I'm having to repair and refit my old Diamondback for a bike ride this weekend - it hasn't seen use in 7 or 8 years.

My brother won'e let me borrow his gorgeous customised Specialized number that he's just finished putting together. The bastard.

Funny that.

Last time I loaned a bike to my brother he managed to crack the rim of very expensive wheel, but then he is a clumsy so and so.

I'd loan you mine but a) it's too big for you, and b) it's too far away

Also, have you seen the price of new high end bikes. Holy SHIT I know the pound has collapsed but jeez, an equivalent to my bike new would cost more than £4k nowadays and some of the carbon fibre full sussers are hitting £6k.

Also, have you seen the price of new high end bikes. Holy SHIT I know the pound has collapsed but jeez, an equivalent to my bike new would cost more than £4k nowadays and some of the carbon fibre full sussers are hitting £6k.

Nice. I give you six months before you enter "UPGRADE HELL"

You gotta love the old made in USA frames. Piss easy to spot from the gorgeous welding.

Heh! Hang on - I'm not short!

Tell me about it. Once I've got this weekend out the way I may do the same as Younger Brother, as his (rather nice) bike only cost him £400 all up, all new parts. Hooray for eBay and that.

My Diamondback is a rather embarrassingly heavy and old fashioned lump of steel. It's awesome, but rubbish.

There's stuff you can do to make a bike run a lot lighter in feel to it's actual weight.

Hah. Well, turns out I've lasted just short of a year before yearning for something better. However, it's only in the way of slightly regretting not getting full suspension; although the types of riding I've been doing aren't extreme, some absorption of the relentless gravel I've been going over would be very welcome.

I don't know if I could live without a remote lockout for the rear after having it on the front, mind.

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

I have a shit before I go out for a ride.

Thinner tyres, lighter wheels, narrow bars (maybe, I dunno).

But as I'm a superhero, I can just ride around the extra weight.

ONWARDS TO VICTORY!

So, in summary, get SPDs, or even toeclips and get comfy. You produce only so much power, and getting the efficiency up means more can be used to propel the bike forwards, and if it's more efficient, you can use less for the same amount.

Bottom bracket ordered!

Hopefully, by the end of next wee, it might be rideable!

That's a bloody fast service!

In seriousness, my experience is that although the weight of a bike is important in some respects, you'll often end up end up on the wrong side of diminishing returns.

Going from a rigid bike with flat pedals to a rigid bike with SPDs made a big difference, due to the massive increase in pedalling efficiency. Adding front suspension increased the weight, but the benefits in comfort, and the decrease in fatigue over a ride more than made up for it. I also increased the gearing by swapping out the large chainring for a slightly larger one (42 tooth to a 44) and replacing the 7 speed cassette with an 8 speed one (this cut out an irritating jump in the ratios when shifting gears, so cadence was inmproved.

Tyre choice as well can have a big influence, if you think about the rolling resistance.

This increase in pedalling efficiency (SPDs, gearing) coupled with the decrease in fatigue made me able to ride quicker, for longer.

So, in summary, get SPDs, or even toeclips and get comfy. You produce only so much power, and getting the efficiency up means more can be used to propel the bike forwards, and if it's more efficient, you can use less for the same amount.

SPDs are horrid.

Also - my christ, Evans Cycles are expensive.

Wrong, wrong wrong.

I just bought some stuff from Parker International, they seemed fairly cheap.

Wrong, wrong wrong.

Number of times I've missed a pedal or slipped off and scraped my shin: way too many to count.

New chainset ordered.

Does anyone know where I can get a full set of inner and outer cables for not quite as much as I'm looking at now?

You're replacing the whole chainset or just the chain?

Does anyone know where I can get a full set of inner and outer cables for not quite as much as I'm looking at now?

I've decided to build a silly and highly illegal electric bike, capable of topping 40mph without pedalling.
My first thought was to repurpose my old Cannondale M800. Seriously stiff alloy frame, and nice looking bike.

But I'm starting to think that the lack of suspension is going to be a bit hairy at high speed on anything other than glass smooth surfaces.

So does anyone have an old full-sus frame they are thinking of selling, that I might frankingstein-ify?

Or maybe I should leave it as a hardtail and stick some good suspension forks on it. Hmm.

So does anyone have an old full-sus frame they are thinking of selling, that I might frankingstein-ify?

Cheers DBS I'll have a think about that. How much would you want for it?

Front and rear brakes now have cables attached, will do the gears today, hopefully.

New cranks arrived, and look very nice. I'm "umm"-ing and "ah-"ing about swapping the 42T outer chainring out for my 44T as the cranks are 175mm rather than 170mm.


But it's all fucking academic really as the pedals are stubbornly hanging no in their old homes and the chain's a buggar to split.

But, we're almost there!

I have a couple of sets of spds you could have if you can't get them off and as for the chain, just buy a new one for a tenner for now.

Thanks, I'll consider that option. I'll keep bashing away at them today, but I can't remember if you keep the spanner on the axle and rotate the allen bolt, or the other way around....

Undoing them is the same direction you pedal in so you apply pressure in the same direction the crank moves to drive the rear wheel when taking pedals off, rotating the crank in the reverse is for tightening the pedals.