JJDT

My 13 year old son is riding with me the 94.7. Most of the products are suitable for adults only. He is drinking Game currently but will it be suitable for such a long endurance event to keep the energy levels in tact? Powerade or Energade as an alternative? Thanks

OK so I have figured it all out now I'm confused again. The saddle handlebar adjusts the tip of the seat to the edge of the handlebar but then saddle setback could either then adjust your saddle forward or backwards depending on the measurements. By doing this you will adjust the saddle-handlebar out again.

Thanks for the reply will look into it....words are not my strong point but I will try next time to fit the bike to my son :-)

I bought my son a road bike and went to competitive cyclist to get details of bike fitment. I do not understand those technical terms can somebody explain me these terms and what to do. Below is the layout. Thanks The Competitive Fit The Eddy Fit The French Fit Seat tube range c-c 54.4 - 54.9 55.6 - 56.1 57.3 - 57.8 Seat tube range c-t 56.1 - 56.6 57.3 - 57.8 59.0 - 59.5 Top tube length 52.0 - 52.4 52.0 - 52.4 53.2 - 53.6 Stem Length 10.5 - 11.1 9.4 - 10.0 9.6 - 10.2 BB-Saddle Position 75.9 - 77.9 75.1 - 77.1 73.4 - 75.4 Saddle-Handlebar 49.8 - 50.4 50.6 - 51.2 52.3 - 52.9 Saddle Setback 4.8 - 5.2 6.0 - 6.4 5.5 - 5.9 Explanation of Fit Calculator Output Values 1. Seat Tube Range C-C Your new bike's seat tube height should fall within this range. "Center-to-Center" signifies the length of the seat tube as measured from the center of the bottom bracket spindle to the midpoint of where the seat tube intersects the top tube. The seat tube height is most important as it relates to your head tube. If your seat tube is too short, your head tube will almost certainly be too short. This results in too low of a handlebar position placing an inordinate amount of stress on your neck and back. For this very reason, if you feel as though you could go with either of two sizes, going with the bigger frame is normally advisable. Please keep in mind that many frames come with a sloping or "compact" frame geometry in which the C-C seat tube measurement is artificially short. In the case of compact frames, you should primarily focus on the top tube measurement. 2. Seat Tube Range C-T "Center-to-Top" signifies the length of the seat tube as measured from the center of the bottom bracket spindle to the top of the seat tube where it intersects the top tube. 3. Top Tube Range This measurement is along the top tube, from the midpoint at the seat tube to the midpoint at the head tube. No single piece of frame geometry has a greater impact on comfort than your top tube. If you plan on paying attention to one measurement and one measurement only, make it this one. Keep in mind that we do not measure the actual top tube on bikes with compact frame geometry. Rather, we use an "Effective Top Tube" measurement - an imaginary line drawn parallel to the ground along the length of the top tube. 4. Stem Length This measurement indicates your ideal stem length. It takes into account that your stem will be flipped to its flatter angle (e.g. 80° for Deda, 84° for Ritchey). 5. BB-Saddle Position This measurement is along the seat tube, from the center of the bottom bracket spindle to the top of the saddle. It is an ideal starting point for saddle height. Given the varying differences of cleat and pedal heights, and given the varying differences in the thickness of saddles, the BB-Saddle position has a broad range of 2cm. 6. Saddle-Handlebar This measurement ties together your choice of stem length with your saddle setback. It is measured from the nose of the saddle to the near edge of your handlebar. Keeping within this range will assure that you don't accidently push the weight balance of your bike either too far forward or backward. 7. Saddle Setback This measurement is primarily a function of your femur length. The longer your femurs, the further your saddle needs to be behind the bottom bracket in order to allow you to produce power. If you sit too far forward (or too far back) you can over-emphasize certain muscles and joints, which robs you of power and can potentially cause you injury. Saddle setback is measured by dropping a plumb bob from the nose of your saddle and measuring how far behind the center of the bottom bracket it falls. This is not to be confused with the setback measurement of your frame, which is a measurement taken by dropping a plumb bob from the center of your seat tube/top tube interface, and measuring how far behind the center of the bottom bracket it falls.

My son was browsing the net and came across this make of bike. He asked me whether this is a good make or not. I'm not familiar with this make any comments good or bad. Thanks

Decided that I will take the bike to Westdene Cycles for repairs. Here it is what unfolded: Last week Saturday morning(30/1) took the bike bike in, I decided that I will only ask them to look at the right hand side (did not know if they could repair it) to see if they could repair it then at least my son could use the bike although not 100% but it will do. Last week Monday at around noon I contacted the shop to find out the status(although they indicated that they would call me), the guy informed me that it is fixed and that the repair fee was R70(mistake 1 did not asked to whom I spoke to), seeing that the repair was so cheap I asked them if they could look at the left side also, the reply was that he will ask the mechanic to look at it. The left side had 2 issues 1 was that it was somewhat loose and 2 it will not lock it place when attempting to change up into the higher gear. Called back @3pm and was told that the bike was fixed(mistake 2 did not ask to whom did I speak to) and that the total cost was R140. My wife fetched the bike on Tuesday. Took the bike out just for a quick ride just to verify that everything was working. I noticed that the left lever was still loose but left it like that. Saturday morning my son and I decided that we will go for a ride(his very first time out on the bike), the ride started bad, a mere 400m from home my son fell, the left lever came loose completely and went into the spokes sending my flying off into the tar road. He fell do bad that he had to get 3 stiches on his hip. Now this is s short background story; furious I took the bike back back to Westdene Cycles and demanded an expalnation on what happened. This is what unfolded. They said that they only looked at the invoice that said repair right hand side, I ask them if I ask for something else do they record it on the invoice there answer is yes. I told them that I contacted them and asked for the left side also to be looked it(they asked to whom I have spoken to and I replied I could not remember). They searched for the invoice and them went to speak to the mechanic. Their reply was that there was nothing wrong(strange why would I ask for something to be looked at if I knew it was not working) and that they tested it on the stand and it was working fine. I'm not leaving this matter and hence I need some technical info. I'm do not have the technical knowledge on cycles, but I do have two questions for all the tech guys. 1. Even if a bike is on the stand and you use the lever you will still notice that it is loose or not or notice that everything is not 100%. 2. To effectively test the front derailleur you either crank it by hand and operate the lever to test it or get onto the bike and go for a ride to see the workings, in either way at one stage one would operate the lever as well to brake the rear wheel and surely you should also notice that something is not fine with the lever. What I want is a new seat(I bought an new one), not the top of the range seat but a nice seat to replace the new one that is teared because of the fall and to repair the bike now free of charge. Sorry for the long post.

Last night I disconnected the brake cable to get a larger opening for cleaning inside. There was a piece of flat rather hard plastic running inside. Could this be my problem that it somehow shifted into a wrong position. What is the purpose of this peice of plastic?

Forgot to add it is the Shimano Sora components.

Gasping, thanks for the reply. I did took the bike to Cajees @ Princess crossing because the left side was loose and they simply told me to replace it, hence searching the web for forums because this is where you get a better response on problems at hand.

Hi Guys I'm new on this forum and I'm just a recreational cyclist only riding a few races during a year. I'm not that technical on cycling equipment so excuse if I use the wrong terminology. I bought a second hand bike for my son who said that he wants to cycle with me, the reason buying a second hand bike is to see if he likes it and only then will I buy a new bike. I bought a Raleigh RC2000 2002 model and the problem I now have is that the left hand lever does not engage the front deraileur to change into the higher chainring, it moves but as soon as you let you it moves back. The second problem is the left lever is stuck I can not change gears at all. The only thing I did to the bike is replacing the rear tyre with a new one and since then the problems started. To replace these levers will cost me in the region of R1200 which I do not have the funds now and my son can not ride his bike. Any suggestions???