LennartZandbergen said:

mugwump said:

David Yang said:

Anyone watch the Silca tpu video? I was just about to take a big gulp of the koolaid and then went to the site and saw they were charging $40/tube. Not today satan!

https://youtu.be/9T2S6droV80?si=g-WCxEBNpmbdUx3j

https://silca.cc/products/tpu-tubes

FUnny thing. $39, which is what I saw on their site, is actually in line with most name-brand TPU tubes I've seen (pirelli, WTB, a few others).  OTOH, you can get the 'ride now' for less than $10, and the Biketube brand for $20.  

RideNow sells two for $21 on Amazon. Pirelli-branded tpu's go for €20 post tax ($23) each in Europe, and $27+tax here on amazon. That difference could be tariffs, or just the fact that the Netherlands has three highly competitive online shops for bike stuff. I don't think Silca sells these tubes in the EU.

Bicycle Habitat has Pirelli for $45 and WTB for $40.

My sister in law has a 1980’s steel Bianchi whose campy bb seized. She took it to a shop and they told her she needs to replace the bottom bracket. The crank (I think it is campy centaur?) needs a 109 Italian ISO bb. Any suggestions on sourcing one? The shop (Bike Plant on Tompkins) recommended the following eBay knock off but said they didn’t know if it would work: https://ebay.us/m/ogxduS

Alternatively she can replace the crank and bb with something lighter and more modern, but then she would lose the whole campy aesthetic. The bike is a commuter bike and it in great shape, but she’d like to keep the aesthetic if possible. 

Would this work?  https://ebay.us/m/y5HUcd

Maybe @mugwump knows better since he's a campy diehard.

Patrick,
     Send a pic or two of the crank and bb.

     1980s generally means either loose ball bearings or ball-bearings encased in races, and you have to use both a pin spanner and a lock ring tool to get the at just the right level of tight to run.  

     The BB you sent was for more modern campy cranks, 1990s and beyond.  These are non-serviceable cartridges.  Reading the description, it would seem that your sister-in-law would need to have either a Triple crank, or centaur, mirage, or veloce.

I was given a pair of new in box Pirelli P Zero Race TLR in 30mm recently and finally got around to putting them on some wheels. From what the internet said they’re on par with GP5ks and why spend money you don’t have to. Without a doubt, one of the easiest tubeless road tires I’ve ever mounted. Truly a night and day experience compared to GP 5000s STR

@Matt BudofskyIve been using them for 2 years .its a love affair 

Mark Taylor said:

@Matt BudofskyIve been using them for 2 years .its a love affair 

its gotta be torrid.  
No latex.

You’d expect better support for such a premium device 

Mark Taylor said:

Right now i'm waiting on a response , since Friday , this poor customer service honestly supersized me 

sorry , just venting 

FWIW, there's a Hammerhead forum on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2145739235657311

Mark Taylor said:

TY.

They got back to me yesterday , had to send Videos of the unit , Sent me a return label , 

And are sending a replacement unit , 

Oh that sucks, glad they are sending a new one!

Good to hear! I had a bad experience with a Hammerhead mount and they took care of me pretty quickly and fairly. I have the V2 and I just got an email that says they are discontinuing updates for it as of January 2026… Not psyched on that. They offered a 30% discount on the current new model, but meh.

As long as they keep working without any security issues and you can continue using the Hammerhead indefinitely until the hardware breaks?

I think this also illustrates the importance of post-sales support. Wahoo was excellent when I had to deal with a warranty issue and retained me as a repeat customer. Similar with Ritchey where they took care of a warranty issue quickly without drama. On the other hand I'll never buy another Descente thing again after they were rude and shitty to me way back in 2009.

Wahoo customer service is great. I bought a Bolt back in 2019, it broke (the screen didn’t work anymore) in 2022 and they replaced it with the V2 Bolt immediately. 

At the end of the day I got the new unit , took a while to get a response, they original contact was away for a few days , which makes sense, but then again doesn’t 
my unit is under warranty , got a sense after that time it would , sorry mate 
at one point I did think of going back to wahoo , because of their great CS , but I just couldn’t give up the Karoo

While we’re on customer service give a +1 to 4iiii. My power meter died a few weeks ago out of nowhere and after one message they were ready to warranty it. The annoying thing is you need to ship it back to Canada on your dime so I pushed back a bit and they sent me a label. Within a week the repaired meter was at my door and it looks like they upgraded it from the sensor that comes on the ultegra crank to the sensor that comes on the dura ace crank

I'm sure I'm not the only one in this group that regularly gets asked "what bike should I buy" by people that want to get into race biking. Now, it's two (female) friends asking for bike recs at the +/- $2000 price point. I always struggle with the question because honestly, where do you start. I'm recommending them to go for a modern Shimano 105 or Ultegra, and can help them when they're looking at a specific bike, but other than that I'm kinda not sure what to say?

I always encourage them to get a bike that is comfortable to ride - ie: make sure the saddle is comfortable.

I always tell them “ check out ride brooklyn”😉

Mark’s point about buying from a shop that offers support is an important one for someone just getting into the sport. 

Pretty much 'aluminum frame, carbon fork, 105 12-speed' is the $2000 price point.  Most are in the 'endurance' category.  Allez Sport hits it, Trek Domane AL 5. Liv Avail AR 1 is just a bit over.  In the 'road race' category, Trek Emonda AL, Cannondale CAAD13, Allez Sprint are all in the $2100-2500 range.

For anyone new to the sport, a good relationship with a bike shop is really important.  That for everything from small tweaks--changing stems, advice on swapping saddles, etc, to getting work on the bike done.  If they dread going to a shop, riding could get harder.  

@PatrickGrehan, these days, the 'uprading as one goes along' practices we started out with seems to have fallen by the wayside, especially at the lower price points (you and I started out when this could be easily done; now, it's pretty much reserved for the higher price points).  So much of the bike is part of a 'system' that it can be hard to do.  Imagine starting with a Shimano Claris 8-speed group with cable-actuated brakes.  Almost any upgrade, save possibly getting a hydraulic/cable brake caliper, will entail new shifters, derailleurs, and brakes.  It's gotten marginally easier now that Shimano created the CUES group, but only marginally.  If you have cable-actuated shifting 105, it's hard to get upgrades unless you're buying new old stock.  

I always tell people to spend more than they think they want to initially spend , because they WILL FALL IN LOVE with race bikes and the more you spend now the later it will be before you end up buying a new slicker model

I should add a few things to that long post.

1. The quadumvirate (specialized, trek, giant, cannondale) is hard to get away from.  There used to be more "value" brands, where you weren't paying for the name, but most were either going away or killed by the pandemic.  Fuji is one of the few exceptions.  Fuji's SL-A fits the above description.

2. Accessories should be budgeted in as well.  I put the minimum as: bottle cage, bottle, helmet, shoes, pedals, on-board repair kit, floor pump for home.  Just that starting point, and those things probably set someone back a minimum of $450.  

JP you make a good point - accessories can be a big "sticker shock" for people coming into this cold. The absolute basics I recommend to non-bike friends are safety category things like helmet and lights - bike chain/lock for utility uses. The "should have" list includes bottle cage, flat kit and pump. The "makes life easier" column is a proper bottle, floor pump and a multitool. For people who are lookAfter that it's all gravy.

I'm always pleasantly amazed that non-bike coworkers and acquaintances do their charity rides, first triathlons, etc. on Walmart specials with cheap plastic pedals and sneakers and in "athletic" clothes. I have one friend who does centuries and guided bike tours on an entry level hybrid with flat bars, sneakers and a bog basic 3x7 Shimano groupset. They all have a great time and nearly all continue to ride without feeling the need to upgrade the bike, but most tend to upgrade to stuff that "makes life easier" - aka floor pumps. 

Also every non-bike person who has asked me for advice gives me a budget of $500 or under. I WISH someone gave me a hypothetical budget of $2k!

edit: The single person who gave me a bigger budget was the one who wanted a Brompton. I pointed them to RedBeard and as far as I know she is still zipping around the city on one.

Okay, what's the consensus on silver finishing kit - bars, stems and seatposts - on modern bikes? As far as I can tell very few companies make them for modern bike dimensions especially handlebars (Ritchey, Nitto, Velo Orange) and they all have different finishes - high polish, satin, milky, pearlized, etc. - so it's hit or miss to mix and match different brands.

Also I'm kind of obsessed with this:

https://velo-orange.com/products/vo-tall-stack-threadless-stem-31-8-rise?variant=50644627015

I think Zipp does their service course stuff in a matte silver. It looks pretty spiffy and seems reasonably priced for aluminum kit.

If you can put together a cohesive set, it looks super sharp.

Silver, particularly if it's polished, and match stem/bar/post, it can look great.

I'm right at the end of my new bike build and faced with the final boss of home mechanic-dom: hydraulic brakes. I was considering doing this on my own instead of dumping the project at a shop, but I'd like it done properly the first time since, you know, this is braking which is sorta important.

Anyway with officially 2 bikes with hydraulic brakes now, I should prob get proper tools for future servicing. Both systems use different fluids (Shimano mineral, SRAM DOT 5.1) so will need separate bleed kits apparently, but for you DIYers, what is your toolset or non-standard tips/tricks to service hydraulic systems at home?