Cycling UK Forum

al_yrpal wrote:I am becoming more confident about taking trains, a good way to extend your touring range even just for an overnighter. Early morning train, cycle to somewhere there is a campsite or decent b&b. Cycle back to train, home the next evening. A one pannier job

Al

I'd love to be able to use the train but the nearest station is nearly 20 miles away, there and back is close to what I'm comfortable with in a day, although I did manage a 50 today, 30 before lunch and 20 back home feeling a bit tired now but quite pleased with myself
I do day rides and over the years have pretty well exhausted new routes that I can cycle from home so forced to put the bike on the car and drive to a start point, not something I really want to do but it's the only way to see new places.

I noticed that there was a lot of play in the back wheel on my wife's bike so thought I'd adjust the cones and remove most of the play. I was shocked when taking it apart to find the axle is in two pieces!
I now wonder if I've caused the break. It is a replacement wheel bought about 3 years ago and has a QR axle, all we could get at the time as the wheel it replaced was one with a solid axle.
Because the bike doesn't have vertical dropouts I've had to tighten the skewer very tightly to stop the wheel moving under load. I now wonder if this has caused the failure?
I'm now looking for a 26" 7 speed freehub wheel with a solid axle, not found much available except for really cheap ones on ebay so may be forced to buy a QR wheel again.

From the replies it seems that distance is something that improves with training for most people.
I plan to try and add a few miles to my longest ride and see how that goes. I'm also going to stock up on some 'cake' to eat on the ride, at present I don't eat and rarely drink on a ride. I think the first thing I find is my derrière will start to complain with the longer rides, but we'll see.
One other question is how long do you normally ride (distance or time ) before having a stop?
On my 40 miles I'll stop for a breather after 10, stop for lunch after 20 and stop for the last time after 30. I've once done 20 miles without a stop but it was the derrière that finally stopped me.
By the way I wonder if Mick F's hostess trolley is just to carry his cake in

I'm wondering how some riders manage to do such large distance in a day. I notice from Mick F's post he is doing 100 miles a day even when towing his 'hostess trolley'. He's not alone and I wonder if it's something that comes as a gift rather than something that comes with training?
I'm the first to admit I'm not a fast cyclist but can manage around 40 miles in a day with a little effort. My highest day mileage is 56 miles and to be honest I was shattered at the end and only too pleased to stop.
I got back into cycling 14 years ago but I was never a 'serious' cyclist when younger.
Although now 70 I think I'm reasonably fit and not overweight.
I try to cycle everyday, mostly around 10 miles but 40 some days.
Yearly mileage is around 4500-5000 miles.
All of the above hasn't helped me, so what is it that lets some riders do 100+?

Thanks for the information and links.
CJ, I've been put off the idea of hub gears before by the thoughts of what happens if it goes wrong but here in France we have lots of German and Dutch tourists and a large number of them ride upright, hub geared bikes so they can't be all that troublesome surely? I do agree if they go wrong they aren't as easy or cheap to repair. From what I've read, cleaning and correct lubrication seems the answer for a long life.

Is there a way I can compare the gearing I currently use on my bike with the gearing on a Shimano Nexus 8 hub gear. At present I ride a 24 speed bike but only ever use about 7 of them. I'm trying to find out if the 'jumps' between gears would be very different on a hub geared bike. I'd also like to see how the lowest and highest gear compares to the ones I use.
I'm not sure but is it measured in something called gearing inches? If so how do I do the calculations?
I'm very tempted with the idea of a new bike with a hub gear but can't get to try it before buying so I want to get as much information as possible before I decide.
I'm happy with the gearing on my present bike but would like less maintenance.

Psamathe is quite right about France and dogs. I've been bitten 3 times and my son once, his requiring hospital treatment. The real problem is not the dogs but the owners, dogs need to be under control, for some this is by command but others need to be on a short lead. I think this is true for France and the UK.
If you have a ' dodgy' dog then it's irresponsible to let them run free if the owner knows there is a chance of meeting up with a possible victim.

I use them all the time, yes a little more work but I only repair a tube at home if possible, so no real problem for me. I've had good and bad results with ready made patches, my own ones work perfectly every time.
I started using them when I found I'd run out of ready made ones and thought I'd give it a go and have never bothered buying them again.

I buy Decathalon branded pads, pretty cheap but work OK for me. I've wondered how the curved washers are made. They are so rough (intentional?) that they look like castings or have been grit blasted. Never had one break yet but something else to look out for.

When the banding was first introduced we'd just moved into a terraced house. The banding put our house into a higher band than we'd just paid for it so we challenged it and got the band changed. We told all our neighbours about it and they did the same. Must have meant quite a loss of tax to the council

The OP was 'Do we need teachers?' I think the answer is of course we need teachers but the best teachers are not always found in the classroom.
At the age of 16 I had to start work due to family circumstances and started as a dogsbody in a small engineering firm. An old boy who, was a time served engineer, took me under his wing and I learnt mote from him than all my years in school. The skill needed as teacher is to engage the pupil's interest, difficult in some schools even for the best of teachers. I'm sure successive governments have had their own take on this, Gove is just the latest.

quote="TonyR"

That's a good way to encourage inactivity and future health problems. The problem facing our children is not one of being killed cycling. Its the growing obesity epidemic with obesity set to overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable death and morbidity. Active transport is the most effective way of addressing that. Taking the bikes somewhere on the car will, because of the faff and planning involved, always result in much less cycling than jumping on a bike to get around locally. By taking your approach you have increased the health risk to your children twenty fold and by the time they are old enough to decide attitudes will have been set and damage already done.


I think obesity is a real problem with our young people but more likely caused by diet. I do think a combination of good diet and exercise is the best answer. The diet is easier to manage, bringing no dangers with it. Cycling on busy roads in the South is a different matter.
I used to live in Hampshire and a good friend's daughter was killed there by a careless driver. He's never really got over his grief but still rides his bike. I'm not sure he'd let his grand children cycle with him though.
When my kids were small we used to cycle on the roads as a family but always tried to stick to smaller, quieter back roads near where we lived. Those same small back roads are now busy and I'd not take my children on them today, not sure I'd ride them myself to be honest.

So sorry to hear of your situation with traffic and the kids. I think you're right not to expose them to dangers that you know exist on the roads. Leave them to decide if they want to take that risk when they are older.
Good idea to get a vehicle, load the bikes up and go somewhere quieter and do your cycling there.

No compulsion to wear one here. If you cycle with a club then you are expected to wear one.
The law was changed a few years ago regarding not wearing a helmet on a moped but you still see one or two Velosolex moped riders without helmets.
Enjoy your tour.

Thanks for the replies, I plan to carry on with my inspections as before and hope I spot a potential failure before it goes.
Accepting that frames fail at a lot of places, is it more common in the area of the top tube, head tube or lower down at the bottom bracket area?
Luckily I've never had a frame fail, or met anyone who has, so I'm a bit curious as to the area where most failures occur