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Source: Cyclingnews News Headlines
Friday, December 30, 2011
KaaBoom Chain Degreaser machine review
As far as chain-cleaning machines go, be prepared for some messy business. The KaBoom Chain Degreaser machine does the trick for us because it's the easiest to use of all the machines we've tried with less mess, and got the chain clean in the process. This popular cleaning machine has been around a while.
It's our favourite for a number of reasons: filling it with liquid is done after it's attached; a large capacity reservoir holds plenty of fluid, allowing the heavier grime and grit particles to settle and not get picked back up and spread onto your chain, and keeping fluid loss to a minimum; it's also easier to keep level than the rest because the latching arm reaches around the back of the derailleur jockey wheels, making it easier to hold on to.
The only downside is that lid closure is less secure, and not as positive as metal latches used by a competitor. You still end up having to put some rags or paper down to catch the spillage, because there's no way to escape the fact that this is basically a messy job. But it means you can put away the large coffee can filled with white spirit…
This article was originally published in Cycling Plus
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FSA RD-60 road wheelset review
FSA calls these 'incredibly strong'. They do use plain gauge spokes (though they're listed with bladed spokes) and the spokes are highly and consistently tensioned, so it's a justified claim. There's a hint of roughness in the non-cartridge bearing front hub and also a certain lifelessness in road feel from both front and rear, which we'd put down to rim weight and their heavy-duty build.
The rear wheel arrived with a small lateral wobble (just over 0.5mm), which testing didn't exacerbate. There's a subtle wear indicator in the rim. In a nutshell: workhorse wheels that you shouldn't need to tinker with.
This article was originally published in Cycling Plus
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Hat Tip To: BikeRadar.com Road Bikes & Gear
On-One Macinato review
With its Macinato, On-One has blended traditional fixie ideas for modern, metropolitan palettes. It already has a fixie in the form of the Pompino; the Macinato is more mainstream. There's a retro feel to the frame finish, with bold white bands for the On-One name. Beneath that it's modern: the chromoly steel frame uses a semi-compact design, the chromoly fork is straight rather than curved, and the stem is a contemporary threadless one.
The new breed of fixie rider apparently wants clean frame lines above all, so there are no mudguard eyelets or chain tugs. Yet there are permanent guides for the rear brake cable, which looks a little incongruous to us – and no doubt carbuncular to the hipster who absolutely must remove that rear brake. There's more than meets the eye to the 120mm track ends. They have a taperlock design so they thicken towards the front, which should prevent you pulling the wheel over when you're muscling the Macinato up a steep hill.
It climbs and descends just fine though better suits shorter sprints than long lopes through the countryside, simply because the head-tube is short on this medium size bike. The lower handlebar creates a trackie-style head down stance, ideal for pushing the pace – or for converting the bike to a fixed-wheel time trial machine with tri bars – but if you lack flexibility it'll pull at your lower back on long rides. To sit more upright, just go up a frame size and fit a shorter stem.
There's no toe overlap with the front wheel – at least with clipless size 42 shoes – so you can flick the front wheel to and fro when finding your balance point to trackstand at the lights without worrying you'll end up on the tarmac. You can thread through stationary traffic more easily for the same reason. Like most off-the-peg fixies, steering is fairly light. That's a function of the averagely steep (73 degrees) head angle and a narrower than normal handlebar (38cm, centre to centre). You soon get used to it, and we didn't have any heart-in-mouth moments. Cornering is confident for a fixed wheel bike, simply because you can lay it over a bit more.
The bottom bracket is 7mm further from the ground than that of its next highest peer and it has 165mm cranks too, so the risk of clipping a pedal is remote. Shorter cranks are easier to spin at absurd speeds too, and you'll appreciate not being levered out of your saddle on the first full-on descent. The Weinmann DP18 fixed-free wheels are nice enough, and they're shod with our almost-favourite training tyre: Schwalbe's Durano in 25mm. White stands out and sort of matches the white tape and saddle, though it quickly loses its looks.
This article was originally published in Cycling Plus
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