General Bike Thread (Desiderata, Questions, Pics)

[Holy Man]

I have Arundel's Mandibles (carbon) on my bikes and have never lost a bottle. There's a reason why they chose that name for those cages.

 

[brp2]

From this afternoon's ride. Some fresh snow on the road:


And a bit more of my primary bike:

 

[otc]

Cleaned and waxed my grocery bike, put it back outside last night...and of course there is a rainstorm this morning

Not a big deal, its a silly bike that lives outside and gets rusty (#1anti-theft device!)...but it'd be nice to have at least one day of coming home and seeing the chrome and remaining paint all shiny.
Oh well, its also got sweet new tires, repacked bottom bracket, and new bearings in the repacked front hub.

 

[brp2]

The rainy-day around-town bike made it up the hill too, but it took a bit more effort:

 

[Thrifter]

Here's my ride:

Album:
https://imgur.com/a/iVGYn

 

[Cantabrigian]

Another n00b question--

When going about accumulating parts for a new groupset (I'm looking either at a SRAM Force or Shimano Ultegra setup), can you just buy all X-speed components from that particular set or is there more to it than that? For instance, assuming it's all 10-speed, can I go wrong just buying Ultegra components when and as I find them on sale?

Thanks

 

[Fueco]



Another n00b question--

When going about accumulating parts for a new groupset (I'm looking either at a SRAM Force or Shimano Ultegra setup), can you just buy all X-speed components from that particular set or is there more to it than that? For instance, assuming it's all 10-speed, can I go wrong just buying Ultegra components when and as I find them on sale?

Thanks

You should be fine. My road bike used to have a mix of 2007 Force, 2010 Rival and 2011 Force. I recently swapped out to a 2013 Ultegra DI2 group (it still has SRAM Rival brakes and a Force cassette). My cross bike has 2011 SRAM Force.

 

[Cantabrigian]

Thanks, Fueco

So I'm assuming I'll just need to pick up

Shifters
Crankset
Bottom bracket
Front derailleur
Rear derailleur
Cassette


(no brakes needed, since it has discs that I like)

Anything I'm missing?

 

[Fueco]

Chain

 

[Cantabrigian]

Ah - yes. Could be important.

 

[Allen Smithee]

I picked up an old mountain bike and will be watching this thread.

 

[otc]

Drivetrain is due for replacement on the commuter/former cx bike. Crackly and noisy. Chain is stretched to the limits of my dropout adjustments.

Keeping it 3/32--which means I can replace the 39t chainring with a dirt cheap $13 ultegra inner ring (was previously a dirt cheap 105 inner).
KMC Z610HX chain
Dura Ace 16t 3/32 cog

I should probably buy a chain measuring tool and replace my chains more often...but on a fixed gear, replacing all of the pieces at once every 4.5 years isn't really such a bad deal.

 

[otc]

and I do mean dirt cheap on the ultegra rings:
http://www.niagaracycle.com/categories/shimano-ultegra-chainring-fc-6700-39t-x-130mm

No good if you want a bigger ring and care about how it looks (since outer rings have pins and ramps...don't get in the way, but they don't look clean on a singlespeed)...but for smaller sizes, you can usually get ultegra stuff for a fraction of the price of the mediocre single speed stuff that is out there.

All-City and Origin8 rings were pushing $40!

 

[Biscotti]

.....

 

[otc]

Yeah, but I am cheap and lazy...although mostly lazy here (since I use KMC chains which are like $5).

At least a failing measurement would give me some motivation to swap chains...but I gotta have the tool because I am definitely too lazy to measure it with a tape measure.