Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

Thanks for that Margon.

Gotta be honest I don't see the point in buying a bleed kit for ~ £20, when all that's required is a short niece of flexible hose. It's probably possible without the venting hose, but will be messy and more difficult to see when air stops coming out (should be able to tell in the feel of the lever though).

My hose isn't braided, so I think I could cut it with a sharp stanley knife.

Just need to get some dot 5.1 brake fluid and some new pads.

 

I think the one I got was about £8, around that I can't remember it was a while ago that I go it, and that came with dot 5.1. But I know where you are coming from!

 

You may need to renew the olive on the end you're cutting.

 

Does anybody have any recommendations for a handlebar mount for an oversized tablet? I'm going to try and use my bike for work next week, but I'd need to be able to have my tablet easily accessible and the bars seem like the best place.

Bear in mind the tablet is 21.1" and weighs 3.4lbs so its not quite as simple as I thought it might be.

 

Why do you need to have your tablet on your bars I can't think of anything that would be out there for this, your tablet will be nearly wider then your bars.

 

Having it in a bag would be seriously impractical for the job I do, The tablet is 330mm wide, bars are 720mm so theres plenty of room.

I spent most of the night and found nothing, The rear of the tablet has magnetic tabs so I'm going to try and build a base that mounts either side of the stem with magnets on the face, and some kind of simple clamp to secure the tablet, and still making it easy to remove.

 

What about a handlebar bag or a pretty wicker basket?

edit, just saw it's 21" so most if not all handlebar bags are probably out

 

Ordered some new lights, 1 x red and 1 x black. 1 for the bars and 1 for the head.

 

Nice, is that from Fasttech?

I've been looking at SolarStorm X2 myself, helluvalot of light for the price, even if the battery needs replacing.

 

Red one from FastTech and black one from Wallbuys.

The problem with the SolarStorm is the thermal interface. It's extremely poor and will shorten the life of the LED.

 

Needed to change my brake pads on the front (stock Shimano Resin pads) couldnt be bothered to dig out the stand so did this instead



Also semi slicks and higher gearing has made so much difference its very very quick now

 

Takes a while to get here from China but the first of my new lights have arrived.

 

They look excellent for the price, a review soon would be much appreciated. Do you think one would stand up to ~2hr long singletrack night rides?

 

As soon as I get a chance for a night ride I'll let you know. Should easily do 2.5 hours on high. Mind you the low setting is rather bright anyway.

 

So I still exist (barely). Thought you lot might get a kick out of my latest two-wheeled adventure (well, four really).


Bright and early I set off on a 24km round trip with trailer in tow, Jandd basket in place, and a large backpack tied to me. Why do you ask? Well...


Grocery run! Not proud of the reasons behind this trip (I'm broke as anything, unemployed, already been served with an eviction notice and power, cable, telephone has been cut off once, so this was a food hamper from the local food bank), but ignore all that and just enjoy the shear mass of stuff that is being transported on a bike.

Taken out of the boxes, bags, and baskets the load looks something like This. 6' long table, by the way.

Hills were fun!

Now to get back to lurking...

 

First night ride with the new light last night.

Medium setting was more than bright enough and managed the 2.5 hours that I was out comfortably. Makes a great helmet-mounted light.

 

This isn't true, On-One has always specced hydraulic brakes and as for Surly you can get your LBS to spec whatever you want on their bikes. Not sure about the other two.

The original consideration in the community (aside from price) is that hydraulic systems will gel up at low temperature, something I disagree with and haven't experienced personally.

 

They all do, but it's never enough to matter much. Provided you have an open system and a good bladder in the master cylinder you'll notice only minimal lever feedback from this issue, but it absolutely does happen and a lot of people don't like it. The two systems I've used regularly in the coldest of cold, Magura Race Line D and Shimano XT M785, both show signs of exactly this. Magura tends to stiffen up and get really slow, whereas the Shimano just feels like the brakes are fading or heating up really badly from the slightest of inputs - release and reapply and they feel good again. So: not a big issue, only bothers some people, is easly worked around. But the cycling industry is fickle and largely based on heresay rather than reality (from a consumers choice standpoint).

 

So I am moving house in January and I will finally have somewhere to store a bike! Looking to get something through the ride to work scheme so max of £1000 for the bike.

I do not want a road bike, I want something fully rigid, relatively lightweight and relaxed in geometry as I will be looking to take this off-road as well as road riding to work.
Something that I can stick a huge front rotor on would also be a plus.

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/CBOOFATX52/on_one_fatty_fat_bike

I am really tempted by the On-one Fatty, does anyone here have a Fat bike? What are they like on the roads?

 

Well it's not light at 15.4kg claimed weight.