Good morning,

I don’t seem to have much success in repairing pinch flats, where there are two holes about 1 cm apart, normal punctures are fine though. Until it was repaired recently, there was a pot hole on the road that was wide and deep, and you would often get forced into it by traffic or sometimes by forgetting that it was there.

A lot of the stuff that was replaced was the original 7 speed equipment, which is becoming very difficult to get in road ratios, although there is still plenty of mountain bike shifters and wide range cassettes.

So by changing to an 8 speed cassette, the wheels had to be changed and as I didn’t fancy non indexed 8 speed shifting I bought some indexed shifters. The original rear mech was a Shimano 6207, this was the last model made before indexing was introduced and the cable pull is wrong for indexed levers.

I have tried to attach a photo of the broken 105, this wrapped itself and the chain around the cassette causing the damage. http://www.iansmithcse.co.uk/images/rear1.jpg

Bye

Ian

I have a fairly low end bike compared to many, a Quest Everest. This was Dick's Sporting Goods' house brand. I bought it second hand for $60.
I've had it for 6 years, and ridden it many thousands of miles. In that time, I've cleaned and lubed the bearings once a year, and replaced my cables, grip tape, and brake pads once.
EDIT: Oh, I also upgraded the tires and tubes after about 500 miles.

Pinch flats are caused by not enough air pressure, try increasing your pressure by 5psi and see what happens. You should obviously try avoiding potholes! Also if the tire's sidewalls are flimsy you may want to go to a sturdier (stiffer) sidewalled tire like Specialized Armadillo All Condition tires, there are other brands too; but the stiffer sidewalls will hold up better to pothole attacks preventing pinch flats.

And make sure your rim tape is seated properly. Good quality tape can make a difference, Continental, DT Swiss, Velox... In a pinch you can add an extra layer of electrical tape! ;)

Good evening,

When I replaced the wheels I didn't think about tyre size, and they only just take 700x23 and this is a pretty tight fit. I have a track pump and do pump the tyres up as hard as the pump will go, which is a bit over an indicated 100psi, but I wouldn't put too much faith in the accuracy of this number.

Before commuting I did use Continental Gatorskins on pleasure rides, but these were no better on my routes, just almost twice as expensive.

Even If I do replace the wheels to allow for better suited tyres, frame geometry won't allow more than 700x28, and in reality there is not a lot greater volume of air between 23 and 28.

There is a chap on my commute who runs 10speed and I have stopped twice when he has mangled his chain, a lot of roads that I ride on should be fine, but maintenance has slipped and it’s almost like the Paris – Roubaix sometimes.

My gut feeling is that a less race orientated bike would be a good idea on this route, and as the wheel base is quite short there is a quite steep chain angle, even large chain ring and even the 3rd biggest of 8 sprockets doesn’t look too “nice”. This is a temporary job that will finish in a few more weeks so a new bike doesn't really make sense.

Maybe my 200lbs, plus a rack and change of clothes is just too much for this type of bike.

Bye

Ian

Most rims will accept a wide range of tire widths. I've run 38mm tires on 19mm (outside) rims. I just had to keep enough air in them to keep them from folding over in the turns.

28s feel a LOT more cushy than 23s, and less pinch-flatty.

Get yourself a decent floor pump. I run my 25s at 100psi and I weight 150 pounds. If I were 200 lbs, I'd probably run 110 in 25s, maybe 115-120 on 23s.

My favorite bargain tires for road riding are Panaracer Stradius Sport 700c x 26mm. Comfy cheap and fit in my Pinarello.

Ian - all 700c wheels will easily accommodate tires larger than 23c, easily up to 32c with no problem, many people race cyclocross on road wheels with no issues and these tires are much wider, obviously. your bike frame and fork, however, are usually the limiting factors on the max tire size you can run, clearance is the issue.

Like cars, if you can but a quality used bike you will save a lot of money and in many cases get a better bike than you would at that same price point if you were buying new.

My previous commuter was a 1999 Trek 7500 hybrid which I picked up for $120.00 used and would have been a $450.00 - $500.00 bike new and although I upgraded and switched a number of parts it was never because anything failed save for one XTR rear derailleur that was also picked up used. Some of the parts I removed were traded / sold to fund the little upgrades and as I run a shop I can do things like build my own wheels and have good access to decently priced parts.

Because I was running some very nice hand built wheels and rare shifters this upped the value of the bike by about $500.00 but aside from these, the other parts I used to upgrade the bike were less than $150.00

After riding the bike 30,000 km I removed the expensive parts I was using and refitted the bike with some very decent replacements in the form of new wheels and different shifters and sold it to a friend for $350.00 as the bike was in better than new shape and much nicer than it was when it rolled out of the factory.

Shown with my custom wheels...

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...k7500tour1.JPG

At 1000 miles, I hadn't done anything at all to my bikes aside from lubing the chains and they still felt the same, or nearly, as new.

I can understand you reasoning for riding an inexpensive bike for the theft problem. I don't blame you and there is nothing wrong with that. The one thing I would do in your place is buy decent pedals that won't have the breakage issue. I still have the original pedals on my 1984 Ross Mt. Rainier and they are still going strong. I would hate to snap a pedal.

i finally decided to get a new bike. it arrived yesterday, a merida mountain bike, pretty straight forward with front suspension and disc brakes. i love it!

i've never owned a bike with suspension forks but i've always wanted to and the ride now is so smooth i almost feel guilty, haha.

i also managed to take 3 minutes of my 4 mile commute which is nice. i'll see how it compares over its first 1000 miles. i hope no more snapped pedals.

There are good pedals out there you can get, if you need to, that aren't expensive that won't snap, pedals like MKS that cost about $30 that are great pedals, are they as good as $500 dollar pedals? Of course not, but who needs $500 pedals? And the MKS's won't break.

Congrats on your new bike mynameuk. Your days of broken pedals are most assuredly gone :D

Congrats on the new bike! Enjoy!

thanks. im enjoying it already. i even take it out for a spin during my lunch break just for the fun of it and because i have 2.5 hour lunch break and noting better to do :)

Good morning,

The DP18 rims are quite narrow, 18.7mm outer width and 12.4mm between the bead lip, whilst a 23 or 25 tire can sensibly be considered to be the same width, there is also very little benefit in changing to a 25.

I have tried an old 28 tyre and that doesn't "look right", there quite a bulge over the sides of the rim and I am not confident that the tyre is securely seated.

There is no way that I would want to try LesterOfPuppets idea of a 38 or even a 32 on rim of this size, I have a nice downhill bit that ends in a fairly sharp turn, you go into the turn at about 35mph on an enthusiastic day.

I am not familiar with Panaracer, in the UK they don't seem to be competitive price wise, unless they last a long time. The one that you mention is about 50% more expensive that the Continental Ultra Sport, and I get about 1,500 miles out of a rear tire and about 2,000 out of the front, Gatorskins did last longer, but the cost per mile was about the same and I got less than a 1,000 miles out of the Blizzard Sport on the front wheel.

Some info from the Weinmann site http://www.weinmanntek.com/Products/RACE/DP18.htm

Bye

Ian

Grab a 35mm T-Serv and pump it up to 90 psi and I can take that corner no problemo. Kinda defeats the purpose of running wide tires a bit and it sounds like your riding style isn't really suited to running wide tires anyways. If one were to run 35mm tires on a regular basis, I'd suggest a 23mm rim so that one could run at a slightly lower pressure for more comfort. My statement about running 38mm tires with enough inflation on 19mm rims was merely to prove a point, that being that jumping up to a 28 is no problem at all. So anyways back to the actual subject at hand, which is running 25-28mm tires, yes it may look odd but 28s don't really roll over in the turns on 19mm rims until you get the air pressure dangerously low.

I can imagine Panaracers being pricey over there. Over here the Ultra Sport is typically 50% more expensive than a 26mm Stradius Sport. I often peruse the UK online shops and as a general rule they have killer deals on all the European stuff, but kinda high prices on all the Asian and North American stuff compared to what we find in the states. Jenson USA sells the 26mm Stradius Sport for 12.55 pounds sterling. Shipping would likely kill the deal.

So yeah, you might want to stick to European tire makers. Dunno if any of them make some 26s. I will tell you that not all 25s run the same. Michelin Dynamic 25s are much wider than Forte Strada 25s, for instance. The Michelins are nice and cheap, but ride kinda crappy. Vittoria Zaffiros are generally a little cheaper (at least over here) but ride better than the Dynamics, IME.

Wider tires run at the same pressure are less likely to pinch flat on you and give you the option of running slightly softer tires for comfort. Most important thing to do after pinch flatting is to make sure your tires are adequately inflated at the beginning of each ride.