I understand, thanks; but still new rim tape like Velox which has a adhesive back to prevent the sliding you described, would answer the problem for that as would any adhesive backed rim tape. The Velox is the lightest tape available if that's any concern.

For Rim Tape I'm more concerned with price and function over weight at this time. It's not like I'm really racing serious with this nearly 30 pound bike and need to shave an extra 1/50th of a pound.

Cig, nice ride man. That's some speed. There are way too many hills around here for that, however my top speed on any basic ride is usually around 30 also thanks to the hills.

I think thursday morning I'm going to commute to work for the first time. It's just over 18 miles which is well within my limits. Later that afternoon I have my regular thursday ride with my more serious biking co-worker... so I'll get a ride back to the trail which basicly leads within a mile or so of my house. :)

If not this week then definitely next week. It should be a good way to get a feel for commuting and if it's something I can realisticly do without much danger. Last thing I need is to end up a hood ornament since I'm the financial provider for my family.

I know your not racing that bike. But when you can save weight on anything that rotates, and especially the rims and tires, you can actually feel the difference. Granted rim strips is not a major contributor to weight, but combine that with lighter tires and tubes and it adds up, and makes riding your bike a bit more enjoyable.

While I can see how that would be helpful, and hey if the prices are comparable I wouldn't pass up the lighter stuff... in the grand scheme of things just being able to air up past 85psi without fear is going to give me more of a boost than anything. Sure I could change out the tires and heck change out the wheels for lighter components, but I'm on the intro side of road biking and not ready to seriously invest in it.

Probably when I do have that kind of $$$, I'd start scouring CL, Yard sales, and so on looking for a great deal on a much much lighter bike.


.....

Last night I adjusted the deraileurs. I was having a problem since getting it on going from 2nd on the front and 1st in the back down to 1st in the front. Sometimes the chain would end up coming off :O ... also in the back going into 7th required about 30 seconds and it would try to get up there then would drop back to 6th several times before it decided if it was going to go to 7th or not. Now it shifts flawlessly into 7th like butter... and back down in 1st on the front without any chain problems.

I'm going to lube the chain and stuff before my ride today.

No commute today. I've read way too much on commuting and in addition to the smoke from FL & South GA they are doing a controlled burn in the Talladega National Forest... which has even more smoke in the air :mad: ... also I need to get a nice bright green nasty looking vest so I stand out a lot more and I'm looking into homebrew'ing some inexpensive halogen off road lights to the bike and a decent tail light and hey probably more reflectors and some stealth reflective tape. Even though I won't be riding at night there has been a lot of sky coverage which makes it a little darker during the drive home.

I noticed a guy in the light mod geek thread mounted a separate bar on his bike for moutning his lights and computer and car horn and other stuff... I may consider doing something similar since there's such limited space on the bike and it takes me a while to create custom mounts.

Ok... that's about it from me today.

My bike currently has around 200 or so miles on it. I've nearly got everything dialed in... I just wish the seat had tilt... but hey atleast it plugs the seat post hole so no water is getting in there in the event ride when it's a little wet out.

You can tilt the seat. Just losen the bolt and then rotate the seat with both hands, while lifting up on the seat. I had to take the bolt all most all the way out before I could tilt my seat. Take the seat off and look at the seat mount and the seat post mount. you'll figure it out.

Fortunately for you lighter rim tape, tires and tubes are the cheapest thing you can do to decrease weight on rotational stuff. Rims also would help a lot, but as you say your just on the intro side of it and that would take an investment that you probably would not want to do-that's why I didn't mention it before.

Velox rim tape will set you back $3; a lighter tube like the Specialized Talic Ultralight racing tube weighs 65grms cost about $10; and a lighter tire like the Specialized All Condition Pro that weighs about 235grms cost only $30. But I would wait till your tires wore out then think about getting lighter tires and tubes. But you will be surprise as to how different your bike will feel when you make those simple low cost changes.

After 5213 miles something got through the Kenda Kwest tires. Yester day after commuting to work I got a flat. A small pice of metal got thruogh the tire and caused a flat. First flat caused not due to the rim tape.

SLightly off thread question: CigTech where did you get that software for your Garmin?

Ok cool glad to see there is some tilt there. Yesterday's 30 mile ride went perfectly fine. No pains at all. I got the seat height right, adjusted the stem up enough that I wasn't reaching too far on the handlebars... overall it was a good ride.

When these tires wear out and I'm ready to upgrade I'll definitely look into the lighter options. For now though I'll consider the extra weight resistance training ;)

....

I went through and tabulated the adjustments I've made to my bike since getting it. Here's the list if anyone is curious (and i'm no former bike mechanic though I do have a background in problem solving and have worked on my own cars since my late teen years).

1. Brakes, ajusted pads as well as adjusted them so they'd sit a little closer to the rim for better stopping power. By default they were too low and took way too much pressure to get the bike to stop in a short distance. Now it's near perfect.

2. Seat, raised it. No big deal, but learning that inseam * .88 formula helped get it dialed in near perfect. I think another measurement option for me is to keep in mind I can just barely touch the ground on my tip toes when the seat height is right.

3. Raised the stem. A little nervous about this one, but I figured it out fine and got everything raised, cables adjusted to the new height, and it bolted back together nice and tight yet with enough of the stem still in there so no real risk of it coming out.

4. Front & back deraileurs. Adjusted the front one on the back screw a couple turns... adjusted the back one a couple turns on the right screw and a turn or two on the left. I did this because when going from 2nd up front while on 1st in the back down to 1st it would miss and the chain would come off the front! Also in the back I was having problems getting into 7th. Now it's buttery smooth on pretty much all the shifting. Sometimes while in 3rd up front when I shift from 7th in back down to 6th it takes twisting just a hair past this to get it to engage... but that's pretty minor as I was having to do that on every gear when downshifting before.

4. Oiled the chain. I figured what the heck.. I just used some gear oil on it and I think that helped the buttery smooth shifting I now have.


The only real problem I have left with the bike is under normal or heavy pedaling the right pedal or something in that area has a creak. It's once per revolution and it's from that area and not the left side or steering or anything else. I'm going to read up more on one of the many sites that help diagnose problems like this... but I'm thinking the pedal just needs oiled. Hopefully that's all there is to it. I'll find out this weekend.


For $150+tax this has been a great intro to road bikes. Too bad I didn't find this thread till well after getting the bike, but it's been very helpful for tips on adjusting things and so on.

Glad to see and hear when some one gets some good info from this post. I well always help you out as much as I can.

The software came with the Garmin. You can download it from they web site as well from here:
http://www8.garmin.com/support/colle...t=010-00447-10
That's just for the Edge 205 and the 305.

i bet the crank is the culprit.
it could be loose and/or loosening.
unless it is a one piece crank (which given the price of the bike could very well be), look for a little plastic cover cap where the crank mounts to the bottom bracket shaft and if this is so, then remove it... find the capscrew and try a little tightening.
it could be that it is as tight as it can be and that a poor fit is causing a rub between the shaft and the crank. this is sometimes silenced with some grease on the shaft... you probably need a crank puller to perform this.

yup! does all the basic stuff and easy to setup...

podman,

I'll keep that in mind when checking it out. I'm working on one of my cars today then I'm going to check into this "creak" sound and see if I can silence it.

Hi, I'm new to cycling and because of this thread i actually went out and bought a denali as well. It's working very well aside from minor adjustments stated earlier. I'm thinking of getting a new rear derailleur as well but i have no knowledge about buying these parts. Is there any specific types i should get or is most derailleurs compatible with any bikes?

Hey Donny,

I got a Shimano RSX 8 speed deraileur for mine off EBay for $10.00. I also got a RSX front to match the rear deraileur for ebay for 10.00 also. You can use a Shimano Sora, Tiagra, 105. But higher end Deraileurs like the DURA ACE and Ultegra 10 speeds will not work. There are to narrow and the 7 speed chain will not ride right through the deraileur. So must 7, 8, 9 speeds will work just fine. Now if your going to keep the triple crankset. Then you'll want the long cage deraileur as well. The short cage will not have a long enough movement in it for the triple crankset.

Hope this helps you get a better ideal want you need.

G'day Cig, how ya goin' mate?

This thread is like Rocky Balboa, it just refuses to go away!:D
How many miles do you have on the Denali now?.... and who did you buy your derailer from (are they decent? would you buy from them again?)

Goes to show ya it's not the bike it's the engine that counts. ;)

Mate, I'm not one to question the man that would ride away from me without trying too hard :D but don't you mean to the center of the pedal axle when it's furthest away from the seat? i.e. when your foot is at the bottom of the pedal stroke? otherwise how do you allow for the crank arm?.... or did I miss something?(I probably did :rolleyes: :p )

I thought he meant the center of the axel on the crank to the top of the seat.

That's what i used and though I'm maybe 1/4" down from where that put me, it's super comfy. To compare, on the May 24th I rode 30 miles and the next day had some butt pains and upper leg pains. On the 31st after adjusting the seat height & bars I rode another 30 miles at a faster pace and no pains what so ever the next day. Infact I ran most of a 5K that day.

So it may or maynot be the ideal formula, but it worked out fine for me.

________

Yesterday, I tried to cure the "creak" sound coming from my right side down near the crank. I think I'll have to completely disassemble that and lube it all. I may do a mod to the bike to put a zerk fitting down there so anytime I want to add a little grease I don't have to disassemble anything. Looks like I'll need to stop off at the autoparts store on my lunch break or on the way home today if i'm going to do that.

I Drove in to work today a bit early to check out the course I'd take to work if I were to bike commute. Overall I think it'll work out fine. Expecially the earlier I get on the road. The way home I'm a bit leery about, however this week I will ride in on Thursday and then ride with my co-worker in his jeep back to the bike trail for our usual thursday ride. So I'll make it a 1/2 day commute. Next week though, pending the drought continues, I'll try and commute every other day. It's only around 18 miles each way.

Hey Cyclaholic, Long time no see.

I got it from a EBay person. I'll have to check for his login name. The front deraileur was bought from Andy Heerdt <ajheerdt> and the rear was from BB165XGT1 on ebay. Yes I would buy from them again.

The center of the BB to the top of the seat is right for a road bike. Don't know about MTB.

Is this the right crank puller for this bike?

http://stores.channeladvisor.com/ebi...ems/004-TL7012

I am assuming of course that if I take the crank completely apart that I can grease everything in there nicely. It's not a sealed unit or something right?

That's the one. It should work on the newer ones as well with a adapter. I got mine from Nashbar.
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...racket%2FPedal

I just got my first cycling computer, with the stock tires I set them up as 26", not 700s, was this the correct size? Also left my bike out overnight and have a flat tire I can't figure out, this is going oddly.

Your rim tape crapped out and blew your tube. Replace your rim tape. Cycling computer is set up wrong needs to be set up for 700x28c.

Set thew tire size to 2136mm for the Kwest. You can always fine the mm size by rolling out the tire for one full roll. Yet it's the rim tape that let the tire blow out.

Cig, thanks. I'm going to hit the LBS and see what they have and if it's too overpriced for the crank extractor then I'll just get it online along with some rim tape and other bike stuff.

Thursday morning is looking good for my first morning commute. If it goes well then I may start commuting on Tuesday & Thursday. 18 miles each way... it's well within my abilities and no hills even come close to the serious mountain road I train on. So I should make it just fine pending how the small amount of traffic I see responds.