Returning to commuting after years being fat and lazy. Scott Sub 20. Advice req.

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07-27-14 | 11:10 AM

#26

urbangroper

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Joined: Jul 2014

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Quote:

Originally Posted by gregjones

That is a very nice looking bike.

I didn't go through all of the stuff that you bought. The first item was a suspension seatpost, I quit before things got any worse.

You could go through some simple adjustments for free and probably make things a lot more comfortable for you. Like tarwheel said, your saddle is slammed forward, this leaves you with no saddle set back (just looking at the picture). That's one two minute adjustment you can quickly make and would probably be able to actually feel the difference. That's free, and where you should start before you start throwing stuff at it. If you get this and that as far away as they should be from each other and set right according to the world your bars might just fit. What you have now needs to be right before you know what needs to be replaced. Of course, there's not a thing wrong with a little component treat once in a while.

Your 32mm tires should be great for your ride. Again start with free adjustments. Are your tires set at recommended pressures from a respected chart, or did you match the max pressure on the sidewall. This ain't Fear and Loathing and pumping up the tires doesn't make it handle like a Lotus.

It looks to be a great bike. It shouldn't take much to get it just right for you.

Yeah I got 'spoken to' by a friend who said everything I bought was 'gay' and defeated the point of a lightweight bike entirely. Couldn't argue really and so followed his suggestion and welched on the suspension seat post. And the trekking bars. After some umming and arring I decided to pick up an £8 stem riser and some £10 Bianchi carbon fibre bar ends from Shanghai.

Frankly I just want a road bike with drop bars but I have to use what I have and try to adapt it to my requirements. Can't justify buying a new bike and (having looked) the bikes in the 250 quid range, even though they have carbon forks and nice things like that, don't have quality shimano cranks, front and rear components etc. I wouldn't get £250 for my tatty old SUB.. so reasoned its best to keep it and make do.

I replaced the front wheel bearings - took about 10 mins. Very simple and easy to do. 800 bearings cost pennies so I can change them again as soon as they start to show some play instead of riding them in to oblivion as before. I also had a bit of wobble in the stem bearings so I stripped it all down and was pleased to find it was just the spring clip that had come loose in storage. Re-seating this in conjunction with new ball bearings and lots of grease solved the front end completely. Need new brake pads but w/e no rush. Got some cable tidies (crimp on variety) to replace some missing ones and just general tidy up. I also set up the gears properly and removed every gram of excess weight: reflectors, chain guard, pedals (gone SPD) etc. On the scales, minus me, it comes in at 10.37 kg. Not bad for a hybrid. That is sans bottle cages though obviously!

Inflating the tyres to the actual rated PSI was a good start re: sorting out the ride. As you suggest, lowering it a bit for comfort also helped a lot. Fitting proper billet ally machined valve caps also helps a lot when it comes to preserving pressure. Comfort wise putting the seat in the central position and not being stuck doing a perma pressup helped a lot. Hopefully another 5-6" riser and some bar ends for comfort will get my lower back at the magic 40 degree approx angle for comfort. As I mentioned I have a shorter back than most folks thanks to a couple of compressed vertebra so its really uncomfortable not having bars on same level as seat. Hopefully the riser will sort that, if not I can just get some riser bars ..

Still haven't got my stuff from China so will post when its all done.

Last edited by urbangroper; 07-27-14 at 11:18 AM.