Cycling UK Forum

I find this “normal clothes” thing mildly strange, because it’s obvious that different clothes are optimised for different jobs, and if one departs very far from what they are optimised for, they become uncomfortable and/or impractical - that much is common sense.

So, if one wishes to cycle in a way that involves doing things that a are very far from what one does normally, then it’s pretty unlikely that the clothes you wear normally are going to be much good for the job.

For the first 27 years of my working life I rode 5 miles to and from the office in a suit and tie, using a cape when it rained.

How did you cope with the soggy socks and soggy trouser-leg bottoms?

I also like to take left turns a little wide, to discourage the vehicle that I hear slowing behind from attempting an overtake on the bend

Ditto, but I got a nasty surprise last year when a person on a light motorcycle with L plates nearly hit me in that circumstances by beginning to undertake me on my left on the space so created, then dropped back and close-passed me on the right instead!

They’d been riding on my back tyre, looking to slip
past on either side, I guess.

It’s diplomacy. Everyone is lying.

I was impressed by the way Macron called-out a bit of Trump lying, and publicly corrected him though. If you see the video it’s quite funny, because Macron pats him on the leg to stop him in mid-flow, and talks over him when he starts rabbiting nonsense again.

Not that I’m superstitious, but I don’t like talking about this, in case it brings on bad luck.

BTW, I exclude from consideration minor sudden unplanned dismounts of the kind that aren’t completely unusual when riding bridleways. My most recent of those was coming down a fairly steep path, heavily overgrown so that I couldn’t actually see the ground, and barely as wide as me, due to dense, high growth on either side. Suddenly, a couple of yards ahead, a person emerged into the path from among the shrubbery. I rammed on the brakes, simultaneously jumped off, and landed in a heap in the bushes. No harm done! It turned out that the person was one of a group of DoE scheme hikers, who had nipped into the bushes to answer a call of nature.

Thus if you search, I don't expect you to find many others similar

Those things apply to one way of doing it. They don’t apply to a low-head system using sea-water, directly adjacent to a tidal pound. In that case, the requirement is a broad valley, shallow-sloping, dammed to a fairly low height.

Slightly different function, because a typical mountain system is used to store energy for relatively long durations, in large quantities, in a way that allows it to be “called onto the bars” very rapidly indeed, whereas what I’m talking about would be used merely to reduce the natural fluctuation of output from a tidal system (‘cos I thought it was tidal systems that were under discussion).

Off-piste really, so feel free to ignore, but ……

Where I live, these 1990s rigid MTBs that everyone says are freely available and cheap as chips are actually quite rare, and steel hybrids of the same date rarer still!

I keep an eye out for them, and the odd one floats by on the stream of gumtree, FB marketplace, and the bike charity, but most of the truly cheap secondhand bikes are slightly later boat-anchors, with long-dead front suspension, or more modern aluminium ones with equally rubbish front suspension.

A local peculiarity?

Every time I look at the news, there is some further example of the US being gutted and turned into the Pluto-fascist monstrosity that has been so widely forecast. Reuters are reporting today that the consumer protection agency is being dismantled, for instance. Yesterday it was about how Trump will now only allow chosen (friendly) journalists to ask him question during press conferences.

Meanwhile, here in the UK, on-line support for Trump among nostalgia-rightists (the “Make England Like 1957 Again” crowd) on social media seems to be increasing …… so, these are people here in the UK, who can see what’s going on there in the USA, and want to copy it. Not multi-millionaires who might benefit from it, but ordinary people who probably support Reform. Yesterday I saw a chap in the supermarket wearing a MAGA baseball cap, of all things! He was choosing from the butchery section at the time, so possibly trying to persuade some fellow dead turkeys to vote for Christmas.

Whichever you choose, if you do choose one, I’d advise going to the shop to try it for size.

Although the Lithium is a very good value bike (I did get one for £400, two years ago), the geometry is “MTB-like”, which I think applies to the ones under consideration here too, and mine lasted <6 months with me because it proved far too stretched-out for my tastes. I did try it in the shop (in fact that’s how I got it for £400, by asking Evan’s to price match Decathlon, which they did), and thought I could get it precise for me by changing if the stem, but even after that it was too long. If you are even faintly near the overlap between size recommendations, you’ll probably want to size down, rather than size up and fit a shorter stem.

Other thought: is there a bike charity near you? If there is, it might be worth a look at what they have in stock before committing, just to give the “secondhand and tinker” option one last opportunity.

Ah, yes, only in pale grey, and two sizes!

That looks pretty good for effectively £300, doesn’t it?

Just check that is has got clearance for somewhat fatter tyres than it comes with.

The Pinnacle Lithium 3 is also currently on offer at £400, has slightly better quality brakes, and is 3x9, rather than 2x9, and will take 50mm tyres, but in many ways it’s very similar.

These sorts of bikes always seem to come with very puncture-attracting tyres though, so you might want to factor in the price of getting some tougher ones, or going tubeless.

Cadence’s suggested solution is a good one, and you might find it easier to get hold of a 90’s MTB than a secondhand touring bike with wide tyre clearances. The objective would be roughly the same though: a rigid bike with tyres 40-50mm. I tend to go for bikes at the thinner end of the 40-50mm tyre range because I like their slightly nippier character, that’s all.

The quick route to having a rigid bike with tyres in that size range, if you don’t enjoy, or don’t have time, for scouring secondhand sources and then tinkering, would be a new hybrid of the right sort, of which there are definitely a few in your price range. I always recommend the Pinnacle Lithium 3, and I think the Carrera Subway Allweather is one that others here have recommended.

Genesis Croix de Fer. Rather a lot more than £500 for a new one, although you might find one for that secondhand (although tyre clearance on older ones is tighter).

Worth keeping an eye open for a secondhand tourer that will accept fatter tyres. I struck really lucky recently and got a Ridgeback Panorama about 15yo for a ridiculously low price, and that will take 40mm+ tyres easily. At the moment I’ve rigged it as a utility bike for me to use to the shops, but I could turn it into an off-road focused (gravel) bike very easily. Another good, cheap source of bikes for this sort of thing is outdated cyclocross bikes with cantilever brakes, although again watch tyre clearances.

Sounds to me as if you’ve got the bike for the job already, although I’d whip the mudguards off if that allowed slightly bigger tyres.

Here’s what I use, and honestly it is good for anything that doesn’t truly necessitate an MTB (and anything that does is too terrifying for me anyway!). I’ve done goodly bits of the South Downs Way on it, for instance, although I ran out of gears and had to push up some of the steepest climbs.


But, it’s your call, not mine. If you want an MTB, don’t let me put you off.

Is the Royal drop bar?

What width tyres does it take? A lot of hybrids are fit for 40mm tyres, which is what I use for this sort of stuff, and a few will go up to 50mm. If you are used to 32mm, that will make a big difference.

If the Royal will take fattish tyres, and especially if you get it set up tubeless, I reckon you’d be good to go.