Bought any cycling stuff today?

[Juan Martín]

A 52 tooth Campag N Record chainwheel for the Hanlon project (or possible future project as I find I suddenly have a selection of chainsets)

[eck]

A GPS thingymabob, 3rd hand 
So now, instead of worrying about getting lost on audaxes, I'll be riding about in the wrong direction blaming "bloody technology" 

It will make a change from blaming me. 

[spesh]

Took advantage of the stock liquidation sale at Sports Direct to pick up a trio of base layers for 70% off the RRP. 

[mrcharly-YHT]

Ribmo's arrived from Wiggle.

My, that is a very pronounced ridge in the centre, isn't it?  I hope I don't regret this purchase.

[Ham]

Ribmo's arrived from Wiggle.

My, that is a very pronounced ridge in the centre, isn't it?  I hope I don't regret this purchase.

I love 'em - it does affect the handling but I think in a good way. You get the rolling of a thinner tyre with very good cornering indeed, the transition between the two takes a little getting used to.

You only get the full effect when you have them front and rear - at the moment I have a Durano on the back as I had a terminal with the rear one day when I was out. Had it been planned I would have stuck with Ribmo.

Downside of the tyre is wet adhesion IMO, as compared to Conti SportContact slicks but no worse than many.

[phantasmagoriana]

Set of stupidly cheap Decathlon mudguards for my old MTB. ...

Out of curiosity, how stupidly cheap?  When I wanted some cheap ones for Vince, the best I could do was a pair of relatively cheap SKS ones from (Wiggle iirc), which were about £13 a pair.  The price of mudguards is fairly ridiculous considering how cheap to manufacture there are (even compared to other components we build bikes out of).  I'm guessing their bulk to store and transport has a noticeable impact on pricing.

For stupidly cheap full guards, there are always these: http://www.fudgescyclestore.com/index.php?p=195867

There's P&P on orders below £10, though.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Ribmo's arrived from Wiggle.

My, that is a very pronounced ridge in the centre, isn't it?  I hope I don't regret this purchase.

I love 'em - it does affect the handling but I think in a good way. You get the rolling of a thinner tyre with very good cornering indeed, the transition between the two takes a little getting used to.

Having now seen them, I'm a little worried that they might have a tendency to 'follow' cracks in the road surface (where a trench has been cut out, filled and then filling failed, for example). The prevalence of these is why I'm riding on 1.75" tyres rather than the road bike

[Auntie Helen]

I went out for a ride this morning to try out my new altura Winter Cruisers. Toasty warm, they were.

After about two and a half miles I was doing a hard right turn under braking when the brakes started making a really awful noise. Looking down I could see a little bit of metal sticking up from the pads. Uh oh.

I disassembled it all and found this:


The pads had worn and the little bit of metal that holds them in place had bent.

So I removed the brake entirely (including cable), stuck it in my pannier and cycled off down to my excellent LBS (which was five miles away at this point, down a pretty steep hill, so one-brake riding was quite interesting) and bought replacement pads. They fitted the pads on the disassembled brake for me and I'll do the other side when it needs it.

Those pads have lasted 9,780 miles which is really not bad at all, especially as I ride in all weathers.

[Chris S]

Not bad! Our pads on the tandem lasted all of 1500km! As did the chain. I think last Saturday's 200 did it for both, TBH.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Try using the brakes less. Makes for faster descending...

[Ham]

Ribmo's arrived from Wiggle.

My, that is a very pronounced ridge in the centre, isn't it?  I hope I don't regret this purchase.

I love 'em - it does affect the handling but I think in a good way. You get the rolling of a thinner tyre with very good cornering indeed, the transition between the two takes a little getting used to.

Having now seen them, I'm a little worried that they might have a tendency to 'follow' cracks in the road surface (where a trench has been cut out, filled and then filling failed, for example). The prevalence of these is why I'm riding on 1.75" tyres rather than the road bike

these 26ers or 700c?

I ride on 700x28, and while you get the narrow contact patch in a straight line, it changes to a wider patch pretty quick. So, while it feels like a 23  on the flat, it feels like a 30 (wider than a 28, anyway) for handling purposes. The switch between the two can be felt as you go into a corner, but happens naturally the rest of the time.

[Chris S]

Try using the brakes less. Makes for faster descending...

 

Sadly, there are no descents round here. Instead, the roads are covered in a grinding paste of pig shit, teeny weeny bits of flint, and road salt; which was mobilised last weekend by 7 hours of rain. You are immune to this, on account of your Stay-Indoors policy whenever it so much as clouds over. A not-entirely unreasonable policy, I might add.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Having now seen them, I'm a little worried that they might have a tendency to 'follow' cracks in the road surface (where a trench has been cut out, filled and then filling failed, for example). The prevalence of these is why I'm riding on 1.75" tyres rather than the road bike

these 26ers or 700c?

I ride on 700x28, and while you get the narrow contact patch in a straight line, it changes to a wider patch pretty quick. So, while it feels like a 23  on the flat, it feels like a 30 (wider than a 28, anyway) for handling purposes. The switch between the two can be felt as you go into a corner, but happens naturally the rest of the time.

26"

We'll see.

[TimO]

Set of stupidly cheap Decathlon mudguards for my old MTB. ...

Out of curiosity, how stupidly cheap?  When I wanted some cheap ones for Vince, the best I could do was a pair of relatively cheap SKS ones from (Wiggle iirc), which were about £13 a pair.  The price of mudguards is fairly ridiculous considering how cheap to manufacture there are (even compared to other components we build bikes out of).  I'm guessing their bulk to store and transport has a noticeable impact on pricing.

For stupidly cheap full guards, there are always these: http://www.fudgescyclestore.com/index.php?p=195867

There's P&P on orders below £10, though.

Still cheaper than buying them from Wiggle (and they no longer have any in stock), which was £13.79 for a pair.

A couple of pairs, and something else to just bump it over £10, may be worth having for the random useful bits heap!

[Ham]

Having now seen them, I'm a little worried that they might have a tendency to 'follow' cracks in the road surface (where a trench has been cut out, filled and then filling failed, for example). The prevalence of these is why I'm riding on 1.75" tyres rather than the road bike

these 26ers or 700c?

I ride on 700x28, and while you get the narrow contact patch in a straight line, it changes to a wider patch pretty quick. So, while it feels like a 23  on the flat, it feels like a 30 (wider than a 28, anyway) for handling purposes. The switch between the two can be felt as you go into a corner, but happens naturally the rest of the time.

26"

We'll see.

I'll be interested to hear how you get on, I can see that it might not work the same on an MTB/hybrid, the effect is most fun in the drops.

[phantasmagoriana]

Took delivery of some bits from Planet X (merino buff thing to replace the one I left somewhere last week, merino hat and some skull lights!). About to place another Planet X order as they have Phaart lights half price, and their £4.99 front light looks as though it'd make a good replacement for the Smart Lunar 35 I had stolen a few days ago. And the Smart-a-like rears at £2.50 a piece are too cheap to resist.

[Kim]

Similarly, a recumbent's worth of Planet X's better-than-half-price PC971 chains appeared this morning. 

[Juan Martín]

A large box was waiting for me when I got in from work last night. More bits for the Hanlon project - not absolutely correct in terms of vintage but near enough. The Gran Sport chainset and the brake levers are new and unused and the calipers - again Gran Sport and the twin bolt seatpost are very lightly used...they are all almost too nice to fit! These are components for admiring! V. Pleased. 

[mrcharly-YHT]

Having now seen them, I'm a little worried that they might have a tendency to 'follow' cracks in the road surface (where a trench has been cut out, filled and then filling failed, for example). The prevalence of these is why I'm riding on 1.75" tyres rather than the road bike

these 26ers or 700c?

I ride on 700x28, and while you get the narrow contact patch in a straight line, it changes to a wider patch pretty quick. So, while it feels like a 23  on the flat, it feels like a 30 (wider than a 28, anyway) for handling purposes. The switch between the two can be felt as you go into a corner, but happens naturally the rest of the time.

26"

We'll see.

I'll be interested to hear how you get on, I can see that it might not work the same on an MTB/hybrid, the effect is most fun in the drops.

Drops

[interzen]

Ribmo's arrived from Wiggle.

My, that is a very pronounced ridge in the centre, isn't it?  I hope I don't regret this purchase.

Well if you decide you don't want them, I'd be quite happy to take them off your hands either for portraits of the Queen or swapsies for a pair of 26x2.0 Big Apples.

FWIW, I've got 32mm RibMos on both the road-going Genesii and I wouldn't use anything else, TBH - they roll really well on the blacktop, cope fairly well with tracks providing it's not too muddy and are phenomenally puncture resistant. The central ridge also means they're a damn good turbo-trainer tyre (meaning I don't have to ditch the 25s that used to live on the Dave Yates )

[David Martin]

New front mech. The old one has done two years on the everyday bike and is now rather shonky and stiff. As ever, replace with an XT mech and it should last a decent length of time. Taking the opportunity to replace the cables as well.

[TimO]

I just bought a pair of Gelert reusable hand warmer gels from Amazon, for use when dealing with Fairy visitations.

I don't particularly suffer from cold hands on rides, a pair of bog standard gloves normally solves even the coldest of UK conditions, but you often need to take your gloves off to get tyres on and off, or for other more involved mechanicals.  Even on the last FNRttC, when I had to sort out a quick repair on my rear wheel, after riding through a heap of glass a few minutes before, my hands were starting to be a little bit cold.

I've had a pair of chemical hand warmers in the past, but when we tried to trigger the reaction they did nothing, presumably the containing bags had sprung a slight leak, or they'd just become too old.  This was on the Solstice ride a few years ago when neither I nor Wowbagger had gloves.  I didn't mind too much, but Wowbagger was suffering a bit from it.

The Gelert ones are supposed to be reusable (you heat them up in a pan of water for twenty minutes), but it's worth an experiment at less than £4 for a pair! (Being Amazon, they initially offered me the order with first class postage, for an additional £6. ).  The alternative option would be electrical ones, but faffing around with batteries and possibly separate units with leads, strikes me as being excessively complex if the Gelert ones will do the job.

[Kim]

+1 for those.  I have a couple of them for exactly that reason.

The chemistry is quite clever (supersaturated sodium ethanoate).  The clicky thing creates a nucleation point, causing exothermic crystallisation.  Heat them in boiling water and the crystals dissolve, and (as long as you get all of them) will stay liquid when cooled.

I'm slightly impressed that they can rattle around in a rack bag without going off accidentally, tbh, but they do seem to manage it.

[TimO]

I'm slightly impressed that they can rattle around in a rack bag without going off accidentally, tbh, but they do seem to manage it.

That's good to know.  I was wondering if I was going to have to find a small rigid container to put them in (although that may be a good idea anyway, to minimise the risk of abrasive damage etc).

[Butterfly]

I'm slightly impressed that they can rattle around in a rack bag without going off accidentally, tbh, but they do seem to manage it.

That's good to know.  I was wondering if I was going to have to find a small rigid container to put them in (although that may be a good idea anyway, to minimise the risk of abrasive damage etc).

I've broken a couple and occasionally set them off by accident, but usually only when they have worked their way to underneath my lock or something. I have a few, I use them mainly for cramps and back ache rather than outside though, mainly because the incidences of me leaving the house between September and April or for any overnight ride with fewer than 2 pairs of thick gloves are non-existant.