Cycling UK Forum

Can anyone suggest a good way of mounting an Exposure flare rear light. It is made to go on the seat post but with a bagman and carradice audax bag that isn't an option. I'd rather not mount it on the mudguard.

This seems to leave the bagman rack or the seat stay but as the bracket is made for the rear tilting seat tube it ends up pointing upwards.

I am thinking of carving some wood but any other ideas gratefully appreciated.

Well, after reading all these replies I am going to have a look around for a new Insurer as it seems much easier to insure bikes elsewhere.

My policy isn't due for renewal until the beginning of April (just checked and I pay a whopping £670 a year and I don't live in a mansion with lots of valuables specified).

I think I must be able to do much better. Even if I cancel my policy a couple of months early (and get nothing back of course) I could be better off, with bikes insured for our first trip, than I would be if i did cycle specific cover. I had completely ruled that out because of the cost.

Flite, I have an IW 510 here with a a hitch lock and two wheel locks on it and we still park our cars at very odd angles to make sure it is boxed in by them!

I phoned AXA this morning, we do have a limit of £1,000 per bike and £2,500 in total, even when locked up inside the garage at the house!

Not possible to increase any limits either. I have to say that I sort of presumed we were OK at home cover wise but to be honest it is only since we bought new bikes this year and sold old ones that we have breached the limit.

Might have to look elsewhere in April I think. Not helped by our house being really old and not every insurer's cup of tea.

My home insurance and travel insurance is direct through Axa Tony.

There is an optional cycle extension but they won't cover anything worth more than £1000 new so if we want to insure them we need to do some thing specific. I have done a couple of instant online quote things recently and been shocked at the price - the four most expensive bikes = £500 pa.

If you were to put the premium in a pot you would be able to fund one new bike in two/three years.

I suppose we could just insure the two we will take on our holidays for the next few years to keep the cost down if we decided to go down that route.

Heavy ones! D locks are Kryptonite and something else, Abus gold something or other from memory. They must weigh more than 2kg which is not good. Various cables are used to secure wheels. On a day ride we would have at least a D lock and a couple of cables.

We are going to carry on as before I think and stop thinking about it.

Worst case scenario we would buy some walking boots and travel by train or bus, carrying on with our holiday whilst drinking more wine to cope with the loss of our bikes.

Thanks for all the replies.

We were just discussing this and wondered how many people actually insured their bikes. We don't. We have renewed some of our bikes this year and currently have a thorn tandem £1200 ish, two new tourers £1800 and £1400, two restored galaxies £600 ish and a thorn club tour £1200 ish.

To insure them all would cost about £500 per annum. Our house insurers aren't interested in anything over £1000. We just work on the principle of being really careful and having the best locks we can buy.

I can't see how insurance would be cost effective for us really. The two tourers are only used on long days really as we have a 9 year old so the worst that would happen on holiday is the tandem and the lesser value tourer.

It is a bit like insuring pets - you throw money at insurers and whilst the value deteriorates the premium does not really.

Just wondered what everyone else does, in the worst case scenario we would have to spend £2,500 ish to replace what we have lost, but I think that might be more palatable than paying insurance premiums year on year as we think the odds on them staying with us are fairly high (judging by the last 30 years).

Edited to add that we are only really thinking of this now because we have always just done day rides together since our daughter started school - is only now that we have a tandem we have turned to thinking about touring holidays and trying to keep our bikes safe when we haven't rented a cottage where we know they are safe overnight, etc..

Thank you everyone, I could/can ask in French. Doesn't help of course but one of them is a tandem!

We will just carry on as normal then and assume it won't be a problem.

We have just booked our first family jaunt in France - will be staying in B&Bs/small hotels/campanile type places.

Haven't done this before, do you ask about bike storage when booking? Do you expect to store them inside?

No idea here but we would like to minimise the risk of them being stolen. We do have heavy U locks/heavy cables and fasten them together etc. We are as careful as we can be.

Thanks to this thread we have decided to squeeze an extra week in to do the St Malo to Roscoff trip on that link!

Not camping though, we have two beautiful tents and usually camp for a couple of months a year but they are heavy (a DeWaard and a Tentipi) and there is no way that we want to add a similar quality biking tent to our stash right now. It would involve new sleeping mats and bags as well as a tent. So we are going to stay in B&Bs instead in 2016.

Brittany Ferries don't have a problem with the tandem which is a relief as we have only had it a month and are completely new to taking it anywhere, we haven't bought a rack yet so our rides are all from home. We just pay for three bikes for three people. Shame the winter is approaching really, mind you it is going for a respray in the worst months.

Sorry, I meant to add that St Malo to Roscoff is 200km ish, I wonder if you could do it one way and take a different ferry home. Although you would have to hire a car/take a train to get back to your start point I suppose. Sort of thing we would sign up for here!

We are planning two cycling holidays with our 9 year old next year.

We do lots of camping generally but not bike camping to date. Our plan is to pitch somewhere for a few days and cycle day trips from there, then move on to another area, and again etc.

We have got as far as deciding on Holland and Normandy right now, ferries are booked, we just need to buy a tandem rack and a couple of maps.

There are some French rides that look like they are well planned on this page.

http://en.tourdemanche.com/suggested-to ... -greenways

We are hoping to do 30 miles a day, our 9 year old seems happy doing 20 odd on the tandem. Our plan is cake stop, lunch stop, cake stop and a town/attraction.

If you are not in too much of a rush and don't mind used there are some great options about.

We bought this bike after someone mentioned it on here

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/41cm-Orbit-Me ... 7675.l2557

We bought it because it was too good to miss at that price even though our 9 year old's current bike still fits her, for now. She will be on it in the spring, she is almost 5ft.

Only thing my husband did to it was change the rack and add extra brake levers.

PH wrote:Well I hope you have decades of cycling to change your mind, but if that had been my thinking then a low sloping top tube would have been high on my priorities.

I expect to get decades out of this bike, I am fit and healthy. I don't expect to find myself unable to get my leg over my bike, there are 80 years olds in our group. If they can do it so can I.

Of course, as Colin said, there is always my 70th if not.

I am having the top tube and the head tube lengthened! I try not to confirm to stereotypes .

I am taller than average, now I just need to add a front rack and front panniers to my letter to Father Christmas.

I will Samuel. Have to confess that instead of going purely for functionality and capability I wanted something nice to look at too (my husband was a big fan of me having the Spa) .... so a blingy barbers pole it is.

I am not far off 50, I don't expect to buy another bike to be honest so something I like the look of won, dealing with our local shop played a fair part as well. It was all so easy in the end, made my deliberations seem very long winded.