Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

Looks like you had a pretty awesome day
Can't wait to go there when I'm back in Loughborough

My bike turns out to be rideable over long(ish) distances, which is a pleasant surprise, means the commute to work is one of the best bits of my day

 

Will update this when we're back, but I thought some of you might enjoy a brief story of my plans for the next two days: 260k with full gear through some of the most beautiful terrain this country has to offer. Plus there'll be bears and such.


That is the route. The site we've picked is right on the lake, which in turn is in a wonderful little valley, surrounded by rather large mountains. And bears. We're taking the light-rail transit system to the edge of the city to avoid all the hassle that city riding gives, then just riding straight out along a quiet little highway (quiet in the direction we'll be travelling, anyway).


That is what I'm bringing. Both rear panniers are full (tent, pillow, sleeping bag, bike cover and jacket in left bag, clothing, food, cookware, hatchet, tools and shoes sit in right) and my pad sits atop the rack between the two panniers. Keys, money, my rain coat and waterproof point-n-shoot camera sit in my handle bar bag. There is two-days worth of mixed nuts and dried fruit sitting in a small bag just behind the stem - ready to eat while riding. Bike is fitted to hold four water bottles without issue, and all four will be full (no guarantees of easily obtainable potable water along the way). DSLR, fruit and vegetables will be sitting in a bag on my back (so the hungry bears will better be able to smell which bit to eat between myself and the bike).

Route is just shy of 130k in each direction, and we're set to take off at six tomorrow morning, hoping to arrive before three in the afternoon at camp. From there we'll probably make a fire, eat, have a quick nip of rum, and most likely pass out, only to do it again the day after. Did I mention that it's set to rain both days, and there'll most likely be bears? Yeah, should be fun! Lots of pictures to come (of hopefully more than just bears).

Mention should also be made that this will hopefully be the first of many such tours I'll be doing this year, hopefully some of them will consist of more than just the two of us. This short little tour gives myself and the friend I'm going with (whom was one of my fellow riders on the cancer ride, and a co-worker) a good chance to sniff out our gear and get everything set for longer, multi-day tours, and hopefully ready for the Ride the Divide tour, which we hope to do in 2014.

 

Quick question - is there any trick to removing the cranks from a tapered square spindle hub? I'm replacing the gears and derailleurs on my bike, and the cranks are being impossible to remove. I'm using one of these, plus a couple big wrenches under the gears (the puller won't grip the crank directly), pushing against a narrow bolt run into the center of the hub, and it's bending the quarter-inch thick wrenches and not even budging the cranks.

 

In times of desperation I've tried various methods such as that to remove cranks, but all of them have failed (short of taking an angle grinder to them, that is). Just grab yourself a CCP-22 and they'll come off without any drama. It's as simple as removal of the binder bolt that typically threads into your bottom bracket spindle, threading in and tightening down the puller, then using the handle to drive the center of the tool into the spindle, pushing the cranks off. Park has a full write up on their site, and there are more than a few youtube instructional videos on this as well if my description wasn't quite up to par.

 

That or a CWP-7 you can get a bigger spanner on it if its that bad. Best tool i ever bought back in the day... I had a lot of bb problems on a previous bike.
Just make sure its screwed properly into the cranks threads or you'll ruin the cranks.

 

Greetings!

So the gf just bought me this old gal for my b-day, I gotta say I love it. I live in the centre of Norwich, so it's perfect for nipping about on the narrow streets.

Sorry for the poor photo's, only had my iphone to hand:




So I'm going to admit to being a bicycle newbie, but I'd like to put some work into this one and get her into really nice condition.

The first thing I need to know is whether any of you can recommend a good guide to cleaning her up, I've seen some amazingly well cleaned and shiney metal work on here and would love to reproduce that.

I've also got to consider an overall colour scheme, I'm planning to add a rear rack, so either will go white rack/saddle/bar-wrap or keep everything bare metal and pick up an old leather/brown saddle? Thoughts?

Finally I can get her powered coated or possible nickel plated, but I actually quite like the original paint work. Again thoughts welcome?

 

Damn scared the living daylight out of myself with almost failed drop yesterday.. Was gonna hop sideways from a ledge down to pebble stone road.. Front wheel found some hole on the grass and didn't feel like going anywhere, but luckily was moving slow enough I still managed to get it up. Just a second more and I WOULD have fell from the ledge, most likely face first, or on my side, to a broken bottle.

It's good to almost wreck it really bad every now and then as a reminder of all things that could go wrong..

 

@Minimal Fuss

I would strip off all the unnecessary stuff on it, lights, reflectors, pump and mud guards. That should make it lighter and less messy looking. I would then get it serviced to see what the bearings and gears where like. If they are ok I would set about get new rubber, but you might need some new rims as well. For tires I would go for some puncture proof tires as you are cycling around town, I have the marathon Plus tires and they are basically bomb proof.

 

I quite like the bits and pieces - definitely keeping the mud-guards, but may lose the dynamo lights.

Wheels (rubber) are actually in good nick, a lot of tread left and they are puncture proof so that's one expense spared.

I think the main thing for me is going to fairly cosmetic stuff (I'm never gunna be a serious cyclist like most of you guys!), so a new saddle, new bar wrap (do they do brown leather wrap?), and seeing what I can do with the body work, which is quite shabby here and there.


stumbled across this and love it, going to see how much nickel plating it will cost...

 

sure thats not just rawed and polished?.... btw nickel plating costs stupid money, thats why you will only see it on high end suspension

 

aw, powder coating it is! colour suggestions?

 

I like it the way it is tbh. Loose the stickers and give it a polish.

I'd mod the dynamo to use LED's it'll work much better and you can get the front to be proper bright.

 

dynamo's lights are retro and cool - right up until you stop at a junction....

 

Have a look on candle power forum there is loads on bike lights and dynamo, if you are using it for getting round town and for commuting non battery lights can be a real boon.

 

So mod them to hold a charge for 60 seconds after the power input stops

 

what would you do?

RockShox Sektor RL Solo Air PopLoc 9mm Forks (2011)
Travel: 130/140/150mm
Stanchions: 32mm 7000 Series Straight-Wall Aluminium, Low-Friction Anodized
Damping: Motion Control
Spring: Solo Air
Adjustments: External Rebound, Low Speed Compression, External Floodgate and Lockout, Spring via Air Pressure
Crown: Forged Hollow 6061 T-6 Aluminium
Steerer: Aluminium 1 1/8"
Axle: 9mm QR
Weight: 1837g

@ £248.99

or

Rockshox Revelation 426 Coil U-Turn Forks (2008)
The Revelation Forks are All-Mountain Work Horses with unrivalled Stiffness-to-Weight in a Standard Quick-Release Fork. This Coil U-Turn version features Motion Control Damping with 85-130mm U-Turn Travel Adjustment plus External Rebound, Floodgate, Compression and Lockout Adjustments.
For All Mountain use
Travel: 85-130mm w/U-Turn Adjustment
Stanchions: 32mm 7000 Series Aluminum, Low Friction Anodized w/Travel Gradients
Damping: Motion Control
Damping Adjustments: External Rebound, Floodgate, Compression Adjustments and Lockout
Spring: U-Turn
Spring Adjustments: Change Spring
Crown: Forged 6061 T-6 Aluminum
Steerer: Butted Aluminum
Lowers: Magnesium, International Standard Disc Mount
Weight: 1905g (4.2 lbs)
Colour: Diffusion Black

@ £223.99


I'm swaying towards the Sektors for the bit of extra money because they're the newest model (and are £349.99 elsewhere - I'm looking at you, ChainReactionCycles..)

I know the Revelations are slightly higher up but I'm not sure about buying a 2008 model. I mean, they're new but sitting in a warehouse for 3 years can't be good for them, can it?!

 

Never worked with the Sektor, but i'm currently running a dual air revelation on my work bike. Works fine for everything I've thrown at it so far.

I had them fitted to my dad's bike for maybe 2 yr and it got used once. Fitted them to my work bike maybe 3-4 months ago and they are great. I doubt them sitting about has done anything to them.

What kind of riding will you be doing?

 

I'm wanting to start going to trail centres again (like Dalby and Co-ed Llangdegla (sp?!) at least once a month.

What does tend to break all my kit though is mainly using it to commute over 10 miles on a daily basis. No matter how robust and high-end things are they seem to wear out quickly. I promise when I get my new forks I'll get them serviced ever 6 months or so

My Recon 327 have lasted over 3 years without servicing which is pretty impressive.

 

The air Sektor will be / is lighter because it doesn't have the coil spring, will a weight saving be any advantage (it is very minimal)?

The whole Air vs Coil is debated much like Windows vs OS X, Intel vs AMD. There is no right or wrong answer. Both will do a good job.

What bike are they going on? Remember that adding a bigger fork (i'm looking at the 150mm setting on the sektor here) will raise the front end of your bike changing the geometry and how it handles. Depending on what's on your bike now I'd probably run with the Revelation, your frame may not be up to a 150mm travel on the fork so there is one of the 3 settings of the Sektor you can't / won't use.

 

The frame is an On-one 456 Summer Season which has a slack headtube angle so they can run big-ass forks, in terms of travel they'll take 4 5 or 6 inch but that will obviously alter the feel.



Ideally the best thing to do would be to try both forks and compare but online stores don't give me that option..

I was looking at the coil vs air debate online and it looks like people kill eachother over it

It looks like I'd be happy with either fork I think. I might have to flip a coin! haha