Cycling UK Forum

[quote="glueman"]The difference with pulling on a fixed gear - and possibly a recumbent - is once you reach crank TDC/BDC where the gradient eliminates any freewheel effect, the bike is actually rolling backwards instead of pausing on the slope.

Surely not! If the bike was rolling back, the cranks would also rotate backwards. And the only time in the days when I rode fixed regularly that my cranks went backwards was when we tried - generally unsuccessfully, to ride backwards.

I'll admit it's nearly fifty years since I rode fixed, but in those days we all went fixed for the winter. We strapped ourselves in our toeclips (some foolhardy souls also used shoe plates to lock their feet in) and used our pedals as brakes, treading down on the back foot and pulling up on the front foot. It was remarkably effective, and made the bike easier to control when stopping or slowing on slippery or icy roads.

Whether that exercise strengthened my knees I don't know, but I've always ankled up hills when the going got difficult, pulling back on the backfoot from about the six o'clock to the eight o'clock position, up from eight to ten, and pressing forward from about ten. There are some hills I'd have to walk if I didn't. And there's nowt wrong with my knees, though there's other bits that don't work as well as they used to!

I've found this as well. Here in East Kent it's usually red, and not only is it bumpy and slower to ride on, after a year or so it begins to spall off, becoming even less comfortable.

Do you find as well that while the local authority has road sweepers to keep the highway clean for motor vehicles, it seems to totally ignore separate roadside cycleways? There's a mile-long stretch of shared footway/cycleway near me running alongside the A255 which has been covered with debris blown off the bordering hedge for at least six weeks, but the gutters are immaculate!

Welcome to the joy of cycling - I've been doing it for 73 years, and hope to go on for while longer .

You can download cycle route maps of your area at http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/ltp2_themescycling/, or it also gives a contact for paper maps.

Don't be frightened of riding on city roads, it's nowhere near as dangerous as it sometimes seems - after all, I'm not dead yet
Just don't ride in the gutter, but about a metre out; wear a bright jacket so as to be conspicuous; and be assertive but alert.

Oh, and remember to treat every pedestrian as a suicidal maniac, and every motorist as a homicidal one!

Mick F's reminiscence

Used to be quite a pastime when we woz kids. Used to get behind the Ribble bus out of Wigan, and speed behind at quite a lick.

reminds me of a time long ago when some heavy lorries were theoretically limited to 20mph (and so rarely drove above 30!), and a workmate and I commuted daily together. Occasionally one of us would steal march on the other on by slipping in behind such a lorry and taking off at speed, while sneering at the laggard behind . One day my mate did it to me, only to find said lorry was towing a trailer on a long draw-bar. Worse still, the lorry then kept close to the kerb for nearly a mile, so he had no escape route until there was a providential left fork. By the time I caught up with him he was still shaking with the thought of what might have been.

As it's too windy to ride safely, and too wet to tidy the wind debris in the garden, I've been catching up with the forum. Reading this thread prompted me to measure my threaded head sets, six in all. Three of them are 32mm; one is 32mm locknut, 33mm bearing cap; and one 32mm locknut, 41mm bearing cap. (The other is a Koga Miyata with a proprietary fitting needing a special tool. The only times I've needed to adjust it, I used stilsons - crude but effective!)

This leads me to ask:

1. Are the two odd sizes usual?

2. Can Paul cut to these sizes?

3. I note also that Paul's drawing shows little nibs at front of the jaws. Won't this stop the spanner sliding in under the front brake hanger?

If the answer to 2. is 'yes', please can I order 2No. 32mm spanners, 1No. 33mm and1No. 41mm. If 'no', please make that 3No. 32mm (I can file/grind one down to 33mm.)

Whoops. Forgot the URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPkbNFt5NuY

Then it must be this one!

Was it this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Uf5WVfY_RY

When I was young (about six decades ago) and we all went into fixed for the winter, the big debate was 'ankling'.
This was the technique of starting at the top of the down stroke with the heel as low as posible, and then slowly bringing the toe down so that at the bottom of the stroke the toe was as low as possible. The action was then reversed for the up-stroke. It was claimed that this gave you extra power because you were bringing additional muscles into play both on the down and up-strokes, provided you were well strapped into the clips. But others argued that there was no real advantage, and it merely wasted energy.
As a non-racing touring trundler I found over the years that it was too tiring to keep it up for long, but it seems to be a definite help on long hills. Has anyone else tried it?

Nitto still makes quill stems that at least as good (if not better) than anything that was available in the past. Chris King still makes threaded headsets, and there's plenty of others. I'm not worried yet.

They also make a quill adapter which lets you use threadless stems on threaded heads. The best of both worlds??? See http://www.freshtripe.co.uk/Freshtripe/Bendy%20Bits.html

Thanks for the list, Hubgearfreak. I was hoping to find someone nearer home (Thanet) but as there doesn't seem to be anyone, I've emailed Paul Villiers in Rochester.

It's an peculiar problem. There's something odd about the head bearing. The top of the upper half of the bottom bearing has cut a distinct groove in the fork tube for about an eighth of the circumference, and it is not possible to adjust the bearing without it binding at this point, whilst there is slack elsewhere in the turn. Yet otherwise there's no visible sign of damage, at least to my amateur eye. So I'm hoping a professional can spot the fault, and rectify it.

Anyone know if there is a frame builder still operating in East Kent? (I need some work on an old steel Dawes Galaxy)

I bought a Koga road bike second hand in 197? for £150. I'm still riding it regularly - it's been a really good day bike (the only better one one I've ever had was a James Ace, which a pig leant on and wrote off in 195?, but that's another story)