Woofie

I have been toying with a couple of questions in my head but I dont know what is the right choice. I ride a RC9000 which is my training/racing/commuting bike. I am happy with it, it is light and I enjoy my time with it. It is still 9 speed, 34/50 and 11-21. It already has 10 speed derailers. So today a bought 2nd hand 7800 shifters and chain. So now I have a pretty easy swap over to 10 speed (I do have a 10 speed cassette as well at home) I have another old road bike lying at my friends house. It is a steel frame Lejuene in good nick with downtube shifters and the original components etc. It is 7 speed, with a double chain ring. And then finally I have a ridley 56cm frame and full carbon look fork (my old frame). Question time. What should I do with my 9 speed components now? I have got plenty of life in it, the cassette is only a month old and it is working well. 1. Ride it until the groupset is dead. And then only put on the 10 speed. 2. Sell the groupset, although I am not going to get much money for it. 3. Build up my ridley again with the 9 speed parts, although I dont have loads of money to build up a new bike. 4. Put the parts on the lejuene. if answer 4. Would a 9 speed cassette fit on there if it is 7 speed now? Would it be wiser to leave the old bike in its original form? or should I just forgot about the heritage stuff and start commuting on it rather? 5. Sell the 9 speed goods, ridley & lejuene (do people want these old bikes)

My first road bike was like this. The rims must have been bigger than normal because I battled my @rse off to get the tyres on and off. Have to tried using fold flat tyres? I find those easier to get over the rim. Maybe experiment with your friends old fold flats before you go and buy some.

I know. I have the 350's. But the 420 are so sexy.

How was he able to cope with the heat though? Doesnt he come from a climate of like snow and stuff?

Yep, That is why I was asking questions on friday. I came down N7, through philies, up towards malmesbery and then on the race road down to the venue. I parked at the upper parking when I saw the traffic. Popeye, you were a machine again yesterday! Where did you come? I fell off on the hill

I saw the traffic was lank bad approaching the venue, so I quickly did a U turn through one of those tar sections on the island and I went back to the other parking area up the road. So I luckily made it in time.

Flip, are you sure you actually got to work? I wouldnt have if I stopped for all these photos! Ready for burger tomorrow MDK? Hows the chest?

Sorry' date=' I'm joining a very interesting topic late... In my experience you'll feel 150g in the wheels immediately but not necessarily elsewhere. Experimented with that on my Mbuzi. The Kobra adjustable post weighs a ton so hacking 350g off it was fairly easy. Didn't feel much of a dif (complete bike weighs in at 15k's so it's a small % compared to RB weights). Then I tried new tires. Dropped 319g and could immediately feel it. And the dif felt BIG. Yeah you have to factor in grip and things like that that also has an influence... Educate away.[/quote'] And have you taken it on a flat course yet? Can you feel a major difference there? Obviously you will climb like a beast with such a big weight loss, but would you really feel the diff on level jeeptrack?

You have so lost me there. I can understand the first sentance and then everything slowly starts to become a blur.

Very interesting guys. Nice one with the formulas as well. Is Joules=Watts? I had another thought last night. Heavier rims may carry you up a hill quicker because of the stored up momentum, but going down on the other side it will take longer to accelerate the rims to a high speed. Obviously at the bottom of the hill the rims will be up to full speed again but the 2 seconds gained on the climb may be lost on the decent again.

Exactly. But if you are a strong cyclist the rims would probably give you awesome stability at speed. Lets think out of the box here, really extreme. What if you had to go really overboard and create a solid back disk out of concrete. Cast it over some old rims so you have a straight rim to work with and some steel inside to hold it together. Yes, it would weigh 10+ kg, but and it would take a few minutes to get to cruising speed, but just imagine the momentum you would carry! You may have to fix a disk brake onto there to be able to slow you down though.

Why wouldnt a heavy wheel be like a flywheel? ya, maybe tiger would be able to balance it out. It would be a massive problem at 70KM/h if the wheel was very unbalanced Sure it would take much longer to accelerate. but in TT you dont need to accelerate fast you just need to be able to keep a very high constant speed. Would a heavier bike be harder to use in a TT? Surely not? I actually saw a pic on the hub a few days ago of a old school track bike with deeeep section wooden rims. Flip, they looked really awesome. Surely those must weigh a half a ton? They must surely act like two flywheels?

I have been wondering for some time now about how a heavy rim would work on a very flat course instead of using a light one. Surely the heavier one will carry more momentum? For instance on a TT bike where the profile is very flat. Wouldnt it be of an advantage then? Have any of you DIY guys every made a deep section rim your self out of an old rim and carbon fibre or fibre glass? How funny would that be, rocking up at a TT race with a old lejuene with the down tube shifters moved to the TT bars and your homemade deep sections that used to be alex rims. Funny enough, I think it would actually work as well and if the course is flat I think you could have some fun. I actually have a old lejeune that is lying in my friends wendy house...... Do you think that is a worthwhile project?

What do you think he is doing here? Is he here on holiday and did the race? Or is he living here now?

I read somewhere that the 6700's do work with older components. However the 7900's dont. Bit weird that the one would work and the other one not though since they are similiar technology.

The wires do get tricky when you change your bartape. Personally, I think the gear indicator is the best thing about it. I use it so much to know which gear I am in so I never have to look at my gears. Pity that yours stopped working.

mmmm..... imagine keeping one of them frozen and having it mid race on a hot day.

gee wizz. What chain rings do you have on there

Oh ok. You are talking about the riper bananas being more unhealthy than the fresh bananas. Not the freezing process making it into sugar instead of starch. But at the end of the day isnt carbs carbs anyway?

Explain the starch to sugar?

Wont that be a bit like eating marbles if they are frozen solid?