I want to buy a road bike

[San Bernardhinault]

Nice looking bike, particularly for an e-bike (if that is what it is), Amor.

Bad luck, Levin. I hope it's something that's fixable or under warranty. Broken frames on carbon bikes are a very expensive pain in the arse.

[Levin]

It's aluminium and well out of any warranty. 8-9 years old.

[San Bernardhinault]

Aluminium is more fixable with a weld than carbon is.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Nice looking bike, particularly for an e-bike (if that is what it is), Amor.

It is, at my age I need all the help I can get. Having said that I did a half-hour spin around the park yesterday and didn't the e-assist at all. It's, by some distance the comfiest bike I've ridden too.

[Lobachevsky]

im going to fix my cracked carbon frame and also lash out on what will be my last non electic bike purchase.

reckon ive still got 5 years of serious pedal power left.

feeling like an extravagant purchase as ive come into some unexpected cash

[Billy Casper]

Completely off topic, but does anyone else get stung by wasps when out cycling?

I've been stung on the bridge of my nose, bottom lip and legs in the past. Today it was my forehead. Is this one of the unspoken downsides to cycling or have I just been unlucky?

[San Bernardhinault]

Never happened to me, although a friend got stung in the mouth by a tarantula wasp last year and it was properly nasty.

[Hot Orange]

I had a spell a few years ago when I was stung three times in a month, but it hasn't happened since.

[Incandenza]

Not to scare anyone, but a local bike blogger's experience riding through a swarm of bees, and what came after (it had nothing to do with bee stings!)

https://bikinginla.com/2013/09/12/ri...ed-to-kill-me/

[Giggler]

I'm thinking of starting to cycle to work rather than walk. My journey would involve a short stretch on a main road but can mostly be done on cycle paths, though I'd also be interested in occasionally taking it on the dirt tracks behind our house.

I'm a total novice and don't envisage becoming a serious biker so can anyone recommend a decent bike/helmet/light/lock etc on a modest budget?

[Ginger Yellow]

Woohoo, first stage of Cycleway 4 is open, from London Bridge to Rotherhithe. I'll probably be checking it out in person at some point this week when I pick up my bike from being serviced. Slightly worryingly, they didn't give any updated timeline on when the Rotherhithe to Greenwhich section would be done (or even started), just the Greenwich to Woolwich part which got moved forward recently.

[Kevin S]

I'm thinking of starting to cycle to work rather than walk. My journey would involve a short stretch on a main road but can mostly be done on cycle paths, though I'd also be interested in occasionally taking it on the dirt tracks behind our house.

I'm a total novice and don't envisage becoming a serious biker so can anyone recommend a decent bike/helmet/light/lock etc on a modest budget?

Are you wanting drop bars? If so, it sounds like a cyclocross or gravel bike is what you need to cover the off-road elements. Otherwise probably a hybrid - but there's a spectrum of these going from basically-a-road-bike-with-flat-bars to basically-a-mountain-bike-with-bigger-diameter-wheels.

In terms of frames, you'll get your best bang for buck with aluminium. There are two grades available. My bike is the cheaper 7005 and my wife and son have 6061. I think it's worth the extra but isn't a deal-breaker depending on budget.

For the helmet, light and lock I'd go to your independent local bike shop if you have one and tell them how much you're looking to spend on the three things, as they will probably ask you some helpful questions and find what you need. They will also almost certainly only stock lids from known brands like Bell and Giro that are good enough to protect you, and you'll probably see Cat Eye lights and Abus locks there too.

I'm very impressed with my son's Merida bike, if you want a starting point - they are from Taiwan but churn out some nice bikes to compete with the big European and US brands.

[Kevin S]

Oh yes, and I forgot the golden rule:

Set your budget, work out the best bike that you want and can buy with it, then buy the next level up...

Edit:

The Merida hybrid starts at GBP400 but I appreciate that's still a big wedge (but do consider the travel to work scheme if available to you, and Tredz offer a 0% finance deal on many of their bikes). That's about the base price you'll see for most of the big brands like Giant, Specialized and Trek.

There are still decent hybrid bikes to be had for less, especially for shorter distances. A couple of popular ranges are the Carrera Crossfire and Dawes Discovery (the latter of which is what I have even though I'm not commuting on it anymore due to circs). The Discovery Trail EQ is good value if you can find it - the Trail is the entry level Discovery but the EQ comes with a pannier rack and mudguards on it for an extra ?20.

[San Bernardhinault]

I can't really offer any better advice than Kevin on bikes.

On helmets, you really should go into bike shops and try a bunch on and find one that fits. I don't think I have a freakish shaped head, but there's always something weird about helmet fits. There's a relatively new technology called MIPS which might be slightly safer and it's probably worth looking for- although basically most bike helmets are equally safe and perhaps the most expensive ones, which are the lightest and have the most air-flow, are actually less safe because they have marginally less structure to them. And that's really the difference in price - heavy and less air-flow, vs lighter and more airflow.

On lights, they're really good value now - and you can get something very good, that's USB rechargable, from Bezos's world domination empire.

I started with these:

https://www.amazon.com/Estiq-Recharg...1385961&sr=8-5

For $13 in the US. They're fine for being seen and super-easy.

Then I needed a brighter front light for actually illuminating the road so I went with this for $20. It's more than bright enough for almost any purposes:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ignore the rear light here, though, because it's not rechargable.

I assume that the equivalent is available at the same comically low price in the UK.

[andrew7610]

UK link to the light SB recommends which seems to have a rechargeable rear as well, for ?20

Giggler do you have Decathlon store near you? They're excellent value and have some really good bikes and equipment.

[Mumpo]

Completely off topic, but does anyone else get stung by wasps when out cycling?

Was stung inside the helmet last year (stop it...)

There was a bit of swelling (stop it!) but luckily nothing anaphylactic.

[Mumpo]

Anyway, finally managed to check Hardknott Pass off my bucket list. Twice, in fact. Did a 105-miler at the start of the month, up to Ambleside, east-to-west over Wrynose and Hardknott, then a tortuous (not to mention torturous) southward return over at least three other fells. I'd followed a Strava route from the local cycling club which I assumed was so serpentine because it avoided any other steep climbing; it was only while on it that the realisation dawned that the raving masochists had actually plotted it to include as many horrendous gradients as possible. Anyway, it was only when I was descending the west side of Hardknott that I realised that's actually the more challenging ascent, so a couple of weeks later I drove up to the South Lakes with the bike and did it properly as part of a relatively short 20-mile route. Both nice climbs, can't say they weren't difficult but to read some of the accounts on the web it's a massive challenge to even keep the bike from toppling backwards on the steepest ramps, which is patent nonsense. Not sure the gradients do reach 33% as some claim either, unless you're brave/foolish enough to take the inside of the hairpins.

So yeah. I pwned Hardknott.

[Mumpo]

Tell you what though, the descents on both sides are f*cking terrifying.

[Giggler]

I ended up buying a Carrera Subway from Halfords after asking the advice of a friend who's a keen cyclist. He reckons that for the commute and the occasional ride off road it'll do fine.

I picked it up on Sunday when hungover and had a bit of a panic as I tried to ride it home. I ended up wheeling it back 85% of the way. I've signed up to a Transport for Greater Manchester initiative to help build confidence so I'm looking forward to seeing how that pans out.

[andrew7610]

That looks like it'll handle everything you're talking about doing - best of luck with the confidence-building which sounds like an excellent initiative.

[Ginger Yellow]

Gave Cycleway 4 a test run just now. Very nice, but a lot of traffic lights. Didn't formally time it as I wasn't coming all the way from the office but it seemed a little quicker than the Quietway route I normally take. Certainly more direct. I think I'll still use the old route for going into town until they complete it to Greenwich, as westbound on Evelyn St. /Lower Rd. is a bit of a nightmare, but it's definitely a viable alternative in the other direction even now.

[Lobachevsky]

so nearly 10 months after breaking my old jamis renegade cyclocross bike i've finally replaced it.

got a bit carried away and bought a Pinarello Prince FX in orange. not the most practical choice but i hardly ever go off road and its beautiful.

downhill and cornering its amazingly quick.

its still bloody useless going up steep hills mind.

[San Bernardhinault]

My bike is also useless going up steep hills. I was out in Vermont the weekend before last, and rode up a couple of stretches of 14% grade and the bike was really struggling.

This weekend I cycled out to the coast with a massive 20mph tail wind. And then the missus decided she wanted to come for a drive in the sunshine, so I wasn't going to complain about getting a pick up and not having to do the return head-wind leg.

On this morning's short ride everything was squeaking and creaking. Chain was definitely in a sorry - and very dry - state. It was also cold out, and I'm beginning to get kitted out for cold-weather cycling. Glove-liners and sock-liners are probably going to keep me going for another month or two. And I bought my first set of thermal leggings - went for the cheap ones because I didn't know if I trusted them to be comfortable, but they seem good.

[Sporting]

My bike is also useless going up steep hills. I was out in Vermont the weekend before last, and rode up a couple of stretches of 14% grade and the bike was really struggling.

Replace every "bike" with 'I" and that paragraph does for me.

[San Bernardhinault]

That was mine (and presumably Lobachevsky's) gag.