Cycling UK Forum

If it's any consolation it slides nicely into place and is well-engineered, and is only £13 more than a Park FR6C . Do you need to turn the sprocket btw? With a non-derailleur bike it doesn't matter so much how snaggle-toothed and stretched everything is as long as it all stretches together. Especially if you do this: http://sheldonbrown.com/chain-life.html

Sketch of a bike with clear lettering or winged wheel from the past with gothic lettering

You all should have bought Carradice Super Cs
(runs for cover as incoming religious war ordnance rains down)

+1 Drops, +1 straights, -1 butterflies.

I have drop bars. I usually ride on the hoods, often ride on the flats, often ride not holding the bars properly just with loose fists on the foam. I hardly ever ride on the drops. I don't want to ride on the drops. But for a long day's ride I prefer the more natural hand/arm position (without the 90deg twist) that you get from riding on the hoods. I have strong enough hands to brake from the hoods.

With straight bars my elbows start to stick out, and I get the impression that a wider and wider bar would be better and would get my forearms more perpendicular to the bars which would be better for my wrists etc. I have wide straight bars on my mtb, but not for road riding.

Anyway, -1 for butterflies, as I think I may have posted before, because you have a lovely wide position as you fly down hill but when you find you need to brake, the levers are significantly inboard and the whole thing suddenly feels less stable. Unless you can get the brakes to fit on the wing tips, in which case butterflies would be brilliant.

Just to mention that for a cyclist touring in the Lakes can be a lot less fun than you think it should be (IMHO) due to the small winding roads and the constant (tourist) traffic. Probably a bit like Cornwall. If it were me I would go out of school holidays.

35psi is the pressure I run my mountain bike tyres at to avoid pinch flats although it's probably closer to 40psi at the rear.
This seems to be an unhelpful digression into mountain biking (which I think I started!) so I'll back off please. I was just questioning if the principle of "as low as poss without getting pinch flats" is good for slick tyres on roads, and I don't know the answer to that.

MrCharly wrote:If the tyre is pumped up so hard that it is lifted off the surface....

Who put that oh it was you.

How about "a mountain bike with an over-inflated tyre is more skittery on rock garden than the same bike with the tyres at much lower pressures"? Bounce, skitter, same idea, the tyre doesn't wrap round the rock it rolls over it which may or may not cause an unweighting or even a slight lift. Anyway my point was simply that it might not be appropriate to run Paselas at 35psi just because mountain bikers do, in the same way that it might not be appropriate for a mountain biker to run tyres at 95psi just because that's what roadies do.

MrCharly wrote:'Pumped up properly' means hard enough to avoid pinch flats.

Accepted practice for mountain biking where grip is a major issue and you don't want the bike bouncing all over the place, surely not correct for riding on a nice smooth road?

My experience of Paselas is as others have posted above - the sidewalls are the weakpoint. Last time I was in Scotland I was basically on metalled roads with the odd forestry track at the end of the day and I picked up a worrying sidewall cut. Now I use Marathons.

Mrs Hufty has a Velez and gives it the thumbs up. She never seems to overheat in it, which makes me wonder if she is putting enough effort in.

RichardPH wrote:... rang Brooks and they had another in the post straight away for free ... I'm guessing they were staving off bad publicity.

Regardless of whether or not the product keeps breaking and isn't fit for purpose, isn't that good customer service rather than the staving off of bad publicity?

Mosquitex. Haven't seen it in shops recently but looks like it's available on line. Brilliant stuff.
Other slow-release DEET preparations may be available.

GetMeOnMyBike wrote:I recommend you miss the (is it?) the A82 that does up the west of Loch Lomand and through Glen Coe. can be a nightmare as cars blast past you at 60 or 70 mph. Done it a good few times but never again now.

There is a cycle path/cycle route along the worst bit (alongside Loch Lomond), for bikes going in both directions. It's still not pleasant due to the traffic noise and the general feel of the area but at least it's safer than being on the road. Not that you should feel that you shouldn't ride on the road etc etc.

This news is shamelessly lifted from a recent post by Danneaux on the Thorn Cycles forum but it's worth spreading...

Rohloff rapid fire shifters:
http://www.mittelmeyer.de/Fahrradteile/DSG-Rohloff/dsg-rohloff.htm

Rohloff/Magura dual control shifters for drop handlebars:
http://www.mittelmeyer.de/Fahrradteile/BSG-Rennlenker/bsg-rennlenker.htm
(not sure if it's for rim or disc brakes)


Go Mittelmeyer!!

+1 for Ikea bags. Not the ones you use in the shop, but ones with zips along the top made out of the same blue material, that you buy for a couple of quid. The trick is to get somebody else to go in and get them for you, rather than face the horror yourself.

geocycle wrote:I'd certainly avoid anything hydraulic on a long tour in cold temperatures.

Not done a long tour in cold climates with hydraulics of any description but spent a lot of time mountain biking last year in the snow when it was sub zero. Had problems with gear cables icing up, had problems with freehub pawls freezing, had problems with cleats and pedals turning into ice balls, but didn't have any problem with the hydraulic disc brakes.

Would just like to add that IME open system hydraulic disc brakes are more finnicky to set up than rim brakes as the clearances are so tight between pads and rotor. Even with post mount brakes that dreaded scything noise can develop mid-ride once per wheel revolution as the pads just catch, and there's no easy adjustment. On a day ride it's just a pain, on a tour it would drive me mad. With rim brakes you get bags of easy adjustment. On the other hand with discs you can ride with a pringled wheel as long as it fits through the frame.

When I look at cable disc brakes I see the worst of both worlds, but this is not based on any direct experience!

Only other thing to add is that I've spent loads on Marta disc brakes and also spent £40 on an emergency shimano jobby that wasn't even part of a range, and they all work the same. The Martas have a nicer method of fixing the pads and use magnets instead of a rubbishy spider to get the pads to retract fully, but can't say I would pay the extra if I was buying them tomorrow.

Oh and of course Vs and cantis aren't that bad when they're set up right.