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WELL DONE. Good work.
WELL DONE. Good work.Oh, and think about
Oh, and think about consumables. I’d love an ultegra-spec bike, but a slow, minor crash has required a new rear mech, mech hanger, chain rings and cassette. Add the annual new bottom bracket and I might plump for 105-level-spec next time and focus the funds on bits that will hopefully last a bit longer like frame and wheels.Don’t take this the wrong
Don’t take this the wrong way, but I always find that people with good eyesight take their eyes (and the protection of them) for granted. I’d be thinking not only of the UV protection, but their impact limits and how they fail (i.e. splinters or just a spider-web etc).As someone with less than great vision, I never skimp on my specs.
Welcome to the forum,
Welcome to the forum, tippers_kiwi. There are indeed some wise words here. I’d not cycled for years but decided to get back into it, and spent the budget on the bike. Then came helmet, shoes, pedals, base layers, shorts, tights, rain jacket, summer gloves, winter gloves, overshoes… then I joined a club, they have their own kit; jerseys, shorts, tights, gilet!Now I’m longing for nicer bike. I should’ve avoided entry-level carbon last time round and gone with alu, that would have been a better long-term bet to accompany some higher-end carbon, but back then I didn’t think I was going to get into it this much.
As mentioned by Bryin, the Domane is quite a different bike, the geometry is slightly more relaxed (still sporty and fast though) and intended for sportive use and long rides. The others seem to be race geometry.
So, question for you – how flexible are you? If you can comfortably touch your toes with your legs straight, then race geometry may be ok. As a rugby player, you’ve probably got decent neck muscles, but you’ll need some flexibility there as well, as your body will be tipped forward but your head back to see the road. Personally, I just couldn’t deal with it, so more relaxed geometry makes me “real-world” faster, because I’m more comfortable and can use the drops. Don’t under-estimate the value of being fitted to the bike properly, don’t settle for someone just adjusting the saddle height.
arrieredupeleton
Syringe your ears?I actually thought this thread was going to be about bike handling.
Some Fella wrote:You can buy
You can buy three or four sets of Rapha bib shorts for what they are asking.Ha! 😀
Ohh, such a dilemma. Should I:
a. go away for 3 days and ride my bike with a bunch of other posh w@nkers
b. buy a small house or flat to serve as a pension later in life?
c. have a sizeable deposit on a nicer house
d. put maybe four kids through uni
If it isn’t a joke, I want to hear more about it just to marvel at what you get for your £100k.
Yes, I do wear Rapha kit.
@Martin Thomas – it’s a great
@Martin Thomas – it’s a great piece of kit. I got the Paul Smith version in a Rapha sample sale for £50, which I thought was a steal.As for £100,000 to ride round Malaysia for a few days, if I could afford it, I’d be tempted to go over there with my own pro mechanic and soigneur in tow, ride alongside the organised group, and still pay less! Even JVA International couldn’t parody that. Surely it’s a joke?
A merlin with tiagra for 500
A merlin with tiagra for 500 quid – id be all over it rather than a giant etc. go for it!I think there’s a distinct
I think there’s a distinct difference between two aspects of this:Firm based in UK/USA?wherever, designs items, then has them manufactured in China or somewhere. Not a huge amount wrong with that really – sure, it would be good for the local economy to keep the manufacturing here, but no-one is going to pay enough for the item to cover UK wages etc. It’s still made to the design specification, so the quality isn’t (or shouldn’t be) an issue. See Spin cycles as an example, they even have their own titanium craftspeople in their own factory, in China.
There is also the legit Chinese company, doing their own thing in the same way as any other company. Unfortunately, I can’t honestly name any due to the market mostly consisting of the above, or sadly, the below.
Then there is kit that originates in China completely but with questionable origins. This may or may not be branded, and may or may not be a copy of something else. If it’s branded, is it a copy, or is it simply an out-of-hours/unofficial run of the genuine product, or even a home-brew run using moulds bought from the factory to produce replicas of last year’s official product? If the company that did all the R&D etc isn’t seeing any reward, they might just not do that R&D in the future. This is where it just gets too murky and results in the ‘legit’ Chinese manufacturing operations being tarred with the same brush as the dodgy ones.
The other thing that gets me is all the talk of “it’s made in the same factory so there’s no difference.” What a load of bull. Just looking at frames (and I’m no expert), the types/grades of carbon, layup direction, number of layers, where it’s used, techniques, monocoques, lugs, geometry, temperatures, QA, testing, acceptable tolerances etc etc are all variables that could make a WORLD of difference between an entry-level and a high-end frame made in the same plant.
So when Starley cycles were mentioned as using an open mould (which I believe is similar to the idea to open-source software), that doesn’t mean it isn’t top quality. There are known to be some very good open moulds out there, but what gets put in them might vary hugely. Regarding Starley specifically, the jury is still out for me until I find out more about them. They *might* be ace.
If you read Laurent Fignon’s
If you read Laurent Fignon’s memoirs, he describes having had a poor couple of years (90/91 I think) then feeling good again in about 92. He felt he had what it took to win another TdF, but on the first real climbs, riding on the front and putting the hammer down, he was passed not by one or two, but by a mini-peloton of 30 or 40 guys, many of whom he didn’t even consider to be classy riders. This eventually led to him feeling that perhaps he was past it and that he needed to make way for the younger guys. It was only in retrospect that he realised the truth.Best of luck dude, let us
Best of luck dude, let us know how it goes.Oh, and I also seem to recall
Oh, and I also seem to recall teachings from the military that people see things for the following reasons:Shape, shine, silhouette, shadow, movement, contrast.
Of those, hi-vis accounts for just one.
My best rain jacket (ie. for
My best rain jacket (ie. for terrible weather conditions) is black. As for the fact that they sound like bike snobs, pick one:a: “funny, I’m carrying all this extra weight, but I don’t see you guys flying past me”
b: “yeah, but after a few thousand miles I’ll be lighter, but you’ll still be a cock!”
c: point out the next pothole and tell him to fix it
d: point out some kids and ask him if he’s brought his lollipop
When everyone is hi-vis, no-one is. I reckon I’m most visible when out with the club and we’re all in the same kit – regardless of colours, the uniformity amongst the surrounding random array of landscape, cars etc catches the eye.
Fraid not, there’s a bit to
Fraid not, there’s a bit to much going on at home to travel to the rawlinson, I swim like an abandoned supermarket trolley, and my knees don’t like running! Very best of luck though, I hope someone else is around.I waited until lidl got some
I waited until lidl got some in for £30. It’s not the first time, so they’ll probably do them again at some point. It’s a good sturdy bit of kit as well, with chunky tubes.
