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Cycling: General Chat


MMFy

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  • 1 month later...

Time to dig this one up...

 

Friday will see me commence my London to Paris ride.  I've done the training and shifted 1/4 of my body weight in about 5 months.  It's going to be easy, if I can stay sober enough!  Has anyone else done this ride?

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Time to dig this one up...

 

Friday will see me commence my London to Paris ride.  I've done the training and shifted 1/4 of my body weight in about 5 months.  It's going to be easy, if I can stay sober enough!  Has anyone else done this ride?

Ooooh - Good Luck mate. Although you are probably done by now. 

 

I'm targeting that in 2015.....

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London to Paris - Check.  It's an easy ride over four days.  There were a lot of highlights to the trip, and only a couple of low points, one of which was some khant trying to steal all our bikes in Paris.  I'd recommend this ride to anyone with a bike.  It's not difficult, but it is great fun.

Now I have a triathlon to complete on Sunday...

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Legend. But where’s the Strava data ;) ?

 

Strava **** up royally.  We parked up and stayed at Heathrow T5 Holiday Inn the night before the ride, then rode to Slough, got the train to Paddington and rode to Trafalgar Square from there.  I stopped Strava while we were on the train, and it was fine when we got to Paddington.  However, by the time we got to Trafalgar Square it was on 55km.  I've lazily clocked the ride on google maps since getting home, and I can provide the mapmyride maps which we loosely followed to Newhaven, and strictly followed on the other side of the channel.

The weather was shit in London, so I haven't even got a start photo.  But here's a celebratory success photo...

DSC_0019_zpsb2b5bfd6.jpg

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I'm the fat word removed in the grey wifebeater.  Before anyone asks, the lass in the middle has been mentioned in a previous thread...  ;)

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  • 5 months later...

A thread for those amateur cycles, rather than the one about the pro's...

I'm buying my first road bike tomorrow. Either the original Triban 3 at £250, the Triban 5a if I get to the store and feel flush or I may pass a Halfords on the way and see if I can test ride a Boardman Sport.

Would it be worth me paying double for the Boardman or am I just tempted by the name and the fancy looks?

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I had a boardman ht pro mountain bike and didn't think much of it (more to do with dimensions than build quality), But I understand that the road bikes are excellent and seen a few out on a couple of sportives and they looked good.

I assume the decathlon ones are better than Halfords Carreras etc? Otherwise stay well clear as they fall apart after a few weeks.

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Just had a look at these and they all look good value. The Boardman has Mavic rims which are excellent and has a double chainset, which for a road bike I reckon is better than triple. I have never bought an off the peg bike but, what ever you do, make sure you get the right size - err on the small side ' cos  then you have some adjustment. Don't know if stems come 'cut to size' or not but if you have any say in the matter leave a couple of spacers above the stem. When checking for size - sit on the fecker, put your heels on the pedals and pedal backwards, you must be able to complete the rotation without rocking around in the saddle. Hope that is some help.  

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In my opinion you are going to get noticeable gains the more you spend up to about £1000 after that it becomes more marginal gains which are important if you are racing but not such a big deal if you're cycling for fun/commuting. Make sure you test ride anything before spending big money. 

 

I think we have a similar thread to this when someone else bought a bike (TrentVilla maybe?), you might want to have a look for that thread and have a read through. 

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Once bought an expensive bike in London. It lasted a few weeks before getting nicked.

 

Got a GT Traffic 3.0 now, bought in a Boxing day sale few years ago for 240 squid, down from around £400

 

It's simple enough to do most of my own maintenance. On two occasions I've taken it to the local indie store for a service, one of the times for a new cartridge. When I got it back it was better than it went way, improved by superior replacement parts at reasonable cost.

 

It happily managed a 7 mile each way commute for a couple of years, now it's 15 miles each way and it's coping fine.

 

It's primarily an urban design. The wheels are held on by pinhead bolts - Which are brilliant. I've had wheels nicked in the middle of the night, miles from home on Winter nights on previous bikes.

 

It's got lots of hard points, you can panier it up to the max. Another nice touch, and I don't understand why more bikes don't have this, plastic rails on either side of the frame. You can lean it up against bricks or concrete and it won't get scratched up.

 

It's reasonably quick, I only get overtaken by men in tights on space age racers.

 

It's an unspectacular looking thing, though I've become quite fond of it.

 

Pose factor 0 Practicality 10

 

Just wish it would stop raining, only ridden it three times since Christmas.

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It's a good point about bike security. I've had a few bikes stolen over the years and now I am paranoid about leaving it outside for more than a few mins even with a D lock around the wheel and frame. 

 

A cable lock is not worth bothering with and will just be an open invitation for thieves. 

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