CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Questions/Support/Help

A novice writes....

(76 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by Its_Me_Knees
  • Latest reply from chdot
  • This topic is resolved

123

  1. Its_Me_Knees
    Member

    This seems like a good topic to make a debut post on (hello everyone):

    The last time I cycled regularly was a loooong time ago when I was at school. However, my environmental conscience has stirred recently, and along with a shortening of my daily commute to a bike-able distance I have been moved to invest.

    As a result I now own one 'proper' bike - a recently acquired Dawes hybrid. It's lovely: practical, very forgiving to ride and comfortable to boot. I've told my missus she might have to share the marital bed with this vision in chrome and aluminium.

    That said, I have owned a very cheap n cheerful Falcon MTB for several years, and I'm in two minds about what to do with it. As an over-50 y.o. newbie to biking (you know what I mean) of ample girth and lamentable fitness, I've no intention of throwing myself down (let alone climbing up) hills on a monsterously expensive gazillion gear leviathon, but I do wonder if an upgrade from the Falcon might not allow me to do the odd recreational pootle around some of the rougher paths of Northern Edinburgh without falling off or knackering the Dawes. If so, what should I get? Or is there something I could actually do to the Falcon itself to make it a worthwhile runabout..?

    Once the peals of laughter subside, feel free to advise / put me right...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  2. Claggy Cog
    Member

    Well done returning to cycling and welcome to the fold!! There are some in the cycling fraternity who think that several bikes is the only way to go, but you can only ride one at a time... You should hear applause for getting out back on a bike. That said if your MTB works and is rideable what would be the problem saving it for the rougher terrain rides that you anticipate. Your lightweight clean, lean, machine could be used for longer runs where no off-road is anticipated. Sometimes people have gone out on longer runs 40+ miles on a mule and they have struggled simply because they are low-geared (which is fine for uphills) and most of all heavy and therefore become very hard work. Best advice I could give you is to take it easy and get back into it gently, clocking up greater and greater distances over a time. It is like any exercise, really you should warm up (cyclists rarely do), after a run do some stretches to loosen up, and do not overdo it otherwise you will ache hugely and this will put you off doing another run for a time, slow and steady is the key.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  3. Its_Me_Knees
    Member

    Hi Liz, thanks for the response.

    If I read you right, you're saying that even in it's current state the Falcon might serve a purpose? It's not in bad nick but it's unsophisticated (no suspension - does that matter?) and for £70 new a good few years ago I had kind of assumed that it wouldn't pass muster within this well-informed biking community (that sounded a bit sarky but you know what I mean).

    On your other point : mindful of the aches and pains that sudden intense exercise can cause at my age (!) I tried working gradually up to the six/seven mile distance of my intended commute by doing circuits around my neighbourhood (I know, it's a trifling distance but one has to start somewhere...). I got up to the point where seven miles wasn't causing me undue respiratory distress and then... the snow turned up. Post-Christmas it's back to square one... so I'll heed your advice now the snow is almost gone and I can get going again.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  4. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Hello Mr Knees. Yes, welcome back to the fold. If you want to keep your Dawes good for the ride to work, there's nothing wrong with that at all - last thing you want is to be left high and dry if it ends up having to go into bike hospital.

    I don't think you'd have to do much to your MTB to make it suitable for pootling around the cycle paths - the only thing, apart form making sure it's in good working order, would be perhaps to look at they tyres. Something a bit slicker and with some puncture resistance won't go amiss if you mainly want it for tarmac / gravel paths. Get a bit more pressure in it than a chunky MTB tyre and you'll roll noticably easier.

    My personal opinion is no suspension = all the better for around town, particularly if it's from the lower price bracket. Going around obstacles, not through them is always the best policy for me and you want your effort of pedalling to be going into the wheels, not into compressing springs. It's one less thing to worry about going wrong / needing maintenance too.

    I don't think you'd notice the gearing to be honest on the flats. With the traffic on the cycle paths (wheeled and legged), it's not easy (or often advised) to go barrelling around the place.

    A speedo might be a good investment, you can pick them up pretty cheap now and it's always great to know how far you've gone and how fast you did it, particularly to measure your progress getting back into riding.

    And what Liz says too.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  5. Its_Me_Knees
    Member

    >>Hello Mr Knees.

    No need to be so formal; just call me 'Its'... ;-)

    >>Something a bit slicker and with some puncture resistance won't go amiss if you mainly want it for tarmac / gravel paths.

    Can you suggest a tyre brand/type? I'm seeing various unfamiliar terms bandied about on this forum... without guidance I'm liable to buy a set of digital self-cleaning tyres with smart pentapeptides and Dolby when all I need is analogue rubber things.

    >>A speedo might be a good investment

    Sounds good - what price should I pay?

    Thanks in advance for the info.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  6. Claggy Cog
    Member

    I have steel framed old bikes, tourers, with no suspension, one has a triple chainring and therefore 18 gears and fairly chunky tyres, and the other, more recently acquired on eBay, but manufactured circa 1970, has a double chainring and therefore 12 gears. Both have mudguards and rear bike racks to attach panniers to.

    I have cycled since my early twenties with a hiatus of about 10 years, getting back into it when my son was about four, and carting him around on a child seat round London. On returning to Edinburgh I commuted to work, a round trip of about 8 miles a day, five days a week. I then joined the 20-milers a group that do a once-a-month ride, 20-miles in about 4 - 5 hours, which is just far too slow for me now, but I did that for a while. Then I started doing the Sunday CTC run every month, as well as the 20-milers. There is also a CTC Tuesday night run in summer/lighter times. I then progressed to the CTC Saturday runs, the first time I did one of these I was losing the will to live by the time we reached our destination, and wondered how on earth I was going to get back to Edinburgh from Armadale, which I did cycle and did not get the train from Bathgate, but I did not do that again for a while and felt somewhat disheartened but I did go out again and it was easier and I now try to get out every Saturday and the club run is anywhere between 30 to 100 miles, depending on weather and route choice. This took about two years to achieve by the way. I have done the occasional Spokes run too. I did the Lepra Edinburgh to St Andrew's run in 2009 that being one of the longer runs I had done to date, and did not have to cycle back.

    I am not a great off piste cyclist as I don't really like getting my bike very dirty, clogging up the transmission, bad enough with the crud from the roads, let alone vegetation, as a friend of mine puts it "gratuitous muck raking"!! That is also really important ensuring your bike is roadworthy, it is a must.

    I love the freedom that cycling gives you, I cannot abide standing around waiting for buses, mixing with the soap dodgers, and you can cut loose if things get really boring, unlock the trusty steed and off you go!! I do not own a car and do all of my weekly shopping using my bike too. Sad, I know, but it is a way of life really...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  7. Its_Me_Knees
    Member

    That's quite a cv Liz. A medal for gallantry should be yours just for cycling around London...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  8. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Can you suggest a tyre brand/type?
    Continental and Schwalbe are two of the "big names" that you'll find in most shops and have a reputation for reliability, quality and being able to knock out some bomb-proof tyres. I'll presume the MTB has 26" tyres. I'm afraid I only know about 700c tyres. But be assured there will be some answers from other posters who know a lot more about things that come in inches than I do!

    Sounds good - what price should I pay?
    I've got a wired Cateye Enduro 8 one that I paid about 24 quid for. It does everything I need it to, very reliably and I have mounting kits for it for 3 bikes. It has 2 tyre-size options so I can swap it between the 23mm and the 28mm bikes no problem. I've never had a problem with wire mounting kits, even on my sexy road bikes, but I guess it's because they're the same colour as the wires. Some people prefer wireless ones for this reason. You can get cheaper than that if you want, Edinburgh Bike Co-op do their own brand one (Revolution) that I believe works OK. I think the forum experience of LIDL speedos was mixed. Or maybe that was another forum, but I think wee folding bike broke the speed barrier on his.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  9. Claggy Cog
    Member

    Schwalbe is the brand of tyres that seem to be most readily available. Continentals etc though still around are not. As Kaputnik says you can go round things not through them!

    Speedos are either wireless (tend to be more expensive) but a basic one with just mileometer, journey time, therefore average speed is all you really need. More expensive ones are really multi-functional with altimeters, thermometer, heart monitor, etc, etc, and just bamboozle you with science. Tesco sell them, Lidl sell them (from time to time) or the bike shops, or even online bike shops, manufacturers include garmin (all singing dancing), cateye, just browse.

    By the way, Lidl and Aldi do occasional bike stuff sales, always good for cheap clobber and they do advertise them but things just fly off the the shelves, like cycling shoes for £17, perfectly functional, well-made and they last, as well as waterproof jackets, lycra shorts, etc.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  10. Its_Me_Knees
    Member

    Liz / Kaputnik ; thanks for the feedback. I'll leave this thread marked 'unresolved' for a while and maybe others will pitch in but, meantime, thanks for your help.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  11. Claggy Cog
    Member

    @kaputnik
    I have tried to get Continental tyres in a couple of shops without success. I actually wanted Conti top touring tyres but could not get them. I went to the bike stuff sale at Meadowbank a couple of years ago and although they were Continentals not top touring ones, for £10 a pair, can't beat that!! I had fun cycling home with about four pairs (two pairs for a friend), it was very, very difficult, and since then have taken bungies with me, just in case.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  12. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I have tried to get Continental tyres in a couple of shops without success.

    EBC do some, and I bought myself a Gatorskin in TBW this evening. But my experience is similar to you - harder to locate the top-end touring ones. Marathon Plus seem to be hard to get in skinnier than 32/35/38 hybird sizes. Perhaps it's because they're so reliable they don't go through as many of them? I intend to fit a new pair of Marathon Plus or Continental Touring Plus come spring time for "proper" touring, rather than just surviving the winter. The rear tyre is second hand and I've no idea what the previous owner did to it.

    Easy enough to source online I spose, one of my re-cyc-lutions was to shop more in the LBS though!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. wee folding bike
    Member

    Since it was the flashing LED that made my speed get so high I think I was travelling at light speed.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. Claggy Cog
    Member

    @wee folding bike
    I like that, yes I have too experienced "light speed" due to the proximity of my flashing LED light to a wireless speedo, not uncommon apparently. They are also affected by electricity running through overhead cables by pylon, allegedly. It was great my top speed was about 60+ mph, yaass, and that was on the relative flat!! It does not seem to affect my wired speedo.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  15. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Wireless speedos operate at 2.4GHz. Wikipedia has a whole article devoted to the subject - Electromagnetic interference at 2.4 GHz

    Posted 13 years ago #

  16. amir
    Member

    If you're quick "It's", Edinburgh Bicycle Coop still has its sale on. There is a wireless speedometer with thermometer (very useful at the moment) for £12.49
    http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLqrymode.a4p?f_ProductID=12932&f_SupersetQRY=C168&f_SortOrderID=1&f_bct=c003154c003132c003189

    Posted 13 years ago #

  17. Dave
    Member

    Hey,

    For 26" tyres which are going on sealed / dry offroad surfaces, I think the Schwalbe City Jet are quite hard to beat - you can grab a pair for £24 delivered from CRC (although that's only saving £2 on RRP so I'd give the business to a local shoppe if you can find one with stock).

    I put a pair of these on my brother-in-law's bike and he said it quite transformed it. Don't worry about the lack of tractor knobbles, I can't think of any path inside the bypass which I'd fear to ride on these.

    --

    I'm surprised nobody has mentioned perhaps the most wonderful invention in the history of cycling - the track pump.

    With a hand pump it's easy to convince yourself the tyres are hard enough when actually they're 20 or 30 psi short - that's if you can even be bothered to use the pump in the first place!

    Running your tyres soft makes you unnecessarily slow and greatly increases the chances of getting a puncture. A track pump is a fearsomely rapid, almost effortless way to get high, reliable pressure in your tyres.

    £18.74 from Edinburgh Bike Co-op and I guarantee that it will be the best value for money you'll ever get out of a cycling purchase. Mine is eight years old and going strong.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  18. chdot
    Admin

    Basics – Beginner’s guide to living with a bike

    Mr. Knees it even says "If the seat is too high or too low it’s usually your knees that tell you that something is wrong."

    Posted 13 years ago #

  19. kaputnik
    Moderator

    A track pump is a fearsomely rapid, almost effortless way to get high

    And I've been using mine to inflate tyres :(

    Posted 13 years ago #

  20. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    What that lot said... ^^^

    Specialized Armadillos are good 'do anything' tyres as well. Slick enough for road use, tough enough for occasional forays off the smooth/potholed routes.

    I'd reiterate what was said about suspension as well. My mountain bike does have front suspension, but the forks themselves ran a cost into multiple hundreds. At the cheap end they are spongey things with no dampening that suck up any pedalling energy. A 'rigid' mountain bike is absolutely perfect for what you're looking at doing. Ah. I had a Falcon at uni 12 odd years back...

    Oh, and a 7-8 mile commute is good going for just getting back into it. Hell, it's almost twice my current commute and some people think that's reeeeeeeaaaalllly far and wonder how many hours it takes.

    Laughter? Nah, we'll save that for when you get immersed in cycling (it becomes addictive) and get some 'clipless' pedals and inevitably fall off...

    p.s. whereabouts is your commute? There are various mini-meets of various people on the forum that you ight be able to get along to. We don't bite. Mostly.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  21. Stepdoh
    Member

    Hi Mr I M Knees, esq.

    Reasonably Nooby here, as I took it up in 2009 after trashing my car, and now on my second bike (after trashing the first one).

    I've got a Schwalbe cityjet on my front wheel which has had fairly good service, it's nearly a year and a half old and is still in pretty good order, not much rolling resistance either.

    Buut, as a rear tyre it didn't seem to offer much puncture protection and my route is puncturiffic The sidewall also got shredded quite quickly, probably from rolling flat so often :).

    Now have Conti CityContact on back, which is a bit thinner (about as thin a 26" tyre i've seen) and seemed a little bit more robust to me, and it came with a free tube! Again, it's helluva lot easier to ride on that anything knobbly!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  22. chdot
    Admin

    "And I've been using mine to inflate tyres"

    Children are often particularly keen to use track pumps - can make them quite excited (aka medium high...)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  23. wingpig
    Member

    Welcome. I concur with most of the above, with bias towards Shwalbe Marathons Plus (if you can find them and if they'll fit your frame) or Specialized Armadilloes. I had a Conti Top once which was significantly less resistant to bits of glass on the gravellier bits of the canal than a Marathon and whose sidewall started to fray after a while. When worn the Armadillo is vulnerable to thorns but seems impervious to cobbles/glass/red winter grit and all combinations thereof.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  24. Stepdoh
    Member

    Is there a thorn resistant/proof tyre as they are probably the single most common cause for flats in my case, I suspect this is from riding beside the highland centre/gogar golf club/RBS.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  25. Dave
    Member

    I had a pair of Marathon Pluses for a while. I didn't really like them in the wet and they are fearsomely heavy, but they do seem to stop just about everything. I never managed to hole them riding to Fife and back for a solid winter.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  26. Smudge
    Member

    Armadilloes (o's?) are pretty puncture resistant, but I have to point out not *totally* glass proof, as witnessed in the "puncture fail" thread! :-/

    Pretty decent other than that though :-)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  27. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Marathon Pluses... ...fearsomely heavy

    Yes, a 28c is 980g I think, a 32c over a kilo.

    But second that I've never managed to puncture one of them...

    *knocks lots of wooden things*

    Posted 13 years ago #

  28. Min
    Member

    Hehe, so it is just me that buys whatever tyres the shop has in the size I want then? :-)

    The only time I have ever bought a specific type of tyre was the Marathon pluses and I hated them so much I got rid of them at the first opportunity. Almost impossible to get on and off and felt weird too. Evil.

    E V I L

    Most important thing-HAVE FUN!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  29. Stepdoh
    Member

    *cough* buys what's in spec and on sale :)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  30. wingpig
    Member

    I forgot their tenacity. You don't have to put them on and take them off very often, though.

    Posted 13 years ago #

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