Cycling UK Forum

deliquium wrote: ↑23 Dec 2023, 4:55pmOr am I just twp, or lacking ‘technique’?


I had a possibly-related problem with a Marin mountain bike which I bought from new. After assembling it from the box, I found the front wheel sliding left and right by a few mm along the axle. I eventually discovered the problem was that the wheel is supposed to have two plastic spacers fitted into the external grooves in the hub. The reason they weren't there is that when the bike arrives boxed-up in pieces, it has two big plastic protection discs fitted to the front wheel, which resemble flat,wide, mushrooms - with their narrow stalks pushing into the axle on the wheel. The problem was that when you take these protective 'mushrooms' out, they take the spacers with them, as they've been jammed into them and it's plastic-on-plastic with no lube.

So if you built the bike yourself, it might be worth digging these mushrooms out of the bin and checking to see whether they've each got a little plastic washer thing jammed onto the end of the stalk. Or if you got it from a shop, go in and tell them you think you're missing these spacers - they might have made the same mistake when they assembled it.

I'm pretty sure the reason derailleurs are ubiquitous is that they're ubiquitous. The masses are used to buying and maintaining them, and the manufacturers will have reaped all the economies of scale to be had, so specifying a hub gear (or something more exotic, like a gearbox) probably both increases costs and reduces demand.

ThisWreckage wrote: ↑13 Dec 2023, 11:38am I watch YouTube videos, I try my hardest... and I still can't get my gears and brakes right.

I feel your pain - I'm frequently going for weeks at a time with my derailleurs just not quite right, e.g. the smallest cog not engaging, hesitation when changing up and seemingly random skipping between gears. The solution for me is to put an hour or two aside to do a 'proper job' when the gremlins attack. By 'proper job', I mean dealing with all the possible underlying causes, over and above just fiddling with the barrel adjuster. For example, when I last had a go at my cross country bike, I found the smallest cog wasn't engaging, despite having completely slackened off the gear cable and completely backed off the high limit adjustment screw. It turns out that my derailleur hanger was bent, and it was never going to be right until I'd sorted this. (I've got a derailleur hanger tool - a big lever that screws into the derailleur mounting thread to measure if it's true, and bend it back if it isn't.) Other underlying problems might be sticky cables (lube or replace) and problems with the lever mechanism (a squirt of GT85 in the lever housing has occasionally sorted a dodgy change for me.)

What I've done is transcribe a couple of the Park Tools videos into basic instructions which fit onto 2 sides of A4, including a list of the non-routine things to look for, e.g. bent derailleur hanger. This always works, but you have to put the time aside to do it properly - clear the space, get your tools out, bike on the stand etc. If you've got one of these underlying problems, you'll drive yourself mad with unsuccessful attempts at fixing it via the barrel adjuster.

HugoF wrote: ↑24 Oct 2023, 2:47amWhat have people had most fun with in my situation?

I'm definitely not in a position to advise anyone on the best bike for big hits at Dyfi or the alps etc, and I've not read anything from anyone on this forum that suggests they are. (I'm probably wrong to make assumptions about other forum members though - they tend to be older, but some may well have done crazy stuff in the past.)

However, from the top YouTube search results of Matt and Jono Jones hitting the big stuff at Dyfi, they brought the following: an enduro, a slope-duro, both downhill and enduro, and a downhill with coil shock. These guys almost always get an uplift, or a tow from someone on an eBike, which is a different world to me - I almost always pedal up, because my number one objective of riding a bike park is the exercise. So for me, a true downhill bike is out - I need more gears and easier pedalling. I therefore err on the side of under-biking, but choose rides within my limits. (Being under-biked is loads of fun - you can get the adrenaline flowing riding a hardtail on a run which would be a bit dull on a downhill bike.)

Your objectives might be different though. If your riding group are all doing big hits and uplifts, then a downhill bike might be a no-brainer. On the other hand, if you're after a one-size-fits-all bike, then something with more gears etc. might be a better fit for whatever trails you've got closer to home. I've ended up with two bikes: for the biggest stuff that I ever do, I use a full-suss trail bike with 130mm travel. My other one is an old hardtail cross-country bike with triple chainset and 100mm forks, and this one is actually my favourite because you can easily ride to the local trails and tackling the techy stuff is a fun challenge.

simonhill wrote: ↑21 Oct 2023, 12:55pm Can I ask what are the surfaces of the NL fietspad, please.

It's a long time since I cycled any.

A lot of them are that red grippy/gritty asphalt. In cities, a lot are herring-bone paving. But I recall being on some in the back of beyond which were packed dirt or plain concrete. Your best bet is to go onto Google Maps, click on the 'cycling' layer, and then eyeball them yourself via streetview. (Not many of the cycle paths have their own streetview data, but you can look at them from adjacent roads.)

zenitb wrote: ↑18 Oct 2023, 4:08pmAm interested in the nature and wildlife, the history and the art.

The Hoge Veluwe national park should tick a few of your boxes: https://www.hogeveluwe.nl/en

So nobody has found anything remotely suspicious about the circumstances in which this 2 year-old thread was resurrected?

Magic beans for sale. £5000 per packet. Form an orderly queue.

Sandhouse wrote: ↑13 Oct 2023, 11:10pm Interesting recent Streets Ahead podcast on disinformation and how it was used as part of the anti-ULEZ campaign:

https://play.acast.com/s/streets-ahead/ ... vel-part-1

Thanks for the link and synopsis. The culture wars have become so pervasive that it's becoming exhausting to try and argue the case for individual issues in the face of a misinformed public buying into anti-science nonsense. If humanity is to have any hope of digging itself out of the mess we've created, the first step would have to be dealing with misinformation. So I'll be listening to that programme. (Radio 4 has also produced some good content on this topic including "things fell apart," "how they made us doubt everything" and "the coming storm.")

ncutler wrote: ↑13 Oct 2023, 5:58pmSuntour SR forks Serial: SF8-M2025-P-26-63. They appear to work, but do I need to do anything ? What happens if I unscrew the plastic caps at the top of the legs ? How can I check their operation ?

Those old jobs aren't true suspension forks as would be understood today. Today's forks are typically configured with a spring in the left leg and some damping gubbins in the right to adjust the speed that the spring compresses and extends so that it actually absorbs shocks rather than buck you around like a pogo stick. Those old forks have just got a spring in each leg, with no damping. The only thing you can do is turn those plastic knobs at the top of each fork to adjust the pre-load, i.e. set how firm the spring will be. As it's a separate spring and adjuster for each leg, you might want to open them both out fully (anticlockwise) and then count the same number of clicks on each so you've got the same preload left and right. You have to rotate each cap by about 180 degrees before it clicks onto the next setting. How stiff you want to set them is a matter of personal preference, but they're only fit for cushioning your hands from being hammered by road bumps, so you'll probably just want to set them as firm as you can get them, to minimise the amount the bike wallows and wastes all your pedalling effort. Definitely not worth putting any more work in than that.

Can't help with the suspension seatpost. I've got a similar one in pieces in my spares box, which came off a Dahon folding bike. After taking it apart without the aid of a manual, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle of reassembling. It was a Biologic seat post, in case you want to try hunting down a manual for it but I didn't find anything via a quick Google search.

Edit: Eyebrox above may be right. I thought they were of the same vintage as the ones in the following video, but on closer inspection of your photos, yours don't seem to have the rotating knobs on top of both caps:

Grldtnr wrote: ↑30 Sep 2023, 1:07pm I will try , I did write to Therma rest, but no reply, I similarly expect the same by 'phone.
The Thermarest was a run-out ,end of line product.
If you know who I ought to contact I'd be very grateful , the mat was the most comfortable, and I didn't slip off it as happens with others I have used.
It must be all of 3 years or more since I bought it, I no longer will have the receipt.
Gerald.

The customer support contact info for Thermarest is here: https://support.cascadedesigns.com/s/?_ ... 1696077368 My experience of using them was the same as @Galactic , i.e. they were very friendly and sent me the repair kit I was after, free of charge, without checking for proof of purchase or warranty dates etc.

Regarding the leak on your NeoAir: I'd search for it by pumping it up and testing it in a bath or other large container filled with water. You don't need to get the whole thing submerged - just do it in sections, and weight it down so you can get your hands out and leave the water to go completely still, so you'll notice any tiny stream of bubbles. If it's really your valve that's leaking, that should be easy to spot. (The soapy water trick doesn't always cut the mustard - especially when you're looking for a tiny leak, which will produce tiny bubbles that coagulate into a little patch of foam which is hard to distinguish from the general soap suds the thing ends up covered with.)

I was an early adopter of NeoAir, and am still using the same one after several years, inflating it by mouth. I did have one puncture, and found the repair patches weren't usable as they'd all stuck together, but that's where their excellent customer service came in.

(And regarding health issues when inflating things by mouth - there's a small risk of a really serious lung infection if you inhale air that's been growing nasties, which was highlighted a few years ago by some poor guy on a diving forum who ended up dying as a result. (https://www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/dive ... 01106.html) However, it was reported that this sort of reaction is very rare, and I always inhale through my nose and then blow through the valve with my mouth - you should be able to do this without inhaling any nasties.)

One other comment: if you ever see the orange 'Crivit' sleeping mats in Lidl, buy them. They're incredibly cheap, but do a great job and are built like a tank compared to the NeoAir. I now use a Crivit and the NeoAir stacked on top of each other in a sleeping bag liner. This makes for a supremely comfortable sleeping system which packs down tiny for transport.

Richard Fairhurst wrote: ↑23 Sep 2023, 10:03pm That definitely shouldn't be the case for the app in general - I've used it on mobile data many times, and I've just double-checked by turning my wifi off and zooming into an unfamiliar area.

I wonder if there's something in your system settings preventing the cycle.travel app specifically from using mobile data. Is there anything in the Settings app on your phone under Network & Internet -> Data usage and the various mobile data settings there?

Thanks Richard. I've systematically gone through any settings which may be relevant (the 2 most likely culprits being 'apps' and 'network and internet') but I've found nothing that allows me to force phone data use or similar. In other apps (Google Maps and, I think, CycleStreets before its offline map facility was withdrawn), there is/was an option with the app's settings to give permission for phone data to be used for the large amounts of phone data required for map downloads.

Over the weekend, I did many tests which confirmed that I couldn't view the map when using phone data, however, I was playing with the app on WiFi earlier today, confirming that it would load maps for the whole of the UK and also France, and I now find that, using phone data, I'm able to zoom in on fine detail of the map for the whole of Europe. I'm not sure whether this is because the app is now working with phone data or it's already downloaded all that detail via WiFi for offline use? (I did try to use the map download facility, but nothing appeared to happen when I pressed the button.) The app is also now doing routing for me whilst on phone data.

Time will tell whether my problem has gone away, but I've update my Google Play Store rating to reflect the fact that the problem I've had is probably peculiar to my phone/Android setup.

Thanks for the app - from the limited testing I've done, it looks like it's snappy, has the most user-friendly interface I've tried so far and has come up with sensible routing options.

Richard Fairhurst wrote: ↑23 Sep 2023, 2:18pm It should be happy with Android 12. My guess (and it's only that) is that you might perhaps have something running on your phone - either another app or even something shipped by Sony - which is clashing with the internal process that cycle.travel uses to serve up its maps. I'll keep looking to see if there's anything I might have missed.

Update: I've just connected to the WiFi in a pub and opened the app, and it loaded a map fine. So it might be something to do with how you're accessing data. I'll test it further when I'm back in an area where I've got phone signal to see whether it now works that way.

Further update: I've just tried using the app with my phone data, and it only shows a small square of map around the area where I'd been using the app when on WiFi. I've got a good mobile data connection now, but it won't show any other sections of map. So it looks like the problem is that the app requires WiFi and won't allow you to look at maps via phone data.

Richard Fairhurst wrote: ↑20 Sep 2023, 4:10pm Android app live!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... el_android

There may of course be teething troubles but it’s mostly there I think.

Richard, thanks for your input via the Google Play store. I've had a think about what conflicts may be resulting in the map not loading, but I can't think of anything on my phone that would fit the bill. I'm using a standard version of Android 12 (build number 58.2.A.10.126) with just a small number of basic consumer apps, and no firewall etc. The only thing I can think as a possible cause is that I don't use WiFi, so all my apps etc are downloaded via network data.

However, I guess a more likely explanation is that I'm using an older version of Android and it's getting to the time I ought to think about a newhandset...

Nearholmer wrote: ↑22 Sep 2023, 2:38pm I’ve been thinking about a very similar application to the OP’s now that the nights are drawing in, a river valley path of towpath standard that I ride home on regularly, and my conclusion so far is that the best option is to fit a second, high power, lamp and only use it for the off-road dark bits. I’m thinking of mounting it low down, to pick out lumps and bumps, but that probably needs experiment.

As outlined previously, leading to much I’ll-informed derision, I currently use my ordinary front lamp tilted down from its ‘road’ position, and that is OK, but it does limit speed a bit.

Only using a super-bright light for certain bits of your journey is a decent approach and, obviously, the main trigger to switch it off should be when you're facing someone else whether they're on foot, bike or in a motor-vehicle. I've followed this approach myself, particularly when coming back along a bike trail after mountain biking at night, however this has flagged up a shortcoming, i.e. you'll very quickly become accustomed to the high illumination, and you're then at risk of forgetting to switch off or sufficiently angle down your mega-light when you come across someone else.

So the approach I now follow is to turn off my mega-light as soon as I get to the end of the mountain bike trails, and switch to a socially acceptable light, (angled appropriately) for the journey home. The mega-light still comes on from time to time when an oncoming bike dazzles me. It's worth noting that I almost never get dazzled by cars on full-beam, whereas with bikes the chance is at least 50:50. My explanation for this is that motorists have a clear standard to follow which they self-police via retaliatory retina-burning when others don't follow it. A lot of people on bikes seem completely oblivious to the fact that they're completely blinding oncoming traffic.

Richard Fairhurst wrote: ↑17 Sep 2023, 7:41pm A quiet public release for exactly that reason - there'll be teething problems to work out, especially with Android where there's a thousand different types of hardware and older operating system versions! I've tweaked a couple of things today based on the app logging and should have a 1.01 version live in a couple of hours.

Great - from the limited amount I'm able to see of the app's functionality, it will be a big improvement on anything else I've used.

Angstrom wrote: ↑17 Sep 2023, 1:34pm I had the C.T app installed automatically on my Android device last night.

Thanks for the heads-up. I've just downloaded it, but on my first play, it looks like it's got terminal problems - doesn't load a map and force-closes every time you try to do anything. Will have a further play and report back if I can get it back on its feet.

(Fantastic username by the way - providing the reference is to the radio show...)