Cycling UK Forum

Newly retired, I have been cycling 500 miles a year in the past few years. I hope that will go up to over 1200 a year now.

I cycle with a Club on their social rides, up to 30 miles at around 12 mph. At first I could not keep up, but now I can, except for the hills where I am slow and sometimes have to get off and walk. Fitness is gradually improving though.

I have a Thorn Raven and a Galaxy and I use the Galaxy for Club rides. I think that the Raven is too slow, probably, for this task. The Galaxy has a first gear of 24 inches - the Raven 17 inches.

I fancy one day joining the Club rides that do longer distances, climb more hills and ride at around 15mph.

I think I am looking for a bike that has mountain bike type gearing, say a first gear of 15 to 17, that also is speedy and comfortable and would allow me to join the fast rides one day. I don't think that I am interested in a carbon flyer road bike. Unless that is what I really need.

Any suggestions?

you'll need to tell us a bit more.

for example, where do you ride? is it all tarmac? what budget?

I suggest you consider whether there is scope to make significant improvements to your Galaxy. The advantage of that is the bike is known quantity, it presumably fits you, and improving it might cost a lot less than a new bike. It also gives the opportunity to use the Galaxy as a test bench to see what works for you and what changes are worth while, so that you would eventually be in a much better position to decide what you might want in any eventual new bike.

If you provide more information about the Galaxy, posters should be able to advise on the scope for gaining performance improvements, e.g. tell us:

- model year
- gearing (what speed, ring sizes and cassette range and what shifters)
- wheels: tyres (exact model and width), hubs, number of spokes and rims.

Posting a photograph of the Galaxy might also help.

Tyres in particular can make a major difference. Another factor is what you take with you. If you have a racktop bag or saddlebag filled with lots of stuff, being more selective and taking only the essentials might result in a very useful weight saving. Even more so if you are able to use a seat pack instead and take off any pannier rack.

I would also say that your mileage is very low. 500 per year is only 10 miles a week, even 1200 pa is only about 3 miles a day.

Now you are retired you should be able to up that considerably. This alone will increase your speed and your climbing. Maybe go out on your own and ride a few hills at your own pace.

You might find your bikes get faster.

Thinking again about this are you sure about your figures. You have 2 decent bikes, you must have used them more than this.

Coaster531 wrote: ↑23 Feb 2022, 9:11pm Newly retired, I have been cycling 500 miles a year in the past few years. I hope that will go up to over 1200 a year now.

I cycle with a Club on their social rides, up to 30 miles at around 12 mph. At first I could not keep up, but now I can, except for the hills where I am slow and sometimes have to get off and walk. Fitness is gradually improving though.

I have a Thorn Raven and a Galaxy and I use the Galaxy for Club rides. I think that the Raven is too slow, probably, for this task. The Galaxy has a first gear of 24 inches - the Raven 17 inches.

I fancy one day joining the Club rides that do longer distances, climb more hills and ride at around 15mph.

I think I am looking for a bike that has mountain bike type gearing, say a first gear of 15 to 17, that also is speedy and comfortable and would allow me to join the fast rides one day. I don't think that I am interested in a carbon flyer road bike. Unless that is what I really need.

Any suggestions?

coaster: putting low gears on a Galaxy is a great thing to do and relatively simple (not a lot more than you would pay to replace worn components). You could carry more stuff, get up the hills and generally enjoy your cycling more. My touring bikes have a lowest gear of 17" which is ideal IMV.

However..

The low gearing (brilliant though it is) comes at the expense of speed. Cycling alone, that isn't a problem - you can twiddle up the hills and admire the view. Cycling with a group however means keeping up which means not really being able to make as much use of those lovely low gears.

My guess, as others have pointed out, is that a better strategy is to radically improve your mileage and hence your fitness. This will most likely happen faster than those at the front are improving theirs. You don't need to overdo it but it should be easy to get up to 50 miles per week.

Do look at your wheels and tyres and a few other things to improve your speed but getting more miles in is the key - you won't regret it.

I had a Raven, it wasn't my favorite bike, but neither did it stop me from enjoying my CTC group's longer rides and quite a few Audax.
I'm not saying there aren't bikes that will be easier and faster, but it will be marginal, I agree with the suggestion you could first explore getting the best out of what you already have.

I would definitely upgrade the Galaxy rather than buy a new bike. A really wide ratio cassette is a good starting place (if you don't want to fit a new chainset). Readily available and a relatively low end shimano shifter will do the mechanicals.

If you want to improve your general fitness without much expense then a turbo trainer is a good place to start. I've a friend who is a professional cycling coach and he trains people aged 8-80 with this method. There are plenty coaching tips available on YouTube. It's an excellent way to get a decent level of fitness relatively quickly.

https://youtu.be/fQqndzvURAU

This is a starter/beginner level turbo trainer course (there are about a dozen in the series). Although it looks hard, it's not at all, and people of any age can directly benefit from turbo training. It will give you results fairly quickly and you can do it at home when the weather is awful outside.

I've been following this program each winter for the past 4 years and it's definitely the best way to get a good base level fitness I've ever come across. And it's cheap! A decent fluid filled trainer can be had for £100. You don't need a professional coach, if you follow someone on YouTube who knows what they're doing, you'll see results.

Another +1 for keeping the Galaxy. I've certainly done group rides on mine, Yes it is heavier and it feels almost sacrilege to get out of the saddle but it's more than capable.
One other thought is the rubber- my Galaxy came with Marathon plus. If yours is from the same era then you can lose some weight and gain some speed by swapping to something else

Coaster531 wrote: ↑23 Feb 2022, 9:11pm Newly retired, I have been cycling 500 miles a year in the past few years. I hope that will go up to over 1200 a year now.

I have a Thorn Raven and a Galaxy and I use the Galaxy for Club rides. I think that the Raven is too slow, probably, for this task. The Galaxy has a first gear of 24 inches - the Raven 17 inches.

Any suggestions?

Use the Raven to transport your weekly shopping. Carrying loads helps strengthen your legs, and you'll fly when cycling on your galaxy afterwards....

Or take the hub gear out of your raven, have a 700 size wheel built around it, and adapt the galaxy to take the rohloff hub.... It does mean the raven will need a new back wheel, but you wouldn't be the first person to have robbed a raven of its rolhoff hub

take the hub gear out of your raven, have a 700 size wheel built around it,

As I understand things, this will invalidate any Rohloff hub shell warranty. (Rohloff say when rebuilding, rebuild using the same spoke pattern/same spoke direction at each spoke hole, and altering the rim size does not comply with this).

On the original question, I would agree with the do more miles (may be 10 miles/1 hour or so per day extra?).
Keeping/tweeking the galaxy would be an easy and cost effective place to start. Lighter tyres will be the best gain. Also ensure your tyres are not too soft or hard. I normally aim for about 60psi/4atm (Marathon tyres/70 kg (me) for our 12 - 13 mph CUK Sunday rides.
Tyres that are too soft or too hard create extra rolling resistance.

If you are looking to do rides averaging 15mph, I think you need a road bike, or at the very least, an audax bike. I’m also retired and a regular club cyclist, doing up to 3 rides a week with the club and I average about 5000 miles a year. I have a summer bike - an alloy Specialized Allez - bottom gear is 34x34, so about 27 inches. This is fine for all but the steepest hills in the Peak District - I’m no lightweight - 17st, so not built for climbing. My winter bike is a Decathlon Triban with a triple chainset - a bottom gear of 30x34, about 24 inches, but I’m thinking of getting a Spa Audax steel bike, with a similar range of gears.

I do also have a Dawes Galaxy - lowest gears 26x34 - 21 inches, but I don’t use it for group rides, as I wouldn’t be able to keep up. I could with a lighter set of wheels and tyres, it currently has 37mm Marathon Plusses. I run 28mm Gatorskins on my winter bike and Conti Grand Prix GT’s on my summer bike.

PT1029 wrote: ↑24 Feb 2022, 7:44pm

take the hub gear out of your raven, have a 700 size wheel built around it,

As I understand things, this will invalidate any Rohloff hub shell warranty. (Rohloff say when rebuilding, rebuild using the same spoke pattern/same spoke direction at each spoke hole, and altering the rim size does not comply with this).

Really? Well, well, well.... I was under the impression rohloff hub shells were stronger than that.
I guess that leaves getting a new rohloff hub and disc brake and getting some brazing work done on the drop outs of the galaxy - lower gears, stronger rear wheel, strong rear brake and no rim wear to the rear wheel.

Tnank you everyone. Some really helpful advice here.

cycle tramp wrote: ↑24 Feb 2022, 10:18pm

PT1029 wrote: ↑24 Feb 2022, 7:44pm

take the hub gear out of your raven, have a 700 size wheel built around it,

As I understand things, this will invalidate any Rohloff hub shell warranty. (Rohloff say when rebuilding, rebuild using the same spoke pattern/same spoke direction at each spoke hole, and altering the rim size does not comply with this).

Really? Well, well, well.... I was under the impression Rohloff hub shells were stronger than that.

I've broke two, the first after seven years while still in the original Raven, then the same hub with the new shell about five years after I'd moved it to a 700c wheel, which Rohloff say would have contributed. Both times dealt with by Thorn, first with a new shell provided by Rohloff, second time when Rohloff said no, Thorn replaced it as a goodwill gesture, considering by this time it was a 14 year old hub, I was pleased they did.
Neither time did it leave the hub unridable, and newer hubs have a reinforcing ring which even if it doesn't stop it happening probably means it could be ridden indefinitely.
I think it used to be more common than it is now, Rohloff changed the shell design a couple of times, plus those wheelbuilders who frequently build Rohloffs have probably get better at it. Either way, Rohloff have said that they'll now only warranty hubs for two years, because moat of the failures are down to the wheelbuilder. Thorn warranty their Rohloff built wheels for ten years.
Sorry for the thread drift, none of this has anything to do with the question...