Be Excellent To Each Other

In my experience, the spot patch (leeches, i think they were called) are shit. Spare tube and a CO2 canister is the way forward. And kevlar beaded tyres. The glue way is the best for when you get home. Saying that, I don't tend to carry tools or spares, I'm happy to walk back. I had a camelback, and I did Iike it, but I prefer a larger, frame mounted bottle, as I dislike wearing a rucksack.

The guys in the bike shop said they used the sticky patches themselves so perhaps things have changed? I think my new tyre has Kevlar in it somewhere.

Sweet, I'll look into them then. Beaded tyres are so much easier to get on and off the rim. I'll add some photos in a few.

One thing they did say is that the repairs don't last as long, they said allow for 2 years. But as they pointed out (and as I can testify) if you ride on a regular basis then you'll be lucky to have an innertube that lasts that time. I got through two last year, and I exploded another last week as I'm a cretin.

The weeks after the council do the yearly hedge trim are the worst as thorns go straight through the tyre.

And here we are....

snip lots of pictures.

Get that saddle flat else you'll never breed

tubes go in threes I find! I've had pinch punctures on tubes where the side wall has been shredded due to rocky descents. In theory I tend to whip a punctured tube out with the idea that I'll repair it at home. I have both the sticky patches (which do work) and the glue and dry patches. In practice I usually just bin the tube and replace it with a new spare.

It's a young Roy Keane!

If you add a big tache it could be a young Nigel Mansell I thought

For me it depends on the puncture or the amount of punctures in the existing tyre. I've had far more success with the instant repairs than the traditional ones though and they are a damn sight easier out on the road.

As Your Sinclair once proved, you can do this to any photo:

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=YourSinclair/Issue87/Pages/YourSinclair8700017.jpg

Turns out you were right. On closer inspection, the levers were universal, so I just swapped them over. No hassle whatsoever.

Woo! and hoo!

So... you put them together wrong, then?

It came part-assembled*, so no!

*the guys forgot to convert it from European setup to UK.

So.... Taiwanese kid put it together wrong? Seems more likely than your bike having backwards brakes.

Lacist

I think it was part-assembled in Germany at the Cube factory, then part-assembled in Ireland by the chainreactioncycles.com guys. I emailed the latter people, and they said they'd fucked up — I think someone is getting a bollocking for it, but meh, it wasn't a big deal after all.

It's an easy enough mistake to make. You might want to check your tyres are on the right way round as well ;-) Both things you could legitimately sue them for if they caused you to have an accident.

I dare say you could.. But that's not a good thing overall, is it?

Aha, this would work perfectly as a drinks holder in my Tomcat! Are there any that fit "normal" bottles of drink?

Most of them fit the 500/750ml bottles.

No idea. You could always crush the cage with your man-hands, though.

I had one that was adjustable to hold pretty much anything, apart from underwear strangely.

It was a Knickerless Cage.

I'm only going on what happened to a friend who owned a bike shop and one of his mechanics did it to a customer's bike. I don't think it came to anything as the owner of said bike was just being a cunt and trying it on - but apparently it "can" and "does" happen. A lot of cycle tyres, particularly off road specialist tyres have a direction of travel tread pattern which can make the bike handle very strangely if you get it wrong. In the days before disc brakes it was easy to try for yourself by putting your front wheel on backwards.

I'll check my tyres out, then

I've racked up just shy of 50 miles since Wednesday on this beast, and I'm fucking loving it. I've only done road so far, though, so I think picking up another set of wheels with some more road-like tyres is probably going to be a wise choice when I get some more moneys.

I'm still absolutely loving Poploc, and I'm starting to wonder how I lived without it when I used to ride. Having that energy going back into forward motion instead of endlessly bobbing the forks makes an astounding difference, especially when you're having to stand up to pedal up hills.

I think I need to find some clear glasses for night-riding, though. In the day, I wear shades, but last night I got hit in the eye by a fly on my way home, and it wasn't even nearly a pleasant experience.

Oh sure, I know. But suing the shop / supplier because you fell off? And you rode it without noticing the tyres were on backwards?

It's poor, that's all I'm saying

That happened to me a while back travelling at 35mph, hurt like hell and it got infected. I have since bought a set of glasses that comes with three sets of lenses: clear hydrophobic ones for rain; yellow for low light and shades for sunshine.

If it starts becoming sore over the next day or so, get some optrex eye drops.

I don't think I was going quick enough to do any real damage, but it was a bit sore all night. I think it's more the hayfever doing my head in right now, and that's affecting both eyes.

Where can I get some glasses like them? They sound ace.

CRC or any decent bike store - you can spend what you like on these from cheap o stuff up to Oakley M Frames.

I think I'm perhaps best going to a physical store for anything I'm going to wear. I'll have a nose around town at the weekend.

I've picked myself up a Camelbak. I'll let you know how I get on with it

I got mine from Decathlon. They've got a decent range of different ones (some sets come with four lenses), but I just plumped for the cheapest at £13 and they seem fine for what I need.

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/xudd-700-38972474/

I used to run front tyres backwards, as the benefits of braking were so much better, the loss due to rolling resistance I could overcome due to fitness. Tioga Psycho IIs were awesome when run the wrong way for getting the front to stop, quickly.

It's entirely possible to sue bike shops for fucking things up, though. A competent bike spannawanka would make sure that directional tyres were fitted the right way around.

Bloody women.

Went out for a ride yesterday evening, and came up to some traffic lights on a main road. Unclipped my right foot, and started coasting towards them. Cue some dozy woman cutting into my cycle lane right in front of me to get to the front, sending me off balance and tumbling down to my left onto the pavement. Landed quite heavily on my knee, but managed to sort myself out and push for another 5 miles to a total of 11. Lesson learned: unclip my left foot.

Very sore and a bit swollen this morning. Might not be going for a ride today.

Fuck. Did she not stop at all? Stupid moose.

Hope it doesn't take too long to heal up, chap.

Did she fuck. The lights turned green and she buggered off.

It isn't too bad — just a bit of a knock, but it's a bit too sore to be doing much with for today.

Ouch. Sorry to hear that matey oh.

I'll be okay — just need to rest it.

My Camelbak came this morning. Quite impressed, though the taste is a little bit funny. I'm hoping it'll go away, else I'll try baking soda or something to get rid of it.

It does. ProTip: Make a cage out of large plastic cable ties or an old coat hanger - if you're only using it for water just sterilise it once a month and rinse it every time you refill it. I use Milton's sterilising fluid. The cage is to shove inside the reservoir to allow the air to circulate and speed the drying process.

If you put anything else in it, make sure you wash and sterilise it after use - I've had to throw reservoirs away by failing to do this as you'll never get the mould out of the tube if you leave it for a week. You can buy all the bits spare nowadays, but they're stupidly expensive for what they are.

Excellent tip — I shall try this.

I've found a fairly decent index of suggested rides, which is searchable here. Was going to go out today, but it's raining.

Cool, I'll have a look at that.

It's raining here as well, so not sure whether or not I'm going to go out. Slowly building my stamina up at the moment, and have managed to get up to just shy of 13 miles each ride. Finally taken my bike off road, too, and although it's only been around the local woods, it's been absolute great fun. These tyres are so grippy — I just need to learn to trust them.

That's a good site. For anyone with road/hybrid bikes like me, this is a better link.

I did 13 miles one ride (3 hours, 40 mins), then the same ride again a few days later (1 hour 10), and felt OK, so the enxt time I did 23 miles or so in 3 hours (which accounted for stops to look at amp and avoid getting shot at) and hit a wall at about 20 miles. I think this is more down to lack of decent food and it being a warm day.

Off road biking is the bestest fun, have excellent tyres makes it even better.. I plan my routes to be offroad as much as possible although this does make for a slower average speed, I enjoy it more.

I've half a mind to enter a BeeX team into the "Sleepless in the Saddle" 24 hour team endurance race, you know. But maybe next year.

Also, local woods after rain means mud, and lots of it. And this is the best thing about mountain biking, coming home caked in the stuff.

I only get about an hour a day to myself, but it's pretty much all been on roads so my average speed has been better than off-road would be.



I'll have to look at that site and find some good off-road sections. They seem much more fun, and a more peaky pace so not so monotonous. I'm off to Delamere Forest at the weekend, but I'm taking Miss Malabar with her dodgy knee so I doubt I'll get far.



Hah.

What I like about cycling in teh woods is that you can just keep doing loops from a central starting point, and have a break and a chat after each bit. So it breaks it up nicely.



What could possibly go wrong?

The local woods is a loop of about 1.5 miles, so I just did a few laps at the end of my ride. It's nice that way, because not only do you start to learn the course so you can go faster each time, but you can leave at any point without having to travel far home if you're tired.

Of course, the laps were helped by constantly passing an incredibly attractive girl running the same loop in the opposite direction. Nothing takes your mind off any leg pain like a bit of eye-candy, as I'm certain you're aware.



We'd have to put up with Myp crying all day. 24 hours of it, man.

Pfft, when you've done 26 miles in one stint then you can start to mock me, amateur.

I don't mean crying over the riding. I mean in general.