Bought any cycling stuff today?

[Feline]

girls can't piss in fields wearing bib tights, and I don't like having to take eeeeverything off to use a toilet in any case

Shewees are the answer Usable with bibs

Maybe not a bad idea that! However you can't crap in them too can you?

Bleugh! But that's not usually more than once or twice a day though.

The trouble is that I'm thinking really of audaxes, and long ones at that. On day rides with a stop for a pub lunch with a nice clean toilet to use it wouldn't matter at all. On some 400k's the controls during the evening and overnight can be receipts from a hatch on a garage forecourt and every public loo you pass is locked. Perhaps a disposable sheewee could work in that kind of emergency!

[Kim]

A Radar key (and less frequently, the British Waterways key) can be extremely useful for that sort of thing.  They tend not to lock the disabled loo, as it already has a lock on it (although not, as I discovered, in the vicinity of Cheddar, where they're a bunch of evil redundant padlocking bastards).

[Feline]

A Radar key (and less frequently, the British Waterways key) can be extremely useful for that sort of thing.  They tend not to lock the disabled loo, as it already has a lock on it (although not, as I discovered, in the vicinity of Cheddar, where they're a bunch of evil redundant padlocking bastards).

If you're near Cheddar you can use my loo 
I have a radar key but have so never used it. I feel slightly guilty about having it!

[Kim]

I have a radar key but have so never used it. I feel slightly guilty about having it!

I suggest a day out on the towpaths of Birmingham and Dudley, preferably with a tandem, trike or trailer.  That'll soon cure you of any guilt.   

[Karla]

How about getting some bibtights and spending the summer sewing a pair of click fasteners into the bib straps? 

[Feline]

How about getting some bibtights and spending the summer sewing a pair of click fasteners into the bib straps?

I have some Assos bib shorts, and they are completely impossible to get on/off without taking off your jersey, even if you unhook them in front. Part of the problem is the girls version has a single strap up the front which then branches to go over your shoulders. This is so the straps don't irritate your nips! They are very very good shorts though.

[clarion]

I bought a nut.  From Brixton Cycles' wonderful and magical box of Sturmey Archer bits.  We tried four before we found one to fit.  But it did.  Great service from a friendly chap.

[Bledlow]

... girls can't piss in fields wearing bib tights, and I don't like having to take eeeeverything off to use a toilet in any case

[off-topic diversion]
This is what baffled me about the number of women I used to see wearing all in one suits to ski.
[return to topic]

[Butterfly]

How about getting some bibtights and spending the summer sewing a pair of click fasteners into the bib straps?

I have some Assos bib shorts, and they are completely impossible to get on/off without taking off your jersey, even if you unhook them in front. Part of the problem is the girls version has a single strap up the front which then branches to go over your shoulders. This is so the straps don't irritate your nips! They are very very good shorts though.

Undo your jersey zip, undo your shorts hook, reach through the jersey, pull strap over your head and then pull under from the back. It's not easy-easy, but it's not too bad! It's slightly harder to thread it back up, but I can manage it, without the world's greatest flexibility.

[Notsototalnewbie]

I bought a nut.  From Brixton Cycles' wonderful and magical box of Sturmey Archer bits.  We tried four before we found one to fit.  But it did.  Great service from a friendly chap.

I love BC’s random boxes of bits, they searched through one for me for a random light bracket to fit on the Gazelle’s heavy-duty rack and then sold it to me for a quid.

I may have accidentally bought a Water Off a Duck’s Back smart ladies mac the other day. It was 40% off in Action Bikes and is rather good for normal clothes cycling. Anyhow, it cost less than a monthly bus pass. That’s what I’m telling myself. Oh yes. And it’s had compliments from people who didn’t realise it was cyclewear.

[L CC]

How about getting some bibtights and spending the summer sewing a pair of click fasteners into the bib straps?

I have some Assos bib shorts, and they are completely impossible to get on/off without taking off your jersey, even if you unhook them in front. Part of the problem is the girls version has a single strap up the front which then branches to go over your shoulders. This is so the straps don't irritate your nips! They are very very good shorts though.

Undo your jersey zip, undo your shorts hook, reach through the jersey, pull strap over your head and then pull under from the back. It's not easy-easy, but it's not too bad! It's slightly harder to thread it back up, but I can manage it, without the world's greatest flexibility.

This is what I do, too. I don't like waist shorts- they dig in, they allow gaps, they show muffin tops.
My assos shorts are not as comfy as my raphas though (heresy), and neither are as comfy as gore.

You could try these: http://road.cc/content/review/30768-gore-bike-wear-oxygen-so-lady-bib-tights

[Juan Martín]

A couple of purchases for m'project. A 26.2mm alloy seatpost and a pair of brown leather toestraps from one of those weird Ebay suppliers called Derek's Key Cutting and Bike Bits or something similar.

[hatler]

Hmmm. A pair of pedals are looking likely later this evening given that I just split the l/h bracket on my M520s on the way home. Is that expected after 10,000 miles ?

[Butterfly]

Not bought, exactly but my replacement lights and stuff came from Wheelies direct. just need to sort out a bike to put them on. 

[Feline]

How about getting some bibtights and spending the summer sewing a pair of click fasteners into the bib straps?

I have some Assos bib shorts, and they are completely impossible to get on/off without taking off your jersey, even if you unhook them in front. Part of the problem is the girls version has a single strap up the front which then branches to go over your shoulders. This is so the straps don't irritate your nips! They are very very good shorts though.

Undo your jersey zip, undo your shorts hook, reach through the jersey, pull strap over your head and then pull under from the back. It's not easy-easy, but it's not too bad! It's slightly harder to thread it back up, but I can manage it, without the world's greatest flexibility.

This is what I do, too. I don't like waist shorts- they dig in, they allow gaps, they show muffin tops.
My assos shorts are not as comfy as my raphas though (heresy), and neither are as comfy as gore.

You could try these: http://road.cc/content/review/30768-gore-bike-wear-oxygen-so-lady-bib-tights

They look good. I might give bib tights another go in the autumn. I have somehow never succeeded in the manoeuvre of getting the Assos bib shorts back on, how the heck do you pass the hook up between your shoulder blades to get hold of it at the top? I probably prefer my Rapha shorts to my Assos too, especially since the chamois is black (they are my period shorts!).

[L CC]

how the heck do you pass the hook up between your shoulder blades to get hold of it at the top?

hold it in my hand and reach the other hand back to it?

[zigzag]

clip on aerobars from evans, price matched to shinybikes

[Feline]

how the heck do you pass the hook up between your shoulder blades to get hold of it at the top?

hold it in my hand and reach the other hand back to it?

OK, I can't do that, I've just tried! I must be as unsupple as a very unsupple thing!

[Ham]

It appears that 100 286mm long double butted spokes have appeared, as if from nowhere. Somewhat handily they will provide succour in the event any more ping over the next weeks until the n-1n+1 appears, at which point it will furnish sufficient for a wheel rebuild.

Anybody need some?

[benborp]

Sneaky, sneaky boutique LBS. I've been riding on a loan saddle from their library for the last week. I realised the danger of there being no price on display or being discussed. Anyway, I was very impressed. It reminded me of my favourite saddle that I picked up in Taiwan for twenty quid that would have cost a couple of hundred in the UK at the time. I went in to exchange it for a permanent purchase today - and lo, two hundred pounds! The worrying thing is, I was with my wife and she didn't bat an eyelid. What could I get away with?

[MattH]

I went in to exchange it for a permanent purchase today - and lo, two hundred pounds! The worrying thing is, I was with my wife and she didn't bat an eyelid. What could I get away with?

Wrong question. The right question is "What is she planning to get away with?"   

[fuzzy]

how the heck do you pass the hook up between your shoulder blades to get hold of it at the top?

hold it in my hand and reach the other hand back to it?

OK, I can't do that, I've just tried! I must be as unsupple as a very unsupple thing!

How about doing something similar to what surfers do for their rear zip lap wet suits? Get a legth of ribbon long enough to connect the two ends of the 'braces' section of your bibs. Once the shorts down activity has been undertaken, pull shorts up, grasp ribbon and pull braces up your back?

[L CC]

how the heck do you pass the hook up between your shoulder blades to get hold of it at the top?

hold it in my hand and reach the other hand back to it?

OK, I can't do that, I've just tried! I must be as unsupple as a very unsupple thing!

How about doing something similar to what surfers do for their rear zip lap wet suits? Get a legth of ribbon long enough to connect the two ends of the 'braces' section of your bibs. Once the shorts down activity has been undertaken, pull shorts up, grasp ribbon and pull braces up your back?

The 'two ends' are joined, with a hook. Picture, not me, obviously: Clicky. Feline is struggling with threading this hook under her clothes. I can touch my hands behind my back with one arm over my shoulders, she can't. (I can do it right hand over shoulder, left hand up, but not the other way round, now I've just tried.)

[jogler]

I went in to exchange it for a permanent purchase today - and lo, two hundred pounds! The worrying thing is, I was with my wife and she didn't bat an eyelid. What could I get away with?

BTDTGTTS
a Brooks Swallow titanium is that sort of £.

MattH clearly has a BSc in hammers,nails & heads.

[fuzzy]

how the heck do you pass the hook up between your shoulder blades to get hold of it at the top?

hold it in my hand and reach the other hand back to it?

OK, I can't do that, I've just tried! I must be as unsupple as a very unsupple thing!

How about doing something similar to what surfers do for their rear zip lap wet suits? Get a legth of ribbon long enough to connect the two ends of the 'braces' section of your bibs. Once the shorts down activity has been undertaken, pull shorts up, grasp ribbon and pull braces up your back?

The 'two ends' are joined, with a hook. Picture, not me, obviously: Clicky. Feline is struggling with threading this hook under her clothes. I can touch my hands behind my back with one arm over my shoulders, she can't. (I can do it right hand over shoulder, left hand up, but not the other way round, now I've just tried.)

Aye, I get that. If Feline attaches a long piece of ribbon through the loop at the front, the other end to the bit thea comes over the shoulder, the to pull the 'bracess up between the sholder blades, she just tugs on the ribbon untill she can reach ther braces over her shoulder.

On a wetsuit, the ribbon is a piece of cord from the front of the shoulder to the zip pull. When getting into the wetsuit, pulling the cord pulls the zip up. To undo the zip the cord goes under the arm and you reach behind you down by your waist.

Or like this image, a long ribbon that can help pull the braces up to shoulder (reachable) level