Be Excellent To Each Other

Round.

I will 3rd that. Also, it means you can get a decent brand rather than some dodgy Halford's own brand one which you'll always suspect is actually worth about £15.99.

And I think a old-ish cross country bike with just front suspension will be suitable - lighter than a modern full-sus one, but still comfortable and easy to ride.

Is everyone ok? PM me for cuddles.

You need a fixed gear bike, NHS specs, a checked shirt and canvas record bag.

I've got a Kona frame in the garage I seriously considered turning into a fixed gear bike. Then, after some investigation on the internet, it was those sort of people that rode them, so now i'm having a further think about it. I might build it up as a rigid single speed, or just lob it in the skip.

*Someone* rides a 'fixie' as I believe they're known into work here.

They don't bother locking it up

You say that, but I'll bet all those people like Glee too.

I'm going to the Glee live show in June. Bought the tickets for the Mrs, obviously <cough>

Trooper, why don't you and Mali buy a tandem? You could take the seats off the posts too.

But then wouldn't the seat posts go up our.... oh.

How's this lads?

http://www.unicycle.uk.com/

Same here, embarrassingly. I'm planning on scoffing, sneering, and claiming I'm enjoying it in an arch and ironic fashion, whilst secretly loving every second.

I was going to reply to this with a picture of a gushing, clasped hands fanboy...

but then I searched for gushing with safesearch off...

*Trauma*

I was going to link to this earlier, but I was in the office, and it wasn't entirely appropriate to search for

For that price, don't buy a new one with suspension, it is pointless wieght, and will do nothing for you. If you can up the budget slightly you jump up spec quite severely. eg. I realsie budget is tigt, etc, but if you are going to use it to get to work, then the sdifference is only a tank of petrol or two, and it will mean the difference between you wanting to ride it, and it being a chore to do so. Also, check out your route before buying lights, as you may want to up the spec if it is busy with trafic, or there is a lot of pot holes.

Actually no. Neither wheel was true, I found a chip on the frame at the very back corner (only after riding it, obviously), the derailleurs didn't stay aligned and there was a weird moaning from the rear.And the box came with big warnings saying the frame warranty is invalid because it wasn't supplied assembled.

I paid Harry Hall's in Manchester to service it on Saturday, which I was told would deal with cable tautening, wheel trueing, derailleur alighnment, chain and so on.

Of course on the car ride home the chain fell off (luckily avoiding chainsuck that I had before) and the back wheel is now rubbing on one of the pads - it was alright when I rode it down the street to the car, so I've fucked it SOMEHOW despite being super-careful. I think the front one isn't true either, just the guy aligned the quick release* axle so it doesn't rub; it did rub when I put it back on (fucking Micra-or-M3 meaning it didn't fit in either car complete) but some fiddling "fixed" it.

I want to throw it in the canal. If Hel hadn't been there to get worried by my URGE TO SMASH RISING I probably would've.

Oh, and I've scratched the handlebars and shifters when I upended it to get the front wheel off. I R BABOON.

* Ha! "Undo the catch. Unscrew both axle ends to get them off the frame. Deflate the tyre so it can be squeezed between the brake pads." Quick my arse.

Whaaaat? Doesn't it have v-brakes?
That sounds like a shockingly bad bike to be honest. What "make" is it?

Dawes, an XC1.4 (but the older no-disc-brakes version). I linked it in the other thread, I think. The rim is much narrower than the tyres, so the pads sit inside its width.

It's normal for the rim to be narrower than the tyres, but all brake setups these days (like, in the last 20 years) should have a simple, easy way of unhooking one side of the brake mechanism so that it's out of the way.

This is the only problem with the old magura hydraulic rim brakes, as standard they don't.

I didn't, it's this one. Maybe it does that and I hadn't noticed. I'll check.

When you say the derailleur 'doesn't align', do you mean that it won't go into gear properly? Or is it throwing the chain off the rear of the cassette into the spokes, or against the frame?

The forks probably have double safety drop outs which require some wheel wiggling to remove the wheel, and it is possible that they are on the rear, too.

Yep, v-brakes, those definitely un-hook one side.
Mali is probably right about the safety drop-outs, I'd file the things off if you really can't get the wheel off without taking the nut off.

That shouldn't be a bad bike. The gear problems can be tamed. The bent wheels sound like a problem though. Paint is there to be chipped.

The back one was alright after my dad tweaked it, actually. The front one was alright to start with, but over the first few outings stopped moving onto the biggest gear. It moves between the middle and small ones fine. Although as I say, the chain came off (between the cassette and frame) when all I was doing was moving it into/out of the car; I suppose it's possible I knocked the rear derailleur and slackened the chain. Don't really know how though as I was trying to keep the gubbins-side away from me (and the floor of the car).

It's an ali frame so I'm not too fussed about the paint; it's never going to have a hard life anyway (well, no harder than "me not bothering to wash it enough").

I'll double-check the brakes, cheers. I fully expect it to be a n00b failing.

I don't have to take the nut off, just slacken both sides quite a lot. Not really a huge deal.

The non-true wheels/brake rubbing are my only real concern. Especially because I fucking paid to have that exact problem sorted, everything else being a bonus. Carefully putting it in a car for a bit shouldn't fuck that up, right?

Aye, should be as simple as push the callipers together & unhook the cable.

Getting the rear wheel off the RTS means deflating it somewhat, but I think I'm missing some bits from the Vbrake on the rear.

I wouldn't mind a knowledge dump from kalmar on maguras, mind you.

I would give you a detailed reply to your issues but I'm not typing an essay on my sodding phone, sorry

Happy to help on the Magura front, Mali. I've never actually had to assemble any pipework or fill it though, not sure if there are any tricks to that.

Are they better than V brakes, as I don't want discs at present, and are there any substantial differences between the colors and how long do pads last?

My girlfriends sone got a Mongoose BMX?? for his birthday, that was a doodle to set up.

Fit peddles (yes I did not know one screwed in teh other way either.
Fit seat
Adjust Handlebars..

Even I could do it

Erm, a mongoose BMX!? I had one of those when I was 9

It had plastic spokes in the front wheel. TOTALLY RAD!

They'll always stop you, and they're more robust than v-brakes. To be fair I think they were invented around the same time as V-brakes so were largely solving the same problems.

I don't know if there's difference between the colours.

The pads do wear out fairly quickly, and they are proprietary and a bit more expensive than v-brakes. But unless you're doing a lot of very muddy downhilling then I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I've probably got rose tinted memories of quite how awesome V brakes were, but riding downhill, I was mostly concerned with "Is this fucking thing going to stop?".

What I'll probably do is chuck the RTS into the bike shop in the week and get them to sort out the headset and brakes, and true the wheels, then ride it for a bit, as I'm too busy right now to do it myself. And the garage is unheated.

Cowabunga dude!

Heh. When I was very young, I remember having a black bike with some sort of sound effects console hooked up to the handlebars. It was immense.

Was it a Vektar?

Nope, it was a wolf or fox something. I can't remember well enough to find pics.

Some of the guys at work are doing the artemis challenge. They asked me if I wanted to join them. I think my soup came out my nose.

Streetwolf?

That's the one! Although that one is missing its console, it seems. Here's a better angle. Crackin' bloody Christmas present, that was.

Aye, didn't post that image because it was so big. Attaching is black magic.

It's so 80s it hurts. I have very distinct memories of riding around the cul-de-sac on Christmas day, stabilisers rattling on the bumpy, cracked pavements.

Looking into it, they also did the Wildcat and the Wolf Cub. Given I was perhaps three or four at the time, maybe it was the latter I had. My memory can't picture it clearly enough to quite remember.

And I found a YouTube video of someone who's dug their out!

Isn't the front wheel on backwards?

He is 13

I used to do a bit of cycling ... and holding other people up, as shown here at the Harris Stadium in 1968. Hugh should have been disqualified from that race as he had quick release wheels. which were not allowed in track races, even though he had them taped up. This photo was taken by a pro photographer from the Manchester Evening News and I only just noticed he was taking it as he pressed the button, hence my disgruntled expression. I forgot all about it until he came to the club a couple of weeks later and gave me a copy of it.

Where's your other hand, you naughty boy?

I had a Streetfox I seem to remember.

V brakes are fine, though discs are superior at both stopping and being largely maintenance free, and the pads last for ages provided you don't get oil on them. I bought a 2nd hand bike for my daughter a few years ago from my local store - it had belonged to someone who had about eight bikes and had upgraded all of them to discs. I paid less for that bike than the cost of the newish Hope Mono minis on it, so you can get disc brakes cheaply. The problem you'll have is mounting a rear one on your frame, obviously.

Yeah, I don't really want discs as it would mean new wheels, so that would be expensive. And I wouldn't be able to ahve these: