As for the brakes – mine are 105 and they are so-so in the dry, but if it’s really raining then nothing happens at all for the first 10m or so – and I am not exaggerating. It’s very scary.

You need to have them looked at
I have 105s on one of mine and they’re really good – try some Kool stop Salmon pads

Imo if you’re needing to use power then you’ve got the wrong gear setup.

Interesting opinion but WRONG 😆

Only kidding, each to their own, but my experience is that my legs got stronger by not spinning up the hills (living in the Peak District with “old skool” meant I had little choice).

Imo if you’re needing to use power then you’ve got the wrong gear setup. I can still spin quite happily on all but the steepest hils (climb out of Sutton) round here with a compact and a 13-29 cassette.

YOU’VE got the wrong gear setup. 13-29? MTFU!

Sitting and spinning uphills on a road bike is incredibly dull and totally the wrong way to go about things. If you do stuff like this then you’ll definitely get bored of it.

You’ve got to climb out of the saddle, its the best way.

Time and place for spinning and a time and a place for honking. A nice sunday pootle in the sunshine just enjoying the weather and the views, or trying to beast yourself chasing Strava times.

Always a time and place for the right gear. Don’t try and beat the bike by mashing or spinning. Gears on a road bike are there for optimum performance use them properly don’t see them as a weakness.

Just gone back to 42×21 bottom for a trip down memory lane.

YOU’VE got the wrong gear setup. 13-29? MTFU!

I’m a fat lad so I need the gears round here. When I lived in York I used a normal double with a 12-23 and had no issues at all. In the Aire valley it tends to be either steep or flat. This is the closest climb to my house http://app.strava.com/segments/1108413 and I couldn’t ride it on my old bike. I haven’t tried it on the new one but it’s tough enough on a mtb just spinning up in a granny gear.

Gribs ya big blouse, that hill’s just out the back of my house too, and I manage it with 12-27 😛

*ok it is bloody hard work though

Forget discs at the moment. You will get plenty of braking from decent, well set up dual pivots wirth the right pads. Better than any cable disc in my experience.

My recent experience of riding on the dark side is that riding in anything but perfect conditions is like playing hide and seek with the grim reaper! Pot holes, drain covers, road debris, texting drivers, slick 120psi tyres, wet roads, rim brakes, etc etc. I’d say the margins for error are just smaller compared against an average mtb outing. Still quite addictive though, life would be boring without a 90% chance of death now and again 🙂

I just sold a Planet X Pro Carbon to build up a Singular Gryphon. 50-34 by 11-36 gearing, Hope V-twins and drop bars. Currently running 2″ Big Apple slick(ish) tyres.

Takes a while to spin up but once it’s going not much slower that the carbon road bike and laughs at pot holes.

Next mod will be some OpenPros on Hope Pro IIs so I can have one set of 23-28mm slick for it and one set of 2-2.4″ knobblies.

Not a road bike, not a cross bike, not really a mountain bike. Bit of everything and goes most places on or off road (muddy off road corners are fun on slicks) – lots of fun.

Brakes can be made to work well. A customer recently brought me his 105 equipped bike and asked what brakes he should buy as the 105’s were useless. I rode it down the hill outside my house and sure enough they were. After I had fettled them however, you could do one fingered stoppies no problem.

Brakes can be made to work well. A customer recently brought me his 105 equipped bike and asked what brakes he should buy as the 105’s were useless. I rode it down the hill outside my house and sure enough they were. After I had fettled them however, you could do one fingered stoppies no problem

Exactamondo. Then again in a sport where 50% of riders can’t even change a tube we shouldn’t be surprised.

Exactamondo. Then again in a sport where 50% of riders can’t even change a tube we shouldn’t be surprised.

[looks down nose] And another 45% seem to think that you need some tools for this task.[/looks down nose]