Go for it Mark, you know you want to. The brakes are excellent :D
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Go for it Mark, you know you want to. The brakes are excellent :D
haha. Despite the fact that the wife would murder me. We don't have space in the house for 2 bikes! I would have to keep it in your garage :o ;)
A 44 mile ride today from Falkirk to Edinburgh on the canal path. Took 2 hours going in, but 3 and a bit coming back due to the wind and my riding companion being a bit saddle sore. I feel good, could have done it quicker going there, but my friend hadn't ridden since February. Had a 15 miler as a warmup yesterday!
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Seriously impressed Iain, seriously impressed!!
All flat ground, if a bit bumpy and muddy in places!
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All of you who are interested in working out at home should check out this very good youtube channel youtube.com/user/FitnessBlender
Ditto. 44 miles is really good. Even if it was on the flat.
Did 28 miles today but quite a hilly route. Couldn't do more because I needed to be back at home but to be honest I was quite tired towards the end.
But I need to up my milage. It's a niggle that the most distance I've ridden in the UK is 33 miles -- which is rubbish!
Pih, first commute ride in summer kit. 28 minutes back home on a 11km route. It should really be few minutes more as there was somewhat of a head wind, i'm fatter than last year, I feel a bit sick/ or have allergies and it's only the beginning of a season.
Either the brand spanking new Schwalbe Ultremo tyre's are spectacularly fast or underneath all this blubber, I'm secretly in good shape. :D
I was pleased with it. I could have gone out again yesterday, had I not had things to do. The weather looks rubbish this week, so not sure when I'll get out next. :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
You are in great shape.Quote:
Originally Posted by janneppi
Getting frustrated with the weather. After one of the coldest springs on record, the rain has set in, the forecast for this weekend looks like a washout :(
Mark, get your cheque book out ;)
The Silverstone 24 Hour Cycling Grand Prix
I need to get myself amped up for this ride in two weeks. See if I'm cut out for touring. Glasgow to Edinburgh looks like it would be a nice day-long ride, too.
Another 45 kms covered yesterday with very strong wind, up to 30+km/h. Luckily I was with a colleague, we still managed to have a 32 km/h average, however at the end I could barely move my legs, and this morning it felt like I will not be able to get off the bed.
LOL lapping the Grand Prix circuit. As a venue I could think of little more boring!
There was a Knockhill one last year, I'm sure it's on this year too. That guy Mark Beaumont who cycled South America was trying to break a 3 min lap at the BTCC meeting to promote it.Quote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
I'm planning on doing a charity ride between Glasgow and Edinburgh in September and that's 47 miles in total. You could easily cover that in around 4 hours, depending on the route you take. There are several different options to choose from. Of course you could go slower and enjoy the scenery once you're out of Glasgow, as both the cycle path and canal paths aren't very scenic around there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregor-y
Pits pretty good for a mountain bike though! I did 44 miles in a day once. Granted, I did 24 first thing in the morning and the other 20 at about 6 at night. Reaping the benefits of long British summer days!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
I did 25 miles today. I was heading home and didn't feel tired, so I kept going on for longer, past the village, before I turned back to the house. I know cycle paths aren't exactly MTB territory, but our main one has a mixture of surfaces from smooth tarmac to broken and bumpy stuff and some gravel sections too. That bike flies on the smooth sections. I did a 3 min mile at one point. :D Due a complimentary service in the next few weeks, so I'm going to see if they can stick a couple of spacers into the handlebar stem, as I feel it's too low and it's giving me sore shoulders and a sore neck. The problems with being tall!
Not been out for a few days, brought the bike up to Fife and the family is drooling over it... Looks like rain tomorrow so probably won't head out, but Sunday looking ok.
I put an entry in for a mountain bike orienteering event on the 26th in Crieff, will need to get out quite a lot next week in preparation so may even cycle to work! :\
Looks a tad on the moist side for Saturday. :( Sunday looks pretty decent though. Having said that, today wasn't to be so great and it turned out very nice. Sometimes it's better off not listening to the weather!Quote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
Went out on a 116km flat ride today and got a few personal bests times. Most proud of finally cycling 50km in under 2 hours with a 1hr 59min and 48sec split which was about a 7 minute improvement. :)
Wow GridGirl impressed :eek: :up:
Flat. What is this, flat? :D
Iain. Are there spacers between the top of the stem and the headset cap? If there are then you can raise the bars. However if there isn't, which is likely, then you'd have to replace the stem for something with a steeper angle.
Edit: saw a pic of your bike on Facebook. To raise the bars you'd need to change the stem. Which is easy to do!
Ah I see. I'll suffer it for now, it's not too bad on some rides. Too many other things to pay for this month!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
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Still with the bikes? :p ... noone running? I've started training for a 10k race. There's no actual race.. just me against my very powerful lazy self... it motivates me a little bit more than just running to burn the bacon. I did 29km the previous week and 36km this last one. I'm a always tempted to do more than the schedule says. I don't know if it's a good thing. I don't want to get burnt out halfway through the program.
I followed a plan to run 10km last year which also involve core training. I got up to running 10K but gave up on the core training as it hurt too much. :p I have now decided that I should try to build up my core strength so did a body bootcamp class last week. Bloody hell did I hurt the next day. I didnt go this week as cycling 116km hurts far far far far less.
Did a ride up a couple of hills tonight, not much fun as it was freezing cold and on downhill sections my fingers were freezing on the brakes.
Also I have to admit that the feeling of not being able to stop while approaching those hairpins at 60 km/h was rather unpleasant this time, never had this issue before.
Went and did the mountain bike orienteering today, did 35.5km which is the furthest I've ever gone on a bike. Unfortunately picked a very poor route and spent hours going uphill :( However very pleased with the day and keen to give it another go, just need to spend the next month getting a lot fitter before the next one!
Did a 44 mile ride today. And got back feeling good :D . Just takes me planning a route which takes me a decent distance otherwise I would have turned back sooner.
Mark can you post a pic of your bicycle here or on Facebook...just curious ;)
For the first time in a while I took my (aging) mountain bike for a spin this weekend. I noticed the rear trigger shifter is a bit dodgy and might need a replacement. The upshift trigger is “loose” and often doesn’t shift at all. When it does, considerable thumb pressure is required to “push” it. It’s hard to explain but it feels like it’s on the verge of snapping :s .
It’s an 8-speed bike and my on-line browsing results in few options for a replacement shifter, as 9 or 10 speed systems seem like the norm for most bikes these days.
I noticed SRAM offers 8-speed trigger shifters at a reasonable price but I don’t know much about this manufacturer as most of the components on my bike are Shimano.
I’ve never replaced shifters before. Would this by a reasonable DIY job (it strikes me as a rather fiddly job), or should I have a shop do it?
Are you sure it's the shifter that's buggered, and not just the cables starting to seize up? Dripping some oil, or spraying some WD40 into the cable jackets at all the points where the cable enters them (and then putting the shifter through the gears a few times) might free things up.
SRAM is just as good as Shimano and most of their stuff will interoperate with Shimano components. However not all and I know e.g. Shimano road and MTB have incompatibilities.
Have you already re-indexed front and rear gears? I would do that first before thinking about changing shifters. My other half changed the shifters on his old mountain now converted to hybrid bike. There is hardly and choice in 8 shift these days but on the plus side the spares are cheap. :)
I did two 67km rides this weekend. Need to do another 83km by Friday night to meet my 500km target for this month though.
No I'm not sure FG, but it sure feels like something mechanical. I'll try your suggested lube job before diving into more drastic measures.Quote:
Originally Posted by Firstgear
Thanks Mark, good to know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
What the heck does that mean? :cornfused: :p :Quote:
Originally Posted by GridGirl
You will get cable stretch on your gears over time which will affect shifting; this can be fixed by re-indexing the gears. It's easier to do with a bike stand but you can do without and it should only take a few minutes. There are plenty of YouTube video's that will show you how to do it better than I can describe. All you will need is an allen key. If it doesn't work and you do end up changing your shifters yourself you will need to index them anyway. :)
SRAM and shimano have different ratios for the rear derailleur so a SRAM derailleur is not compatible with a shimano and vice versa. SRAM is 1:1 and shimano is 2:1.
sorry I meant to quote Marks post.
Older Shimano 'rapidfire' shifters will just wear out the ratcheting mechanism. Mine did on my Trek from 1994 with STX components. I replaced them with some slightly older but more reliable thumb shifters.Quote:
Originally Posted by schmenke
http://imageshack.us/a/img23/9046/93002.jpg
I haven't ridden it very much lately. I did take my commuting bike on a three day trip this weekend from Chicago to Madison, Wisconsin, though. It held up well and - suprisingly - so did I over about 200 miles. If anything I feel a bit crampy this morning from not riding.
http://imageshack.us/a/img515/2999/tou3.jpg
Thanks Gregory. Do thumb-style shifters have to be indexed, as GG states above?
Also, is replacing shifters a reasonable DIY?
200 miles! :s hock: