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Royal Mail Pashley's for £250

(37 posts)
  • Started 8 years ago by ARobComp
  • Latest reply from crowriver

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  1. paddyirish
    Member

    @DaveC

    Right crowriver, let me see if I understand you? I should sell keep this bike and buy something more purposefully designed and built?

    You're not helping here you know!

    FIFY

    Posted 8 years ago #
  2. crowriver
    Member

    @DaveC, I think the Pashley Mailstar is nice as it is. That is all. :-)

    Posted 8 years ago #
  3. LaidBack
    Member

    DaveC - BikeSpark is away at start of next week... can't take any more projects at moment. He would suggest kits maybe if you pm me I'll get you his number.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  4. waverley
    Member

    Just wanted to say that after reading this thread we bought one of these bikes and it was delivered (very quickly) last week. It’s brilliant for what we wanted it for – yes, heavy but so so sturdy. We have put a Hamax child seat on the back for our 2 year old and added a tube mounted saddle so the 4 year old can perch on the front.

    Finally, one of us can transport both the kids by bike at once (we did for a while think of getting a Helios with a tagalong, thanks to the FoC event in the summer, but ultimately couldn’t justify the cost as the older one is now cycling by herself to nursery so it would only have had occasional weekend usage).

    Anyway we took it out for a spin at Cramond at the weekend and got loads of interested looks (and many smiles!). It will mainly be for my husband to use but the saddle has a quick release and I can just about manage it size wise (I’m small!) so I should be ok to use it as well if we’re going somewhere fairly flat. He made it up the steep road which heads out of Cramond towards the Cramond Inn so it’s manageable, but he obviously wouldn’t be setting any Strava records on it.

    Anyway thanks for the original link – we’re delighted with it!

    Posted 8 years ago #
  5. crowriver
    Member

    I was recently inspired by the recent Pashley thread, and DaveC and waverley's purchase of a refurbished/resprayed Mailstar ‘elephant bike’, to investigate the used bike market for a Pashley post bike of my own.

    A quick search on fleaBay revealed a bike repair workshop in Nottinghamshire selling off ex-TNT Post Pashley Prontos, which are essentially identical to the Royal Mail Mailstars but with slightly different spec.

    Well mine arrived this week, and following some basic reassembly is now running sweetly. I’ve made a trip to B&Q Powderhall already and it coped admirably.

    Colour is the first difference from the Mailstar, this came in the TNT orange powder coat, which looks like new: a few wee nicks but it seems incredibly tough. The mudguards are white powder coated aluminium. The rear rack is much the same as Royal Mail’s but the front rack is different, designed for a third mail bag pannier rather than a basket. I tried a standard Altura pannier and it clipped on perfectly, though is a bit narrow on the wide rack. I’m looking at trolley bags for the front, but have added some big European double panniers on the rear, though they are still not big enough for that rack. The Selle Royal saddle has loops at the back so I may add a saddle bag there too.

    I was pleased that the tyres are Marathon Plus front and rear. Also the front hub, as well as housing a drum brake, is also a hub dynamo, and the bike came with a front dynamo light (though the mount bolt was missing and I have temporarily cable-tied it in place as you can see below). This is LED and has an auto sensor so it comes on once light levels drop. There is a nice big battery light on the rear rack. There's a very sturdy bipod prop stand in the middle and the bike feels very stable once this is engaged. There's also a frame lock mounted on rear seat stays which is incredibly handy when parking to nip into a shop. The SA 3 speed hub gear on the back wheel also has a drum brake: the gear change is smooth as butter, the range seems good, and the brakes really stop this bike. It is heavy, I won’t deny that, but not as bad as I feared. Remarkably nimble in fact, and I’ve tried minor hilly bits coming back from Powderhall: it was fine though I did get out of the saddle to pedal once or twice. It's like a British version of a Dutch bike, with serene upright posture and lots of sensible features.

    In short I’m very pleased with this bike, especially for the reasonable price. It shall become a regular shopper and medium cargo lifter, with the Kona Ute reserved for really big/long/bulky loads.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  6. Greenroofer
    Member

    I've today taken delivery of my very own Elephant Bike, which I've had my eye on ever since this thread first appeared. I was so excited that I kept calling home from work to see if it had arrived.

    It's a really weird mixture of new bits and old bits: with its freshly-painted olive green frame and glossy white mudguards it looks new from a distance, but when you get up close you can see rust spots and dents and worn bits mixed up with new cables, bottom bracket, chain and cranks. I'm between sizes, so got the smaller of the two so that Mrs G can use it if she wants, and it's definitely quite compact for me, with a very upright stance.

    It is enormous, with a huge plastic tray on the front and a gigantic long rack on the back. It weighs a ton.

    It felt very stable whizzing down Craighouse Hill, and the brakes were extremely reassuring, albeit not with quite the same feel as the hydraulic discs I normally use. Going up Craighouse Hill was quite a challenge: the low gear isn't as low as I expected...

    I'll take it to work tomorrow, and see how it fares on the commute. Slowly, but comfortably, I suspect.

    Posted 7 years ago #
  7. crowriver
    Member

    "It weighs a ton."

    Wait until it's full of a week's shopping! :-)

    Good resistance training: calves of steel in no time.

    Posted 7 years ago #

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