Bicycle Bits! - What’s your latest acquisition?

Yeah, there is a certain class to rollers that a turbo just doesn't have. Still, I ride to get places, and to enjoy myself. Stationary training doesn't achieve either of these. It is the same reason I don't go to the gym.

Hi Debs

Apologies for the delay in responding, I very foolishly fell off the bottom three steps of our stairs and managed to have my ankle do a balloon impersonation. It is almost back to normal size and now just rather tender so back on line .....

In the early 90's I bought my first mountain bike, a Marin Bear Valley SE and used it primarily as my commuting bike in and out of London. I climbed pot holes rather than hills. It was a thing of great joy and comfort. I also used it to tour with just because it was a very comfortable workhorse. Before the Marin I had been riding the 'standard' sportive road bikes but the roads were just so bad that the bikes felt more like bone shakers! I lived, and continue to live, in south east London so I was fortunate in having a number of really good bike shops around. My first 'real' bike in the late 70's was from Witcomb in Deptford and after that was stolen I graduated to handbuilt frames, the first of which was a revelation and the second a real dud. My fourth frame and bike was built by the late Ron Cooper. (I still have the frame!). I was riding 12/15 miles each way at the time and you will know that the frames then where full frames with very little seat post showing and a long reach. I had toured with the Cooper too.

Anyway the Marin was, as I say, a joy. And I rode it as my main bike for many years. I upgraded the stock wheels to hand built wheels from Merlin cycles but everything else was and has remained the same. About 6 years ago we bought ourselves a weekend bolt hole and I got the Cooper back up and running and took the Marin down to be used at weekends. However I missed the Marin so bought a Nail Trail of about the same vintage, 93/94, to have in London. I have always been a bit of a snob about bikes that have lots of fancy bits that I can't repair so I have stuck with hardtails!

As I have said before on other threads, age has meant my reach has shortened and the Ron Cooper despite tweaking wasn't comfortable. I continued to ride the Marin. The Nail Trail's gear levers have finally gone and will be replaced and yes pictures will indeed follow. I can't promise I will do the replacing of the levers and the indexing myself I'm afraid. The Bear Valley has a liitle longer to go before the gear levers need to be replaced. They are sticky but....

And just to round up the story two years ago I went and got a new touring bike, slightly fast frame, made for me by a guy called Paul Villiers. It has now become my bike for virtually everything. I had to do a multi day charity ride about a year before that and as i couldn't do it on the Ron Cooper, I went and bought a carbon bling machine. Very hard, very light and very fast. I use it on long day trips or where it would be useful to have a few less kilos under me such as doing Ventoux a month or so ago.

So I have a very contented stable of bikes, one less that actually need of course, but there you go. Apologies for being a bit of topic maybe.

And Winky my experience is precisely the opposite to you. I have used hand built wheels for many many years now. I have never had a broken spoke and they have always been repairable/serviced by me at least in the first instance. The factory Shimanos that came with my Bling have snapped twice and have to go back to the shop to be repaired. Not really an issue I suppose but a pain when you are miles from anywhere and one goes!

atb james

Great post, James!

They do say when you own more than one bike thay can start breeding behind your back

Hope your ankle is okay... You need to remember R.I.C.E.

Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation -

although i can never remember that and just eat lots of rice pudding!

Debs

Very true. Whilst I like rollers they're second best to getting out amongst it - whether there is a need to go somewhere or just for the sake of it. You can ride rollers in the garden should you need to be at home. Not as bad as a gym which to me is the stuff of nightmares. Something innate requires exercise to involve being outdoors and getting lungfuls of fresh air.

Had a bit of a spending spree this week, some out of necessity, some pure indulgence:

Pair of continental GP4000s tyres

New lezyne frame pump after my last one fell off on a ride the other week

Rapha Gilet

Rapha winter jersey - luxury item, looking forward to trying it out!

Rapha merino hat

Thinking of riding up Rhigos on Sunday weather permitting, 5% for 6km, quite a push for a big chap like me....

Phil

That's a few bobs worth, Phil.

Good luck up Rhigos! : )

Good luck Phil. At least when i did it it was sunny. Actually I think I came down the bit in Deb's picture. It was down there so I could go up the Bwlch! and yes it was painful.

james

Thanks Deb, yup Rapha prices add up pretty quickly, but like Naim, their gear is well made and their customer and product support are very good (free repairs etc).

I think like James I'll be coming down the bit in your photo, going up from the North East side in an anti-clockwise loop, about 30 miles or so.  Weather looks clear but cold, should be quite atmospheric! I plan to set off from Bristol early and get some morning sun. 

Thanks James, am considering going up Alpe d'huez next year, not bad for 6'2" and 20 stone!

Phil, never mind good luck, you will do it! I am impressed.

j

My wife's cork handlebar tape was looking pretty scruffy, and she asked me to replace it. For a lark, I suggested that we do a two-tone harlequin wrap. We watched a video on Youtube and downloaded some photos. Even so, it was a true test of a marriage. Lucky that she was there--it's more of a braid than a straight wrap, and she intuited what was going on pretty quickly. A second pair  of hands doesn't hurt either. It doesn't look quite as crisp with cork tape as it would with cloth, but it still gets compliments, and she loves the padding that you get from using twice as much tape.

Spent an interesting afternoon in the Pasculli workshop in Berlin whilst visiting a friend who now coordinates the sportives in and around Berlin. The purpose of the visit had been for him to discuss some of the arrangements for Paris-Brest-Paris pre-qualification for 2015.

As ever, it is difficult to stand around doing nothing when exposed to so much bike porn and it looks as though I am on my way to another custom-fitted steel frame, but this time purpose built for longer durations and night riding. It will be nice to run wider tires, up to 32 mm (with mud-guards) as I am a pot-hole magnet in the dark but I am undecided on whether to go for disc brakes or to keep things traditional. Nowhere can I get a straight answer on whether the fitting specs and functionality are now agreed or whether things can change again in a year or so. I have enough spare parts to run the bike in traditional modus and feel that for long distances it might be better to run something you can fix mostly on your own whereas discs make me nervous.

Oh Huw!

You've got that steel habit badly

My Columbus XCR stainless Zullo is a thing of joy and has had good use this year. Not nicer than my Parlee but pleasingly different and really attracts attention when I stop.

I use my Orange R8 steel MTB for the riding you describe, swapping off the suspension for a rigid carbon fork and some slick road tyres. Fills that role very well and was very cheap to buy and can be abused in poor weather. A 29"er of similar style would perhaps be great for what you describe although not the lightest. Tough simple drvetrain and definitely discs for wet usage. I'm not yet convinced that discs for road use are really 'arrived' yet. What I've read is that they'll not be more powerful neccesarily but easier to modulate. Feels like 2-3 years before that tecnology has really matured and adapted to road use (and the wheel design modified to suit too). What I've seen so far looks like a fairly rough adaptation of existing MTB systems.

Cheers

Bruce

Hi Bruce - the problem I have with the R8 is that the geometry doesn't really work for me for long distances, great for anything up to 50km though. They had a good old laugh with me at the fitting as my upper body suggests I should be 2m tall and not 1,8 and had not really believed me when I explained this in advance!

I tried to make a Surly long haul trucker work but that ended up being too much of a fiddle. As you know, the Zullo is a joy (custom geometry) but I think it will be nice to have something that can get me out in the rain and also allows some touring. We are planning Copenhagen-Berlin next year. I have actually been in touch with Zullo about something similar, but the wait is now quite long and I've got a 200km sportif planned for the end of March where we will be on dodgy terrain and where light will not necessarily hold.

I agree with you regarding discs, but they seemed really keen at Pasculli. That said, it would also mean a switch to SRAM if the drivetrain needs to match. I'm pretty much convinced that regular brakes will be OK.

The best bike is the one that gets you out, rain or shine, short rides or long. Having something that fits that role and saves the posh bike for better days seems a jolly fine idea to me and if it has an exotic sounding italian name all to the good!

I was just wondering if something like an MTB 29er frame might be cheaper and more versatile-although I'm not sure you do any off road? If I ever bent my Orange I'd probably go for a Ti hardtail for my all-rounder now.

My MTB stuff is increasingly tame although just had a week in Peebles in the hills and at Glentress. I'm definitely a lot more timid these days but still thrashing the teenagers on the climbs-not least because they are sat on vast F/S lumps that cost £6000 but refuse to go uphill!

Bruce

Bruce - I think I'd have the same issues with an off the shelf 29" frame. We cycled around Tegernsee, me on the R8, some small ramps and gravel and after 35km I just don't feel as comfortable as on the Zullo at over twice the distance, albeit on tarmac. That said the R8 frame was a super bargain and I love it for bombing around locally, heading off to beer gardens and lakes. I am fed up with trying to make the R8 work for longer distances - stem length, stack height, etc. It all adds up.

To be honest, the Bagnolo is probably going to have similar clearances to a cross bike so for the off road that I do, it should suffice for most of that as well. 

I forgot you had the same Orange!

Enjoy your riding. I've had a poor couple of months or so for exercise for a variety of tedious reasons but last week really got me up and running again.

Cheers

Bruce

New bike, Whyte 805.....

Joff

Yummy Surly's - I have an Ogre, a cross-check & a Straggler on the way!

Many things added to my bike, and me, of late, most of them recommendations from people here, thanks to all of them/you.

Mudguards (Crud Roadracer II) fixed last night - took the length of almost a whole bottle of Alsace Riesling, and I got fed up of watching the blinking video over and over again. They are a bit Heath Robinson, but weigh nothing, and were of great practical use today.

I did thoroughly clean the bike first, although it is filthy again now!

Talking of blinking, a natty light for my Fizik saddle, which is very stylish, although will need augmenting with another lamp when it's really dark I think.

And trousers, shoe covers and waterproof other things for me. All of which proved very useful today - it was fine when I left home, but I cycled into a massive hailstorm before getting to the office. 

I have no excuse not to cycle now!

Just last month I purchased a pair of Crud Roadracer II mudguards, they look like a good product but after very carefully fitting them on realised the rear mudguard was pressed up against the tyre so had to take them back off again. It’s the same problem I’m mentioned before, the rear brake hanger bridge on my Trek has been fitted to low down the chain-stay, it's too close to the tyre so there is not enough room to fit a mudguard to go under the brake calliper.

It seems to be a pity that a batch [or perhaps all] Trek 1000's of the model vintage have been made with this fault and it kind of takes the piste because the frame includes mudguard eyes on dropouts, bottom bracket, and rack fitting eyelets and all with excellent mudguard clearance in mind, and then rendered useless because the chain-stay bridge is around 6mm above a 23mm tyre crown, the Shimano Sora rear brake calliper hangs even lower to reduce this clearance to no more than 3mm so even a rizza red mudguard isn't going to fit without tyre rubbing or at best no clearance for stones, nerg nails, mud and all other bits of crap that need some room.

But i have a cunning plan : )

I intend to fit a rack, and plastic cable-strap my SKS mudguard to the underside of the rack. It may look a bit odd above the rear brake calliper but if it's functional i'm using it, and a rack will come in handy for those trips to the local shop for us local people.

Debs

Not strictly new, but worn for the first time today. A pair of Rapha over socks or Belgian booties - socks to wear over your shoes. Thought I would only be contending with the cold but it began to drizzle. Feet were reasonably warm given 3°C temp but can imagine that this would have changed if I had stayed out longer. Probably better to stick with my Pearl Izumi galoshes. 

I've taken the inside approach today Huwge and bought some Defeet Woolie Boolie 2 merino wool winter cycling socks.  If there is any sign of rain, they will still require overshoes - looking forward to the day someone designs overshoes which can easily be pulled on/ off without appearing to be engrossed in a one man wrestling match!!

Peter

I find nothing can keep my feet dry for rides over about 20 minutes, but wool socks keep me toasty, nevertheless. So I don't care. I will sometimes take a spare pair of socks to the office, so I can have dry socks for the ride home, but really, it is only a second-or-two of discomfort pulling on the wet socks and shoes.

A ride home in the dark, cold rain still beats taking the bus. I really enjoy the winter conditions, actually. The city is at its most beautiful in dark rain. The view back to the city across Coal Harbour  from Stanley park takes my breath away.

I feel almost silly asking a rider of your experience this but.....neoprene overshoes? A bit clownish in looks but do the job IME.