Show your Bicycles.....

strtdv

Looking good!
If the weather is as bad with you as it is over here I'd wait until after Christmas to try it out. I don't mind rain, but 40mph gusts are treacherous.

Niallmo

Yeah I'm riding it a mile back to my car then it'll stay in the garage til next week. I'm off for five days but I doubt I'll get a chance to ride. If it's ok next Thursday I'll do the commute on it. If it's wet it'll be the Pinnacle.

Niallmo

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/Niallmo/Bicyles/11ED528D-4BC6-46AC-BD5F-DAC88B6CDE25_zps3fs1neer.jpg

Two minute cycke aroubd round the block to set seat height. Remarkably Wiggle took a 30" inseam measurement and put the seat 36" from the pedal axle. I've lowered the seat by 3.5 inches...

strtdv

Looks great @Niallmo ;;

I tend to have my saddle a little higher than most bike shops tend to recommend, as my right leg is marginally longer than my left I think and I tend to get anterior knee pain in my right knee if I don't have the saddle a little higher than usual

My Christmas haul included a lovely Gore Oxygen waterproof but very breathable jacket my wife bought me, which I'm looking forward to getting some use out of.

I also got a new saddle bag, a Lezyne M Caddy QR which is a great size, and got 2 QR mounts so easily changeable between bikes. It can fit 2 spare tubes too which is great for the winter. Also got a Bontrager Flare R rear light which is ridiculously good, incredibly bright from the back, and also highly visible at the sides.

I got the 11-28 Ultegra cassette fitted to the Canyon today, although it's my good weather bike so will be a while before I get using it.
I also unexpectedly got Muc-Off Ceramic lube in both wet and dry formulations, so degreased the chains of both my bikes and got the ceramic lube on (got 2 coats on the summer bike).
Having a completely dry chain on the summer bike is quite nice, it won't pick up dust nearly as badly as it used to, and any energy savings are always welcome!

capo4th

Need some new high quality bike lights.

What's good don't want to buy twice thanks in advance.

strtdv

I've been very impressed with my Bontrager Flare R rear light. It's incredibly bright, lasts 22 hours in night flash mode (which pulses rather than flashes which is good), and it is very visible from the side as well.

capo4th

Look good I have just been looking at exposure lights look high quality any experience on here? 

strtdv

For the front light I use a cheapy £20 5 Cree LED thing with a battery pack I strap to the stem. It's a pain to recharge (takes 10 hours), but other than that works very well and is very bright. I get about 6-7 hours out of it on the dimmer of the modes. 

Weirdly today a lady driving a Vauxhall Tigra rolled back into me very slowly at traffic lights, put a sizeable dent in her bumper from my front wheel (no damage to my bike at all), then panicked and drove off. 

A bit of a mixed bag cycling today, as well as the incident above, I had my saddle set about 7mm too high which resulted in every bump being transferred straight into my backside rather than my legs, and my glutes and psoas muscles being permanently recruited (I usually move around on the saddle a fair bit depending on the type of riding I'm doing) so I was aching after 50 miles, sorest I've been in months. 
There was also a nasty headwind for a fair bit of it and it was generally gusty. 

On the plus side, the Gore-Tex Oxygen jacket my wife got me for Christmas is brilliant, it's much more breathable than anything else I've used, it's incredibly waterproof, and any sweat that does build up doesn't chill you as it's completely windproof. The slim cut means you don't feel like you're wearing a sail either. Between that and the overshoes she also bought me I was very comfortable on what was the best part of 3 hours with temperatures around 6 degrees.

littlegreenman

The Ding FL1 front light I got recently is excellent. 750 lumens (that's very bright indeed) on full whack and has a downlight that lights up a 1.5x3 metre bit of road around you. Cars seem to treat the light as part of your bike and always give me a very wide berth.



That was the Kickstarter promo, final product is much better.

thermionic

capo4th said:

Look good I have just been looking at exposure lights look high quality any experience on here? 

They might seem expensive but they're high quality and being a small UK company, have good after sales service (important for devices with non-user replaceable Li-ion batteries). I have a Mk II Joystick which must be nearly 10 years old still going strong, and a stupidly bright Toro for unlit roads. The Toro developed a fault shortly after  the warranty period expired but after a helpful email exchange I sent it back and it was fixed (burnt-out component on the pcb) for £15. Only took 3-4 days.

Niallmo

Not really had chance to be out yet, I've done a couple of commutes on the Felt and it's been ace. What did surprise me was when I checked back I've only done three rides that were not commutes in the second half of the year. I've found this massively disappointing. My wish was for one or two a month so probably ten overall. As I use it for relaxation and recharging my mental batteries this has not been enough to put me "in a positive", the commutes kinda take care of the day to day build up but sometimes they are not that relaxing if there's lots of traffic and the bark ones can be a bit of a slog.

This year  I want to do a sportive, one "big" ride a month and a two day trip somewhere with an overnight stay. 

ive got a Lezyne Micro Drive, set of Femtos and some LED board Ines that were £5 in Aldi. I've also got an Aldi Helmet light.  The Micro Drive is about 200 lumens I think with a tight beam but with the more "flood" like Aldi light it's fine for the unlit roads I use for a few mins. If I was on a full ride I'd probably want something more substantial.

capo4th

Thanks gents I have ordered a front and rear Exposure light set up. With a sale and a voucher code they were a great deal. Should be here by the weekend will post a review.

strtdv

Not mine, but my brother picked one of these up today:



It's a 2013 Ghost SE 5000

Seems very nice for not a lot of money at all, it was £879 new, he paid £250 and it looks nearly as good as new, although obviously 26ers aren't that common any more.
Decent kit on it though, deore/XT mix with a SRAM 11-36 cassette, RST First 32 Air shock with remote lockout and adjustable damping, Shimano hydraulic brakes, Ritchey headset.

Dan86

http://orig14.deviantart.net/a5fc/f/2016/036/7/9/trek_ticket_dj_by_danuk86-d9qn3t7.jpg

http://orig12.deviantart.net/2e69/f/2016/028/d/c/altitude_by_danuk86-d9pnq6k.jpg

http://orig05.deviantart.net/e13c/f/2015/299/b/0/custom_gt_gtr_by_danuk86-d9ehobf.jpg

Dan86

Few of mine, also built a new Trek Remedy which I'll have pics of on monday.

http://orig12.deviantart.net/2e69/f/2016/028/d/c/altitude_by_danuk86-d9pnq6k.jpg

http://orig14.deviantart.net/a5fc/f/2016/036/7/9/trek_ticket_dj_by_danuk86-d9qn3t7.jpg

http://orig05.deviantart.net/e13c/f/2015/299/b/0/custom_gt_gtr_by_danuk86-d9ehobf.jpg

strtdv

I'm really lusting after one of these:



The Light Blue Robinson 1x

Reynolds 725, 1x Sram Rival group, looks very smart.
I'd stick a Brooks saddle on it.

The only drawback is the lack of hydraulic brakes, which they don't seem to offer as an option, and I don't think I could bring myself to buy it without them.

Really want a 1x gravel/adventure bike as my next bike though.

Niallmo

I have recently been riding a few different bikes..

converted the MBK to single speed with the Love Mud flared bars. I can commute on it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/Niallmo/IMG_1648_zpsjmazbj9q.jpg

The Carrera gave its parts to the Pinnacle Dolomite which got a Tortec rack and Carradice pannier and GT Grade flared bars.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/Niallmo/IMG_1635_zpsourzjoy0.jpg

I finally got a decent Carlton. A 531 framed Corsair which I'm re-commissioning for L'Eroica Britannia.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/Niallmo/IMG_1743_zpsbrnsnija.jpg

Im up to 451 miles for the year and do 2 to 3 commutes per week.  Decided to cut down forum usual and concentrate on the bikes!

strtdv

I've been doing maintenance on the Cube over the past week. I've done about 700 miles on it since I got it in December, not as much as I'd like to have done but not bad either.

Took apart, cleaned, greased, reassembled and torqued the cranks today as had begun to get some bottom bracket creak. Hopefully fixed now.
Also need to show a friend how to mend a chain at the roadside (he got caught out last week and had to coast home).

According to Mapmyride, I've done about 2700 miles since the end of last April, which is when I took it up, so on course for about 3200 miles in a year.

BigMonka

Some great looking bikes on this thread!
I'm up to ~600miles so far in 2017, which is a bit less than I'd hoped but ok still. In 2016 I did about 4200miles, and I'm hoping for over 4500 in 2017.
Do we need a page of everyone's Strava IDs?

strtdv

Anyone tried out the Boardman MTB Team 29er?

I see a really positive write-up on bikeradar, and on paper a SRAM GX 1x11 Hardtail 29er with Rockshox Recon fork for £650 sounds like a bargain (you're basically getting the frame for free as far as I can work out, £250 for groupset, £50-60 for brakes, £150-200 for fork, ~£100 for wheels and tyres).
It would also probably be useful as a commuter (commute is only 5 miles and I don't want to look like a MAMIL every time I get on a bike, and it's not £1500+ to replace unlike my road bikes if it got stolen). A 29er should roll reasonably well?