Road Cycling Essentials

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Any recommendations for a phone mount for a Nexus 5? The Tigra BikeConsole line look okay though it seems kind of hard to find any mount that says it is specifically for the N5.
 
Saytan said:
Nice, proper winter bike. I'd trim the stays on the rear guard a bit tho, remove that unsightly tyre gap. It was on my list of considerations when I bought the kinesis but I decided to go for 28mm tyres.
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What kinesis did you get ? I'm in the market for a winter bike. How did you end up paying and specs if you don't mind me asking ?
 
FrenchTart said:
Any recommendations for a phone mount for a Nexus 5? The Tigra BikeConsole line look okay though it seems kind of hard to find any mount that says it is specifically for the N5.
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Apologies for the self bump. The universal mount version of the Tigra bag looks good but I'm really not sure if I should get the 4.8 inch version or the 5.5 inch. The 4.8 is a tiny bit too small according to the specs but the 5.5 is presumably going to be quite a bit too big. I guess the description says "up to" so in theory a smaller phone should fit fine?

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/tigra-sport/bikeconsole-mount-universal-ec057764
 
divaboy said:
What kinesis did you get ? I'm in the market for a winter bike. How did you end up paying and specs if you don't mind me asking ?
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I got a t2. Judicious use of a few bits I already had, building my own wheels etc. Got campag veloce build together for about 750. Don't think the factory spec is great value.
 
And to continue the questions (some of which have kind of been asked before but I can't remember the outcome)...

I'd quite like to get a turbo trainer or some rollers for the winter. I would actually prefer rollers as they're easier to set up and I'd like to improve my balance. However, I'm not sure what options there are for increasing the resistance with rollers. Any thoughts and/or suggestions on models to get?
 
If you have to pick one, I'd definitely get a turbo. There are roller units with resistance but it takes a decent amount of practice before you're comfortable really putting the power down on rollers. They do a lot for your pedaling technique and balance but if you're wanting to maintain fitness over winter, turbo all the way.
 
One More Solo said:
If you have to pick one, I'd definitely get a turbo. There are roller units with resistance but it takes a decent amount of practice before you're comfortable really putting the power down on rollers. They do a lot for your pedaling technique and balance but if you're wanting to maintain fitness over winter, turbo all the way.
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How much is a decent amount of practice in your opinion? I could pick something up fairly soon and start getting a bit of practice in potentially...
 
Most people seem to grasp the basics fairly quickly, say 2 or 3 hours max and you should have the hang of it. I've only had one go and it took me about 30 mins before I wasn't falling off constantly but I guess once you know what you're doing it's like riding a bike...

I only know one or two guys who can full on sprint on them though, so I assume it's pretty difficult! I'm looking at getting a set myself but only for track warm-ups/cool-downs and high cadence drills. The bulk of my winter work will be on the turbo still.
 
One More Solo said:
Most people seem to grasp the basics fairly quickly, say 2 or 3 hours max and you should have the hang of it. I've only had one go and it took me about 30 mins before I wasn't falling off constantly but I guess once you know what you're doing it's like riding a bike...

I only know one or two guys who can full on sprint on them though, so I assume it's pretty difficult! I'm looking at getting a set myself but only for track warm-ups/cool-downs and high cadence drills. The bulk of my winter work will be on the turbo still.
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Hmm.. I guess you're right when you say I should just get a turbo then. Maybe I'll see if my budget can stretch to getting both :p (As you can no doubt tell I really want rollers...)
 
FrenchTart said:
Apologies for the self bump. The universal mount version of the Tigra bag looks good but I'm really not sure if I should get the 4.8 inch version or the 5.5 inch. The 4.8 is a tiny bit too small according to the specs but the 5.5 is presumably going to be quite a bit too big. I guess the description says "up to" so in theory a smaller phone should fit fine?

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/tigra-sport/bikeconsole-mount-universal-ec057764
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Probably not what you want to hear, but i can't imagine ever trusting a handlebar phone mount. There's just too many horror stories out there. Either they don't hold it tightly enough and it goes flying into the road in front of you, or they hold it too tight and the screen cracks when you go over a bump. Besides, your battery life will be rubbish from leaving the screen on the whole time and for the price of a "good" mount you could just get a cycle computer instead.

Saytan said:
W serial numbers are lightweight unit frames, this would be a good thing.

http://www.kurtkaminer.com/TH_raleigh_serials.html#19731982
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I had a look, found three different numbers but none of them included any letters? Cleaned up the frame today while waiting for some parts to arrive, just out of curiosity:

sezs2ugl.jpg

Also, does anyone know what the screws that go in here are called? Do they actually serve any purpose other than making it slightly easier to remove the wheel in a hurry?

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I'm going to have to spend some time figuring out handlebar and brake lever placement. I don't want to set it all up and wrap the bar tape just to find it's all wrong. Annoyingly a lot of it seems to be down to personal preference, of which i have none since i've never had a bike with drops before this. There's always the professional fit option...
 
PermaBanned said:
Probably not what you want to hear, but i can't imagine ever trusting a handlebar phone mount. There's just too many horror stories out there. Either they don't hold it tightly enough and it goes flying into the road in front of you, or they hold it too tight and the screen cracks when you go over a bump. Besides, your battery life will be rubbish from leaving the screen on the whole time and for the price of a "good" mount you could just get a cycle computer instead.
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I don't really want to use a phone mount for the very reasons you've mentioned. However, I'm riding in unfamiliar territory on Friday and I really need to sort out some kind of GPS navigation. I can't quite justify buying a Garmin 800 or better just yet so I'm trying to make do with whatever I can for a little while.

Alternatively to the Nexus 5 mount I have an old Samsung Galaxy S2 and a mount for that so I'll try to get that up and running. The screen is already cracked too so I'd not really be worried about it getting damaged :p Just need to source a battery for it in time for the weekend.
 
PermaBanned said:
Or you could just keep it in your jersey pocket and pull it out when you get lost ;)
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I don't mind doing that normally but it does mean I'm stopping and starting a lot, not to mention missing turns and then having to backtrack. It's not an issue if I'm not in a rush but for this ride I'll need to get to my destination in reasonable time.
 
PermaBanned said:
Also, does anyone know what the screws that go in here are called? Do they actually serve any purpose other than making it slightly easier to remove the wheel in a hurry?
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The screw at the back of the dropout would be used to adjust the position of the wheel. Push the screw in and the wheel sits further forward. Useful using different tyre sizes.
 
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