How was your cycle commute?

[Part 2]

Mine was alright. I've been on a late start in work so it was nice to take the ride at a leisurely pace. I had a mental day too so the ride home has never been more welcome.

 

[Blagsta]

Is there a full moon or something? Three different people pulled out on me this morning. One who I spoke to totally denied it as well. Really infuriates me, that. At least acknowledge that you nearly hit me!

 

[a_chap]

Hurricane-force winds meant I was spinning out in 5th gear on the way to work. Wheee....

Fucking awful ride back home. Blown virtually to a standstill at one point and reduced to grovelling in 3rd on the flat

 

[stavros]

As my hams had been taut as fuck over the last few days following a heavy leg workout, I took it quite gently this morning and combined it with buying a nice plump chicken from my local free range farm shop. It was deceptively warm too, so, with the chicken-filled rucksack on, my back was sweatily soaked by the time I'd done the 7.5 mile return leg.


ETA: The weather was deceptively warm, that is. The chicken was quite cool, having been taken from a refrigerator.

 

[tommers]

Well. I'm aroused.

 

[chriswill]

Picked up a new GoPro this weekend and took some test footage down the canal, I'm impressed with the quality.

I can now film the joyous scenes I see on the roads every morning

 

[han]

Wow, that's good quality.
My mum & dad gave me some dosh for my 40th birthday present to get a Go Pro but I haven't yet bought it - will probably wait til spring now. Very impressed by the resolution of your clip.


Just got a nice new ninja-black Gore jacket for the winter to replace my 15 year old leaking, no longer waterproof (but faithful) Altura jacket. Looking forward to staying dry for a change!

 

[chriswill]

I'm pretty impressed with the night time footage too

My Commute home was wet! (I know I need mudguards)

 

[chriswill]

I knew it wouldn't be long before I caught some amazing driving skills!

I appreciate they went wide to go around me, but pick your moments!

 

[Crispy]

Fuck me that was close

 

[Winot]

Nice - which model is it chriswill?

 

[chriswill]

Nice - which model is it chriswill?

It's the hero 4 silver. It's a cracking bit of kit

 

[ChrisFilter]

Picked up a new GoPro this weekend and took some test footage down the canal, I'm impressed with the quality.

I can now film the joyous scenes I see on the roads every morning

What mount is that? I'm going to get the new cheap one and want it to film where I'm looking.

 

[chriswill]

It's just the vented helmet strap. £11 from Evans

 

[ChrisFilter]

Magic - thanks.

 

[chriswill]

More fun on the commute!

 

[han]

You're fast!

I LOVE my new Gore jacket. Best cycling jacket I've had. Water just rolls off and it's so breathable.

 

[chriswill]

I'm not slow. These are filmed on the cross bike. On my road bike I'm considerably quicker

 

[Dogsauce]

Looked like a taxi doing that side swipe. If you can read the plate report them to licencing, depending on the area they can be more effective than the police!

 

[Dogsauce]

Ballsed up a bit last night in the wet, coming down the hill on the way home quite fast because I wanted to stay in primary (and avoid the frost-damaged surface on the left), spot someone at the junction on the right, so busy keeping an eye on them and expecting them to pull out on me that I didn't notice the car in front had pulled up abruptly at the zebra crossing, braked hard, brakes not particularly effective due to the wet so I had to swing around them and overshot the crossing by a couple of meters (apologising profusely to the guy crossing). Shook me up a bit. I continued with my ride allowing lots of stopping space!

Anyway, this reminded me how crap my fast bike's brakes are in the wet, and how they're not particularly great even in good conditions anyway. Is this something I could upgrade easily? They're fairly old calipers (probably the ones the bike came with) on to standard bike shop 27 x 1 1/4 alloy wheels. Wilco blocks (front ones beginning to get a bit worn, could do with tightening a bit). Steel frame (Falcon) with straight bars on the front. Without going down the elaborate route of getting disc brakes, what are my options?

The other thing is I've realised I never use the back brake, even in an emergency. The lever is quite a stretch so I've got used to riding without my hand on it, and I've kind of deprogrammed my brain as to it existing. It would probably have helped last night! I'm going to try and use it more generally to get it back into my brain.

 

[The Boy]

The other thing is I've realised I never use the back brake, even in an emergency. The lever is quite a stretch so I've got used to riding without my hand on it, and I've kind of deprogrammed my brain as to it existing. It would probably have helped last night! I'm going to try and use it more generally to get it back into my brain.

There was a (relatively) heated debate on a local cycling forum about that, with some people getting quite wound up for such a minor issue on such a genteel board.

My philosophy has always been to use both brakes at all times for the very reason you outline. Or at least to have my fingers over both levers. B

 

[The Boy]

Looked like a taxi doing that side swipe. If you can read the plate report them to licencing, depending on the area they can be more effective than the police!

This was my first thought too chriswill. Utterly shocking move, tbh - would have been bad enough if, as I first assumed, he was just giving you the old close pass to get to the same set of lights you were heading to.

 

[chriswill]

Has anyone any advice on what tyre pressures to run on the cross bike for road riding. I use the specialized for the commute and I've just checked the pressures and they were down at around 40 psi. Although comfortable its pretty tough going on the tarmac. I run the road bike at around 100 psi and the sidewalls of the tyres on the cross tell me they'll take the same.

How hard is too hard without sacrificing traction?

 

[weepiper]

Ballsed up a bit last night in the wet, coming down the hill on the way home quite fast because I wanted to stay in primary (and avoid the frost-damaged surface on the left), spot someone at the junction on the right, so busy keeping an eye on them and expecting them to pull out on me that I didn't notice the car in front had pulled up abruptly at the zebra crossing, braked hard, brakes not particularly effective due to the wet so I had to swing around them and overshot the crossing by a couple of meters (apologising profusely to the guy crossing). Shook me up a bit. I continued with my ride allowing lots of stopping space!

Anyway, this reminded me how crap my fast bike's brakes are in the wet, and how they're not particularly great even in good conditions anyway. Is this something I could upgrade easily? They're fairly old calipers (probably the ones the bike came with) on to standard bike shop 27 x 1 1/4 alloy wheels. Wilco blocks (front ones beginning to get a bit worn, could do with tightening a bit). Steel frame (Falcon) with straight bars on the front. Without going down the elaborate route of getting disc brakes, what are my options?

The other thing is I've realised I never use the back brake, even in an emergency. The lever is quite a stretch so I've got used to riding without my hand on it, and I've kind of deprogrammed my brain as to it existing. It would probably have helped last night! I'm going to try and use it more generally to get it back into my brain.

New cables (inners and outers, get Shimano ones not cheap Clarks/Fibrax ones, there is a big performance difference) and pads will probably make a big improvement.

 

[weepiper]

Has anyone any advice on what tyre pressures to run on the cross bike for road riding. I use the specialized for the commute and I've just checked the pressures and they were down at around 40 psi. Although comfortable its pretty tough going on the tarmac. I run the road bike at around 100 psi and the sidewalls of the tyres on the cross tell me they'll take the same.

How hard is too hard without sacrificing traction?

run them around 80 at least for on road, apart from anything else if you run at 40psi for any great length of time the sidewalls will start to crack/fray

 

[chriswill]

Cheers weeps. I bet I'm much quicker tomorrow!

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

run them around 80 at least for on road, apart from anything else if you run at 40psi for any great length of time the sidewalls will start to crack/fray

80psi might be a tad high for say 35c's but right on for 30/32c. The principal issue with cross tyres on the road will be the shoulders are cut to provide grip in loose surfaces when cornering, not on tarmac; you can get a squirming sensation just before you ride off the edge of the tread. Generally don't chuck it about like you're on 23 road rubber but I'm sure you realise this already.

 

[weepiper]

80psi might be a tad high for say 35c's but right on for 30/32c. The principal issue with cross tyres on the road will be the shoulders are cut to provide grip in loose surfaces when cornering, not on tarmac; you can get a squirming sensation just before you ride off the edge of the tread. Generally don't chuck it about like you're on 23 road rubber but I'm sure you realise this already.

He's got a Specialized Tricross IIRC? Which has 32s, and fairly road-oriented 32s fitted as standard
edited because I've just scrolled up and looked at the picture and it's not, is it a Crux? you're right, they're 35s I think. Maybe a bit less pressure then

 

[Dogsauce]

New cables (inners and outers, get Shimano ones not cheap Clarks/Fibrax ones, there is a big performance difference) and pads will probably make a big improvement.

Thanks. I think the cables are fairly new (from the bike coop place I go to) but not sure of the brand, I'll check. A bit of tightening will help in any case. Any suggestions on blocks? The ones I have are fairly standard and cheap, Wilko BMX ones I think.

 

[chriswill]

He's got a Specialized Tricross IIRC? Which has 32s, and fairly road-oriented 32s fitted as standard
edited because I've just scrolled up and looked at the picture and it's not, is it a Crux? you're right, they're 35s I think. Maybe a bit less pressure then

Pumped them up and got a puncture lol

I was running around 75psi and I picked up a chunk of glass

They are the Spec trigger 700 x 38