Make sure you also let us know how much you use that MASSIVE gear.

Only used it once last night but the ride didn’t incorporate any big hills. According to my Cateye, I hit 44mph descending Brockholes Brow out of Preston – it’s one of those descents where it’s safer to go full gas and keep up with the traffic in rush hour.

I probably used it on 4 or 5 descents on Sunday’s ride – a lumpy 50mile loop round the Pennines.

Just off out for 90 mins endurance miles on the winter bike… I’ll see if I can spot that MASSIVE jump… 😉

* Visions of Shibby thinking he’d found a good way of making aracer pipe down 😉

Do you not find the jump between 15 and 17 really irritating?

I’ve never noticed it as being a bigger jump than other gears. Oh christ, now you’ve pointed it out I’m gonna be looking for it!!

Yes, but what’s that got to do with your “need” for 53/11 top gear?

I use it all the time, so I’d miss it if it wasn’t there. Getting rid of my top end gears would benefit me in no way whatsoever. the 11-speed groupset allowed me to keep EXACTLY the same gears that I’m used to, PLUS have one lower gear that is EXACTLY the same gear length as I would have if I put a compact on my current bike.

The only time I ever wished I had a compact was on 25% hills which forced me to stand and mash rather than sit and spin efficiently. This set-up will address that problem without me having to sacrifice the gears I’m used to and use regularly. Capiche?

Yes, we have discussed this before – just you don’t appear to have taken in the facts.

At 44mph, on a safe road, I’d always want to crank more – in a slightly tucked position, hands on the tops/elbows down/chin to the stem. 53/11 allows me to do this safely without the bike becoming unstable.

I get a “wider” range of gears because I have an extra cog, with 28 teeth. I used to just have a 25. Now I have all the same gears, including the 25, AND, a 28! So that is a “WIDER” range of gears. Can you see that?

Sticking with 53/39 makes the rations more “USEABLE” to my riding style, cadence and the type of roads I tend to ride on. I’ve explained this earlier: if I use a compact, I spend too much time flipping between chainrings.

Does this make sense to you now?

Though I’m still not sold on the DA 9000 chainset’s looks

To be honest, I think it’s the dogs bollox… And partly because of those gawky looks. I love the science behind it, the hollow chainrings, the versatility… I think it represents real out-of-the-box thinking by Shimano.

Not sure if the angles would ever be described as steep, but they supply that post with all R5 framesets so they must feel it offers optimum riding position. It’s a very long head tube for a 56cm – apparantly pros prefer the extra stiffness of a long head tube and a lot use a downward angled stem to get a lower position…

includes painted stem and seatpost. Bargain!

Whilst they’re very pretty, I’d have to argue that they’re a complete waste of money. You’d be paying through the nose purely for a nichey, artisan product.

When you buy something like a Cervélo, you know you’re paying for something that has been built using the latest R&D techniques and constant feedback from pro teams. Sure, some of the ticket price goes towards sponsoring pro teams, but for me, the confidence in the product and the kudos of the resulting stage wins makes it money well spent.

How on earth can they justify £5k+ for a basic frameset – albeit with a very pretty paint job – when you can buy the best frames in the world for around £3.5k?

English make some beautiful bikes… I love their TT bikes…

From the last thread I got a quote for a Baum frame. £5K youch

Crikey, makes my full build look like remarkable value for money!

How big is your house?

Haha, there’s a reasonably straight run down the hall and through the kitchen, quick track-stand/rock walk and then down the step into the conservatory… Top speed about 3mph.

I hear what you say about the cable ends… That was my worry tbh…

I’ve always ridden 53/39×11/25, and even 21 and 18 sprockets in my younger days, but I can’t stand compacts – you always seem to be flipping up and down the chainrings to use the most commonly used gears.

Nowadays I tend to ride the big ring for all flat and slight inclines, and then the inner chainring for climbing. I did find I was out of the saddle too much with 39/25 on my other bike, so this 28 tooth sprocket should address that and have me seated on all but the steepest climbs…

thoses bikes always look best in full ninja black colour scheme

I didn’t want to look like a Project California wannabe. And I thought the frame/group/wheels were subtle enough to warrant a bit of ostentatiousness on the saddle and bars!

Because you know you really need that 53/11 top gear.

Didn’t we do this before? The bigger the gear, the faster you can pedal safely before you ‘tuck’. It’s roughly 4mph faster than 53/12 at the sort of cadences I’d be turning.
Plus, you get a wider, more useable range of gears on this setup.

White bar tape ?, not so sure about that.

Well, I figured I should match it to the saddle… Isn’t that the rule? It’s that Fizik leatherette bar tape, so it actually wipes clean quite easily, as does the saddle… And 1 vote for red cable ends… I’m leaning that way too 😉

LTD seatpost mismatched with Team bars/stem?

The LTD seatpost comes with the frameset… I wasn’t prepared to spunk nearly 200 quid on a matching stem! And the LTD bars are only a few grams lighter than the Ergonova Team Carbons… I agree though, it’s a shame the graphics on the post don’t have that red stripe – I’m sure it would make it a bit faster…

A winter bike is a summer bike with raceblades on.

Erm, maybe for you. For me, it’s a Dolan Prefissio with full length cromoplastics and mud flaps.

Njee has a point though – it needs a deeper section set of wheels.

I um’d and ah’d for quite a while about the wheelset, I would have liked the Mavic R-SYS but they were too much money, and not practical for anything other than race day use – I ride in the Pennines so cross winds are a big fact of life!

I looked at the C35s, but I thought they were a bit of an in-betweener wheel, and not good value, so I went for the C24 which is great value, light and strong, and I can maybe get a pair of deep section wheels next year when my wallet has recovered!

It’s got a super model size zero back end on it! Wow, that’s skinny.

That’s what I love about it – it’s got a proper traditional silhouette, no superfluous detail or styling. I nearly bought an SL4, great bike but I’m glad I went for this in the end 🙂

Do you ride it or is it just for weighing, listing components and posting on weighteenies?

I’ve just built it, still waiting for a few bits and a final tune-up but I have a winter bike for this time of year. It’ll get ridden to within an inch of its life, starting with a week in Mallorca in a few weeks.

If I was a weight weenie, I’d have used SRAM Red, shirley…

Yep, and those chairs could do with a bit of teak oil, but I’ll wait til spring 😉

Ooh, that’s rather nice! How much are they?

That Look is gorgeous, and if you like overtly liveried bikes, this takes some beating…

But for me, the simplicity of this Canyon TT is simply stunning…

Reminds me of Ouster Rake in the Trough of Bowland…

The nicest roadbike ever is the one I’m hoping to complete this weekend… Or it would be if I’d shopped at CRC rather than UK Bike Store 😉

Pics will follow next week hopefully…

Shibboleth did you tell them that you needed the items for the weekend? Sounds to me like they were out of stock but knew they’d get them in within 1 or 2 days and out to you as soon as they did, so didn’t bother to contact you to say there would be a delay.

All items were marked as in stock at the time of ordering. I ordered Tuesday morning so I would have expected any decent mail-order outfit to have been able to process the order and get it to me by the weekend – CRC and Wiggle are generally next day or within 2 days.

It’s not the end of the world, but it’s not a particularly good level of service in my experience. In future, my choice will be based on the fact that I ordered once and wasn’t impressed, whereas I’ve ordered hundreds of items from CRC over the years and ALWAYS been impressed.

In future, I’ll regard UK Bike Store in the same light as Ribble Cycles: OK if they have the item cheaper than anywhere else and I’m not in a hurry for it, otherwise I’ll avoid them due to not very good service.

After ordering on Tuesday, I’ve only just got a confirmation email stating that the order will now be picked. So the chances of me having the items for the weekend when I could really do with them is quite slim.

So to be honest, not very impressed with UK Bike Store and will probably stick with Wiggle or CRC in future.

Let me know how it goes. I have Ban Ki-moon’s email address ready if you need it…

I’m sure I have Hannibal Smith’s phone number somewhere, he did say that if I had a problem, that nobody else could solve, and if I could find him, I should give him a call…

I ordered some stuff on Tuesday, it’s still not arrived. I’m planning a strongly worded letter to the Prime Minister as we speak.

This is just another of those look-at-me-I’ve-got-an-iphone-5 threads, isn’t it?

A little squirt of bleach in the fabric conditioner compartment works for me…

And yes, the Craft ones are excellent. The Gore Windstopper-fronted version is brilliant.

Heathcotes Brasseries on Winckley Square is nice for lunch, and there’s a good little bistro-type place called Moka on Fishergate – both 2 mins from train stations. But on the whole, Preston is dire for dining.

Baluga is passable, but a 15 min walk, and if you’re going that far you might as well go to Stratos on Avenham Street – quite swanky…

Other than that, Hartley’s is an OK pub just off Fishergate…

Used to work near Hollands Pies – the smell first thing in the morning was rather nauseating… Especially with a hangover. It was reminiscent of a poor person’s armpits.

Well, I’ve just ordered a pair of the J2 adjusters – UK Bike Store had them in stock. They look a lot neater that the Shimano ones, and many of the ones I’ve seen on ready-builds…

I’ll report back when I’ve built it up!

The bonnet off an old Mini worked very well when we were kids. T-Cut and waxed to a mirror finish, it went faster than any Mini part ever did on a car!

Good point, the rear mech does have a barrel adjuster but I’m looking for an on-the-fly adjuster…

I suppose technically, you shouldn’t need either, and the more crap you have in the cables, the more chance of movement, but most built up bikes come with some sort of adjuster…

These are for the latest Dura Ace shifters – both cables under the bar tape… The Rockets are great for the older style though!

Also, they come in pairs, but I think they’re only really necessary on the rear-mech cable, what do others think?

They’re nice Greenk, but they don’t look like a Stormtrooper’s bicep…

They do this version too, but I can’t find it anywhere in the UK!!

ran very quickly into the arms of a whore.

They were doing it wrong. 🙄

For the record, the OPs mate is a complete moron, he should definitely be forced to uninvite the girls.

One doesn’t take ones own sandwiches to a buffet. 😉