Cycling UK Forum

I endorse the last comment. I did some research when buying a replacement car for my failed MOT Citroen ZX estate The Honda Jazz, although small in appearance, is very roomy with the rear seats down measuring 6 feet diagonally in the back, more than enough for at least one bike if not two. Check on YouTube on how the bikes go in. Equivalent small cars are sometimes as much as a foot shorter. In the end I opted for a Skoda Fabia estate, not wishing to give up the advantage of the extra space.

Alas, this is happening elsewhere. On the East Coast Mainline there are proposals to close level crossings between Peterborough and Grantham closing off quiet country routes used by cyclists, eg Greatford crossing between Stamford and Thurlby YHA. I protested as a Right to Ride Rep. Did not even get the decency of an acknowledgement. What price democracy?

It is on these issues CTC National Office needs to stand up and be counted. It is far too easy to fob off isolated protests from individual reps - classic divide and rule tactics by those in power.

I had no trouble fitting the Defy mudguards on my Defy bike. They are designed specifically for the Defy frame, especially the back mudguard which bolts on to the back of the seat tube just behind the top of the front changer. For this reason this mudguard is shorter than a traditional one. However a cable tie would probably fix it on a non Defy bike in the same place as on a Defy. There is a problem with the Defy mudguards as Chris Juden pointed out in Cycle in that there are no quick release safety clips front and back. I have managed for three years ok but they are scary on newly laid chippings where a bigger than usual chipping could stick to the tyre with a bit a tar and lo and behold you would be flying through the air with the greatest of unease on landing. I have searched, so far in vain, for safety clips that are compatible with the Defy mudguards. Giant are a good outfit but even they get in wrong sometimes. My wife's new Giant CX with disc brakes makes any mudguard and carrier fitting difficult, but not impossible.

T*he Decathlon Triban 500SE is on offer at £330. Alloy frame with carbon forks, Shimano 3 x 8 - the triple provides a good gear range - in 51/54/57/60/63 sizes. Mudguard eyes and rear carrier fixings. Cycling Weekly rating 9/10. This must be the best value bike on the market. Check on Decathlon web site or visit store for trial ride on rollers. Free delivery or click and collect. Lifetime warranty. I promise I do not work for Decathlon!

Decathlon are currently selling their own brand MTB shoes for half price - about £22. These are for SPD's. have screw in front studs for real off road riding, and two Velcro straps. These are on the on line site. I am not sure if your nearest store might have them in stock in all the sizes. They do Click and Collect however.

Sleep is a very individual thing and even then can vary considerably according to circumstances. I think age has a part to play also.

In 1979 I started with the vedettes with the aim of a sub 60 hours ride but punctured soon after the start leaving me last in the field. I got to the Brest turn in 27 hours but suffered on the return. My saddle pin slipped leaving me unable to level the saddle. The saddle was a dressed Brooks leather - what a mistake.
The combination of slipped pin and dressed leather resulted in bad saddle sores which slowed me down and forced me to ride through a third night. I had got through two nights as planned with only short stops but the unplanned third night did for me. I struggled home in 67 hours.

To ride for a fast time support is needed (not allowed officially in 1979 but there are rules and there are rules). Anyone who has done the qualifying rides, and more so LEL, should get round easily within the time limit, even after allowing a generous time off to sleep each night. Do your own ride. Ride with groups but do not them dictate. You know yourself better than anyone and know when to stop and sleep.

Bon route.

The mention of Norwich Velo brings back memories of riding the BLRC road races the club promoted in the 1950's. Happy days indeed.

Over many years of European touring, mainly in France, I have used a variety of tyres from most major makers in a variety of widths from 20 to 37mm. My conclusions are:-

For cycle camping I prefer Continental Touring Plus. I dropped from 37 to 32 and then to 28. I found the 32 best. The load is usually two front panniers and two rear with the tent strapped to the top of the rear panniers.

For youth hostelling/hotel touring I prefer 25 Continental Ultra GatorSkin. The load is usually two rear panniers only.

I carefully pump the tyres to the maker's recommended pressure, not the maximum, visiting bike shops en route every week or so to borrow a track pump to keep the pressure up. My tours have varied in duration with a maximum of six weeks.

I heard the news about Chris Juden on today's club run. Sad and disappointed that the CTC is resorting to the kind of behaviour usually associated with big business rather than with a national club that now claims to be a charity. I have known Chris on and off for many years. Even for riders of my generation, who took pride in knowing all there was about cycle mechanics, there were times when we looked to Chris for sound advice, in my case for example baby seats and trailers bikes. Today the cycle industry has managed, whether deliberately of by default, to generally make cycle mechanics difficult for the old hands and incomprehensible for new ones, many of whom cannot even mend a puncture. Most cycle shops today do not understand, let alone cater for the needs of touring cyclists. There are one or two notable exceptions but the list gets shorter every year. In my part of the world we have just lost Byers Cycles who served us well over many years.

In such circumstances it is even more important to have a technical expert at CTC HQ who can provide sound unbiased technical advice both to individual CTC members on request and to the general CTC membership by a regular section in Cycle. The role is also important in providing a standard response to inquiries from national and local government on wider issues, such as cycle parking, cycles on public transport, lighting and the like.

On a personal level I hope that Chris is treated to a decent redundancy package. He has served the CTC for many years and this needs to be recognised.

Finally, like many of you I am worried at the direction the CTC is taking. After some years of lapsed membership I have rejoined British Cycling as I feel that it is doing more for cycling than the CTC. This applies not just to the racing successes but also to the Sky, Breeze and Social R ides and, equally as important, campaigning for better cycling conditions.

Some of you may have noticed that the BC website now advertises CTC rides and other rides by non BC affliated cycling groups. This facility not only advertises rides to a wider audience but offers easy advance booking and prepayment if needed - very useful if you are an organiser. On the other hand there may be some of you who prefer to see your CTC group as a select group of friends. Fair enough, but look around and check the average age of your group. Cycling is changing like the world around it and it needs to respond or die, like many of the top cycling clubs of my youth, such as the Southampton Wheelers.

Enough ranting. Have a good Christmas and New Year.


(check reviews in other cycling magazines, where even the colour of the handlebar tape is regarded as an important issue)

My wife has a Giant Invite 1 CX bike which she is very pleased with, especially on off road trails. However, we have a problem. Fitting a rack and mudguards presents a problem as the disc brakes, front and back, obstruct direct fitting of mudguards and a rack. One method would be to use very long fixing bolts with aluminium spacers. The other method would be to use Giant Disc Rack Adaptors, which come in short and long sizes, to fit the rack. However, fixing the mudguards still remains a problem. The Giant Speedshield 700 Tour mudguards come in two forms an alloy and a non alloy one. I found on my Giant Defy the Defy mudguards, although excellent in every other way, lack a front quick release safety device, as Chris Juden criticised in Cycle. The Speedshields suffer from the same problem. In addition it is not too obvious from online pictures how the mudguard stays are adjusted to suit the tyre.

Suggestions would be very welcome.

I always lived close to work, even in Canada, and never more than four miles away. For the last 20 years of work I walked, or ran, 8 miles a day there and back during the winter months. The danger with winter cycling is that often the sun does not get out to melt the ice until 10am or so. I have the same problem now with club runs which require an hour's ride to the 9.30am start. If there is ice at 8.30am I wait until the ice has melted, if if does, and go out on my own. As already pointed out, we do not bounce so easily when older.

As a cyclist since 1948 and a racing one for many of them, now with exercise induced asthma from breathing in a lot of polluted air over that period, I am more than pleased that the issue of air quality has hit the headlines in the last few days. Most of us are car drivers and I hope most of us to try to use the car as least as possible but at the same we tend to play down the effect on others when we do so. When I finally started driving just over 20 years ago we were told that diesels were the most environmentally friendly engines. Now we are told that they are the most polluting. It seems strange that this has only just been discovered! I understand that worldwide every year while over one million are killed by motor vehicles over ten million are killed by air pollution. Here in Milton Keynes the official figures gave 243 deaths in 2013 directly resulting from air pollution, roughly the same as the worldwide ratio.

Yet we have had no real attempts by government, whether national or local, to combat this. Even worse, the Government in its death throes announces a massive road building programme, which would completely wreck any attempts to hit previously agreed air quality targets and thus reduce the numbers killed by air pollution, while at the same time refusing to fund cycling and walking to any meaningful level.

There are questions to be asked when the General Election rolls round.

I found it took a lot longer than the three or so weeks the medical profession advise. Cycling is hard on the hands and it took several months before I was 100 per cent. I often had to stop on rides to give my hand a rest. The older you are the longer it takes to recover from any operation,however small.

Chris is easily the best spokesperson for cycling that we have. As usual his recent comments, especially on helmets, are spot on. Cyclists need to be united on this and similar issues which the motor lobby use to divide and rule us. I have been a cyclist since 1948 and I am not prepared to accept advice on cycling from non-cyclists. Sadly most politicians, civil servants and local government officers, who determine transport policies, fall into the latter category. Have hope - things will change, perhaps not in my life time, but they will, just as they have on drink driving and smoking. We simply cannot carry on as usual.

Not only are leaves slippery, especially when decomposed, but they also cover surface defects, eg potholes. A good highway authority should be sweeping cycle routes at least weekly during the leaf falling season.