Back on the chain gang…
For those of us not in a position to afford entry to the exclusive and rarefied echelons of the Rohloff hub geared bicycle owners club, the gearing of bicycles is a complex and fiddly affair, requiring patience and much cleaning and fettling in these trying winter months.
The derailleur is our weapon of choice, a system born out of necessity once single speed bicycles became restrictive many moons ago. And from its early 20th century beginnings as a crude method of forcing a rotating chain from one cog to another cog, each geared to a slightly different ratio, it has in reality not evolved that much. We still have the same mechanical solution, and whilst today’s kit might be engineered to finer tolerances and using more exactly machined moving parts, the basic bits are still the same. Revolution, in the metaphorical rather than strictly physical sense, has not really occurred again when it comes to gear changing on road bikes.
Partly due to the budget I am on, my road steed employs Shimano mechanisms. I am not one of those obsessives who waves an Italian flag and demands Campagnolo kit as a basic right. It has often been said, when comparing the two giants of the groupset world, that one makes components that work beautifully, while the other makes beautiful components that work. And the one I chose also makes fishing reels. Go figure.
So, where are we going with all of this? Well, my cycle sports the Shimano 105 groupset. This is the workhorse of the ‘serious’ Shimano range – the kit fitted to most real world bikes. It is solid, reliable, lasts for ages, and is, well, a bit boring. Whereas the super-desirable Dura-Ace has recently had a makeover with the 7900 version, and the space-age Di2 electronic version, and the slightly less desirable Ultegra now wears new carbon and titanium clothes as well, poor 105 has, Cinderella-like, been shut out in the cold.
The trusty 105
Until now, that is. For it seems that, like its older sisters, 105 has now been given a new outfit for 2010. For the 5700 version has been announced today, and apparently it has inherited some of the genes that splash around in the high-end Shimano pool. It seems that compatibility, to an extent determined no doubt by marketing people as opposed to engineers, has been built in such that the levers are in effect the same as the two more expensive ranges, albeit made from aluminum as opposed to carbon.
The chainset features hollow cranks, but lacks the hollow chainset found on the higher end versions. It also lacks the gorgeous Dura-Ace (and now Ultegra) visual style, where the chainset-side crank looks as if it is part of the chainring. But hey, let’s cut it some slack here!
My 105 brakes calipers are superb – the new version has improved pads (I replaced mine with Koolstops anyway), and in the front and rear mech department, Shimano claims to have significantly improved the up-and-down shifting abilities in terms of both speed and smoothness.
The UK distributor says that the new groupset will be on the market May/June time and will be priced lower against the two higher end versions. So we can look forward to the ‘cooking’ road bike for the second half of 2010 having a whole new level of refinement available to it. But it’s interesting to see how many bikes, such as the Orbea Aqua 2010, are coming with full Ultegra grouppos at a £1400-ish price point, and with this kind of competition and the ‘democratisation of luxury’ as Volkswagen once put it, one wonders how desirable it is possible to make the 105 kit.
a couple of tweaks
The orbea has had a fairly quiet time for the last fortnight as I have been hammering the roads in a diesel-powered machine instead to Scotland and back. However it has been fettled in two significant ways – new brake calipers/pads and a new saddle.
The brakes were cheap chinese jobs, and as the cables were rusting/fraying a bit after winter use, and the pads wearing down, I took the plunge and got a heftily reduced pair of 105 calipers from chain reaction’s sale pages. Fitting them was a relative breeze – the ubiquitous 4 and 5 allen keys were in use for this.
the old brakes
After some initial tweaking, the new brakes have been incredible. The strength, modulation and sheer stopping power (I inserted a set of koolstop black pads as well) have been notable. They also have the benefit of looking really cool. I have replaced the cables with stainless steel ones.
new 105's
Then, I also invested in a replacement saddle – the logic being that this is the key contact point, and on longer rides recently the standard-fit selle italia x2 saddle has been uncomfortable, I tend to get a dead right foot which I attribute to circulation problems caused by the sit position on the saddle. I visited Thomas’ in Ipswich and used their bontrager sit analyser, which is basically a gel filled pad that you sit on and the sit bones are measured. I shaped up as a medium (never having given birth….) and plumped for a specialized alias saddle, which is firm and also open in the middle, so a test ride is now needed to see how she performs.
the new seat
the old saddle, also much heavier than the new one which has a carbon hull and titanium rails, has been assigned to the garage for emergencies only.
paulmor.wordpress.com 