Cycling UK Forum

Quick question regarding Disc Brakes and quick release wheels.

Took the wheel off on my new bike last night to fit some new tyres but had a problem when it come to putting the wheel back on. The disc is now rubbing on one side of the brake pads because the wheel is aligned slightly differently leading to two questions.

1 - How do you adjust the alignment of the actual pads on a disk brake?

2 - When you take a wheel off and put it back on is there a tip for getting it to line up in exactly the same way it was before or make sure it is perfectly centered?

http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=cf7_1421319105

All over the internet this morning.

Also interesting that someone has done a DVLA check and found that the vehicle doesn't have a valid MOT...

I've just picked up a Subway myself, to go alongside my road bike, so hopefully I can offer some advice as i've had to buy all the accessories as well.

First off, it seems to be a good choice. I did a lot of looking around and was after a hybrid without suspension but that had disc brakes and for the price the selection was quite limited.

Plenty of options if I wanted disc brakes with suspension and plenty of options for non suspension without disc brakes but only a handful that had disc brakes on a rigid frame for that price and the Subway seemed the best of the bunch.

Echoing a few comments on here, I went for the Subway 2 with the main reason being the upgrade from mechanical to hydraulic brakes. Other than that there's not much between the two.

As mentioned, the tyres really are junk with zero puncture protection so i've ordered replacements. I wanted slicker tyres that could handle dirt tracks and paths so, after advice on here, i've gone for Schwalbe 650B Marathons. If you want slicks for better commuting that can still handle some off road there's not a huge selection on 27.5 wheels but there's a selection here you may be interested in

http://nextdaytyres.co.uk/search.aspx?Search=ROAD%20TYRE%20FOR%20650B

My accessory shopping list was as follows


Puncture Kit
Tyre Levers
Saddle Bag
Multi Tool
Bottle Cage
Bottle
Rear Light(I got one that clipped onto the saddle bag)
Front Light
Strada Wireless cycling computer
Pump
2 spare inner tubes
Replacement tyres
Mudguards

Not sure if you already have them but i'd recommend a saddle bag and make sure you have cable ties, multi tool, tyre levers, puncture kits and spare inner tube in it.

On the pump front I also can't recommend highly enough the 'truflo mini track 2 stage pump'. It's about £20 on Amazon so although it's a bit pricey it's worth it. I tried several hand pumps and when you're miles from home with a puncture most of them are REALLY hard work to get a decent pressure in your tyres and riding home on soft tyres is a pain!

Not got my mud guards yet but, like you, i've settled on the Crud ones as they seem to be quite well recommended.

Took the bike out for it's first ride at the weekend and i'm fairly happy with the choice. Rides well, certainly more comfortable than my road bike for leisure rides without being too heavy that I really feel the difference in speed on my commutes.

Think I'll give the Marathons a shot as they generally seem to be well thought of

Looking to swap out the cheap, slow, fat, knobbly tyres on my Carrera Subway and after some recommendations.

The requirements are pretty simple.

- Fit 27.5" wheels

- The thinner the better

- Slick or semi slick if possible(going to be mainly road commuting so grip not essential)

- Very puncture resistant

I can't seem to find many slick/semi slicks in that size and only ones I have come up with so far are all Schwalbe's with the 650B Big Ben, 650B HS 159 and 650B Marathon.

Anyone have experience of decent commuter tyres for a 27.5 wheel?

Thanks to advice on here i've just picked up my shiny new hybrid to go alongside my Giant Defy and actually allow me to do some off road riding!

One of the toys i've got to get for it is a decent bell because the silly little bell on my road bike is pretty much useless. Pedestrians just seem oblivious to it and cars obviously can't hear it which has caused a few SMIDSY incidents when cycling in London.

So, i'm after a horn/bell that

- is loud enough for cars about to left hook me can hear

- Not too loud that it scares the bejesus out of any pedestrian i'm alerting(so ideally it seems I want one with two different buttons)

- Isn't ridiculously expensive

- Doesn't take up too much room on the bike

Been looking at the Air Zound and Hornit.

Hornit has mixed reports in that it sounds like a car alarm so people don't generally react to it in the same way as a car horn/bell and the Air Zound looks like overkill when it comes to alerting pedestrians as well as using up one of my valuable bottle cage mounts.

Anyone got experience of either of these, can recommend an alternative and know of any actual shops/chains in the East London area that stock them so I can go and have a look as i'm only going by online reviews and haven't actually seen either of them

Got a spare set of armadillo semi slicks I can chuck on it.

Spent today looking round a few shops and it was frustrating. It seems very hard to find disc brakes without front suspension!

Halfords had a Voodoo Marasa and Carerra Subway 2 which both looked 'OK' but can't seem to find any detailed reviews.

Claude Butler Urban 400 also seems like an option

Also had a look in Decathlon but didn't see anything there I liked

Any thoughts on the Cannondale Quick CX 4?

Seems to meet my requirements and only slightly over my budget.

With 2014 bikes now going pretty cheap i'm in the market for a new bike but need some advice.

I'm on my third Giant road bike and also own a bicycle shaped object MTB which handles like a tank and weighs just as much so want to replace it and have a check list.

- Around £300-£400

- No suspension

- Flat bars

- Disc Brakes

- Will mainly be used for light off road and social\leisure summer riding.

Obvious candidates have been the Giant Roam and Escape. That said, although I like my Giant road bikes, I don't like the Roam because of the suspension and I don't like the Escape because of the lack of disc brakes(if they did the Escape with discs I wouldn't even be looking for advice and would have just gone for that.)

So, it looks like i'll be looking at a different brand. Not too fussed on which year the model is. I know Cannondale, Scott and Specialized are reasonable brands but that's about as far as my knowledge goes on the MTB/Hybrid front so don't know which models or other brands are worth looking at in that price point.

[XAP]Bob wrote:hornit is the other option I know of at that kind of volume.

I did look at those and they seem more in line with what I need.

Anyone have any experience of them?

Cheers for the feedback so far guys, always humbled by the help provided on here

Brucey wrote:I think you might be best off with a 'courtesy bell' for use on shared paths and 'something else' for dealing with cars.

That's pretty much what I'm thinking, looked at those Air Zounds but they seem to take up a lot of space so was hoping for something USB rechargeable

Hoping you guys can recommend a decent bell.

My main requirement is one that cars can hear so when I'm about to get left hooked I can alert them.

That said, I don't want one that's going to scare the bejesus out of pedestrians.

Do I actually need two bells? Should I be looking at a rechargeable one or an air horn?

After a torrid time with punctures I switched over to specialized armadillo's 9 months ago.

Excellent tyres and not had a puncture since but they are a little pricey

In a related question, how do you guys clean the cogs and rest of the drivetrain?

I can never seem to do much more than get the worst of the gritty gunk off because of being unable to get into a lot of the nooks and crannies

They're very well regarded at entry level(although the tyres are terrible) and I've got plenty of mileage out of mine and if I was to get another non carbon bike i'd definitely stay with the Defy

Beyond entry level if I go for a carbon i'd probably stick with Defy although I would try others as well