Introductions - tell us about yourself

[Heltor Chasca]

Hello everybody,

I am delighted to be part of the community I introduce myself: Gustavo Woltmann, Argentinian and freshly arrived in London. I am married and will soon have a first child. Otherwise, I am passionate about "mountain cycling". And I am looking for one or more partners to share this passion with.

Welcome Gustavo. I've just got into Yerba Mate from your part of the world, having cut down on coffee. I love it. I'm trialling some tereré as my go-to-drink for long distances. Plenty of hills here in Somerset to pretend they are 'mountains'.

[naffa]

Hi I thought I'd post here to say hello. Ive recently become a member and wouldnt mind getting to know a few local members that I could ride with, albeit not very quickly.
My names Nathan Jones and I live in a town called Tipton which is near Dudley in the West Midlands. Ive ridden mtb for a few yars but last year I really got into my road cycling and bought a Giant Defy 1 disc. I covered almost 3000 miles last year but this years got off to a slow start.
I mostly ride alone but sometimes its nice to have company and its motivational too.
I work part time for the Coop so riding during the week is usually best for me. Are there any local groups or riders I can get in touch with?
Let me know if you fancy meeting up.

Thanks Nathan

[ed_phelan]

Good morning guys,

My name is Ed and I am a keen cyclist living in the beautiful city of Brighton & Hove. I ride more for pleasure and to do my bit in helping to cut down on the every increasing amount of air pollution. I recently left university and starting a new job, so looking forward to being able to put some money aside and treating myself to a new bike this year!

[papusale]

My real name: Panso

Age: 28

Occupation: Freelancer

Favourite colour: Black

Bikes/Cycling: Cube.

Status: Single

Interesting fact: Just starting.

[LiaFrood]

Hi, I am a 9 year old girl (so no swearing!) I have Decathlon and Peugeot Racers. Every year me and my dad ( ) go to the New Forest in England. (Now you recognise me! )

[Kojak]

Hi everyone!

Basically I’m 51 and new to road cycling.
Like many of my generation I cycled as a kid for independence riding to and from school or to meet people for a game of football, down to the local pool, the shops and other recreational activities with friends in a group, all of course at a time when the roads were quieter than now.

My bikes were probably my favourite toy where as in my circles most others preferred a football or a cricket bat. I spent a lot more time in the saddle than most and played with swapping ape hangers for cow horns, changing saddles, fixing the ‘p’ word etc and it was enjoyable.
Once I started work a moped and car simply made my last bike redundant. Plenty more freedom lead to plenty more hobbies.

The years have passed and my small family is growing, cycling has become ever more popular and here I am after buying my first road bike after 35 years of absence. I did already have a mountain bike but there are no mountains around my parts and damn, I’ve always thought it was overkill and unnecessary on the road.

I bought a B-Twin Triban 540 after very limited research. Well actually no research at all on that particular bike. I turned up at my local Halfords to look at a Boardman bike reduced 20% to £700 that I reserved and found it damaged. So I wandered around the corner into Decathlon and from a value perspective it was a massive bargain. I’m not too much of a brand snob either and liked the look of it.
They only had a large and the guy adjusted the seat height and I rode it outside the shop. It felt OK as I could reach everything and I bought a well specc’d bike for £600 in their sale for £450.
Happy Days? not as it turns out.

The size was a mistake. I kept getting sore on the lower outside tendons of both my hamstrings after 20 miles or so. Researching this I found ‘bike fit’ to be of some status and importance that I had not considered. In all this it became clear that my Triban was too big. I was at the lower end of a medium and could even have got a small. But hey there is still a lot of adjustment available with stem size, seat post and saddle fore and aft. Besides before the onset of pain I’m really enjoying the feel of this bike, the looks had grown on me day by day and knowing what a bargain it was I felt great all round. So I continued to seek the best fit ride after ride making adjustments that were partially successful but I never nailed it. The further I went the more frustrating it became that I wasn’t fitted properly in the shop. I remember there were Medium & smalls on the website so one could have been ordered for me. Really I don’t think I should have been able to buy the Large without a mini fight. In other words they should have recommended getting a smaller one in for me.
Unfortunately that didn’t happen and I’ve lost out on the bike I wanted.

Spring 2017 is looming and I got an invite to do an 83 mile sportive with some friends. I turned it down knowing more than half of that distance would be painful. Now I didn’t buy a bike to be competitive or for going to the local shops on so in theory that sportive probably fits the bill.
The penny has dropped that unless it’s my body’s age related capability this bike is not right for me. A realisation that saddened me as I was now truly in love with my purchase in every other aspect.
Decathlon have a great 365 day return policy. My bike looked brand new still so I thought I shouldn’t have a problem with changing it. I rang the store and my model has been replaced/upgraded slightly and instead of being £600 it would be £650 so £50 to pay. In principle this was agreed then getting into the detail when they realised I had bought it in their sale they refused to change it but instead offered me a refund or a swap for £200.
A full refund is still and incredible offer but it left me with out the bike I really wanted.
I raised the question with them that if my model was still available but not on sale would they change it free of charge and the answer was yes! Yet I can’t buy the one that superseded it for the extra £50. In effect they were asking me to surrender the saving I made in their sale.
I couldn’t bring my self to pay another £200 for what was essentially the same bike when all they had to do was fit me to one properly in the first instance. I still believe the new Triban 540 to be fantastic value at £650 but I don’t believe I should pay another £200. Hell I’d have paid the £50 and some more if they would meet me on a good will gesture. Alas it wasn’t to be and on principle I took the refund and have turned my back on the brand. Back went all the Twin accessories as well.
I got some £700 back and they’ll not suffer like a small bike shop would so it really doesn’t matter to them all the time cases like mine are isolated. My frustration isn’t so much that the policy wont allow me to swap the sale priced bike for a non sale priced bike but more that I could have the right size with better customer service in the first instance.

Now just for information, I was a member of the B-twin owners club forum and I told my story (in smaller chunks) as it progressed on their site. But in a similar way to what I have written above.
I remained pretty positive about Decathlon in general and my posts were either factual or balanced from own opinions and other way they remained polite and respectful. Guess what? I got a message from the administrator saying I would be banned for berating Decathlon if I continued to make posts like this.
Well I first asked him to point out what I had posted that berated Decathlon and got no answer. So I deleted my account there. Only to find a couple of days later they banned me anyway.
I promise you there was nothing more berating than I have typed here today. No sarcasm, no abusive language, politics or religion and no slagging off. Just facts and personal experience.

My ‘decent entry level’ requirements has lead me to a Giant Defy ‘0’ 2016 model from my LBS at £799 a couple of days ago. This is a better bike on paper than the Triban.
Having learned from my previous mistakes they offered to fit me to a bike. I was between 2 sizes, small and medium. I found lots of references saying when this happens if you want a relaxed ride go up and for performance go down. So as the bike was still smaller than the Triban, I went up to a medium. They fitted me to it and I went from a 100mm stem to an 80mm stem and it looks right, feels right. But that was only 2 days ago and the weather here in Hampshire has been pretty poor so I don’t want to take out my new pride and joy in it. I know I will not be any worse off if it turns out the problem is my 51 year old body and I know I’ll be better off from the conventional bike fitting.
I did actually take my Triban in when I bought the Giant for back to back size comparison and it seems that there was always a trade off. To get there reach sorted out (even with a shorter stem) my knee was too far forward over my toes when the power was on (1o’clock to 3 o’clock position).

Well, an extremely long post so thanks to those who were willing to stick with it. Looking forward to getting involved a bit more have a great day!!

[reohn2]

Hi, I am a 9 year old girl (so no swearing!) I have Decathlon and Peugeot Racers. Every year me and my dad ( ) go to the New Forest in England. (Now you recognise me! )

Would your Dad be a tall Welshman?

[LiaFrood]

Would your Dad be a tall Welshman?

Maybe.

[fausto copy]

Maybe definitely!
Lia won't remember me though; she was a babe in arms when she last came on one of my club rides.

fausto.

[LiaFrood]

Maybe definitely!
Lia won't remember me though; she was a babe in arms when she last came on one of my club rides.

fausto.

I don't remember you but thanks!

[reohn2]

Would your Dad be a tall Welshman?

Maybe.

Thought so

[fausto copy]

Maybe definitely!
Lia won't remember me though; she was a babe in arms when she last came on one of my club rides.

fausto.

Actually I should have said "babe in trailer".

Glad to see you're still happy associating with us old fogies though.
fausto

[Valandry]

Val from France, overwhelmed by technology! Two wheels have turned my life around since starting cycling last year. Looking forward to contributing to the forum.

[compo]

Just saying high to everyone from Bradford I'm just getting back into cycling. My bike is a old Scott mountain bike which I've just given a service ,I've managed four rides up and down the greenway near cleckheaton. It's a start I'm sure it will get easier .I'll be asking lots of questions as it seems bike technology has moved on a lot

I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my KFGIWI using hovercraft full of eels.

[fridaysniper]

Hi all,

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this. I'm new here and want to say hi and at least introduce myself before flogging a bunch of stuff. I thought it would be rude to just jump in and list stuff for sale when no one knows me. I am happy to wait the obligatory number of posts before listing stuff for sale

Quick background; I'm a long time cycling enthusiast, nothing major like competitions or races. I just like cycling. My wife had a bad accident late last year and she really used to like cycling (she bought tons of kit and at last count eight bicycles...) Since the accident she has not cycled much and definitely does not want to cycle on the road anymore. I'm slowly getting her back into mountain biking but if she doesn't want to ride anymore I won't force her.

She has expressed a desire to get rid of a few of her bikes as they're just taking up room in the garage (and study!) and I thought rather than putting it on gumtree or some other dodgy site I would prefer to engage with other cyclists and see if anyone wants anything.

Once approved (both by her, and by yourselves) to list the bikes and bits of kit such as rollers, spare pedals, cycling bibs, gloves, jackets and shoes (dear Lord the shoes! So many pairs of shoes!) I shall put pics etc on here and see who likes what.

Just to give you an idea, we're looking to sell her two cyclocross bikes (Cannondale and a Bianchi), single speed (Kona Paddywagon), and urban hybrid kind of thing (Cannondale Bad Boy) for a start. She wants to keep her Cannondale Supersix, and Cannondale Slice but they may also end up for sale eventually as i can't see her getting out on the road anytime soon. She just loves those two bikes and doesn't want to let them go.

I don't have pictures at the moment but the bikes are all a few years old and in very good condition.

Also to set everyone's mind at rest, the bike she had the accident with is NOT for sale as I have scrapped that and not reused any of the components on any of the other bikes.

Apologies for the long post. I shall do the normal thing and lurk for a while now



I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly bog brush using hovercraft full of eels