Tuesday 19 August 2014

Upgrading shifters! From Sora to Tiagra.

After the recent changes made to the Bianchi and the possible new user I thought that I would try and search around for some Tiagra shifters to replace the Sora ones with the thumb bits.
I was fortunate enough to strike a deal with a member on the BikeRadar forums who posted me his 9 speed double Tiagra shifters for £32. Bargain.

Changing the shifters requires new bar tape and optionally new cables, which I went for. At the same time I also changed the brake pads as they REALLY needed doing. So all in all I paid £9 for two pairs of brake pads (Wiggle),  £6.50 for some new bar tape (Wiggle), £10 for 2x gear cables & 2x brake cables from a LBS & then the shifters, £32 as mentioned. Total: £57.50.

Okay, so this is how the Bianchi looked to start:


First step was to remove the existing bar tape:




Easy enough to do. I also took off the black tape holding the cable housing down. There was no real need to do this, I just fancied replacing it. 

Next up was using a 5mm allen key to loosen the bracket holding the shifters on. If you peel back the rubber on the shifter you can see the allen key. It needs to be quite loose in order to wiggle the bracket off of the handlebars. 
I loosened the bracket too much and the shifter came off... 


Track bike anyone? 


Okay, next up was to cut the existing cables and pull out all the bits from the various clamps or shifters. Alternatively, if your cables are still good you could undo all the clamps and push the cable out and re-use. My cables were the originals so probably could have done with the changing. 



Once the shifters were off and all the cables were removed it was time to put the new shifters on. To do this the bracket was loosened and they were put to roughly the right position on the bars and tightened a bit. I then used a straight edge to measure where the shifters should go. I opted to have the bottom of the brake lever level with the bottom of the bars.


Next was attaching the brakes. I took this time to change the brake pads. Here is one of the ones I removed compared with the new one: 























Once the new brakes were installed I hooked up the brake cables. Fed it through the shifters, through the housing and through the loosened clamp. Then I tightened the barrel adjuster, squeezed the brakes to the rim and pulled the cable tight. Tightened the clamp and then opened the barrel adjuster about four turns. Quick test and it looked pretty great! Very responsive, much better than previously.

The gear cables followed a similar pattern. I was worried about this bit but actually it was fairly easy. Pop in the cable, go through the housing, under the bottom bracket and up into the front derailleur or round to the back for the rear derailleur. Pull the cable tight and tighten the bracket. The rear derailleur took a bit more adjusting, opening and tightening the barrel adjuster and clicking through each of the gears but I got it as good as it was before long. I think a new chain/casette is needed to get the best out of the shifting but that's fettling for another day.. 

Once the brakes and gears were cable-d in, it was time to re-wrap the bars. Unfortunately I'm not very good at this so it's not the best job in the world but I'm pretty pleased considering, and much happier about the results of the shifter upgrade to really care about the bar tape job :) 





And lastly, I took off the mudguards as to make it look a proper little summer bike for the missus.
We're off work this week so hopefully get her out a few times at least to get some miles in the legs. Hoping to get out a few times myself though we have got quite a busy social calendar so might have to sneak in a few hours here and there...  Until next time, cheers! 










Wednesday 13 August 2014

Converting the Bianchi for a smaller rider...

The most amazing thing has happened.

Victoria (my wife) has decided she wants to get involved with cycling! This makes me so happy.

She owns a bike, but it's really crappy. The brakes rub and it must weight 20kg+. It's not much fun to ride so I let her have a go on one of mine, hoping it would help give her a good experience. We went on a short ride with her on my best bike (Ridley - full carbon) and she really enjoyed it. However, I don't want to get too excited and splash out on a new bike specifically for her, but equally I don't want to let her ride the nice carbon bike all the time...

So, I thought of converting the Bianchi from my winter bike into a female friendly road bike :) It sits in the shed collecting dust most of the year anyway so I thought about what I could do for her. I figure the nicer the bike is, the more she will enjoy cycling and hopefully stick at it!

First things first - this is how the Bianchi looked at the end of last winter:

Fairly simple set up, not too aggressive but good for short-medium rides, along with the Crud RoadRacer mudguards previously reviewed here. 

I made three major changes to the bike, in under half an hour. 
First things first I lowered the saddle. Unfortunately my bike has a police fitted tracker inside the frame which prevents the saddle going any lower. Not a problem before but frustrating as hell now!

Next I flipped the stem so the handlebars have more of an upwards angle. This creates a less aggressive position on the bike, perfect for someone new to road riding.

Lastly I swapped out the SPD-SL pedals for some old, flat pedals I had lying about. This means that my wife can wear normal trainers to ride and feel safe. Perhaps one day we will progress to SPD's but I'm not going to push :)

Here is the Bianchi after those 3 main changes:

We went out for a ride on Tuesday evening for 40 minutes covering about 5.5miles. I was super happy. Yes the pace was slow but I was so happy to be out with my wife sharing a hobby that I love with her. To start with she was quite uncomfortable in the position as it's very different to a normal bike but by the end she was much happier and becoming quite comfortable. Unfortunately the saddle was very high and he leg was basically straight at the bottom of every pedal stroke, giving her a fair amount of discomfort in her hips every rotation.

To help fix this I came home from work today and got to work on the seat post of the Bianchi.

Here are a few 'arty' photos of the job:
This is the seat post as it was. The faint black line (halfway-ish) is where I have the seat position. Plenty of room left for me to cut a couple of inches off.

This is where I decided to cut. Approx 2 inches from the bottom.

I used a small saw that I found in the tool box, pretty sure it is for use on metal.

This was after 5 minutes of sawing.

About 8 minutes in. Not too hard work, although the cut is a bit wonky.

Almost ready to come off.

In just under 10 minutes I had sawn through the seat post. Shortening it by a couple of inches.

Not the straightest edge ever.

Finished product! Seat lowered even further for optimal pedalling along with the other changes. Ready for some nice rides next week as we enjoy a week off from work!


I have also ordered some Tiagra shifters and new bar tape to make shifting easier (no more of the thumb shifters!) and also some new brake blocks to improve stopping power! 

Next on the list is some female specific lycra and a helmet that fits as my spare is comically huge on her tiny head! 

Hopefully more reports on her progress coming soon! 


Thursday 13 March 2014

New Job & Lunchtime Runnings

I've now been in my new job role for a month! Time has flown! I'm really enjoying being busy here in Oxford and getting some great exposure to all kinds of people in my new role.

I have been out cycling a few times around Gloucester now and found a couple of nice routes -see my Strava. The latest update is that my wife & I will be moving... again... somewhere more in the Cotswolds and closer to both our jobs as she is about to start a new role at the Four Pillars hotel in the Cotswolds Water Park (it's very posh!)

What's a bit more exciting is that I have found a group of 4 or 5 people who go running at lunch times here at Siemens. They are mostly all a lot quicker than me but tend to do a good 8km or so every lunch time. So far I have joined them twice but I am going to try and commit to going out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday - which will be a lot more running than I've ever done before!

We run either down a river path along the Thames or in some woods owned by Oxford Uni. I've never done any trail running and I didn't realise how brilliant it was. It's quiet, there's no traffic and lots of wildlife to look at to distract you from the pain in your legs! I have really enjoyed it so far and running with other people - especially people who are much quicker and more committed - is great! Really enjoying it.

The only annoying thing is that my Garmin seems to not pick up signal for the first 10 minutes or so and misses out the hardest hill of the run! Must be a few hundred feet of elevation and my heart is pounding by the top but I don't get any data recorded from it! Think I'm going to try with my phone next time and use RunKeeper and see if I can get the whole distance/elevation profile off of that - or try and set up my Garmin outside instead of in the changing room..

Hopefully I will see some improvements in distance, fitness and maybe even shed some weight! The group also does races at some points in the year so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into that.

My current schedule is looking like running in the weeks and getting some miles in on the bike on the weekend. This I am very happy with!

Sunday 16 February 2014

On Gloucestershire

A couple of weeks ago, the big move happened. I finally moved all my stuff down to Gloucester and I now live here permanantly. I started a new job last week and so far I think it's going very well. It's a ton of responsiblity but everyone is really nice so I know I will have as much support as I need once I take over the role completely.

Anyway - the important stuff!

I have now been out 3 times on the bike in the last week and a bit and I am thoroughly enjoying it. (See strava links on the right for rides..) It's a lot hillier than Lincoln (surprise!) but I am relishing the challenege. On my first ride I stumbled across Haresfield Beacon which is by far and away the toughest climb I've ever come across. It's so steep that I am yet to get up it without getting off and pushing. I've tried twice and today I got about 25m further but still nowhere near the top! One day.. one day..

I've found a bike shop that does social rides (Eastgate Cycles in Gloucester) which I am hoping to join on a Wednesday evening but they also put all their rides on facebook so I've been able to export them to my Garmin and use their knowledge of the local roads to get out and about.

Cheltenham and County Cycling Club is the other club I am hoping to join. They are a huge club based down the road and go out on Saturdays which keeps my Sundays free. (They go out on Sundays too, though.)

Hoping that some of my Lincoln friends will come and visit when the weather is a bit nicer, looking forward to showing them around and doing some epic longer rides and getting fit again, at least up to last years standards.

Friday 24 January 2014

I am leaving Lincoln..

After over 5 years I am leaving Lincoln to start a new job in the South West. I will be living in Gloucester with my wife and working on the west side of Oxford.

I am looking forward to new challenges, new friends and new bike routes but of course I will miss all the challenges, friends and rides that I have done in Lincoln over the last 5 years. To celebrate this, this weekend I have organised to do a 5k run, play one last hockey match and to go on a nice Sunday bike ride with some friends who I will miss when I leave.

I haven't run 5k since Christmas Day and I struggled then. I'd love to say I'm in a good condition to PB (sub 23:19) and I will try but honestly anything under 25min would be great.
Hopefully I get a goal in the hockey, it would be nice to score again - I think I have one for the season after finishing top scorer in the league last year.
Sunday bike ride I'm hoping to get 40+ miles in - it will be a bit of a novelty to be cycling in the daytime to be honest!

I will update with how the weekends activities go and look forward to updating in the future about Park Runs, Cycling Clubs etc down in the South West!