Convincing myself the cycle commute is worth it

[Deleted User]

Herzlos said:

It's not really cheating, you're still doing a lot of work (and a 24-mile each way commute is a pretty serious trip on a non-assisted bike).

You're still easily saving enough in motoring costs to buy a pretty nice e-bike every year!

Not cheating so long as you don't record it on Strava (unless you flag as e-bike)

gzoom

Great to see everyone keeping up the cycling:) I did 4 days out of 5 last week despite the rain. 2 days I used my road bike 2 days my eBike.....

My road bike is what I really enjoy about cycling, its my weekend toy and a good hard ride on it really helps clear the head. Its coming up to been 10 years old next year. Been money-saving I've recently upgraded the brakes on it to some lovely symmetrical dual pivot Ultegra units I picked up for 40% off rrp. Fitted them my self, they look fab and in the dry bite as hard as the disc brakes on my eBike.



I keep on looking at a new road bike on eBay, but again been money-saving I really cannot see how a £3k new bike is really that much better than my current bike. So yesterday deicided to wrap some new bar tape instead (£8 off Amazon)......My next job on the road bike is to service the wheel hubs my self as they haven't seen new grease in 10 years!! Will than book it in to the bike shop for rear wheel to be tured and a new to me Ultegra crank set fitted.

Total cost to me for fitting various new parts + bike shop costs will be sub £300l and the bike will be just under 7.7kg with the Ultegra cranks fitted, versus at least £3k if I was to buy a new bike to replace it .

Still cannot believe this thing was made in 2011, versus a car, the longterm ownership costs of bikes is crazy!!!

Nebulous2

Well done - glad to see someone with a passion for their bike. Discs are slowly winning the battle over rim brakes on road bikes, but a well setup rim brake still has a lot to offer.  Fitting a new crankset should be within your capabilities if you're happy to deal with cup and cone bearings. 

Different people have different attitudes to risk however and different tasks they are willing to try. I hate fitting bar tape. I don't do it often enough to be skilled at it, and I can take hours of winding and unwinding to get it where I am half ways pleased with it. My wife is usually supportive of my DIY efforts, but has suggested I should just pay someone to do it, as it annoys me so much. 

[Deleted User]

Nebulous2 said:

Well done - glad to see someone with a passion for their bike. Discs are slowly winning the battle over rim brakes on road bikes, but a well setup rim brake still has a lot to offer. 

Jeez tell me about it. My current bike had a nice pair of Zonda wheels, back cassette mount thing eventually disintegrated about maybe 4 years, thousands of miles so I treated myself to some nice new ones in a sale, RRP about £800, down to £500, with the intention of moving them onto a new bike I am looking at getting next year for a major birthday. Looking around, 95% of bikes with DI2 are disc only, I have literally found maybe 5 brands that I have heard of that have rim brakes, fortunately I can still do it but it's getting to be a challenge for those of us who don't want them on a road bike. I have cable disc on my CX and even after upgraded brake blocks, they squeal, they rub, they need aligning every time I take the wheel off...

Nebulous2

Deleted_User said:

Nebulous2 said:

Well done - glad to see someone with a passion for their bike. Discs are slowly winning the battle over rim brakes on road bikes, but a well setup rim brake still has a lot to offer. 

Jeez tell me about it. My current bike had a nice pair of Zonda wheels, back cassette mount thing eventually disintegrated about maybe 4 years, thousands of miles so I treated myself to some nice new ones in a sale, RRP about £800, down to £500, with the intention of moving them onto a new bike I am looking at getting next year for a major birthday. Looking around, 95% of bikes with DI2 are disc only, I have literally found maybe 5 brands that I have heard of that have rim brakes, fortunately I can still do it but it's getting to be a challenge for those of us who don't want them on a road bike. I have cable disc on my CX and even after upgraded brake blocks, they squeal, they rub, they need aligning every time I take the wheel off...

 Maybe you just need to give in and go with it?

I have a CX bike I use for commuting, with cable discs and they are fiddly.

I also have a Genesis Equilibrium disc I use for long distances / audax rides, with hydraulic discs and they are like night and day. Thru-axles make them very stiff and while I rarely take the wheels off alignment has never been a problem. Consistent braking, regardless of the weather and no rim wear. 

My road bike has ultegra callipers and they are good, but it now spends almost all it’s life on a turbo, as my equilibrium is my go to bike. Incidentally I have a pair of Zondas up my loft, that I bought a few years ago. They were intended for my road bike, but the wheels it came with were ok, and I decided to wear them out before putting the Zondas on. It didn’t feel right to buy a new bike and immediately discard the wheels. 

[Deleted User]

Nebulous2 said:

Deleted_User said:

Nebulous2 said:

Well done - glad to see someone with a passion for their bike. Discs are slowly winning the battle over rim brakes on road bikes, but a well setup rim brake still has a lot to offer. 

Jeez tell me about it. My current bike had a nice pair of Zonda wheels, back cassette mount thing eventually disintegrated about maybe 4 years, thousands of miles so I treated myself to some nice new ones in a sale, RRP about £800, down to £500, with the intention of moving them onto a new bike I am looking at getting next year for a major birthday. Looking around, 95% of bikes with DI2 are disc only, I have literally found maybe 5 brands that I have heard of that have rim brakes, fortunately I can still do it but it's getting to be a challenge for those of us who don't want them on a road bike. I have cable disc on my CX and even after upgraded brake blocks, they squeal, they rub, they need aligning every time I take the wheel off...

 Maybe you just need to give in and go with it?

I have a CX bike I use for commuting, with cable discs and they are fiddly.

I also have a Genesis Equilibrium disc I use for long distances / audax rides, with hydraulic discs and they are like night and day. Thru-axles make them very stiff and while I rarely take the wheels off alignment has never been a problem. Consistent braking, regardless of the weather and no rim wear. 

My road bike has ultegra callipers and they are good, but it now spends almost all it’s life on a turbo, as my equilibrium is my go to bike. Incidentally I have a pair of Zondas up my loft, that I bought a few years ago. They were intended for my road bike, but the wheels it came with were ok, and I decided to wear them out before putting the Zondas on. It didn’t feel right to buy a new bike and immediately discard the wheels. 

I don't see the need to have a heavy and unnecessary brake set, a choice is always better plus I want to use my almost new wheels on the new bike. The bike I am looking at for next year is 7.6kg for the rim, 8.5kg for the disc. Don't need 42mm tyres or anything like that, if I want to run that wide they can go on the CX.

My experience with the cable Avid brakes is a need to wind pads every couple of weeks, squeal from any road water/oil and really apart from the day of tuning, they aren't really any better than rims with good blocks. If I am forced to buy disc I might as well not buy another endurance road bike as I'd have 2 for no reason

gzoom

Deleted_User said:

 The bike I am looking at for next year is 7.6kg for the rim, 8.5kg for the disc. Don't need 42mm tyres or anything like that, if I want to run that wide they can go on the CX. 

This is my biggest issue with disc brake on road bike, my 10 year old Trek is 7.8kg with pedals + cages, it cost me £750 back in 2011 as a lightly used purchase, spent another £500 on the DuraAce wheels (again used), sub £1500 all in even with the latest bits I've bought. A 2021 Trek Emonda SL 6 costs £3500+ and weights 8kg without pedals :

I recon I could sell my Trek for £500ish now, so £3000 to swap into a HEAVIER road bike.....sorry that makes no sense at all. To get a new 2021 Trek road bike under 8kg am looking at spending £5k+ on a SLR frame, seriously thats nuts. Looking around on eBay for £1.5K I can get a 2019 rim brake frame and be close to under 7kg by swapping the components over. 

I have disc brakes on my commuter bike, they aren't world changing, nor are fat tyres - 35mm on the commuter, certainly not worth £5k+ additional spend to what I have now. Was out on the bike today, nothing at wrong with rim brakes and 23mm tyres, just wish my legs were younger  

Nebulous2

Each to his own as the saying goes. I’ll never be a climber, so weight isn’t that important to me. My tarmac is around 8 kg with pedals. It feels good, and has quite a turn of speed in the right circumstances. It is not very comfortable over long distances however. It sits on my turbo, and last year was only out for some club TTs. This year it hasn’t been out at all, with club rides cancelled. 

My Equilibrium was about 10.5 kg out of the box. Adding guards and a dynamo probably added a kilo to that. In addition on an Audax I’ll have a couple of bags with over 2 kilos of spares / food etc. 2 water bottles add another 1.5kg. It very quickly reaches a point where 3-400 grams for discs doesn’t matter. 

I’ve gone from being agnostic about discs to being a big fan. If I was in the market for a new bike, comfort over distance would be my main priority. I’d probably go for titanium something like a Van Nicholas Yukon disc. A di2 build would cost about £4-5k with internal cables, including the dynamo cables. That would still come in at over 10kg. 

[Deleted User]

Lot depends what you want and what you want to pay. My main road is 8.4kg, it's 9kg with the saddle bag loaded, it's an endurance bike, most I've done on it is 121 miles, wouldn't do that on say the Tarmac or a SuperSix but then again I'm not into racing either and I am not under any illusion losing a kg of bike weight is going to make me faster up hill. Agree the weight isn't the be all and end all, I'm slowly losing weight and it'll always be cheaper than buying an upgraded bike but at the same time my CX with 35c heavy duty tyres, coming in around 12kg I guess, (should weigh it really, base was 10kg iirc), is noticeably slower but is better specced for commuting because of the discs meaning mudguards and wider tyres. Good hydraulic brakes may well be an option in years to come but if I'm treating myself to a £5k bike, an extra ~1kg for something I don't want is pointless.

Johnmcl7

Nebulous2 said:

I’ve gone from being agnostic about discs to being a big fan. If I was in the market for a new bike, comfort over distance would be my main priority. I’d probably go for titanium something like a Van Nicholas Yukon disc. A di2 build would cost about £4-5k with internal cables, including the dynamo cables. That would still come in at over 10kg. 

You're not on your own there as many manufacturers who have offered rim and disc brake versions but withdrawn the rim brake versions due to lack of interest.  I've known a number of people who rubbished me for wanting a road bike with discs a few years ago and are all now riding disc brake bikes themselves by choice.  Aside from much better braking the discs allow bigger tyres and also often overlooked is you don't wear out the brake track so nice carbon wheels don't get worn out.   

I think people get overly fixated with weight, I'm a fairly light rider under 60kg and reasonably strong climber with road bike groups but my carbon 8kg bike (bought for comfort not weight) is no faster in feel or actual speed than the 10kg road bike is on climbs.    

I'd definitely like di2 as it's superb on the MTB so decided to treat my road bike this year and the day I went to order the groupset they put the price up almost ten percent after it being the same price which was enough to dissuade from the idea although still hoping they'll drop the price again.