OP Update

Ordered the Gaerne hurricane in 42 & 43 (currently have shimano 43)

both have narrower heels so the 43 although comfyish would slip off my foot when done up and 42 a bit too small but still then had to do up really tight to prevent slippage.

Other than personal fit they look like really nice shoes, stiff soles, supple feel, comfy inner lining, narrower toe box, and the cleat positioning was at least 5mm further forward than shimano.

I struggle with find shoes though as I have club feet, and one foot is smaller than to other by at least 2 sizes.  Despite that I wear the same size shoes as the smaller foot is as wide and has a higher arch than the larger foot so won’t fit in smaller sized shoes also meaning there is no space for inserts.

Therefore wider shoes and heels are good so I can push both feet back into the heel and do the shoe up tightly and it not slip off.  Cleats need to run quite far back like shimano as the balls of my feet are further back in the shoes, northwave shoes would have me pedaling thru my toes.

If you have read this far I means I’m going to order the Shimano XC5 in 43, at least the lace will give me loads of adjustability compared to a BOA.

Specialized also fit pretty well but I don’t light their £100 lineup.

I like the look of the Gaerne Lasers and for another tenner the Hurricanes with a BOA.  How do they compare in sizing, do you go up a size like shimano?

I wear 42 in everyday shoes and a 43 in Shimano & Specialized.

The Mavic’s do fit my description but are a bit too boot like and outside my price if buying in the UK (inc ase I want an easy return) I still like the Shimano XC5’s I’m wondering if the lacing would annoy me if I need to adjust them mid ride or even mid race!

Yes XC51N are almost perfect for the price but I wish it had a slightly more stiff sole at the toe bend as I run as little a possible!

Not sure why these type of all year shoe aren’t more available tbh, its not as that its only wet in the winter.

I once resorted to pouring very hot water on the tyre to soften it up then got as many tyre levers in as possible

Strangely enough school kids of today don’t have the same outlook as old men posting on cycling forums, it’s the individuals personality that matters and caring people can be in short supply especially if you disregard 50% of them on the basis of sex.

These are the same sort of arguments that were used d to keep women out of traditionally male jobs (i.e patients wouldn’t want to have a female doctor or a woman can’t be a police officer cos she is too small), so at least it’s  a sign of progress that we question that less and have moved on to questioning men doing women’s jobs instead

Yes’ish, at 6’1″ I’m always in the middle of frame size, e.g. between a 56 and 58cm road frame.

In the past I went down a size and the bike was never comfortable,  now I size up and am comfortable. I have a long torso so a longer tt is better, sizing up is my default now. But it is defo cooler looking to ride a smaller frame 😁

You know when you have too many spacers because the top cap bolt won’t be long enough to screw into the star nut 😁

you can get great bargains on eBay but I tend to buy stuff that I don’t need right away so I can wait for the deal to turn up, if you need something right away it’s not so good.

Best buys this year were some new un-used fulcrum racing 5 lg wheels for £140 and a second hand kinesis racelight full bike with 105 for £275. I sold the wheels and chainset off the kinesis for £90 on ebay.  So all in I have a kinesis racelight with 10 speed 105 and brand new fulcrum wheels  at a total cost £325, which is less than the cost of the frameset new!

+1 for cardboard, last one was a 2 minute job with scissors and they are just as accurate

It would be on a 19mm internal width rim. The back roads I cycle on are not the best, loose surface and potholes, so the wider the better really.

Kinlin adhn in silver would fit the bill….

https://thecycleclinic.co.uk/products/kinlin-adhn-black-or-silver-rim

*Removed double post*

Not got those but I know that northwave boots cleat holes are further forward than other brands like Shimano and specialized, so if you like your cleats positioned further back these may not be for you, I bought some cx boots and sent them back because of this. Otherwise they fit me fine, once you pulled them on, with the usual go one size up as per Shimano shoes.

Ok, so I’ve gone and pulled the trigger on the kinlins (from the cycle clinic). The archetypes are on there way back to wiggle.

Won’t have the wheels built until the new year as the hubs are on the slow boat from China and the spokes will be ordered once I measure everything myself.

I’ll put up a small review when done. Thanks to all the contributors on the thread!

Forzafkawi, thanks for that 🙂 I’m heavily leaning towards kinlin now, any comment on the rim braking qualities of the wheels you built for your daughters bikes, good, bad, normal?

It sounds a little like six of one and half dozen of the other, braking is important since night riding tends to lead to the occasional need for late braking (thinking of the self righteous walkers that like to put branches over the trails). But the kinlins measurements look better on paper.
I actually have the archetypes in the garage but since I bought them from wiggle it’s a no fuss return policy

first thing, buy the book Total Immersion Swinming for Xmas, perfect for tri swimming as it relies on not kicking so saves your legs from the other 2 parts of the race, plus imo it saves massive amount of energy swimming in that style compared to how freestyle is conventionally taught.

you’ll need to practise open water at some point before your race as it’s more stressful trying to swim around alot of people all jostling around for space in a big pond than just doing lengths in a warm pool.

Saying the hub is knackered buy Hope is not very helpful since no one could possibly know if it was damaged from that description……

Its could be as little as the cones needs tightening cos they have come loose, which is 2 minutes job, may want to locktite it too.
if you don’t have cone spanners, adjustable ones will most likely work

However it may be a good idea to take a peek inside to check bearings, grease etc are ok before just tightening them up
Loads of stuff on Park tool website and look at the hub specs on the Shimano website so you know how many bearings each side takes (just in case you drop one and don’t notice when re-assembling)
Its not Hard just make sure you lay the pieces out in order so that you don’t get confused when putting back together

Good luck

Got the Dolan which is the same thing. It rides fine, feels dead in comparison to my carbon sunday best bike, but thats to be expected. Good for the money I’d say, but rear tyre clearance is crap if you want to run mudguards, doing it again I would get either something with better clearance (a second hand CX frame) for guards or the ribble compact frame as its a more contemporary design.

no, no, no, no, no, just build it and ride

last 2 posts are arse gravy, can’t be arsed to write a long boring essay on why, but its just wrong. I suppose all those mountaineers lost fingers and toes due to frostbite cos their cores weren’t warm enough…

solution…

We use google chrome as a defualt browser and my wife’s ebay account stays signed in on this, so if I want to look at ebay stuff I use Firefox and keep my ebay logged into that one. simples.

forget the trueing stand just use the bike frame/forks in a stand and fix a metal ruler to the frame with elastic bands for checking lateral/radial true. built about 5 wheels this way no problem. Can’t see the point of buying all this kit if you are only going to build a few pairs of wheels. but do get the Wheelpro book breaks everything down into simple steps, fantastic guide.

This is the singletrack forum so the only sensible anwser is to buy 3 bikes, 2 road and 1 mtb. Leave 1 road bike chained up at the end of the fire road and the mtb chained up at the start. Set out from home on the road bike, once you get to the fire road unlock the mtb and lock up the road bike, use the mtb along the fire road, when you get to the end unlock the other road bike and lock up the mtb, then continue on your journey to work, on the way hojme just reverse.

Make sure all bikes are niche, and preferably the frames be handmade in the US by blind monks

Schwalbe cx pros. £24 for a pair off ebay. love em

I just take them all out and put them carefully into 4 piles,

1. non driveside outside spokes
2. non driveside inside spokes
3. driveside outside spokes
4. driveside inside spokes

that way you have time to give them all a good clean and then when you re-lace, the bend in the spoke will be in the same place/direction as on the old wheel.

as long as the the camera is turned back to the horizontal before he rides down it, it should be ok.

Not quite sure of the advice stating it’d be better to build new wheels than re-tension your old ones. Once the new ones are built is it also not advisable to re-tension then time to time or do you build another pair, doesn’t make sense to me.

A good place to start out is re-truing a wheel to build your confidence, this should teach the necessary patience you need to build wheels for the first few times.

The comments are pretty funny too, this may be the new trend is selling used bike components

Are you using a Singlespeed specific chain? If you are you can get away with more slack as they don’t want to derail, I run mine with a little bit of visible sag in the chain when looking at the top of the chainring to sprocket and its fine, I’d say 3/4 inch

it can be a long wait for a replacement straight pull, but if one broke you could just straighten a normal spoke using some pliers and lace it up as an interim measure.

got it from this ebay seller, uk plug.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Magicshine-MJ-872-1600-Lumens-LED-Bike-light-/170741429377?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_Bike_Lights&hash=item27c0fb7481#ht_1859wt_1398

arrived in less than a week

I went for the black silicon sealed one in the end, after reading a review that the aluminium ones might not be totally waterproof due to the seals been incorrectly assembled in the factory.

Whats everyone elses battery life like? I seem to get the full 2 hours but the life indicator on the torch only shows green (100-75%) for 5 minutes, then blue(75-50%) for 30mins, then amber 30mins, then red 30, so a total of 1:35 hours, but it’ll then keep going for another 25 mins with the flashing red 5% left warning.

who cares if if built symetrically or not, I think the general consensus on that is it doesn’t matter at all

not mine but friggin beautiful

http://forums.mtbr.com/singlespeed/siren-twinzer-singlespeed-29er-751633.html

this is the way forward

http://www.totalimmersion.net/

effortless swimming the TI way, makes everyone else look like they are drowning IMO

Lockout not working can be a sign that you have a oil leak from the Moco unit into the lowers. Let the air out (top and bottom) to see if the fork will give full travel, if it won’t moco oil is leaking into the lowers , if you can still get full travel its not an oil leak.

+1 for checking the dish

not tried the 60a but have ST 42a 2.35 on the front and Mud-x 2.0 on the back, and its an awesome tyre. Switched from a mud-x 2.0 front when around November time when conditions turn to constantly wet, its much grippier, especially on greasy/slimy roots you get this time of year.

On muddy off camber bits the ST pisses on the Mud-x IMO, as my front tyre sticks and the back slides.

my riding isn’t gnarr enough for ST front and back and the little bit of drift the rear has can be added fun

Either a short hose down after a muddy ride or leave it for a few rides and brush the major mud flakes off the frame, forks & wheels when its dried up. However I don’t have gears to worry about, and generally just rub my finger on the chain before riding to check its ok for lube.