The Official Road Bike/Cycling Thread

[Natedog]

After four years and thousands of miles on my current roadbike, I've decided to upgrade the entire gruppo to Shimano 105 Black!

105

I got a great deal on the parts, but it still adds up so I started looking at new bikes and realized that buying my next roadbike is going to be considerably more expensive to get what I really want. Therefore I'm upgrading this time and in a couple years will look at a new bike. Still need to buy cables/housings, and a chain, I like KMC and prolly going with their X10SL titanium nitride. http://kmcchain.us/chain/x10sl-ti-nitride/

[hpiguy]

Congrats Nate, 105 is good stuff for sure.

[rupps5]

Chain reaction is a good place to order shimano components from

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by hpiguy

Congrats Nate, 105 is good stuff for sure.

Thanks man, yes solid yet lightweight and durable.

Originally Posted by rupps5

Chain reaction is a good place to order shimano components from

Thanks, that's where I bought most of my parts, they have incredibly great prices and free shipping only took 8 days.

I'm having difficulty finding the good Ultegra or better Shimano cables to run with all this, even Shimano's site doesnt' seem to list these. Any suggestions?

[hpiguy]

How Peter Sagan loads his bike.

[Natedog]

After riding lots of geared roadbike and wearing out the drivetrain riding year round in all weather, and trying out Rockhugger's fixed gear roadbike, I decided to buy one!

Pics!





All put together, quick spin around neighborhood and it rides great! I had a snack, changed clothes, put on my bike shoes and clipped in for a ride. This thing is even nicer in person, new hubs use machined serrated cone washers under head of 8mm allen head cap screws (like Paul or Hope Pro2 hubs...very nice), not 15mm hex nuts. Welds, paint, wheels, everything is sweet! I adjusted the bars back down where they belong after test ride, just put it together quick when I got it. Richard at www.wabicycles.com set it up fixed 46/17 as per my request, added 17T freewheel on opposite side just in case. Tape on seatpost for height. I called, asked questions (which he answered everything very well), ordered on 12/11/14 and it arrived in NorCal from LA this morning 12/13/14 via Fedex Ground, box and bike was in very good condition.

Yes, now I really need to buy road shoes and clipless pedals, I've been riding mtb shoes and Crank Brothers pedals on all my bikes, but I think it's time to have dedicated road shoe/pedal setup. Looking at Look, Speedplay and some others for road setup with Specialized shoes.







Had a great first ride, started in daylight and finished after dark. This thing rides like greased lightning! I had a couple oh chit moments when I forgot to keep pedaling, this is my first fixed gear bike! Only thing I'm going to change is the bars, I want to get the brake levers up higher so that I have a nice horizontal fairly level spot on top of hoods and continuing onto the bar tops. Saddle is pretty good little more padding than I'm used to, have to get more rides on it to know for sure, but it's not bad and would be perfect if you're not wearing a chamois.

If you're on the fence about this bike, buy it!
If you're looking for good SS road bike, buy the Wabi!

There were sections of floating fog like this up to about 5 feet above the ground (like horror movie fog) and it was chilly, but not too cold oout tonight.



My Specialized Secteur, I want to get my bars/levers in this position, so I bought Specialized Expert Alloy Shallow Bend bars same as on my geared bike.
http://www.specialized.com/us/en/ftb...bend-handlebar

[hpiguy]

^^Very cool Nate, congrats!! I've been thinking about a SS road bike for next year actually since I love my SS mountain bikes so much. Don't think I could do a fixie however.

[EeePee]

rupps5 hit me up and said there's fix gear talk going in here. I got excited cause I road fixed downtown as a courier. No brakes, flat pedals. Death trap.

But then I saw the brakes. And that stem height. Boo!

Nice looking ride though.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by hpiguy

^^Very cool Nate, congrats!! I've been thinking about a SS road bike for next year actually since I love my SS mountain bikes so much. Don't think I could do a fixie however.

Thanks, I'm loving it! Do eet. You could.

Originally Posted by EeePee

rupps5 hit me up and said there's fix gear talk going in here. I got excited cause I road fixed downtown as a courier. No brakes, flat pedals. Death trap.

But then I saw the brakes. And that stem height. Boo!

Nice looking ride though.

Cool, yes death trap lol.

Oh well, I like to stop fast when large deer run out in front of me on the bike trails...then there's cars. I'm not 20 anymore, so I prefer to live to ride another day. I'm an ex-skier, bmx, skateboarder with many hard landings, I'm still very active and stretch, any tips on getting my body to accept lower stem/bar height? The bike looks even better with stem flipped so that it is then parallel with toptube...wish I could manage that. I ride in the drops, but that low all the time is not comfortable. Dunno how I used to ride bars so low back in high school.

Thanks man, you know it's a good bike when you like to just look at it when you're not riding her.

[rupps5]

Lower back, core exercises, and must importantly stretching will get those bars lower.

[EeePee]

Or take the easy route and one week at a time take a spacer ring off, gradually lowering the stem/bars. Then when at the bottom put the spacers back and flip the stem.

[hpiguy]

Meh, I like the look of a slammed stem as much as anybody. But, my right shoulder won't tolerate it after jacking it up in '09, so I'll take comfort over looks. And if I'm comfortable, by default I'm performing better.

[rockhugger]

Yoga

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by rupps5

Lower back, core exercises, and must importantly stretching will get those bars lower.

Yes, thanks!

Originally Posted by EeePee

Or take the easy route and one week at a time take a spacer ring off, gradually lowering the stem/bars. Then when at the bottom put the spacers back and flip the stem.

Not a bad plan, but prolly take more than one week per 10mm lol...we'll see, would look sweet with stem flipped.

Originally Posted by hpiguy

Meh, I like the look of a slammed stem as much as anybody. But, my right shoulder won't tolerate it after jacking it up in '09, so I'll take comfort over looks. And if I'm comfortable, by default I'm performing better.

Yes, I'm in a similar dilemma and I gotta go with what works for long rides.

Originally Posted by rockhugger

Yoga

Yes, maybe time for few new moves.

Had a DAY ride yesterday on the fixed gear! Oh to ride in the sunshine was glorious lol. Kinda millisecond forgot to pedal once...getting better at this and went to a little more hilly section, I been kinda whooped and eating very well today. dangit this fixed gear chit is addicting just like rigid SS MTB, maybe even more so.

[Natedog]

Another 20 miles today finished in the dark and had a great sunset. I loving the Specialized Expert Alloy Shallow Bend bars on this bike. Bar is rotated tiny bit forward to get drop angle nice, levers seem good in my initial setup position, so I'll wrap the bars and see how it goes. Freakin cold lately and bare metal bars really chill the hands even with good gloves. More pics to come.
http://www.specialized.com/us/en/ftb...bend-handlebar

Good fixed gear info and other bike info in general: http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html

[Natedog]

I setup 42/18 the other day and had lots of fun. Called couple LBS, found one with master links in stock, drove halfway across town and bought two (three piece bobby pin style that I prefer on SS and spares are good), they even had the same gold color as the stock chain, drove halfway across town again, proceeded to swap chainring and shorten chain in parking lot. Upon installation, I found hey were both for 1/8" chain, had to go back across town, swapped for KMC two piece style since that was the only brand/type they had in 9-speed chain, 7-8 speed link was too loose. So.....FYI the Wabi uses 9-speed width 3/32"x1/2", it was nice snug fit like it should be. My day ride turned into night ride, but it was good ride. Ordered 42T chainring from Wabi and as usual Richard had it shipped and at my door ASAP, thanks again!

42/18 is good in the hilly sections, but in the flatter parts wish I had 46/18, not unbearable though. I'll stick with it for a few weeks and see how it goes.

I've been very happy with my bar, lever and stem position so I taped them up re-using the stock Wabi tape. This was my first bar wrap and so figured better to practice with what was there, first side took awhile and I started over several times, second side was wrapped in no time! Bought some Specialized black cork tape with plugs which I'll use to re-wrap later. Specialized Bicycle Components

I was not liking my Pearl Izumi winter gloves very well and the velcro strap closure at the wrist was constantly snagging my long sleeve jersey fabric (not good for jersey) and the strap would come undone. I've been wearing Fox and Pearl Izumi gloves for years and they've fit will, but the velcro always wears out in about one year or less even though I buy couple pairs of same gloves at the same time and rotate them. This way I always have clean gloves and if I lose one, I still have a backup that matches. I've been looking at slip-on gloves and bought Giro DND gloves Giro DND gloves for cyclists for warmer days and Bontrager RXL Thermal gloves Bontrager: RXL Thermal Glove (Model #11356) for colder days. These are both slip-on gloves that fit great (way better than even Fox for me) work very well, look like they'll last and no velcro straps to come un-done or wear out, both highly recommended!

[hpiguy]

Very nice Nate!

[hpiguy]

I just registered for the Fletcher Flyer, doing my first century this year.

[jsowens]

Originally Posted by hpiguy

I just registered for the Fletcher Flyer, doing my first century this year.

Good luck! Centuries are fun and pretty addicting.

[rupps5]

The food stops are really addicting! Lol