Cycling UK Forum

A few thoughts on bars: I use drops, used to use flats on previous bike. I have 3 main riding positions, each giving access to brakes. I have brake levers on the flats of the drops, which I use quite a bit. I rarely use the low part of the drops, but handy if there's a strong headwind or if I want to blast down a hill. Otherwise I'm on the hoods, or a bit further back. Lots of choice.

Should you ever wish to take your bike on a flight, the drops are a PITA. We take ours off and carefully secure them under the top tube with cable ties, lots of padding. Have to disconnect a few cables, too. This allows us to get the bikes in a cardboard box. By contrast, when I toured with flat bars, it was a doddle. Slacken bars, twist round to align with top tube and that's it. Oh, front wheel and pedals off too - but thats just a few minutes.

I'm looking for a road cycling helmet with mesh in the front vents, to stop wasps and other bitey things from entering. They seem very scarce.
It would need to be large size - 'one size fits all' doesn't, in my case.
Anyone know of anything suitable?
Thanks, Rob

Are you looking out for Dawes Galaxys? My son bought a 2nd hand one for his ride to the pyramids in 2009. It's his all time most treasured possession. Several styles, his was, I think, the most basic, with bar-end shifters.

Oh bad luck! That will be a bargain for some lucky soul.

My wife and I have Claude Butler Dalesmans, which we love. Tough and dependable. We got ours 5 years apart, heavily discounted as they were 'last year's colour'.
I don't know if they're still available new, but worth a look.
Good luck with your search.

Many thanks.
Had a frustrating day yesterday. Went on long ride, trying out the Garmin and CT. Getting a route from CT to the Garmin was an absolute PITA. It worked before we set off, but took maybe an hour to appear. Later, we tried to put another route in, failed, gave up.
When home, persevered. Seems like it was a sync problem, so I set it to 'ignore' my phone, then reconnected it, which again took a while. But once it paired with it, things started to appear on the phone from rides stored on the Garmin.
So it seems there was a glitch in the way the 2 devices were paired, hopefully now sorted.

Thanks PH. But I do all my planning with the mobile, so there's no right click option?

Thanks. On Connect, you create a course, just to confuse things. I've been experimenting with Cycle Travel, which certainly gives a better route than Connect. But I'm finding problems sometimes when I want to go a direct route on a main road. Dragging the route it's created onto the main road ends up, sometimes, with a rather convoluted route, as though it's determined I shall NOT go on said main road. I'm hoping the Android app will be out in next few days.
They're all useful tools though.

Thanks, and yes I was... In my ignorance, I thought it would produce a sensible route. I'd come to the conclusion that one has to put it together, bit by bit.
That's when I thought CT would be good - and it certainly looks good. I've put a post on CT forum, so hopefully there's an answer coming sometime.
Good to see CT will be available on Android imminently.

Thanks Ian. Encouraging that it worked well for you. I'll try Google...
Rob

Sorry to hear about the accident. Re reporting road issues, Devon has a good website for reporting all sorts of things. Then there's a number to ring if it's serious.

I suggest contacting your MP. I had an issue 3 years ago where I crashed. Reported it by phone, was told someone might go out in maybe 2 weeks. I stressed the issue had caused my crash, which could've been serious. Got indifference. So I went to my MP, she copied me in, it was fixed in days.

From my own work experience, I know that once MPs are involved, the case become top priority, everything else put to one side.

Good luck!

An interesting thread. I too have a newish Edge 2 Explorer but haven't used it much for route planning - which I've done through Garmin Connect. I'm off to Brittany mid Sept for 3 weeks, so trying to work out how best to use it.

Connect seems to send me all over the place, greatly extending my route. So it seems to be a slow process where you use something else to get the route, such as GM and the French mapping, which I have in several scales.

Have tried Cycletravel on Android but when I try to send the route to Connect, I get 'We couldn't log you in, Garmin said session expired'. Any suggestions?

Are there any other really good apps which would help plan a road/voie verte route? Is Strava any good for this? I'm a little concerned at the amount of time and phone battery this will take, having bought the Edge thinking it'd do all this for me...

FWIW, I've found GM to be unreliable in France, for instance it took me to locked gates into someone's huge garden/park, and another route was a serious no-go. So we've tended to use the French mapping and GM combined. We could still do this, then plot the route into Connect, dot by dot, to ensure it goes the right way.

Thanks, Rob

Vaseline is excellent for stopping rust when you discover it, a trick told to me by a car mechanic.
I took my bike to a local car paint specialist. Was able to match a deep metallic green very well. I cleaned the damaged area well, applied maybe 3 layers of paint, then a couple of layers of lacquer. So far so good.

I absolutely agree with those who suggest slime is not a good idea. I've used it - never again, for the reasons cited above.
What I do use is Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres, which are just wonderful! My wife and I did 2570 km last year in the arctic, Norway and Finland. Same tyres. Zero punctures. Riding around Devon lanes, where there are far more thorns than the arctic - zero punctures.
My son rode on Marathons from Devon to the pyramids in 2009, 4500 miles. The bike was 2nd hand (a Galaxy), the tyres already part worn. They were still good on his return, but he'd had 3 - 4 punctures.

I bought an Inreach Mini 2 late last year. Not really used it, but it's very small and light. It has good reviews. You sometimes see people on YouTube sporting one (but incidentally), in very remote spots.