Recent content by 4th in the devil

Anyone who has been cycling for a long time can totally get the 1 more sprocket on the rear isn't needed argument. I remember getting a 9 speed cassette on a winter bike and feeling it was an extravagant luxury! However, I move with the times and have no regrets riding 12 speed Ultegra Di2 on...

I'm pretty sure when I was a kid in the 70's you could buy Halfords transfers/stickers to put on your bike. I can't really think why anyone would do that except I suppose if you had painted a bike it might look better than just leaving it with nothing? Just pointing out that the frames might...

I've been a champion for carbon on this forum before so I'll take the bait. Modern carbon frames are light, stiff and comfortable and there's no reason why they won't last a decade or more. My best carbon road bike (Giant TCR SL with 12 speed Ultegra and discs) is a joy to ride all day long...

Treks of that era could suffer from corrosion between the aluminium inserts at the steerer and drop outs and the carbon fibre. Usually the paint around this area would bubble up and flake off. My 2007 Trek Madone has been my dedicated turbo/Zwift bike for a number of years for this reason...

I was anti-disc brakes for a long time. My rim brake bike worked (Dura-Ace 9000 Di2) really well and I couldn't see why discs would be any faster, they weighed more and the experience I had on a winter bike was that they rubbed and squealed all the time. However, time and technology moves on...

100 miles in a shirt and tie and on that bike is an amazing achievement!

The lugs and bottom bracket shell on the Raleigh 653 were Cinelli. I bought the same coloured frame from by local bike shop when the chainstays cracked on my Holdseworth Professional around 1989. 2 years later my Raleigh chainstays cracked in the same place! Raleigh replaced them and...

Is that being held together by a pepsi can and 2 jubilee clips?:)

I can still remember the feeling of going from rubbish gum wall 27" tyres to my newly built up Holdsworth Professional with 700c Michelin Hi-Lights. It felt like the bike was going itself!

We used to put up with short reach brakes and mudguards. Usually fine on the workstand but there was always a bit of rubbing out on the road especially if the road was muddy or gritty. This was annoying at best but on one memorable occasion the rubbing on my bike was actually a slow erosion of...

I've had a similar problem in a carbon frame before. My local bike shop where able to replace them (not sure how exactly but I think they were drilled out and replaced using a kind of pop-rivet). They changed me a tenner.

The only thing which might make it difficult to set up is the lack of a barrel adjuster on the rear mech to fine tune everything. (I can't remember if the older 600 rear mechs had one)

I ride with a group of around a dozen riders (from a pool of around 20) every Saturday. Some of us have been around racing and riding bikes for over 30 years, some have come to the sport more recently. There also a "laughing group" of around the same number who go a bit slower and generally...

Back in 1986 most people were still on silver Mavic or similar sprint rims. My regular race wheels back then were 28 spoke Monthlery Pro on large flange Record hubs with tubs glued on with shellac. Regular round spokes but tied and soldered. The rims were pretty cheap so easy to replace if you...

Back in the 80's it was fairly unusual for club riders to have a full groupsets. If a part wore out/broke or you fancied an upgrade you were at the mercy of the bike shops in your town. As all parts were interchangeable it was easy to have say a Campagnolo rear mech with a Zeus chain-set...