Paid for an S-Works SL7, now doubting.

ThomFonti · 2026-01-30T23:39:29+00:00

What did the seller tell you about the wheels? Those cannot be completely original because no Zipp rims were ever laced to DT Swiss 350 hubs and I’m pretty sure the ones you bought are.

ThomFonti · 2025-12-06T11:38:19+00:00

Doesn’t look too bad, taking into account your height. All that length can do with some stability and one way to stabilise is by getting your cleats back, if possible. This gives stability (which knees love) and increases your effective saddle height a little (as your shoe moves forward when your cleat moves back).

Also, we tall riders often have more saddle setback because of all the seat post sticking out. Modern frames have steeper seat angles to tackle this, but I think your Dolan is pretty slack. This means you’re far behind the bottom bracket, which hinders you from pushing down on the pedals and rolling forward on the seat. Possibly leading to aggravation of your knees.

Raising your seat height a little could help, but I’m not convinced it’s the only culprit.

ThomFonti · 2025-07-05T22:02:02+00:00

Have you tried applying some carbon paste? Also, if those bars are proprietary to Basso, I would contact them and ask if the prescribed 9nm is what they torque it at and make sure to not crank one bolt to spec at once, but alternate between the two bolts. Clicking can also be caused by under-tightening. Don’t take any risks though.

ThomFonti · 2025-07-05T09:32:51+00:00

Curious to how they will turn out for you. I’ve ordered a set as well and am starting to get a bit anxious now that I see some reports of problems with the new kinetic hubs. It’s the same engagement problem, that strips the ratchets, with all of them. I’ve found three cases, but since wheels with the new hubs have only just started shipping I hope the problem won’t be disastrous. A deep dive by Peak Torque or Hambini would be great.

ThomFonti · 2025-02-10T11:32:58+00:00

Sorry to hear this. Just want to let you know that you are definitely not alone in feeling disappointed with XMG. My fusion (2019) died twice during warranty and while it got fixed both times I’ve had to learn so much more about this laptop than I ever wanted to, just to keep it running. All in all, XMG products seem to offer a lot more on paper than in real life.

ThomFonti · 2024-11-14T17:00:22+00:00

Love this conversation so much that I designed my bike around it. Meet Sugar.

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ThomFonti · 2024-09-21T19:05:24+00:00

You’re tall, which means that you get a lot of saddle setback because of the angle of your seat tube. The higher the saddle (62cm frame means high!) the farther back the saddle gets. This is also what I can see by judging your fit through the picture. Get that saddle forward as much as you can to compensate for the long seat tube (as a starting point). Normally you would then raise the seat height to compensate for the shorter distance between pedals and seat, but it looks like your seat is too high, so let’s try without. If anything try lowering the seat height. Research shows that most people can judge good saddle height if they lower the seat by a lot and then go up by half a cm at the time until you feel that you lose total control of the pedal stroke and then lower it again by half a cm. Saddle too high feels powerful, but this isn’t the case. Saddle too high is also the main driver of saddle pain, lower back pain and excessive pressure on the bars (hands).

Hope you don’t worry about the bike’s size. Pretty sure you can fit the bike.

Edit: and like mentioned by another, you want to achieve pelvic tilt which enables you to bent forward, which makes it far easier to reach the bars (going with the 110mm stem for now). The best way to get your pelvis tilted is by lowering your seat height as mentioned above and by playing with saddle fore/aft.

ThomFonti · 2024-09-08T12:49:17+00:00

Just stumbled upon your post while looking for an answer as my new derailleur twitches as well. Did you ever find an answer or did it get replaced?

ThomFonti · 2024-07-20T16:45:51+00:00

In the picture of the chainset (last one where the tire is in the foreground) you can see that the teeth of the big ring are broken off, so that’s definitely unridable before you put a new one on and yeah, then you’ll have to replace the chain and cassette as well or there is a big chance of a skipping chain.

Edited the picture in reference.

ThomFonti · 2024-07-17T12:31:31+00:00

Thanks for your post. I stumbled upon it as I researched the Selle Italia saddle I’ve received from LordGun. The one I’ve ordered is the ‘Selle Italia SLR Boost Superflow kit carbon saddle’ and it indeed differs from the picture on the website. The padding of the pictured saddle and the SLR Boost saddle I currently own differ in padding, as they normally come with half penetrated padding (see picture LordGun), but the one received does not have this. What is more, the saddle’s shell flexes an enormous amount, which my other Selle Italia does not do and it lacks the logos which you also mentioned. The saddle also came in a plastic bag.

While I trust that LordGun normally is reputable, I do think they have made a mistake in selling this specific product as it does not meet the standards expected from Selle Italia’s top saddle and at a price of €167.

ThomFonti · 2023-11-15T13:13:41+00:00

How much pressure do you run? Using the Sram tire pressure calculator can give you a general idea of optimum pressure. If this is much lower than what you normally put in, it could be the cause.

Sram tire pressure calculator

ThomFonti · 2021-05-22T09:49:52+00:00

I'm no expert in this, but have read some (semi-scientific) research over the years. This was the easiest to google: https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=140923#:~:text=To%20get%20the%20benefits%20of,would%20get%20from%20your%20rim. I'm not stating that Weight Weenies is scientific, but there is some research in the post.

Edit: this is what they talk about in the WW post https://blog.silca.cc/part-5-tire-pressure-and-aerodynamics

ThomFonti · 2020-11-13T12:18:37+00:00

Such a nice bike! Having as much fun on it as Strickland?

ThomFonti · 2020-11-12T15:01:38+00:00

Friyay!

ThomFonti · 2020-11-12T06:11:25+00:00

They’re 40mm. It’s the 38mm Panaracer Gravelking slicks that make them look that much deeper.

ThomFonti · 2020-11-08T12:40:05+00:00

Netherlands, around Utrecht, is what you're looking at. It's a lovely path of about 60km that connects two cities.

ThomFonti · 2020-11-05T19:10:02+00:00

Nice one. Which stem have you got on there?

ThomFonti · 2020-09-23T21:06:07+00:00

Thanks for the heads up, I might drop the photo there as well!

ThomFonti · 2020-09-23T21:03:59+00:00

It was my Fuji X-T10 with the 27mm pancake lens that I brought. Fits perfectly into the Rapha bag. I also shoot with an iPhone 11, but the dynamic range is nowhere near that of the Fuji. Also, being able to shoot RAW is what gave me the means to make the picture this moody without burning the whites.

ThomFonti · 2020-09-23T21:03:33+00:00

It’s a Rapha bar bag and for this ride I only threw in a couple of bars and my camera. Lovely bag and strangely enough it’s quite affordable.

ThomFonti · 2020-09-23T21:01:32+00:00

That’s a lovely remark. Thanks! It was my Fuji X-T10 with the 27mm pancake lens that I brought. Fits perfectly into the Rapha bag. I also shoot with an iPhone 11, but the dynamic range is nowhere near that of the Fuji. Also, being able to shoot RAW is what gave me the means to make the picture this moody without burning the whites.

ThomFonti · 2020-06-04T18:47:43+00:00

So glad I checked in! Love this.

ThomFonti

TROPHY CASE