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I have been known, when riding along on my Raleigh Superbe with the chain-case, rod brakes and wicker basket to pass at high speed roadies who are tearing the arse out of it trying to go quickly.

Naturally, as I am coming up on them they have no idea the extraordinary exertions to which I am putting myself to haul the old beast up to speed. I make sure to look serene and effortless as I waft past them, perhaps whistling a cheery tune, or waving "good morning". I am a bad man, and as soon as I am out of their site, a coughing knackered and wheezing one as well.

Good point BQ. It is important not to pant and puff while passing someone. The mouth must be closed, eyes fixed on the middle distance and candence must be at a minimum to effect the maximum humiliation.

sorry that i didnt mention it ... i always ride free hand ... so theres no need for bars

And free foot, hence no need for pedals either.

As I puff and pant my nine or so mile commute from Finchley to the city I console myself with the following excuses as my lycra clad ass is humiliated by students in jeans on crappy old road bikes:

1) I have to pace myself and have a hill to climb (especially on the way home) whereas you probably live about 3 minutes cycle from your college.
2) I'm in my mid 40's and not the man I might have been when I was your age.
3) Race if you like, I'm above that. I have nothing to prove to you.
4) Well if you're going to jump reds then naturally I won't be able to catch you. I NEVER jump reds (if there's anyone watching).
5) Mines a fixed wheel bike. I cycle the whole journey. I don't get to rest for half the trip like you.
6) So what if your bike is crap and weighs a ton. I bet you don't enjoy your cycling as much as me. toodle-oo.
7) Wanker.

Then, if I happen to catch them...

1) Well, of course, if you ride 9 miles each way, fixed, like me, you'd be as strong a cyclist as me.
2) Ha! A young kid like you, caught and passed by a grey haired old guy like me!
3) I'm not even racing and I catch you!
4) Wanker.

PS. Am I the only bloke that take an inordinately long time passing women? I've been known to slipstream a girl riding a Pashley at 5mph.

As Eddie says SS to start so she can get used to spinning in one gear then she is going fixed which will be just a change of wheelset.

Out of interest, why not a flip-flop?

@jabbathehut

Did you go into your local hardware store and ask for a 27.2 broom?

Nick if you spend all your time ignoring threads that you think are dumb, if the majority of the threads on the forum are dumb, what are you left with?
Right now you have to wade through a lot of shit to get to what you want, if new members read the "rules" search a lot the duplication of threads and questions can be curtailed leaving you the chance to use this forum to its best, arranging rides, meeting up with other forum members, and having your awkward bike questions answered, before your thread is derailed by a barrage of puns.
Also your poseurs line is just a mean spirited dig and not worthy of you, or this forum. Don't get blinded by the whole hipster thing, people on here are serious about riding, check any of the ventoux, london paris, alps threads. We'll ride wherever, whenever, on whichever bike is suitable for the job...

I'm sure there are many serious riders here. OK, I'll take that back, but I also think there's quite a bit of impatience around here.

Bikes are not easy to understand when you first get into them. There is lots of jargon and different terms for the same thing. Searching is not intuitive. A couple of times when I first starting looking in here I tried hard to find a relevant thread that already existed but either couldn't do so, or, because my knowledge wasn't so deep (it's still not at all), I wasn't sure if a thread I found was relevant.

This is a big forum with plenty of members. There are bound to be repeats and duplications. And what difference does it make if the same topic comes up a few months after it has already been raised? Is it so terrible for the discussion to be re-started or for someone to politely point the way to where the previous discussion has taken place. The forum is so big that that the thread is off the FP within a couple of hours anyway so it's not harming anyone.

Newbies are newbies. They take a while to get things. So what if they're a bit clumsy from time to time? Before long they'll get to know how to find what they're interested in if it's already on the site.

A sure fire way to guarantee that the forum goes downhill fast is if people feel intimidated about posting. They'll just go away and the place will decline. The key to successful online communities is a constant flow of new people being welcomed and encouraged, not dissed.

How about ignoring the threads you think are dumb?

A lot of people join a forum like this because they are newly interested in the subject and so they're going to be naive in some way. FFS give people a break.

It's called "London fixed Gear and Single Speed" not "Poseurs who like to think they're cool because they ride bikes without brakes and twat on about it all the time".

Haha its a charity box, some Product Design work..

I'd have just said "yes" if I were you.

My first race bike used downtube shifters.. if an unco like me can get used to them so can anyone else. How bumpy is it near you? Is an SS for the kid feasible? How old is your son? Have you asked him what he'd prefer?

He's a small 13. The frame may not really be good for him for a few months (assuming he grows a fair bit as I did at his age. We discussed the relative merits of SS and gears and he came down in favour of gears because he thinks SS will be too tough and therefore unenjoyable until he's got stronger legs.

I also learned to ride with downtube shifters but I must say, I never liked the fact that you have to go one handed to change. I think STI's are much safer and that's why I'd prefer to convert if it's feasible.

What's the point of going to 7spd STI? May as well leave the downtube shifters on.

It's a good point. I guess it's a bit like getting a learner driver to start learning with double de-clutching when synchromesh is available and much easier / safer.

I've got a pair of those downtube shifters to down tube cable stops from SJS above. If you want them, you can have them gratis. They are sans barrel adjusters though (I bought them just for the adjusters). So you would need to find a couple (from two old/broken rear mechs for example).

Thanks you, I'll let you know if I want to go down that route.

Looks like this is going to be bigger than I thought.

Might try to persuade him to have a fixie instead!

It's a six speed block - sounds like that means new block, which means new rear mech.

My next project is to update a sitting around doing nothing road bike for my son.

I'd like to convert it from downtube shifters to ergo-shifters but I'm not sure if this is a simple task of switching the shifters over, or do I need to change the old front and rear mechs and block as well. It's a pretty old bike - late '80's. The gears are the Suntour Accushift system (index I assume).

Any thoughts on this would be welcome. I'd prefer to keep as much of it as possible and not spend too much because it's his first road bike and if he gets into it I'll get him something much better in the future.

Thanks

Nick

Thanks Hobo

Good to meet you today. Rims have cleaned up nicely.

Cheers

Nick

I'll take the rims.

May be able to collect tomorrow afternoon.

Nick

Arvy loved the intro, "Hi i'm Arvy and i'm not simple!"

As I recall, he said

"Hi, I'm Arwo an' I'm 'ot himpou"

I wonder if anyone can explain something for me. Sheldon Brown on his Lock Strategy page says that

"A U-lock should go around the rear rim and tire, somewhere inside the rear triangle of the frame. There is no need to loop it around the seat tube as well, because the wheel cannot be pulled through the rear triangle."

So am I right in thinking that as long as you lock your rear wheel as in the picture then, quick release nuts or not ,the rear wheel and frame are safe as long as the lock isn't cut through?

It's hard to visualise but I think that's right. Even if someone undid the wheel nuts they wouldn't be able to pull the wheel and the lock through the space between the drop-outs.

Esher to Hove?

If so, want to say hello somewhere along the way. I won't be riding too fast because I'll be with my boy, but it would be good to meet someone at one of the food stops maybe.

but I'll be riding Esher to Hove the following day for cheridee so I don't think this'll be practical.

Have fun.

Think I'll try to get there - first time for me. Do you all wear red carnations in your butt(on)holes? How will I recognise you?

Really sorry to read this. You are clearly very upset which is saddening.

I can't advise you, but I hope you come through this.

Nick

First of all I apologies for bumping this thread from the depths and asking for help/advice on the internet but I'm pretty upset right now and it's all come as a bit of a nasty surprise.

I've been with my girlfriend for 2 years near enough (not long in the grand scheme of things I know but it seems like a damn long time right now), recently she went around Europe for 6 weeks and somewhere along the line her feelings towards me have changed. This all came out today and now I'm a fucking mess. She didn't really have any definitive answers about anything and apparently still loves me one way or or another.

I have no idea whether to just (somehow) try and accept it or to fight it and try and fix things, I want to make this work again but there isn't much point in fighting a lost cause.

This is shit.

Not sure if this site has been mentioned, if not, you might find it helpful...

http://www.jimlangley.net/wrench/keepitquiet.html

Tyre direction fail ;)

I never look at the tread direction when I'm putting on a tyre because it makes not a blind bit of difference which way the tread is facing. I'm more concerned with getting the damn thing over the rim!

Finished my Dawes Galaxy conversion. Here are a few pic before and after.

The frame turned out to be in much worse condition than I thought after it came back from powdercoating but it'll do as a decent hack and the total cost was about £350 - quite a lot but the components are OK and I can use them on another build sometime. I may even sell this soon.

Old charge spoon seat on it now - may be better with my honey brooks B17 but not if it's going to get left all day long in public when I commute.