Forum Replies Created
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Which particular pedals are
Which particular pedals are you after? As far as I can tell, Wellgo make pedals that seem to be identical to Issi, so you might be able to find the pedal you want labelled as Wellgo.
Nothing suspicious there – he
Nothing suspicious there – he’s told you it’ll 100% clear, so what are you worried about?
I think they’re applying the
I think they’re applying the congestion logic of London, but in reverse: if installing a cycle lane increases road congestion/pollution, then having a congested/polluted road must increase the space for cycling/pedestrians.
Lazy market research
Lazy market research
I am 72 now and bought my first bike 3 years ago at 69. I had to walk it home from the local LBS because I had never owned a bike before . A few trips to the local park away from traffic and learning first to ride and then indicate etc. allowed me progress to roads. I enjoyed it so much that I realised I must ride clipless and spent more time at the local park to get used to cleats. Yes I fell off a few times and have done on the road but of course it was worth it. I imagine that there is nobody who has progressed to clipless riding who would revert back and nobody regrets the falls they have made in order to now ride clipless.Age is just a number , determination is more relevant so please don’t advise someone not to try something just because of there age because you could be depriving them of the joys of riding clipless !
Fair point – age is definitely not a barrier to learning to use clipless, but it’s important to be prepared to fall over a bit as it will happen. Like yourself, if he’s willing to take a few bumps then why not?
The problem with clipless is
The problem with clipless is that you need to practise it until it becomes second nature to free your feet when you want to. As other people have said, you’re bound to fall over when you’re first learning although it’ll typically be when stationery so it’s more about embarrassment than lots of damage. However at 70 there’s a reasonable chance he could fracture his wrist or similar doing that, so I’d recommend not bothering with them unless he’s happy to fall over a few times.
I understand you don’t like
I understand you don’t like rucksacks, but I’m gonna recommend one anyway.
The ProViz 360 is my current choice of commuting rucksack. It’s relatively light and extremely good at reflecting headlights. It’s got a little strap that can have a rear light clipped onto it. It’s not especially cheap at just under £70 (luckily I got mine through a kickstarter campaign which was a bit cheaper).
http://www.provizsports.com/en-gb/reflect360-backpack.html
Road.cc review: http://road.cc/content/review/137571-proviz-reflect-360-rucksack
I’d recommend in future that
I’d recommend in future that you don’t post videos to the public (though I appreciate why you want to ) but instead file a police report and send them the footage. In general, road users are not allowed to threaten or bully more vulnerable road users and if you fill in your report stating that you felt in danger (which you probably did) then they can go round to the driver’s house and explain why his behaviour is unacceptable.
I think that if more cyclists use cameras and send footage to the police, it’ll make motorists just a little bit more cautious and respectful around cyclists. If the police refuse to take an interest, then post it to forums.
CXR94Di2 wrote:
I would go with a bike with a threaded bottom bracket. Press fit bottom brackets suffer from creaks and clicking, which although a minor annoyance, it will drive you mad creaking with every pedal turnPress fit BBs can suffer from creaks and clicking and there’s usually 2 causes. Either water has gotten into the bearings (which happens easily on the press fits) which means replacing the bearing (not particularly expensive). The other more annoying creaking is when the bearing shell is moving slightly within the frame – this can be fixed by re-installing the bearings with a bit of loctite on the outside (NOT the inside) of the bearing to keep it stuck in place.
When installed correctly, press-fit bearings can last for years with no creaking, but you just have to be careful with water ingress.
Always be nice to the guard, smile, wish them a good morning/afternoon/evening, ask “is it alright if…?”. Accept their decision with good grace and always be prepared to wait for the next train.Local trains are always easier than the big, fast ones. Being very polite may work.
It’s always a good idea to be polite with train staff, however GWR seem to have something against bikes. The local trains are normally okay to get a bike on if there’s not too many bikes already on there, but the HSTs are almost impossible to get onto now as they demand a booking ticket for the bike which can only be arranged by light of a full moon exactly 5 days before travelling.
If GWR staff are refusing to take a bike on a HST train when there is space, it might be useful to show them a copy of this letter about GWR’s bike policies:
Just a counter-point to
Just a counter-point to people who’ve used those cheap BB30 tools – I tried one of them myself and somehow got the bearings mis-aligned and ended up bending the tool! (as well as putting a scratch into the bottom bracket). I think it was more my heavy-handedness than the tool being rubbish, but I ended up buying an expensive tool to do it: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/park-tool-bearing-cup-press-hhp-2/rp-prod17482
Now it’s an easy job to pop the bearings back in nice and straight and I now enjoy a creak-free bottom bracket (with a little bit of loctite to keep the bearing stuck in place). That tool is a serious piece of kit and can be used for headsets as well.
I got some NorthWave shoes
I got some NorthWave shoes from them (only supplier that had them in lurid yellow/green) a couple of years ago and they arrived promptly. I ended up sending them back and ordering a larger pair twice before getting the right size. They seem to be a very professional company.
Thanks for everyone’s
Thanks for everyone’s comments. I’m going to go visit a few bike shops and have a good look at a range of bikes to either confuse me some more or to help me decide. I am tempted to do the whole bike build process myself as I’ve got some experience and a bunch of tools, but I’ve never worked on disc brakes before – how hard can it be?
something I learnt today is that the sealant in tubeless tyres can cause problems with the spokes. I’ve buckled my rear wheel, and the mechanic at my local shop is having trouble with the spokes – it seems the sealant gets under the rim and into the spoke nipples – hilarity ensues!Ideally the rim should be air-tight so that sealant doesn’t get onto the nipples, but I suppose you only discover that when it’s too late.
I might end up selling these Schwalbe non-tubeless S-One tyres. Any takers for 30 quid each?
jterrier wrote:
The performance line tires from schwalbe are not tubeless. They are the mid range models.So, I’d better be putting tubes in these ones then.