dksix

My bike came in Tuesday. I put it together and found one bad tube. Went to town and bough 2 new tubes, put it in and did the test and tune type thing. Wednesday I tried again, made it about a mile, had another flat, pushed it back home. Put another new tube in (found my mistake that caused the flat) but was weary of riding much, so pretty much on the road in front of my house. The flat I caused.....I ran to Walmart and bought tubes, 2 Bell for 700C 28-32, mine is 23 wide and when I put the tube down the the rim it did leave enough room for the tire to lock in but I made it and the tire pushed tight on the tube, eventually causing a flat.
Today I got it out, set the MMR for 10 miles and headed up the big hill that starts my rides. It pulls strong, when I smash I can feel the bike lunge forward and on level, pedal input is felt. Overall its obviously more efficient. The bike is a 60CM Scattante R350, one of the 2014 compact frame bikes, completely stock except for the 60mm stem. I suspect, based on physical condition vs the mechanical condition, that the owner put the bike together himself and never got it right. The stops on the FD wouldn't stop the chain from going off top or bottom, the FD was twisted and rubbed the chain one side or the other, front or back on all three rings. Just things like that, nothing I didn't expect. I'm not a bike mechanic but I figure things out pretty quick. Today I did a 10 mile loop, stopping no less than 6 times to tweak things a bit. But the time I got home the rear was pretty good and the front was improving, I did 10.54 miles, averages 12.3 mph and had a 612' gain. The last time I did that look at 14.6 MPH average on my big heavy MTB. I figure all told I spent 6-7 minutes working on the bike and had to take to calls from work during the ride. Taking out that time I would have been about 14.25 MPH, which I'm happy with.
The big thing was that I was very uncomfortable on the bike. The stem is too short, I need a little more set back on the post and I need the bars up higher. I ordered a 120MM x 17 degree stem and seat post with 25mm of set back. I'm pretty sure the frame is the right size for me. (measuring myself for bike measurements I'm 6'2" and my riding inseam is 35. With the 60cm seat tube I ended up with the seat at 31" above the bb center. I just feel cramped on it between the seat and bars and I need (at least for now) the bars up higher.
I was uncomfortable almost the whole ride. it's 18 days since a crashed and broke my wrist, drop bars on a bike that's is cramping you up and a freshly broken wrist is most of the physical discomfort but true be told, I'm not comfortable on it yet. It needs better brakes and brake pads, that will be the first thing I buy when I get it fit and comfortable. It's much different that my comfortable MTB but I think I'll be fine getting used to it.

Is it normal to have a lot of noise coming from the wheels, tires, road? I sounds like the spokes are really tight (it's like a high pitched sound not a squeal or rattle, very tingy sound. I have plenty of questions but right now I'm sleepy.

Stucky

No. Unless you have really deep "aero" wheels, a road bike should be virtually silent.

Isn't Scattante the German word for taking a crap?

f4rrest

Who is hoke?

goenrdoug

First, kudos to you! I did the same thing you're doing now about two years ago. It's been so much fun.

For the spoke thing... It sounds like the previous owner may have owned a spoke wrench and tightened the crap out of some (all?) of them... give the spokes a light tap with your finger.. all of them.. do all the spokes on the same side of the wheel(s) give pretty close to the same tone? If not, you may need the spoke tension on the wheel looked at -- lest you begin to have a spoke breaking epidemic on your hands. Unless you want to buy a spoke tension tool and try it yourself (something I haven't done) the $10 spent at the LBS on this task is money well-invested, IMO.

CycleryNorth81

I refuse to read all that.

Pirkaus

^^^^^^^
I did
First, riding a bicycle with an 18 day old broke wrist is just stupid! Remember you have to live with that wrist for the rest of your life.
Congratulations on the new bike!
23c tires, and shallow alloy rims should be nearly silent, follow above and take wheels to LBS for a true and tension check.
I share nearly your exact story, sans broken wrist and wheel noise. Spend some time on learning about proper fit on a road bike, and adjust accordingly, for me, a 100mm stem, and a 15mm set back worked great.
Good Luck

rms13

Use Strava, it will auto pause when you stop and that way your avg mph will be accurate

rms13

Your loss

bassjones

A. Those tubes are terrible, and the wrong size for your tires. Go to your LBS and get the proper tubes for your tires.
B. The bike needs a good tuneup. Take it to your LBS and have them tune it up for you. It may need cables too, and if the original owner really did assemble it himself he probably didn't do it right based on other things you've described. Tear it down to the frame and reassemble, being sure to grease everything properly.
C. Sounds like the wheels are over tensioned. They need to be detentionsed and then retensioned to spec and retrued. Take it to your LBS.

rms13

The bike is a performance house brand so I'm pretty sure the original owner had to buy there and have it professionaly assembled. Who knows what they did to ship it to op though or how they packed it etc

Homebrew01

If only there was a way to format text into readable paragraphs.

indyfabz

fify.

Stucky

Hoke Carmichael?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_QfAzJP2Zo

bbattle

I wish I hadn't. It was painful.


OP, have the bike thoroughly checked out and properly serviced before you ride it again; could save you more broken bones.

dksix

Does no one actually work on their own bikes?

wphamilton

Of course! But they think that you're a newbie at it.

I disagree with it, new or not we don't learn much from letting someone else do the work. The flats for sure; you're probably just pinching the tubes and after a few times you'll have resolved that.

No one can diagnose all of the various issues that you've mentioned, from just the information in this thread. I'd say address them one at a time, and if you fail then it's time to bring in the pro's.

dksix

@wphamilton , thanks. I am new at working on some of this stuff but I'll learn it. I'm a mechanic by trade though now I design equipment and tooling. I understand most of what's going on, right or wrong on the bike but knowing exactly what to expect or what the systems are capable of is where I'll have to learn as I go. And I'm not opposed to taking something to the shop when it's over my head or just don't want to mess with it but for me, a trip to the closest competent bike shop is an hour + drive each way and they require the bike to be left.

PepeM

If you are a mechanic then the knowledge/tools you already have + Google is all you need.

RIP Chainrings

Congrats mate. Glad you are enjoying. I would switch over from mmr to strava but that's just me. Strava will allow you to see more data, segments, and keep a longer ride history for tracking improvements. As with all road rides, keep tire pressures as high as it reads for on the side wall - fewer [pinch] flats and less contact friction. Cheers and happy riding!

dksix

Yes, tools and shop space I have. I don't have a decent bike stand yet and no wheel truing equipment. I have built wheels before, for both bicycles and motorcycles.

Which would you think would be more accurate? I installed Strava last night and used them both today (MMR & Strava). Everything was pretty much the same except elevation gain; MMR listed it at 1235' but Strava showed 1406', I consider that substantial.

bigdo13

Ahhhh, those fateful first few rides back in the saddle after a long hiatus....


keep tuning it to your needs... it'll get there...

as for noise... uhhhhm, no, there should be no "noise"... should be silent....

RIP Chainrings

Strava for sure. They do work when it comes to topography