Silly question alert...
Want to get my partner up and running on the turbo trainer in a few weeks but in order to make it easier for her I wanted to replace her rear thru-axle with one with a lever on it. Her current one means using an Allen key and I'd rather make it less fiddly when it comes to switching our bikes over.
That's the axle in her bike. I don't know if you're supposed to measure the entire thing or just the barrel part. My guess would be that it's 170mm
Would this be a suitable replacement?
Only thing I can't seem to find anywhere is the pitch of the thread.
Edit: and of course after asking I think I've sussed it. Think it's the size smaller with a different pitch
Make sure you get the thread pitch correct! That's more important than the axle length - excess axle length will just screw through the frame (might knock some paint off if it's painted into the hole).
How to identify the thread pitch of your bikes thru axle.
www.roofracks.co.uk
Thru Axles can be a nightmare, good site here which kinda explains it but from the MTB side (if you're really that interested in understanding it) -
https://bermstyle.com/how-to-determine-thread-pitch-on-rear-thru-axle/
The Robert Axle Project page has quite a good lookup tool for getting thru axles for different frames to attach trailers etc. Although that's not what you're doing, you can easily use it to determine the axle length and pitch type for the frame (if it's listed). They're expensive but supreme quality and amazing to deal with, could not recommend higher!
My specialized Diverge using 'SCS' standard is basically a 'mid length' thru axle as the spacing is between 135 and 142mm with 'fine pitch' threading (the same as Syntace, or X12). So getting a 142 thru axle with the right pitch worked (but I knew it would as I've 'stretched' it to use a 142mm wheelset). I went through quite a lot of research to get there...
Damn. This turned out to be a stripped thread in the chainring - not the bolt. I had to use aftermarket Raceface bolts after an original Shimano stripped (the head came off). At the time bolts were literally unavailable. Local shops were waiting months too. The Raceface bolts are steel... the chainring is alloy. Seems odd for the bolt to come loose just after a BB change where in theory they weren't touched but whatever.
I wonder if there's anyway to salvage the chainring?
Drilling it out, or using 'bolt extractor' to remove should get the chainring off? Re-tapping it I guess. Is it a Shimano 4-arm with the crankset side that's stripped? Would be unusual for the chainring itself to be threaded due to the quite thin nature of them... If drilling and retapping doesnt work then drilling it out bigger and retapping to a larger bolt size you have one of that doesn't look too dissimilar to the other crank bolts. So although that's a bit of a bodge, at least it won't look that obvious...
Yeah, I'm sure I just need to do some work I don't want to do to get better at hills. Honestly I think there is just a base level of hill climbing fitness I need and then I won't feel like dying on the long steep ones. As long as I can spin up them its fine.
I guess part of it is just knowing your route and pacing yourself.
This. Pacing is key, especially on stuff you don't know. A big part of that is technique and being 'geared' for them. I'm riding a compact now with 32t for eaxactly that reason. I know I realiastically do not have a reason to be 'over geared' (although considering going 34t), so I know when riding high tempo at 80-90rpm and 230-270W I should be able to sustain it, even if I need to stand for a steep part, providing I don't go much above 300-350W for too long, I should be able to sit back down and continue that hard tempo.
If I'm kicking and ramping into a climb at 500-600W it's because I know it, or can see the top, so I can sustain it for the 30-60s required. Or when seeing a perfect climb stretching away infront of you,
holding that 'sweet spot' you can sometimes find and just powering up it with numbers in excess of what you'd normally sustain. That is a great feeling (especially when clubmates are stood grinding and you just breeze past)!
I really hate hills. I love the feeling at the top of it as it's a nice feeling of accomplishment but I hate the going up part
I wouldn't say I like hills when riding them, particularly when
going hard at the bottom/mid ramp without realising how long the top is... You can really gets to test your mettle/technique/willpower that way.
But saying I don't like hills is false, I absolutely LOVE them for that accomplishment. Quite a lot of my 'free riding' is ticking them off. Usually not even targetting a time or power, just riding them as hard as I can at that given point to then check the numbers and times etc afterwards. I'm not directly competing with others/myself, but I also am... If that makes sense! If I'm in good form, feeling good and climb a climb well - it's good to see that rewarded in the numbers and to set a good PR.
I need to do Ventoux next. I still think the Radio Tower is the hardest climb in the game
Ventoux is definitely hard, but mostly due to the duration of it. The Alpe is hard as it's so easy to split up and measure different efforts on to try and beat your times/pacings. Radio tower is horrible due to it's location.
They can all be made very horrible by racing them trust me! Also, well worth doing to really see what you're made of...!
Structured training in most sports is fantastically effective, the only question for me is how much I value performance over enjoyment. I am/was a very keen climber and COVID lockdown kind of reset my perspective on my hobbies and what I want from them. Previously I was very committed to training 3 times a week and doing some training but I realised that I didn't enjoy that as much as climbing at a bit of a lower level and doing it less frequently but with more freedom.
Rock climbing?
@Shamrock used to do a bunch of that. Good excuse to tag him as it's been a while since he was in here - hope you're good mate!
I've got a friend who's nuts about climbing, her shoulders and biceps against mine now are hilarious!
Urgh. The preload cap on my cranks is done up incredibly tight. I've tried two plastic tools and lost skin on my hands to no avail. No idea why the guy that fitted my BB has done this. Trying to remove as the BB is creaking... probably because it is too tight.
Argh nightmare! I got fed up with stripping the crappy plastic ones trying to get them to 8nM or whatever the recommended is. I got a birzman metal one, might have been from PX? One of these for about £5-6 -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Birzman-Crank-Arm-Installation-Tool/dp/B015NXEDIS
Although no way to fit an allen to it, I do it up '2-3 grunts' and then do the crappy Shimano plastic one with an allen to be sure. It must be pretty close as they barely tighten before cam'ing out (is that the right term?).
Although looks like Birzman do one now you can fit an allen to, that would be my recommended (need to get one myself to just bin all the plastic shimano ones and 'get it right'):
http://www.birzman.com/products_2.php?uID=2&cID=25&Key=283
