I want to buy a road bike

[San Bernardhinault]

I really don’t, once they’re basic touring bikes. A guy I ride with seriously sometimes has a rack, and it feels strange. But he’s odd. Don’t put racks on a good road bike.

The modern touring bike set up often doesn’t use racks because of the additional weight, so if you can find a frame bag, front fork, handlebar roll, rear-torpedo-thingy combo that works for you, you can keep the rack off. But those may not work for a bigger laptop or neatly folded clothes. The frame bag is great for tools or anything heavy because it’s the perfect spot for the weight distribution.

My set up from last year, below

[San Bernardhinault]

[San Bernardhinault]

And you probably won’t need a tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, chair, stove, 5 days of snacks, 4 days of food and a days worth of water for the desert with you. So you could probably ditch some of the packs.

[caja-dglh]

I remain seriously tempted by the self-supported ride across America larks.

[Ginger Yellow]

Fuck's sake.

https://twitter.com/GreenwichLift/status/1630137170903334913?cxt=HHwWgoDU7dfHtJ8tAAAA

Between this, Woolwich tunnel north lift being broken for ages, and the Woolwich ferry being out of service (and before that planned closure not running on weekends anyway), there's basically no way to cross the Thames by bike east of Tower Bridge at the moment without paying an extortionate amount of money for a Thames Clipper. It just goes to show how egregious the decision not to build the Rotherhithe bridge while going ahead with Silvertown was.

[Felicity, I guess so]

The Tyne pedestrian and cycle tunnel closed for years and is now a victim of being listed and at the same time cut loose from councils' responsibility.
They imported glass box lifts to run diagonally up the old wooden escalators, but never functioned.
The existing lifts break down now and then and you don't know until you get there meaning a sprint to the ferry and a much longer commute.

[Ginger Yellow]

Well, great. This is on my commute. The first report of this happening around there that I saw was when my bike was out of action, and I didn't see any follow-up once I got it repaired so I was hoping it was an isolated incident. Guess I'll be doing the C4 route instead even with Lower Road not done yet.

[diggedy derek]

Fuck's sake.

https://twitter.com/GreenwichLift/status/1630137170903334913?cxt=HHwWgoDU7dfHtJ8tAAAA

Between this, Woolwich tunnel north lift being broken for ages, and the Woolwich ferry being out of service (and before that planned closure not running on weekends anyway), there's basically no way to cross the Thames by bike east of Tower Bridge at the moment without paying an extortionate amount of money for a Thames Clipper. It just goes to show how egregious the decision not to build the Rotherhithe bridge while going ahead with Silvertown was.

They should have built a pedestrian and cycle bridge somewhere east of Tower Bridge. Cheap, no big traffic implications.

Sorry to hear about C10. There is C14, isn't there, but that's a crazy goddamn twisty route. Do you know the amazing Cycle Routes YouTube channel? It's really invaluable.

https://www.youtube.com/@Londoncycleroutes

[caja-dglh]

I think I want to buy a gravel bike. I am in no particular hurry at this point though as my general appetite is not to spend an awful lot for a bike that is going to get many miles of beat-down. This seems to position me at the exact opposite end of the spectrum of all the people trying to sell their gravel bikes second hand for $8k.

[Ginger Yellow]

They should have built a pedestrian and cycle bridge somewhere east of Tower Bridge. Cheap, no big traffic implications.


https://www.youtube.com/@Londoncycleroutes

They were going to. Then it got hit by the pandemic/Tory budget cuts to TfL. Even though they could still find billions for the no-bikes traffic nightmare Silvertown tunnel.

TfL now proposes a clean, fast turn up and go ferry service with new specially designed boats and piers which will be as environmentally friendly as practicable
...
A public consultation is due to be launched in summer 2020, with construction expected to begin in 2021.

This also did not happen.

[San Bernardhinault]

I think I want to buy a gravel bike. I am in no particular hurry at this point though as my general appetite is not to spend an awful lot for a bike that is going to get many miles of beat-down. This seems to position me at the exact opposite end of the spectrum of all the people trying to sell their gravel bikes second hand for $8k.

That seems like completely the wrong pricepoint unless you're some kind of weird super-rich hardcore gravel speedracer who doesn't mind trashing all the nice componentry on your very expensive bike by kicking up gravel into it. Or unless you're just going to ride it on the road.

Back when I was thinking about gravel bikes, the Canyon Grail often looked like the sort of thing I might buy new. The aluminium one is obviously the cheapest, but also has all the eyelets that you can't easily put on a carbon frame if you wanted to go full-on touring with pannier racks rather than frame bags and so on.

https://www.canyon.com/en-us/gravel-...nfarbe=GN%2FBK

Looks like they have a new gravel model called Grizl, too. Which looks interesting - they seem to have found a way to add the eyelets to their front forks, for instance, and it's built for bigger knobbier tyres.

Best of all, unlike Canyon for the last 5 years, everything actually seems to be in stock.

[ursus arctos]

You might want to go to a gravel event and talk to people who actually ride them.

Probably not Unbound (at least to start with), but there arelenty of smaller ones in your general neck of the woods.

Ian Boswell also seems very well adjust d and sensible for someone who rode with Wiggins and Brailsford but is now very much into gravel.

[caja-dglh]

You might want to go to a gravel event and talk to people who actually ride them.

Probably not Unbound (at least to start with), but there arelenty of smaller ones in your general neck of the woods.

Ian Boswell also seems very well adjust d and sensible for someone who rode with Wiggins and Brailsford but is now very much into gravel.

Would be a dangerous headfake around here - no hills.

[caja-dglh]

I had floated around the Canyons a fair bit and the Specialized Diverge. There is just a lot of fat average blokes who perceive benefit from a lighter bike is greater than anything else (like probably losing the weight).

I fully expect most of these bikes I see on the second hand market are divorced. It is insane.

[San Bernardhinault]

To be fair, losing weight on parts of the bike actually does make a difference even if you're fat. Particularly in the wheels. But once you're riding on rough gravel, I think you generally want to trade a bit of weight for a bit of toughness. Lighter bikes add more benefit on the road. Even then, losing 5 lbs of person-lard is better than losing 4 oz of bike-weight.

[Ginger Yellow]

For those in the UK, this might unfortunately be a good opportunity to buy a road/gravel bike.

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/3...administration

[Levin]

My bike is causing me a lot of distress at the moment. It's making an irregular banging/twanging sound when pedalling. Occasionally I'll feel the drive chain slip. I've had the chain checked, the gear indexing redone and then the bottom bracket serviced. Still no joy.

I'm going to try a different place tomorrow, armed with a recording of some of the sounds.

Not only have I not been cycling, which is a thing that really helps my mood, but the object that has helped me is now casing my unhappiness.

[diggedy derek]

I was having similar and a chain gauge underlined that it was too old and stretched and I needed a new one right away. Have they checked it using one of those?

I'm picking it up tomorrow, hoping that they've fixed it. I feel your pain, of that uncertainty about what the hell it is that's wrong...

[San Bernardhinault]

That sucks. I hate riding while the bike is noisy. Even worse if there’s no way to identify the noise.

Mine was squeaking the other day. I oiled the chain - no improvement. But I oiled it again and the weekend and it seemed to stop. Can’t be 100% sure as my high end hearing is dogshit.

[Levin]

Yeah, it's been measured twice and is at 0.5 which is apparently fine.

I am so completely unmechanical and it's frustrating that to not be able to fix it or have it fixed.

Good luck diggedy derek.

[diggedy derek]

Yep, that indeed sounds fine. Huh.

In London, there's a fair amount of free bike repair workshops. I don't know if there might be similar where you are, but those can be really good sounding boards for just asking questions and getting second/third opinions without committing to anything more than that.

[Levin]

They were nice, but they can't book in until the end of july. Do I just start going to random shops? Or go back to the place that didn't fix it last time? They've always been good before now.

[San Bernardhinault]

I’m as unmechanically minded as anyone so take any advice with a massive pinch of salt. But, if you’ve historically had good luck with a bike shop, or have friends who recommend it, I’d go back even if they failed to fix the problem last time. Remind them of everything that’s been fixed, also identify if it’s happening at any point - does it happen randomly or only when you’re powering down on the pedals? does it only (or more often) happen on small/big rings? That sort of thing.

But also, if you know a bike shop where the tech is an obsessive tinkerer, go there. In San Diego there was one hugely highly regarded bike tech who charged a fortune and made 15 grand bikes run super smooth, but he did that by basically replacing absolutely everything with high end components any time anything was vaguely worn. There’s another guy who I always go to because he can find a derailleur hanger that will fit, who is happy to put a long hanger on an expensive bike, who’ll weld pieces on to vintage bikes to make them work with new components, who can basically hack around to find almost any solution. His shop is full of kiddy bikes and not one thing in there was ever over $700, I think. The triathletes in town would never go near him because they wouldn’t even think to. But for mechanical weirdnesses, he’d be my first port of call.

It is very weird, though, that it’s not the chain.

[Mumpo]

Finally ticked Britain's Highest Road off the list last week



Great Dun Fell, the Ventoux of the North Pennines, 7.2km with an average gradient of 8.6% though the ramps are much steeper. Blisteringly hot day, did the whole thing in the full glare of the sun with sweat streaming into both eyes. It's not a climb that ever lets you off the hook, even in the final stages when the gradient slightly relents and your objective - the dome of the summit's radar station - finally becomes visible after hiding behind the crest for most of the climb. Frustratingly you're forced to dismount a few hundred meters from the end, as a locked barrier prevents stray private vehicles from being driven into the restricted area.

The swift descent is madness - it feels like you go from standing next to the radar station to gazing up at it as a speck on the skyline in about three minutes flat. Though even that hurtling descent wasn't as scary as trying to cross the Frogger-like dual carriageway of the A66.

[caja-dglh]

I just had the awful realization that I am probably to TonTon / Car of the bike thread.

I might need to lie down to try to recover.