Members' bikes

[Sergeant Pluck]

Tewdric's Touring Trucker:

Sturdy

Especially the wheels: that’s one heavy duty looking set of rims.

Hope you have many good miles on it.

[Oscar's dad]

Very nice Tewdric. 

My jury is still out on the suitability of 1.75 tyres for predominantly road use; my concerns centre around rolling resistance.  I have 26x1.75 Marathon Cross (*) boots on my equivalent of your lovely bike.  All my instincts tell me they're too wide but my limited experience of them thus far says they're going to be fine and they are certainly comfy.  I'm out on them again tomorrow morning so we'll see how we get on.

(*) I accept that the chunkier tread on the Cross variant is going to add to rolling resistance but I chose them to get better grip on bridleways.  This is one area where they have already excelled.

[mike]

almost a snap with Mr Tewdric!! I've got different 1.75s on this beauty:


and they're fine, they roll very nicely.  It is bloody heavy though!

[Tewdric]

I nearly went for Marathon Supreme 2" jobs!  I want to be able to ride on forestry fireroads and Sustrans type paths on it, hence the robust rubber.  Panaracers would, no doubt,  roll much better but these seem that bit more bombproof.

[Oscar's dad]

I nearly went for Marathon Supreme 2" jobs!  I want to be able to ride on forestry fireroads and Sustrans type paths on it, hence the robust rubber.  Panaracers would, no doubt,  roll much better but see seem that bit more bombproof.

This was the rationale behind my choice of rubber.  I have used them on quite steep wet off-road climbs and they were surprisingly grippy given they don't have a full blown MTB tread.  No doubt you'd come badly unstuck using them on fast off-road twisty descents.

[Kim]

My jury is still out on the suitability of 1.75 tyres for predominantly road use; my concerns centre around rolling resistance.  I have 26x1.75 Marathon Cross (*) boots on my equivalent of your lovely bike.  All my instincts tell me they're too wide but my limited experience of them thus far says they're going to be fine and they are certainly comfy.

I have a set of 700x38 Marathon Cross that take the place of my usual 700x28 Marathons on my sturdy do-it-all touring hybrid when I anticipate muddy conditions.  On the road, when inflated to their maximum 85PSI, I've never actually found a measurable difference in rolling resistance between them and the Marathons, though the knobbles obviously make them a lot dicier on fast corners.

I also have a set of Marathon Winters, which are obviously a complete bastard to ride serious distances on, but when fitted prevent the ambient temperature dropping below zero and are stunningly good off-road.

[Tewdric]

almost a snap with Mr Tewdric!! I've got different 1.75s on this beauty
and they're fine, they roll very nicely.  It is bloody heavy though!

Mike- if you fit the front rack eye to the mudguard eye behind the fork dropout, you can get the pannier rail level.  You can then fit the mudguard stay to the rearmost eyes on the rack itself, although looking at yours the Berthoud stay may just fit inside the rack eye in the same place.  I can't do that with the SKS secuclips

Yes, it's bloody heavy - I've christened mine Warpig..  You get a good workout pedalling it uphill..

[bloomers100]

Mike I know we've met, how tall are you and what size is your frame?

Tewdric how tall are you?

I'm 6'1" with a 33" inside leg and I'm awaiting iminent delivery of a 58cm LHT, just checking I've ordered the right size like. I did measure the geo against current stable. 

[Tewdric]

6'2" - either 58 or 60 would fit you I would guess.

[tonycollinet]

Collected from Wheezer of this parish about three weeks ago.....



Off out on it now, to see if I can get my practise mileage up to 100

[PaulR]

Member's son's bike actually - a dinky little Orbit adapted for a son who prefers flat bars, complete with vintage Campag thumbie but no front mech, as I haven't  yet found one that works and I think the 40T ring is fine for now.  I was rather pleased to have found this on eBay and was even more pleased to find it in such good condition.  But best of all was son #2's reaction on riding it up and down the street: "It's really easy to ride".


and I couldn't help noting a reflection in the last one:

and the paint finish is rather nice


Edit: ooops, I seem to have bought a Mirage triple front mech on ebay five minutes ago.

[Kim]

Collected from Wheezer of this parish about three weeks ago.....

Nice.

Is the lowrider rack a retrofit?  Can't think why else you'd fit a propstand to the chainstay rather than the lowrider's  mounting plate...

Off out on it now, to see if I can get my practise mileage up to 100

Enjoy!

[tonycollinet]

Is the lowrider rack a retrofit?  Can't think why else you'd fit a propstand to the chainstay rather than the lowrider's  mounting plate...

Don't know, bike is as I collected it. Although the propstand fixing point seems to be dedicated for the purpose, and that position does have the advantage that I can tip the bike forward on front wheel and propstand* to spin the pedals when I've stopped in too high a gear 

*Whilst I'm off the bike, natch.


EDIT: In fact the standard 2008 operating instructions show it in this configuration on the front cover:
http://www.bicycleman.com/recumbents/hp_velotechnik/owner-manuals/HPVelo-Streetmachine-GTe-manual.pdf

[mike]

Mike I know we've met, how tall are you and what size is your frame?

Tewdric how tall are you?

I'm 6'1" with a 33" inside leg and I'm awaiting iminent delivery of a 58cm LHT, just checking I've ordered the right size like. I did measure the geo against current stable. 

I'm 6'2, same leg length as you, mines a 58. 

[IanDG]

Converted to fixed


Henry Burton Fixed by windy_, on Flickr

[Kim]

Don't know, bike is as I collected it. Although the propstand fixing point seems to be dedicated for the purpose, and that position does have the advantage that I can tip the bike forward on front wheel and propstand* to spin the pedals when I've stopped in too high a gear 

Hmm, interesting.  The lowrider mounting cunningly puts the stand closer to the centre of the bike, and slightly further outboard for more stability when fully loaded - much better than a stand on any upright tourer (though the usual problems with soft ground apply).  It's also within kicking range if you forget to retract it before mounting the bike   .  My understanding was the chainstay braze-on was for bikes supplied without the lowrider.  Maybe they decided not to bother stocking two kinds of stand, or something.

And yes, you can still do the tipping forward manoeuvre - it's extremely useful to have a stand for that reason (and means you can do things like adjust the indexing without a workstand or assistant).  Even when you've learned to change down at the slightest inkling of a need to stop, emergencies do still happen from time to time.

[clarion]

Hey, Windy, that looks great.

[Tewdric]

Mike I know we've met, how tall are you and what size is your frame?

Tewdric how tall are you?

I'm 6'1" with a 33" inside leg and I'm awaiting iminent delivery of a 58cm LHT, just checking I've ordered the right size like. I did measure the geo against current stable. 

I'm 6'2, same leg length as you, mines a 58.

The other pertinent factor is what sort of bars you plan to use. I wanted to use flat bars and so needed the extra top tube length of the 60cm frame.  It's the right size for me, but I could have got away with a 58 using drop bars.

[Paul]

Member's son's bike actually - a dinky little Orbit adapted for a son who prefers flat bars, complete with vintage Campag thumbie but no front mech, as I haven't  yet found one that works and I think the 40T ring is fine for now.  I was rather pleased to have found this on eBay and was even more pleased to find it in such good condition.  But best of all was son #2's reaction on riding it up and down the street: "It's really easy to ride".

[img width=640 height=528]

Paul - I think I've just bought a bike with a similar chainset, except mine came without the granny ring. I've bought a replacement, but now see that I think I need some spacers too. What's the set up on yours? Are there spacers between the granny and middle ring?

[PaulR]

Paul - I think I've just bought a bike with a similar chainset, except mine came without the granny ring. I've bought a replacement, but now see that I think I need some spacers too. What's the set up on yours? Are there spacers between the granny and middle ring?

Yes, there are spacers in there. I can try and get measurements if that would help.  It's a Campag triple, possibly from when they did a Mirage T groupset in the mid-90s, although I note that the Mirage T front mech has a chrome finish that's unlike the understated brushed alloy finish on the cranks and the painted silver on the brakes.

[Paul]

Paul - I think I've just bought a bike with a similar chainset, except mine came without the granny ring. I've bought a replacement, but now see that I think I need some spacers too. What's the set up on yours? Are there spacers between the granny and middle ring?

Yes, there are spacers in there. I can try and get measurements if that would help.  It's a Campag triple, possibly from when they did a Mirage T groupset in the mid-90s, although I note that the Mirage T front mech has a chrome finish that's unlike the understated brushed alloy finish on the cranks and the painted silver on the brakes.

I suspected as much. Don't worry about measurements, I'm going to see if Mercian can help me out, before throwing myself on the cruelty of the web.

V nice bike, btw.

[PaulR]

Thanks Paul - son #2 agrees, having just had another test ride up and down the street following installation of campag thumbie.

[Ham]

The Phoenix has risen (old paint job was better, tho)

[Tail End Charlie]

Looks a cracking bike, Ham, Pomps (fixed or otherwise) are great value. 

[AndyK]

Resurrected my old Merckx - bought in '82 - and took it for a spin this morning: