I’ve decided to replace my bars. The ones I’ve got fitted have been cut down to just under 600mm wide. This is great for my style of riding but fitting the controls on can be a bit of a pain. The left side is no problem as there’s just the brake and the grip to fit in. The difficulty is with the right hand side. The bars I have are for 38.5mm clamps but the section where it clamps is too wide so does not allow me to move the gear shifter far enough inboard. I have replaced the shifter I was using with a second-hand XTR one I recently picked up. This one is better quality than the newer one I am replacing. It has a polished alloy, split band and this will not go on far enough to allow it to be tightened properly, so the brake lever and grip are about 10 mm offset compared to the left. It’s not a big difference but I do notice it.

So if I’m going to buy a new set of bars, I’ll probably go for ones around 650mm wide. Hopefully the additional 5 or so cm will be as comfortable and fitting and adjusting the controls simpler. I may even have the space to narrow them a bit if the 38.5 section is not too wide. I’ve seen a couple of sets of used bars on e-bay which are fairly cheap so I may try a bit of experimentation to get the ideal width and rise.

UPDATE: I got a couple of sets of bars through the post and fitted them. One set was straight and I fitted them and tried them out on a run. The other ones had a slight sweep back and rise (about 5mm) which is not much but they felt so much better than the straight bars so I decided to go with them. I could also fit the controls quite far inboard so I have cut about 5cm off each side as I much prefer my bars to be narrow. They now measure about 58cm which is as narrow as any of the three bars I have used. I probably have spent a bit more than I needed to get the right bars to suit but I guess it will have been worth it as there was no way to find out without trying.

I’m finished with working on my bike (for now) so can use the good weather to get out and appreciate that my bike is working so well. My health is still not 100% but if I gradually work up the miles, hopefully I’ll regain my fitness before too long.

… again! After getting all the components together, trying out various options for the rear derailleur and chain-ring, I have now completed all the work I am willing to do for now. I have ended up with the exact set-up that I started with – 10 speed, 11-34t with a 32 teeth chain-ring. In the end this looks like the best ratio for my riding. I will also be able to make use some of the components I’ve amassed for the 10 speed set up and switch them between bikes. This ability to use the same components, when I look at it logically, is clearly the better situation. To have two different lots of spares such as quick-links, chains and deraillueur spares is over-complicated and more expensive. The benefits of having slightly smoother shifting with either 11 or 12 speeds does not outweigh this simplicity.

The Microshift thumb shifter I bought on e-bay arrived today. I mounted it on the handlebars and adjusted it to the indexed setting. As soon as I had done that, I realised that it wasn’t going to be for me. Even without attaching the gear cable I could tell that the distance the thumb lever needed to move would make it too awkward. Had it been a mechanism with a return spring which moved the cable one gear at a time, it would be ideal but this needs to move to 10 separate positions so the lever moves over 180 degrees in relation to the body. In some gears the lever will interfere with my brake and the bars don’t have space to move them apart. It’s a pity as the quality of the build is much better than the plastic Shimano style shifter.

I’ve ordered another shifter, this time an XTR one and will stick with that. You live and learn.

While I was looking into buying an 11 speed derailleur and cassette, I realised there could be another possible reason for me being unable to set up the 12 speed properly. I had wanted to go to a 45T cassette but had bought a medium cage derailleur. It wasn’t until I had to make a choice for the 11 speed derailleur that I looked into how the difference in tooth size had a bearing on the length of cage.. I should have known this as I had experienced problems a few years ago when I fitted a short cage to a previous bike and had to limit the size of the cassette. Pity this came back to me after I had gone through all the trouble trying to get the 12 speed set up!

If the thumb shifter doesn’t work out I’ll have to choose between three different set-ups. ten, eleven or twelve speeds. Using the components I have available, ten and twelve will have a largest tooth size of 34-36 whereas the eleven speed can go up to 51 teeth. It’s just a case of working out what I need. I think I’ve spent enough and don’t know how much of the money I have paid out I can recoup, so I’m not going to look at any further possibilities (although there are some!).

I’d talked myself round to reverting from the 12 speed set-up so was on the look-out for the cheap(ish) pre-owned parts I needed to buy to replace it. Once I had decided on a few bits and pieces I ordered them from e-bay. When they arrive I will have a couple of ways to go. I have previously considered changing to a Micro-shift, thumb shifter. These are made from alloy and look to be much sturdier than the Shimano ones which seem to be manufactured from even cheaper plastic as they issue new ones. The one thing that stopped me before was that I usually only saw 9 or 11 speed shifters. As the new free-hub I have bought is either 10 or 11 speed (with the addition of a spacer) then it’s not going to take too many extra components to switch to an 11 speed set-up. I’ll try it out once all the parts arrive and, fingers crossed, I will have gears I’m happy with and will stop changing things around.

As I was writing my previous post I started to consider how confusing the way we talk about gears on our bikes can be. The cogs on the cassette go from the smallest to the largest, whether there are 12, 11, 10 or less. We name these as low to high. The lowest has the greater number of teeth and is on the “highest” position on the cassette! Then, if you have a shifter with an indicator, they are numbered from 1, which is the largest with the most teeth, to 9 -12, which have the least teeth. Throw in the fact that when there are more than one chainrings on the front, things get even more mixed up. With the chain on the smallest front ring and the largest rear cog, you’re in the lowest gear and pedalling is easiest. It seems that these terms have evolved from comparing them to gear boxes on cars. Previously riders talked about larger and smaller cogs which, in my mind, is a lot easier to grasp.

Confused? I am!

This time at the rear!

Since I completed the conversion to a 12 speed set-up, I’ve had a lot of difficulties getting it working properly. I first noticed problems after converting from the 30 teeth chainring to 34. The first ride I had it seemed to be running OK but towards the end I noticed that I couldn’t shift to the highest gear. I re-adjusted things and the next time I went out it seemed to have got worse. Changing from the highest gear would cause it to jump a couple of gears which would be fixed by going down and back up again. This only happened at the higher end. Lower gears were working fine. On returning home I decided I would need to spend some time looking in to the problem.

After a few hours tinkering and a lot of trial and error I still couldn’t get things to work fully. Either the gears were jumping or it wouldn’t shift all the way down. I have adjusted everything I can think of and checked that the hanger is straight as well as the fitting of the mech and the alignment of the jockey wheels. I’ve been through everything several times. It seems as though the tolerances of the 12 speed derailleur and cassette are just too fine and I just can’t get it right. I may even re-fit the 30t chainring as a last chance effort. I’m beginning to think that it may have something to do with the 12 speed derailleur being directly mounted to the hanger but can’t find much definitive information on this.

I’ll give myself one more try at setting up everything from scratch. Then, if it has still not been sorted, I may seriously consider going back to 10 speed. I’ve still not got round to selling most of the components, apart from the shifter. So as soon as I’ve sourced one, I could get started. At least with all this building and re-building I’m getting used to working on the bike so it shouldn’t take too long.

I bought and fitted a pre-owned 34 teeth ring. It makes better use of all the gears but could still be lower. I doubt if a 36T would fit the frame so I’ll need to stick with it for now. Maybe if I find a larger one at a good price I could try it out but for now I’ll stick with what I’ve got.

Today was another lovely spring day so I just had to get out again. I managed to almost double my distance today. The temptation was to keep on going but I kept in mind that there was always the return journey so managed to limit my aspirations and kept it down to about 10 miles. I got home feeling as though I had done some excercise but not at the near collapse stage I ended up the last time. Another few days rest and I’ll be able to go for another increase.

One thing I did decide on was yet another upgrade. The gearing is just a bit too high for my style of riding and I will never use all 12 gears. So I’m going to look out for an affordable chain-ring. I just need to work out how many teeth I should go up to.