Cycling UK Forum

531colin

Nearholmer wrote: ↑15 Apr 2024, 9:43pm ….,.
My seemingly endless experiments in search of a comfortable hand/arm/neck position on flat bars have taken me to a nearly bolt upright stance, using Jones bars, and I now “get” why he designs his bikes with incredibly short top-tubes. The designers of old roadsters and Dutch bikes knew a lot about this, which I’d certainly not got my head around before ….. you have to sort of “unlearn” drop-bar thinking and modern-convention MTB thinking.

I can’t pedal efficiently with a short reach… how do you get on?

531colin

Duplicate post

531colin

Thehairs1970 wrote: ↑15 Apr 2024, 8:36pm Emailed wheel builder. No reply and anxious to spend birthday money… Good advice re skewers. Is there a locking seatpost bolt too?

Phone! E mail answering is an awful chore and doesn’t get done in a timely manner

531colin

gaz wrote: ↑15 Apr 2024, 7:24pm
r6mile wrote: ↑15 Apr 2024, 4:19pmit will be tricky to fit in a footrest somewhere that it won't interfere with the spinning of the rear cranks, even with the pedals removed.
The solution to that problem is cutting off the crank arms leaving the spiders*.

*Probably best to find some cheap right hand cranks (wanted ad) with a suitable BCD and cut them down, saving the current set for use with crank shorteners in future.

Exactly!

531colin

Sounds to me like the shop doesn’t want the job.
Somebody linked some bars which struck me as too wide for a child

531colin

Phone up and ask the wheel builders?

531colin

Keeping the same layout on 2 bikes is also sensible!
I found I couldn’t do drops where (from the ramps) you go forward for the brakes and also bar ends (on flats ) where you go back for the brakes; I didn’t always have time for a second go!

531colin

LucyEliz wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 2:36pm …Anyway, they're what I've got now, so I need to persist with them for a while at least - ..,,,

In a months time you will wonder what all the fuss was about.
I assume that a helmet (safety equipment) shouldn’t interfere with your view. I don’t wear one, and I certainly wouldn’t wear one which interfered with my view. How would I watch the buzzards and red kites as I ride along?
(Maybe I don’t get neck ache because I spend so little time looking where I am going?)

531colin

My first thought is leave the gear shifter where you are used to and put the throttle the other side.

531colin

Carlton green wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 8:54am
531colin wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 8:12am …..
I think is what we established, pages ago
Without wishing to be controversial the many pages of this thread are a mix of personal experiences with a few bits of physics thrown in here and there. Though I respect the experiences of others I’d really like to see a decent scientific analysis that’s then proven by test results. Short of that I’ll be taking things steady and looking for feedback from whatever brakes I’m using at the time.

Without wishing to be controversial, do you have any experience of disc brakes on bikes? Having used both,
I’m of the opinion that tandem drag brakes and bike disc brakes need a different method of use.

531colin

Drum brakes (tandem drag brakes) dissipate heat into the big heat sink which is the hub, you can carry on doing that for a while before stuff gets too hot.
Disc brakes stop you faster than the old tandem drag brakes, therefore produce a lot of heat in a short time. The way to stop overheating your disc brakes is NOT TO DRAG THEM, but to let them cool for example by alternating front/rear braking.

I think is what we established, pages ago

531colin

Richard Of York 2 wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 7:42am …..The road through Thixendale tests any bikes comfort and durability, ……

The tarmac road from Leavening to Thixendale village was a delight last time I was there, have they been “improving” it?

531colin

r6mile wrote: ↑13 Apr 2024, 10:52am I have spoken to the bike shop and I think I am leaning towards just fitting a footrest at the back, and foregoing the kiddy crank. Which obviously means she won’t be pedalling but I think that’s fine - and feels like a neater solution to a tagalong given we already have the tandem. …….

I think you will be missing some fun with just a footrest.
I think you said you have 3 kids, I reckon it’s worth spending more money if more than one kid gets to benefit; although in my case it was spending time, very little money changed hands.

531colin

You people sure know how to encourage a girl!

531colin

Labe wrote: ↑13 Apr 2024, 7:11pm …………
Yeh the stiff neck thing was me thinking back to when I road a classic roadie back in the late 80’s early 90’s with long stems that actually dropped the bars to almost inline with the top tube (at least mine did) , it seems on these gravel bikes they use a shorter reach stem which actually raises the bars as well.
So all should good ( fingers crossed)

……If that’s the last time you rode drops just get something secondhand to play about with riding position, now isn’t the time to worry about the details of flared drops gearing minutiae and all the other candy floss.

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