Road Cycling Essentials

touch · 31 Oct 2011 at 17:04

In that case, why not get something really cheap from ebay/gumtree?

I got myself an old Dawes on gumtree a few weeks ago.

Cost me £25 + new tyres,tubes and a chain and i took it out on a club run yesterday.
it did 62miles with no issues at all.

Most old bikes like that are very cheap and tend to have much better frames than a cheaper modern bike. And, in your case, have the added bonus of not being so desirable for thiefs.

Sgt_Pepper · 31 Oct 2011 at 17:24

after being without a bike since March i finally bought myself a new steed.

The photos not great but you can get the idea.

Streeteh · 31 Oct 2011 at 17:43

Just had my first run-in with a grumpy driver. Coming up to a mini-roundabout, the road i'm approaching on is a single lane but splits to a double as it reaches the roundabout. I signal to move across to the right hand side of the road so i can enter the right lane, check behind be and nothing is beside me or immediately behind so I start to move over. A Renault then sails past me so i have to swerve back to the side of the road, i gave a disbelieving shake of the head and then the car behind him allowed me to cross over to the other side. Then Renault then joined the left hand lane (all of this happened just a little way before the road split).

What really got me though, was that whilst waiting at the roundabout I hear someone shout 'You can't just stick your hand out and expect to move over!' (or something to that effect). I look over to realize he's rolled down his window to have a nice shout at me. I calmly explained that any decent human being would have allowed me to cross over to my relevant lane and, as he saw me signalling but still pushed past me as I was moving over, he was in the wrong. He then called me a 'Stupid **** (woman's genitals)', at this point I lost the want to keep the moral high ground, told him to procreate off and continued, i didn't have the energy for an argument.

I don't mind that some motorists aren't very aware or caring of cyclists, I can deal with that, but then insisting on shouting at the cyclist for having the audacity to want to join the correct lane? That really grated my cheese.

But what really bugs me is the fact I'm so utterly self concious I always have that biting feeling that perhaps I was in the wrong in any matter. Out of curiosity, what do you guys think? Did I have a run-in with an utter moron or did he?

Phil99 · 31 Oct 2011 at 18:30

touch said:
In that case, why not get something really cheap from ebay/gumtree?

I got myself an old Dawes on gumtree a few weeks ago.

Cost me £25 + new tyres,tubes and a chain and i took it out on a club run yesterday.
it did 62miles with no issues at all.

Most old bikes like that are very cheap and tend to have much better frames than a cheaper modern bike. And, in your case, have the added bonus of not being so desirable for thiefs.

I had thought about that but I'm really after an STI type arrangement with the gears, plus are spare parts for older bikes hard to come by or not?

touch · 31 Oct 2011 at 18:50

Getting the parts is easy.
I got the new chain i needed for <£5

The problem is getting the right tools

old cassettes and bottom brackets all seem to need a different tool.

Participant · 31 Oct 2011 at 19:00

Sgt_Pepper...what a beauty. Get a decent deal?

Streeteh - don't worry about it, people are like that sometimes. I normally react to encounters with motorists by flipping them off completely deadpan, zero emotion. Very immature but oh so satisfying. (Until I get a gypo that wants to kill me or something).

Streeteh · 31 Oct 2011 at 19:08

Robbie G said:
Streeteh - don't worry about it, people are like that sometimes. I normally react to encounters with motorists by flipping them off completely deadpan, zero emotion. Very immature but oh so satisfying. (Until I get a gypo that wants to kill me or something).

Been doing this two months now, so assuming that's an average of 6 guys like that a year, I can handle that. Annoyingly when I'm in a car I'm cool as a cucumber and usually just stick my tongue out or something as equally mature along the lines of your staple response. But for some reason being on a bike made it much harder to keep a level head. I guess it's because I was knackered and just wanted to get to work.

Jonny ///M · 31 Oct 2011 at 22:25

I tend to just give a hand sign/look of WTF???? :confused:

Had a woman attack a roundabout I was halfway round,saw it happening so I slowed a little but it was raining and I'm turning so I keep going. All was fine until she stops dead infront of me as I'm heading towards her drivers door....I gave a wave(as if to say don't worry about it) as she looks worried.

My boss ended up punching **** out the side of a guys car the other day when they got into a petty argument. Cars seem to hate cyclist even when they are moving at the speed of or faster than traffic - even if they're doing it safely.

Mr Flibble · 31 Oct 2011 at 22:42

Jonny ///M said:
Sounds strange. Got a picture?

If it's lined with an alloy insert I'd go down the coca cola route as it just eats up that white poudery ***** pretty amazingly.

There's that many arguments about what to grease and not grease regarding carbon/carbon carbon/alloy. Some people say applying grease can make bare carbon swell hence two carbon parts getting stuck together.

Sorry it's taken me a while to come back to you. Probably an alloy insert at the top of the frame? Sorry about the grubby fingers holding up the clip - I'd just spent an hour or so cleaning up the frame and moving gubbins.

How do you guys keep your bikes so clean? I guess it may just be I don't clean mine enough. Any good degreasing products? The gunk that had collected around my derailleur was horrible. I was tempted to break out some oven cleaner as muckoff wasn't cutting the mustard.

I cycled to Southend bright and early on Saturday morning to teach on a resuscitation course, and came back on Sunday evening. 97 miles in total. The beers on Saturday night probably didn't help the return journey. My legs are still feeling so empty! The 100mile beast sounds horrible.

Judgeneo · 31 Oct 2011 at 22:50

So while I wait for my inner tube to arrive I borrowed my housemates bike to head onto campus.

This thing is a tank of a mountain bike, tyres thicker than the frame, gears that barely work, brakes that make your knuckles go white. Once you get up to speed, it takes a LOT to stop you.
I was heading down a path to get to campus, and see another middle aged cyclist coming up the hill, I go right, expecting him to do move the opposite direction and everything to be ok. But no, this guy stopped dead

Now, me not being used to the bike, the handling terrible and brakes almost non existent couldn't quite make it out of his way (pedestrians on either side so couldn't do a huge swerve) and my left handlebar hit his right one, and some part of his bike or person hit my left cheek.
I could see in his face he didn't know what he did wrong, so I pretended it was all my fault and apologised and walked the rest of the way to campus where I could put my bike chain back on easily.

Why on earth do people just stop like that, I could see his back end fly out when he braked, so it wasn't even controlled, all he needed to do was to move a couple of inches to his right (plenty of space to do so) and everything would have been fine :mad:

touch · 31 Oct 2011 at 23:08

Judgeneo said:
I go right, expecting him to do move the opposite direction

Why?
In this country, we drive on the left. Why would it be different in a cycle lane?

Judgeneo · 31 Oct 2011 at 23:30

touch said:
Why?
In this country, we drive on the left. Why would it be different in a cycle lane?

A very good point, I'll think more in the future. However, I moved significantly earlier than his breaking, he had plenty of time to avoid an accident. The only thing worse he could have done would have been to aim towards me.

Jonny ///M · 31 Oct 2011 at 23:47

Mr Flibble said:
Sorry it's taken me a while to come back to you. Probably an alloy insert at the top of the frame? Sorry about the grubby fingers holding up the clip - I'd just spent an hour or so cleaning up the frame and moving gubbins.

How do you guys keep your bikes so clean? I guess it may just be I don't clean mine enough. Any good degreasing products? The gunk that had collected around my derailleur was horrible. I was tempted to break out some oven cleaner as muckoff wasn't cutting the mustard.

I cycled to Southend bright and early on Saturday morning to teach on a resuscitation course, and came back on Sunday evening. 97 miles in total. The beers on Saturday night probably didn't help the return journey. My legs are still feeling so empty! The 100mile beast sounds horrible.

That looks like a weird setup,what bike is it again?

Althrough it does look like it's lined with metal so I'd be trying to get coca cola into that seat tube via the bottom bracket and leave it for a day. I've not had to try it myself but I'm told it works well against aluminium corrosion.

Richie · 1 Nov 2011 at 06:51

touch said:
Why?
In this country, we drive on the left. Why would it be different in a cycle lane?

I ******* hate this as well... I have a cyclepath near me which I use weekly. The thing is pretty much arrow straight for the 3 miles I go on and I stick to the left. It always confuses me that walkers (and even some cyclists) hug the same side i.e. THEIR right. If there are 2 or more walkers, some of them seem to think it is ok to "split" up and take up both sides so I have no option but to go between them !!!! :mad:

It should be simple:

1. Stay to the left of the cyclepath
2. If you want to overtake then overtake on the RIGHT of the person you are overtaking.

How is this hard?

The amount of dirty looks I get from people walking on the cyclepath when I am cycling on it is unreal. Its a ******* cyclepath (part of the National Cycle Route), the clue is in the title. I don't have an issue with people walking on it but don't be shocked or feel "put out" because someone wants to use it to cycle on FFS :mad:

/end rant

Russinating · 1 Nov 2011 at 09:25

6thElement said:
There are some hills around Minehead that cars struggle to go up, looks like you missed the worst one though, Porlock Hill

I might have to borrow that route next time I'm there.

Is there anyway to download a gpx from endo??

All the maps are on their website, www.exmoorbeast.org

Hopefully this captures some of the bleakness:

[DOD]Asprilla · 1 Nov 2011 at 09:26

Richie said:
I ******* hate this as well... I have a cyclepath near me which I use weekly. The thing is pretty much arrow straight for the 3 miles I go on and I stick to the left. It always confuses me that walkers (and even some cyclists) hug the same side i.e. THEIR right. If there are 2 or more walkers, some of them seem to think it is ok to "split" up and take up both sides so I have no option but to go between them !!!!

Pedestrians walking towards you should go to their right, same as they should on the road if there is no footpath.

platypus · 1 Nov 2011 at 09:38

Judgeneo said:
I go right

A lot of people do this whilst walking too, I just don't get it. Every mode of transport we use in this country drives on the left.

[DOD]Asprilla · 1 Nov 2011 at 09:54

But the highway code tells pedestrians to walk so they are facing traffic as it's safer for them to be able to see what's passing.

Participant · 1 Nov 2011 at 10:18

Front light for seeing the road

Well last night's commute home proved that my front light is completely useless for lighting up the road. Oncoming traffic dazzled me to the point that I practically had to stop. So I'm looking at this:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/cateye-hl-el530-led-front-light/

...the Cateye HL-EL530, and was wondering if anyone had any experience of this particular light, or any other recommendations for around £50?

platypus · 1 Nov 2011 at 10:20

[DOD]Asprilla;20453842 said:
But the highway code tells pedestrians to walk so they are facing traffic as it's safer for them to be able to see what's passing.

And how many people actually know/have read the highway code? Certainly not most drivers I've met.

Robbie G said:
...the Cateye HL-EL530, and was wondering if anyone had any experience of this particular light, or any other recommendations for around £50?

LED Lenser P7 plus handlebar mount from Ebay, or I have one spare actually, will set you back around £35 and will be significantly better than that.

Better still, as there is no real reason to assume that the Cateye isn't decent, get that for your handle bar light, and get a helmet mount for a Lenser P7. There really is no substitute for having a light/lights that can light the road, and a helmet light that enables you to pinpoint where you are looking.