Cycling UK Forum

Not sure if this is already widely-known in the cycling world, but it was news to me when I found out about it a few weeks ago:

There is a major design flaw with most disk brake set-ups. Basically, the high braking forces generated by disks act downwards on the axle and puts the quick-release skewer under a lot of stress. It's possible for the skewer to become loosened after repeated braking and when the lever comes undone it's possible for your wheel to pop out of the bottom of the forks.

I found this to be a problem on my hybrid - after I'd done some hard braking, I'd often find my front wheel had shifted slightly in the forks and occasionally the skewer lever had loosened.

There is only one simple modification you can make to reduce the likelihood of disaster and that's to replace your "boutique" quick-release skewers with either non-quick-release or the better "enclosed cam" type. Sheldown brown explains the difference between the two types here:
http://sheldonbrown.com/skewers.html (This article also includes a link to an explanation of the disk brake problem.)

The manufacturers can do two things to completely cure this problem: either mount the caliper on the front of the fork (thereby changing the downward braking pressure on the skewer to an upward pressure) or design the wheel drop-outs so they point forward or backwards (rather than down.)

Glad to help. If you haven't already done so, update the 'ROM.' If you don't know how to do this (or even what this means) send me a PM and I'll email you an idiot's guide. On this phone, updating the ROM is the equivalent of swapping a Lada for a Ferrari.

It's obviously a corporate safety policy (i.e. keep pedestrians out of harm's way) being poorly interpreted by the staff.

If you wanted to take it further, you could write to McDonalds HQ, but the problem is that if you're successful, you'll be winning the right to a slightly more convenient way of buying <inappropriate term removed>.

Malpas wrote:As a slight downer you may need to think a little more if you are likely to ever pack the bike for a plane trip.
The disks themselves can get bent in transit and that would be a real problem when you come to reassemble.

REALLY? I know baggage handlers aren't the most gentle of souls, but surely if they're managing to bend a thick stainless disc then the rest of your bike will be swarf.

Cunobelin wrote:You may also be "roaming" which means using another network, and their charges may not be comparable with your contract ones.

Good point, and that's reminded me of another thing - your phone probably used Assisted GPS or 'A-GPS'. This basically means that in order to pinpoint where you are more quickly, it checks the information from the nearest mobile phone masts against a database of where they are. In order to do this, it has to use the internet to check that database. So every time you use A-GPS whilst you're abroad, your phone needs to use a little bit of data, and this will prompt the phone to either ask for credit or warn you that you're about to incur high roaming charges.

A-GPS can be switched off through your phone's menu. If you just use normal (unassisted) GPS, it will take a lot longer to get the initial fix on where you are, but it will be free of data charges.

manybikes wrote:To DevonDamo,
Thats very interesting about Nokia maps. I have the same system BUT when ever I have tried to use them when not in the UK I am prompted to buy airtime before being allowed to go on-line. I can't seem to get beyond that and did not want to start spending too much. This confused me as Nokia said their maps were free for life. (Nokia 5800. Do you have any recommendations for specific settings? I am obviously getting this wrong. Thanks
Phil

I'm assuming that what's happening is that you've not already downloaded the maps for whichever country you're visiting. That means that when you get there, the only way to use Nokia Maps is for your phone to dowload the maps using the phones data connection, and that usually costs a fortune when you're abroad. If this is the case, the solution is to download that country's map to your phone while you're still at home:

I haven't used a Nokia phone for nearly two years, but when I did, the way to install maps to your phone was via 'Nokia Ovi Suite.' If you're not familiar with that, its free software from Nokia which you run on your laptop to connect your phone via USB. It's used for installing music, applications and maps. Once you've got it running and connected your phone, you just click on the 'Maps' button and select whichever countries or voice languages you want to install.

tatanab wrote:Some of the smaller tents in the Hilleberg range have optional full mesh inners which can also be erected on their own with no fly.

Good point - I forgot about this option. My 'Mossie Dome' tent is designed for arid outback conditions and is just a mesh tent with no flysheet. (The silver flysheet is an optional extra.) The Hubba Hubba can also be erected without the flysheet, but you have to buy the MSR tent footprint to locate the poles in order to do this (or do what I did and make your own footprint out of a sheet of tarpaulin.)

Obviously, you'd need to have a fairly reliable forecast of dry weather before going to sleep without a flysheet!

reohn2 wrote:

Flinders wrote:............Hard sometimes to remember that the next driver you come across should be treated with the same courtesy you've just had ignored, but I try to; I try to remember the far larger number of drivers who are friendly and courteous.

Yep,it's worth remembering the bad guy's are in the minority

Too right. It's too easy to become a militant because of experiences with a few idiot drivers, only then to go round micturating off everyone else, giving all cyclists a bad name and turning an imaginary war between road-users into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There are two options:
1. Catch, torture and kill the individual motorist who has provoked your rage.
2. Calm down, meditate, light a few joss-sticks and tea-candles on your handlebars, and treat the next motorist you come across as a potentially reasonable individual.

For me, the number one criteria for a mobile phone on tour is price. If it costs over £200, I'd be paranoid about theft, loss or water-damage etc.

Buy an 'Orange San Francisco.' It costs less than £100 (as little as £70 from Orange if you, or a friend, has an Orange pay-as-you-go card), and once you've updated the Android software it performs as well as a phone costing six times as much. (If you want to go down this route, Google 'modaco android' to find the specific forum for this phone which explains how to update.)

It's an Android phone, and therefore runs a version of Google Maps which does turn-by-turn navigation free of charge. If you really don't want the voice guidance, you can just use it as a map. The latest version of Google Maps allows you to download map areas onto your phone whilst you're connected to your WiFi at home, so you won't have to use your phone's data package while you're on tour. There are loads of other free cycling navigation applications for Android, some of which use OS mapping and can use bike paths. Most of them require you to have a live internet connection as they download the maps while you're on the move. (This is the beauty of Nokia Maps - it's one of the few completely free sat nav applications which can store an entire world map on your phone.)

The San Francisco has a super-bright screen which I've been able to use whilst touring Brittany at Midday in Summer. You may need to shade the screen in direct sunlight, but this will be the same for any screen (apart from the black and white ones used on Kindles.) As with all big-screened smartphones, battery life isn't great. You'll have to either find a way of charging on tour or buy some spare batteries off ebay. I've got three spares for mine, and that will last me for a week, including 2 or 3 hours sat-nav use per day.

Mattie wrote:Can anyone suggest a good hot
weather 1 man lightweight tent ? looking at the MSR Hubba, or MSR Zoid.
I am in Italy at the moment and it is backing hot. The TN Laser Comp that I have was fine in France,Germany and the heavy rain in Switzerland. But here I am forced to just use the outer, with the door pegged open, and just the groundsheet (sarounded by ant powder !)

I work at several music festivals each summer, where a hot weather tent is essential. You're often getting to bed around 6am in desperate need of sleeping off the night's excesses, and then by 9am your tent has become an oven...

The two factors which can make a tent bearable in the hot weather are:
1. Reflective material, ideally silver. (People try to achieve this by attaching foil space-blankets to their tent, but it's a rustly, fragile compromise.)
2. Two opposing entrances which can be opened to allow a through-draught. (Whilst still keeping a layer of mesh between you and the biting beasties.)

I've now got the perfect tent which ticks both boxes however it's too big for cycling and it's only available from Australia. (It's the 'Mossie Dome 3' by Black Stump Trading of Clackline, Western Australia.)

For cycling, I use an MSR Hubba Hubba. It ticks box 2, and as far as Box 1 is concerned, mine is bright yellow, so not too bad. I'd definitely recommend it, but you might prefer the Hubba if you're really serious on cutting down on weight. (Also, MSR have replaced the Hubba series with the Carbon Reflex series, which is even lighter.)

As an aside, I'm sure there'd be a huge market for a hot-weather tent. Nobody makes a cheap-but-good-quality, lightweight, silver tent with two doors. If you look at the music festival forums you'll find pages of discussions about the best way of pegging space blankets to tents. If someone commissioned a chinese factory to knock out a few thousand of them, they'd sell like hot cakes next spring.

As far as I'm concerned, if you are attempting to 'take the lane' and a car can still get past you, it probably wasn't so narrow that you needed to take the lane in the first place. Taking the lane may prevent you getting trapped in bottlenecks up ahead, but you're on a bike - you can get round that obstruction when you get to it. You may well be legally justified in what you're doing, but you are likely to provoke (illegal but forseeable) bad driving in the drivers behind.

I'll happily get into a proper bust-up with a moron driver, however my default mode, when I feel I'm holding up traffic, is to try and assist people getting past me. I even take this to extremes on long steep hills by hopping onto the pavement (if it's empty) - the joys of ridng a hybrid. (I've done this all my life and had many police cars pass me up hills. I've had a few grateful waves, but never any grief for being on the pavement.)

If I'm concerned that a boy racer is about to come needlessly close to me on an overtake, I'll pull out a couple of feet so that he can still get past, but I have a bit of wobble-room. (The problem is that you need a crystal ball to decide when to do this - and I only have a mirror...)

On the occasions where I do take the lane, the only way anyone can get past on either side would be by knocking me off.

(Edit - all this is in relation to basic single-carriageway roads, where I do wince when I see a line of cars crawling along behind bikes riding two abreast etc. It's not necessarily relevant to the OP if he's dealing with complicated multi lane roads, junctions or approaches to roundabouts.)

I think I've got the same seatpost as the one you're describing. I also found I couldn't put my new saddle 'nose-down' enough, but I solved this by using a file to extend the slot in the top casting. (I realise this won't solve your problem with the Brooks as the saddle is actually touching the casting.)

If you have to go for a new saddle, I'd strongly recommend a noseless saddle. I'm into my 2nd week of ownership (IST Touring) and I absolutely love mine. It's ridiculously comfortable, provided you can get it angled down far enough. The only discomfort I've felt has been at the end of my first 50 mile trip up onto the moors and back, and that was probably just the muscles in my backside getting used to saddle-contact in a different place. Since then, it's been fantastic. All the scare stories about lack of control with these saddles are unfounded - I've bombed round some hairy corners and had absolutely no problem. You probably do put more weight on your wrists as you lean against (as opposed to sitting on) the saddle, but I can't say I've noticed much difference.

If you're after a one-size-fits-all solution for you and your wife, this must be a strong contender. A traditional saddle has to fit up between your thighs, and therefore needs to be the right size and shape for the rider. With my saddle, your bum simply rests on top of a pad, so it really doesn't matter what size or shape it is. I've seen some even more basic-looking ones than mine on ebay, and I suspect they may be even more comfortable. All you need for a mega-comfortable bike seat is a flat gel pad at the right angle.

Further to my earlier post, I've manned-up and used a round file to lengthen the slot in my seat-clamping mechanism, thereby enabling the seat to be angled as nose-down as I want. The result is that I can now adjust my IST Touring saddle the way it's supposed to be. The seat is now angled down at a crazily steep angle in relation to the seat-post, but this is counteracted by the seat-tube on my hybrid frame leaning back quite a lot.

I've been out and about on it all day and it's incredibly comfortable - an absolute pleasure to use. I've experienced no handling problems whatsoever - If I needed to apply pressure to the side of the saddle with my thigh, then I can slide back up the seat and do it. It may just be the buzz of having a new toy to play with, but I swear the seat puts me in a posture where it feels more natural to apply some power - I've been pulling away very fast.

I agree that a properly-adjusted traditional saddle is also comfortable, and shouldn't leave you squashing your dangly bits. However, this just feels like the right tool for the job: the only points of contact are your sit-bones, and the padding there is superb. There's absolutely no rubbing anywhere - other than your sit-bones on their well-padded perch, there are no other points of contact.

I have two bikes. I'll replace the seat on the other one as soon as I find a non-US retailer (as I got stung with customs charges and other fees buying the first one off ebay.)

I'm so impressed with this little beauty that I've just bought from Lidl that I thought it was worth resurrecting this thread:

http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_uk/hs.xsl/index_22843.htm

It cost me £3.99 so I was expecting it to be a chocolate teapot. However, I've just given it a test run and and it clipped onto the valve and formed an airtight seal and got my tyres to 90 bar without any drama whatsoever. Connecting the valve is a lot less fiddly than using my posh Specialized track pump. The only three drawbacks are (1) it's fairly 'low-geared' so you have to do a lot of pumping to get the pressure up, (2) it's slightly too bulky to use as a frame pump (15cmx10cmx7cm) and (3) the pressure gauge reads 10psi under (compared to the Specialized.)

I'd have no hesitation in strapping it to the top of my luggage and taking it on tour. If I didn't already have a big track pump, I'd be perfectly content with this. Well worth a punt.

I read the same article, and being a worrier, got straight onto ebay and bought an 'ISM Sport' noseless saddle. Unfortunately, it arrived last week just as I began dying with the flu so I've only been to the shops and back on it so far. It seems to have a fundamental problem - it can't be angled down far enough, and sits almost horizontal. This means that the little prongs (the two ends of the saddle's 'C' shape) poke into the back of your thighs. I'd read about this problem on another online review, but thought I'd chance it anyway. If I can overcome this problem, I think it will be quite comfortable - I always try to adjust my saddles so i'm resting on my sit-bones, and this one provides a nice fat gel pad in only that area.

My next port of call will be to my local bike shop to try and find a seatpost which allows you to angle the seat forward (i.e. nose down) far more than a standard one. Any ideas?