Cycling UK Forum

Interesting, my experience of Evans is that they actually have cyclists working there and work more like a bike shop than that. But then this predates their purchase by Sports Direct.

I don't tend to buy new bikes for myself (I build my own or get them second hand) but the immediate move of change saddle, pedals, tyres and then maybe handlebars is pretty classic.
That said, I would expect bog standard cheapo pedals to at least fulfill their role. If you sell a bike sans pedals that's fine; if you sell it with pedals, they should work. If you're a shop that sells bikes you should be able to swap a defective pedal with another pedal from your big box of bog standard pedals.

I'm not sure I agree. You get a discount by buying volume and therefore it costs you less and you share some of those savings with the customer - meaning that you get the sale.
Either you have a bike technician to build/check the bike or you don't. If you don't I wouldn't understand why the bike manufacturer (Tern) would have you as a dealer. If you do, then why have an incompetent one when frankly you can underpay a qualified person as readily as an unqualified one.

I also don't think that Tern ship a number of pre-assembled bikes to the UK in boxes, I would assume they ship the parts in much more stackable boxes to be assembled in-situ. Otherwise, why have a local dealer at all?

Just been to my LBS because I couldn't get the gears indexed. Turns out the chain was too short and the gear cable was attached incorrectly.
Frankly, Halfords do better.

Issues included:
Chain too short
Cable attached to the shifter the wrong way round.

Yup, I was never going to figure that out.

(I think I haz the limit screws right.)

If I get the cable tension right to change the high gears (small cogs) then I can't shift to my lowest gear. If I increase tension to be able to shift the lowest gears (biggest cogs) I get a jump between gear 7&9 *small cogs, high gears).

I seem to have a choice between skipping gears or not changing gears on one click near the middle.

(And I was so pleased with my gear indexing on the 7 speed SRAM and all...)

On Friday my wife got a puncture and later that day the Zefal spray arrived. A short confab and we've gone with Big Ben Plus tyres front and back, which , with the Zefal spray as a backup should keep her going. I got a spare tube in case she is close enough to home/work to do a proper repair.
i was surprised at the BB+, they were much lighter and less thick than I expected (I had imagined wider M+s).
To be fair the HSD is designed to stand vertically on the rear rack, which means that as long as my daughter doesn't try to run off the puncture repair is pretty straight forward. But then my wife seems to think that swapping tyres is magic (which is odd as she isn't tech or diy phobic).

I think the zefal is pretty much exactly what I'm after.

Running Big Apples, not sure I would want to try Marathon+, my experience of using them for a couple years is that I still got some punctures (yes, less of them, but when they did puncture it was impossible to fix).

I use tubeless on my bike, which is great. Not sure about compatibility with e-bikes and availability of rims and big wide tyres in 406 size. (also, price)

Just got my wife an e-bike, which has been transformative - a 30-40 min school run now takes 15 mins and from there it's a straight (Birmingham Blue Route) run to work.

Her one concern is punctures, especially with a child (6yo) on the back of the bike; it's not just learning to change an inner tube/puncture repair, it's doing this while managing an autistic nonverbal 6yo (potentially on a deadline for another school pickup).

So, while I realise "learn to fix punctures (quickly)" is the most obvious response, I am looking for some sort of sealant spray that would work - even if it's just for 20 mins to get her home (At which point I can fix it).

Tyres are 20" (406) schraeder.

For the commute I could do with adding a bag big enough to pack lunch (and maybe keys and phone ... and a D lock?). I was thinking of a Carradice Keswick but do like the look of the Restrap Bar Pack (one is a bit and the other is a lot above my price range). I did think that a klickfix would allow me to remove it, but I'm not above just sticking a carrier bag in the bag fixed to the bike.
Never really considered a bar bag before, what should I know?

Photos or it never happened!

If I could, I'd use the trike all the time. But the DF is much more lockable for trips to town and visibility much better for commuting on small roads with lots of cars parked all over the place.
I have no idea about speed as I don't measure it.

Psamathe wrote: ↑26 Aug 2021, 8:20pm Reason for the question was after I skimmed through the "Photos of your bent" thread and a fair number of tadpole bents there didn't have front mudguards.

Like I said, this is due to my penniless nature. A kind forumite has offered me a deal on some second hand ones, but even then cost+unsure it would fit has put me off.

I guess a number of forum trike riders will (like me) be able to choose between trike or bike and possibly just won't head out on the trike in bad weather.

I 've done quite some mithering about this - but I am still sans front guards as I don't ride the trike in the rain (I can use the DF), I can't spare the money for 'guards and (particular to my case) I'm not sure they'd fit well.

That said, I wouldn't be much interested in a QR system for guards. If it's worth taking them off then it's worth an extra 5 mins to take off standard 'guards. (Easy for me to say, I don't take mudguards off my other bikes no matter the weather).

Barclays clearly have a good idea of # of thefts in your area. There is quite a bit of car crime in my area, which I think is why my quote is so much higher.