Two wheels!

RichardK wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net:

Don't forget a decent rack for the car, so you can go places with the bike ;-)

Bah! Pedal bikes are only for kids and people who can't afford motor bikes which are in turn only for people who can't afford cars. ;)

That's fugly :D. Should've gone down EBC and gotten a Courier Race... Fuck me, it's got a threaded headset.

BTW: Make sure you get NIMH lights. The SLA batteries are s**te. Chain reaction sell some cheapies, as do merlin. And you'll never need 2x10W on the road unless you plan on riding down a bit hill at 40mph every night. You can go off road on one 10W light, to give you an idea of how much light you need.

You sure mate? I had a set of 27 watt (22 high and 5 watt dip) and while in town the 5 watt was fine, as soon as you lose street lighting yu do need the big beam.

Nightsuns rock, but aren't cheap.

Eh what? It's black and I like it ;)

For now I've got a VisionStick the local bike shop was flogging cheap; NiCads (I know about batteries, this was a "What the hell" moment) but it turns into a rather neat torch and was there. I'm considering a BLT set if they're cheaper in Canada (they're already WAY cheaper than most I've seen).

And, I'm in the Borders - Winters are dark, roads are unlit, and HGVs are everywhere. I want the lights to make it very apparent there is something out there as much as being seen.

Seriously, what's fugly about my bike? :P

Richard

Ah, poopy. But, my bike was only £450ish. I could never get a car for that.

(Okay, I've got a bit overboard; the bike itself was £299, but I keep adding stuff. I'm considering fitting a disc brake next, if it is a sane fit - the back is easy to regulate, but the front is not actually powerful enough surprisingly. LOTS of steep hills here and I want both wheels for braking force).

Richard

Siani's 2CV is getting a bike rack; the RX8 doesn't have one which I feel happy using. That's good enough, the 2CV is a step away from a bike but not much!

Her bike is a 1940s single-speed Raleigh. I offered her a new one and she said no. She can hit 17mph on the flat, cruises at 14, and can climb hills pretty well too; makes me wonder why I have so many gears!

Richard

Heh - certainly not a brand new one with loads of options, that's for sure...

There are no streetlights here either. 7W is enough, 10W plenty, IMO. You can get by with a crap LED and a Luxeon headtorch, but it's not what you'd call fun or ideal.

Same here. The bit you want to be most serious about is back lights. Get lots of them. IIRC Cateye make the brightest back light on the market.

The humungous rise on the stem, which on pictures looks like it's fitted to even the smallest bikes giving it a proper shopping bike look, beasty saddle (get a smaller one) and I've seen prettier chainsets. OTOH the frame looks OK, you can fit proper roadie tyres onto it (put some 23mms on it, I run em on the road bike and don't get any comfort problems), or get some knobblies and pretend it's a 29"er. I'd get some mudguards on it too if I were you.

No. You do not need a disk brake. A good disk brake will cost you upwards of £50 if you get Deore, and I doubt the hubs have disk mounts. Or the forks. It would end up very expensive.

A deore V brake or better, an LX brake will pull the front of the bike up like you wouldn't believe. Particularly the LX. OTOH is your brake set up properly at the minute? Has the bike got stupid plastic levers? If either of these things is a yes, then there's your problem. Even crappy copy V brakes work well (as long as they're solid metal), it's just that they need stripping all the time in mud.

The Shimano disk kit is £59, without shopping around. I've got unused mounts on the forks.

Well, it's set up by the dealer, who is a serious bike shop (not Halfords or a chain), and has been in the business for 20 years at least.

Metal levers, Shimano ST written underneath.

Richard

is my local bike shop - don't let the flashy website fool you, it's actually in, basically a barn :-D It's well cool, they also sell the odd motorbike (trials and crossers) and do servicing and repairs and stuff. The guy in there knows everything - I haven't been in for a while, I hope they haven't become all corporate and modern...

There's a Cateye I want, especially if I can fit it directly to the back of the carrier - it has LEDs all over it. It's "the most expensive" when I've shopped online.

The rise on the stem looks fine to me (and the extension provided the perfect place to shove the space-grip thingy for mounting the iPaq); I like the upright riding position since I'm having to go along with my gf's old Raleigh.

A smaller saddle? God no! I might get one of the similar-sized gel types, but I'm not riding around with my arse in the air all the time, I actually want to sit on it, not around it. Maybe proper cyclists like feeling like they're getting a vibro-wedgie.

Proper roadie tyres? I really don't get what's wrong with the tyres at all. I think you're looking at different uses for bikes, tbh.

Mudguards are on the cars, just looking for something appropriate. I think I should have got a carrier with a quick rack system for the pannier; but I just said "Stick a carrier on it" so have something which looks alright and does the job.

Richard

Have you got the 6 bolt holes on the side of the hub for the disk to fit to? If not, you'll be needing a disk hub. And your frame may well use road hubs, which IIRC are a different width to MTB hubs. Which gives you the option of a) stretching the forks to fit a MTB hubbed wheel with a road rim or b) finding a road hub with disk mounts (probably normally for tandems and expensive). OTOH you might have the right width forks to take MTB hubs, and need a custom built wheel.

In that case your options are a) naff brakes, b) naff pads c) too much cable slack between the two brake arms. Or d) a stretchy cable, but I've never experienced this. Or e) you're not pulling the brakes hard enough. If the brakes are naff, I've got a set of Deore V brakes in the shed you can have, if the pads are naff it's a fiver for a new set, and if the cable's slack, you need an allen key and three hands. V brakes will lock your wheels on the road if they're not so nasty that the arms bend, and the pads work.

Bending brake arms and terrible pads aren't that likely. I used to run cheapy pads all the time when I had V brakes and they held up fine for mountain biking and there are hills you can hit 40 on around here. I reckon there must be something wrong with the cable for your front brakes to be worse than the rears - either dodgy routing, a missing ferrule or something stupid like a gear outer being used for brakes (not even sure if that one's possible).

Once your arse gets used to being one a bike (ie, there's some muscle there), a normal saddle doesn't hurt. Whereas big saddles start giving you grief on long rides (apparently). I'm about as "proper" a cyclist as Jade Goodie (Goody?) is a proper marathon runner :).

You go faster for the same effort. It's ace :). Leave the current ones on until they're knackered.

The quick release racks are a bit naff. Can't take much weight etc. Better off with a proper one like you got.

I do that on 3w :-)

cheers, clive

Back brake on a bike does pretty much sod all. Worth having a decent front brake though - you want it powerful enough to send you over the bars, and easy enough to modulate so you don't do it :-)

cheers, clive

Luxeon, or very brave and running dynamos?