Bought any cycling stuff today?

[Ham]

Hmmm.... I now seem to be the destination vector for some hope hubs, some H+Son rims, some Schwalbe One tyres. Apart from a Thomson seat post and some other stuffs.

[Torslanda]

Hate it when that happens . . .

[Aidan]

Among a few bits yesterday was one of these

https://www.evanscycles.com/topeak-fuel-tank-bag-EV162221

has a port for cables so looks useful for holding a battery pack for garmin charging etc.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I might buy some Brifters.

[Jurek]

Hmmm.... I now seem to be the destination vector for some hope hubs, some H+Son rims, some Schwalbe One tyres. Apart from a Thomson seat post and some other stuffs.

Keeping Arup busy?

[Ham]

Indeed, although as a training thingy rather than a "make for me" thingy. All getting quite exciting.

[Jurek]

I'm sure that'll be most useful.

[Kim]

Some Gore 3/4s which will need returning due to lack of silicone grippers.  Bastards.

Seems to be a trend of late - removing all the elasticy bits in the interests of 'comfort'.  Well, it's not that comfortable if you have to stop every five minutes to pull the waist up and the legs down, is it?

[Canardly]

More likely remove all the elasticy bits 'cos its cheaper.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

HK gets skin irritation from gripper elastic of various types, so prefers clothing that avoids it.

[Kim]

Fair enough, I do find them uncomfortable after long periods, but that can be mitigated by folding them back when not actually riding the bike.  Given that nobody makes clothing that actually fits properly, I find grippers are important to avoid far more irritating bunching behind the knee.

Anyway, I've now ordered a selection of 3/4s from different manufacturers, and will see which is the least worst.  Maybe Pearl Izumi have abandoned their 'flattering' waistband folly... I know I get on with their pads reasonably well.

[Phil W]

Some knee warmers as decided that's all I need extra on the legs at night outside of the frosty months.

[ElyDave]

A pair of Durano Plus Folding in 25mm size.

Way to many punctures on those Continental GP4Seasons for my liking. Two in the rear, as well as a snake bite today and I've not even done 350km with them yet!.  When the majority of your cycling is on your lonesome, then the extra weight and reliabilty of Durano Plus is worth it it if means you aren't spending time at the side of the road fixing punctures!

A shame, as the GP4Seasons were nice and light, and gave a plush ride.  But for me, reliability is my priority.  These GP4S may appear in a for sale thread soon...

I'm quite surprised at that, I use GP4Seasons with no probs, except one puncture on the recumbent when the rear hit a huge longitudinal pothole and snakebit. I also have them on the Giant and have no issues with them, and I don't run them at particularly high pressure as I'm only 68kg.

[Ham]

I may have to start restraining my finger, Thomson and Tubus, today, that famous firm of cycling lawyers.

[rogerzilla]

A complete Ron Cooper racing bike circa 1990.

Pros: beautifully built - the mitreing in the BB shell is perfect. Excellent Shimano 600 groupset and Dura-Ace headset without a trace of notchiness.  Nice custom lugwork.  True wheels.  Amusing Campag aero seatpost made of drillium under the max height mark!

Cons: seller said there was a shifting problem on the largest sprockets.  No wonder - the gear hanger needs straightening as it's off by a few degrees.  Horrid tricolour fade.  Needs to go to Argos to be done in flam orange.  Spokes are p/g.  Rims unworn so might rebuild them with butted spokes.

It's 7 speed and staying that way but for the sake of future proofing, I'll make it 130mm at the back and swap the rear axle, with 2mm of spacers either side.

[robgul]

Two Park Tools cone wrenches to add to the collection . . . I'm also about 2/3rds through the re-construction of my wall-mounted tool-board - a picture will follow in due course.

Rob

[De Sisti]

Two sets of Campag gear/brake cables:

Two DMR Hinged Clamps (31.8 & 34.9) Plan to use them as 'chain catchers:

[TimO]

A couple of cheap Zookki mitts via Amazon.



They're cheap, and seem to get relatively good comments, so I think are worth a try.  For only £6-99, I think it's a reasonable risk. Everywhere else, including Decathlon, seem to have their cheapest mitts at upwards of £10.

I got them in red, so they match Red obviously.

[Kim]

Aldi's my go-to source of cheap mitts (the padding isn't very good, but I mostly use them for grip and crash protection), but you have to maintain a stock as they only do cycling stuff sporadically.  Not that that's much of a problem when they're 3 quid a pair.  Interestingly, the last ones I bought had the velcro pointing the 'wrong' way, which makes it surprisingly hard to do them up properly.

[fuaran]

Those look rather similar to some of the Planet X mitts. I think they were £5 per pair, but checking now the cheapest are £8. I'm sure they will have another sale shortly. I quite like them anyway, comfy enough for me.

[Tim Hall]

An On One track sprocket from Planet-X (although they describe is as a "cog". No, a cog is a tooth on a sprocket, or cog wheel.)


Anyhoo, tis a thing of wonder and CNC lovelieness.

[TimO]

A couple of cheap Zookki mitts via Amazon.

...

They're cheap, and seem to get relatively good comments, so I think are worth a try.  For only £6-99, I think it's a reasonable risk. Everywhere else, including Decathlon, seem to have their cheapest mitts at upwards of £10.

I got them in red, so they match Red obviously.

Unfortunately, I can't really recommend them, although I need to study them a bit more to work out exactly why they're not working.

As with any cycling glove, pressure on the hand at the base of the thumb tends to push the glove into the "web" between the fingers, and with these gloves that causes irritation.  I don't quite know what they've done there, and I've never had this problem with any other glove, but it digs into the hand, and even after a one hour commute yesterday, it left the area between my left index and middle finger, red and irritated.  I suspect it's a combination of the size of the gloves and my hands, and also the construction of the gloves at that point.

The older, slightly ripped gloves I've gone back to using, have a nice smooth continuous piece of material at that point, but feeling the new gloves yesterday, there seemed to be some stitching around there.

[Kim]

Anyway, I've now ordered a selection of 3/4s from different manufacturers, and will see which is the least worst.  Maybe Pearl Izumi have abandoned their 'flattering' waistband folly... I know I get on with their pads reasonably well.

Jinxed it.

Instant review:

Pearl Izumi Women`s Escape Sugar Cycling 3/4 Tight(JH1118): The cheaper material, rather than that excellent double-thickness stuff that goes blotchy with age rather than transparent.  Sensible shape, grippers are good, waistband isn't a disaster.  They've used a dubious looking piece of felt as a pad that looks distinctly non-recumbent-friendly, but is probably fine when used with a saddle.

Altura Women`s Airstream 2 3/4 Tights (AL32WAIR): Couldn't get into them because calves.  Material becomes very transparent under tension.  Not convinced by the shape of the pad.

Endura 8-panel Xtract Gel Knickers(E4015): Enormous.  Thick wintery material.  Thin elasticated waist may be an issue.  My overall impression was 'cheap'.

Giant Liv Beliv Womens Knicker(86000077): Waste of time; no leg grippers.  Good use of PURPLE.

Gore Power 3.0 Women's 3/4 Tight:  This one may be a winner.  Known-good pad, sensible waist, the rainbow cuffs contain silicone grippers and look enough like a pride flag that they're not totally embarrassing.  Complicated panel structure to make your quads look enormous.

Endura Hummvee 3/4 2 Womens Short(E6107BK): This was optimism, as the last time I bought some Endura baggies I happily spent the weekend wandering around the York Rally in them and then discovered there wasn't enough room around the quads to actually ride a bike (they don't do a larger size, and the men's ones don't have room for an arse).  These ones seem a little bit baggier^[1], so I'm going to hang onto them, if just for pootling to the shops and stuff.  Saves wear on the unobtainium lycra.


_{[1] Which probably means I've lost muscle mass recovering from all these cycling injuries, doesn't it?}

[ian]

New handlebar grips to replace the ones stolen by a Croydon [likely lady] scrote. I hope she gets an itchy and difficult to shift infection somewhere embarrassing.

A pair of splendidly blue Ortlieb panniers for my dear wife. As a birthday present she can now lug some of stuff we accumulate during our occasional bicycle powered foraging missions. More beer and pork pies. Ha.

Moobling over a new bike to replace my trusty BSO with the derailleurs of doom, le Saracen formidable. I don't know what's making the awesome creaking noises but they seem intractable and any resolution will require something significant being replaced and for a bike that cost me £130 twelve years ago and has probably has done a good fifty miles a week minimum (so far upwards of 30 thousand miles, our car on the other hand has done under 9k in the same period) it may be time to say au revoir.

On the grounds that I'm never ever fitting mudguards again, it has to come with guards and racks and stuff. And be cheap, because it gets parked up on the street in exciting places like Blackfriars and Croydon. Might have to be a Decathlon special.

[hatler]

Countless items of bike gear recently , on the grounds I needed it (sort of) and now have a job to pay for it.

Four inner tubes to replace the countless failed tubes recently.
Two pairs of Humvee Lite shorts
New mudguards (to replace those damaged by a recent off)
Three new ceramic rims (all the way from Poland
A kiloton of v-brake pads and spare blocks
Shotbloks and electrolyte tabs
A gallon of Muc-off
A svelte carbon handlebar (at a crazy knock-down price)
Bottle of oil
Two pairs of mitts for mini-hatler
Two 9 speed chains
A bunch of screw-in bar ends
A pot of 100 cable end caps

Phew.