revchuck 

My current training and work schedules are such that if I have a long ride scheduled and it's going to rain a bunch, then the bike and I are going to get wet - rescheduling isn't feasible. Getting rained on with temps in the 70s is no big deal for me, but my chain is hating life at this point. Lubing it every ride doesn't seem to cut it. I've seen pros using grease on their chains on such days, is this a holdover from the 70s or still viable? What do folks on the Wet Coast (OR and WA) do? @mattm

Ttoc6

Yeah.. Good luck.. Wax based lubes (or just straight wax) tends to do well for one wet ride, but will require reapplication.

I've been waxing my chains for about 2 years, and when I lived in SEA, [in the winters] I'd usually ride it all week on the trainer, group ride Saturday (WET!) and then it would be squeaky for a group ride outside sunday. If I remember I'd put a small amount of lube on each link and it would help it a bit. Then clean, degrease and rewax for the next week on Sunday afternoon.

furiousferret

Add me to the wax mafia. I have a Connex that I can take off, drop in the ultrasonic cleaner, then drop in a mini crockpot full of wax. If I'm in a rush I'll drop some lube on it.

Of course, none of this applies to your situation as we don't really get rain out here. If you're going to race in the Sahara hit me up for pro tips!

redlude97

I'm in the same boat, been waxing this year, albeit not with a hot wax, but Squirt. It gets sqeeky after a single rain ride but I can usually get it to stop after letting it dry and reapplying more squirt without having to do a full clean with mineral spirits, and this usually works 3-4x before it seems to get too gritty even after reapplication. I've tried to switch to the Silca NFS which is oil based but close to the same friction as wax and its holding up better in the rain, but not nearly as clean as wax even after wiping. Still trying to find that holy grail for PNW conditions thats clean, low friction, and water resistant while being lower maintence

Ttoc6

Squirt is what I use when I'm too lazy to do a full wax. Also what I use on my mtb, cuz I always forget to do anything to that bike until I'm walking out the door to go ride.

burnthesheep

I've still got the TT bug despite lots of official options evaporating nearby.

My power is up quite a bit and will be ripe for some PR attempts on my 10mi and 25mi times sometime soon. Even if just on my Strava segments I made.

For a clip-on bar setup with all the other gear (suit, helmet), is it worth it at all to tinker with trying to bag a 20min 10 mile TT? Or is the advantage in position for power and aero of an actual TT/tri frame just THAT much better that I'm going to be beating my head against the wall.

In the British TT forums and links to some events I've seen some out-back 10 mile rides sub-20min on less than 300w. Like as low as 270w or so. I'd assume that would be full on TT bike with kit, disc wheel, etc...

I guess I could always go out on a workout and get it up to 30 mph for a shorter period of time to get some data.

The data from my last 10mi suggested good aero and bad power output for the position.

echappist

sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but those Brit TTs are massively aero assisted (by traffic from adjacent carriageway)

To do 30 mph at 300W would require CdA of 0.18. Highly doubtful you can get that low of a CdA with just clip-on bars

topflightpro

Chappie! Where have you been?

TheKillerPenguin

Gettin zef wit die antwoord!

echappist

figuratively, old folk's home;
mainly just haven't been riding much due to moving, school work (now done), and injury. Now may be moving yet again (3rd time in two years). Hoping to do some ITTs and MTB races next year
how have you been @topflightpro? are you still in NC?

Radish_legs

anyone run 25s on the front and 23s on the back? I don't think 25s will fit my frame (2015-ish supersix). There's very little clearance at the chainstays.

How much benefit would I get from switching from 25 to 23 just on the front? How much of the handling is your grip from the front tire?

TheKillerPenguin

I notice absolutely no handling differences on 25 vs 23 when everything else remains the same. I notice quite a bit of difference going from a narrow rim to a wide rim, however.

Radish_legs

I could run lower pressure on the front with the 25.

burnthesheep

I appreciate your input, as I'd prefer have a realistic end-goal instead of pie in the sky. The first goal will be just take off a minute from the last official result.

ancker

As a follow-up from a previous discussion.

Built a new gravel/CX bike with Rival CX1. Lasted about a month before I re-built a buddy's busted eTap rear and bought some used eTap shifters.
The switch back to mechanical brakes was worth it to not deal with constantly fighting to get the shifting perfect.

(I'll admit this is probably an artifact of this frame, under BB cable routing was not ideal and caused extra friction.)

caloso

Anyone on here done a ghetto tubeless set up for CX? I'm thinking of giving it a try for funzies.

topflightpro

Yes. It was a disaster.

I don't think I made it through one race/practice without burping.

I was running Mavic Aksiums with the Stan's Cross Tubeless conversion set up. I don't recall what tires.

caloso

Ugh, that's not good. Was it a case of the bead not sealing up against the rim?

topflightpro

Pretty much. It was fine if I was going straight. And it was fine if I was slow and careful through a turn. But at some point, I'd inevitably take a turn in such a way as to pull the cause a gap where a bunch of air would leak out.

There just wasn't enough pressure inside the tire to hold the bead to the rim.

Hermes

topflightpro

My understanding is that the tubeless conversion works ok for the road, when the pressure is very high. But with cross, the pressure is too low to hold the tired to the rim.

I remember reading that tubeless conversions (and a lot of tubeless in general) works well when you have low volume/high pressure (road) or high volume/low pressure (mtb) but doesn't work with low volume/low pressure (cross). The new slate of cross specific tubeless tires and wheels may work better.

redlude97

what does the rim bed profile look like? If there is a shoulder for the bead(1 or 3) its likely to work adequately with a couple wraps of tape, if not, all bets are off.

You can try the skinnystripper latex rim strips to help seal and prevent burping also. There are a couple posts about them in the rec cyclocross sub forum

caloso

I've read a couple of articles. And watched the GCN video. One suggested that the Michelin Mud 2 was a good candidate and I already happen to have a pair. The wheels I was going to experiment with are Ksysium SLs, which are 19mm wide and already sealed, so it seems like the main thing is to build up the rim bed. I am intrigued by the skinnystripper strips though.

Ttoc6

I had bad luck with tubeless in cross last year. Both Ghetto (non-tubeless tires on tubeless rims "glued" in to place with mould builder) and traditional, proper setup. I burped and flatted on both set ups.

Never have had an issue mtbing over many years and many proper rim tire combos. And Tubulars never gave me troubles for cross (road a different story for another day).

burnthesheep

Can anyone explain the geometry of the steerer/fork and clip ons for a road bike? Like, how to make the steering less sketchy?

Is it in the pad width left to right or in the reach fore/aft?