Cycling UK Forum

I'd better start saving, in the meantime start cleaning it more often and start inspecting the steerer fork/crown for cracks. Now what to get, steel aluminium or carbon fibre

This thread has really scared me. I ride a low end aluminium mountain bike, now 14 years old and coming up to 30000 miles. I'm now more than a little concerned each time I ride it that I could be heading for some sort of mishap due to sudden failure of the aluminium frame.
Is it really a common thing to happen? I know that members on this forum, connected in some way to the trade, will have come across failures but is the percentage of frame failures really quite low?
I'm hoping someone will reassure me as I really can't afford a new bike.

Out riding today in bright sunshine, very cold so wore a woolly hat instead of usual peaked cap. Part of the return route was along a disused railway track and I found the low sunlight flashing through the trees made me feel quite ill, I felt I was going to be sick. It was shining in the corner of my eye and going out of shade into bright sun was quite painful. When I turned direction away from the sun I immediately felt better.
Normally if the sun is in my eyes I adjust my cap to block it out but couldn't do this today. I've never experienced this before but know I dislike driving at night because of the oncoming headlights.
I wonder if anyone else had this happen to them?

Does anyone know if there is a computer available that has the following functions.
1. Total mileage
2. Trip distance
3. Daily distance
I had one from Halfords which lasted for ages until I broke it I liked having these 3 functions as the Daily distance automatically zeroed every 24 hours. It meant I could see what distance I'd done that day, what distance for a 2 or more day trip and overall mileage so I could plan maintenance of chains etc.
I remember it wasn't expensive and was the wired type. Not interested in lots of functions I won't use. I'm using a Lidl one as a stop gap and it's got many functions I never look at.

Hi Mick,
Leave her outside and don't put any food out for her. Wait 'til she's hungry,then put some of her favourite food just inside the cat flap. We've 4 cats and our latest arrival had a thing about the flap until we did this. I think hunger is a big motivator with animals.

Would it not be possible for the LBS's to form themselves into some sort of buying group to put pressure on the wholesaler to bring prices down? I remember years ago something like this happened with the domestic electrical independents. I don't think they could match the big chains but got close enough for me to buy from them and get the service from a small retailer.
Until something like this happens I think the LBS will always struggle as people (in the main) are on much tighter budgets than they were and are looking for the best price.

Cured! I tried cleaning the rims but that didn't work but adding toe in did. Strange thing I've never bothered about toe in before and not had a problem. Next time I change blocks I'll remember to set it up properly.
Thanks for the replies

Can anyone give me some clues as to what might be causing a horrible noise from my back brake. Yesterday, when I had to brake suddenly on a track, I met a horse, the horse took fright and almost bolted.
I've changed brake blocks many times with no problems and always use the same supplier for the blocks.
Before stripping the whole thing down I thought I might get some pointers from this forum.
Many thanks
Colin

Bikes are much poorer value than cars, if you consider how long car parts are expected to last. It's not unusual for wheel bearings on a car to last 100000 miles without being stripped down. I can't imagine any bike bearings lasting as long and generally they need a lot more attention. On the other hand If car electronics start to play up it's often time to scrap it and get another.
What I don't understand is the extremely high cost of parts for both bikes and cars. I've spent my working life in light engineering and try to figure out what makes them so expensive. I can only think everyone, from manufacturer to distributer make very healthy profits

Thanks for the pictures, I can now see it's the one that fixes with the wheel nut. I'll look on line and see if I can get one. Thanks again

I need to change the derailleur on my wife's bike and realise it's not the same fitting as the one on my bike. It appears that it is fixed to a pin on the hanger by a circlip. My question is can I buy a derailleur that fits this pin or is it possible to buy one that comes complete with a hanger? If it's possible to get the latter, would it fit all bikes? It's for an old low spec bike and I'm all for throwing the bike away but she feels comfortable riding it so I'm prepared to fix it if I can get the right part. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi Mick, Im burning chestnut logs from a tree I felled 3 years ago. It burns OK, but not as good as ash or oak but it was 'free' so I'll burn it!
It may be the logs I'm using are dry enough to burn easily but if green wouldn't.

I think it boils down to if you have a source of free or cheap wood. if you have to buy it the benefits are not as good. If more people used woodburners I'm afraid the cost of wood would soar as even here supplies are not unlimited. I live in France and have used a wood stove for over 10 years, the house has been insulated and normally we burn around 10 cu metres each winter. We have, this year, installed night storage heaters, sourced from the UK. With heat from these daytime we don't need to light the stove until the evening.
For a change I don't agree with Mick, we've burnt wood freshly felled and some that has been seasoned for 3 years, so much more heat from the dry wood. I have three separate wood piles and replace the oldest one each year. Yes, quite a lot of work but you only have to do it once and then cut what you've burnt

We had the same problem some years ago, a cat would come in through the cat flap in the night (we had 6 cats of our own at the time) , leave the kitchen really smelly from micturating and on three occasions beat up one of our cats. After the third lot of vet bills I decided to trap the cat by having the cat flow on entry only. The first night I did this my wife woke me at around 2am to say she could hear a cat trying to get out of the cat flap. I went down stairs naked (seems to be the norm for this job!) and into the kitchen. I faced a cat of incredible size, really huge, luckily it seemed as frightened of me as I was of it. I shouted at the cat, just to keep it frightened, opened the back door and assisted the cat on it's way out with a well aimed tap up the bum with my slipper. We never saw the cat again and I still take the view I did the right thing, sometimes you have to be a little cruel to be kind.

We've has a Humax FoxSat HDR for 3 years, no problems at all but it must have the worst remote control of any make. Unlike our sky box you have to use the control almost directly in front of the box to get it work. I thought we might have just got a duff one but a friends is just the same. With our Panasonic sky box you can aim the control in almost any direction and it works.
A shame really as it's a nice product in every other way.