Cycling UK Forum

One way to consider it is how much your boss would charge to hire out your time to a third party? My hourly rate is not £50 but that's what would be charged, so if I do £30 work I am technically undercutting myself by £20. If you have limited time then your time to rest after the kids are in bed or to spend with the kids over Christmas is probably more valuable.
Some jobs I will do (cables and brakes), some I should learn to do (Disk Brakes) and some I won't touch (hydraulics).
I suspect in 10 years' time I will do more of my own repairs.

Look forawrd to photos of your solution to the front light/bottle issue.

Received a while ago. Not that I really notice, it’s a long way from what it was 15 years ago - takes me about 15 mins to skim to find a thing I want to read and then read that article. They need more articles on something different/unique and they need to grow up and realise that no one cares about bike reviews in this day of internet where you can have much longer and more detailed reviews.

Late to the party, but to say that i think you made the right choice in fixing the bike up. I am in a similar position to you, my bike was about the same price second hand and I have little money to spend on it when I could otherwise avoid doing so. But when you buy a 2k bike for 500 you expect to have to change cables, brakes/drivetrain (and in my case expect to break the cranks, which is what I seem to do with new bikes due to being so mighty*).
From a cost pov I would do more of the fixes myself, but ime you don't save much even if half the quoted cost was time to do the fix - bike shops often can get stuff cheaper than you can and the moment you cackhandedly break something or find out you bought the wrong part you have seriously eaten in to your margin of savings. Factor in that it will take you twice as long to do half as good a job as the trained expert and the only reason to do the repair yourself is because you want to.
I have the same bottle/light issue you have, being on a SPM. I went with using the bottle bosses at the front for a light and dithering over how to carry a bottle (I think either mash up the seat or use some topeak thing to attach it to the frame below the seat).
I have dyno lights and I strongly recommend them. In top strange fashion I would dither for a week or two about £50 repairs but would buy a new £300 dyno setup tomorrow if my bike lacked it. No reason why you couldn't do it for much cheaper with a modern bottle dynamo and upgrade to a hub dynamo if you ever felt the need. My fav B&M dyno front light is their cheapest model (as it doesn't have faffing issues or the need to switch it on once you have started riding).

*mighty stupid that is.

I shall ask both kinetics and performer for a quote I think.
n0ct0 it’s always hard seeing your bike as it is so much better looking than mine!

Edit - what are the tiller bars you are using, they seem not flat but not angled as much as mine (so as to not hit my knees). Also, do you know how far from the stem to handlebars on the aero bars by any chance?

n0ct0 wrote: ↑14 Nov 2021, 8:21pm The stem in the two pictures is the same one turned 180 degrees.

That is extremely helpful, suggests I just need the bars. Which ones did you use?

Not just stem angle, I'm not sure the headset size is standard on the SPM. Easy to check though and I should be able to engineer this in reverse if I got the bars first ...

i'm considering changing my bike setup from tiller to superman bars - this would allow me to sit forward to look into intersections and would mean I might rider the bike more.
Where would I source parts for this from? Its for an Velotechnik SPM.

^that would be the obvious choice, or you could spend twice as much for something recumbent specific (like a Fastback frame bag).
Or, if you want more capacity. something from Radical

Pimped my ride!
Luggage:

and Mudguards



Mudguards were second hand (from this parish) and my LBS had to sort some alternative attachment for it. Bags direct from Arkel in Canada.

Carlton green wrote: ↑16 Oct 2021, 11:10pm Perhaps I’m looking in the wrong places but second hand load luggers seem to be quite expensive to me, and I’m rather surprised that your Christiana Trike didn’t sell for much more.

Well, we were happy to sell at that price because it worked out to be about cost we paid (including postage) + repairs. I think we paid £200 but had to rebuild the back wheel. I guess it's luck and timing as to the price you pay. Depends on your rush.

Carlton green wrote: ↑16 Oct 2021, 11:22am # a long tail bike - the smaller rear wheel variants give a lower load deck.

Bang per Buck I think this is the winning entry - it gives the most extra carrying vs a regular bike but is significantly less expensive than a Cargo bike.
...
That said, second hand Cargo bikes can be had for cheap, we sold our Christiana trike for £300ish (but buyer had to collect or sort collection via third party).

Another thought (more expensive for sure) would be a Circe Helios tandem adapted to be a longtail. Better for kid carrying/ferrying, has the additional "normal tandem" use and a good long tail hauler.

@UpWrong, we got our Tern HSD (not GSD) derailleur gear bike from Go Outdoors for about £3k. Go Outdoors are utterly crap so we had to pay about £25 in remedial repairs, swap new pedals and then we wanted further accessories. It's not really bang/buck unless it's replacing a car, but it is worth re-calibrating your thoughts on a starter bike now being £1k.

I used to ferry my twins in a trailer - riding fixed gear. Trailers are a really good plan and the added length just makes you more noticeable.

Not sure you want a bike to lug loads AND do the kid run. Kids grow out of being ferried about in a year or two - unless they are in some way disabled (like my daughter) or you want to do long rides with them. In both these cases you would be better off with something like a Tern than something like a bakfiets. We had a Christiana trike, but once we were only riding with one kid in it the weight and size made it not especially useful.

Do you regularly ride with bulky loads? If so then something like a cargo bike would make sense. Otherwise, use a trailer in reserve for those moments and get something that will allow decent load carrying and invest in some different panniers.

Currently my best load carrying bike is the recumbent - speedmachine. I can load as much as I want onto it and it still goes. Obviously something with double pannier rack, maybe a recumbent trike, would be better.

LiveFree wrote: ↑28 Sep 2021, 11:21am I will start to scan around now then for a secondhand one. Thanks for taking the time to post.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224615614744
*cough* not mine *cough*
I would totally have gone for it, had I sold a couple of bikes. It's above a standard starter price, but comes with extras (streamer, bags, lights) which more than make up for it imo.

viewtopic.php?f=40&t=147977&p=1640536#p1640536

If anyone is interested.