Saracen Race Elite - back in the saddle

[gmjgreg7]

The rear wheel on my bike is now on its last legs, I switched the tyre and it has made some serious objections, the rim is super wobbly now and I've had to be very generous with brake adjustment

I spotted this shop on eBay and wondered if anyone had an experience of them or advice on alternatives?

Rear wheel:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/26-ALLOY-REAR ... 51af2c2f21

Tyres:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-PAIR-26-X1- ... 35c7c4b77c

Thoughts?

-Greg

 

[gmjgreg7]

Turns out the rim was a bit worse than I thought, it gave up rather impressively on the commute home (I'd got about 100 meters).


Untitled by Greg & Kathy Jones' Wedding, on Flickr

Fortunately I wasn't too far from a bike shop so a managed to get it replaced and cycle home after.

Just tyres to get now!

 

[coomber]

They are good slicks

 

[gmjgreg7]

They are good slicks

Thanks for that, pair winging their way in my direction now

 

[gmjgreg7]

Quick update, the new tyres landed last week and they're on the bike and have had their first outing! Unfortunately they didn't make any obvious difference to my commute time, but hey I needed some new tyres anyway and they seem like they'll do the job.

I made a bit of an effort and gave the frame and drivetrain a decent clean, the frame looks pretty sparkly now and the drive is really quiet too. Especially following its 'tune-up'.



Also has anyone got knowledge on tuning the Shimano Deore LX derailleur? I'm ashamed to say that despite owning the bike for over 20 years I'd never messed with the tuning until last week when I got it home after having the rear wheel replaced. I tried to tune it by shifting into the smallest cog, lining up the derailleur using the H adjuster screw and then clicking once on the shifter before starting to fiddle with the cable tension on the back of the derailleur... to my surprise (after have done exactly the same thing to tune up my 2009 Specialized HardRock Sport) reducing the cable tension was not moving the derailleur towards the larger cog but away from it back on to the smallest. After some fiddling I got something resembling a cog per shift but it was fairly useless. The next day I spoke to a mate who suggested starting in the largest cog instead and this worked a treat, I now have nice smooth changes but was wondering if anyone could clarify if this is correct and if there is a reason for the difference between the Saracen and Specialized? Is it down to the tension adjuster being at the shifter end on the SRAM setup on my Specialized rather than the derailleur of the Shimano setup on my Saracen? Or have things just moved on in the 20 years between the bikes?

 

[shinobi]

Hi mate
Looks like an m570 lx mech which is " rapid rise " ie it is sprung the opposite way to a normal mech .
Paul.

 

[gmjgreg7]

Hi mate
Looks like an m570 lx mech which is " rapid rise " ie it is sprung the opposite way to a normal mech .
Paul.

Cheers for that Paul, so I guess following my mate's advice was the way to go

 

[shinobi]

Hi mate
Looks like an m570 lx mech which is " rapid rise " ie it is sprung the opposite way to a normal mech .
Paul.

Cheers for that Paul, so I guess following my mate's advice was the way to go

I dont know much about it tbh , there never seems to be much love for it but i have never used it myself , i think it first appeared on one of the XTR groups , M953 maybe ?
i dont know if the shifters are ment to be specific to rapid rise or not , but hey if it works then its all good
Cheers Paul

 

[gmjgreg7]

Ace. Good speed.

Not sure how much you want to spend on the bike, but an eventual upgrade to the cranks would save a massive amount of weight. Those press steel altus jobs you have at the moment weight ten metric tonne!

Wondered if you had any recommendations on a suitable set of replacement cranks... was wondering about taking it as an opportunity to switch to SPDs too?

 

[coomber]

Ace. Good speed.

Not sure how much you want to spend on the bike, but an eventual upgrade to the cranks would save a massive amount of weight. Those press steel altus jobs you have at the moment weight ten metric tonne!

Wondered if you had any recommendations on a suitable set of replacement cranks... was wondering about taking it as an opportunity to switch to SPDs too?

Anything with replaceable rings. I would look at DX or early LX for the most value for money. The current ones on your chainset have steel rings that will survive the apocalypse but weight a lot.

Put a wanted ad up here, someone will have something.

SPDs aren't really my forte, having only ever used flats, so hard for me to say. But if you are making one change might as well make two so why not. I might give it a go one day too!