Cycling UK Forum

The utility cyclist

So what, with massive media/interactive screens in so many vehicles and next to zero upholding of the existing law this won't do anything, Policing these things and indeed other aspects of dangerous driving with meaningful penalties such as instant 18month bans for holding ANY device plus IMO fines for having a cigarette in your hand/mouth and banning music/headphones might actually make a dent in the KSIs at some point.
Afterall listening to music slows reaction times, the Dutch government banned people on bikes from having headphones so it must be dangerous right?

The utility cyclist

Have you ever thought about stretching out before you even get on the saddle? Also, MTB is obviously going to be significantly harder work than a road bike, if your quads are hurting straight away I'd say you need to warm up your muscles first.

The utility cyclist

for decades it's been a fat bloater* and not value for money, the name was the only thing keeping it going with people buying it having had one BITD or knowing someone who had one and lusted over it
It wasn't a bad bike as such, just that the competition for people's money had moved on ... a lot and prices for bikes had gone downward for what you could buy whilst Dawes kept knocking out Galaxy's at more than the competition.

Latest 'Ultra' Galaxy is a bog standard Reynolds 520 with Sora 3x9 for £1200, that's right TWELVE HUNDRED

oh and it's even heavier than before at 15kg.

2002 Ridgeback Comet is 12.6kg for a ladies and under13kg for a 56 male variant, that's incl guard/rack and pedals. A standard Galaxy in the 00s was 14.5kg

The utility cyclist

If you want to treat yourself I've a pair of new old stock Double Defence Utremo's in 25mm, one is still in its box, the other not as it was fitted for reference on an audax machine.
£43 would get them posted to you

The utility cyclist

jb wrote:Tyres, thems the things wots improved most, how joyous to not have a flat at the first sight of a hedge trim.
All that was left to do was to pat themselves on the back have a pint and take satisfaction in a job well done; but no, they had to go and invent tubeless, a complete unwanted waste of time unless you like cycling over porcupines.
AND they're thrusting their unwanted crap on anyone trying to buy a new bike.

I'm not keen on them.

I agree, for some people tubeless might seem to make sense, until they get a puncture that the gloop can't actually fix . Buying into a whole new system costs lots too, the downside for non tubeless users is fewer non tubeless specific/ready tyres, more so at the higher end from what I can see. So if high end non tubeless start to thin out that means a tubeless tyre then becomes a slower tyre if you're putting a tube in compared with a non tubeless tyre with a tube in. The costs due to investment in tubeless seems to have pushed tyre prices up more than you'd expect normal inflation to do.

For the number of punctures one might have in any given scenario and the potential upsides of rr and comfort (whatever that might be) I don't think it's worth it overall, but for some people it is and they think it's brilliant, good luck to them I say.

The utility cyclist

humankeith wrote:
The utility cyclist wrote:
humankeith wrote:Thank you all for your useful suggestions. I was planning on crossing London after Brighton - London. I've now decided to ride as far as St Pancreas and take a rain to St Albans from there, which would cut out quite a bit of city riding.

I'm not adverse to riding in the city, but I'll have had enough of it by then! This will give me time to explore St Albans a bit and take a slower dinner before the final short day up to Northampton to my In Laws.

Alternatively you could get a train from KX if more convenient than SP, get off at Hatfield and just cycle the few miles to St.Albans.
Also Metropolitan tube line goes to Watford, and it's about 9 miles from there to centre of SA.
Have a great trip

Aren't Kx and SP next door to each other? It appears there is a direct train from SP to St Albans at just past 4pm on Saturdays which is what I'll aim for. It's been a while since I've ridden in a city, so I am quite excited to ride through our Capital city and see some sights. It's going to be so interesting to start at the sea and end up in the middle of London. It'll be especially strange after some quiet countryside riding from Exeter.

Thanks all again for your helpful suggestions.

It was was information, It wasn't a suggestion to go that way it was to give you alternates. SP & KX are adjacent, but having options is better than not, on occasions there are issues so first plan might not actually be viable.
As it happens KX to Hatfield is £1.70 cheaper, Zone 1 tube to Watford is £4 off peak and if you are sightseeing in central London then using the metropolitan line off peak means you don't have to cycle to SP/KX area from central London.

The utility cyclist

Jdsk wrote:
GeekDadZoid wrote:
The utility cyclist wrote:Helmet lights are dangerous to other road users and illegal on the highway AFAIK, don't do it plain and simple.

Is that true??? I cannot find a source / reference to that.

I suspect that we're entering the evidence-free zone again, but NB the difference between additional lights on helmets once you have the statutory lights fitted and helmet lights without those.

Jonathan

A light fitted that is above 1500mm is not legal according to the regs, so that's any light fitted to a helmet (barring someone extremely short) being used on a adopted highway, lights fitted to helmets are annoying at best and at worst cause dazzle and temporary effect your ability to see. They are a menace!
But carry on with your silly reply, I hope you're never in the situation of not being able to see properly due to one, I have and it's very unpleasant

The utility cyclist

Brucey wrote:
thelawnet wrote:...R451 has 'QR wider open'....

aha! That makes more sense than a whole new caliper model number just for a different locknut! Yes, I think you can even see that the pinch bolt assy might swing further on the photos of the back of the calipers. I guess BR-R450 mayn't open wide enough to let a 32mm tyre out when it is mounted on a narrow rim...?

cheers

R451 calipers will not allow a 32mm tyre through it with the QR open, we've had to let the tyre down significantly to do so.

The utility cyclist

humankeith wrote:Thank you all for your useful suggestions. I was planning on crossing London after Brighton - London. I've now decided to ride as far as St Pancreas and take a rain to St Albans from there, which would cut out quite a bit of city riding.

I'm not adverse to riding in the city, but I'll have had enough of it by then! This will give me time to explore St Albans a bit and take a slower dinner before the final short day up to Northampton to my In Laws.

Alternatively you could get a train from KX if more convenient than SP, get off at Hatfield and just cycle the few miles to St.Albans.
Also Metropolitan tube line goes to Watford, and it's about 9 miles from there to centre of SA.
Have a great trip

The utility cyclist

Helmet lights are dangerous to other road users and illegal on the highway AFAIK, don't do it plain and simple.
You might think a light might get you seen, it will rarely make any difference to outcome, it's about whether the other party is bothering to look and see you by their own eyes utilising their headlamps or overhead streetlights.

The utility cyclist

I used a pair of hollowed out SRAM shifters (10 speed Force IIRC) that only had the shell and the carbon brake lever with no spring or anything in it, basically like the levers of old that would flop down without a cable. I used these as part of a lightweight set up on my Raleigh titanium (with DT shifters) and they worked really well with both 6700 and 6800 calipers. I've been using BR9000 for a few years now and they're great but it's still mostly down to set up and the amount of traction your tyres have (for whatever weather conditions prevail) plus brake pad compound.

A lot of advancement like most things are to induce people to spend more and make people believe they are getting something better than before, sometimes that might actually be the case.
I might set up some 6207 calipers with a set of 5800 STIs and see what happens when I put Swiss Stop blue pads in and throw on a set of the alloy rims, I expect it won't make a huge amount of difference to the latest and greatest.

The utility cyclist

cycle tramp wrote:
The utility cyclist wrote:So you don't have any experience of high end bikes so go with the stupid comments, how very typical of some forummers. Things they don't understand or have zero experience of and go in just to make troll comments to antagonise and insult.

Er... since you've asked..so far I've ridden racing up rights, folders, shoppers, traditional roadsters, expedition rated tourers, 2 and 3 wheeled human powered vehicles, used hydraulic brakes, roller brakes, drum brakes, coster brake, rim brakes (vee, capiller, roller cam), single speed, fixed wheel, three speed hub, nu-Vinci hub, rolhoff hub, deraileurs (1x5; 3x7; 4x7), lighting wise; dyno-hub; bottle and battery...

..I've cycled with road going cycling clubs, undertaken timed events, been on social rides, night rides,undertaken day rides, weekend rides, moving on touring, loaded touring, commuting and shopping..

...I have been cycling for some time. Perhaps enough to know that the quality of a bicycle ride is down to so many factors, the route you take, how you feel on that day, the company you may travel with, the weather, how the bike fits you, how other road users treat you, the quality of the road surfaces, the views, the smells you encounter on the way, the pub or cafe you stop at, those random, but good surprises on your journey.

Anyone can attempt to sell you any bicycle at any price - it's the open market after all, but to proclaim that you will have a better experience on this bicycle simply because it costs more seems rather dismissive of the fittness and bike handling skills of the rider and the whole experience which is travel.

So you've no experience of high end bikes as I said

The utility cyclist

cycle tramp wrote:
Marcus Aurelius wrote:
pwa wrote:But why pay that much when a bike costing half of that would do the job just as well? Or do you think it wouldn't? I don't object to people spending that much. I simply don't see the point.

Until you’ve actually ridden a bike like this, and one costing half as much, you would find it difficult to understand how different the pricey one is. The difference is actually night and day, because of the spec of the bits that make it so pricey. A lot of little pricey bits, makes a huge difference.

..Wow...
Hey, can I sell you some genuine 100% magic beans?
No, ok...
What about a goose that can lay a golden egg?

So you don't have any experience of high end bikes so go with the stupid comments, how very typical of some forummers. Things they don't understand or have zero experience of and go in just to make troll comments to antagonise and insult.

The utility cyclist

speedsixdave wrote:Clearly much of the attraction of a £13000 bike is the fact that it costs £13000,[ and the justification for this massive cost is the measurable fact that it is apparently the world's something something something .

Go on, prove that, clearly you can't, yet again someone failing to grasp why someone might buy a bike costing that much, which BTW is nowhere the most expensive bike you can buy, not even close!

The utility cyclist

Bonzo Banana wrote:The gains on expensive bikes are so ridiculously marginal and the risk of theft is super high and the cost of maintaining them is super high. Ultimately a slightly fitter rider on a low end Claris road bike will beat a less fit rider on a top end £13k bike. You buy a Ferrari car you get a Ferrari engine you don't fit it with a 50cc moped engine in it which can be the case when a rich less fit middle age man splashes out on a high end bike.

It's all marketing nonsense anyway, Specialized import such bikes from the far east to promote their engineering status plus they sponsor events so that the Specialized brand is desired. I don't think Specialized has really made anything themselves, I'm pretty sure even their early bikes were imported from Japan. You can see Specialized mountain bikes being made in a recent fuji-ta video. The same factory is used for many low end brands. I've got a cheap Muddyfox sports direct road bike that came from the same factory, no doubt it hasn't got the butted tubes of the Specialized entry level road bikes that are made there but they will be manufactured by the same people to the same overall quality, only the components will vary and my cheap Muddyfox bikes sports a decent freehub/Claris drivetrain with brifters and dual pivot brakes, it's probably just a kg heavier than the entry level Specialized road bike because of a lack of frame tube butting.

You can see the same Muddyfox model of bike as mine up against a high end carbon fibre Boardman bike here. Also the Muddyfox bike only has a 12-25 cassette so bear that in mind when you see the results. I'm sure a 11-32T cassette would have made a significant difference to the results.

Ultimately its a silly money purchase in line with a gold plated McClaren. You'd have to be an amazing cyclist for the tiny gains to make sense and such bikes sell in ridiculously low numbers, probably 10,000 entry level Specialized bikes are sold for every one of these.

I think the chances of lower end bikes are more susceptible to being stolen in all honesty.
Cost of maintaining isn't very high - what's with using the word 'super'?? My own Dura Ace shifters haven't missed a beat in 5 years, carbon cranks still bob on as are all the carbon components including carbon rail saddle. The high end Enduro BB has lasted same, only big ring, chain, brake pads, bar tape have been replaced. Even the rear tubular is still going okay, I've done about 10,000 miles on it.
Some people report having 50,000 miles on their Dura Ace 7900 shifters.

I think people who don't buy high end have little idea as to running costs, sure if you do a lot of miles it's going to cost more but very high costs only occur if you damage your bike and/or components

It's nothing like a gold plated Mclaren and it isn't a silly money purchase, only people making comments like that are 'silly'

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