Cycling UK Forum

Mine's got gears but they seem fairly pointless, mini-me changes them sometimes but had little concept of what they were for since he rarely pedaled anyway.

I thought it was only daughters that didn't pedal, good to see sons don't either

I have had my trangia stove for more than 20 years now and I like it a lot. They are simple to use and work well in most conditions. They don't work too well below about 4 degrees C as the meths is too cold to evaporate and burn.
Meals cooked on a trangia take time which I think is good as it makes meal times a relaxed affair.

Once on a walking trip my fuel bottle got a small hole in which then leaked meths all over my kit, ever since then I pack the fuel bottle in a separate plastic bag and in a separate compartment of my panniers or rucksack.

Top tip for filling the burner: make sure the flame is out first and the burner is cold enough to handle. I once saw a young scout try filling up the burner before the flame was out, luckily no burns but it was close. We now teach scouts to store the fuel away from the cooking area and take the burner to the fuel to fill up this way it must be cold enough to handle before it is filled up.

We started with a trail-gator which linked my bike to my daughters bike. It allowed me to tow her when she was tired and we were in traffic but also allowed her to ride on her own when on cycle paths.
When she got older and bigger the setup became too unstable so we upgraded to a tandem which also works very well.

Thanks for all the advice, I think we will spend some wet winter days with a map and the internet and start planning a trip that suits us all
I will let you know what we come up with

thanks for clearing that up.

So if I had 48:36:26 and the above derailleur I couldn't change my small change ring to a 24 as 48 - 24 = 24 which is above the 22 specified.

I understand now.

Hi
I am trying to convince my wife and 7 year old daughter to go on a cycling holiday next year, but they think I am mad. Objections include "it will be too far","what about luggage","my saddle isn't comfy","what if it rains, it won't be much fun","the car will be easier","No"

I would like to offer them a holiday which involves cycling but is not totally cycling. The holiday should offer other activities such as swimming, beach, castles, canoeing, play parks, activity parks etc with perhaps the option of cycling to them each day.

Not really bothered if we have a fixed base or a relaxed moving on style tour. I don't think we are ready for a camping tour just yet.

We have individual bikes, and a tandem so we could use either for the holiday.

Any ideas where we could go next summer and how do I convince them that this is a good idea? I have no preference to destination but would like somewhere warm.

I thought about going on mini family cycling adventures over the winter / spring to ease them into the idea, for example cycling to a YHA and back over a weekend. Are there any other things I could do to make my idea seem a good one?

thanks
Neil.

I have been trying to understand some of the terminology used by Shimano when specifying front derailleurs. The two terms I would like to understand are "Min difference between top and intermediate " and "Front chainwheel tooth difference"

I think I understand "Min difference between top and intermediate" simply takeaway the teeth on the two big chain rings, for example the deore model is 12T so chainrings of 48 : 38 : 28 T isn't suitable as 48 - 38 = 10 but a 48:36:24 would be ok as 48 - 36 = 12
But what does Front chainwheel tooth difference mean? example the deore model is 22T
Is this the smallest chainwheel the derailleur can handle?
or the max difference between largest and smallest chainwheels?
or something else ?

Example can be found in this document from Shimano http://cycle.shimano-eu.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/SI/SI_6S80A/SI-6S80A-003-ENG_v1_m56577569830729252.PDF for the Deore model.

thanks
Neil

Sounds like an interesting project.

Brinkmant wrote:Q.1 I was thinking of having a large (50mm x 300mm) strip of constant red light on the rear mudguard, would you prefer a flashing mode?

I think at that size constant would be ok.
It is worth considering having the light so it can be seen from other angles than directly behind.
would the strip be vertical or horizontal ?

Brinkmant wrote:
Q.2 Do you use panniers and if so do they obscure any of the mudguard when viewed from behind?

Yes, and they don't cover the read mudguard.

Brinkmant wrote:
Q.3 Would you feel safe with only a large strip of light at the back of your bike?

No, not in city traffic. I prefer a light high up on either my helmet or jacket which is eye level to drivers, this is in addition to the rack mounted lights I currently have.
On country roads I think it would be fine as long as it is bright enough and can be seen from a great distance.

Brinkmant wrote:
Q.4 What would you be willing to pay for such a product?

£50 seems a reasonable price as suggested by other posters.
Although I already have decent mud guards on my bike so my choice would be £20 for a decent light or £50 for integrated mudguards and light. The tight yorkshire man in me would ask why am I paying for a new pair of mud guards when mine are perfectly serviceable? Would you consider inventing an add on to existing mudguards ?

At the moment I am not comuting due to an attack of lazyitus but when I do my journey is 12 miles along unlit country roads, old railway line path and about 2 miles in the town. I also have a steep hill to go up where my speed drops to barely walking pace so the light should work at slow speeds as well.

Good luck with the project

Is there something else going on here? I'm not very good with F. mech. compatibility, so please check me, but I read this as Shimano specifying 48, 36, 26 for

the problem is I have 48,38,28 which as tooley92 rightly pointed out is a difference of only 10 and the f-mech needs a difference of 12.

thanks for the responses.
I thought about living with the noises but they happen in all sprockets when on the lower ring and I am not happy with it.
I think the best solutions will be to replace the front mech with a compatible one or reduce the number of teeth to a 48,36,24 combination which should work with the front mech.

Hi
I decided to change my front mech from a shimano road 2203 mech to a mountain bike front mech as part of the conversion from drops to flat bars. this was so I could get a better range of integrated brake/gear shifters.

The front drive train is Alivio 8 speed tripple with 48,38,28 cogs.
For some reason I purchased a deore FD-M591 front mech, and I can't get them to work together.

If I set the front mech up according to the instructions when I shift to the large ring the inner guide plate hits the middle ring. If I raise the mech up so the inner guide plate raises above the middle ring then when I am in the small ring the chain scrapes against the bar at bottom of the mech.

The Alivio is listed as an 8 speed drive train and the Deore is a 9 speed drive train so maybe this is the problem.


Are the two compatitable and the problem is my mechanical skills or does the problem lie with my purchasing skills and I bought the wrong mech.

thanks.

I cycled the solar system route last summer and it was all ok and not vandalised.
The surface was varied from compacted stones to smooth tarmac, easily handled by my 700x35c tyres. I find it a nice Sunday cycle ride with the family but just haven't managed to cycle it this year.

Just for information Jupiter is the mega bright star in the eastern night sky at the moment, it is visible from the UK after about 9pm. When viewed through a pair of binoculars you can see up to 4 tiny dots in a line with the planet; these are the 4 largest moons of Jupiter. The number of moons visible varies as sometimes they are behind or directly in front of the planet. It was the varying positions of these moons that Galileo used to argue the Sun was the centre of the solar system and not that earth was the centre of the universe as preached by the church at the time.

When I changed my front pads to Koolstop pads with Oryx canti brakes they squealed and I couldn't do anything about it so I changed back to the original pads. See topic viewtopic.php?f=5&t=39047

We did the Moreton to Kingham section and back on Sunday. the directions and information about the route on the website proved to be spot on and we found the route very quiet and enjoyable.

thanks for taking the time to research the route and publish the website. Maybe one day we will get round to doing the entire route.

the route looks excellent and is well described by the site.
the maps look clear and should be easy to follow.

I am looking forward to trying it some time in the near future.

The only slight problem I can see is getting back to the start on the train with a bike having not booked a bike space in advance, especially if we take the tandem. But that is problem with our modern efficient railway network and not your route!