Need to go faster / New to road bikes [specs]

"Bill Davidson" wrote in message
news:7A96b.113693$kP.40412@fed1read03...

If you've only got 5 gears in the back, it's more likely to be 1984
than 1994. 115 psi is not especially high for a racing bike. Many
high perfomance tires are 125 psi or even higher. The problem with
going to lower pressure with your weight could be "snake bite" flats
where you hit a pot hole or other ridge and it compresses the tire
into the rim cutting two holes in the tube where the rim hits it. I
wouldn't recomend lower pressure unless you get wider tires. You can
get 700x28's or even 700x32's or 700x35's. The fatter tire will leave
more room between the pavement and the rim so snakebites will be less
likely at lower pressures. 700x23's need the high pressure.

snip

What type of pedals are you using? Are your feet attached to the
pedals in some way? It's easier to spin fast with your feet
attached either by toe clips or the more modern "clipless" pedals
that attach to the bottom of the shoes via some sort of special
cleat (examples: Look, SPD, Speedplay, Eggbeater, Time etc).

Of course, you can also always coast downhill.

--Bill Davidson

It came with clip ons but the dealer took one look at them and advised
me that I would have a *very* hard time finding the matching shoes &
stuff to use them. I bought some regular pedals for $10 and I'm satisfied.

The hardware on the bike is thus:

Derailurs - Shimano 105's
Brakes - "Dia Compe" (similar to the BRS200 but not marked)
Seat - FEC Alloy SX (Very light but nice)
Gooseneck - SR Royal
Handlebars - SR Road Champion
Crank arms - SR 170mm
Front gear - Sugino 52-42
Rear gear - 25-23-20-17-15-13
Rims - Sun Mistral USA 700mm - 36 spoke alloy
Tires - Discovery Kevlar CyclePro 700x25
Skewers - Suzue
Wheel hubs - Suzue 36 spoke
Valve stems - Presta (bought an adapter for $2)

Gears - a 12 speed? Does this help date the bike? BTW the brakes
are fantastic - I hit the front and rear hard the other day, trying to
avoid a pedestrian and lifted the back wheel about 6" off the ground!
I was doing about 18 mph and stopped in 8 feet (about).

And I'll pump up the tires, too...... Thanks to all for the great
advice!

Ken

Ken Bessler wrote:
Gears - a 12 speed? Does this help date the bike?

That part about running out of gear in tenth gear threw me. Yeah. 6/12
speed was dominant in the 80's. I think 105 came out in the latter half
of the 80's. 7 speed was more common by the early 90's. Unfortunately,
6 speed freewheels are also only available down to 13 as the smallest
sprocket. Shimano makes a 7-speed with an 11 but it's an 11x34 made for
MTB's. Your 105 rear deraileur probably won't go onto the biggest sprocket
making it effectively a 6-speed 11x24 freewheel. It probably wouldn't
work with your rear hub anyway as it wouldn't allow enough frame clearance
(the 7 speed freewheel is wider than a 6 speed freewheel).

Like I said, it's a lot cheaper to just learn how to spin faster.

BTW the brakes
are fantastic - I hit the front and rear hard the other day, trying to
avoid a pedestrian and lifted the back wheel about 6" off the ground!
I was doing about 18 mph and stopped in 8 feet (about).

That implies that you're hitting the front brake hard.

That's a good thing:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html

--Bill Davidson
--
Please remove ".nospam" from my address for email replies.

I'm a 17 year veteran of usenet -- you'd think I'd be over it by now

"Ken Bessler" wrote:

The hardware on the bike is thus:

Derailurs - Shimano 105's
Brakes - "Dia Compe" (similar to the BRS200 but not marked)
Seat - FEC Alloy SX (Very light but nice)
Gooseneck - SR Royal
Handlebars - SR Road Champion
Crank arms - SR 170mm
Front gear - Sugino 52-42
Rear gear - 25-23-20-17-15-13
Rims - Sun Mistral USA 700mm - 36 spoke alloy
Tires - Discovery Kevlar CyclePro 700x25
Skewers - Suzue
Wheel hubs - Suzue 36 spoke
Valve stems - Presta (bought an adapter for $2)

Gears - a 12 speed? Does this help date the bike?

Probably late eighties. If the derailleurs are 1050 models (look for serial
numbers on the back of the parallelogram of the rear derailleur, or the
rear of the cage of the front) with slate-grey painted parallelograms and
polished cages, it's a 1987 model. 1051 models date from '88-'89, and 1055
from 1990 onward. 1050 is most likely for a 6-speed indexed system.

James Thomson

On Fri, 5 Sep 2003 19:09:31 -0600, Ken Bessler wrote:
It came with clip ons but the dealer took one look at them and advised
me that I would have a *very* hard time finding the matching shoes &

Do you still have them? It's probably not so hard
to find what you need, and they can be very nice to use.

Ken
--
Rick Onanian

"Rick Onanian" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 5 Sep 2003 19:09:31 -0600, Ken Bessler wrote:
It came with clip ons but the dealer took one look at them and advised
me that I would have a *very* hard time finding the matching shoes &

Do you still have them? It's probably not so hard
to find what you need, and they can be very nice to use.

Ken
--
Rick Onanian

Naw, I left them at the LBS. I suspect the owner threw them out. Besides,
My kids sometimes borrow the bike so the pedal system had to be uni-
versal.

Ken

"Ken Bessler" wrote in message
...

"Rick Onanian" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 5 Sep 2003 19:09:31 -0600, Ken Bessler wrote:
It came with clip ons but the dealer took one look at them and advised
me that I would have a *very* hard time finding the matching shoes &

Do you still have them? It's probably not so hard
to find what you need, and they can be very nice to use.

Ken
--
Rick Onanian

Naw, I left them at the LBS. I suspect the owner threw them out. Besides,
My kids sometimes borrow the bike so the pedal system had to be uni-
versal.

Your bike shop may have double-sided pedals, SPD on one side and flat on the
other. I have a pair like this and notice an improvement in my riding skill
when I use the SPDs (which is almost always these days).

I have also seen an adapter to convert SPD to standard flat pedals.

Congratulations on the weight loss and the great bike deal. Happy cycling.

Matthew