Cycling UK Forum

I've got Randonneur Pros on my utilitized/tourified mountain bike. They're ok but not brilliant. Seem to resist the fairy quite well and roll ok, but not brilliantly comfortable and don't feel as grippy as could be in mud or on wet inspection covers.

This site http://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com was mentioned in another thread and gives Schwalbe Thunder Burt Snake Skin as the MTB tyre with the lowest rolling resistance, but how that compares with non-knobbly 26"s, I don't know.

https://oldstersview.wordpress.com/2008 ... ndem-bike/
(found via road.cc)

Samuel D wrote:

mnichols wrote:I'm pretty certain I would stick with Continental GP 4 Seasons (despite the price)

Those tyres are highly rated by those who use them, but they are far from the fastest tyres available. If you are determined to go fast, you’d be wise to choose a faster tyre (e.g. Schwalbe One, Vittoria Open Corsa CX (not available in 28 mm), Continental Grand Prix 4000 S II, etc.). You could save around 10 watts at 20 miles per hour by doing that – a greater difference than any aerodynamic concerns between 25 mm and 28 mm.

I want to know where they got GP4S for only E39.95!

Before breakfast! Well, that's something else!

Certainly no country is a monoculture (except, possibly, some very small islands) but that is not what I was referring to. Even concepts which seem to be shared widely will mean different things in other places which share the same general heritage, let alone in those which don't. For instance, Christmas will have different associations in different parts of Europe, never mind in places where the basic culture is non-Christian; and of course it will mean slightly different things to eg a Muslim, a Jew, Christians of various flavours, secular people, within one place. But there will be basic frameworks referenced as a generality.

More relevantly to the topic will be different expectations of road usage; eg, if involved in a road accident, is the expectation that people stop to help or run away? Do you expect people to follow rules (which ones?) and so on? These expectations are, of course, often at odds with whatever the law might say.

simonineaston wrote:I've had brazing work done by them on several projects and I've always found their staff to be efficient and effective. Jobs are discussed patiently and the work carried out exactly as discussed. Not the cheapest, though, but you get what you pay for.

The newly worked on / painted frames I've seen hanging up waiting for collection have looked absolutely lush, as we say down here...

Absolutely lush? Gert lush!

If I were to choose a country to live in (and I have lived and worked abroad in two separate countries for a total of about 13 years), I would first like to learn a little of the culture and language to make sure I could meld with the local people. Especially if I were intending to spend the rest of my life there. As the quote in the post above says, sharing a way of thinking (as opposed to point of view) makes it easier to discuss 'serious' topics (such as conditions for cycling, treatment of the environment, etc).

meic wrote:For those who dont want to pay over £30 for a tyre. The Vittoria Rubino Pro comes in a 28mm tyre as well as the smaller sizes.
Well it says 28mm on the side but is actually nearer to 26mm, which means you get all the benefits of both.

It also claims to be the tyre of the RAAM so it is probably a good balance of the desired properties for that sort of ride, well certainly for £15 -£18 which it can be found for.

I was going to post exactly the same (apart from the bit about RAAM, cos I didn't know that) having measured mine last night. (I was trying out my new vernier callipers). They seem pretty good tyres.

he
could
not
count
!

Google "push me pull you tandem" and you get all sorts of 'bi-directional' tandems. Here's one:


I didn't find any with the front rider facing backwards, but I don't doubt it has been made.

Poland is also good for cheap but high-quality dental work. I daresay the whole of Eastern Europe is!

If you're thinking of fitness benefits of riding slow as opposed to fast, I'd imagine they are much less, but still better than nothing. But ask a trainer/coach! For overall health, I expect it's not so clear cut. But ask a doctor! As for mental health, well, "you know you've got it if it makes you feel good".

SoloRider wrote:Hi, just had a very steady ride at 9 mph Av, very relaxing. Went straight out for 2.25 hours with no food at all - never bonked so must have been some fat metabolising going on.

I think I may do one harder ride per week just to mix it up and maybe go this speed the rest of the time.

Will keep you posted, assuming anyone is remotely interested!

2.25 hours at 9mph, so you covered about 20 miles. Would you normally expect to need to eat in 20 miles? (obviously it depends on a lot of factors, but it does seem unlikely to me, on the whole)

DaveGos wrote:Many stores like Halfords are marketing BIkes as cross bikes, don't think many people would buy them for cross . Its just you have to have an angle to make a cheap bike sound sexy , so they call them cross bikes, they are probably OK as cheap bikes go . Decathlon have some very cheap bikes marketed this way

Agree cyclocross (and now gravel racer) is, to an extent, used as another label for what was already there, but some of Decathlon's cheap bikes are actually rather decent. Apollo they're not!

SportWool seems to be a trade name which is licensed by the Australian developers to various fabric manufacturers around the world.

What Torm and Rapha had, and continue to have, in common is their use of Sportwool fabric, a blend of polyester and merino wool developed by the Australian company CSIRO.

If you're a manufacturer of [Sportwool] fabrics you have to license it through CSIRO, so it's not proprietary to any one firm.

http://www.theoutdoortimes.com/rns_torm.html

Just a blog so not definitive, but seems reliable.

I remember Cycling Plus being a very informative magazine back when it started out. Around 1990 I think that would have been. It was a Future Publishing title back then when they were in a little office in Bath, might have been Trim St or thereabouts. Lots of informative technical articles, a lot on how to maintain your bike – quite useful, in fact – and all shot in B&W.

One I used to like a couple of years back was Cycling World. It, too, has changed and seems to be trying to adopt the glossier but less substantial image which (so far) seems to have been successful for C+, C Active, Bikes Etc, and so on. But it did use to have more articles about, well, people riding bikes, rather than, I suppose, bikes as objects. Bikes as objects are also interesting but there is only so much you can say in a magazine before it becomes repetitous.