Training Bike Upgrades
I talked to my bike mechanic about some improvements for my training bike. It is a Trek 2000, and has served me well as my race bike for two seasons.
It currently has PowerCranks, which provide a challenging workout. More on that when I actually start riding on them again! For now let's just say it is difficult for me to maintain speed on the PC's. Riding with them is something I do on my own, as it provides a quality workout, but makes me slow.
One of my goals is to ride with T2 every week. This would be really hard on the PC's, so I was in a bit of a dilemma with what to do. Switching them involves changing out the bottom bracket, which is a little bit out of my mechanical skills. If I could do it only changing the cranks themselves - that would be much easier. I'd rather not buy another whole bike for this! My race bike wouldn't be the best choice for winter rides, as I can't add fenders to it. Plus, I want a bike I can use on a trainer, use on rainy days, etc. My training bike would be perfect, with a few improvements - for example, the components are currently a mix of Tiagra and 105, and I have been meaning to upgrade everything except the headset to Ultegra.
So I ran an idea by my mechanic. If I were to upgrade to Ultegra, including an Ultegra triple chainring, and bought an extra Ultegra triple chainring for the PC's, would that make it so I just could switch by just changing cranks? That just involves an 8mm hex wrench, and with the extra triple chainring I wouldn't even need to spend the time moving them (that is easy but time consuming). I might even spring for extra pedals so I could just move the chainrings, cranks, and pedals as a unit (left and right) and thus switch around easily. I want the triple chainring because climbing hills on the PC's is really really hard and I want to have the small ring to fall back on.
I hope that works. I don't see why it wouldn't actually. If possible I'd want spacers inserted so the PC's and regular cranks are the same width (more specifically, the space between the chainrings the same) so the gears wouldn't need adjustment every time I did this. Or just need minimal adjustment.
Then, I could ride to work a few times a week, and take a hilly route home, all on PC's. For the weekend ride with T2, regular cranks. For sessions on the trainer, I would have the option of using PC's or regular cranks.
It currently has PowerCranks, which provide a challenging workout. More on that when I actually start riding on them again! For now let's just say it is difficult for me to maintain speed on the PC's. Riding with them is something I do on my own, as it provides a quality workout, but makes me slow.
One of my goals is to ride with T2 every week. This would be really hard on the PC's, so I was in a bit of a dilemma with what to do. Switching them involves changing out the bottom bracket, which is a little bit out of my mechanical skills. If I could do it only changing the cranks themselves - that would be much easier. I'd rather not buy another whole bike for this! My race bike wouldn't be the best choice for winter rides, as I can't add fenders to it. Plus, I want a bike I can use on a trainer, use on rainy days, etc. My training bike would be perfect, with a few improvements - for example, the components are currently a mix of Tiagra and 105, and I have been meaning to upgrade everything except the headset to Ultegra.
So I ran an idea by my mechanic. If I were to upgrade to Ultegra, including an Ultegra triple chainring, and bought an extra Ultegra triple chainring for the PC's, would that make it so I just could switch by just changing cranks? That just involves an 8mm hex wrench, and with the extra triple chainring I wouldn't even need to spend the time moving them (that is easy but time consuming). I might even spring for extra pedals so I could just move the chainrings, cranks, and pedals as a unit (left and right) and thus switch around easily. I want the triple chainring because climbing hills on the PC's is really really hard and I want to have the small ring to fall back on.
I hope that works. I don't see why it wouldn't actually. If possible I'd want spacers inserted so the PC's and regular cranks are the same width (more specifically, the space between the chainrings the same) so the gears wouldn't need adjustment every time I did this. Or just need minimal adjustment.
Then, I could ride to work a few times a week, and take a hilly route home, all on PC's. For the weekend ride with T2, regular cranks. For sessions on the trainer, I would have the option of using PC's or regular cranks.
posted by klbarrus at
2:07 AM
2 Comments:
Interesting idea. Man, you'll be kicking my butt big time if you ride with PCs on weekdays and do a long ride on the weekends! :)
By
Anonymous, at 11:36 PM
You are more than welcome to take a few spins on a PC bike. :)
By
klbarrus, at 12:41 AM
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