- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Tubeless valves
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
Add new comment
1454 comments
Pragma Power on a 235km ride few days ago.
A 'little unusual', not your average bike but when you live on a volcano with no car and no shops this is a life-saver. We have two (one with pink sheepskin and a goat skull). We cover around 50km per day most days, 99% on mountain gravel tracks away from traffic, and use them for everything from shopping (4 days food with the panniers on 2 bikes - or much more with our trailer), touring and days out with Baba our dog who fits nicely in the pannier bag.
They are a couple of end-of-line Corratec 28 ebikes, modded for rough gravel track use in hostile environments (windy, salty, dusty, 50 degrees heat, no shade and mountainous).
The main essential mod was the tyres which we replaced (slippery on gravel) with Continental AT gravel tyres and puncture sealant liquid (all plants have thorns here)
The other practical essential were the Ortlieb Classic rolltop bags - zips fail quickly here because of the sand and dust in the air. They carry Baba the dog, a comprehensive toolkit with spares such as spokes, tubes and nuts n bolts - bits can drop off! plus drinks, spare clothing, food and shopping. We get 2 days shopping for two on one set of Ortliebs, they are a design classic.
The other lifesaver is the Bosch Nyon - the map it uses shows all the backroads and gravel tracks reliably, making for a safe journey home when the light is fading and the powerpack is at 15% (yes Ive done it and had to walk home across two mountain ranges in the dead of night with a 45 kilo bike - never again!)
The sheepskin wrap is a great way the protect the frame from the large amounts of dust - plus everyone knows it's your bike too
The bones are just for decoration (rather than bright colours and flash words adorning many bikes) we find them in the desert and mountains where animals such as goats and hunting dogs die naturally and the flesh is consumed by the vultures. The skull is made from the horns of 3 goats (giver of life to the island) and the head of a hunting dog which the farmers use for protection for the goats - the spine is supported by a coat hanger wire down the top-tube. I did have the ribcage of the dog but it proved a little flimsy to secure to the frame.
Weighing in at a minimum of 45 kilos fully laden, depending of the day's journey here's what goes wrong:
1. Inner tubes! everything has thorns so puncture protection liquid like Slime is a must.
2. Spokes! always carry some spare, and some tape to secure it to the adjacent spoke and limp home.
3. Mudguards with the wire to the back light built in - these are rubbish as the connections rot with the salty air - I taped some speaker wired over the top instead.
4. Nuts and bolts - carry some spares for emergency repairs - bits like kickstands, pannier racks and other bolt-ons have a habit of snapping.
I always carry tie-wraps for emergency repairs, spare water and a muesli bar.
Having run them almost every day for 2 years across mountains, deserts, beaches and volcanoes I can honestly say they are the most practical and fun transport I have ever used, and would I go back to using a car? ...never
is this too far during lockdown?
Hi, i'm new here.
Here is one of my bikes, my absolute favorite at the moment
It's a '80s steel Diamant wich I restored and repainted. With a Ultegra/105 groupset. At the moment there are 27mm Challenge Roubaix tires in (accually almost 30mm on this rims).
She rides like a dream, not fast out of the corners but once she's on the roll she keeps going. Just put on the cruisecontrol ..
Bianchi Oltre XR1 prepped and ready for summer rides
Here's my effort. Bianchi Oltre XR4, with the 12 speed Super Record eps groupy, and hydraulic disc brakes ( which I normally really don't like on road bikes).
Just added some gears to my single speed Reynolds 531 Steve Thornhill. Stronglight Teflon 48T/35T chainrings to 11-32 cassette.
Shimano RS500 wheelset with 28mm Vittorias, but I could fit 32mm's..
The ride quality is that good I've sold my full carbon.
Comes in at 8.6 Kg ,not bad for an old steel bike
100k ride today.
Absolutely gorgeous weather, and after losing 2 stone, hills seem alot easier.
How many bikes do you currently own, Boatsie? I've only got two.
Yeesh. How was the rider?
Thanks for your good wishes Doug, much appreciated.
I was doing 30mph down hill and a car turned right, across my path.
He hit me, and apparently I was airborne for a while and landed through his windscreen.
Thankfully, there was a paramedic unit 5 or 6 cars behind me who stopped, got my heart restarted a couple of times, and arranged for assistance and an airlift to A & E
ride fast and long
I like
I do hope you did not have quite so many injuries.
If it's your commuter, bits will die, upgrade as you need to.
My "Ultimate Commuter" is now better (well pricier) than my "Good Bike", it's a major part of my riding, often the majority.
I'm not normally a fan of Bianchis but this bike looks like a stunner #chapeau
Mmm Campag...
Cut that steerer down boss before it fails on you!
Amazing
Unsurprisingly
Oooh. That is a lovely bike. And with Campy...
Chapeau.
Really stylish and so beautiful!!
6 + kids bike.
All cheapies from gumtree normally, all alloy.
2 60cm top tube Avanti Blades. 1 hub, 1 derraileur. 14.3 ,11.90 kg
1 aero fixie with carbon forks. 7.3 kg
Ninja Shogun 10.56kg
Chromoly BMX freestyle. Heavy.
24inch BMX. Lightweight Alloy, strong.
The 24 inch I like. My rim melted in a shed fire so I replaced it with a sealed bearing double wall alloy rim that was basically the cheapest at the time of purchase from LBS. Good road bike but not long flats. On hills I averaged 15kmph rather than 20kmph on a cheap 28mm roadbike.
Cost me $400 twenty years ago, as is besides front rim. Seen one selling at $3500 the other month, a rusty one selling at $1000 .
Brooksby, just cheap bikes here dude, different roads, weather. Paid via usage of petrol budget to get to work (basically)
20171213_101620.jpg
11 broken ribs
3 fractured vertebrae
Bleeding in to lungs
Bleeding in chest cavity
Left ulna broken - pinned and plated, and a scar that runs from elbow to wrist
Left patella smashed in to 4 pieces - pinned and wired
Full thickness tear of left PCL
Bone damage within the knee
Amnesia - I have lost the time from a few mins before impact on the Friday evening through to around the following Monday afternoon.
A week in HDU, a week on the orthopedic ward.
5 months of not being able to lift anything heavier than a cup of tea and not being able to bend my knee
What a dreadful experience ,
All my best wishes for a complete recovery.
Yours
Doug.
I hope the car driver will be prosecuted.
No such luck I'm afraid, similar but different injuries.
Broken Femur, Tib & Fib, Radius, Pisiform, Finger and 12 Ribs. I learnt lots of exciting new terms like ORIF, IM nail, and degloved. I have some complications and need more surgery.
They don't die quickly enough.... The bike this one is replacing was my first road bike which has now been retired to strictly summer riding. That's done over 36k miles and could do with a new groupset really. My primary bike does have carbon wheels and di2, but the 3T discus wheels it came with are shit - every problem I've had with that bike has been those wheels (oh and a leaking seal on the front brake caliper). The freewheel keeps coming loose and you have to take the disc and the cassette off to get to the nut that holds it on, the aluminum nipples keep on splitting and within the first month of owneship one of the spokes broke. The shop told me "sometimes spokes just break"
Hopefully this bike will be a bit more reliable and give me a chance to repair the other two.
Still not sure about celeste bar tape.
Is that a thing? I thought generally the advice was that you need some steerer above the stem clamp. Ok, it doesn't look that neat having loads of spacers above, but does it make failure more likely?
I can't have an Italian bike with anything other than Campag. It's like having a bacon butty with no ketchup.
I hear you there, Boatsie.
My household has my wife's aluminium-framed BSO, my kids have each got a low-budget BMX style BSO (none of them have actually been ridden anywhere in the last year), and I've got an eight year old aluminium hybrid workhorse (a Mongoose) and a steel-framed Dawes city/hybrid (a 'Street Life' from c.1992).
My wife's BSO and the Moose (my workhorse, with Carradice panniers) were both full priced, but not exactly expensive, and my in-laws bought the kids' bikes (so that's not real money spent).
The Dawes was GBP10 from a friend of my wife who was clearing out their garage
Pages