Originally Posted by stilllearning

Here's a photo of my 86 after some recent changes.

Thanks for your help and I will continue to lurk and learn.
Brian

Originally Posted by RobbieTunes

Sometimes, we accidentally actually know what we’re doing. It comes from being very experienced at making mistakes.

Originally Posted by stilllearning

Originally Posted by canklecat

Hey, have any of y'all replaced your Ironman bottom bracket with a Shimano BB-UN55? If so, what size? I bought three of 'em from REI for $8 apiece, apparently blowing 'em out for some reason. Kinda curious to try one, but I don't want to disassemble the Suntour BB unless I have the right replacement.

Originally Posted by RobbieTunes

80.4 on Sunday. '96 Litespeed, by W. David Lynskey....

Decided to win every hill (5600' if you used Strava or RideWithGPS, 4600' on my Garmin).
Didn't, but probably 75% of 'em. At a price.

Group of six, then picked up 2. As the 8 of us climbed the increasingly roller-coaster terrain, we topped one hill, and the route guru said "it gets worse." We looked ahead, and sure enough, there were more of the roller-coasters ahead. Discouraging view. I turned to one of the others and said "we can crest that first one; after that, it's a reach-around." He laughed, and off we went. By hitting close to 40 on the down, we managed to 90% "crest" the first one. By the middle of the second one, I'm on the small ring, and by the top, I've only got one cog left. Made it up, gasping, and he rolled up and said "that there was a man-maker." I said "this may be the last time this 11-28 goes outside." He says "sh--, you don't have a compact?" I look down, "now you tell me."

The last serious climb (Allenton, by Six Flags) has kicked my butt before, mainly because some of us go for it there. This time, I decided to start on the small ring and just try to cruise it. Amazing what happens when you decide not to suffer. Gave up 1-2 mph and actually could whistle on the climb. After that, I see the first GP5000 failure ever, on a friend's bike. Bead failure created a slow leak, and then the replacement blew in about 2 minutes. Booted the bead and off we went. Next day, could barely climb stairs.

Week before, I had a modern faceplate, sort of, on a modern stem fail after a 35mph descent. I rode it 2 miles not knowing, with maybe 1 sq mm of metal on each side of the faceplate still existing, for the two bottom holes. How it did not plant my face on the pavement, I do not know. Do not buy the Chinese face-plate mounted Garmin/HL mounts. You may not be so lucky. I found it out at a stop, and re-worked it. Next day, one of the upper bolts had pulled out, too, stripped the threads inside the stem. So I'm likely not to buy any more Chinese stems, either.

And I bought two bikes. Centurion Prestige that needs a ton of stuff. And a modern bike. We won't talk about that.

Originally Posted by stilllearning

Here's a photo of my 86 after some recent changes. I don't make too many posts as I spend most of my time lurking and learning, but I wanted to give a thanks to this forum for being a great resource. I recently finished lowering the gearing on my Ironman after months of being unsure of what to do. I especially wanted to thank seypat and rccardr for their suggestions and advice.

The bike had a 50/34 with 14-28 seven speed that was okay for what I was climbing, but my legs were telling me I needed to lower things a bit. I got a triple crank I was all set to install with a Suntour VGT Luxe RD. Seypat was very gracious in answering my questions and even went out of his way to create a new thread, complete with photos, showing the 600 EX FD could handle the triple.

Here is where things start to go in a different direction. I have wanted a Lemond for quite awhile, so when I saw a 2000 Zurich that had a triple crank at a price that was too good to pass up, I jumped on it, and decided to focus on that instead of the Ironman. I wasn't thrilled with the Zurich's current wheelset, so I was happy when I saw a Shimano R500 wheelset in great condition at a good price. I bought a nine speed 11-34 cassette and Deore M591 RD to handle things, and thought I was all set.

However, before I made the changes to the Zurich, I took it for one more ride, and couldn't get rid of the uneasiness that I felt. I know it's a better quality bike, but I just didn't feel comfortable on it. I went a size down, based on what I had read about Lemonds, but it still felt too stretched out. I figured a shorter stem would help, but had already reached the max I wanted to spend, and, there was no guarantee that would solve my issues. Also, I realized that my Ironman was already dialed in, and I really liked the ride.

As I wrestled with what to do, I remembered reading on this forum that a 130 hub would fit my Ironman. So, I tried putting in the R500 on the Ironman, and it went in with no problems. Next, thanks, to this forum, after I found out that friction shifting would work on 9 speeds, I came up with a new idea. Why not keep the 50/34 and put the R500 with 11-34 cassette and Deore RD on the Ironman? I get the lower gearing, and maybe since I got such a good deal on the Zurich, I could sell it at a higher price to cover some of the expenses in all this?

Well, that's what I ended up doing, as I made enough on the sale of the Zurich to cover what I spent on the R500 wheels. So even though I didn't put on a triple, I am still very thankful for the advice I received. I went a different route, but this forum's advice in the other areas was just as helpful!

Thanks for your help and I will continue to lurk and learn.
Brian

Originally Posted by tgot

Half the fear was my ham-handed lmit adjustment, and half operation. I was pushing on a ride and tried to do a lightning drop from the 52 to 39, and dumped the chain down onto the BB. White paint under the red, I found. Checking limits afterwards, it seemed impossible.

Originally Posted by canklecat

I borrowed a nice wheelset from a friend for the Ironman -- Mavic CXP21 rims on Ultegra hubs. Gotta return 'em eventually. I had to swipe a cassette from another wheel, an older Bontrager Race Lite Aero with an old school DT Swiss hub that needs to be overhauled, and I can't figure out how to disassemble the darned thing. It's not the current type with bits that pull off to reveal the cartridge bearings.

Fortunately the cassette and spacers were perfect for the Ironman, didn't even need to tweak the rear derailleur. Those SunRace freewheels and cassettes are perfectly happy with Suntour and Shimano drivetrains. Must be the beveled and angled teeth, and chromed finish. Snick snick shifting, runs quietly, no drama.

Anyway, since I had the wheels for a couple of weeks I rode the Ironman for the first time in three weeks. I've mostly been riding my 30 lb Univega, so the Ironman felt like a featherweight.

I didn't really have any plans for the Saturday ride, so I just hopped on the bike and headed west of town. After about 20 miles of warmup I realized how much lighter the Ironman felt than the Univega (hey, 25 lbs feels light after riding a 30+ lb hybrid with 700x42 tires for a month). So I tackled some hill repeats.

There's a new housing development that's stalled due to the pandemic and economic slowdown. But they'd finished the streets. To keep it picturesque (very pricey McMansions, in the $500k and up range) they just paved over the rolling hills so there's lots of opportunities for prospective buyers to be kings of their own mountains.

Some of those streets are double digit grades, 0.2-0.3 miles each. So I did several hill repeats, mostly standing to climb the whole way. Did that for 10-11 miles until my legs were cooked.

By then I had almost 40 miles in and my neck was aching, so I headed home to eat and use my percussion massager. But a couple hours later I felt great again and decided to go for a full century, figuring I'd finish by midnight.

Nope. After another 20 miles I was done. Headed home and finished the day with 70 miles. The century goal wasn't realistic when combined with 10 miles of quad cooking hill repeats.

I decided to try a short, easy "recovery ride" Sunday, which was one of dumber ideas.

I was exhausted, and a recent bout of posterior vitreous detachment (not quite as bad as a detached retina) has obscured some of my peripheral vision. I didn't notice a car approaching too fast from my right until it was on top of me. I still had time to unclip and set a foot down at the intersection break in the median strip. But my leg spasmed and I couldn't unclip. Felt like there was a bit of grit in the cleats, which were new and didn't pop out as easily as the worn cleats I just replaced. I didn't want to flop down in the path of the car, so I swerved sharply left and hugged the left side of the lane, hoping the car would miss me. Fortunately there was no other traffic so the driver slowed, moved over and tweedled the horn impatiently. Not even a real honk, just a miffed tweedle sound.

My only reaction was "Sweet looking Mustang! Look at those rims that just avoided flattening me!" I was too tired to even get excited or scared. I was just grateful it didn't turn out worse. I did a very slow and easy 15 miles, headed home and slept for 24 hours. And cleaned out the cleats before the next ride.

First time I've nearly been clobbered that was completely my fault. Gave me a little different perspective on things. I should have stayed home and taken a recovery nap.

But the Saturday ride was great.


Nice car. Would have been a shame to mess up the paint with my blood.


Realistic sunset bike lean photo after 40 miles including 10 miles of hill repeats.

Originally Posted by texaspandj

My wife's'86 has one. It seems it would just be regular size for Ironman. 68x113.
They're good enough, no fuss no bother.

Originally Posted by seypat

That second pic looks really hot......physically anyway. Stepping in one of those this time of year is like a sauna.

Originally Posted by canklecat

Good to know. That's one of the sizes I got from REI.

Or I might just ditch the caged bearings in the Suntour BB and see if it makes any difference. Supposedly it reduces friction slightly. I've avoided that when I overhauled the BB mostly because it takes a really stiff grease to hold the loose bearings in place or reassembly becomes a huge PITA. And I might try some Shimano grease rather than Phil's, which appears to be marine grease. Not bad stuff but it seems to lack the initial stiffness to hold bearings in place when I've used it on hubs.

Originally Posted by canklecat

Good to know. That's one of the sizes I got from REI.

Or I might just ditch the caged bearings in the Suntour BB and see if it makes any difference. Supposedly it reduces friction slightly. I've avoided that when I overhauled the BB mostly because it takes a really stiff grease to hold the loose bearings in place or reassembly becomes a huge PITA. And I might try some Shimano grease rather than Phil's, which appears to be marine grease. Not bad stuff but it seems to lack the initial stiffness to hold bearings in place when I've used it on hubs.