CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

Confessions of a Cycle Commuter

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  1. wingpig
    Member

    I've had to loosen and re-tighten the rack mounts a couple of times to replaced/re-route the rear light wires, so that probably counts and maintenance. I also had to re-tighten them after the bolts at the seat stay mounts were stolen at Beamish last autumn.

    Is there something like grease but which isn't greasy which workshops approve of stuffing into the heads of bolts which would keep undesirables out yet be realtively easy to schloop out when the bolt needed to be adjusted? BoltWax™ or something? The bolts in the unused bottle cage bosses underneath the downtube and the bolts in the unused front rack mount points would also benefit from such a substance.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  2. kaputnik
    Moderator

    You mean like Loctite Treadlocker? Comes in a variety of flavours I believe, from cinnamon latte SELD'M'UNDO (221 and 222) through to hot grape chai venti NEV'R'UNDO (276 and 278)

    Just re-read what you are after. I think the answer is a stainless steel bolt head?

    Posted 8 years ago #

  3. earthowned
    Member

    I normally bung in a smidge of white lithium grease into rack mounts etc.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  4. wingpig
    Member

    @kaputnik http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1230&page=18#post-212238

    A bolt head can be as stainless as it likes but if it's one of these daft wee <=3mm sockets it's still going to burr after a few Allenings if it feels like it.

    All bolts going into any sort of threaded frame-hole have white lithium grease put on them (and wiped well into the thread) first.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    "I think the answer is a stainless steel bolt head?"

    Just the head?...

    Just bought a selection of s/s bolts (+ washers & nylocs)

    http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=221307549544&globalID=EBAY-GB

    Came 1st class all the way from Alloa.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  6. wingpig
    Member

    I've had a few packets of things from the internet and several from Screwfix or Toolstation, depending on who was selling the right combination of thread length/head shape at the time. At the moment they're mostly vaguely organised in one of those plastic-compartment tub things, with a selection scattered elsewhere in various tubs and bags left over from putting the bike together. I might have a few in my wee bag of tools and bits but if I don't then there are always the unused bottle cage mount bolts to get me home.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  7. Smudge
    Member

    Confessions of a cycle commuter.. Well I can't afford to cycle commute :-(
    Train and fuel prices have got to the point where I am massively cheaper commuting on my motorbike and I cannot justify the extra expense of taking the train, and that's including the cost of ved, insurance and servicing on my bike and ignoring cycle costs such as maint, clothing etc :-/
    Encouraging active travel huh? It's be nice....

    Posted 8 years ago #

  8. Min
    Member

    That's rubbish Smudge, sorry to hear it (though sadly not surprised). :-(

    Posted 8 years ago #

  9. calluna
    Member

    Yesterday, cycling home from work for the second time ever, just getting into my stride when...

    Clack... clack... CLACK... clack...

    I speed up, sound speeds up. I slow down, sound speeds down. Check wheels, check gears, check bag isn't slipping loose, all seems fine, but when I set off it starts again. Start glumly wondering if my bike is going to collapse into pieces any moment, etc etc.

    A fair while later I realised the sound was coming from me, not the bike. Specifically the security pass round my neck I'd forgotten to take off!

    Posted 8 years ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    As long as the bike's ok...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  11. SRD
    Moderator

    @calluna - nice one ;) thanks for sharing....

    Posted 8 years ago #

  12. gembo
    Member

    @calluna, yep I have had the security card clack On several occasions. Probably chipped paint from the crossbar with it a couple of times. It was quite breezy heading west last night.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  13. Neil
    Member

    For winter commuting, I am alternating wearing my nice Stolen Goat Orkaan winter bib tights with a fairly scabby pair of old altura leggings that I wear over a pair of summer bib shorts. The drawstring at the waist is broken on one side and there is also a hole in the backside (meaning that there are two benefits to wearing bib shorts underneath, one for me- the chamois, and one for everyone else). (The saddle occasionally ends up inserting itself into the hole when sitting after pedalling standing which means I have developed an odd looking method of throwing myself up, forwards and back in order to sit back down when wearing them- I am not sure how subtle this movement is...). This morning, the broken drawstring, which I had tucked inside the leggings was, unbeknownst to me, hanging out of the hole at the rear of the leggings and had fallen into the anatomical cut out on my saddle, anchoring itself by the toggle to the saddle rails. Cue great confusion as to why, when stopping at a set of lights, my efforts to dismount were opposed by an apparent magnetic attraction between my crotch and saddle.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  14. fimm
    Member

    Somehow managed to knock the mount for the Very Bright Light on the big bike so that it wouldn't stay pointed down - spent most of the journey turning it back to where I wanted it (apologies to the driver who was dazzled enough to flash their headlights at me).
    A small amount of faffing once I got home got it all tightened up again.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  15. Mandopicker101
    Member

    Distracted by weighty work concerns I rode in this morning only to find my locker curiously devoid of any 'normal' clothing. WTF??? Didn't I take a pile of clothes into work yesterday?

    Ah...yes I did. To my employer's office in Glasgow. Where they reside in my other locker.

    Thankfully I have no meetings today and the office is quiet, says the guy wearing a retro Phonak top (dopers though they were, I feel qualified in wearing their top as I use Phonak hearing aids). Mercifully I usually wear loose shorts over my cycling tights. If you missed the Phonak top, you can hear me clumping down the corridor in my cycling shoes.

    Maybe that Copenhagenize guy has a point about cycling in 'normal' clothes...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  16. chdot
    Admin

    Can you get N+1 lockers?

    Posted 8 years ago #

  17. Neil
    Member

    @Mandopicker were you cycling on South Clerk Street, passing the East Preston Street junction around 8.15'ish this morning? Thought I spotted you

    Posted 8 years ago #

  18. Mandopicker101
    Member

    @chdot - it's more N+1 brain-cells I need...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  19. Mandopicker101
    Member

    @Neil - no, not me (maybe there's another Phonak devotee out there). At 8:15 I was persuading the Mandopicker-ette to have her hair brushed and confirming her homework wasn't due today.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  20. Neil
    Member

    Ha! It was your face I thought I spotted, not a Phonak top :P

    Posted 8 years ago #

  21. MeepMeep
    Member

    Smudge - that's really rubbish and am sorry to hear it.

    Calluna - I think it's practically a commuter's right of passage. Still catches me out after 6 years!

    My confession this morning is that the radio played in the mens' changing area of a morning can be clearly heard next door in the ladies' changing area and it is driving me to distraction to the point I'd rather work from home than be subjected to chart music. I'm definitely an advocate of quiet time in the morning. I know I'm not the only one the radio playing aggravates too but have less scope to say something than the men vocalising their aggravation up at office desks.

    I'm starting to wonder where the company stands on its employees playing music on its premises - isn't some sort of PRS licence required?

    Posted 8 years ago #

  22. Darkerside
    Member

    May have guffawed at Neil's magnetic crotch tale.

    In a similar style, whilst ducking under the lifting shutter at work I have previously managed to anchor my chin to the handlebars after my pass got stuck. Not the sharpest tool in the box at 8am...

    Posted 8 years ago #

  23. Neil
    Member

    Ha, brilliant. That made me laugh

    Posted 8 years ago #

  24. SRD
    Moderator

    Dashing across George square to a meeting and realised I was so worried about my hair after my shower that I forgot about deodorant....

    Posted 8 years ago #

  25. steveo
    Member

    "Cycle Chic" Fail this morning, my boot laces managed to loop over my minipump (stored in a bracket behind a bottle cage) just as I got on to the SG Access dual carriage way meat ******. Had to gingerly pull over and try to disentangle my shoes from my pump. Would have been easier in cycle specific clothing....

    Posted 8 years ago #

  26. wingpig
    Member

    I once almost lost a mini-pump to Queen Street traffic on its first outing in a bottle-cage-side clip, but managed to retrieve it. I used to have to be very careful about bottles as a long bottle in the downtube cage would be susceptible to being caught by the gaping knee-cuffs of ¾ baggies, though not since upgrading to non-compact frames.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  27. Greenroofer
    Member

    Took the Brompton to work today so that I could bring it back on the bus if riding home was beyond me. The Brompton lives in a cupboard inside the house, rather than in the locked bike shed with the other bikes. This means that I left the house without exercising the protocol that confirms that I have my keys with me. I got to work and found I was keyless, which made accessing my locker in the changing room and my desk in the office problematic.

    @paddyirish was very sympathetic in the changing room, but not so sympathetic that he forebore from asking that I recount my shame here.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  28. Charlethepar
    Member

    Puncture near the office this morning. Thought I would sort it at the bike racks, rather than on a pavement. Got everything out of my rucksack, to find that the white bag in the bottom that I had checked was there as I packed, was not my tools'n'tubes, but my son's dance shoes. So, had to push bike back out to local bike shop, where I rather shamed-faced asked them to fix it.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  29. chdot
    Admin

    Maybe you need one of these -

    https://twitter.com/hank_chief/status/704959947872858112

    Posted 8 years ago #

  30. Murun Buchstansangur
    Member

    Woke up to a deflated front tyre at home this morning just in time for nursery run. Got the spare tube I carry and tried to get the valve cap off - wouldn't budge. Had to take pliers to it whereupon the problem became apparent - I had put a superglue tube cap that had been lying around on it by accident following its last repair :( Fortunately cyanoacrylate doesn't bond well to metal so the valve cleaned up OK.

    Just as well I didn't get a puncture on the road these last few weeks...

    Posted 8 years ago #

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