@CristianCiupitu dunno - perhaps altus is super cheap and claris is a little more robust. Could be the derailleurs cage length too - MTB ones have medium or long cages, road sets tend to be short or medium.
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On the flip side, it'll be easier to keep the front wheel down on a climb. My road bike is not a good shape for climbing, but I want to see how much of that is my skill and how much is the length.
Road bike has saddle behind the rear wheel in any decent climb. That 30% a few weeks ago was quite flippy and I did not like it.
So I can keep up (almost) with the fast roadies from work
but as soon as we hit a grade they're gone
Trying to find why I climb so poorly - and the longer cranks question was part of the same thing.
HTFU. Turns out noone has longer cranks, and it would be $450US to buy some from Zinn. Everyone has an opinion and there are two sides... Long cranks make a difference because Reasons vs Long cranks don't make a difference because Reasons.
So like the long wheelbase, its try and see.
I'm tempted to fudge up some by cutting and extending some old cranks
but that's beyond my welding skill so it would end up being some horribly bodged mess
A thorn hole in an inner tube is totally patchable. A 50 cent patch is a lot cheaper than a new tube. Stop consumerism!
As for the hole, it depends if the inner tube pokes out or not. The get-home fix is to line or reinforce that area with something laid between the tube and tyre.
On one ...
"longer cranks mean more torque" <--- sounds okay longer cranks mean larger circles so lower RPM and it all balances out <-- not sure. It sounds plausible.
Maybe you could assemble a similar crank extender.
I'm thinking one or two pieces that bolt onto the side of some old cranks with several tapped / threaded bolt holes, so that you can adjust the length by, say, 10mm at a time.
Regarding Altus/Acera versus Claris/Sora, so if I were to choose between Cannondale Quick 5 Disc (2017) and Merida Speeder 200 2016 which happen to have almost the same price (in Romania), I should look at other differences than derailleurs. Especially given that I don't change gears too often in traffic and I'm not into racing.
@CristianCiupitu - derailleurs aren't as big of a deal as people make out
so long as you stay within the mid range or up, you're going to have something acceptable.
flat bar stuff is relatively cheap (shifters, levers, derailleurs)
the merida probably is a bit higher quality. BUT I would be willing to bet that if you swapped the derailleurs, shifters and what not between the bikes, you wouldnt' be able to tell the difference if they were both doubles in teh front
The cannondale has a triple which isn't cool anymore.
But it comes with a carbon fork which is nice versus the merida.
And I'm guessing better hydraulic brakes on the cannondale as well.
err wait the cannondale doesnt have cf fork
so its basically a wash. the double on the merida might be nicer, but if you need to add a bigger cassette, you'll need to spend a few bucks on a new rear derailleur (but they aren't that expensive).
You'd want to ride them to determine which works better for you.
That being said, merida isn't sold in the USA and cannondale hybrids don't tend to be as popular as the competition. By far the most common non-BSO hybrids I see tend to be the trek 7.x series
followed by probably the specialized sirrus and giant escape /rapid/whatever their hybrid equivalent is
Anyway, @Criggie , I know people who are ~205 cm tall and use regular 175 mm cranks. don't see them as being a par tthat needs to be changed out for almost anybody
@Criggie pocket book: GCN channel on YouTube made an 'ask the pros about their crank length' episode a little while ago. They collected stats of the whole peloton at the Dubai tour. (ps: I thought Froome rides even shorter 170s.)
@CristianCiupitu Most common brand name hybrids I see around here are cube (and those of a nearby mfg, corratec) I think it strongly depends on nearby dealerships that offer bargains. Have you had a look at Rose? Afaik They also have Romanian on their webpage.
@Criggie 200 mm cranks: A 622 rim radius is 311 mm, bb drop on a road bike is typically 70 mm, with 200 mm cranks that leaves you only 5 cm clearance, plus tire height.
Completely possible. Or drunk engineer that inspected it last year and just signed off "good for another five years!" will get fired. Real engineers will start inspecting and be like "Oh this is all crackey. You make need patch fix. kthnxbai"
Interesting that wikipedia seems to support my armchair analysis. I may not be a complete idiot!
We are discontinuing Blog Overflow as a service on this network. Not only does this mean that no new blogs will be created, but it will also mean that all extant blogs are becoming functionally shut down.
The reasoning is three-fold in basic:
The vast majority of blogs aren't really active. Th...
A thorn hole in an inner tube is totally patchable. A 50 cent patch is a lot cheaper than a new tube. Stop consumerism!
As for the hole, it depends if the inner tube pokes out or not. The get-home fix is to line or reinforce that area with something laid between the tube and tyre.
On one ...
