Sid the Sloth

In my experience: Aerodynamics are usually worse around the tyres and rims as a lot of serious roadies are running carbon deeper wheels. Geometry also contributes as you are placed more upright and less slammed low and fast, as gravel tends to be more comfort driven, so your aerodynamics will be worse. You are also heavier on a gravel bike, as you are running disc brake which are normally heavier, and naturally the bike has heavier tyres. You also have more rolling resistance from the tyres. Gearing wise, you can lose out on a 1x gravel bike setup on the road in my opinion, especially spinning out on descents on tar. Of course this all depends on what road bike to gravel bike you are comparing, but I suspect you won't actually be losing that much between a Scott Speedster 30 and a Speedster 30 gravel for example, but I notice quite a lot when I move between my Cannondale Supersix and Cannondale Slate. Edit: Spelling

I picked one up at Olympic cycles Claremont, I think they are free if you show them a pic of your Stages. Otherwise email stages and they will probably help you out.

Okes clearly have not tried a Slate... Honestly an amazing bit of bike, but I may be a bit biased. I see a lot complaints here about pain from lack of suspension but 43c and the 30mm lefty as well as compliant rear stays are pretty awesome. On the road I don't find it too slow, it's not a rocket but if you can put down some watts you can definitely do some damage (@puresavage will confirm). Off road, if you have access to gravel (something I unfortunately don't as I have a tt bike and not a car) it is a treat and it is really fun to ride.

Glad they got the rainbow right on this one, Personally I prefer the new one.

Also, I can’t imagine descending on those is very comfortable

I can't see it catching on, but I do think there are a lot of people out there riding wider than necessary sacrificing both aero and comfort. I have 40s, with the hoods angled inwards, and I know I could comfortably go narrower maybe with a bit of flare on the drops. Too wide and I have found my shoulders are not stacked nicely above the elbow and wrist and my arms feel splayed out.

Awesome pics Rae! Need to get in on some of this action...

Philosophy is work

Okay awesome, glad I could waste everyone's time haha... I am gonna get back to work now

Looks like you can see what I am talking about here in the manual.

Hi Lance, a friend was recently telling me a story about how his mate had a wheelset built up for his scalpel and they dished it the wrong way for the Cannondale AI offset so they had to rebuild the wheel. Of course most of the story went over my head as a) I am mechanically inept and b) I am a roadie Is there any chance this could be the issue you have - the wheelset needs to be dished 6mm to the non-drive side (thus moving cassette 6mm away from chainstay)? Sorry if someone brought this up already

Apparently it was on the painted corner before the underpass? That corner takes no prisoners, seen a few close calls there as guys like to cut the corner on the yellow painted island. Two weeks ago there were a lot of runners coming up Chappies in the oncoming lane, I almost hit them on the island, and on New Years Day there was a car parked on that island. Be careful there...

Wow this is really nice... Well done

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not but because there's no comic sans, you would be surprised...

Revival: Is anyone waxing their chains in the Southern suburbs? I’m on a student budget but I’m really keen to try with the new drivetrain I’m going to put on my road bike, so I thought I would ask now. Please let me know

Thanks! How was yours?

Alright, still learning a lot. Missed the split and then tried to go for it from our second group from about 2km left on the last hill, just to be first out of our group. I sent it into the last corner, popped, and was overtaken by a small following group. I think I ended up about 12th or so. But I am waiting for my results to be uploaded as I don't have a chip and they don't have any to sell to us post-lockdown learner-riders so they are using the finish line video footage and strava files for cross referencing.

Indeed, I am the one with the dead chain.

@JBR I think a lot of us who don’t have working chips are still waiting for results to be uploaded manually, and quite a lot of guys bailed after waiting for 30 minutes not really being told what was going on with the ambulance situation and the expected delays.

Haha I say bought but... I found a great bike for her, exactly what her dad was thinking she should go for, bought it, and then they paid me back. Needless to say I am now fixing it all out of my pocket.

It seems like I didn't explain perfectly... I provided the wheels to have the cassette fitted and the bike shop "built" up the bike (without tyres) with my wheels... So not really a build more just fitting cassette, minor service and clean of bike, and the expectation of indexing (and setting limits) of gears. I would receive the bike back ready to ride except, without tyres on. So in my opinion the issue was that they did not limit correctly on the wheels I provided and this caused the rd to shift the chain between the large end of the cassette and the spokes, if the hanger had not been bent already (I am 99% sure it was fine as the shifting was fine up until the point where it was not). Damage was only to the rear derailleur and hanger luckily, once again proving that aksiums are farily bomb proof. Luckily no carbon damage. I have decided not to take it up with them and consider it school fees. I understand that it could have been a slightly bent hanger or RD cage that caused it so not necessarily their fault. It had been a while (3 weeks) but she had not ridden much (as stated less than 100km) and can't be certain it wasn't our fault. I think I am going to pop in and explain what happened anyway, seeing as they should probably know just so it does not happen again.

I should add that I’m now one derailleur and hanger less wealthy than I was before... it’s a 105 derailleur and I have an ultegra spare I can put on but it’s medium cage so will also need to change chain then. My question also extends to whether I should ask them to find another 105 derailleur or not. I suspect they are not going to be happy to do anything if I take it back but I find it entertaining to test the customer service (strange sense of humor... but I don’t mind conflict)

Thanks for the suggestion, fortunately I have learnt how to index but the issue here was someone else was paid to do it properly, so I thought they should do it. Which turned out to clearly have been a mistake.

Happy Friday everyone. I recently bought my girlfriend a road bike, the previous owner was servicing it at a well recognized local bike shop in the southern suburbs. I went to go check it out there and it seemed like a perfect fit for her requirements. The owner and I decide to rather sell/buy without wheels as I have a set and his were causing issues. I drop my wheels (without tyres as I needed to take these off another set) and cassette off at the service center and they get building. After I pick up the bike, I take it home and fit tyres and as we are about to setting off my girlfriend tries to put her bike in the big ring and it won’t shift up. The front derailleur clearly hasn’t been indexed properly and having paid someone else to index it I take it back and they do it, excuse being that it didn’t have tyres so they couldn’t test ride it. Fair, but if you are working on a stand you should be able to spin the wheel and test all the shifting. Less than 100km later, I am riding her bike as mine is getting serviced and I shift into the largest cog at the back, and the chain slips between the cassette and the spokes, causing a cool skid while the rear derailleur is pulled into the spokes. In the collective wisdom of hubland, who is at fault? Do I take the bike back to them and ask them to please fix it? I certainly don’t feel like paying them again and would rather go to my usual trusty mechanic... is it my fault and just bad luck? How do you reckon i should proceed?

Not that it's worth much but a mate of mine bought a Scott Speedster 30 from them - he had no complaints about the service.