(deep beats and blade swish)
- Back again with another episode of the GCN Tech Clinic
where I help answer and solve your bike related problems
that you leave me down there in the comments section
down below.
If you've got a problem, leave it for me,
I'll do my best to get you rolling again.
Let's crack on with the first one this week.
And it comes in from Ryan Thomas.
Hi Jon, I just got a brand new Planet X RT 58 V2 frame,
that's a mouthful,
I've got Shimano 105 groupset on my old Ridley cross bike
but it's got non Shimano mechanical disk brakes.
Can I convert this to rim brakes
or will it not work?
Right then Ryan,
yep, you will be able to do that
because those Shimano levers
those STI levers
are designed to be used with rim brakes for instance,
or in fact those non hydraulic disc brakes,
so in your case, the mechanical ones.
So it's absolutely fine to go ahead and do that
just get yourself some new calipers,
some new cables,
you'll be good to go.
Probably get some different tires as well
to actually clear the frame.
But I just had a look as well,
that Planet X frame, that's pretty cheap, isn't it?
I reckon you got yourself a cracking deal there.
Good luck with the build,
send us in a photo on the tech show using the uploader tool
'cause I wanna see your upgrades that you've bought.
Right, next question is from Michal who says,
hi Jon I've been considering converting my bike
to an electronic group set.
It's not Di2 ready, so Michael could use SRAM eTap
but would prefer to use Ultegra Di2.
Doesn't mind if the cables aren't nice and smooth,
but little bit worried about the junction box
and battery, not sure where to put the battery.
And so on.
Any experience with this, is it worth the trouble.
Michal?
This is no hassle or trouble whatsoever.
Those cables can easily be covered up
with some self adhesive strips that are designed actually
for that job and made by Shimano.
Now you mentioned the battery and where would you put it.
Well you'd use your water bottle bosses
and actually the battery is mounted onto a long piece
of aluminum or,
I say long, it's not that long really.
And it's just tucked away nicely
beneath one of your water bottles
and then that cable goes around and joins the junction box
underneath the bottom bracket and such like
and well, it's gonna give you great gear shifting.
Something you could also consider,
I have known people do this,
and I have also mentioned this in other videos.
I have seen people
drill holes inside of their carbon frames.
Not something I would strictly recommend myself,
but I've seen them do it
and then thread the cables through there
to keep it all nicely internally rooted
on a bike that's not designed for it.
But yeah, personally,
you can go ahead and actually fit that battery
with not a care in the world.
It's gonna give you good gear shifting in my opinion.
Next up is James Baynton.
Now James says they've recently bought a new bike
that came with tubeless set up disc wheels.
They wanna use it on the turbo trainer
and they've already got themselves
a specific trainer tire.
Would they be able to buy a spare non-disc wheel
and use that purely for on the turbo trainer
or do they need to get another disc brake ready wheel?
Right then, James,
I reckon that your setup
is probably with a through axle setup
because you've got disc brakes on there and it's a new bike,
so it's gonna be quite unlikely you can get yourself
a through axle wheel suitable for rim brakes
so get yourself a pretty cheap,
in fact go for the cheapest one out there,
that's what I do on a wheel on turbo trainer setup
I've got at home
because you don't need to worry about the weight
'cause you're not going up hills or anything like that.
You're just using it on the turbo trainer
and try and get it quite wide as well.
Because sometimes those turbo trainer specific tires
can actually be quite tough to get on
'cause they're made of a really tough old compound
aren't they?
So a wider rim generally makes the tire
a little bit easier to go on
so yeah hopefully I was right there,
that it is in fact a through axle setup
because you won't be able to find
or it's very unlikely a through axle rim brake wheel.
Get yourself a through axle, disc brake specific wheel setup
just don't bother putting the rotor on
but maybe on a rainy day, that wheel may come in handy
if you were to, dare I say it,
ruin your other wheel
and you want to go out and use that wheel.
Just remember to take off that turbo trainer tire
before you go out
otherwise it's gonna be like riding on ice.
Right next up is Adrian Knight who says,
we all know
that tubeless means you can run lower tire pressures
without risking a puncture
but is there a performance advantage
to keeping the pressure as high as you would in a clincher?
Right then, so by having
the same pressure as you would in a clincher,
essentially you are gonna reduce
or remove the chance of any bobbing
as you ride along
because when you run a lower pressure
and you tend to put a lot of power through,
you can then start to bob a little bit,
especially on your back wheel
where you really start to notice it.
Now in turn,
that's an increase in rolling resistance I guess
so therefore, you're not gonna go as fast.
So by having it at the same pressure as the clincher tire,
you're gonna go faster.
Of course when you reach the rough stuff,
when you have a really high pressure tire,
you start to bounce around all over the place,
or you can do,
as opposed to when you've got a softer tire
of course you can sort of
glide through it a little bit easier.
I hope that make sense.
What you have to weigh up though, really,
is how much of your riding
is on really really rough stuff compared to on okay roads.
Certainly for myself,
most of my rides are on pretty good roads
to be perfectly honest,
with the occasional bit of bad roads,
you know, 20 meters of a bad stretch
or a kilometer, something like that,
if they've been doing some road works.
And I wouldn't actually run a softer pressure
in a tubeless setup compared to a clincher
because generally, it's such a small part of that ride,
that you're gonna make a tiny little benefit from.
It's not worth sacrificing on the rest of the ride.
I hope that makes sense.
Right, next up is Max Revell
who says,
will 9-speed chain rings work with an 11-speed setup?
Because they want to go subcompact chain rings
and there doesn't seem to be a lot of choice
in the 9-speed chain ring area
without going to a square taper bottom bracket,
whereas in 10 and 11 speed options,
well there's plenty of them out there.
Right, good news and bad news for on this one, Max.
The bad news is
the shifting's not gonna be absolutely spot on and optimized
but the good news is,
it's gonna work absolutely fine for you there
so go ahead and do it.
And I agree with you,
you don't wanna go back to old square taper bottom brackets
because they're heavy,
it's quite old school tech.
I mean, yeah, some old school tech's good out there
but square taper bottom bracket's
not really ever a favorite of mine,
certainly not for road riding.
Right, next one is Simone Berardozzi.
Who says, hi guys, really wonderful show, congratulations.
I'm planning to buy a cyclocross bike
which I would like to use in winter
for commuting and eventually some bike packing.
I'm still indecisive what drivetrain, 1x or 2x.
I'm currently running on my road bike,
mechanically Ultegra R8000 groupset
and I'm more in favor for a 2x for compatibility issues
and spare parts, tools.
What's my suggestion, thank you very much.
Right Simone,
I'd be tempted to go 2x rather than 1x
because already you've said you're more in favor of that,
so I reckon your heart is going that way.
And cycling is all about passion, isn't it.
Right, I've got that little bit out of the way.
Anyway, so
I think that if you went 2x to start with,
if you did end up wanting to go 1x,
a little bit further on down the road,
it's not gonna cost you as much money.
'cause all you gotta do is remove the chain ring,
remove the rear derailleur,
front derailleur, sorry,
rear derailleur, where'd that come from?
And then put on a narrow wide chain ring.
And you'll be pretty much all set.
However, if you go 1x and then wanna go 2x,
you've got to do all sorts of things,
you then gotta buy a new front derailleur,
you've also gotta buy a new front shifter
and all those things
plus like you say,
you're tempted to go bike packing in the future,
and that can be some long days out there
and you may well want just a quite closer ratio cassette,
a little bit closer for you out riding
and with a 1x, it can be a little bit spread out
at some ends of the spectrum there
so a 2x could well be a better setup for you.
Personally, I'd be tempted to follow
what you've already said there,
like I said follow your heart,
you're favoriting at the moment a 2x setup.
I think you know the answer.
Right, Fotoflickschuster has a question.
And basically their rear derailleur
is an old 10 speed Ultegra one,
and they want to put new 10 speed shifters on the bike.
Will the Tiagra 4700 10 speed shifters work?
They use them on their other bike
and they're just amazing value for money.
Or do they have to buy old Ultegra ones?
Thanks a lot.
Alright, bad news here,
according to Shimano compatibility chart,
those 4700 shifters
will only work with the 4700 rear derailleur
so it's only gonna work exactly with that system.
Which is a real shame, isn't it
because they are 10 speed setups, now,
the gear pull ratio,
so the gear cable pull ratio on the 4700 shifters
is in fact the same as an 11 speed setup
but it won't work with an 11 speed setup
because it's only designed for 10 speed cassette.
It all has to do with the amount of cable
that's being pulled and the angle of the
the pivots and the system of the rear derailleur.
It's really heaps to go into here
hopefully we'll have an episode actually coming up soon
all about how do gears work, in particular,
a rear derailleur,
but I'm afraid you are gonna have to get yourself
a different set of shifters.
Those 4700s they won't work with that old 10 speed Ultegra
rear derailleur you've got, sorry.
Right, penultimate one this week
comes in from Yann Campbell.
Hi, I'm a big fan of the show.
Disc brake question!
So Yann has got two pairs of wheels for their gravel bike,
one more road orientated and one more gravel.
They've bought themselves some cheap rotors on Ebay,
new for a few dollars,
will they perform as well as TRP rotors on the stock wheels
or is there a risk?
(sharp breath intake)
Right there's a reason those rotors are cheap,
I guess like anything in this world,
I mean a few dollars compared to say 20 dollars.
You've got to think about why they're costing
just a few dollars.
Personally, I wouldn't sacrifice or risk my braking
by using something unbranded
because obviously braking is hugely important
and you don't want it to let you down
at the worst moment that it could do.
'Cause would just not be cool would it.
I wouldn't go for them,
I would always go for something branded in your case,
better be safe than sorry, right?
Think about it.
Right, final one is from John Buten
who says question for you Jon,
right no pressure here.
They recently bought their dream bike, a new BMC,
they decided to wax their chain
and keep everything clean and as frictionless as possible.
Now they're reading they should clean the chain
and reapply wax every 200 miles,
which could be more than once a week in the heart of summer.
Do I see any issues if John was to buy a second chain,
a box of quick links,
and alternate between the two chains?
Right then Jon, this is actually something I'm doing
right now on my own bike
as we're in the winter months here in the UK.
So yeah, I'm actually not taking off
and giving it a full clean before reapplying the wax,
instead I'm just getting a cloth
and putting the chain through it,
turning it around a few times
and wiping off any dirt
that's being attracted or accumulated
there's not a lot which is absolutely great.
I was about to say there's not enough,
but that would be, well, lighting the blue touch paper,
so there's not a lot of dirt being attracted
to the wax on the chain.
So yeah, buy yourself another chain and some quick links
and just alternate them if you'd like,
just do it evenly, so try and keep a record
or how many miles or kilometers you're putting
on that chain.
Let me know though as well,
how you're getting on with that wax chain,
I found mine, like I said,
a little bit noisy,
but nice and clean, and the gear shifting's
pretty much spot on there.
Right, that's the end of this week's GCN Tech Clinic.
So if you've got yourself a question,
leave it for me down there in the comments section,
do my very best to help answer in an upcoming episode
And remember as well to like and share this video
with your friends
especially if they've got themselves one of those problems
I've just tackled because a problem shared
is a problem cared.
Isn't it, let's face it.
And now is the time for caring.
Now don't forget to check out the GCN shop
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we've got loads for you to check out.
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