Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

lucky *******. i still can't find any trails that don't have at least a foot of slush on them. i really miss my bike.

 

As the second picture in my post quite clearly states: it's still less than ideal here... Hopefully within the next week or two it'll be nice enough to give a few areas around here a proper rip.

 

Looking forward to the summer, bust out my POS supercycle. I do enjoy biking though I am not really "into it" mechanically / spec wise. I really know nothing about biking but I enjoy just bike riding around, plus once it warms up a bit I could ride to the gym and get a good work out in, and the ride to and from takes care of my cardio / warm up / cool down exercises!

 

Yes I did race there, but the less spoken about that the better. I went up on Saturday and practised the track all day and pretty much had it all down. Then in practise before the race I messed up the first jump some how and went over the bars landing on my arm. Thankfully they have laid gravel on the surface so my arm got cut up pretty bad and I wasn't in the best condition to race. I struggled through and did terribly. Rubbish start to the season.

 

The weather here is... interesting. 10cm of snow overnight, -1c this morning. Sloppy, wet, and nigh-impossible to traverse, but damn is it fun.


Thats the view from part-way along the ride. It's cut off rather badly due to my forgetting to clean the lens, which had quite a lot of mud on from the last ride, making nearly three-quarters of the image from the video I shot completely worthless. But this gives you some idea of what a freak snowstorm here is like. Yesterday, there was absolutely no snow anywhere in this area - barely even wet. Awesome.




Not only does it have a shed-load of mud on from the past weekend, but a ton of snow as well. I feel it is a nice contrast. Sorry about the strange perspective - the POS cam has a bit of a fish-eye lens.

Not shown in the pictures, but I've installed a matching rear brake (Magura Race-Line D), a red Race Face headset, and black Nokon housing. For such a desperately poor-quality bike, it sure is a blast to bash about on, even in this weather.

 

Just done my third ride this week.
I'm trying to get back into being fit.

First ride was about 10 miles, on mountain bike, but mainly all on road with a little off road bit at the end (was bumpy as hell though). (saturday)
Second ride, on my road bike, 10 miles at an avg of 16Mph (Sunday)
Third ride today, road bike, 12 miles at an avg of 17.3 Mph.

Was at a 20Mph avg right up untill a hill at the 8 mile mark, and then the bike would drop down to the lowest gear on the front, so that nearly killed me. Gentle hills after that were done at about 10ish Mph too which is what brought my overall avg down.

I'm quite peased, especially as the ride on saturday, I did at about 3pm, and hadn't had anything to eat since 11 which was a bowl of cereal.
Had some food an hour before todays ride, and it certainly made a difference,

 

Went out for my first ride in about 6 months. God I miss cycling.. reminded me how unfit I've become though, few things to do though:

- New cycle computer,
- New tyres.

For the tyres, any recommendations, I'm riding a 2009 Specialized Allez Sport, just want some decent hard wearing tyres. Currently I've got the stock slick ones that came with the bike.

 

@Cerberus90\mars-bar-man: It does feel nice getting back out on your bike after you've had a break from cycling . I've started riding more since the clocks changed and improved weather, my fitness is improving but still need to shed some weight .

As for tires if you want something puncture resistant for all weathers, that will also last well but still rolling well then have a look at Continental Ultra Gatorskins. Come in all sizes, if you are riding on rougher roads you might want to go for slightly larger volume like 25 or 28C(mm) (if you have clearance in the frame/forks)


Had a look\sit on one of these today, pretty mad bike. £6000 26lb all mountain setup with 150mm of travel (very light for what it's capable of) - "BallisTec Military Grade Hi-MOD" carbon frame, Sram XX and Fox\Cannondale rear shock with two separate air chambers. 90mm of stiffer XC travel on the first chamber, flick a switch on the bars to open the secound chamber for 60mm of extra travel (150mm total) to soak up the bigger hits.

 

Sometimes I get really quite depressed that my shop doesn't carry Cannondale (or Marin), and that all of my coworkers (with little exception) have such an abhorrent view of any brand not carried by the shop. Cannondale does quite a few wonderful bikes in their line, with the Scalpel being right around the top of my want list for a new frameset with a lefty fork (to replace my Element). Oh well, nice bikes to dream about anyway.

As to tyres: Vittoria do a rather nice touring tyre in their Randonneur line - fast, tough, long lasting - but they're a bit slow for my tastes on a road bike. Look into Vittoria's other tyres though, as the few I've tried have all been fantastic. The Conti's I've got on my Tricross are wonderful, and I can only imagine their slicks being much the same. Any Specialized tyre (whatever will fit in your frame) with their Armadillo casing works quite well for stopping punctures, but I'm not personally a great fan of their feel - I cannot argue with how popular they are though.

 

Woop woop opened the season! Got the rear sprocket replaced in the nearby shop for 60 € and was quite happy with that. Maybe on the expensive side, but it included the work and he also replaced the cable... Now I just HOPE nothing else will fail before I have the chance to replace the whole bike.

 

I've got continental grand prixs as training tyres on my road bike, seem nice and depending how much you want to spend go from £22-35 for the various models in the range (4000s and four seasons are the better ones).

 

FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU broken chain. FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU





Broken front wheel
Bent front forks (not safe to cycle on as carbon)
Deformed Frame
Broken shifter/brake lever
Broke brake
Broken seat post
Bent handlebars

oh,

and a broken chain

Interesting question. If i had my bike serviced a week ago can I get their insurance to cover it?

I think its time I invested in that plastic safety bubble.

 

WTF happened man!?

That's a real shame

 

Going up a hill in slightly too higher a gear while standing on the pedals.

Chain snapped under me and bike met lamp post.

****ing first time I've been on it in 4 months!

 

Aren't they supposed to be, well, you know, kinda strong? Hmmm, could it be the fact that you've not cycled in a few months has caused the chain to degrade?

Failing that, blame a pot hole, and claim off the council

 

I have no clue hence the question

As I said, I had it serviced the other week so it would be in working order for now...

 

Ah yeah, I kinda skimmed over that bit..

And maybe, seeing as they should've picked up on something like the chain degrading :/

 

I doubt you will get anything in terms of warranty. The bike being serviced not long ago might be a direction you could get something from but depending on the service I doubt they would have checked every component for wear. My shop offers 2 free services, the 1st of which just gets everything nip checked and the gears / brakes adjusted. The 2nd gives it more of an indepth service, but again it's not something that is generally checked.

The most common cause of chains snapping is incorrect gear selection as you have already said. You could try speaking to the shop you bought it from, but I would guess the reply you will get wont be the one your after.

You could try going direct to Trek's warranty department, I've not had many dealings with them as I've not had too many issues with the bikes I've sold yet. But when I've spoke to them they have been very helpful (this could be because I buy their bikes direct though).

You may find that either the shop or Trek could be willing to help you with the replacement parts at cost price and just charge you for fitting but this depends on the shop.

As I said go into the shop with a nice attitude tell them exactly what happened and be honest, ask if there is anyway they can help. Shop staff hear the good old "I was just riding along and this happened" everyday and 90% of the time it's a pile of crap.

 

Bike is about 2 years old now, and shop I bought it from has since gone under

 

Then if I'm honest mate I think your going to struggle to get anything better than just having to buy the parts as the regular RRP and have them fitted.