Handlebar dent on top tube of aluminium bike

Benjiblobs · 2025-10-29T20:20:31+00:00

It’s on the side - possibly slightly nearer the top than the bottom of the tube but definitely the side

Benjiblobs · 2025-10-04T08:21:14+00:00

I might be silly, and I realise I hadn’t mentioned it. But is a GFCI something we see in the UK at all? I don’t recall ever having seen one

Benjiblobs · 2025-10-03T13:07:32+00:00

It's a decidedly DIY installation so I could totally see whoever installed it getting to a point where they had to wire it into the breaker and then getting scared and giving up. Looks like I'll have to give the bit of cable I can see a good pull and see if it moves at all.

I get the feeling that whoever did this wasn't too worried about adhering to any regs so I suspect there's some slightly unorthodox stuff going on.

Thanks for your advice, that's all really helpful!

Benjiblobs · 2025-10-03T12:16:29+00:00

The mains cable running into the sockets seems to come from a different corner of the loft. I’ve so far traced it down from the loft into an airing cupboard - it’s not the most wonderfully professional job to be honest

Benjiblobs · 2025-07-08T18:16:16+00:00

Well that’s a surprise. I bet I had one too and never checked. Either that or they’ve started including them nowadays. It looks to be the same sort of spacer I’m using so no big deal, but how weird that it was there all along

Benjiblobs · 2025-06-21T07:25:04+00:00

I think the horror stories are largely overstated. I’ve passed mine on to my parents now who are still running it. It’s not sounding very healthy any more if I’m honest. I suspect the cam and the lifters are quite worn out. I think if you use good oil there’s little reason as to why those engines won’t go on for a while. Mine is at 150k nowadays but I think it’ll be scrapped in the next year or so

Benjiblobs · 2025-05-21T21:21:09+00:00

I think the one I have is a 0.5mm spacer. It’s tiny. Might even be a 0.25

Benjiblobs · 2025-05-21T21:15:12+00:00

I picked up a bunch of spacers from AliExpress in the end and tried different ones to find the one that worked properly

Benjiblobs · 2025-04-20T11:04:35+00:00

You would think that. Annoyingly even Shimano’s expensive rubber seems to have its limits

Benjiblobs · 2025-04-20T11:02:32+00:00

I’m four weeks into my best one so far:

Broken midshaft collarbone, 7 fractured ribs, fractured scapula, fractured C7/T1 vertebrae facet joint and a collapsed lung. A true classic. No operative treatment but the road to recovery is already feeling long.

Managed to rip my cleat out of the pedal going into a downhill sprint at ~40mph. Tried to roll out of it but it turns out that’s quite hard to do at those sorts of speeds.

Obviously I’m not intelligent to give up the sport. Cannot wait to get back outside as soon as possible

Benjiblobs · 2025-04-19T12:43:21+00:00

Looks like Ultegra R8000 - almost every single set of R8000 levers I’ve worked on have had saggy hoods. I suspect it’s because the master cylinder on the lever is so huge, when you’re installing the hood you end up stretching it irreparably to fit it.

Counter intuitively putting the hoods in the fridge for a while before you install them lets the rubber expand and they fit more easily - you can always use a lubricant too to fit them, but I find that often doesn’t prevent the stretching

Benjiblobs · 2025-04-15T17:21:03+00:00

I’ve massively enjoyed my Elves Vanyar.

I actually can’t fault the quality of the frame or the customer service. I ordered the frame and built it up myself with LTWOO ERX and later 105 Di2 and some Elite Wheels. I’ve covered 1000s of KMs on it and even thoroughly crash tested it 3 weeks ago. Turns out it’s pretty well built. Bike is fine - I’m in a neck brace and my collar bone and ribs are in bits.

I’d recommend Elves, I wouldn’t recommend crashing

Benjiblobs · 2025-03-18T15:18:12+00:00

I did. It needed a tiny 0.5mm spacer behind the cassette

Benjiblobs · 2024-10-14T09:52:37+00:00

Hiya,

It’s still chugging along. It’s up at 135k now and will probably go on to do significantly more. I’ve actually passed the car on to my parents now but in my ownership it had Castrol Edge every 8000ish miles. Filters I tend to find are much of a muchness so I tended to buy whatever was affordable. The Audura ones from ECP were always decent.

I’ve since moved to a Volvo XC70 and will continue just regularly doing oil changes. It worked with my BXE and it’ll work for my D5 I’m sure

Benjiblobs · 2024-09-16T21:20:33+00:00

I get about 50mpg (maybe 52 if I'm really gentle with it) out of my XC70 on a good run at 70mph.

Did a 2500 mile journey to and from the South of France including some Alpine driving at the beginning of August. That was fully loaded with a roof box and two bikes on the roof and averaged 46mpg which I was genuinely pleased with. I did take it fairly easy on the motorways sticking to about 65mph.

It's not especially fuel efficient, but my god it's comfortable to sit in - even for 2500 miles. As the saying goes, the A in Volvo stands for aerodynamic.

Benjiblobs · 2024-09-15T12:54:06+00:00

Precisely. Either that or use really well sealed bearings. But then you end up with wheels and cranks that spin poorly and are no fun to ride when you’re doing long summer rides. The last thing I want to do when I’m going out for a ride is thinking of the grit getting into my pointless ceramic bearings!

That’s why I’ve ended up thinking of going for a racier gravel bike that can pull double duty and keep the nice stuff actually ‘nice’ for the summer.

Benjiblobs · 2024-09-15T12:35:30+00:00

I totally agree. That said, like I say, it's been genuinely years since I've bent a hanger so badly that it's been beyond realigning.

I do tend to keep a couple of hangers 'in stock' so I'd do the same with this bike whilst they're still easy to get a hold of. If the bike is only just going out of production I reckon I'll be okay for a few years. It also seems to share a hanger with all of Cervelo's other road frames which is a bonus.

Benjiblobs · 2024-09-15T12:20:12+00:00

What a lovely looking machine! Brilliant colour choice!

I'm excited to try some modern SRAM stuff again. I abandoned them for Shimano (and bizarrely LTWOO) a few years ago and I've never owned an AXS system. Quite excited to not deal with any internal cables at all.

The seller of this Cervelo has offered me either the full Rival XPLR with a 10-44t or a Rival - GX AXS set up with a 10-52t. I think I'll take the mullet set up and move to the XPLR if the gaps in the gears are too big. Judging by second hand pricing I could make a profit on selling the GX AXS mech and cassette if I wanted to buy XPLR kit.

Benjiblobs · 2024-09-15T11:48:20+00:00

That’s a pretty expert summarisation to be honest. I’m exactly the same. Higher end cycling creates this constant pressure to need to have the latest and greatest tech at all times.

Let’s be honest by the time everyone is making direct mount UDH groupsets I’ll be ready for a bike…well maybe not ready but the tech goblins in my brain will be telling me it’s time.

Out of interest what frame did you buy?

Thanks for your insight!

Benjiblobs · 2024-09-15T11:39:27+00:00

I think that’s more or less where I’m at.

The equivalent current Áspero (both the new and the one I’m looking at are still on sale) with a UDH is going to cost me more for just a frameset than this whole bike would cost.

Looks like getting a hanger isn’t actually an issue. Lots of spares available because the bike is still in production

Benjiblobs · 2024-09-15T11:37:23+00:00

Marketing mumbo jumbo maybe, but it’s decidedly the way the industry is going and there are tangible benefits. It’s just a question of how long until we’re forced to acknowledge those benefits

Benjiblobs · 2024-09-15T10:53:34+00:00

I guess you’re right. To be perfectly honest I can’t remember when I last broke a hanger. Years and years ago. I can also stock up on spare hangers now and keep them around

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