New to cycling

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by swanny

Well, that went well!

Yesterday afternoon I decided to swap over my cranks to the Tiagra compact set that were originally on the bike (and another bottle cage, Shav!) I had to take 3 links out of the chain, move the front derailleur down a bit, and got it shifting okay.
I mapped out a 69km course to tackle, and set off this morning. I had it all going... good breakfast, water and energy drink on board, a few muesli bars in my pocket and compact cranks to try out and a cadence meter fitted.
The ride was feeling good, I pushed it a bit harder in a few places, and thought I'd settle down for a bit at the 30km mark to save a bit for the end.

Then at around 36km, that's when the chain let go! It was so disappointing... the link disappeared, and I didn't have the tool to rejoin it with me. Lucky my partner could come pick me up.

Anyway, looking at the data, I see that I was averaging a cadence of 93, which is more than I thought I was doing. The average speed is down because it was recording my 5km/hr walk for about 3kms. The compact cranks seemed to let me use more of the gears on the rear cassette, and felt better than I remember them. Perhaps I've got a bit of riding in my legs since I last used them.

I'll have to try again tomorrow, after either a new chain or rejoining this one!

When you re joined the chain did you use the old pin or did you use a new joining pin. If you try and reuse an old upon you will often not seat it properly and the chain will snap. On shimano chains you must use a new joining pin, it is the only way to be sure it is going to be secure and a snapped chain as you are standing on a climb can be a very messy affair.

By the way what chainring and cassette sizes do you have? I am just doing a bit of a comparison so all will become clear soon?