Esteban58

I've known a couple of people who had it, but they were both rather overweight and not exercising at all - check with your Doc on that?

AzTallRider

Hey Cleave - did the BB get straightened out by the shop?

Cleave

OK, sorry, didn't mean to alarm anyone. My situation is somewhat unique since I'm installing an SRM attached to a Cannondale Hollowgram crank. This installation required some special parts.

I think that part of the problem with the BB/PF30 standard is that it's not very standard. Shimano, in particular, has not bought into the standard and doesn't make any adapters for their current cranksets. Campagnolo is almost in the same boat. They make adapter cups but the quality of the fit has been berated on the internet. My personal experience with the Campagnolo adapter cups is that they would have required some kind of Loctite product to ensure a long-term, creak-free installation. I only used them short-term.

I have designed many mechanisms with press (interference) fit bearings. IMHO, the problem with using press fit on a bicycle is that it makes maintenance a PITA. If I was installing bearings and the spindle for the life of the bike, then press fit might be OK. Also, for the home mechanic, press fit requires more specialized tools -- in this case a headset press.

Regarding side-play. I don't think that you are adjusting the side play, I think you are preventing side play or side motion. The bearing are resisting side (or thrust) load at the face of the inner race keep the spindle from migrating laterally. Otherwise, the only force resisting lateral motion is the friction force of the interference fit which is also the "connecting force" between the spindle and the inner race of the bearing. Cannondale uses the spacers to transfer the side load to the inner race. I think the wavy washer keep the side load from exceeding a level that would cause the spindle to start "moving" sideways.

Haven't looked at the Specialized design too closely because the crank was already installed when I purchased the "module."

Along the lines of what TRD said about it being an answer to a problem that no one asked, I probably sound like a Luddite when I say that the square taper bottom bracket design with bearings in a sealed cartridge that fit inside the bottom bracket shell worked just fine for me. I can see the advantages of external bearings and the Campagnolo Ultra-Torque design is okay but I don't like a design that requires Loctite on parts that are regular maintenance items. Maybe Shimano has a better design but I've never used it.

Regardless, I got my bike back from the shop. Apparently, I hadn't hit the spindle hard enough to bottom it out against the flange on the non-drive side. It cost me $15 for them to disassemble and reassemble the crank. I gave them a $5 tip for not ridiculing my lack of mechanical ability to my face. The bearings also feel better but not good. Maybe they will break in but I'm not counting on it.

VanceMac

Yep. All Loctite, all the time.

sarals 

Chuck - how are you doing with this???

sarals 

AzT? Did you get it yet??? Pictures, please - or it doesn't exist!

revchuck 

I rode last night with no issues. Practice race tonight on a closed course (motorsports track), so if I start to have problems I don't have far to go.

AzTallRider

It hadn't arrived Tuesday, and when the shop had Giant track it, they came back with Monday next week. So I canceled my trip and the fitting to get the seat mast cut. Then, about an hour ago, it showed up at the shop, which is 4 hours away. I'm doing the the 325 mile weekend on the Gunnar, and will get the bike ready to go next week.

<sigh>

shovelhd

Dangit. Your patience will be rewarded.

Allegheny Jet

Dang you need a break AZTR.

nacler22

All good things come to those that......!@#$%^&, just gimme my damn bike.

sarals 

Piffle. Well, bright side - it gives you a good amount of time to get it set up, fit and get used to it. Remember pictures - and how about one with you on it?

chasm54

How many ears did Davy Crockett have?

Esteban58

Wtf?

dvs cycles

3 if you include the wild frontear?

Esteban58

5 if you include the ears on his coonskin cap?

sarals 

This has to be an inside joke....

chasm54

Winner. Sorry, second childhood well underway.

chasm54

interview with Wiggins coach ahead of the Giro. Some interesting comments on how backward he found the state of coaching in pro cycling to be (he came from a swimming background) and how easy he found it to make improvements. He says that teams had traditionally focussed on buying riders, (as if Sky doesn't!) rather than on getting the best out of them. So getting more structured has enabled Sky to make disproportionate gains. I've seen him say elsewhere that he believes the development of coaching in cycling was ******** by the doping culture - it was easier and cheaper to leave riders to their own devices, and rely on epo, than to invest in really structured and superbised training programmes.

gsteinb

sounds like a load of ****.

he's a track guy coming from a time period when they had the best track program on the planet. he wasn't exactly the guy who built that program.

chasm54

Sorry Gary, who are you talkng about? Kerrison wasn't a track guy, he was a swimming coach. Wiggo was, obviously, but he and Shane Sutton, (who did build a good deal of the track program) are both on record as saying Wiggo wasn't the best trainer during his track career. And it does seem to me to be true that lots of the road teams leave their riders pretty much to their own devices in the off season.

Racer Ex 

That was/is true in some cases but not in others.

There's a bit of Carmichael self promotion in his comments and some flat out mis-naming what he's doing. And you could hardly say Sky didn't buy talent. That's just a silly statement.

Garmin was able to get Wiggans on the radar as a legit TDF contender. That might be the program that is truly worth watching; along with Bjarne Riis (the guy who got Sastre a TDF win) they are much more the witches here.

Give Wiggans a tailor made course and a surrounding cast far better than anyone else's and it would be hard not to look good. Add in a very average to below average field. That was certainly the case at the TDF in 2012.

Sky's massive talent purchases haven't worked out as well where there are more variables. How have they fared in the Classics? Not good. There's a bit of myopia around a season that couldn't have been lined up better. There's some cultural things at play here too. Anyone thing Wiggans is a better GT rider than Sastre? He's not even in the same league. Yet there's this huge Anglo hyperbole around one win and a good season.

That said I am impressed with their willingness to experiment ignoring some of the hubris/mind games around some of the above. I like innovation, not bowing to dogma, and their "horses for courses" approach. I'm a big marginal gains guy too. But:

Why is Wigo targeting the Giro? Look at the amount of TT kms, and that they have moved away from the "how flippin horrific can we make this stage" approach.

Duh. He can thrive in the former and we've seen how he does in the latter. Not diminishing his talent or the GB approach. But I can see Wiggans talents and limits from 4000km away.

chasm54

Hmm. I didn't post this to extol Wiggins, more to discuss whether there is any truth in the argument that there is a lot of room for improvement in how most teams approach training their riders.

It's difficult to blame a rider, or a team, for choosing their squad wth a view to who will be suited by a particular parcours. And, as I said, it's absurd to claim they don't buy the best. The question really is whether they improve their riders by a greater degree than other teams.

Their classics perofrmance is very poor, I agree. Boasson-Hagen, Thomas, Uran all look like naturals for that to me, and underperform. My sense watching them is that their track-based management are simply very naive as far as tactics on the road are concerend. It all worked out beautifully in the TdF, where they were able to dominate and control the race against inferior teams. But even in the Vuelta, they didn't seem able to adapt and wore out their domestiques (and, eventually, Froome) by seeking to impose a probably unnecessary degree of control. Notwithstanding US Postal, it simply isn't necessary to have five of your team constantly on the front on every savage climb. And in the Classics it isn't easy to see that they have any plan at all. In LBL they seemed to just burn out one rider after another without anyone getting the sort of help and protection that might have given them a chance. Plus they are disdavantaged by Thomas apparently being unable to stay on his bike.

So I think it may be possible that in terms of the riders' condition, Kerrison is right. They have improved the numbers by their very structured appraoch and attention to detail. But they won't see consistent benefits from that until they have a DS who can teach them to race.

Racer Ex 

On a case by case basis, there may have been a rider who didn't get coaching at his former team.

But the Garmin version of Wiggans beat all the same guys he did in 2012 with a lot less support in 2009, on a course less favorable to him. My guess is he had a niblet or two of coaching and other advice there, given what I know of the people on that staff. They took a hugely talented guy who was having trouble finding a job and cleaned out the muck between his ears and made him a contender. Then he fell flat on his face for two years after Sky loaded him down with money and expectations.

Reading the article what makes my eyes roll is claims like "reverse periodization" and that he didn't use any past training strategies, only "snippets". That and how swimming coaches are the most creative. If they were that smart we'd have seen a lot of swimming pools being built at 8000'. And other teams don't invest in coaching. Er, OK. So what was Bobby Julich doing at Saxo before Sky hired him...if you believe this self promoting piece he was cleaning out the ashtrays on the bus, not coaching the best time trialist in the world at the time and making the Schlecks appear to be at least decent on their TT bikes.

Garmin dug up some Canadian century rider to win the 2012 Giro on Sky's latte machine budget. I believe the best placed Sky rider was 7th. If only Ryder had some coaching.

Kerrison's got Carmichaelitis worse than Carmichael.

I agree. Maybe they can get Kerrison to coach the DS's

jsutkeepspining

hi old people!