[Other Sport] Cycling geeks

[Stat Brother]

Can anyone give me some really basic advice on buying a bike. I'm thinking of getting a second hand one so that I can sometimes ride the short journey to work (about 7 miles - all on the road).

So I really don't need or want any special features, something that just goes and will get me up mildly steep hills. Something basic and low maintenance would be ideal. So my questions are...

What kind of bike do I need? I think they call them hybrids?
What size frame should I be looking for? (I'm about 5'10 tall).
What's the least I could spend on a second-hand bike to get something reasonable? I've seen one decent-looking one for £75 - does that sound about right?

Anything else I should look out for? As you will have gathered, I've not owned a bike since I was a kid and I know nothing at all about them. Cheers.

I normally swim against the tide, when this still comes up.
Being pretty committed roadies we all like to spread the word.
But if you're true to your word and we're talking minor commuting and pootling then a hybrid should just do it.

At the bottom end of the market, you're pretty much restricted to Gumtree and the Friday ad.

Obviously it's impossible to size you for a bike, but you're definitely not after a small or xl.
Chances are a medium size would do just fine, but that's not a call any of us can make.

What you're looking for in any bike you choose is LESS stuff.

You don't need or want suspension, 21 gears, big tyres etc.

Keep it as simple as possible.
Suspension might look comfy but it isn't and forces you down into the road, instead of gliding on top.
You'll only ever need a handful of gears.
Get a bike with good wheels and skinny tyres, as with suspension 'comfy' tyres, on the road, aren't.

 

[Stat Brother]

I had my first proper fall today. At the end of a 30 mile ride, turned right into a car park, I didn't realise until I'd pulled in that it was gravel! Guess what happened next?

Yep, front wheel went from under me and I ended up on the floor. Badly grazed elbow and hip. Bike seems ok, but rear brakes are sticking a bit now and the brake lever doesn't quite seem in the right place. I'll have to have a proper look at it in the morning.

Oh pooh bums, that's a shame.

I guess you can take some small comfort from the fact 'it was just one of those things', with nothing broken.
As opposed to some maniac on the road.

I'm sure your bike will be fine, and the grazing will ease up, even if sleep will be uncomfortable.

 

[crasher]

Cheers SB - appreciate that.

 

[1066familyman]

I'm a bit 'here there and everywhere at the moment', but I just NEED to say:-

Junior Stat only went and bloody well did it.

He rode the entirety of Ditchling Beacon no stops, no feet down, just stubborn bloody mindedness, and me doing a very good impression of Judy Murray behind

Chapeau to the little man!

He must be chuffed to bits, and you too.

 

[Motogull]

Chapeau to the little man!

He must be chuffed to bits, and you too.

What he said.

Seriously impressed.

You'll have to have him go up regularly to keep improving his time.

 

[armchairclubber]

@StatBrother ... a great achievement, from you both, hope he's well chuffed with himself..... just buy him a garmin or similar for his next Birthday / Crimbo to download his own times and he'll soon be out going missing on Saturday mornings trying to beat his old man !

 

[Stat Brother]

Chapeau to the little man!

He must be chuffed to bits, and you too.

What he said.

Seriously impressed.

You'll have to have him go up regularly to keep improving his time.

@StatBrother ... a great achievement, from you both, hope he's well chuffed with himself..... just buy him a garmin or similar for his next Birthday / Crimbo to download his own times and he'll soon be out going missing on Saturday mornings trying to beat his old man !

Thanks again chaps, it wasn't pretty but it was fookin impressive.

He's still got a lot to learn and then forget before extra distractions appear on his handlebars.
Cycling is, mentally, still hard work for him.
Jnr is one of life's 'oh yeah I know how to do that and what I'm doing'.
Sadly for him I'm one of life's 'start at the beginning and stay there until you can do it properly'.

Seeing Alistair riding on the wrong side of the road, validates me (which is unfortunate!!) so Jnr will remain in 'basic training' for quite while yet.

 

[seagully]

Dont get it for about another 3 weeks! Still looking but got an idea of what I want, probably going to need to take a trip to Decathalon

You going for a full on roadie then?

 

[Hamilton]

Well what a day that was.

We did the Evans Plumpton sportive for the second time, it was great to see jnr's progression with his bigger bike.
It seemed a bit more eclectic than last year and a little less bike snob (well at least until I got there ), although that could be because we arrived after the first couple of waves had left.

Junior didn't realise I was 'training' him for the main event, by keeping him in the saddle and concentrating on his breathing and turning his legs up every incline.

With about a couple of miles to go 14 years old Alistair and his mummy caught up to my wheel, at which point mummy says:-
'Are you doing the fun ride'
'er yes'
'Oh do you mind taking Alistair back to the start while I do another 15 miles?'.
'er no'
And off she goes leaving me with Alistair who happens to have appalling road sense and even less directional sense.

Anyhoo after the event we drove up the road to Ditchling, and set off again for the Beacon:-

View attachment 58117

I was hoping he'd get halfway up.
I was behind saying 'breathing and legs'.
Then gee him up over every ramp.
He just kept going.
Halfway up and I still didn't believe he'd do it, 'breathing and legs'.
But by the time we could see the horse crossing sign I was going mental, full on Old Ma Murray.
'Come on, you can't give up now'.
'Now count down the bollards 6, 5, 4, go on finish it off' 3, 2, 1 'yeeesssss'.

View attachment 58121

Absolutely brilliant stuff. If only I could inspire Hamilton Junior to do the same.

 

[Bad Ash]

Can anyone give me some really basic advice on buying a bike. I'm thinking of getting a second hand one so that I can sometimes ride the short journey to work (about 7 miles - all on the road).

So I really don't need or want any special features, something that just goes and will get me up mildly steep hills. Something basic and low maintenance would be ideal. So my questions are...

What kind of bike do I need? I think they call them hybrids?
What size frame should I be looking for? (I'm about 5'10 tall).
What's the least I could spend on a second-hand bike to get something reasonable? I've seen one decent-looking one for £75 - does that sound about right?

Anything else I should look out for? As you will have gathered, I've not owned a bike since I was a kid and I know nothing at all about them. Cheers.

I'm going to disagree with Stat slightly and say that I can't see any reason you should go for a hybrid over a road bike with the usage you've described (commuting on the road). If you were to go for one, make sure it's at the road bike end of the spectrum rather than mountain bike: no suspension, thin wheels/tyres (maybe around 28mm?), thinner/lighter frame.

Disc brakes would be good, they are more commonly found on mountain bikes and hybrids, but are starting to become more popular one road bikes. My next purchase will possibly be a cyclocross bike with disc brakes for winter use.

You'd probably want to make sure it had eyelets for attaching mudguards plus that there is clearance between the frame/fork/brakes to fit them, this is one thing that is rarer on road bikes.

The frame size required will depend more on your inside leg, torso and arm reach measurements plus also the position you like (aggressive and low or more comfortable and upright), your height can only give a vague estimate as to what these might be. You're probably going to fall in the medium to large frame sizes, say somewhere around 54-57cm. Though because of the varying frame geometries one manufacturers 54cm could be the same fit as anothers 57cm. Hybrids and mountain bikes seem to use inches for their frame measurements, so I think 16-18", would be about the equivalent. I have 57cm road bike and 18" mountain bike, I'm 5'11" with 33" inside leg.

 

[Hamilton]

THE INTERNATIONAL BREAK NSC SPORTIVE

OK Geeks.

So, we have no game next Saturday, so that feels like the perfect time for a Geeks ride.

I'm proposing a circular route taking in West Sussex that will enable people to join at different points.

Starting at Brighton Pier at 8.30 we'll head out west to Worthing Pier and then Littlehampton to pick up new riders. We'll then head up to Arundel for a bit of a climb before descending into Amberley and then onto Storrington. After that we'll take in some lovely country lanes via Ashurst and through to Steyning.

From there we'll have two choices: the Brighton crew can head further east via Fulking and Poynings before heading over the Dyke and home, whilst the Worthing crew can head down the Coombes road to Shoreham airport and then back along the coast to the pier.

This is not a time for putting down the hammer so we'll be setting a steady pace and not a mad one.

So, geeks, who's up for it?

 

[RandyWanger]

I cycled a Tour de France climb yesterday, the Emosson dam. Started off in Chamonix so I had to do the Col de Monte first. It was only 63k, but 1719m of climbing.
For someone who's a downhill mountain biker, I'm pretty proud of myself. I set 5 climbing PRs too.

 

[Hamilton]

I cycled a Tour de France climb yesterday, the Emosson dam. Started off in Chamonix so I had to do the Col de Monte first. It was only 63k, but 1719m of climbing.
For someone who's a downhill mountain biker, I'm pretty proud of myself. I set 5 climbing PRs too.

View attachment 58133

Top work sir. It's stuff like that which makes me want to down tools in the office and jump on the bike immediately.

 

[Stat Brother]

THE INTERNATIONAL BREAK NSC SPORTIVE

OK Geeks.

So, we have no game next Saturday, so that feels like the perfect time for a Geeks ride.

I'm proposing a circular route taking in West Sussex that will enable people to join at different points.

Starting at Brighton Pier at 8.30 we'll head out west to Worthing Pier and then Littlehampton to pick up new riders. We'll then head up to Arundel for a bit of a climb before descending into Amberley and then onto Storrington. After that we'll take in some lovely country lanes via Ashurst and through to Steyning.

From there we'll have two choices: the Brighton crew can head further east via Fulking and Poynings before heading over the Dyke and home, whilst the Worthing crew can head down the Coombes road to Shoreham airport and then back along the coast to the pier.

This is not a time for putting down the hammer so we'll be setting a steady pace and not a mad one.

So, geeks, who's up for it?

Boooo, I was looking forward to being shown the sights of Lesser Sussex, maybe next time.

As it stands (knee and weather permitting) I'm in.
Although as I had every intention to come over anyway I probably still will do (perhaps by train), and start at the start.
Unless you're planning to kick off at stoooopid o'clock.

 

[sten_super]

THE INTERNATIONAL BREAK NSC SPORTIVE

OK Geeks.

So, we have no game next Saturday, so that feels like the perfect time for a Geeks ride.

I'm proposing a circular route taking in West Sussex that will enable people to join at different points.

Starting at Brighton Pier at 8.30 we'll head out west to Worthing Pier and then Littlehampton to pick up new riders. We'll then head up to Arundel for a bit of a climb before descending into Amberley and then onto Storrington. After that we'll take in some lovely country lanes via Ashurst and through to Steyning.

From there we'll have two choices: the Brighton crew can head further east via Fulking and Poynings before heading over the Dyke and home, whilst the Worthing crew can head down the Coombes road to Shoreham airport and then back along the coast to the pier.

This is not a time for putting down the hammer so we'll be setting a steady pace and not a mad one.

So, geeks, who's up for it?

Argh, would love to do this but this weekend doesn't work for me. Maybe next time...

In other news, due to discovering a slow puncture upon taking my bike out of the shed this morning (and therefore leaving late after changing the tube) I absolutely flew into work this morning. Think it was up there as quickest time for the year. Got to work to find that my GPS unit, for the second time in two weeks, had decided to make the touch screen unresponsive, so wasn't able to tell it I'd completed the ride and therefore see my time/data. I've ended up having to format it and re-install the software. GRRR.

 

[Hamilton]

Boooo, I was looking forward to being shown the sights of Lesser Sussex, maybe next time.

As it stands (knee and weather permitting) I'm in.
Although as I had every intention to come over anyway I probably still will do (perhaps by train), and start at the start.
Unless you're planning to kick off at stoooopid o'clock.

Most excellent.

When I have an idea of the entrants I can always shift the route around to include some more back lanes.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Most excellent.

When I have an idea of the entrants I can always shift the route around to include some more back lanes.

I think SB means he wants to see where we go in East Sussex. I could sort a good route from the pier that goes in that direction, takes in loads of country lanes and shows the better side of the county off!

If that'd be helpful.

 

[Hamilton]

I think SB means he wants to see where we go in East Sussex. I could sort a good route from the pier that goes in that direction, takes in loads of country lanes and shows the better side of the county off!

If that'd be helpful.

Let's wait and see who comes out to ride first. Was catering for West Sussexers first.

 

[Stat Brother]

Most excellent.

When I have an idea of the entrants I can always shift the route around to include some more back lanes.

Although I can't go now.
Having just returned from a spin in appalling weather I've just noticed my Bianchi headset badge has come off.
I'm now in a week of mourning and I certainly can't ride a nudey bike.

Let's wait and see who comes out to ride first. Was catering for West Sussexers first.

As it should be!

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Although I can't go now.
Having just returned from a spin in appalling weather I've just noticed my Bianchi headset badge has come off.
I'm now in a week of mourning and I certainly can't ride a nudey bike.


As it should be!

Appalling weather? You should live in East Sussex. Balmy over here.