Dawes Ultra Galaxy

[Crackle]

I also note that Dawes give their sizes as 49, 52, 55 whereas dealers give 52,55,60.

As I too am 5' 7" I had assumed the sizing was the same through the range i.e. my 51cm Dawes Audax would be close to the 52cm Ultra but from what you are saying Rich p it would appear not.

Plax, I've always used that guide of elbow against saddle. On mine I can just reach the bars and that works for me but it doesn't work for everyone. A few people, Fab Foodie for instance, uses a lay back seatpost as he has a longer back and hence more reach. I'm not sure about reversing the seatpost, I guess with the more relaxed geometry of the Ultra it might work if your knee is still in the right place on the pedalstroke and you 'feel' right.

Difficult to advise from a distance, especially if you are not used to riding drop bar bikes. At first it may well feel stretched but then as you get used to it, it will feel more natural. Do you remember Punky posting recently that her bike suddenly felt too small. She ended up dropping her bars and trying bar ends to stretch herself a bit.

Don't ride it. Evans have a returns policy. Sit down coldly and methodically and go through all the bike measurement setup to make sure it fits from the theoretical perspective. If it does, good, you can re-consider the comfort aspects and decide coldly if it 'feels' right. Exclude the feeling strange bit. If it doesn't, either get yourself to somewhere you can test ride one just to be certain or return it straight away. If you have any doubts, this is the time to dispel them, don't persevere with the bike if it isn't right. This might cause you some short term grief but better that than blowing your money on a bike that isn't quite right. Having said all that it might be fine, you just have to sit back and tick everything off the check list first.

I hope that helps, I've not really come down one way or the other and it is quite normal to get what the marketeers call 'post purchase dissonance', that's why it's important to go through it logically.

 

[Chris James]

Sadly, I just bought the bike on the assumption of the sizing guide.
I've just flicked through Cyclecraft and it says you should be able to put your elbow at the end of the saddle and just about touch the handlebars with the tips of your fingers. Unfortunately I fall short of this by nearly an inch.

In my opinion this is a load of guff for drop handlebar bikes. I have never had a bike where I was able, or would want, to do this.

Standard setup as far as I am concerned is nose of saddle to bars being arms length plus the width of four fingers. Or simply sitting on the bike and if the front hub is obscured by the bars.

BUT the critical issue is saddle position. You should not set your saddle for reach. Instead you set it up for correct postion relative to the pedals. A well known guide for this is that, with the cranks horizontal the bony top of your shin just below your knee cap should be vertically above your front pedal spindle.

 

[HJ]

Hope you are going to keep it that clean...

 

[Plax]

Well I've just taken it out for a proper cycle. The way I have it set up right now I'm quite comfortable with it. The bars are back to being horizontal and the seat post is the right way round! I've put the saddle ever so slightly tilting downwards as it was darned uncomfortable otherwise. I think it is in the correct position relative to the pedals. I couldn't find anything to make a plumb line with so I improvised with a bamboo stick.

As for saddle height, it says in the book that "The usual rule for adjustment is to set the saddle height so that the heel of your foot can rest on the pedal with your leg fully stretched". My saddle is set slightly lower than this recommendation, mainly so I could get used to it, might raise it up a fraction shortly.

I managed to get to 37.5 mph on the hill (I have "no fear" according to a climbing colleague the first time I went climbing as I was up the wall without batting an eye. Other people might think I'm just silly ). Going downhill I used the drops. On the straights I found I was using the horizontal bar like I do on the hybrid, or hanging over the hoods. I can pull the brakes and change gears fine on the hoods which seems to be my preferential position, unless I'm going downhill, then I feel more in control on the drops.

All in all I think I'll be okay, it just felt unnatural to begin with being stretched out. I'm getting the hang of it now.

The gears need adjusting though - it won't go into the lowest cog on the front mech. What do I fiddle with to remedy this? I've had a fiddle with the barrel adjustor at the rear mech with not much luck. There looks like there are two others though that go along the down tube - what are these and can I fiddle with them?

 

[Crackle]

Phew!

 

[Plax]

Phew!

Yes, that's what I thought

 

[Chris James]

Re your gears, either your low setting screw is wrong (so that the derailleur is prevented from moving near enough to the wheel) or your indexing is out.

IIRC, the rear derailleur goes lower with increased cable tension (you can check this by pulling the cable as it goes next to the down tube and seeing if the derailleur moves towards the wheel.

Put your bike in the lowest gear it will achieve and pull the cable. If the derailleur moves towards the wheel then it is not hitting the low stop. This means it is your indexing that is out.

If the indexing is out then the barrel adjuster on the derailleur simply tightens or loosens the cable. Screwing the adjuster out will tighten the cable and move the derailleur nearer to the lower gear.

Basically, once you have checked the stops are okay then just do a bit of trial and error and you should get there.

This probably explains it a bit clearer than me!!

http://bicycletutor.com/adjust-rear-derailleur/

 

[Plax]

Cheers for that. The rear derailleur is spot on. It's the front mech I'm having problems with. There is a cable from the gear/brake lever that runs along the down tube to the front mech. I've had a play with this and it still isn't brilliant, but it is slightly better than it was. It is quite often refusing to go onto the lowest (smallest) cog at the front. I've also noticed that in certain gears the chain rattles on the front mech. Is this the low/high limit stops that need looking at?

Re your gears, either your low setting screw is wrong (so that the derailleur is prevented from moving near enough to the wheel) or your indexing is out.

IIRC, the rear derailleur goes lower with increased cable tension (you can check this by pulling the cable as it goes next to the down tube and seeing if the derailleur moves towards the wheel.

Put your bike in the lowest gear it will achieve and pull the cable. If the derailleur moves towards the wheel then it is not hitting the low stop. This means it is your indexing that is out.

If the indexing is out then the barrel adjuster on the derailleur simply tightens or loosens the cable. Screwing the adjuster out will tighten the cable and move the derailleur nearer to the lower gear.

Basically, once you have checked the stops are okay then just do a bit of trial and error and you should get there.

This probably explains it a bit clearer than me!!

http://bicycletutor.com/adjust-rear-derailleur/

 

[Crackle]

Cheers for that. The rear derailleur is spot on. It's the front mech I'm having problems with. There is a cable from the gear/brake lever that runs along the down tube to the front mech. I've had a play with this and it still isn't brilliant, but it is slightly better than it was. It is quite often refusing to go onto the lowest (smallest) cog at the front. I've also noticed that in certain gears the chain rattles on the front mech. Is this the low/high limit stops that need looking at?

Did you get the Shimano bumf with the bike, including the front mech. If so it's quite good at diagnosing problems.

For trouble shifting to low cog, loosen the low adjustment screw (probably the bottom one of the two screws). For rubbing on the front mech inner plate, tighten the barrel adjuster two turns - It's all in the Shimano leaflet.

 

[Chris James]

It's basically the same method for the front mech as decribed above. The front mech drops to the smaller chain ring by releasing tension. If the cable is totally slack and it still won't go into bottom gear then the stop is wrong.

The other possibility is that that the barrel adjuster at the cable stops at the top left of your down tube needs to be slackened off a bit as the cable has too much tension for the derialleur to hit the limit screw.

You should have had instructions with your bike - the Shimano ones are very good at telling you how to set up a front changer. They are also available via the Shimano website.

105 brake levers have a trim function - it might sound a daft question but are you absolutely sure that you have changed rings and not just trimmed (it requires a firm click on not just a slight nudge)?

When changing to middle ring from the small ring it automatically puts the changer to the 'high' side of the middle ring. Just nudging the down shift paddle may just trim the mech to the 'low' side of the middle ring, rather than right down to the small ring.

This might be your problem if it only 'quite often' as opposed to always refuses to go to the small chain ring. Sorry if this sounds unclear, not sure how to put it better!

Using the trim function will remove any rattle you get from the chain on the front derailleur.

 

[Chris James]

Did you get the Shimano bumf with the bike, including the front mech. If so it's quite good at diagnosing problems.

Snap!

 

[Plax]

I have got all the bumf and I shall have a read of it.
Yes, I have worked out about the trim bit (in between accidentally pulling the brake when trying to change gear etc!). I'm deffo making sure it clicks properly now.
It seems to only go to the smallest cog if I'm going fast in the largest/top cog and shift down really quickly. Of course that's a sod as then it feels like I'm pedalling in thin air. Is this a case of cable tension being too tight on the down tube one? It does feel quite tight in comparison to the cable on the other side of the down tube.

 

[Plax]

Well, I kind of thought I had it all sorted last night. I adjusted the H & L limit screws on the front mech. The chain then happily shifted from the middle chain ring to the bottom/lowest chain ring. This morning however on the commute in, it didn't work. It wouldn't go from the middle to the bottom/lowest chainring so I had to shift into the highest chainring and quickly shift it down to the lowest.

We'll see how it goes on the way home - lot more steeper hills to contend with.

More fiddling is obviously required.

 

[simonali]

With regards to the spec, manufacturers will always have a little clause in the small print stating that specs may change, but those bits look the same as described. Deore XT is XT and the FD-4403 is a.k.a. an '07 Tiagra derailleur. The 760 XT is also '07 spec, as the '08 is now 770.

 

[Plax]

Well, I took the bike to the LBS in the end as I couldn't get the front mech sorted myself. Turns out it was the mudguard restricting the mech from moving back enough when it was put in the smallest cog. He says he has found this a lot with these types of bikes as the mudguards tend to be too wide. He has kind of moved the mudguard over to the otherside more, giving enough space for the mech to move. You can't notice it unless you really look. Now everything is working fine.
Also got him to look at the brakes and he has adjusted these better now.

So overall impressions of this bike is good. The saddle isn't as bad as I thought it would be, I did nearly 23 miles today in relative comfort (longest ride on it so far).
I do find though that there is a lot more pressure put on the wrists now. Never noticed it on the hybrid, I suppose it is because the drops are a lot lower so the positioning is different. I never really appreciated the padded bits on my short fingered gloves until today.

The panniers are great. It does make the bike heavy to lift when you're trying to get it out of the house but you don't notice the extra weight when you're cycling. No doubt I'm going to carry around more cr*p than I need now though. I mean today one pannier had all my waterproofs, gloves (yes I really did carry around 2 other sets of gloves!), skull cap, repair kit & tools etc. The other one had my parents anniversary present, a bottle of wine and my aunts birthday present. Carried this weight well. The bottle of wine would have been really heavy after a while in the rucksack.

As for the gears, well I do think that is is a lot easier to pedal in the highest gear than on my Hybrid, and don't think it goes as fast on the flat as the hybrid even though it has 3 more gears (27 as opposed to 24). Although having said that I did get home in around 13 minutes less than I normally do on the Hybrid. It is so much easier on the hills, which is where I have probably gained time (plus it wasn't raining or blowing a gale). The chainset on both the Galaxy & the Hybrid is 48/38/28. It is probably my imagination. The Galaxy however is much easier to maintain a consistent speed (I was averaging 21-22 mph on the flat bits). You can get a really good candence going and maintain it with ease, whereas on the Hybrid it does feel like harder work pedalling. At the end of the day the Galaxy is built for distance rather than speed. I'll not be doing any time trials on it that's for sure!

I keep meaning to take more pictures of it, but never have got round to it yet. With the accessories on it and the panniers, it really does look the business now.