Cycling UK Forum

I used a 25 year old reynolds 501 frame road bike a few years ago for the commute before i stopped through lack of commitment to it. It was getting trashed quickly not least because of the 700x23c wheels at over 100psi (I liked a hard tyre for some reason). Last year I commuted from early spring through to January but the bike was nicked. That bike was a Spesh Crosstrail hybrid. The route was the same with both bikes (the older bike did8 miles each way but the hybrid 7 because a change of job made it nearer to work). The speed difference was amazing and not all of it was down to me being fitter back then. 20 to 25 minutes to do 8 miles (that is door to door with stops for lights) about 20-24mph average speed (including stops so not moving average) on the road bike. The hybrid was 26-36 minutes for 7 miles !!!! That is quite some difference. I used to test the aero affect of the upright position by leaning over my bars and for the same effort I could get 2mph just by tucking down on my hybrid. That was not sustainable as I was holding my weight on my arms too much.

So to put it bluntly I need a faster bike than a hybrid which for this and other reasons means a drop bar bike. I could buy a CX type but posts on here have totally put me off it should I tour then it would be less than ideal. Even looking at commuting with a pannier rack on a gravel bike you are into heel clip problems with 420-430cm chainstays. The tourers I have seen are at least 445cm. That is significant. My hybrid was 445cm and I used to get heel clip on that on rare occasion if my foot has slipped on the pedal.

So a drop barred bike suitable for a wide range of surfaces but mostly road and gravel but able to cope with a bit more if needed. Able to take panniers with a little bit of commuting weight and a lot more at weekends. Even if not touring I tend to carry plenty for myself, my partner and child in my pannier so my partner isn't carrying anything. She is slow so anything that slows me down and speeds her up is done. I can't manage a child seat due to it being so high up and getting leg over crossbar is interesting when you are balancing a top heavy bike!! It will get a bracket in case needed and will get a burly hitch for a child or a cargo trailer.

So basically I could get away with anything reasonable for commuting this is my one and only bike purchase for perhaps 5 or 10 years. i do not trust my bike judgement to go secondhand. Well I do but I see that as taking money from my main bike which I will need to get.

This means I am researching online (forums, bike shops, reviews, etc) consulting collective knowledge and experience both on here and with people I know and trust (with experience too). I am also trying as many types of bikes as possible to get an idea as to what they are like to ride. So far hybrids, MTBs, 29ers are out due to flat bars (need drop bars due to dodgy hands/wrists/elbows needing changes of hand position at regular intervals). That leaves gravel bikes = too short chainstay i think and seem a bit twitchy to me or touring bikes. I have only tried my Dad's falcon tourer (£500 when bought probably 15+ years ago so not a bad tourer in 531 tubing and decent gearing) I always though it heavy and compared to my 9.5kg steel road bike from 1990 it was very heavy. It is now what I think is best but until i try a newer tourer I will not decide.

Not sure I have any choice than a tourer really.

just looking at what new bike to get and brakes tend to be last on my mind with specs. Not sure why but stopping is not as interesting as moving forward I guess.

Three bikes I am interested in and the brakes are Tektro CR-510, Tektro 992AG, Shimano CX50 or Tektro RX-5. I think these are likely to be in order of quality/performance as the bikes they came off increase in price along that list. The bikes with 992AG and CX50s are the favourites due to price/spec of the bikes but what are the brakes like?

Also, never having paid much attention to brakes in the past, I have only had the road type with the cable at the side and disc on my hybrid in the last 25 years (2 bikes only). I know nothing about whether these are cantilever, sidepull, v-brakes or whatever. Complete numpty as far as brakes go. I am thinking the order of performance is disc, v-brakes, cantilevers but who knows I don't. The use is touring/commuting on the road with easier off road too. Bikes are Ridgeback exped or voyage (first one is the Tour but unlikely to go that cheap) and Spa cycles tourer if that helps.

What brake type is easiest for a tourer to use? Thinking of sorting punctures, etc. I know my partner has a type of brake on here MTB that you just unhook one side and the brakes fall open to allow easy wheel removal then reverse procedure and the brake is good to go. Much easier than my road bike brakes which if the tyre didn;t pass the pads without adjustment then wheel replacement also meant tools to adjust the brakes so they are even on both sides of the rim. hated taking the wheel off that bike. Disc brakes are easy too.

If I am now used to disc brakes but can;t afford them on my tourer which is the best option especially out of the above for closest performance to discs (tektro auriga IIRC on my stolen hybrid)?

OK, after much consideration I am now planning at trip to Spa Cycles. I was considering going to Ghyllside as it is easier to get to for me and my partner and child can look around Ambleside (or hit the playground), but they don't have much stock in I think so I won't be able to try a bike for size (being 6'5" has it's problems at times). This will be a very quick trip there and back as quickly as i can for family commitment reasons.

I have spoken over the phone and I am right at the bottom of what he called serious touring bikes. His suggestion is the Ridgeback Expedition (26" wheels but decent spec all for £810 = £10 over budget but I can stretch). http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s21p3201

The other option I think might suit better due to the 700c wheels I prefer is the Ridgeback Voyage (only £799 but slightly different spec to the exped since it is road wheels = sora/acera rear instead of deore front and rear mech). Same 520 spec steel frame as exped. http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s21p3200

He did say their steel tourer is highly rated but at £945 is over budget by £145 = too much but the spec is nice with deore/sora mech and 725 tubing. http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s21p2983

A last idea (mine but just an idea) is to save money now and go for the Ridgeback tour at £495 in Aluminium with steel fork, claris/altus mech with the idea to save up for a better bike in the near future then sell this one on. This bike just looks like a cheap and nasty to get me by until the real money can be found later say enough for a Ridgeback Panorama or Spa tourer or surly disc trucker. This tour is in this link http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s21p3199

Now this is the big question I need to answer for myself (but appreciate your input too). Which one is best for me? Assuming I get fit right on all of them then would they all cope with UK roads (typically rough rural roads and potholed town roads on the way to work) plus gravel tracks/towpaths/easy trails. Main use is commuting on roads with an equally important family ride out use. Touring is a future aim but after nearly 2 summers with my old hybrid that I kitted out with rack for touring we never did any. One aim is the Danube cycle path through Austria but that is hardly difficult (good one for touring with a toddler) and we might be better hiring bikes for that. Touring in summer is one aim this year but only long weekends which may get downgraded to a car camp with rides out from a base.

You see I am not going to be a big tourer which makes me think a touring bike is overkill or not right. I am coming round to it and the 26" version is nice and tempting as well but a bit overkill for commuting. Difficult to decide for me. If only the spec on the 700C version was similar standard to the 26" version. Or if I could get more cash to spend for the Spa tourer.

Anyone got any of these or seen good reviews on them???

Nice bike I reckon. I've been following your progress since I have finally decided to get a tourer not a gravel bike. My budget was up to £800 but it looks like I could be be breaking that limit by £10 at Spa Cycles for a Ridgeback Expedition. I wanted 700c wheels but after calling Spa the guy said that 26" is probably better since I will end up riding easy trails. I am thinking of unsurfaced towpaths through to gravely tracks in the Lakes (e.g. the side of Windermere near High Wray down to ferry nab for example or one of the bridleways in the Peak district linking the high Peaks and Tissington cycle paths if you know them at all).

I was looking at the photos for a cinelli hobootleg and that one looks really nice but at £1170 is way beyond me right not. Love the two spare spokes on the chainstay held on by a special bracket. Columbus tubing which is probably Reynolds 725 equivalent. Neat touches like different coloured cable covers and other possibly unimportant touches. There is a black metal u shaped component hanging over the top of the headtube from the steerer that I don't know what it is. I think the ridgeback expedition has a chromed thing similar.

So far I am wondering if the Ridgeback expedition or voyage is my best choice or if I should splash out for the Spa tourer at £145 over budget. So far I am thinking of being strong and resisting overspend.

Let us know what your Ridgback rides like when you get it. I seriously need to know what you think of the brand and bike in general. For me this is a big spend to make and before pushing the button I need to know from people with a similar bike (although your's is the higher model i think you can give me an idea what the lower spec model is like. TBH I am still not 100% sure of the tourer since my main thing is going to be commuting and weekend road/easy off road rides with the family. Touring is an ideal later on (my partner will not have a tourer just a MTB hardtail to tour with).

Spring? Where? Sleety snow sunday and strong winds with sleet or heavy rain yesterday. Then my partner couldn't get past Kirby Stephens on way to Scotch Corner without snow/slush with an underlayer of ice causing her to return. Today it has calmed but unless you think a period of possibly the worst wintry weather we have had this season means spring has come then it is still winter here.

Mind you I know what you mean. After the lighter mornings and it being daylight as I leave work it got me thinking Spring is near, just not quite made it. I think come the first or end of the first week in March (next week) I think that it will feel more like Spring. Assuming we don't get blizzards at Easter again like a good few years back of course.

Nice long rides out into the Ribble Valley for you as you get fit. My old stomping ground during school holidays. Me and a mate with 2-3 hours in the morning then a bit more in the afternoon after we'd been home for lunch. The good old days.

Take midwifery in the UK. IIRC there was a crisis in it resulting likely preventable deaths and other aspects. A drive to train up more has led to more hitting the maternity wards and out in the community where they are needed. However this sudden need for increased levels was due to research into how to achieve the best outcomes in maternity and in some ways could not be adequately planned for. This meant immediate need and a recruiting of overseas midwives. Commonwealth and european personnel were recruited. Skills shortage led to immigration. Shock horror a good reason for immigration! UKIP are not worried because they can ignore it because they are not in power. The benefits of being a political pressure group I guess. Worthless in policy but can highlight things missed by the ruling political parties and their power carve up. Just with all the things needing to be brought up why only stop on Immigration and EU? Could it be that they only have views with a shred of truth about them in these two topics? I don't know because quite frankly I view UKIP as a joke. Same as the BNP, EDL, Rainbow party (Galloway's cover group) and the likes of that socialist labour splinter group (was it real labour or something like that).

thirdcrank wrote:

Tangled Metal wrote: ... What has chartered engineers to do with this? That bit seems a totally random comment, please explain.

I was trying to make a point against the background of the claim that MPs having outside interests (not in the sense of hobbies or pastimes) somehow makes them better representatives. By "exploring the intricacies of the English language" I meant members of professions whose expertise is in presentation rather than delivery. We've had threads on here, sometimes prominently featuring Al Yrpal criticising the country's lack of recognition of the people who come up with the goods (and I've avoided repeating delivery to avoid confusion with Parcelforce) chartered engineers being a significant example. Parliament might well be better with fewer career politicians on more people with experience of the world of work, but not if there work experience is as spin doctors, in one form or another.

(I started on this mid-afternoon but I've been diverted by child caring. When I try to submit this I expect some posts to review first but I'll do that later, or this will never be submitted.)

Aah! Makes sense now, it looked a bit of a random comment to me but makes sense. I'm a touch sensitive about Chartered Engineers status in the UK, unfortunately I never had the work opportunity presented to become one, my fault and lack of ambition I supposes, but I see them as at the level of medical doctors but with less respect from the masses. "You're an engineer can you fix my car?", " Er no, I'm a civil engineer, but I can design you a suspension bridge will that help?!"

Agree on outside professions before becoming an MP. However you will probably realise there are quite a few medical doctors in the house and way too many barristers and legal types. I always found it interesting when Blair was called to the bar his wife was too. The difference was his wife was among the highest scoring in the bar exams but he was only just there. The brightest one went into legal professiona and the lesser mind into politics. Something was not right in that I thought at the time.

BTW it seems you do get a few people in the right role in governments/opposition. IIRC there have been a few ex medical doctors heading the Dept of health, same with a few ex armed services involved in the defence cabinet positions. You could say not enough professionals running the departments they know about but the way things work here it is the civil service that know about their remit and the politician rubber stamps and takes the blame (or at least something like that! )

Nurses working in one area, if that area gets taken over by private organization (yet to hear of that side of the NHS being taken over like that) then they tend to keep employees in situe. The closest to private nurses is bank nurses. From friends who are nurses or who are another type of employee of the NHS I get told that a lot of the nurses coming in as bank are either former nurses with experience who choose to become bank nurses or people moonlighting. The last type is less common I mean who would want to work on holidays or other time off work even if you got twice the pay plus extras??

The issue with nurses is the management choose to reduce the higher level nursing staff in favour of lower level ones with a lower pay. That was happening way back in the late 90s BTW as was bank nurses and other things that a lot on the left dissapprove of. Ho Hum! That does not fit in with lefty views on the Tories destroying the NHS. I know of other things implemented under Labour that the Tories were simply stuck with that actually has killed people. I mean directly caused their death by preventing the doctors from treating patients how they wanted.

Anyway, never going to be UKIP;s problem as they are never going to be inpower.

reohn2 wrote:

Tangled Metal wrote:........ although I do miss the chance of learning about explosives in that one job I nearly got in quarrying. Big bangs are good yes!!!!!

You've not had any fun at all until you drilled and fired 70 or 80 8ft holes in a sandstone heading on half second delays,BANG,BANG,BANG,BANG,BANG,BANG,BANG.get the crowns on the ranters and start filling out with an Eimco 725,the good old days...

I know a guy who worked with C4 plastic explosives (different use and one which was totally civilian but still classified). He was an engineer but had to go through a training which was with ex military experts. The older instructor used to get them all to handle a large amount of the explosive while we sat around a campfire. Apparently people would be holding it well back from the flames and sparks, gingerly squeezing it to get the feel of it. He would explain that it was safe to handle by hitting it with a hammer which got quite a few ducking when they saw he was about to hit it. It was just his fun and perfectly safe. Same with when it gone round the group and back to him and he just threw it on the fire. I did not know this and neither did those trainees but apparently special forces like plastics like C4 because if they have to cook you can actually burn it to cook with just like esbit. So when he threw it in the fire he just got a better flame, and some very scared trainees ducking for cover!!!

I do hope my mate was not spinning a yarn since it was a good story (as he told it).

I have been underground in an old lead mine when a Quarry was blasting about 5 miles away once. You could feel something had gone off. Our neighbourhood quarry is about 1-2 miles from my parents and they have the occasional issue with blasts travelling through a fault in the rock causing large vibrations in their village. They have had tests done in their garden before now (cynical me suspects when they were blasting light in another area as itnever showed the limits being passed). However, they do know about this fault in the rock now and are not allowed to blast as much there. Is interesting how the blast travels through the ground and defects like that. Been round a few quarries in the past but we were mostly at the processing side of things. jaw crushers and onwards!!

thirdcrank wrote:I saw part of the BBC2 Politics programme or whatever it's called at lunchtime today. I've no time for party politicians of any stripe, but I've always assumed Malc to be above the usual feeding trough scramble. We should point out that he denies any wrong doing but he did make the point that somebody of his calibre is worth a lot more than the pittance of 60 grand he gets as an MP. He also extolled the virtues of having MPs with outside experience. That's experience as in outside Parliament, not outside in the wind and rain, of course. The former Director of Public Prosecutions, and now a voteseaker at the forthcoming general election was also in the studio, Keir Starmer although Mere Squirmer might have been a better description. We should point out that he would also deny any wrongdoing but in his case, none is even alleged. He's going to stand down from his role as a learned friend if elected, but this raises another aspect of outside experience and it takes us back to discussions about chartered engineers. A lot of this outside experience is in work exploring the intricacies of the English language and where they rue decimalisation which put a stop to charging fees in guineas.

Another studio guest was a UKIP voteseaker, fresh from a starring role in Gogglebox a reality TV prog which shows normal(ish) people reacting to television programmes. The interviewer tried to mock him and he laughed at her. I suspect he got a lot of audience sympathy.

What has chartered engineers to do with this? That bit seems a totally random comment, please explain.

Labour are too busy ranting about class and money or business to be rascist I think. I am surprised about the liberals though, must have been too high on dope to be racist.

Seriously where did that graph come from? What was the question? It sounds like they asked the people in those parties (well the sample questioned) if they thought they were racist. If that was the case then isn't a higher score a case of being honest?? I mean if I was racist in a modern society I would never admit it if asked. Racism is not as acceptable these days. I doubt there is any party free of racism but admiting it in a questionnaire is being honest I think. Unless I have not got the question right. or logic right.

Still if it is not racism it will be some other -ism or prejudice. It is human nature afterall. I doubt Labour or liberals are less prejudiced than Tories or UKIP. It is likely they have less maniacs though. Mind you Labour has quite a few in their ranks just like the Tories.

Interestingly you get a lot of highly skilled and trained EU citizens working in the UK supplying gaps in our labour force or generating wealth through investing in our country themselves. I think to say that the economic benefit is down to cheap labour is ridiculous. I understand the evidence relates to job creation and wealth creation from immigration not that it is cheaper to get work done by employing immigrants at a lower pay scale.

I have worked with a lot of immigrants over the years. Polish, czech and have met colleagues of friends and relatives who are German, Spanish, hungarian, Bulgarian, French and even people from south america. They all add one thing and that is they fill skills gaps or add significantly to our society through their skills or knowledge. It helps that a lot of them are serious academics adding to our knowledge base.

The low pay thing is not an immigration issue it is exploitation issue. It happens to our own citizens too. I know a few earning less than minimum wage. That is something I have yet to meet an immigrant doing. They tend to read up on their rights if they are from the EU. In fact out of all employees at my previous employer the ones taken advantage of were all English. The reason being the immigrants knew their rights and made sure they were observed. That was not about them knowing what benefits or tax credits they can get, that was one trick the English workers were ahead on!!

With that in mind I think UKIP need to get their heads out of their @rses and wake up to reality. A Brexit is not going to happen even if they managed to get into power. Without that Brit exit you will never stop EU free movement of the workforce. Of that I am completely happy about. Our country is a net gainer in this free movement and to claim otherwise is just not listening or accepting what the evidence shows. A simple case of sticking your fingers in your ears and going "nahnahnahnah!" until you start to hear something you want to hear IMHO.

nez dans le guidon wrote:Supermarket plastic bag keeps the seat dry

Saw one bike with a plastic tub over the seat yesterday. I prefer the bag method myself but I think the tub also worked if that is all he/she had.

beardy wrote:They would be harder to hide, I fear.

Not in all situations. Reflectives need light to hit them to work and orange.yellow hi-viz can in some circumstances be less noticable. Or so I have been told in ahi-viz thread before now. Get the screen background colour right and it will be hard to spot!!!!! Sorry Mate I Didn;t See Your thread!!!