die down before leaving (one of the only times in history that living near Wigan is an advantage!). Did you get caught up int he accident at Preston on the M6?
That Triathlon X is ridiculous. He must be fucking mad.
Yeah agreed - and he's taking a very relaxed attitude to training. We'll see how he gets on...
No, no problem getting back - checked google maps beforehand so went across the A66 and down the A1 which was my standard route for coming home from Scotland when i lived up there.
You got any more big events planned this year? How's the racing going?
Yeah agreed - and he's taking a very relaxed attitude to training. We'll see how he gets on...
No, no problem getting back - checked google maps beforehand so went across the A66 and down the A1 which was my standard route for coming home from Scotland when i lived up there.
You got any more big events planned this year? How's the racing going?
Yeah, my mate used that way getting back to Norfolk today. Much quicker than the more direct route. Any time anything involves the M6 it's a candidate for a three hour wait in traffic!
Git the Tour of Cambridge in a month - trying to qualify for the amateur world champs in France. Qualified last year but they were in Australia! Might do RideLondon if I get a charity place but it'll be a last minute thing, possibly to try and get sub 4:15 time, but not too fussed about it
Done more TTs than races so far. Got points early on in the year, which is a good sign, but long distance events have taken their toll on racing. Now I've only got the ToC, I'm looking at racing twice a week - more road races than crits as well, which really don't suit an old git like me
Comments
Put it this way, if you dont want to spend hours and hours getting your rear derallieur perfectly indexed on the cassette, its 105 upwards. I thought the Tiagra on my bike was ok until I got Ultegra and could see the difference.
Merlincycles.com
Merlin PR7-Rs
105
Reduced to £600
Also if you are looking at that price point try and get something with Fulcrum wheels. Will be heavy at your price, but have found them to be totally bomb proof.
Thanks.
https://www.cyclesurgery.com/p/orbea-orca-m35se-2016-Q2314972.3609.html
Orbea are a really good brand - and that bike looks like it uses the same frame design as the Orca, which is a nice aero frame. Guy I race against has the most bling Orca you could ever hope to see - has a paint job that washes from silver to blue to orange. Looks the nuts.
A dry day with a chilly start.
Gilet and warmers weather.
That was bloody hard work. Almost 11000 feet of climbing, 30% gradients, descents so dangerous you couldn't go down em faster than 10mph. 7 hrs 16 mins saddle time in total, 8 and a half hours overall with stops, eating etc
Hardknott Pass is an affront to humanity
Agree re hardnott pass - the worst thing is staying on your bike is definitely slower then walking.
Amazing ride though - highly, highly recommended. Feel a bit ropey this morning, thankfully working from home so getting the giro on later.
Were you in club kit? Might've seen you on the road, I was the lone Brixton rider.
Didn't see any Brixton riders, so must have missed you on the road. Had to unclip on Honister after wheelieing and nearly toppling over, but luckily it was only about 10 metres from a slightly flatter bit so was able to clip back in and get going again. No chance on Hardknott when someone stopped in front of me so had to walk the steepest hairpins - at least I can go back and do it again with the club as we're only an hour or so away. Thought Newlands was horrible - watching it stretch out ahead of you for what looks like miles was particularly grim. The rest of them were OK, but the attritional nature of the constant ups and downs made the last 15 miles in general pretty harsh. Feel sorry for the fella who binned it into the ravine coming off Hardknott or Wrynose (I forget which) - mountain rescue were hauling him out as we came past. Those descents were evil.
Heard about a few of the horror crashes, can see why they try and hammer home the need to be careful on the descents. For the first ever time it made me want discs. I lost a bottle coming down honister, by the time i realised what had happened it would've been a 200m at 25% to go back and get it.
I've got a mate doing the triathalon X in a few weeks - which is the swim, the full FW course then a run up and down scaffel pike. I'm going to pottle around and watch bits of it and laugh at him for being an idiot for signing up for it.
Definitely makes me want to live somewhere with real hills though - nothing in london/kent/surrey can really prepare you for those. Drive back to London last night was less fun!
One of my mates stayed up overnight, so we had a meal with him and let the traffic die down before leaving (one of the only times in history that living near Wigan is an advantage!). Did you get caught up int he accident at Preston on the M6?
That Triathlon X is ridiculous. He must be fucking mad.
No, no problem getting back - checked google maps beforehand so went across the A66 and down the A1 which was my standard route for coming home from Scotland when i lived up there.
You got any more big events planned this year? How's the racing going?
Well done guys, chapeau.
Git the Tour of Cambridge in a month - trying to qualify for the amateur world champs in France. Qualified last year but they were in Australia! Might do RideLondon if I get a charity place but it'll be a last minute thing, possibly to try and get sub 4:15 time, but not too fussed about it
Done more TTs than races so far. Got points early on in the year, which is a good sign, but long distance events have taken their toll on racing. Now I've only got the ToC, I'm looking at racing twice a week - more road races than crits as well, which really don't suit an old git like me
yeah.