- Back again with another episode of the GCN Tech Clinic,
where I try and solve your bike related problems.
So if you've got one,
leave it for me down there in the comments section below.
Or alternatively on all forms of social media
using the #ASKGCNTECH.
As ever let's crack on with the first question this week,
and it comes in from Garret Born who says,
Hi Jon, my wife has just purchased a Bianchi Via Nirone 7.
It was the color that sold her.
She is just getting in to road cycling,
but I'm already planning for several upgrades
in case she really falls in love.
She's your wife, she's in love already.
Alright, oh you were on about the bike.
Anyway.
What can be done with the 8-speed Claris groupset?
Is this bike only going to fit an 8-speed groupset, sorry,
or will I be able to fit something like 105?
Right, Garret, fantastic news
that the wife is getting involved with cycling,
basically you can go out and ride your bikes together.
As for that bike, don't worry at all.
It will be fully compatible with 10-speed,
11-speed, 12-speed, you name it,
it will work on there absolutely fine.
Just bare in mind though,
when you start upgrading the parts,
if you go for a 10 or 11-speed rear derailleur,
you are gonna need to get the corresponding shifters too.
So, whilst a 10-speed pair of shifters will work
with an 11-speed rear derailleur for instance,
it's not gonna be perfect,
because they are designed to work
exactly with the right lever pulls,
and the Parallelogram design of the rear derailleur
is designed specifically for the correct levers.
So just bare that in mind.
But yet is gonna be fully upgradeable,
and well she's got herself a lovely little bike there.
In a nice color too.
Next up is Bloody QuidMate who--
Well that's a bit of a strange username.
Either way they say,
is there any new silver wheelsets still selling nowadays?
Can't find one for the build, cheers Eric.
Eric, right, so I know Mavic used to make a few pairs.
They used to make Ksiriums as well as Aksiums,
that kind of thing.
Pretty sure they don't anymore.
Good news though my friend,
because British brand Hunt actually makes some.
I think they're called the Sprint Aero Wide,
something like that.
They look wonderfully old school.
They almost look like a pair of the old Campagnolo Shamals
or Ventos or Zondas.
That kind of a era, mid 90s.
Beautiful looking ones, so if you're after a pair,
have a look there.
I'm sure that someone else in the comments will say,
yep there is another company who do them,
but that's just the first one that sprung to my mind
that I know of.
So, yep, you can get some for your new build.
Next up it's Alistair Flack who says,
changing down the front from the big ring to the small ring
under load is causing the chain to come off.
Time for a new chain or derailleur adjustment?
A quick back pedal seems to sort it thankfully,
so not a full off or indeed a falloff.
Alright, Alistair, I just need to quickly
just regain my thoughts really give you
the actual problem here.
Seems to me like possibly you need a new chain,
but also possibly you need to adjust that front derailleur.
Those are the two things I'd look at first.
You could just easily check by trying to,
with the chain on the big chainring,
and the small sprocket at the rear,
just try and pull it away from the chainring,
and if you've got loads of daylight poking through there,
you're always gonna get a little bit
just because you do have a little bit of movement there,
but if there's loads, possibly a new chain is required,
'cause it's well stretched away.
Alternatively, you can play around that L adjustment screw.
But what you need to consider,
'cause here you say that when you're doing it under load,
which is quite important in this question,
use your legs like a clutch mechanism.
So if you drive a car, a manual car,
you'll know that when you change gear
you ease off the accelerator,
so you ease off the gas a little bit
while you're changing gear.
So do the same thing with your legs.
When you're changing gear just ease off a little bit
to help the chain going down,
rather than just mashing away on those big old gears.
So just try and use that first of all,
and then if that's not working, well, have a look then,
see if your chain's worn or that L adjustment screw.
Next up is ClevelandBeemer.
Looks like an M3 in your avatar there.
Alright, either way, they say,
Hi GCN, I just purchased a used Zipp 404,
and a 808 from a friend.
After fitting them on my bike I did a few turns of the crank
to make sure everything was smooth,
and felt a substantial vibration,
almost like the wheel is out of balance.
With deep section wheels do I need to balance them
to remove the vibration or once I get on the road
is it something I won't even notice?
Right, ClevelandBeemer,
there's been quite a bit of talk about this recently.
Personally, I would ignore it.
The reason being,
I reckon this imbalance that you say there was,
was when the bike was on a stand.
So you had that rear wheel up to loads and loads of speed,
and probably the bike supported by the seatpost,
and it starts to bounce a little bit.
Reason being, probably where the valve is in those wheels
or the innertubes or your tubulars,
whatever you've got fitted on there.
That normally weighs quite a bit, 'cause it's quite long,
and it does create a little bit of imbalance.
But what you need to remember here,
when you're out on the open road
any imbalance caused by your wheels,
providing it's not too much,
is normally gonna be absorbed by your body and then,
what are you gonna lose it from there somehow?
Or even in fact put back into your bike,
it's gonna make you go faster.
I wouldn't worry about it,
because in all of my years riding,
I've only ever felt this once.
And I think it was because for some bizarre reason
both wheels, the valves were in exactly the same place
front and rear and going around like this,
and it was using a really lightweight pair of wheels.
In fact it was a pair of lightweight wheels
from the German brand.
And I had some pretty lightweight tubulars on there too,
and some long extensions in there.
I just wouldn't worry about it too much.
In fact I did experiment in the workshop one lunchtime here
with some Plasticine,
trying to basically eliminate that bobbing feeling
that you can get,
and trying to see if you could get the wheel to rest
in a neutral position,
rather than a high or a low spot and everything.
But it doesn't really make any difference,
so don't worry about it.
Just go out and ride.
Alright, Oliver Higbee is next up and Oliver says,
Hi Jon, how do you remove dried tubeless sealant
from a bike frame?
Looks like you probably had a bit of a blowout there,
and it's gone all over it.
Right, there's a few different types of sealant
used in tubeless setups.
So without knowing the exact one
I can't give you a definite answer.
But a few different products to try include,
isopropyl alcohol, you could also use petrol,
if you do that though, use loads of space.
Obviously do it outdoors.
Make sure you rinse it off,
and well don't smoke or anything like that.
And lastly, maybe go to a car accessory shop,
and get some road tire remover or something like that.
It's used to remove bits of tire from car doors,
that sort of thing that splats up when you get hot weather.
So try those things and hopefully you can get rid of it.
Or there's something as well called,
I think it's called Goof Off or Gunk Off,
something like that.
I've got that in the past.
Sticky stuff remover.
But just try it somewhere inconspicuous first of all
to make sure it doesn't damage any paint work.
Alright, next up is George Hugh.
Now George says,
Jon, are you familiar with any Di2 setups only using buttons
similar to the sprint or climbing buttons,
but without having shifter handles
or TT bar end shifters present?
I'm using time trial brakes in the bar ends,
and would just like to have a simple thumb up-down setup
for both front and rear derailleurs.
Right George, firstly, this is from my own experience.
I wouldn't recommend just having brakes
in the end of the time trial bars.
Quite honestly that fills me with a little bit of fear,
because if you do have to suddenly lock-on,
locking on in that position is gonna be
quite a bit more dangerous than locking on down there
on the bullhorns as I like to call them or the base bar.
But, right, I've just done a little bit of testing
around here, because I have done it in the past,
but I couldn't remember what my findings were.
Get yourself a five port Di2 junction box,
and fit that onto your stem
or wherever you're gonna have it.
And you can wire up those climbing shifters.
So I've got actually the two individual ones,
so you put them either side of the stem,
and also the thumb shifter one as well.
They can be programmed to control any of the derailleurs.
The one which you can't use are those sprint shifters
as far as I'm aware,
because they have to actually plug into your STI levers
or the actual built in brake and gear lever controls
for the time trial bike.
So they won't fit in directly into a sprint,
into the actual Di2 junction box,
but yeah you can get those little climbing shifters
and play around with those.
Program them to your heart's content,
and it'll work absolutely fine.
Alright, Joseph Stageberg is next.
Hey Jon, I'm riding a Trek Domane 4-series with Tiagra,
and Trek's press fit BB90.
What is Shimano's BB90 equivalent
if I'm going to be upgrading to 105 R7000?
Right Joseph, there isn't actually a Shimano one,
because BB90 is Trek's own design.
And those Press Fit bearings that go into the frame,
they're designed to only work with a 24 millimeter
or 22 millimeter axle,
'cause you use a little shim for the SRAM ones.
Yet you can get ones with a bigger diameter in there
if you wanna fit a BB386 Evo crank set, something like that.
But when you start doing that,
this is slightly going off topic a little bit,
but I am going to explain it.
If you start to do that the little ball bearings
inside of the actual sealed bearings are so small
they don't last that long.
Right, all that out the way though,
you can fit that 105 R7000 crank set
into a BB90 absolutely fine.
And well I've already said it,
Shimano don't actually make anything,
because it is Trek's own part for that.
Last question this week comes in from Jason Carmichael
who says, Hi Jon, good initials by the way.
Oh yeah, we have haven't we?
Is there an advantage of using drive side
versus non-drive side single-sided power meters?
Alright, Jason, not really.
A single-sided power meter essentially doubles up
that power reading to give you your total power reading.
By having a single-sided power meter
it's not gonna give you really inaccurate readings
or anything like that,
because most people tend to have pretty accurate split
or pretty even split, sorry,
of power coming out of both legs
even if you're really dominant in one.
For instance, I'm right legged,
I play football with my right leg,
but when it comes to my power readings on a bike
using a dual sided power meter,
well it's less than 2% difference.
So it's nothing really to worry about there.
The advantage of it for me certainly has to be the cost,
because a single-sided left hand power meter
is gonna be considerably cheaper or quite a bit cheaper
really than a right hand side,
because you don't have the added material
as well as the chain rings.
Meaning you can spend more money in the GCN shop.
So don't forget to check out the shop
at shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com,
and well I also want you to like and share this video
with your friends too.
And don't forget if you've got a question for me,
leave it down there in the comments section.
Or on all forms of social media using the #ASKGCNTECH.