Has anyone tried one? I’m thinking of getting one as a commuter.

I’ve heard they suffer from brake judder on the front.

I have one. Handy wee bike for the commute. Gearing is a touch too high for my liking so will change it at some point, couple of teeth off the chainring maybe. Yep brake judder on the front. I put a bit of toe in on the pads and it lessened it significantly.

Thanks. I’ve heard the gearing is a little high.

Is the judder due to the cantilevers used? If so, I assume they could be swapped out.

A possible alternative is the On one Pompino.

The judder is caused by a combination flex in the fork and the top anchor point for the front brake cable outer. Essentially when braking flex in the fork/headtube causes the long length of brake cable to extend, which pulls the brakes on harder… then the fork pings back and the tension is relieved. This happens quickly and repeatedly causing the brake judder – it’s a common problem with high brake cable stops and canti brakes. Specialized Tricross forks were infamous for this…

You can get fork crown mounted brake cable stops, which shorten the distance over which flex affects the cable stretch and massively reduces judder, so worth a try as a first port of call (I use this on my tricross, it hugely reduces the judder, but doesn’t eliminate it).

The way to essentially get rid of judder would be to put mini v brakes on – these completely de-couple the brake cable from fork flex.

Ah, ok. Thanks for the explanation. I might look at some alternatives (not that there are many).

I returned mine because of brake judder, it was horrendous. I was too lazy to fix it.

Nice bike though, if you changed the very heavy wheels it would be fab. I should have bought the SS disc version really…

So what you’re saying is it is a nice bike IF you replace the wheels, fork and brakes? Not much then

I have one, but as yet unridden.
I’m also a bit concerned about the brake judder, but figure since I weigh nothing then braking forces are less, and it should be less of a problem.
Also expecting the gear to be a bit high for me.

Kinda factored these problems in against the very cheap purchase price though and won’t mind a small outlay to put them right.

Just sold my pink one. Dangerous brake judder as discussed. Solve this with Tektro mini-v’s. wheels weigh a ton, and the gearing is too high if you have hills. Frame is nice enough though, loved the colour.

Cheers all, I was going to buy one but looks like I’ll be better off with the eBay charge frame and source my own bits.

Assume V brakes work because outer cable runs all the way to the brake?
I’m thinking since the plug has clearance for some monster tyres then the Shimano Deore V brake might be better as it has much longer arms.

Assume V brakes work because outer cable runs all the way to the brake?

yep

I’m thinking since the plug has clearance for some monster tyres then the Shimano Deore V brake might be better as it has much longer arms.

You’ll need to change the brake levers as well if you do that to mtb v brake pull ones. Mini v’s work with road/canti cable pull as fitted to the bike.

If you can source a decent one second hand an older Plug 2 might be a good shout, from a quick glance at the new Plug 1 it looks like they’re pretty much the same bike. The older one came with road style cantilevers.

I got one a couple of years ago for commuting when I lived in York, never had a problem with brake judder with those brakes. I’ve now moved to a place with a few more hills but don’t find the gearing too bad, there’s a couple I have to prepare myself for but I can get up them slowly 🙂

You’ll need to change the brake levers as well if you do that to mtb v brake pull ones. Mini v’s work with road/canti cable pull as fitted to the bike.

Didn’t think of that – good shout.

Hmmm might be one I avoid, by the sound of it.

Any decent alternatives?

Commuted on my grater today and was fine with mini vs no judder at all and they use the same frame and fork

I have one, but as yet unridden.
I’m also a bit concerned about the brake judder, but figure since I weigh nothing then braking forces are less, and it should be less of a problem.
Also expecting the gear to be a bit high for me.

So I finally had the stars align and had some free time and a rest day, so got the chance to get the plug set up and go for a bit of a spin round the block.
A few thoughts.

1) Its pink!
2) Even though i’m light, brake judder is indeed quite off-putting, but somehow not as scary as I feared. Going to persevere with it for a while before making any spec changes. Google says toe in on pads may help so i’ll give that a go.
3) 42/16 wasn’t quite as hard as I expected. Had a quick try on a 7% hill and it was hard, but not crazily so. Maybe good for an hours high intensity blast, but not so much for a winter base ride.

I used to get brake judder from my high strung cantis on my Jake The Snake, the best thing to resolve it was copious amounts of mud and slop on the rims and pads!

[/url]DSCF0140 by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

Anyone know what Mini-Vs would fit with standard tyres and Wide SKS mudguards? Brake judder is knocking my fillings out !!

Thanks

Tektro mini-v’s were pretty tight above the rear tyre (couldn’t run it in the forward most position), front had more clearance.
Worst case cut a slot in the guard for the cable 🙂
Or run full sized v-brakes with appropriate pull levers.

I was chatting to a guy on the start grid of a cx race a couple of years ago and he had cable ties which went around the forks and the canti cross cable he reckoned this removed the brake judder

Suffered this for a while on the tricross and as mentioned crown-mounted cable hanger solved it instantly.
Got at least one knocking around I think if anyone wants it for postage.
Email in profile.

Bit of a thread resurrection.
Finally got mudguards fitted (pic to follow in the mudguard thread when i get one!) and got out for a proper ride last night.

1) Bike is great to ride – as is the way with SS, it just feels efficient. Feels agile, and yet long wheel base and large tyres make it feel super planted over rough/broken back roads.
2) In real world riding, the brake judder was a complete non issue – sure it was there, but not in an intrusive way at all. As it stands i’ll just be riding the bike and not bothering making any attempts to remedy it.
3) Confirmed that 42/16 is not as big a gear as it seems and actually works nicely – seriously hard work once you hit >10% though! If/when chain/cog wear out i’ll probably replace with 42/17.

Mine is in my garage getting a few wee tweaks, it was bought as a present (family and wife all chipped in) and I love the look.

Also pleasantly surprised at the level of some of the spec, the brakes seem like really nicely made units, and the chain is much better looking than the half-link chain I thought it would be supplied with.

I’ve just installed new bars (the specialized hover ones with the 15mm rise) as the front end was lower than I expected, so I’m also taking the opportunity to fit a fork mounted hanger. Toe in got ride of a lot of the brake judder but not all. Still a damn sight better in the wet than the screeching SRAM disc brakes on my other commuter…

Fitted a 40 tooth ring as well, have been practicing commuting in a similar gear to 42-16 (actually slightly higher) and while it was possible into the wind and even up and down some short steep hills, I think my knees will thank me for lowering it.

Also replaced stock tape as I have some weird old injury in the palm of my hand that welcomes extra padding.

All in have probably spent £150 upgrading a £300 bike, still delighted with it though.

Just a shame I couldn’t find the extra padded tape in blue, think it would have gone with the pink paint job really well 8)

Fitted a 40 tooth ring as well

Where did you find a 40t ring? My research suggested that 42t was the smallest that would fit for the BCD on the Plug 1

SJS Cycles

Nice looking bit of kit although it’s knocked the chainline out a bit as it’s about 1mm thicker on each side than the stock ring.

Will have to wait and see if it’s a problem, only solution is getting a thinner ring or buying a shorter BB.

First impressions (on the stand) is that it’s not an issue.

BCD is 130mm b.t.w.

Just look at what 1mm represents on a tape measure. Over the length of a chainstay that makes 3/4 of F all difference to the angle of the chain. It’ll be fine.

First commute this morning, first impressions are good!

The 40×16 gearing seems perfect for my commute which is mostly flat or gentle up/gentle down. There are maybe three short punchy climbs which can be taken out of the saddle without too much graunching. The flats are downhills are a touch spinny but it’s a ‘good’ spinny in that you feel you’re still driving the bike forward at speed rather than just thrashing air.

Bike feels light, stiff and handles great, lots of pointlessly exaggerated cornering just for the joy of leaning it over. This might just be ‘new bike joy’ rather than the bike though.

tthew I think you were absolutely right, drivetrain is a little noisy but otherwise felt all good so chainline probably isn’t an issue.

Feels short though, and in the hoods I could see the front hub in front of my handlebars (that was the old fashioned rule of thumb for handlbebars being too close yeah?) will experiment with a longer stem although it means losing the lovely colour-matched pink one 🙁

Will put some photos up shortly, as this thread is sadly lacking in them so far 8)

Not the best quality photo’s i’m afraid, but you get what you pay for in the world of smartphone cameras, and I didn’t pay very much!

I’ll post up once I get this blue handlebar tape on it, couldn’t resist 40% off at Alpine bikes! 8)

Oh well, couldn’t be bothered re-taping just yet, seemed a waste of the Specialized Bar Phat tape I just put on (which isn’t great, doesn’t seem to have much stretch and has double sided sticky tape instead of silicon on the back so will probably be a mess to change later…)

Note brake hanger, nice bit of kit although it’s annoying that the barrel adjuster isn’t captive, it sits squint now because the cable comes in at an angle. Wish I’d got one in black also.

Virtually removes judder, and with some tweaking of cables, almost all squeal. Basically the flatter the straddle cable, the more powerful the brakes, but the more squeal (high pitched squeal, not too offensive anyway). Pad toe-in seems to reduce it even further.

I’ve just picked one of these up too.

I’ve swapped the cantilevers out for tektro mini-v’s (really cheap from Planet X right now), swapped the chain out for a KMC gold BMX chain (sub £10k upgrade), stuck in an old carbon inline seatpin I had knocking around, swapped out the seat collar for one without the cable hangar and put on a pair of black Shimano A530 spds (the perfect pedal for multi-use).

Really please with it so far.

Now in the market for some much lighter wheels, a carbon fork and an Alfine chainset to take some weight out of it.

The wheels weigh a metric sht tonne, 1070g front, 1312 rear (with freewheel).
Shame Charge made a couple of really bad spec choices on this model.
Changing the front to a spare 550g road wheel I had made a noticeable difference!

Meh, I wouldn’t say bad component choices really, even at full price it’s lighter than the equivalents, a similar Genesis would have been more expensive and heavier…

Looking forward to trashing the wheels and having an excuse to replace with lighter though!

Anyone suffering issues with creaks from the front end of the bike?

Fitted 32c Vittoria Hypers and some PDW guards, had turned it into the perfect fast commuter, but the creaking is so bad I’m about ready to send it back to Wiggle to get looked at.

Bought some spare (carbon) forks thinking they would cure it but I’m nw thinking it’s the headset, so might send them back.

For what it’s worth the stock forks are pretty light, not much weight to be saved unless you find some 1+1/8th carbon forks with a carbon steerer too…

Mine creaked like a mofo, despite regreasing the headset and every other interface. Assumed it was poor head tube tolerances.

No creaking from mine so far, but only got around 400mi on it.

Wiggle currently have the special edition “Grinduro” Charge Plug on offer at £509

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/charge-plug-grinduro-single-speed-adventure-road-bike/

Single speed, hydro discs, reasonable wheels, Spoon saddle, plenty of rack and guard mounts, ok tyres, loud colour.

Looks like great value.

I have been riding a 2016 Plug 2 for the last year as my commuter / gravel / light XC / road / shopping bike for the past year. Have put well over 2000 miles on it and only paid around £450 and other than swapping the tyres for tubeless it has not cost me a penny. No creaking either.

I am considering getting a Grinduro to play with over winter.

Yeah, that Grinduro plug looks ace (although maybe a tad over-geared)
If I didn’t already have a Plug1 and a Cooker SS i’d have got one for sure.