Cycling UK Forum

You know the current Brompton rims have a deep wear indicator groove - you're not confusing that with a gouge, are you?

I don't think anyone in a TT would ever wave. Have you ever tried it? It's half an hour of flirting with your aerobic limit, you get tunnel vision and it's all you can do to avoid ploughing into parked cars. If you don't feel like throwing up at the end, you haven't tried hard enough.

The timekeepers are also normally very busy - I've done a stint and trying to record the times of four riders arriving within 10 seconds is remarkably difficult. I'd rather be the pusher-offer any day.

Shimano RT51 - look like road racing shoes, but take recessed (standard MTB-style) SPD cleats and you can walk in them.

Not very waterproof, so you might need bootees for touring.

No, I gave it away, and received rather a lot of chocolate in return

I used to run road rear mechs on my MTB (a lot of people did in the 90s...it was for extra ground clearance and a little weight saving). Big-big meant certain destruction, but it never happens if you're even slightly experienced.

Rob S wrote:I had a similar problem many years ago when I found this kind of thing fun....was permanently stuck at 46mph as my maximum speed down Dartmouth Hill, so I tried the eastbound Haldon Hill, waited for a lorry to overtake then slipstreamed it to 52.5mph

These days I find 32mph is recklessly dangerous!!

Pork Hill (Princetown to Tavistock) is supposed to be good for 72mph, according to someone I met from St Budeaux CC. I wound it up to 56mph then caught a Land Rover

I did just over 50mph on this day (you can't see me in the video...I was up ahead somewhere) but I've done 57.1mph down this hill.

Note the gent who accidentally unclipped from his fixie near the bottom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gebgoidxHjA

A number of reasons:

1) Not allowed to leave the wife on her own to look after the kids all day - probably a very common reason for those with younger children

2) Way too slow. Below 10mph average sometimes.

3) Very expensive with three refreshment stops in summer.

When I was in Beacon RCC the club runs were perfect - 9am start, back by about 1pm for lunch. Average on the computer was usually 15.5mph and we stopped for 45 minutes, so typically 50 miles. There's nothing like that round here - it's a CTC pootle or an eyeballs-out chaingang run, 28mph on the flat.

The way I do it is to get the jockey wheels vertically lined up when the chain is on the biggest ring and smallest sprocket. There are alternative methods.

Now the only derailleur bike I have is the Thorn touring bike, it's easy - it takes a full 114 link chain.

Swift frames do have a bit of an iffy reputation - this is a pitfall when you replace steel with something else and you're unable to alter the dimensions to compensate (the rails have to fit a standard clamp).

Flites and SLRs don't seem to break rails as often, but the Ti on those looks better finished than on a Swift. I actually used to have a Swift but after a couple of thousand miles it was still trying to break me in, and the SLR on my racing bike was actually more comfortable.

This is a frame I bought last week.

It's probably British, of unknown age (guess 1930s or 1940s) and unknown tubing, concealed under a bad powdercoat job at the moment. A lot of care has gone into the construction, with perfectly mitred tubes inside the BB and pinned joints. It has a 21.5" seat tube and a really long top tube - about 23.5", so needs a short stem to fit me (very average-sized). This makes me think it may have been a custom job for someone with a long torso.

It is very light - the bare frame is only 4lb 2ozs on accurate scales. However, it takes a 26.8mm seatpost, which would seem to rule out 531DB. Maybe it has a p/g seat tube and uses 531DB elsewhere - I don't think anything else was so light until 753 came along.

The lugs are spearpoint, with a very odd double-lugged BB, and the frame
number on the BB is just a 3-digit number (855).

Any ideas? Detail pictures here:

http://www.peeble.com/fram1.jpg
http://www.peeble.com/fram2.jpg
http://www.peeble.com/fram3.jpg
http://www.peeble.com/fram4.jpg
http://www.peeble.com/fram5.jpg

It deserves some decent paint and it would be nice to get the right
transfers for it, if it can be identified.

I found City Jets were terrifying in the wet. Vredestein S-Licks were very good, but no longer made. If your rims are narrow enough try Schwalbe Stelvios, otherwise Specialized Fat Boys are good if you live in an area where the local lowlife don't smash bottles everywhere. I do, and they were punctured within a week whereas the Stelvios have managed one in six months.

Don't touch Conti Gatorskins with a bargepole. They attract glass punctures like a magnet.

I found 50 x 13 was good with Stelvios - it gives about a 64" normal gear on the 3-speed, or about 18.5mph at 100rpm.

Marathon Pluses are slower and heavier, but good for peace of mind. With those I went to 50 x 14 and added an extra link to the chain. The middle gear is then 59" or so, which is good for 17.5mph at 100rpm.

Chainsaw oil, at least the McCulloch stuff, forms long strings all over your back wheel. Don't try it.

The Marathon Plus should be the standard tyre really, given the difficulty of changing a rear puncture (OK, it can be done in 5 minutes if you're really good, but you will get filthy hands trying to manoeuvre that chain tensioner back into place).

The Stelvios are noticeably faster, although sadly not folding like their 26" counterparts.