Road Cycling Essentials

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Just as my credit card has finished recovering from the Pompetamine, I stumble upon the new Dawes Nomad. I immediately know that I want one, unfortunately they don't seem to be available yet.

I'm looking at replacing the 26 x 1.6 tyres on my commuter. I'm torn between Continental's Sport Contact (26 x 1.3) and their Ultra Gatorskins (26 x 1.125). I use it exclusively on the road so I'm thinking that the Gatorskins would be better as they have less tread and are slightly more narrow. Has anybody tried both and got a preference, or any other suggestions?
 
Well, not much has been going on in the J69 garage but I got in there tonight so I thought I'd post up what's been going on. I brought the RSW home to work on the Sturmey Archer because it's not dropping into third, but I haven't got around to doing it yet. The Viscount currently has a puncture, as I posted a bit further up, and the Raleigh is due a rebuild pretty soon because the winter has really taken its toll on it this year. The girl still hasn't ridden hers and I've got some plans to re-do the back wheel for it with a different hub. It's currently got my flip-flop spaced out with a 5-speed freewheel on it. Not ideal and it's a bit wide for the frame but I've found another hub I can use.

Jonny69 said:
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The Twenty got a bit of a beating at Critical Mass. First the brake cable broke and I nearly ended up crashing :eek: :D, then the crank worked loose and mashed up the axle in the bottom bracket.

It's got a very soft axle in the bottom bracket and the cotter pins have a habit of working loose. I had to cycle it quite some distance to get home and it's mangled it up a bit. I've tried shimming the cotter pins and everything but it's basically worn past the point of no return.

Tonight I fixed it back up with a few modifications/improvements. New brake cable. Lost the little ferrule thing, so I modified a vintage Stomberg 94 carburettor jet to fit. I shamfered the axle and inside of the crank with the mind to welding it on, but I had the idea of putting the cotter pin in round the wrong way and really hammering it in. Seems to have worked, but it's ready to weld if I need to. The main mod tonight though is I've taken off the 18-tooth freewheel and replaced it with a 13 tooth fixed cog, so now it has some sensible gearing and it's a fixie as I orginally wanted it :cool:
 
Hi all,

Been following this thread for a while and am hoping to enter the world of road bikes in the next couple of weeks :D

I've just got a standard old mountain bike at the moment but have been going for fairly long rides (for me :p), about 50 miles so far, but the weight of my current bike along with chunky tyres is getting a bit tedious so I want to get a road bike.

My LBS has the Giant Defy 4 for about £500, looking around it seems like a decent beginners bike, but the price seems to vary quite a bit online.

Can anyone recommend a decent bike for <£650 please? It'll mainly be for long weekend rides as I'll keep my MTB for the short trip to uni every day :)

Thanks!
 
Phil99 said:
Hi all,

Been following this thread for a while and am hoping to enter the world of road bikes in the next couple of weeks :D

I've just got a standard old mountain bike at the moment but have been going for fairly long rides (for me :p), about 50 miles so far, but the weight of my current bike along with chunky tyres is getting a bit tedious so I want to get a road bike.

My LBS has the Giant Defy 4 for about £500, looking around it seems like a decent beginners bike, but the price seems to vary quite a bit online.

Can anyone recommend a decent bike for <£650 please? It'll mainly be for long weekend rides as I'll keep my MTB for the short trip to uni every day :)

Thanks!
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Get yourself to a good bike shop that will measure you up so that you get a bike that fits you correctly. I too looked at the defy 4, but was told it wouldn't fit me. Instead I was sold a Trek 1.2 which was £625.
 
^ Bet that's a hoot to ride Jonny, Love it!

Was riding my other half's old Raleigh folding bike (white walls, basket on the back) when doing some work on my fixie, was hilarious over taking people on it, popping wheelies up hilsl etc, couldn't help have a smile on my face!
 
I finally got around to having a proper go at fitting the mudguards to my "racer", and after a brisk hour and a half I managed to get the rear one installed almost to my satisfaction. The front one isn't going to go on as there are no brake callipers to mount them to, so I am going to have to look at alternatives. Something like the SKS Race Blades would do the trick, but £30 is a lot of money, especially considering I want only the front one; the search continues.

That aside, the "racer" is now battle ready, with bottle cage, pump and saddle bag also attached. I just hope the rain lets up enough overnight for it to be a pleasant ride tomorrow. Hopefully I won't be forced to go it alone (yes Jonny69, that is a hint :P), but I will if necessary.
 
Robbie G said:
Platypus, can you tell me about the windproofing and breathability properties of this jacket? Obviously I'm not expecting miracles for a tenner (assuming this is the same jacket), but it would be good to know if it's a complete sweat fest or not.

Otherwise I'm going to go for the £40 Montane FeatherLite Velo.

Thanks.
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I went to Condor Cycles today and bought a Rapha Rain Jacket. It's a bit more than you want to spend, but I took the view that I ought to buy the best I could afford. It's had amazing reviews.
 
Did 30 miles with Saundie this morning up and down all the local hills. I would say we're both pretty fit!

Managed to get a puncture about a mile from home though, which was a bit of a bummer. Looks like the Pro 3's aren't indestructible after all :(
Draeger said:
You do know you have just put the "kiss of death" on those Pro 3's for the next ride on 'em?.:p
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Bah humbug :mad: :D
 
I've got Schwalbe Stelvio's on my Pinarello, had them for a good while now. However I'm not going to comment on their puncture resistance as that would be tempting fate. :cool: :p
 
Finally took off the 10 year old Conti tyres that were on the bike when I bought it and replaced them with Conti GP 4000s in lemon yellow. I ended up using a pair of heavy snips to cut the steel bead rather than try and get them off normally, thankfully the new ones were folding bead so I could put them on by hand.

I'm rather liking the yellow against the carbon and grey of the bike :)
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I wasn't wrong when I said that the Pompetamine was ready for battle; unfortunately I had not suspected that it would want that battle to be with me. My lower back is quite sore after a brief 2 hour ride this morning, due to me being unconditioned to the positioning. I may have to see if I can raise the handlebar or something. My feet went numb after an hour, which was a bit unsettling, and there was drizzle for the entire ride to add to the woes. Despite all of these niggles, I enjoyed it. I guess I'm now just a yellow and black team jersey and an overpriced Rapha rain jacket away from being a proper cyclist ;)

SDK^ said:
A fun 67 mile event completed today : http://connect.garmin.com/activity/69240712
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Most impressive. I averaged ~13.95mph on the ride Jonny69 and I went for this morning,though our elevation gain was only 1700 feet according to my GPS, so I have some way to go before matching your pace. I was finally able to drop Jonny69 this morning for the first time, though in his defence his tyre had no air in it, so he had no chance of keeping up with me :D
 
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