icantaffordcycling wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2019 2:09 am
Alexandrumarian wrote:Is this thing really supposed to be noisy? Friend just got a tarmac with force and it is pretty much annoying to ride next to him. Sounds like the chain is a little bit dry, gritty and rubbing all at the same time. Dealer mechanic told him it's normal and chain needs to wear in a bit. I don't buy that (and besides he had already did 500km on it)
We have sold 3 tarmac pros with force axs recently and I set up one of them. The chain is NOT loud. Find a new mechanic.
Thanks. I asked him to get the bike over so I can double check it. I am far from being a real bike mechanic but I'm reasonably good at tinkering with stuff. Watched the Sram install vids a couple times. Amazing how easy it all is with electronic and no cables to route and tune. I found the rear derailleur limits to be OK. Visually I preferred 2 trim positions away from what i found but it wasn't anything big. Sounded better to me after the new trim. I found the chain to be pretty dry, fixed that and again sounded better. Found the front derailleur limits to be piss poor. 2mm gap for granny combo and serios rub for big. Changed them to 0.7mm both. Went for a test ride and found it quiet for the most part. It still turns quite noisy in the big ring and bigger cogs. They should have simply banned big-big from the get go. Tomorrow I will lower the cage some and see if that makes an improvement. Looks a bit too close now (distance between cog and jockey teeth). It doesn't help that the 48 teeth big ring often sends you towards the big cogs...
Other than this, i was really impressed with the effortless operation of an electronic group (my first experience) only to be let down by the slowness of the shifts. On my mech Campy bike I feel I can dump the cassette and have time to brew an espresso while the etap is still clicking down a cog at a time
Disc brakes. I found too much useless travel before the bite point especially on the front brake, even with the adjust screw fully turned. In 30 mins of riding in a park I crushed my fingers several times. On my own rim bike I have no problem doing most braking from the hood with 1 finger while the others are still wrapped under the lever. The XT brakes on my mtb feel better than the sram as well. I don't understand the 160/160 pair, rear felt overpowered. Panic stop test showed a pretty noisy and clunky front operation, again nowhere as nice as my XT mtb. Rear was solid and smooth though so I am left to wonder if the front needs a new bleed or something.
On the plus side, I really liked the frame both for feel and looks. Coupled with the wheels and 28 (measured) rubber it felt well damped but not losing the solid feeling.