Bike Radar

Bit of a plug...the BikeRadar web site is really taking off and if full of useful info. I was just looking through it and I keep coming across more and more useful stuff. Like:

• A guide to chainsets
• A Q&A about chronic fatigue (which I MIGHT have been suffering from earlier in the year)
• Stuff about forks and bottom brackets
• A review of different sorts of winter gloves (lots of good reasons to have cycling-specific gloves - on my Christmas wish-list now!!!)
• Articles on riding technique including road positioning...
  
• and handling complex junctions and roundabouts (very much needed in Swindon!)
• A blog article on the joy of commuting by bike (with hints and tips)
• Why chocolate is great
• Why some cereals aren't so great
• Why ginger is REALLY great

The forums are full of useful help and advice too.

Sometimes the Internet is just SO useful - even if it does waste many hours of my time.

Cycle scheme = NEW BIKE!!!

This is VERY exciting. My work have set up a cycle-to-work scheme. This is a government initiative designed to encourage people to cycle to work. Which I do anyway, but it's still a real treat.

What happens is this. I go out bike shopping to buy myself some new wheels to ride to work on, and any associated safety equipment I need. My employer buys this stuff, and I rent it back from them for 12 months, making 12 monthly payments to cover the cost of the kit. BUT, because my employer buys the bike, they don't pay VAT, so I get 17.5% off. AND, I pay before tax and National Insurance are deducted, so I get about another 30% off! AND I get it all on a 12 month interest-free loan!

At the end of the 12 months I get to buy the bike for a nominal fee - usually 5% of its cost.

Doing the maths, this means I can buy a nice, say, £600 road bike and get about 49% off the cost!

This is exactly what I'm doing.

I looked at 3 bikes: the Giant SCR2 (I think it was SCR2) a something like £525, the KONA Zing (£999 reduced to £695) and the Felt Z90 (£600).

The Giant didn't really do much for me at all. You pretty much got what you paid for, and the shop that had it would only sell at RRP, not doing any discounted bikes on the cycle scheme that we're signed up to at work.

The KONA was a VERY pretty bike, well equipped and great value with the £300 knocked off, but it was a racing bike really. Low position and very hard ride. The higher spec was tempting but in the end the Felt beat it on comfort and suitablility for the kind of riding that I'm doing.

So I have a Felt Z90 on order. Aluminium frame, carbon forks, 27 gears, mostly Shimano equipped. It has a slightly more upright riding position and the extra chain ring (that's a 3rd big ring by the pedals), bar-top brake levers and softer ride made it a good buy, and very suitable for the training/touring kind of rides that I'm doing.

It takes a while to process the paperwork for the cycle scheme but hopefully I'll have it before Christmas!!! Yipeee!!!!

Bikish - the language of cycling

So, I'm getting pretty into this cycling lark, but there are a few things that still baffle me. Cycling, like many other hobbies, has a language of its own, and experienced participants use it freely without really thinking about poor beginner like me who don't know their cranksets from their cassettes and their bar ends from their bottom brackets.

I've been looking into new bikes and doing some maintenance so I've been struggling myself. The component manufacturers don't help by naming equipment in the same sort of way that car manufacturers give names to cars. How am I supposed to know the difference between Sora, Tiagra, Ultegra, 105, Dura Ace and so on, easily, without having to research it all the time? Surely there's an easier way?

And sometimes things are known by different names. I still haven't worked out if a crank is different from a crankset, or a chain different from a chainset. There's subtle differences between hubs and axles, and it's not clear whether I can replace just one, or just the other, or if I always need to replace both. There's seat stays and seat posts, which are very different. It's all very confusing!

Anyway, here's a useful article that has helped me a little.

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/buyers-guide-to-road-chainsets-118

My original intention for this post was to list some cycling terminology that I've learned the meaning of and try to keep that up to date, but that's a bit of a waste of time as there are plenty of resources out there that have already done it. If you're reading this on the internet then look it up on Google, Wikipedia, or your information source of choice.

In the meantime, I'm continuing my learning.

Drenched...but the first time in a long time

I read an interesting statistic a while back that basically said that if you commute by bike in the UK, despite our highly changable weather, you'll only cycle in the rain 12 times a year, on average.

Hard to believe, but, today I cycled in proper rain for the first time in AGES. It's the first time I've tried out my day-glo waterproof in real rain and I first posted about that on October 3rd. OK, I did have a week off driving to work (why was that??? can't remember now), but it kinda helps prove the point.

Anyway, the waterproof proved to be very much so but I got very soggy bottoms and socks and shoes. Riding home in wet gear isn't fun. Must remember waterproof over-trousers and over-shoes next time.

I have a bit of a backlog of posts to write but not much time at the moment. Hopefully I'll get to catch up soon. Sally's not so well tonight so she's gone to bed early and I get a little time that I wouldn't normally have. Bless her.

£50 million and a wobbly wheel

50 million quid for improving cycle routes is up for grabs!

Two quick things. One is that there's this competition going on where four projects have the chance to win £50 million of lottery money in a public vote. One of the projects is being put forward by Sustrans (a sustainable transport organisation) to improve walking and cycling paths, including the National Cycle Network, across the country.

Of course, I have a vested interest in this, being a cyclist, but I also think that it's the only nationwide project, the others are all specific to one place. Yes, they're all great projects, but the best use of public money is surely to improve access to cycle routes?

Some cyclists are very much against this, assuming that, if there are designated cycle routes, then we'll be forced to use them (and they're not very good for serious mountain biking or road riding as they're mostly paths used for leisure rides and shared with pedestrians), but the National Cycle Network is a great way for a beginner cyclist to discover longer rides, and was very much part of my catching of the cycling bug!

So, if you don't know about it, or don't really care which project gets the money, I DO! So please vote for Sustrans. Details on the competition here and details of the Sustrans Project "Connect2" here.

My Wobbly Wheels

In other, more personal cycle-related news, my rear wheel is wobbling again. I thought I'd done a grand job of repairing the broken spokes, but it seems to still be uneven and, when I hit about 25 mph, it starts to shake me around a bit.

But what to do? I've had a good go at truing up but without expensive tools it'll never be perfect. Should I buy a new wheel? Hmm...