Numpty IM Bike Thread

Next Numpty question - How can I get my bike to Marshman?

Normally I'd throw it in the car, but we're staying Hastings for the weekend so car space at a premium. We have an old battered rear mounted carrier I use for my MTB/road bike. Will this be OK for my carbon baby?

I also borrowed a Halfords roof mount rack but this has a clamping claw for the downtube that wasn't designed with aero frames in mind.

Final option is to by something like an Elite San Remo that clamps the rear wheel and the front fork.

Once we've got to the cottage I'll throw it in the car.

Cunning CD. We have a roof box......I had already thought of that for Outlaw. I suppose I could take the wheels off.

Now to see if the kids fit in the roof box!

Cheers All.

Erm......

You know those 60mm clinchers I bought? Can't even get close to fitting a tyre onto them. Got everything else tickety-boo.... rim tape, new cassette, 80mm valve inners..... but I cannot for the life of me get a tyre on the bugger.

The tyre's a Conti GP Tri that I raced last summer before I put Hardshell's on for the winter, so it's a decent tyre, but it has been hanging up in the garage all winter. Do they shrink, or lose elasticity, by any chance?

I have some other tyres to choose from. Failing that, I buy plenty of kit from a couple of LBS so wouldn't feel too much of a charlatan popping down and asking them to have a look.

Any thoughts, chaps, please?

They should be fine out of the box, although you might need to fit rim tape.  I sometimes wonder if the plastic covers might be handy for protection in transit but I've never used them.  To get a new cassette on you'll need a Shimano cassette tool to tighten the lockring and a big spanner.  You'll need a chain whip if you want to get it off again.  I may have a Shimano tool lying around but most of my wheels have Campag cassettes.  I think they're around a fiver on wiggle.

Nice wheels BTW!

Hey Slower my Chinkzipps arrived yesterday too.... Bit of a bu**er to get on but the thumbs were up to it, plus a bit help from the levers, well a lot of help. Tyres are Vittoria Evo's mind you

Looks very nice, Pebble. Slick!

I got mine on in the end after much huffing and puffing, two punctures in the rear tube (subsequently thrown away) and one in the front tube. I had to use levers too and even had to buy a bigger set of levers from the LBS because my little Lezyne ones were getting nowhere. And there's so little space in the clincher cavity, which meant that i managed to pinch the tube.

I mentioned the hassle to my LBS where one of the staff has bought some carbonzones and he said to use cheap rim tape (insulation tape even), rather than good stuff. I'd bought the nice thick Velox Fond De Jante stuff, which may have taken up too much space in the tiny cavity.

End result is that my bike looks utterly bitching, but i'm now petrified about what'll happen in a race if i get a flat, because i don't fancy 2 hours roadside snapping my fingernails if I pop one. Maybe I'll by some Evo's if they're the most flexi tyres, much as i love my Conti Tri's.

Are your tyres folding ones STIL?

I have a set of conti 4000, I'll try them as well. I have fitted a pair of vittoria latex tubes as well, they feel so much better (I think)

My 60mms arrived this week. Ultremos were fitted without the aid of lyre levers. Unfortunately the route I grabbed from Bikeley yesterday said on-road, whereas the actual route was through Berks' finest country lanes. Absolutey shocking road surfaces and some even had grass growing in the middle. I woke up this morning to a flat rear.

After various training and family duties I spent the remaining tinme in the sun patching innertubes (80mm valve tubes are not cheap!) and gluing cuts in tyres. I created a small pile of flints shards.

I have some Vittoria Zaffio tyres on my heavy winter wheels. I guess I need some decent training tyres to go on my 30mms now they're relegated to training. That said, the 60mm on the front was a little hairy on some of the winds yesterday. It could be down to the farm-gate/hedge-gap gusts. Either way, it was exciting.

Bike is kitted up with all the stuff I think I'll need for the bike day. It's resting against a bank at the roadside, not laid out in a field, honest!

How windy was it Cat - I was thinking of making an offer on a set of 58mms a mate is selling but I'd want them for bunch racing.