Aren't Bicycles Great.

Mark_Hewitt · 6 November 2015 at 10:03AM

armyknife wrote: »

low cost,

Oh, I appear to have gone wrong, badly wrong

armyknife · 8 November 2015 at 2:16AM

Mark_Hewitt wrote: »

Oh, I appear to have gone wrong, badly wrong

You fitted a two-stroke engine to your bike?

DidsburyDids · 8 November 2015 at 10:50PM

For years I thought about commuting by bike but never took the plunge until three years ago. I now look back and the bike I paid alot of money for has been paid for at least 5 times over with the savings i have made on public transport alone! Everyone should cycle!!

Johnmcl7 · 4 December 2015 at 2:30AM

Getting into the swing of cycling with lights in dark forests again and despite the fairly wet weather, had a pretty good ride out tonight. Will hopefully manage to get to a CX race next week for the last race of the year which rather amusingly is the seventh this year for the fat bike whereas my much better race suited FS 29er only ever managed two.

Hopefully you lot have been surviving some of the more challenging weather recently.

This is from the endurance event at Fort William:

The worst part is finding out I still hold my tongue between my teeth when concentrating, I had no idea I was:

Richard53 · 4 December 2015 at 4:52AM

Now that the clocks have gone back, both my evening and morning commutes have been in the dark. My route is 90% country lanes and it has been a joy to ride, for the most part. However, the recent combination of really dark darkness (lots of cloud cover is what I really mean), rain from slight to torrential and high winds have made it more of challenge. But the real problem is the amount of mud on the roads from the farmers getting the last of the *whatever* in from the fields. The road I use is in bad condition to start with, and a good half of the route is coated in gooey brown stuff, which not only coats the bike and my lower half within a few yards, but is slippery as well. I must confess that with all of this together, I have been using the car (and the main road) - and missing the bike ride terribly.

Hopefully the roads will be washed clean by the rain before long and I will be back into it. Wind, rain and darkness I can deal with, but the gloopy stuff is soul-destroying.

Johnmcl7 · 4 December 2015 at 5:52PM

It's a similar situation here, there's a great route out to Dores at the top of Loch Ness as you can stay almost entirely off the main road and go down back roads instead which are flatter (the main road goes up and down a lot) and of course with very few cars. However there's been quite a few tractors on the road and left it quite a mess, I'd been out a couple of days before on the off road loop but it was the road bike that came back far messier.

The road bike isn't great in these conditions so I've been thinking of a Pinnacle Arkose Four which seems a good deal at £1000 for a bike with the 11 speed 105 groupset and hydraulic disc brakes. It seems to be disappearing fast so I bit the bullet and decided I'd go and get one today which meant a 320 mile round trip but worth it to try the bike first for size. I phoned the store first and I couldn't try the bike for size as they have none built up although they they had a near identical model I could check.

Unfortunately though I wouldn't be able to actually buy the bike as they're now under a recall due to a faulty mech hanger design so instead I'd need to try and order it online where there's none in stock so they'd need to try and get one from a store.

I normally buy my bikes from a local bike shop as the service from them has always been very good but unfortunately getting a name brand bike with drop bar hydraulic shifters is a lot more expensive. I don't mind so much spending the money as I particularly like the seatpost decoupler but I'm trying to cut down on bikes and I wouldn't want to leave a more expensive bike locked up in town. The other option is to get one with an 11 speed 105 drivetrain and then fit hydraulics later if I want to.

John

brat · 5 December 2015 at 11:02AM

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

Hopefully you lot have been surviving some of the more challenging weather recently.

Still getting 75 to 100 miles a week in, staying low, trying to keep dry, failing...

My rower is a boon on days when I just can't get out - like today.

I'm also thinking about investing in a turbo trainer. I've never had one, never really needed one with the rower, but I tried my mate's the other day, he has a Wahoo Kickr which is driven via a cassette attached to the unit. It's quiet, realistic and it comes with lots of smart software options.

Need to pile in some O/T...:D

armyknife · 6 December 2015 at 1:16AM

Not doing a lot at the moment because of various bike issues.

Johnmcl7 · 19 December 2015 at 1:48AM

I've had a good year with the fat bike starting off in January with the 24 hour Strathpuffer, CX races at the start and end of the year, a ten hour endurance cycle in the summer and another 24 hour event in the Autumn plus plenty of trail riding in between. In all that time the bike has never had a single mechanical issue, not even a puncture despite the super low tyre pressures however on my final hill climb of my final group ride of the year the bike finally gave in on me and came to a jarring halt. Even on a quick glance it was clear this was going to be terminal as the rear derailleur was jammed in the rear wheel, on closer inspection the rear mech hanger had failed which meant about six miles of walking.

Still as I walked it through a pitch black forest on my own, I couldn't be annoyed at the bike...of all the places it could have broken down, not far from home and on a normal group ride is about the best place to do it. I'm just hoping I can get a new mech hanger quickly as my next race is just five weeks away and it's the fairly gruesome 'Puffer although on the plus it's a quad and we won't be remotely competitive.

John

armyknife · 19 December 2015 at 1:59PM

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

I've had a good year with the fat bike starting off in January with the 24 hour Strathpuffer, CX races at the start and end of the year, a ten hour endurance cycle in the summer and another 24 hour event in the Autumn plus plenty of trail riding in between. In all that time the bike has never had a single mechanical issue, not even a puncture despite the super low tyre pressures however on my final hill climb of my final group ride of the year the bike finally gave in on me and came to a jarring halt. Even on a quick glance it was clear this was going to be terminal as the rear derailleur was jammed in the rear wheel, on closer inspection the rear mech hanger had failed which meant about six miles of walking.

Still as I walked it through a pitch black forest on my own, I couldn't be annoyed at the bike...of all the places it could have broken down, not far from home and on a normal group ride is about the best place to do it. I'm just hoping I can get a new mech hanger quickly as my next race is just five weeks away and it's the fairly gruesome 'Puffer although on the plus it's a quad and we won't be remotely competitive.

John

Good going John, by the sound of it you're right not to blame the bike given all the good service it's provided.

I think the longest I've had to walk a disabled bike home is about 7.5 miles, not far and it beats the hell out of braking down in a car on a very busy motorway in rush hour.

Aren't Bicycles Great.

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