FSA Chain Rings

In this post - chain rings - I moaned about the cost of chain rings. This was in light of the fact that the 50T rings were worn badly on both the Scott and the Giant. They end up being at least £30+ each and seem to be rarely in stock at most of the major internet retailers.

For the Scott which is my best bike and hence the one I tend to fuss over, I ended up getting a new Shimano 5700 Compact chainset to replace the FSA Gossamer chainset as described in the post. This still left needing a new 50T ring for the Giant. I looked over a period of weeks to see when and what was available and recently found a reasonably proved supply in stock on eBay here: sprocketsuk

To be fair it arrived very quickly and was as advertised. I think the teeth are less complex that the original FSA or Shimano teeth - they look much more regular and more like the plain teeth on the inner (34T) ring. Only time will tell if this affects the shifting quality. The design is similar to the original FSA rings but slightly different in the area of the webs.

It took about 30 minutes to fit, mostly because I struggled to hold the back of the chainring bolt still whilst undoing with an Allen key. I had to resort to using the very large socket screwdriver bit from my impact driver to hold the back still whilst using the Allen key as I had no other suitable tool. However once I had rigged up something for this it all came apart easily enough. I applied a small smear of Copaslip (other brands and suppliers are avilable) to the threads before reassembly.

All was OK with the shifting once it was all back together. 

Closer inspection of the removed item showed how worn it was (its done about 10-12,000 miles in about 3 years or so, through all seasons):

The original ring

Shark Teeth

With teeth this worn it was going to start chewing through chains at an accelerated rate so this is why I spent £30. It was going to be of the order of £60-70 to replace it.

The FSA Vero is a square taper chainset - the bottom bracket it uses is discussed here and the square taper crank sets are getting less common now. I briefly considered fitting a new ring to the FSA Gossamer that came off the Scott together with the Mega Exo BB and considering it as an "upgrade", but given the short life of the Mega EXO BB compared the the original Truvative BB-06-SQ-LE-108/68 BB on the Giant (now replaced with a Shimano UN55) I decided that the durability would be compromised. I was also unsure whether the BB faces on the Giant might need facing off I fitted an external BB like the Mega EXO compared the to cartridge type it is currently running

Yet more Focus Bottom Bracket Investigations

My Focus was making horrible noise from the bottom bracket area again. As I have posted before I have been really disappointed with the durability of the Mega EXO bottom bracket -Mega EXO moans, especially if I compare it to the much cheaper integrated BB that came on my Giant here.

Here is a couple of pictures of the focus bottom bracket:

In anticipation of a failed bearing I bought a Shimano replacement SM-5700BB):

This was about £21 from Wiggle. Previously I have bought a replacement for the original fitment but its getting too expensive as the FSA Mega-EXO unit is about £30-£35 a time.

There was this Bikeradar article a little earlier this year which indicated that the Mega-EXO and  Shimano bottom brackets were outboard compatible, hence the reason for getting the Shimano version. For some reason I'd assumed that they were different but not really thought about it properly.

Having got the spare bottom bracket handy I removed the chain and the crank. Inspection and feel of both the bearings suggested that there was no issue on this occasion, so I re-assembled the crank. This time is tightened the pre-load screw more that on previous occasions, then did crank lock bolts up. I am pleased to say that to date the noises have gone and the bearing sounds as it should.

Based on this I have ordered a 3/8" torque wrench (2-24Nm range) and hex socket set. Its really difficult to "guess" torque and in some cases getting it wrong can be a big issue. Once the torque wrench arrives I'll report back.

Update 4-June-2012

Weather was better so took the opportunity for a ride on the Monday.

The wind was blowing to the West so I made a bit of an effort on the "Leg Sapper" segment and got to 8th position with a PR and a time of 2:19 against the previous best of 2:28, equivalent to 1mph faster. This moved me from about 19th to 8th. I was pleased with this.

Took in a climb of Rose Hill - it felt painful but got another PR of 3:37 vs. 3:41 from March earlier this year and moving me from 20th to 18th.

After Rose Hill took my normal route round to Tardebigge as the intention was to have a ride of Unicorn Hill and Prospect Hill in Redditch to see if I could eat into Dave's times. I was not really sure where exactly I was going and spent a long time looping back on myself to get to the town centre. Finally I got there and came upon Unicorn Hill rather quickly. I recognised it from the Halfords Tour Series on the TV a few weeks ago and having had a look at the map the day before, but it came up a bit quick and I fumbled the gears to drop to the small ring. It was not too bad and I was treating it as a bit of a sighter ride for a better attempt later. I then went down Prospect Hill (its actually a One Way road) and went all the way to the traffic lights at the bottom and turned around to come back up as I was not sure exactly where it started from. Again I treated it as a bit of a sighter ride and while didn't loaf I didn't give it the beans either. Swung left at the top and rode in what I though was the direction of Beoley.

It all went a bit wrong here as Redditch seems to be lots of areas (housing and industrial) only linked by busy (bike unfriendly) dual carriageways. The long and the short of it was a long looping ride round Redditch before finally recognising something I'd seen before and getting to Beoley. I went home via Icknield Street, but again with no real segment hunting aim. 

More importantly was that on Unicorn Hill I was only 3 seconds behind Dave at 28 (vs 25) seconds and only 1 place in 15th position. That 3 secs should be easy especially if I can approach it better next time. The other reason for trying Unicorn Hill is that it is a direct comparison with some Pro cyclists. The top 7 times were all set during the Tour Series Race and the KOM is Dean Downing who set a time of 13secs - over twice as fast as my time - and he rode up at 28.6mph! That's why they're Pros I guess.

On Prospect Hill on the 1st attempt I was in a strong 4th place at 1:07 although a long time behind Dave's KOM time of  0:49. That will need some real effort.

There were also quite a few other segments in Redditch that I rode without realising and now I know where they are I'll definitely have a go for them. The only problem is trying to get back out of Redditch!

Total ride distance was 56miles in 3:19:18 giving an average of 16.8mph and the total climbing was 2989ft. I probably could have made a slight improvement if I'd known where I was going in Redditch but my legs did feel quite tired for some reason

As an observation the horrible noises from the Focus FSA Mega EXO BB have gone at the moment - I haven't done anything. Hopefully a replacement is on the way from Wiggle so we'll see what happens. I'll be riding ~80 miles next weekend on the Pedal for Parkinsons ride so I hope it is OK.

Update 10.00pm: Dave's been out to have another go at the Unicorn Hill segment and gained 8 seconds - not so sure I can catch that, but I am flattered that he thought I'd pass his previous time and needed/wanted to post a faster time!
Also went out with my wife this evening after dinner and rode (her on the BSO and me on my Mongoose) another 9 miles. I am only 21 miles from reaching the 1/2 way point of the 2012 mileage target, and hopefully will run this off tomorrow.

End of May Summary and Mega EXO Moans

Update 1 June 2012

After the Wheel Heroes ride last Sunday I continued to take advantage of the good weather and rode to work on both Tuesday and Thursday.

I was initially tired starting out on Tuesday morning and made it in just over an hour. On the way home managed some reasonably good times and got a PR on the Hampton in Arden Hill Climb. Each ride I seem to be able to edge a second or so.

On the Thursday ride I had a target of a new segment that I'd spotted on one of Mike Harrison's rides - Hampton Hill which runs up past Solihull Grammar School. It is just a short segment - KOM was held by Scott Wharton at 0:56 and my previous best was 1:06. The segment is about 3 miles from home and I was warmed up by the start and really went for it. The outcome was the KOM at 0:53 so a good result. I also got 2nd best time on cornets end/back lane. There are now 9 segments on the commute in.

This KOM got me back up to 5 segments - better than nothing!

For May got almost 600 miles and an above target which is good, but the weather for the long Bank Holiday weekend looks uninspiring though.

An activity over the next week is to assess the state of the BB on my Focus. I've returned the unit to Wiggle as its less than a year old (and only about 3000 miles). Hopefully I'll get a replacement although as this is the 2nd failed unit it appears that this is about how long they last. It's a FSA BB-6000 Gossamer Mega EXO Bottom Bracket - and gets mixed reviews regarding durability from the Wiggle customers that have bought one on the past.

I think when the rest of the chain set needs replacement I'd be unwilling to replace it with another FAS (or even renew the chain rings if the BB itself lasts about a year and costs £40 a time to replace