The "what bike bits have you just bought" thread Vol 2
Discussion
New chain, new cage for a Ultra 10 speed Di2 rear mech, new mech hanger, new jockey wheels.
On Sunday the end caps on my Mavic Cosmic rear wheel failed causing a whole heap of damage, bent hanger and a smashed cage.
LBS fixed the hub pronto on Monday, ordered the other parts and I fitted them yesterday, rode 60 miles on it today and boy it's smooth.
Downside is the original Di2 Shimano parts are getting very hard to find, might be time to upgrade the best bike to 11S over the winter.
On Sunday the end caps on my Mavic Cosmic rear wheel failed causing a whole heap of damage, bent hanger and a smashed cage.
LBS fixed the hub pronto on Monday, ordered the other parts and I fitted them yesterday, rode 60 miles on it today and boy it's smooth.
Downside is the original Di2 Shimano parts are getting very hard to find, might be time to upgrade the best bike to 11S over the winter.
Dr Imran T said:
that is a useful piece of kit - more details please.
Is that a wahoo bolt with an extra attachment for a light?
yeah, it's a 3D printed Bolt mount, with built in in Go-Pro mount under. Then a clip for an Exposure Trace light.Is that a wahoo bolt with an extra attachment for a light?
You can get then fit whatever device you want under, they do clips to fit different lights/camera/whatever.
They have stock/ can make the mount to fit different bars/stems.
Check http://www.racewaredirect.co/
MelbourneWoody said:
I don't suppose you have a link for that Silca bag and kit? or have you acquired it over time?
I ordered the kits from Sigma.It's the EOLO Loaded - Comes with the Co2 and the multitool.
https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Silca/EOLO-Wallet...
I then added the Silca Premio tyre levers to complete...
https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Silca/Premio-Tyre...
Chuck in a Park Tools patch kit, some Co2 and still have room for a tube, my wallet...
Johnny said:
yeah, it's a 3D printed Bolt mount, with built in in Go-Pro mount under. Then a clip for an Exposure Trace light.
You can get then fit whatever device you want under, they do clips to fit different lights/camera/whatever.
They have stock/ can make the mount to fit different bars/stems.
Check http://www.racewaredirect.co/
Wow, that is a lot more expensive than I imagined...! Nice business model. You can get then fit whatever device you want under, they do clips to fit different lights/camera/whatever.
They have stock/ can make the mount to fit different bars/stems.
Check http://www.racewaredirect.co/
Second pair of these as i’m a cheapskate.
https://www.velochampion.co.uk/collections/clothin...
Currently on at £25 with black friday deal. Yes the logos will fall off but they’re comfortable and warm.
https://www.velochampion.co.uk/collections/clothin...
Currently on at £25 with black friday deal. Yes the logos will fall off but they’re comfortable and warm.
Another expensive weekend.
Le Col Hors Categorie Bib Tights. Aqua Zero waterproof/resistant, thermal.
£220 down to £170 this weekend, plus £50 Strava challenge voucher... £120
Spatz Roadman. Not cheap at £85, but reviews are great. Good enough for Adam Blythe, good enough for Johnny.
After my usless BB5s on the CX bike have left me with no brakes again...
TRP Hy/Rd 160mm Front & Rear.
And, lastly, another Rapha cap. I forgot to get this when I bought all the dark green gear a few weeks back
Le Col Hors Categorie Bib Tights. Aqua Zero waterproof/resistant, thermal.
£220 down to £170 this weekend, plus £50 Strava challenge voucher... £120
Spatz Roadman. Not cheap at £85, but reviews are great. Good enough for Adam Blythe, good enough for Johnny.
After my usless BB5s on the CX bike have left me with no brakes again...
TRP Hy/Rd 160mm Front & Rear.
And, lastly, another Rapha cap. I forgot to get this when I bought all the dark green gear a few weeks back
Fox Proframe helmet, as I'm planning on doing some uplift days and have spent far too much time taking the piss out of my best mate breaking his jaw going OTB a few years back. I really don't fancy 6 weeks with my jaw wired shut.
As I bought a full facce helmet I thought I'd better also get some goggles, so got a pair of half price Oakly O frames on the way too.
Hy/Rd were here yesterday, and are with the bike at the shop to be fitted.
The Le Col bib tights arrived at work today, bloody lovely they are
Will save for the weekend to try. Saturday looks like a max of -1 here in BP, but dry and sunny so should be a good test. The Spatz should be here by then too.
The Le Col bib tights arrived at work today, bloody lovely they are
Will save for the weekend to try. Saturday looks like a max of -1 here in BP, but dry and sunny so should be a good test. The Spatz should be here by then too.
I've just spent the princely sum of £75 on two of these...
...currently reduced from £60 to £35... https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-lights/bike-... ...from Halfords.
I checked the online reviews, and not just the ones on the Halfords site. It reviewed well, and most people said it was good value at £50, so I thought I'd take a punt on a couple at £35 each. I got them on a click & collect from a local store, and while I was in picking them up I thought I'd add one of these...
...so that I'd be able to switch it on and off and cycle through the 8 different settings while it was upside down in the out-front bracket. This was an additional £5. https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-lights/bike-...
So far I've been impressed, but I've not actually used them properly yet. They came partially charged, with about ½ hour burn time at maximum output. They are charging right now ready for first use. They appear to be very well made, from quality materials. They have deep rubber bungs for the charge and discharge (the light can double as a power-bank to charge a GPS/phone too) ports that look like they'd do a decent job of keeping water out. They come with the out-front mount in a box, and that'll take a ¼ turn Garmin on the top too. They also come with the silicon rubber handlebar wrap mount fitted, along with Allen keys to swap to the out front bracket. This, apparently (I haven't got one) is the same mount as a Go-Pro camera, so you can hang your camera out front by day, and the light by night. Also included are some collars to adjust the out-front mount for narrower handlebars, and a "stabilizing block" that appears to be intended to adjust the silicon wrap mounting strap for smaller diameter bars too. So all is good with the lamps themselves.
Sadly, the remote control thumb switch is nowhere near as good quality on first impressions. It looks cheap, a bit flimsy, and to me at least, the button looks vulnerable to snapping if you were to stack the bike. It works when plugged in to the charging port of the lamp, one brief clip 'up' for the battery check function, hold 'up' to turn on/off, and single presses 'down' to cycle through the 8 functions of the lamp. BUT. And it's a big BUT...
...when the lamp is mounted in the out-front bracket, the micro-usb charging port is uppermost on the body of the lamp. Not so bad when the rubber bung is pushed home, keeping the water out, but if the remote control cable is fitted, it has just a bog-standard micro-usb plug on the end of the cable, This leaves clear air around the plug and appears to be in no way waterproof, or even water resistant. It looks like a design "fail" really, as the Moon Meteor lamp I have has a similar plug-in remote control button, but that one has a ribbed/finned micro-usb plug that completely fills the recess on the lamp to help keep water out of sensitive electronics.
So that's my first impression. I might post this elsewhere as a review (of sorts) once I've had the chance to use them out on the bike at night.
I'd bought 2 planning to have one as a "household spare" with the silicon strap fitted and kept in a cupboard. Now I'm thinking I should carry the second one in a rucksack or pocket as a spare on night rides to ensure that I'm not caught out again like i was t'other night when I had to ride slowly home through the woods when my Moon Meteor lamp suddenly went from "fully charged, all is well" to "well bugger me if we're not in limp-home mode already, and I'm about to shut off completely" within twenty minutes. The Moon Meteor will be relegated to helmet-lamp duties (if I ever find the helmet with the mounting bracket fitted!) as it is the smaller/lighter of the two.
I've long wanted a quality front light, like an Exposure or a 4Fourths, but have never had the £Hundreds available at the right time to spend on one. I'm hoping that these 1600 lumen beasties will be a decent halfway house between the high-end stuff and the cheap-as-chips Chinese Cree stuff on ebay (which I've always been concerned about buying). They certainly look a lot better than the usb rechargeable (Lezyne copy) light I bought for my son at one of the Aldi/Lidl cycling events either this year or last, and there's the benefit of being able to walk into a Halfords store to get them swapped/refunded if they they turn out to be a load of old rubbish.
First Update:
I plugged them in to charge earlier this morning (I'd guess between 0800 and 0900 hrs), and just checked them at 1243 hrs. They were showing as fully charged. Turning them on, the "fuel gauge" shows a battery life of 2 hours on the brightest 1600 lumen setting, and 3 hours (at least) on all other settings (although it's probably longer on dimmer settings, but the gauge only goes up to 3 hours). So they're now ready to do battle with the darkness...
Second Update:
OK then. Another update. I test-fitted them last night. I stood the bike against a wall and walked away from it, and even when they were angled downwards to the point where they weren't really throwing the light that far forward, there was still a lot of "extra" light escaping upward. In short, they were too bright at even the second brightness setting, and the spread of light was poorly aimed. It's not so much the "amount" of light they produce, but where it ends up. I even asked a van driver who drove in to our cul-de-sac and asked about house numbers while I was pootling about making adjustments. His verdict was "yeah, to be fair mate, they are a bit bright, like..." So they aren't great for on-road use then, or so it would seem. And there's no sense in blinding other drivers as that would make the roads less safe, rather than me more safe.
This was all tested using the 'out front' mount. Which has it's limitations. Firstly the Allen screw, which needed to be really gurned tight to prevent the out-front mount from slipping forward. This meant the Allen key slot in the screw got chewed up when it was being loosened (using the supplied Allen Key by the way), and resulted in me having to cut the bracket off (through the screw) with a hacksaw. Bolt swiftly replaced with a longer Philips screw from a pack of nuts and bolts bought in a pound shop. The other big limitation of the 'out front' mount was the position of the light. Great idea, but not well executed, it's meant to centralise the light and the Garmin on top. Sadly, on two of my bikes, this brought the tail-end of the light itself into conflict with the stem front plate/bolts, severely limiting downward adjustment of the light. On my MTB it also meant that the light was pushing down on the cables and hoses, pushing them into contact with the fork crown and head tube. Clearly not ideal.
So the 'out front' mount has been sacked, and the lamps will now be mounted on the silicon strap mounts, wrapped around the handlebars. This means I'll be able to push them around the handlebar to face downward when needed, and then flip them back up again when no-one else is around. I'm hoping to test them off road at night soon, and if the silicon rubber strap works OK that will be a permanent solution. I may have to use the 'out front' mount for stability while off-roading though, so that'll be a faff getting the lamps swapped over, as you need an Allen key to swap the mounts over on the light body to change between the two options. Lucky I bought two lights, eh?
The fact that the lamps aren't a focused beam is dreadful for road use, but will (hopefully) be great on local rooty MTB trails with low hanging branches, as the lights will illuminate not just the narrow trail ahead of me, but wash the surrounding trees and bushes with light, allowing me to ride faster, and more safely at night in the woods, without getting my face bashed in by low branches, and without ending up braking to a halt to avoid a tree because I missed which way the trail turns (again!). I lost my opportunity to ride in the dark last night, as I had other stuff on earlier, and then was too tired. I'm hoping to get the chance to give 'em a blast this weekend when I can eventually make a judgement on their effectiveness as lights, not moan and groan about fixings that are "made of cheese" and limited mounting options for the out-front mount...
...currently reduced from £60 to £35... https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-lights/bike-... ...from Halfords.
I checked the online reviews, and not just the ones on the Halfords site. It reviewed well, and most people said it was good value at £50, so I thought I'd take a punt on a couple at £35 each. I got them on a click & collect from a local store, and while I was in picking them up I thought I'd add one of these...
...so that I'd be able to switch it on and off and cycle through the 8 different settings while it was upside down in the out-front bracket. This was an additional £5. https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-lights/bike-...
So far I've been impressed, but I've not actually used them properly yet. They came partially charged, with about ½ hour burn time at maximum output. They are charging right now ready for first use. They appear to be very well made, from quality materials. They have deep rubber bungs for the charge and discharge (the light can double as a power-bank to charge a GPS/phone too) ports that look like they'd do a decent job of keeping water out. They come with the out-front mount in a box, and that'll take a ¼ turn Garmin on the top too. They also come with the silicon rubber handlebar wrap mount fitted, along with Allen keys to swap to the out front bracket. This, apparently (I haven't got one) is the same mount as a Go-Pro camera, so you can hang your camera out front by day, and the light by night. Also included are some collars to adjust the out-front mount for narrower handlebars, and a "stabilizing block" that appears to be intended to adjust the silicon wrap mounting strap for smaller diameter bars too. So all is good with the lamps themselves.
Sadly, the remote control thumb switch is nowhere near as good quality on first impressions. It looks cheap, a bit flimsy, and to me at least, the button looks vulnerable to snapping if you were to stack the bike. It works when plugged in to the charging port of the lamp, one brief clip 'up' for the battery check function, hold 'up' to turn on/off, and single presses 'down' to cycle through the 8 functions of the lamp. BUT. And it's a big BUT...
...when the lamp is mounted in the out-front bracket, the micro-usb charging port is uppermost on the body of the lamp. Not so bad when the rubber bung is pushed home, keeping the water out, but if the remote control cable is fitted, it has just a bog-standard micro-usb plug on the end of the cable, This leaves clear air around the plug and appears to be in no way waterproof, or even water resistant. It looks like a design "fail" really, as the Moon Meteor lamp I have has a similar plug-in remote control button, but that one has a ribbed/finned micro-usb plug that completely fills the recess on the lamp to help keep water out of sensitive electronics.
So that's my first impression. I might post this elsewhere as a review (of sorts) once I've had the chance to use them out on the bike at night.
I'd bought 2 planning to have one as a "household spare" with the silicon strap fitted and kept in a cupboard. Now I'm thinking I should carry the second one in a rucksack or pocket as a spare on night rides to ensure that I'm not caught out again like i was t'other night when I had to ride slowly home through the woods when my Moon Meteor lamp suddenly went from "fully charged, all is well" to "well bugger me if we're not in limp-home mode already, and I'm about to shut off completely" within twenty minutes. The Moon Meteor will be relegated to helmet-lamp duties (if I ever find the helmet with the mounting bracket fitted!) as it is the smaller/lighter of the two.
I've long wanted a quality front light, like an Exposure or a 4Fourths, but have never had the £Hundreds available at the right time to spend on one. I'm hoping that these 1600 lumen beasties will be a decent halfway house between the high-end stuff and the cheap-as-chips Chinese Cree stuff on ebay (which I've always been concerned about buying). They certainly look a lot better than the usb rechargeable (Lezyne copy) light I bought for my son at one of the Aldi/Lidl cycling events either this year or last, and there's the benefit of being able to walk into a Halfords store to get them swapped/refunded if they they turn out to be a load of old rubbish.
First Update:
I plugged them in to charge earlier this morning (I'd guess between 0800 and 0900 hrs), and just checked them at 1243 hrs. They were showing as fully charged. Turning them on, the "fuel gauge" shows a battery life of 2 hours on the brightest 1600 lumen setting, and 3 hours (at least) on all other settings (although it's probably longer on dimmer settings, but the gauge only goes up to 3 hours). So they're now ready to do battle with the darkness...
Second Update:
OK then. Another update. I test-fitted them last night. I stood the bike against a wall and walked away from it, and even when they were angled downwards to the point where they weren't really throwing the light that far forward, there was still a lot of "extra" light escaping upward. In short, they were too bright at even the second brightness setting, and the spread of light was poorly aimed. It's not so much the "amount" of light they produce, but where it ends up. I even asked a van driver who drove in to our cul-de-sac and asked about house numbers while I was pootling about making adjustments. His verdict was "yeah, to be fair mate, they are a bit bright, like..." So they aren't great for on-road use then, or so it would seem. And there's no sense in blinding other drivers as that would make the roads less safe, rather than me more safe.
This was all tested using the 'out front' mount. Which has it's limitations. Firstly the Allen screw, which needed to be really gurned tight to prevent the out-front mount from slipping forward. This meant the Allen key slot in the screw got chewed up when it was being loosened (using the supplied Allen Key by the way), and resulted in me having to cut the bracket off (through the screw) with a hacksaw. Bolt swiftly replaced with a longer Philips screw from a pack of nuts and bolts bought in a pound shop. The other big limitation of the 'out front' mount was the position of the light. Great idea, but not well executed, it's meant to centralise the light and the Garmin on top. Sadly, on two of my bikes, this brought the tail-end of the light itself into conflict with the stem front plate/bolts, severely limiting downward adjustment of the light. On my MTB it also meant that the light was pushing down on the cables and hoses, pushing them into contact with the fork crown and head tube. Clearly not ideal.
So the 'out front' mount has been sacked, and the lamps will now be mounted on the silicon strap mounts, wrapped around the handlebars. This means I'll be able to push them around the handlebar to face downward when needed, and then flip them back up again when no-one else is around. I'm hoping to test them off road at night soon, and if the silicon rubber strap works OK that will be a permanent solution. I may have to use the 'out front' mount for stability while off-roading though, so that'll be a faff getting the lamps swapped over, as you need an Allen key to swap the mounts over on the light body to change between the two options. Lucky I bought two lights, eh?
The fact that the lamps aren't a focused beam is dreadful for road use, but will (hopefully) be great on local rooty MTB trails with low hanging branches, as the lights will illuminate not just the narrow trail ahead of me, but wash the surrounding trees and bushes with light, allowing me to ride faster, and more safely at night in the woods, without getting my face bashed in by low branches, and without ending up braking to a halt to avoid a tree because I missed which way the trail turns (again!). I lost my opportunity to ride in the dark last night, as I had other stuff on earlier, and then was too tired. I'm hoping to get the chance to give 'em a blast this weekend when I can eventually make a judgement on their effectiveness as lights, not moan and groan about fixings that are "made of cheese" and limited mounting options for the out-front mount...
Edited by yellowjack on Friday 30th November 09:25
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