New model or old faithful?

[Brucey]

....Harptree, there is nothing that you can upgrade that will make the bike feel significantly easier to ride....

Disagree; those tyres would go straight in the bin. They will cost you a significant amount of speed, all the time.

cheers

You're objectively correct, but it isn't a race....

it is no fun being (say) the slowest in a group and nicer tyres might make the difference there, and are likely to be more comfortable to ride on to boot.

They are, of course, a lot cheaper than a new bike...

BTW a long tome ago CJ (quite rightly) pointed out that good tyres make a disproportionately large difference to slower riders; a greater proportion of their effort goes into overcoming rolling resistance.

cheers

[random37]

it is no fun being (say) the slowest in a group and nicer tyres might make the difference there, and are likely to be more comfortable to ride on to boot.

They are, of course, a lot cheaper than a new bike...

cheers

Yes, but that is all in the future.

You are talking about spending other people's money here. Harptree will probably want a new bike if she gets into group cycling, and when she does, that's fine. But she would be better just riding the one she has for a bit and seeing if she wants to take it further, rather than throwing money at something with (for now) small gains.

[Grarea]

I don't understand peoples' aversion to SPD pedals.
Put simply, they are the biggest single advance in my cycling lifetime, and I'm 71 now.
If they don't work, or are unsafe, how come so many of us use them? Or are we all deluded?

Personally I don't have a huge aversion to them.
But being fairly fresh back into cycling, I haven't been that keen.
A number of reasons really.

I have always liked toeclips, I have done many miles on and off road using them in the past, so it was something familiar which was nice.

I did try the small mtb ones as I had shoes that fitted them but a) I struggled a bit getting in and out of them, but b) they made my feet a bit numb.
(I am aware there might be other things at play but it seemed like the pressure was in quite a small area.)
Due to cost, I didn't try the larger road ones which spread the pressure more as I understand. I would have needed new shoes and pedals.

I use my bike for commuting but also to the shops and back, so i find it nice to have a clip but something that means I can use any shoe.

Finally, I find that I am wanting to put my feet wider than my pedals (I believe this is the Q factor) which will need playing with.
I like a lot of 'float' to move my feet about.

All of these problems may be solvable in the future, and when I can get more miles, I may well look to give them a go. As you say, many people swear by them.
But in the meantime, there are a few hurdles in the way of changing from what I am used to and find work fine for what I do. I have other things I need to work out first.

[Grarea]

BTW a long tome ago CJ (quite rightly) pointed out that good tyres make a disproportionately large difference to slower riders; a greater proportion of their effort goes into overcoming rolling resistance.

cheers

Yes, see, I agree with this.
A year ago, I struggled to push a lettuce with my legs.

I changed my tyres and it made quite a difference.
They felt better grip wise and less rolling resistance.
When I was only pushing 20 watts a three watt saving was awesome.
I felt a lot happier on the bike.
I looked into tyres and got just what I was after. The choice is amazing now eh?

It is the same with the dynamo lights thing.
I cycle up the same hill every day and I would say that I could notice the difference when the lights were on going up that hill.

I am much stronger going up it now and wouldn't argue whether I notice them on or not now.
Other factors make a much bigger difference.

[hamish]

If you like GTH lots then you don't need a new bike. If you actually really want a new bike then go for it. I think that it is definitely best to spend time to work out what you want and need in a new bike. You can use GTH in the meantime. Maybe you can use the thought of a new bike as a bit of a carrot by telling yourself that if you have got back into riding regularly and sustainably you will treat yourself?

It's not about the bike... But most cyclists/people who cycle regularly have nice bikes or bikes they like.

[Harptree]

Hi - there are lots of suggestions here and education for me, which is awesome and thank you all very much.

Further confessions here are (a) I cannot mend a puncture or even take my wheels off with confidence. I don't do it because what will I do if I can't get them back on? So not getting a puncture is pretty high on my priorities although I do realise that I have to learn. But are there smoother tyres that will still go on the towpaths and bridleways and not puncture?
(b) I managed to fall over the other day out of sheer stupid brain freeze indecision about which foot to put down when I stopped. Luckily I fell left onto the verge and not right, in front of a car. As a consequence, I think I'm swerving any sort of attaching feet to pedals, of whatever kind, for a while yet.
(c) I do have great affection for GTH. I did sort of say to myself that should the day ever dawn when I did 30 miles I would deserve a proper bike but then if I could do 30 miles with GTH I think I'd be happy with that. I am achingly envious of people who can do that. It looks utterly impossible.

This week has lots of jobs in it but next week is phone call to get service sorted. At which point, while GTH is in, out will come even older Giant the Mountain Bike - an even earlier piece of folly of mine, with its enormous knobbly tyres that have me gasping for breath within 500 yds. Still, what does not kill us makes us stronger, etc. - (or sees us at the side of the road sobbing and cursing maybe)

Many thanks to all.

[squeaker]

Assuming your 'rough riding' is just 'not tarmac', rather than rocky / seriously muddy, then a pair of these for GMB, or similar, would help greatly without breaking the bank.

[531colin]

………... Most older riders were already used to using toe clips when they switched to clipless, and that probably made it much less of a transition...........

Really? To clip in to clipless, you just step on it, like putting your foot on a flat pedal. To un-clip, you twist sideways, not pull your foot backwards out of the toeclip.
Toeclip users have learned the reflexes to flip the pedal to get it right side up, and to enter the toeclip from the back, and exit it towards the back. (And to fasten and undo toestraps, if of a racing persuasion.)
None of those reflexes help at all with clipless, its easier to learn clipless if you miss out the toeclip stage altogether.

[531colin]

……….
(b) I managed to fall over the other day out of sheer stupid brain freeze indecision about which foot to put down when I stopped. Luckily I fell left onto the verge and not right, in front of a car. As a consequence, I think I'm swerving any sort of attaching feet to pedals, of whatever kind, for a while yet........

Thats interesting. I have always thought that which foot a rider puts down is intrinsic, like being left or right handed. For example, I always set off by putting the right pedal up, and pushing off with my right foot. So I always put my left foot down, no decision is needed. I'm not sure I even can set off using the other foot....I must remember to try!
Off road, if I can't continue to ride for any reason (eg too rocky) I can put my right foot down, or if (say) there is a big puddle or drop-off to my left, or if I lurch to the right I can put my right foot down; but I'm fairly sure I always switch feet and re-start riding with the right.

[Vorpal]

I can set off with either foot, due to having done so with my left foot most of my life, then having to learn to do it with my right when I was teaching Bikeability. Now I mostly do it with my right foot, even though that's the 'wrong' foot for someone using the right side of the road, as I do here in Norway.

I don't know which foot I usually put down. I can't recall even thinking about it. I'll think about it once or twice tomorrow.

[Brucey]

I'm told that folk mount horses (and bicycles) from the left, even if they then intend to go down the right hand side of the road. Is that the case where you are Vorpal?

My own habits are much like Colin's.

It is said that posties used to break LH pedals (because of 'scootering') and that normal folk break RH pedals (because they push off on them).

One thing you don't see so often these days is the 'scootering dismount', in which the rider swings the right leg to the left side of the bike, and scooters along with the weight on the left pedal only as they come to a halt. I wonder why this has fallen out of favour?

cheers

[Harptree]

Like most horse riders, I have mostly got on my horses from the near side, so that one's sword, which one wears on the left if one is right handed, stays quietly on the left and doesn't fly and fling about as one springs up, get tangled up in one's mantle, doublet or hose, or give one's horse a big smack up the backside while one is getting on, with predictable and hazardous results.

I once, a few years ago, had the immense good fortune to have a free individual cycling lesson from Bernard Burns, of legendary 70's cycling fame, by answering an ad on the back of a bus ( I was awed and gobsmacked when I discovered who he was). I hadn't even sat on a bike for years and he soon had me going round and doing road safety stuff. He was pretty clear that I should not be putting my right leg down when I stopped, as I would lean into the traffic. But it feels alien to me and I am a bit wobbly at it as I haven't practised it enough, which he told me in very strict terms to do.

I fell over, as I said earlier, because I was on a single track road of which there are lots round me. A car was coming the other way and that road was not big enough for the both of us, so I needed to pull over onto the verge. I am indecisive and an habitual overthinker and was caught between (a) right foot down is my best stop, but sees me lean towards the car (b) left foot down is what Bernard Burns told me to do, leans me away, but is wobbly. I prevaricated about it for far too long and consequently made a rushed and unfortunate manouvre.

The wild card in this was the long grass which was hiding the shallow ditch on the verge on the left. Hence I went with Bernard, put left foot down, found nothing there until far lower than I had thought and fell over - but still fell over on the verge rather than in front of a car, so hats off to Bernard, really. I guess he knows his stuff! Until I've practised more, I'm not attaching my feet to anything, however loosely, - I don't need any more variables on the list - although it is interesting to be educated that there are more options than I thought, so thankyou.

And Squeaker - the tyres look interesting so thankyou too.

[Vorpal]

I'm told that folk mount horses (and bicycles) from the left, even if they then intend to go down the right hand side of the road. Is that the case where you are Vorpal?

My own habits are much like Colin's.

It is said that posties used to break LH pedals (because of 'scootering') and that normal folk break RH pedals (because they push off on them).

One thing you don't see so often these days is the 'scootering dismount', in which the rider swings the right leg to the left side of the bike, and scooters along with the weight on the left pedal only as they come to a halt. I wonder why this has fallen out of favour?

cheers

Yes, people still mount horses form the left in Norway.

And I think most people push off with the left, and put the right down.

Mini V does the scootering mounting and dismounting. From the left

[squeaker]

The wild card in this was the long grass which was hiding the shallow ditch on the verge on the left. Hence I went with Bernard, put left foot down, found nothing there until far lower than I had thought and fell over....

Been there, done that, only with a 350cc Velocette MAC motorcycle Fortunately nothing important got trapped underneath, although it did take a while to get everything right side up again

[squeaker]

One thing you don't see so often these days is the 'scootering dismount', in which the rider swings the right leg to the left side of the bike, and scooters along with the weight on the left pedal only as they come to a halt. I wonder why this has fallen out of favour?

spd pedals?