taras0000

And there goes the secret identity behind my CandyCrush handle

Morelock

Kaben

Hi, first time post here - i have literally just read through all 206 pages of this thread to make sure my questions hadn't already been answered previously. Quite a few got answered, so i'm glad i did but i do have a few that I will pose to you all as soon as i have gathered my thoughts correctly. ( i am sure you cannot wait!)

First and most pressing to me at the moment is I have been offered a pair of DT Swiss RC 55 Track Tubular wheels for less than half price from a friend of a friend. Does anyone have any experience of DT Swiss carbon wheels for track use? I have heard they have a reasonable reputation in the box section ally rims but i don't know much about their carbon history.
The wheels also have a recommended system weight of 100 kg - I weigh 95-98kg depending on whether im at race weight or not. With bike and rider i would probably be looking at 103 - 106 ish KG system weight. In your opinion ( not holding you to anything), would you think that this is within the wiggle room that manufacturers give themsleves when setting these limits? 100kg system weight seems quite low to me, given that these wheels are aimed at track riders who are not all whippets like most roadies. Zipp give just a rider weight limit higher than this, not a system limit for example.

For clarification, these will mostly be used in Sprint events, but i am still v early in my track "career" to specialise so i will take part in as many different events as i can so they will see scratch and points race use as well for example. They would also be used both at an indoor & outdoor velodrome ( Lee Valley & Herne Hill here in London. The outdoor surface at Herne Hill is actually pretty good so no major bumps)

The only info i can find on the wheel is a short review at Cycling weekly.( I cant post the url yet as i dont have 10 posts)

Any inisght gratefully recieved!

Kaben

Regarding Adamo saddles, I crashed earlier this year doing seated sprint training on my road bike with one.
I Hit a lump in the road surface and i was knocked off the short perch at the front of the Adamo. I ended up straddling the top tube (but over to one side) and after a few long moments I ended up skittering down the road. Lots of skin lost and a broken frame were what i ended up with. Thank goodness for insurance!
I wouldn't want to experience that same situation on a fixed gear - i think it would have been much worse as once bucked, you are no longer pedalling, so you would likely be pitched over the front of the bike rather than "low siding" as we used to call it in my motorcycle days.

That said, i do still love my Adamo saddles, but i think i will only use them for timetrialling going forward.

topflightpro

I believe DT uses Reynolds carbon rims, which are solid rims and reputable. And weight limits are usually fairly conservative, so I think you should probably be OK, but I'm not an expert on that and I did not stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

rensho3

Re Adamo saddle; I have ridden one for about three years on the track. It did take a while (I mean a couple of months) to fully acclimate to it, but I am sold on it. I was having some serious plumbing problems during and after longer events like points races and scratch races and switched to the Adamo to get some relief. I no longer do mass start races, but it works great for sprint events. I am now having similar problems with my road bike and will probably get an Adamo for it once track season is over and I start riding the road more. Perhaps being older than most of the folks here and enlarged prostate was the deciding factor that gave me the patience to get used to the thing.

Kaben

taras0000

Kaben, also consider the type of track you will be riding on. A 200m track is going to sibject you and your equipment to higher G Forces than a 400m track will.

What is the stature of your friend's friend? Is he similar in size to yiu? Did he already race the wheels with no issues? Have they been crashed?

Kaben

Files

Baby Puke

I'd recommend you always use a proper chain whip to put on/take off cogs. You'll get varying opinions on lock rings. I always use them, and they do not need to be anywhere near as tight as the cog. You have a lot fewer threads to deal with there, and it might be easy to strip them.

Kaben

Following on from this question - should chainring bolts be set to a certain torque or just "hand tight"? I couldn't find any manufacturer recommendations for any crankset. I have Stronglite cranks at the moment which came with my Planet X but they didn't come with any documentation either.

Morelock

@Files - just tight enough that it doesn't spin itself back off. As for Rota fix... I've seen guys do it on fixies before... since the chain basically has to rest on the bb shell I wouldn't recommend it on a nice bike, and there's some room for error and scratching/damaging things. Depending on how tight the cog is on it can take some serious force to spin it off as well (again opening up the chance for problems) There's really not much excuse not to bring a chain whip/chain pliers to the track though. Last resort imo.
@Kaben - hand tight is what I've used for the past 10+ years on many bikes... some rings do have torque recommended specs, (most of them are in the range of 10Nm) but I've never seen anyone pay attention to them. Certainly trackies who are changing rings on the go generally don't use a torque wrench. I suggest tightening in a star pattern (up downleft, right, left, downright on a 5 bolt) which is just good practice (also should tighten stuff like a stem plate in an x pattern)

Kaben

Thanks for the clarification. I did star pattern when tightening but also used blue locktight. Having read up on a few posts about chain ring bolts since then, i may be full of regret regarding the locktight when it comes time to change the ring!

SyntaxMonstr

Does anyone who owns a Kimera know what the biggest chainring you can fit on it is? I messaged Koga and they told me to ask my local dealer (none of those in Pakistan, surprisingly) so I called a bunch of LBS' in the UK and none of them stock Kogas. Velodrome Shop straight up said they didn't know. Even messaged a few Dutch riders on IG and got left on read I've put a 60t on it and there's space, but I'm hesitant to buy a bigger expensive chainring to learn that it won't fit.

taras0000

I think Bos was using a 62.

rensho3

Long before riding a fixie was popular, I built one out of an old KHS so I could train on it. I don't have the bike anymore, so I forget what the BB was, but the I know the spider did not hold onto the bolts very well, so I applied lock tite to make sure they did not fall off. I wrongly thought that I would never have to change the chainrings; I was wrong, and it I still remember putting a pipe on the allen key so I could generate enough torque to break them loose, and in one instance, break the bolt itself. Never did that again!

Morelock

What kills me is Speedplay continue to use (red) loctite on the bolts in their pedals. I have a little bin full of bolts to fit speedplays because someone inevitably thinks they are going to DIY some new spindles and strips something.

700wheel

If Loctite is ever needed use purple for threads less than 1/4" dia.

taras0000

So mix equal parts red and blue. Gotcha.

SyntaxMonstr

Thanks! Saw a 70t going for a reasonable-ish price and was debating picking it up but perhaps it's too big a jump.

topflightpro

Can you expand on this please?

We have a bunch of bikes with Speedplays. Many had SS spindles. They lollipop ends wore out. I bought a bunch of Chromoly pedals with the intention of swapping the bodies and bearings onto the SS spindles. This worked fine on about half my bikes. But I could not remove the screw holding on the pedal bodies on the other half. I destroyed one pedal and spindle trying to get it out.

I did buy two titanium spindle sets off eBay, and that worked fine.

Morelock

That's pretty much it. The problem is the quality of the heads they use is (in my experience) just as likely to round off a hex (or even torx) as it is to break the threads loose.
Some things I've done with varying amounts of success
- Heat gun/torch approach - I read this one on WW a long time ago, basically you put a bit (hex or torx that fits) in and heat that until it's red hot, which transfers to the bolt itself and loosens the loctite. It is a big pita but it's probably the most reliable way.
- Axle Vise clamp + allen/torx wrench and pray. If it's a hex head bolt, skip directly over the part where you try to use a hex key to remove it and just hammer a slightly bigger (t20 probably) torx key into it... you'll then have enough grip (even more than you'll have if the bolt was a torx to start with in my experience) Note that this ruins that bolt basically.
- In one or two situations someone else already tried and totally ruined the head of the bolt, and at that point it's really going to come down to damage control. With the right bit and a drill press you should be able to drill it out without ruining anything... just start with a small bit and work your way up. If you don't have a press and just a hand drill... clamp the spindle in the vise and pray you've got a steady hand. You'll get the spindle out either way, but you might ruin the spindle if you don't line it up right (no big deal if you're replacing them)

I've had a good number of ti spindles come through my hands for folks looking for more/less q factor. They seem to have all mostly held up perfectly fine... although none of them were under huge power sprinter types which I've read some folks had concern about fwiw.

brawlo

SyntaxMonstr

Perfect, thanks so much!