The Velotard Thread.

[The Bear]

I'm going to have to start dropping the kids off at breakfast club at school in the mornings which won't then give me a lot of time to make it from the school to work in time. As I don't drive, my plan is to bike it. I'll only be using the bike for about 15 minutes twice a day so I'm just going to get myself a 2nd hand bike. Are there any shops that sell decent 2nd hand bikes or am I better off looking on eBay?

Look in your local paper or Facebook Marketplace. There's usually plenty of people who bought one in lockdown or the start of summer and just haven't used them.

 

[Doctor Doog]

Agree with Keef and Bear. I got mine from Facebook Marketplace and my daughter got hers from a local bike recycling charity.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

Cheers. I’m not on Facebook but will ask my wife to take a look.

 

[sycophantia]

Cheers. I’m not on Facebook but will ask my wife to take a look.

No car.. no FB......fucking hippy ✌

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

As I'm the least technically minded person in the world and am totally fucking useless at fixing even the simple things, I obviously know nothing about solving even the slightest issue on a bike (god help me when I have to try and repair a puncture myself)...

...I can't seem to get my front derailleur to shift from the smallest outer ring to the middle ring. It is supposed to be controlled by my left handlebar gear lever thingy but I can't get it to shift. Is there a simple way to mess with it manually to switch it to the middle ring without a dimwit like me fucking up my gears?

 

[machin05]

Is it the shifter that's stuck or the derailleur?
You should be able to move the derailleur by hand, but it won't stay in place if the shifter is stuck and therefore pulling it back under cable tension.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

Is it the shifter that's stuck or the derailleur?
You should be able to move the derailleur by hand, but it won't stay in place if the shifter is stuck and therefore pulling it back under cable tension.

I don’t know I just know that I want to shift it to the middle ring and the shifter on the left handlebar doesn’t seem to make it move! It was on the middle ring but I had to get a guy in Halfords to look at my back tyre on the weekend and he helpfully gave me the bike back with it on the smaller ring.

I’ll have a fiddle with it again later before I leave work.

 

[lemonjelly]

you're not alone t-dan. mine is stuck on the middle ring - has been for 2 years now!
will watch the thread again with interest...

 

[machin05]

When you click the shifter does the derailleur move at all?

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

It’s sorted now. I got the shifter to work!

 

[EpsomWolf]

Sorry just saw this, but coming from a cycle city and a household with more bikes than people, thought I’d throw this in anyway….

The front gear mechanism (on the pedal crank ring) tends to seize first as it generally gets less use than the rear, however, this fix/maintenance suggestion applies to both front and rear (and brakes too for that matter).

Your old friend WD40 comes into play here. Naturally clean and WD the mechanism itself, but normally what happens is the metal inner part of operating cable dries out and becomes rusty INSIDE the outer sleeve restricting its movement backwards and forwards. It’s why the rear derailleur often moves into lower gears (you are applying lots of force to the inner cable) but doesn’t come back into the higher gears (this relies on fairly weak spring pressure which isn’t enough to pull said rusty cable back through sleeve).

It’s exactly the same with brakes, you pull them and they work, but they stick and don’t release as the return spring pressure becomes inadequate, and subsequently you have a coronary riding the thing with binding brakes.

If you are able to, unhook the cable at the lever and run WD40 the full length making sure the inner cable slides freely inside the outer sleeve, right from the gear/brake itself, all the way up to the operating lever on the handlebars. If you can’t, turn the bike upside down and blast into the sleeve as best you can.

One last thing, if the inner cable is burred or splintering, or if the outer cable is kinked at all, it’ll never move freely so don’t waste time and replace.

Hope that helps.

 

[Doctor Doog]

Sorry just saw this, but coming from a cycle city and a household with more bikes than people, thought I’d throw this in anyway….

Had to smile at this bit. So true.

 

[EpsomWolf]

Had to smile at this bit. So true.

Ha, indeed.

Cycling is an emotive subject but the ‘bikes and buses’ transportation strategy is coming soon to a town near you. It (sort of) works here because of the flatness and cycling infrastructure. Electric bikes (and scooters) will help elsewhere but it’s a brave person that commutes daily on a busy road with no dedicated cycle lane.

Did get me thinking this, we’ve 6 bikes between two people (2x road bike/mountain bike/town runabout) and we enjoy it but are not cycling mad. Those that really get into it seem to have loads, but most people have something to get about on.

That said, the stolen bike count currently also stands at 6 and liable to change at any time. The last one to go was three days old and that hurt. That really hurt.

 

[machin05]

I would say infrastructure is the biggest obstacle to getting people out of their cars and onto bikes. The roads are just too intimidating. A white strip of paint just doesn't cut the mustard.

 

[Wombat del combate]

What tyres are people using at the moment? I'm on Continental GP 5000 but spent an hour changing a flat yesterday, owing to the rubber being so difficult to manipulate over the rim at the end of the fitting and using a tyre lever and giving me a pinch flat. So am losing a little bit of patience to say the least, although I must say that the profanity expressed during this event was exemplary.

 

[lemonjelly]

I would say infrastructure is the biggest obstacle to getting people out of their cars and onto bikes. The roads are just too intimidating. A white strip of paint just doesn't cut the mustard.

we have an element of infrastructure in bham, but even that isn't enough.
my feeling is driver instinct and empathy needs addressing. one main reason I cycle is the amount of queues everywhere, and it terrifies me the volume of people I see on their phones, and also people driving and they're so switched off as to what is around them all the time. even though I am on a bike, I am repeatedly cut up, especially on corners. I also never cease to be amazed how impatient many drivers are/can be, and their desperation to overtake me, frequently that's done un-safely.
@Keef has also mentioned the prevalence of broken glass too, and the volume of that seems to be increasing. There is a cycle lane by my place of work, and to be honest it is exceptionally busy (bikes and also e scooters), but even the cycle lane is full of glass - there was so much yesterday I had to come out of it, and I couldn't help but feel it had been done on purpose.

 

[machin05]

What tyres are people using at the moment? I'm on Continental GP 5000 but spent an hour changing a flat yesterday, owing to the rubber being so difficult to manipulate over the rim at the end of the fitting and using a tyre lever and giving me a pinch flat. So am losing a little bit of patience to say the least, although I must say that the profanity expressed during this event was exemplary.

I'm still on the Vittoria Corsas that came with the bike. Tough to get on the rim too tho, so it could be that the Knights are tricky wheels full stop.

 

[machin05]

we have an element of infrastructure in bham, but even that isn't enough.
my feeling is driver instinct and empathy needs addressing. one main reason I cycle is the amount of queues everywhere, and it terrifies me the volume of people I see on their phones, and also people driving and they're so switched off as to what is around them all the time. even though I am on a bike, I am repeatedly cut up, especially on corners. I also never cease to be amazed how impatient many drivers are/can be, and their desperation to overtake me, frequently that's done un-safely.
@Keef has also mentioned the prevalence of broken glass too, and the volume of that seems to be increasing. There is a cycle lane by my place of work, and to be honest it is exceptionally busy (bikes and also e scooters), but even the cycle lane is full of glass - there was so much yesterday I had to come out of it, and I couldn't help but feel it had been done on purpose.

You'll never get a shift in attitude widespread enough to make a difference. There are simply too many cars for the road to cope with and that inherently breeds impatience and entitlement in drivers. None of the dedicated infrastructure I've used around Bham and Wolves is anywhere near up to scratch. The path alongside the A4123 looks decent, but in reality is useless. Bumpy, has overhanging trees, is used by pedestrians, has no right of way over driveways and side roads, has no easy entry and/or exit points and keeps merging in and out of the pavement. I actually stick to riding on the dual carriageway, which says it all.

I cycled over Worcester way the other day, and some of the off road infrastructure there is light years ahead of what we have here.

 

[Doctor Doog]

I'd say the flatness and the fact that the students have always cycled contributes more round here than the infrastructure. It's OK, but given that virtually everyone cycles, it should be better. The main road from here into the city centre has a shared bus and cycle lane, which in some parts is so bad that you have to move into the car lane. Improvements, including a dedicated cycle lane, were shelved as the locals didn't want the trees cut down.

I didn't cycle when I was in the West Midlands and I definitely wouldn't have started if I still lived there. When I see people cycling up the hills into Sedgley, with no cycle lanes, it scares me in more ways than one. Mind you, I came off the M5 at junction 2 the other day and passed a chap on a fold up bike on the Birmingham New Road. Again I thought rather you than me, but then he cycled past me while I was queueing at Burnt Tree. When he passed me again by the King Arthur, I didn't see him again before I turned off up Sedgley hill.

 

[Wombat del combate]

You'll never get a shift in attitude widespread enough to make a difference. There are simply too many cars for the road to cope with and that inherently needs impatience and entitlement in drivers. None of the dedicated infrastructure I've used around Bham and Wolves is anywhere near up to scratch. The path alongside the A4123 looks decent, but in reality is useless. Bumpy, has overhanging trees, is used by pedestrians, has no right of way over driveways and side roads, has no easy entry and/or exit points and keeps merging in and out of the pavement. I actually stick to riding on the dual carriageway, which says it all.

I cycled over Worcester way the other day, and some of the off road infrastructure there is light years ahead of what we have here.

Similar down here, between Bognor and Littlehampton: There's a great big wide cycle path running alongside the main road which is signposted as a cycle path, however is also used by pedestrians. I'd rather take my chances and the verbal abuse on the carriageway than go belting into someone at 20mph+.