Cycling UK Forum

I would suggest some sensible stretching exercises. This weeks Cycling Weekly had a good one for the hamstrings particularly the part of the muscle near the knee joint. Have a look at the Cycling Weekly website for others.

I do take Glucosamine, but I can't be sure if it helps much. Last year I needed some physiotherapy for my dodgy right knee, but touch wood I seem OK now. I'm more careful about stretching than I used to be. Also recently I changed to clipless pedals. For me they don't seem to be a problem. Mind you, it took some getting used to. I suspect you have to "reeducate" your muscles after years of toeclips. Positioning is important to get right. Also I have tried to gear down a bit and cadence higher. After all, if it works for Lance, why not? I am one of the better hill climbers in our club, even though I don't get out as much as some of our members. I like to flatter myself that as I have got older I have improved my technique (never too late). When you're young you feel no pain- so you can get away with bad habits. When you get older you have no such luxury.

Even though my physio tells me I have some roughening under the kneecaps, I can still, as Lance would put it, kick ass, and I've got plenty of ass to kick...sorry, I couldn't resist that. Mind you, if you keep having probs, a visit to a good sports physio is IMHO well worth it.

Good luck

Good job derailleurs don't run on Microsoft Windows- some of the common Windows errors don't bear thinking about - "Fatal Exception Error" message with the dreaded Blue Screen of Death springs to mind.

Now I've said this, someone will probably tell us that someone has done this already. If anyone who makes bike components is reading this- please don't do it!

What's middle aged? I will hit 50 in another 3 years. Didn't stop me from wearing yellow lycra to York Rally a few years back. Cut across Leeds on the way back- no hassle from anyone. Yet I've had comments when wearing black lycra and red jersey- from idiot youths in overpowered flash motors- no surprises there.

Oddly enough, today's kit is in some ways not as OTT. Black lycra is not these days the skin look a la 1980s. But lycra is certainly comfortable, particularly with Coolmax and stretchable inserts. I wouldn't go back to wool/acrylic and natural chammy- no ta. And the winter kit today is fantastic compared to 25 years back, when I really started to get into club riding.

I am told by a club member that when they were on holiday in France recently they spotted a couple riding up the Ventoux in the latest matching team strips. When they took off their helmets when having a breather at the top, they were at least in their seventies- respect!

If I can get away with lycra at that age, I'll count myself lucky. And if I'm riding at the same level as now...well you can hope, if you keep getting the miles in.

1. Excellent wheel builder- they only go out of true when the rims are shot.
2. Very helpful
3. Reasonable service charges
4. Competitive prices for new bikes.

I have to say that shops this good are, IMHO, rather thin on the ground.

West Yorkshire has a good selection of cycle shops- some of whom are very good. However, in other areas, you are less fortunate.

Finding a really good cycle shop is a bit like trying to find a really good record shop- increasingly more difficult. Even with the good ones, spares can be thin on the ground. The last time I wanted a spare washer for my track pump, I had to phone up Whiskers for it, along with a few other things to make it all worth while.

If and when you alter your gearing setup- don't forget that the top gear should be usable. If you can't efficiently pedal in top, ie reasonably high cadence rate, the gear is too high. That means you can have a mountainbike gearing setup on a road bike and leave people for dead on hills, because you will be able to cadence fast in small gears. I do this myself- means I can beat many people up hills, even though I don't get out as much as they do.

Current new Tifosi CK7 Audax has 11-32 cassette and 44-32-22 triple. You can do anything with this setup in comfort. If you can pedal a bigger top than this efficiently, maybe racing is for you!

Brooks saddles vary quite a bit. I have a B17 narrow on my ageing Claud Butler Dalesman which now has a bit of sag- never as good as on my other Claud.

My new bike has (quel surprise) a B17 narrow. Looks like it's a good one- very gradually breaking in with a little proofide.

I've heard that Swallows and Swifts can be dodgy, though. Pity, when you consider what they cost.

In the dim and distant days of the early 50's, my dad had his bike stolen in Glasgow. Got the bike back, minus the Brooks Swallow. Obviously a bike thief with good taste, if lacking in moral fibre...

Thanks to a posting from thirdcrank reminding us of this fact, I have requested this item at my local library. I last read this 20 odd years ago!

Link for the publishers is below.

http://www.mercianmanuals.co.uk/index.htm?books.htm

thirdcrank wrote:It's hard to see how 3)4)5) are exclusive to women.

They aren't. But what is true is that women are a rather higher percentage of the workforce, and that workforce is often doing one form of office work or another. In my case, I have a customer service role. Most of my colleagues are female. Can't see most of them cycling to work without showers somehow. And they wouldn't cycle any distance in work clothes- this is pure fantasy. In West Yorkshire, in winter? In this respect I think CTC publicity on this subject has shot itself in the foot.

In the 1930s', when my mum was an active cyclist, a lot of work was manual- including hers. You didn't need showers etc because a bit of body odour was not a problem if you were working in such places as textile mills and foundries. People just accepted it. Nowadays they don't. Life has changed, and facilities for cyclists have got to change with it.

11 speed for tourists is probably completely OTT but there again if it works well, what's not to like?

I still use screw thread blocks on 2 bikes, but only because they have Campag Tipo hubs with old style 6/7 speed dropouts. My new Tifosi has 9 speed 11-32 with a Deore XT triple at the front- range of 18" to 105". Where I live you will use that dinky low gear- although I do use the one just up from that- around 22"- a lot more.

The issue is wear/reliability. At this stage we don't really know enough yet. Let the racing types with money destroy them first- then I just might (only said might) be tempted.

As far as wheels are concerned- you can't beat a good wheelbuilder. My wheels only tend to go out of true when the rims are too thin to maintain integrity. In fact I almost certainly left it a bit too late when having a rebuild last time- part of the old rim gave way when the spokes were being taken out prior to rebuilding.

I'm sure that this has all been said before back in the days when derailleurs were white heat of technology stuff-"this 5 speed stuff will never catch on, I'm sticking to 66 fixed/Sturmey 3 speed" etc etc.

One big problem is gear changers now. STI levers are great when they work, but downtube shift is very simple and lasts forever. But there again I still use toeclips on my old bikes- but not for much longer as my old shoes are wearing out. C'est la vie..

When my Mum, now in her 80's, was in her late teens, she cycled with a friend to Blackpool overnight from Huddersfield. This was in the late 1930s. Obviously things were different then. Mind you, she also turned up at a club run with a new bike with the then white heat of technology, the 3 speed derailleur. This resulted in all the club members clustering round for a look at this amazing new technology. So maybe she wasn't all that representative...

If you look at the old movie clips and photos of the day, there was no shortage of women cyclists.

The difference now is the huge levels of traffic. Mind you, the driving standards of the 1930s were almost certainly pretty terrible- it's just most people didn't drive then.

As far as the personal safety angle is concerned- I'm not convinced it's much different. Certainly there's more publicity about the risks. But back then, people probably didn't talk about them. And of course, people are encouraged to think cars are inherently safer for personal security.

As far as women from ethnic minority communities are concerned, I note that in Bradford there is a project that has encouraged Asian women to ride bikes. In my experience, young Asian males are just as obsessed with cars as their white counterparts, so it should be interesting to see what the ultimate outcome is to this project.
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I have had a Schwalbe valve come away from the tube when removing the track pump connector. Since then I have been careful how I removed said connector (on Silca Pista track pump)

Quality control is not what it was. It's just the way it is these days.

Depends on what you mean by "touring". If you're going round the world, then a quality steel frame is almost certainly the best choice. But for light touring, why not tour on alloy, carbon, or titanium? After all, light touring is only really the weight equivalent of too much time eating chips, supplemented by a few beers. It's just the way the weight is distributed that's the issue. That's why, for short trips, the Carradice Camper is the best bet. A lot of quite speedy lightweights will accept panniers.

Some old style touring bikes were not that well set up anyway. My ageing Claud Butler Dalesman is OK with either a saddlebag or moderately loaded panniers. But stick a barbag at the front and the handling is not great. A lot of these "touring cycles" were really for leisurely clubruns, particularly if you might be going offroad.

As long as it does the job, it's not all that important, if you're not doing heavy duty touring abroad. My most enjoyable tours were on a Sun Stanga- no 531 at all, in the late 70's and early 80's.

Don't know anything about the Minder episode.

But just for light relief, probably one of the most anti cycling pieces is to be found in "Carry On Camping"- Terry Scott and female partner (don't know the name) riding tandem. I think the scriptwriters really hated cyclists..

This is an interesting story told to me this morning by a local cycle shop.

He's stopping selling Bianchis, because he has to wait up to 6 weeks to get them. Apparently Bianchi do quite a lot of business with Evans, who don't have to wait as long.

2 people in our club have bought Bianchis from this shop- almost certainly by personal recommendation (quite likely me).

What a pity small LBS's are being treated like this- with the credit crunch, who knows how many will disappear.

As I have 2 bikes that could do with dropouts widening, I would be interested in the outcome.

As far as stealing bikes goes- someone I work with had their smart mountain bike nicked from our college bike rack which is outside in the car park. It was noticeable that an overseas student managed to use a basic steel drop handle bar Raleigh for a year with noone attemping to nick it, yet you could have broke through the small cable lock he was using in seconds. Personally I would not think of riding to work without secure cycle parking, because although the 2 previously mentioned bikes are 24 years old, I would be gutted if they were stolen- it's not the money at this stage (the pump on the bikes is probably worth more), it's just the heartache.