Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

Flask.
I'd be interested in seeing these videos your talking about.

 

That's awesome, there was one in the bike shop on display at the weekend I was in a hurry so didn't ask for a sneaky test run.

Some of the folk in the local bike forum have switched to studded tyres on their spare bikes, me I've gone back to 23's and just wait for a double deck bus to draft.

 

A video for those that have ridden the Surrey Hills....

 

Surrey hills are on my back door. 2 mile warm up and i'm on Leith Hill. If anyone fancies a ride just PM me.

 

I'm not far from Newlands corner, sadly my steed is in need so it won't be able to ride until spring (at least it will be warmer and drier then).

 

Never riden that far over, normally drop down into Sheer from the North downs trail. Looks nice that way and I really should go over there now and then.

 

ahh the Surrey hills. 3 broken ribs, a punctured lung and a cut shoulder ligament. Good times!


"Did you just take your bike for a walk then?" classic

 

Sounds like quite an incident, how did you get off the hill?

 

By the sounds of it he fell to the bottom.

 

The lung didn't deflate, so I could still breathe just about - it was 2 ribs at the front and one at the back at the top. I managed to walk down with some help and a mate pushing my bike, we weren't too far from the carpark, but thought it might be less painful to walk than to wait and be carried.

I didn't do anything too spectacular, there were 3 steep sided dips around 2 meters deep and I didn't see the last one and went a bit too fast, rotated in the air and landed on my shoulder.

Thank fk I was wearing a helmet.

 

Ouch, that sounds bloody painful... was the bike OK?

Not one to leave anybody out, here is one for your Northerners!

 

Not a scratch on the bike, it had a soft landing, mainly me

 

Always the way. You end up mangled and all thats happened to your bike is the saddle got dirty.

 

Haha Danny Hart on cocaine. Love it!

Gotta pop down there again at some point. Wanna sell my Fuel though and get an Epic for some odd reason.

 

Have some more fat:





Was a little warmer today than it was last week, and a little less snow on the ground, which was fantastic for riding! Ended up doing a full loop of the hill today, dodging the onlooking people with curious expressions plastered all over their faces, and the endless dogs that one encounters there. Never been able to understand why somebody would think that it's a good idea to let their dog off it's lead knowing that it is so badly trained that it bolts away from you at full tilt whenever it spots something interesting - despite your useless calls - causing distress to people and wildlife. I couldn't keep track of the number of times I would see a large dog bolting across the snowy fields at full tilt gruffing and growling straight for me, causing me to stop and wait for the pathetic owner to get control of the mutt so I could continue with my ride. If you cannot control your dog, do not let it off it's lead, period.

Anyway, enough rant, funny deer story: was riding along the south exposure of the hill today, which runs along a main road, at the base of a somewhat hillier part of the hill. Came over a crest into a clear area with a small patch of tall standing grass just off to my left which seemed absolutely normal, well other than the two deer just on the other side of it! Honestly didn't notice them (either for my lack of looking due to concentrating on the ever-narrowing pathway, or for their camouflage) until I was just on the other side of the standing grass from them, which was maybe about six feet. Strangely enough they didn't seem to mind my being there, and I most likely could have just rode on past without either of them batting an eye, but silly me I decide to unclip and whip out my camera to take a snap only to discover that I cannot unclip myself and be slightly startled at the same time.

As you can imagine I fell down with all the grace of a sack of hammers, flailing wildly, into the grass between myself and the deer. In what I'm sure was an uncontrollable fit of laughter on their part, the deer took off about twenty feet up the hill, watching me slowly prise myself off the bike and out of the grass. Thankfully the group of them (about a dozen that were out in the open) stayed still for me as I took a few pictures. Once more they were absolutely unconcerned with my presence as I rode past them, just chewing the tasteless grass to their hearts content.



And finally @tranc3: the couple clips I got last weekend were terrible, as I paid absolutely no attention to the camera, it's placement, or to when I was filming. So that embarrassment will stay firmly on my hard drive, out of the public eye. Will see if I can get some better footage for you though, promise!

 

Who was out riding today? We got out and did about 36 miles, nice to get riding and stretch the legs a bit though I pushed to hard at the beginning and started flagging at about 30 mile.



Anyway I got a 2007 Giant Trance a while back, just got some money together to build some wheels, get some Shimano Saint and new controls.

Before


After

 

I need to get one of these as I have a new job and its only 5 miles from home. Need to cycle for cardio as I am now doing weights 6 days a week

 

Getting one of these (frame only) end of the month as a birthday pressie to myself:



What a way to start the year.

 

I've been meaning to get out for a good ride for the past week now, but I've been sick with a spot of pneumonia, causing me to miss rather a lot of work and (more importantly) riding. Your Giant's looking good though!

They're a lot of fun, let me tell you what, but I seem to go through parts on the bike rather quickly... I'm already on the fourth full replacement drivetrain of 2011, and after three months (chain ring, chain and rear cog were all bought on September 30th) there isn't much left of any of it, meaning another mid-winter full replacement of the moving bits. For those that know what they're looking at, enjoy that you don't have to work on my daily commuter:


I should note that the build up of sludge is not caused by my chain lubricant, as I only use a very sparing amount of rather light teflon-baised once weekly, and clean almost all that I apply straight off again. What you're seeing is a couple weeks worth of road sludge and grime building up on the bike. Love Canadian winters...

 

Why don't you use a chainguard? You have a singlespeed and ride it in winter.
Something like a Hebie chainglider would offer excellent protection without adding much weight and you could still see that cool red frontsprocket.