Cycling UK Forum

My cycling club have organised on more than one occasion a "car assisted" ride. If you don't have a car or access to one, you can't go on the ride.
Excuse me whilst I go in search of the logic behind this...

In any weather condition, never travel at a speed beyond what your brakes are capable of hauling you back from. Especially when in wet weather conditions, reduce your speed and brake early.
Not to be rude or inpolite, but even my 9 year old daughter knows this.

+1 on wet lube, but my personal favorite is Finish Line Cross Country.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bla ... p-ec018763

I had one of the earlier versions of this back in my mountain biking days before the bike got nicked and despite the knocks, bangs and being plastered in muck, it never once failed to inflate the countless flat tyres I had over 3-4 years.

I'd argue that you also need at LEAST 2 bikes to choose from. One for summer and one for winter as you definately don't want to be getting one bike wet and then having to actually wash it.

Call me cynical, but you couldn't pay me enough to ride one of those carbonstring monstrosities.

It's my ex-wifes fault. Everything's her fault.

A somewhat drastic measure would be to drill a hole at the end of the crack to prevent it going further. How big the hole is depends on how wide your rim is but 3 - 5 mm should cover it.
It is a last resort though.

I hate it. Hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it to bits.
It's so unpredictable lately that any bike ride is a possible swimming lesson and it's messing up my rides with the bike club.
I hate it sooooooooooooooooooo much.

Rant over.

Well, I suffer from unstable diabetes, severe depression, high blood pressure and mild anxiety attacks.
Since I took up cycling again in February, all those conditions have improved quite a bit. I've also since quit smoking (5 months to date) and the doc has told me that if I hadn't cycled so much when I was younger that I'd more than likely have had a stroke or two by now. I'm only 35.
As I'm out of work and a single Dad, I can go visit my two daughters at their mums when finances don't allow me to get them back to my flat and when they are here, we go on bike rides as I've just bought them bikes.
The only friends I have are the guys in the bike club and besides my children and family, the bike is the only other thing I actually care about.
What's my bike worth? More than the £404 I paid for it.

Agree with Robbied196. Have your niece trained in cycle maintainence and general repair before the trip. Even the most looked after bike wil develope problems over time and distance and the last thing your niece or anyone for that matter needs, is for something to break and not having the knowhow to fix it when halfway around the world.
There isn't one single component on a bike thats there for show and the smallest breakage could well cause the biggest headaches. I seriously suggest putting the trip on hold until she knows her bike almost inside out.

Good idea al-yrpal.
I've no doubt there would be endless headaches with joining one section up with another and arguements/discussions on routes between cyclists in their own backyard, but definately a good idea indeed

I've been cycling all my life but have yet to tour, although I'm planning one at the moment so take my advice with a pinch of salt. Read "The Bike Touring Survival Guide" by Travelling Two.
Basically, if you can ride, you can tour. Your level of fitness has nothing to do with it as touring is all about taking your time and enjoying watching the scenery pass by, it's not a race.
The one thing you may need is some level of endurance, but you can build that as you go along.
Unless you're planning on some kind of road race and you're hell bent on winning, relax and enjoy cycling, why else bother?

There's waaaaaaaaaaay too much technicallity here. It's a pedal. Tighten with a spanner, then, whack the spanner with a hammer to get it nice and tight. Job done. It's worked for me for some 20+ years.

This came up on my facebook thingy today and thought I'd share for anyone who needs it.
http://travellingtwo.com/12556