Cycling UK Forum

If the website you are looking at shows no midges for your route then obviously you will not encounter any midges hence no need to pack any repellent. Have a nice trip!

matt2matt2002 wrote:Thanks. I'll have to take another look.
Maybe flying from Edinburgh added the extra.

Good luck. Very envious.
Route,?
Khorog, Murgarb.....?
Bartang valley appeals to me.
Alichur was remote and for me summed up the whole way.

Keep trying is all I can say. I also was getting double prices compared to last year and had given up on going, but have just picked up a dirt cheap single flight for July although it's from Stanstead rather than Manchester. Now just got to work out how to get back... unfortunately the most obvious thing to do is not an option...

I'm male so can't help with women-specific specifics, but I tend to wear baggy shorts over lycra shorts for cycle touring anyway. In hot countries I wear a tight-ish wicking vest and a loose long sleeve shirt of some description. It used to be a Damart thermal vest and charity shop cotton shirt, now it's merino and Rohan but the principle is the same! The vest stops the sweat running down your back, the loose shirt keeps you cool as it stops the sweat evaporating too quickly. Plus you don't need to carry gallons of sun cream.

Men can usually do what they want :o) but what you will probably find is that apart from certain countries with a clear dress code for women, nobody will be too bothered as you are clearly (foreign) tourists and clearly involved in a sports activity. But in any case for both sexes it's about sensing how people are around you - if you think everyone is staring at your junk, dig out those baggies. If you're getting loads of unwanted attention, try covering your sexy shoulders or wearing loose 3/4 pants.

You won't have problems in the 'Stans by the way - loads of cyclists, loads of lycra.

I like the thrust of this thread - can I recommend central Leeds as somewhere with hidden nooks and crannies for the renegade camper looking for a spot where few others have camped before.

Looking at it the other way, surely whatever you have on your head complies with the requirements of ISO4210 so no need to ask the organiser.

Keen Newport Sandals (non-spds) + Restrap toe straps, then socks to suit the weather conditions.

I have tried Keen spd sandals but they are always too narrow. "Designed on the preferences of professional cyclists" apparently rather than on the preferences of the people that might actually buy and wear them. Other sandals don't have the enclosed toe.

Things I don't like about the Keens are the lack of heel adjustment, which would be good for taking up the slack when riding sockless; and the fact that they can honk a bit after a while, although this is easily solved by soaking them overnight in Jeyes Fluid or diesel or whatever is to hand.

Merino-rich socks are warm when wet and not too unpleasant to put on damp the next morning. Icebreakers are good, but I recommend Darn Toughs which for me are sock heaven.

If we don't maintain a distinction between improving the equipment via better tech and improving the human via better drugs then sport is doomed. Races will be won by whoever is able to handle the biggest lines of coke without organ failure.

Also, if they're all working within the rules as you think, why don't Sky just say yep we use drugs within the rules to give our cyclists a competitive edge.

Btw landsurfer it should be "you're" not "your" in your signature, unless I'm missing a joke or it's deliberate or something.

Postboxer wrote:Cyclist with medical condition, has medicine prescribed to him to treat that condition, with the full knowledge of the governing bodies. I'm not really sure why this is a story. A lot of the story also seems to stem from a leak of confidential medical records by hackers, which still doesn't make much of a story, especially unless everyone else's records were leaked too to show whether there was anything particularly unique about the situation.

Doctors of cyclist with medical condition chose a drug not normally used out of hospital which happily gives a performance enhancing boost. If only there were other asthma drugs available that don't suddenly make it easier to ride faster. The other things about this story are how the team dog ate all Wiggins' medical records, and of course the whole thing about that package of non-prescription medicine that was couriered by some bizarre route and method from the UK to France even though there are pharmacies in France.
That's why it's a story.

[EDIT: minor corrections for grammar]

So goodbye then
Bradley Wiggins.
Helmet nazi,
Skoda driver.
Driven by something different:
Triamcinolone.

I know it's all old news, but it's time for a change - "Goodbye then Chris Froome" has been the top thread on this section of the forum for ages now

Just out of interest it looks like a Zendure power pack will charge off my Igaro. I say "looks" because I've never done it fully I've just noticed that the charging indicator lights come on.

The issue with charging any device via USB from a dynamo is never will the dynamo + Igaro/whatever produce 5v, it's will the device being charged throw a wobbler when you slow down or stop moving. Some devices just start up charging again when you get back to speed, some devices want human intervention after what they consider to be a break in supply, which is no good for riding. You've just got to suck it and see, or I guess get an eWerk.

Indian kerosene stove not overly heavy? You'll be saying they don't leak next! Anyway last time I was in India there was a drive to get people off kerosene because of the immolation risk so don't know how that went up north. Petrol is always going to be available, it's got to be relatively clean for people's cars, so if you're not using gas, go petrol.

Do tourists still stay around Connaught Place? Prepaid taxi from the airport to Paharganj, job done. Can't think why you wouldn't use the prepayment desk in the airport..? Don't worry about prebooking bikes there'll be a taxi driver willing to put them on the roof, boxed or not.

I agree that it's a good idea to get out of Delhi but on the way back I wouldn't worry if you had a few days to kill there - the metro has opened up the city so it's a lot easier to explore and it's a modern city now.

If you have trouble with the trains, try the state bus services eg HPSRTC. Gruelling but will get you there, and bookable in advance on line.

I've got the Sawyer Squeeze and I like it. If you do enough internet research there's rumblings of discontent about the Mini and for the weight penalty not worth the risk I thought. The Squeeze fits directly on the top of pop bottles, which was the way I used it, or they supply it with pouches and also a tube and adapters for gravity filtration. It works in the sense that you get water out of it, I assume it's doing its thing. You can let it dry out without risk of damage. If you're wanting to purify then carry litres of clean water you might be there a while, I carry unclean water then purify as needed. Backflushing is via a supplied syringe, which isn't ideal but isn't a problem.

Any old chain will do for a Rohloff there's no point spending money on expensive ones. Rohloff specific chains are a bit like gold-plated HDMI leads - completely unnecessary but someone will certainly be along to take your money off you.

Re chain maintenance, maybe give it a quick wipe once a year on oil change day. As it is with Bangladeshi cycle rickshaws so it is with expensive hub gears: all the chain has to do is transfer force from the front to the back, it's not got to bend sideways or drop off cogs etc. As long as it performs that function it doesn't really matter how saggy, dusty, rusty or oily the chain is. Okay maybe you wouldn't want stuck links due to rust but you get my point.

As I have an even number of teeth I do maintain phase as mentioned by St Sheldon of Brown. I put a little dimple into the side of the sprocket with a drill, there are obvious landmarks on the chainring anyway.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/chain-life.html

And back to the OPs question about long distance touring, my advice would be to replace (or reverse if applicable) everything a month or so before you set off, then basically leave well alone for the next few thousand kilometres.

Magura rim brakes not the problem for touring people are strangely keen to portray them as - do a search on this forum to see the various pro/anti arguments rehearsed, some by me! I'd be more worried about the derailleur drivetrain personally.

(1) As above when setting up you want to wind the pad wear adjuster "back" so that the pads are as far away from the rim as possible, then set the brakes up with 2mm clearance (IIRC). During normal use that gap will increase because the pads get thinner as you use them, you tweak the adjuster to get your 2mm gap back again. Similar to the barrel adjusters on cable brakes.

(2) The oval slot of the booster gets the washer, and the screw goes through both washer and booster to fix it to the brake assembly at the top. On the other side the circular hole just pops over the screw head after you've assembled it all. This set up is so that when you use the quick release to remove one side of the brakes (eg to drop the wheel out) you can bring the quick release side forwards. If the brake booster was fixed on both sides you wouldn't be able to do that.

(3) I agree no need to kink it just use your thumb. As long as you don't let it flap around and keep your end up the oil usually stays in there. If you're trimming it, put the nut and olive on first then trim second and get it assembled quick!

Just to say that setup is usually a bit fiddly and time consuming, especially if you've not done it before. But once it's done it's done. My method is to assemble everything with the pads more or less flat on the rims, then loosen the fixing bolts top and bottom on both sides just enough so that increasing pressure on the brake lever makes the cylinder assemblies first become properly parallel then start to push away until the required clearance is there. Then tighten everything up.

There's no reservoir on a HS33 so for bleeding you need two bleed adapters and two hoses. You need one syringe at least, eBay will provide, so you might as well get two as then you can then bleed back and forwards easily, which you can't do with other hydraulics. Longer hoses eg 12-18" make it a lot easier than short hoses imo. Large syringes also make life easier.