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'Portable' Truing Stand

Now I can true wheels while listening to music,
having dinner, looking at TV, having guests.........
Yes you name it! The list of opportunities is endless.

Compact or standard crank?

What’s the best all round crankset if you’re only to have one. Defiantly the triple. You have the 30(32T) for climbing, the 53 for drafting and flats and the 42T for everything in between. So. Where does that leave the compact and the semi compact 39-53. Lets have a look.
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The 53 and 50 are still good for flats, but the 34? Mostly climbing or recreational rides. You can of course put on an 11-? cassette, but using that 11 would be cross-chaining, and most cassettes are pretty much the same except for the three upper cogs, meaning whatever cassette you put on it only changes the lighter gears of the 34 chainring. Also. Going down in chainring makes the gears come closer together.

For a compact you’ll be in need of a compact (custom) cassette with a much more linear increase of teeth between the cogs to get a full use of it. Then we might be able to talk about benefits of the compact crank design, but even then I would say that a triple would be better or at least make use of a far smaller ‘big ring’ to get a bigger overlap and avoid forced front derailing around 28-32 km/h.

So what’s my conclusion. Compact’s probably here to stay ‘cause the bike industry need something to hype and a few people might benefit of it, but if you want something that really works you should take a look at your cadence and speed intervals and pick your chainrings from there. You’d probably get away with just changing the chainrings of your existing 130BCD crank arms.

Hairnet & Patent Leather Shoes

Miami Vice - The Bicycle has now got some deserved and long time needed accessories. I see the bike is pictured without it's Campagnolo Super Record Track pedals with Cinelli laminated straps. I prefer the track version without the outer section. Gives better cornering and feels better on the foot. Anyway. Here it comes. Cinelli hairnet and Detto Pietro shoes equipped with 'French cleats'. Looking good, ain't.


Work out

Yes. I work out. And have been working out good lately. I'm not back to where I was, but there again. I have no tendinitis or any other injuries. Only thing wrong is my left calf being kind of weak so sprinting is not there yet. But it'll come. I'm sure of that.

I have most of my strength back, and I believe my O2 is back to where it used to be. I should be able to preform OK on the shorter distances around April. If there were something like the mile 15% uphill I would be ready for that now :-)

Wheelbuilding

What's up?

I'm building quite a few set of wheels right now, and having the basement full. Why on earth would I do that?

Well here's a few

  1. I build good wheels
  2. I can make a $260 set stronger, lighter and perform better than most well known machine build sets at X the price
  3. I want to show the LBS' around that instead of just selling overpriced equipment, maybe they should care a little bit more about what used to be their profession.



Yes. That's the build. Laced up with revolution spokes (competition driveside) 3X both sides rear and radial front. Gives a very strong set of wheels with no rider weight limit at a weight of estimatet 1566 grams.

I also laced up a few of these. 28/20 3X 3X rear and radial front. Tubular and 1300 gram a set. Price? Half of what my LBS would take.