Cycling UK Forum

I have a shared use path locally that leads down from the ring road to the valley floor. It is partly tree-lined and gets rather slippery. About 18 months ago I cleared the vegetation back and swept the surface clear. That improved it for most of the year but it’s looking like it needs it again.
I’m pretty sure the council were just going to overlook it. The furthest point of the path is across open ground and I didn’t clear that because it wasn’t slippery. It’s rather narrow and overgrown now but nothing has been done anywhere on the path since I did my bit.

Received my second jab last Friday.
Was a bit tired Sat afternoon but Wed morning I could barely get my head off the pillow. Every bit off me felt heavy. I could even feel the weight of my eyelids!
Fortunately a couple of ibuprofen sorted me out.

I made this comment last year;
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=143576&p=1572714&hi ... m#p1572714

gxaustin wrote: ↑9 Jun 2021, 6:39am Are you being serious? Did you really need to be trained to do up a QR? Really? Do you now regard yourself as an 'expert', having mastered the expertise required?

Unfortunately there are many ordinary people out there that are not mechanically minded but are charged with that task by dint of modern bicycle ownership. I have lost count of how many bikes I have seen in my workshop with QR cams in the open position and done up like wingnuts.
Likewise, so-called ‘lawyers lips’ may be regarded as a nuisance to the likes of us but given the above fact and that bike owners are not tested for competence, they are a vital inclusion.

While the weather continues to be fair for most of the country in the far south west we have been blanketed in fog for the past two days. Only the low, coastal fringes are escaping the grey blanket.
One wonders if this will affect the arrival of the G7 leaders and their entourage. Perhaps I won’t fill the kettle and put it on just yet.

We had fish and chips yesterday evening whilst sitting on Porthtowan beach. Beats a restaurant meal any day and is a darn sight cheaper. Small f & c and fish cake & chips together came to a little under a tenner and I can’t fault the quality.
Not the best I have ever tasted though. That honour goes to the Blue Dolphin in Sandgate, Kent.

I have a similar set up for my ‘fleet’.
Wall bracket at each end with D-locks and a chain between. I use additional D-locks on the wheels as required.
Nice, compact, versatile system where one bike can be removed without disturbing the others.

And do silhouettes count or shall I start a new thread?

Yes. The Claude Butler 853 I have has the same, or very similar.

They are a strange mixture of frame and components. Tony Oliver was a constructor of very well thought out custom cycle frames and some of the mechanical parts fitted to these two are of a very poor standard.
To a collector they might be worth something but some of their features are quirky and don’t lend themselves to easy maintenance or future replacement.

A good choice of chain set. The rings are 110mm & 74mm PCD so still widely available.
IIRC I have used ISO taper brackets on these cranks with no issues and they take a slightly longer axle than the comparable Shimano triple. It’s a long time ago but I am sure I bought a 123mm for my mountain bike and had to change it for a 128mm.

One of the first rides I ever did out into the wild green yonder was on my brothers Raleigh Chopper. There was a ford about two miles from home and I wanted to ride through it. Well, not surprisingly I ended up with a sore, wet bum and a new entry in my self-preservation skills cranial reference library.

I still find it incredible that people are prepared to travel such distances by car at such a late time in the morning. If I was faced with a 60+ mile car journey to the coast (London to Bournemouth/Brighton, for example) there is no way I would leave later than 8am. If the family couldn’t manage that I would tell em “Either we do or we’re not going!”. Many times I have spent days riding in the New Forest and seen hundreds of cars on the A35 queuing towards Bournemouth way past lunchtime.
When I used to do the holiday run from Hampshire to Cornwall the kids were lifted from their beds into the car in their pyjamas at 5 or 6am, still dozing, for a totally traffic-free, stressless drive and arrival at 10am and a whole extra day to enjoy.
I know lifestyles and commitments can get in the way for many people but surely the point of a day at the coast is to leave all the daily grind and stress behind? By leaving ‘late’ you are multiplying that stress a thousandfold. This sort of thing has been happening for decades and I can hear the comments of all the thousands of drivers now as they approach the queues; “Oh no, look at the traffic!”
You ARE the traffic!

PH wrote: ↑1 Jun 2021, 11:07pm If you're tall enough, buy the Hewitt Tourer on the for sale boards, that's about equivalent to the Condor Heritage with a lot of change. Ride it every day for a month, either it'll be what you want, or you'll know what you don't want.
it's a huge undertaking, and there will also be a huge variation in the days riding - weather, hills, roads, motivation... you'll be lucky to be on the right bike 50% of the time, so you need to be on a bike that'll do most things even if it's not the best at any of them. A fairly traditional tourer fills that requirement.

Spot on. It’s a top-notch bike and comparable with anything you will find new for your budget. Furthermore it is of a design that will readily accept all sorts of modifications that you might want to make to tailor it to your needs.

nirakaro wrote: ↑31 May 2021, 10:08pm The twist-grip shifter works cleanly, the cable is new, and smooth as a baby's bum. The front mech is Altus, and maybe a more up-market mech would need less of a heave?

Anything else?

What state is the mech in generally? Has the cable and it’s outer been replaced with one of a suitable length and cut and finished correctly? Has the front mech been inspected to ensure it moves freely? Lastly, is the bottom bracket a square taper design and been replaced recently? If the wrong length has been chosen and the mech stops adjusted to suit, the shifts can still operate as they should but can be much harder work.
All the above are easily overlooked when doing jobs yourself. Likewise, they are also the sort of bodges that occur in some so-called professional workshops for the sake of getting the cash in the til and the bike out the door.