You're looking at all articles on The Hickensian tagged 'cycling'

I loved bike shops as a kid (especially the smell of them!) but we didn’t, and still don’t, have anything quite like this. 718 Cyclery is not only a great retail space, but the whole attitude to building bikes and access to the process is unique and just plain brilliant. I found myself nodding in agreement to everything Joe says.

As for the bike they build in video – gorgeous!

Via twinfish on twitter.

Last Autumn I borrowed a friend’s Turbo Trainer, an odd looking device that allows you to use your bike indoors for training. With the nights getting longer and the weather getting worse, it seemed like a good way of retaining the fitness gains and weight loss from the summer.

My first experience wasn’t that great, rather uninspiring in fact. The bike is locked into a rigid position, there was a fair bit of noise (even though this was one of the quietest ones) and it felt nothing like cycling on a road. For my second session, to a proper structure and keep up the interest, I played a Sufferfest video, which helped a lot. Here’s the trailer for the one I bought, ‘The Downward Spiral‘…

If you’re watching this trailer sitting on a sofa, rather than a turbo trainer and bike, you might chuckle at the music and captions feeling a bit overdramatic. Believe me, it doesn’t once you’re on the bike and you get the instruction to ‘close the gap!’ you go for it. 25 mins later however, there was the strong smell of burning rubber, and lo, I had melted the rear tyre, and the floor was littered with rubber shavings. I’d love to claim this was because I was doing such an intense workout, but I think I’d just set it up with the wrong resistance.

The way around this is to use a special turbo trainer tyre, made of a much harder compound, and the easiest way to do that is to have a separate wheel setup ready and change it over for a turbo session. That means getting another tyre, wheel and cassette! But that’s not all you need, as the you also have to prop the front wheel up, have a fan on to keep cool and protect your bike from the corrosive sweat that drips off you in bucket loads.

It’s an awful lot of faff!

However, it wasn’t until the next ride that I felt the benefit. Just doing two short sessions during the week made the Friday ride much better. In the end though, I decided that getting a turbo trainer was the equivalent of a sandwich toaster – a dust-gatherer after the first couple of uses.

Now we’re in February, and the UK is having an extended cold snap where my usual routes have layers of compacted frozen snow. After falling off my bike last November, which made my ribs sore for weeks afterwards, I don’t fancy the risk, and I’ve finally caved in and got one. It’s always going to be better to riding outside, but for the times I can’t, I can at least do a hamster in a wheel impression.

2011 was the year that cycling replaced the “search for the right media centre” as the main blog topic at The Hickensian. I’ve been pretty much starting from scratch in terms of knowledge, and gleaning information from all sorts of sources.

Here are just some of things I’ve learnt this year:

• There are Rules. 87 of them in fact.
• When mucking about with the stem height on the headset (for the purposes of slamming) you need to tighten the top cap before the stem bolts. If you do the stem first, you can’t tighten the top bolt properly and everything rattles. As I find out once, going downhill.
• The quick release on brakes is great for whipping the wheel off that bit quicker, just remember to put it down again afterwards. As I find out once, going downhill.
• Cream tyres look great on a retro build, but after a few short rides they look like you’ve wiped your bottom on them.
• Mudguards and chainguards protect you from muck, but metal ones are a constant source of annoying rattles.
• When changing tyres or inner tubes, you need just enough puff in the inner tube to give it some shape. Otherwise it gets pinched by the tyre and you get through quite a few inner tubes. I learnt eventuallly
• You need a good hard tyre to resist punctures, at least 90-100 psi.
• Just because a saddle is expensive, it doesn’t mean its right for you. Of everything I’ve tried sitting on this year, from Brooks to Fizik, the ones that suit my bottom best are by Charge: the Spoon and Knife saddles. They can be picked up for less than £20, look good and feel great.
• The day I made my saddle properly level (with a spirit level) was the day I stopped suffering from numb hands on a ride.
• The most important accessory/thing to take with you is water.
• Steel may be heavier, but it gives you a nicer, smoothed out ride compared to Aluminium.
• There are 2 types of SPD cleats/pedals – SPD‘s are small, metal and are intended for Mountain Bike use, whereas SPD-SL‘s are larger, plastic and intended for road bike use.
• I just love farting around with bikes. Which is why my Peugeot Project from earlier this year is now becoming a Charge Plug inspired single speed project. When thats finished there’ll be another bike project…

I still can’t wrap Bar Tape properly though…

Here’s a great find from the dusty depths of YouTube – a British Transport promotional film from 1955. Not only does this feature Tweed (plus fours much in attendance), cycling, a fantastic soundtrack, railways and country pubs, it’s also filmed around the area I grew up in Warwickshire.

So if you need an antidote to haggard looking men or hipsters doing trackstands on their fixies*, this is it!

Part One

Part Two

Via the Tweed Cycling Club

*I do love Rapha and fixie videos too, its just that, well, this is the complete opposite.

We’re having a truly Indian Summer here in the UK, and it looks set to continue over the weekend. It gets dark by 7pm at this time of year, so I had to get out early tonight to enjoy the warm rays while they lasted.

This image sums it up for me – riding through pretty countryside, with long shadows and village names that make giggle like a schoolboy.

Here’s an interesting idea for improving bike lights and night time visibility. Revolights is a Kickstarter Project that places LEDs in a ring around the wheel, timed so that it provides a constant beam lower down, lighting up the road around you:

From the video, I’m not 100% convinced that they’re quite bright enough yet, but to be honest, I adore the effect. Tron light cycle comparisons aside, I’m just a fan of how they look when moving. I really hope this project gets some attention, funding and development – in a few years this might be the kind of thing that gets built into the wheel itself.

I’d reached that point in my rides, where I wanted some sort of cycling computer to track my progress and show my route, so I recently picked up a Biologic BikeMount to allow me to use my iPhone. Rather than buy a dedicated unit (such as a Garmin, which isn’t really an option financially at this point) this lets me reuse a device that’s already replaced lots of other separate devices like Camera and iPod. Here are my thoughts after 2 months of use.

The phone gets clipped into a sturdy protective hardcase, which is then mounted to your handlebars via a supplied bracket. I’ll let this chap called Josh tell you exactly how it works:

Together with Cyclemeter, I now have a nice clear display to glance at, at the end of the ride, I export the results to Strava. The dedicated Strava app is nice and clean, but a bit basic. I like the features of the Cyclemeter app, such as telling me how many calories I’ve burned (very motivating for me).

The main disadvantage of this setup is the overall size of the kit. While the iPhone itself isn’t that big, by the time it’s in the protective case it’s got added bulk. At least the case gives me confidence that if it does get dropped, the phone would survive.

I’ve managed to get mine mounted on my stem, so that it keeps it out of the way a bit, but there’s no getting over how much it much it dominates the handlebars compared to a dedicated unit like a Garmin. It might make you feel a bit self-conscious!

Other, minor, negatives points are that the home button is a stick-on dome of plastic, which fell off after a few weeks, just leaving the sticky pad. It still works though. Also, the bracket that you put on the bike doesn’t get absolutely tight. Just as you think it’s going to tighten, it loosens slightly again. So you have to tighten again, and stop just before it ‘snaps back’ to loose. However, I’ve not any problems with it falling off, or being wobbly.

Another reason I got the mount, was that I fancied trying to shoot video to capture some of the picturesque parts of my rides (the case has a window for the lens). First of all, it’s a fiddle to get the bracket and phone in the right position so that the camera has a good landscape view, but it is possible. However, the iPhone camera just isn’t up to the job – the picture is just too shakey. There’s a lot of post-processing apps that will take out the shake, but they crop the image a lot. I did try an app called Steadylens, which works during recording, but that wasn’t much better. The overall effect is what I can only describe as ‘swirly and shimmery’ even at very slow speeds. As if its being viewed underwater:

I also noticed on still images, taken with the phone in the case, that it distorts the image towards the edges.

Despite the size, and other little niggles, the BikeMount, along with Cyclemeter, works really well, and do me just fine.

Another wee cycling update. It’s now been 6 months since I claimed that I wasn’t interested in being sporty, owning a Road-only bike (I wanted to ride something ‘chap’ and retro), and that I would never touch Lycra with a bargepole, let alone my body.

All that’s changed – I’m now riding a proper road bike (that I’m trying to make as modern as possible), in lycra and wearing SPD shoes. What a difference it all makes though! After a lot of discussion on Twitter on normal shorts vs bib shorts, I got a pair of the former from Shutt Velo Rapide. which are really comfy and no comparison to when I was trying to ride in jeans. I’m realising the advantage of bibs though, as I get do get a cold patch on my back.

SPDs were another big step, but didn’t take as long to get used to as I thought they would and make the difference that everyone has been telling me they do. After a couple of falls on the grass outside I soon got the nack, I got used to getting my feet in and out without looking down. I couldn’t ride any distance without them now – and certainly wouldn’t want to tackle any hills.

Another milestone I passed tonight was my first ride – with someone else. I was very nervous, almost like a first date nervous. Would I hold them up? Would I be a panting wheezy lump at the back? Would I fall over, forgetting to twist my foot out of the SPDs? Actually, I was fine – a little out of breath, but as much because I was trying to chat at the same time.

The advantages of riding with others are well documented, but the biggest difference I felt was in keeping pace. It spurred me on to keep pedalling and try a bit harder. Also, on such a windy night, it was nice to be able to draft behind someone for a bit and feel the reduction in wind resistance.

The biggest problem I find is with getting time to go out riding. I can usually manage an hour a week, and would love to do more, but the spare time just isn’t there. Especially when I’ve got a book to write. However, for the first time, I’m starting to think about group rides and even working up to doing a sportive! I love it.

Here’s a lovely little film for your Friday pleasure. With a distinctly Wes Anderson feel about it, it tells the story of what happens when a bicycle and a sewing machine get together!

I mentioned a while back that while I’ve been enjoying the Globe for its comfortable, relaxed style, I’d been thinking of getting a proper road bike for weekend and sunny evening jaunts around the countryside. Not being able to justify the cost of a new bike just yet, and heavily inspired by Simon Clayson’s Peugeot 753 project, I spent a while watching items on ebay, looking for a suitable basis for a project bike. Ideally I was looking for something with a classic style frame with flat top tube that was rideable from the off without needing too much work. I knew that it would probably be something that would need a respray and work done further down the road, but it would allow me to find out if a road bike was ‘for me’, without spending too money up front. If it did work out, I could improve and upgrade it and spread the cost out over time, but if it didn’t, no big loss.

Finally, the ideal candidate turned up, and it was another Peugeot:

Looking back through old Peugeot catalogues, it turns out that it was a ‘Competition’ from 2000, making it about 11 years old.

What made it particularly appealing was the quality Columbus Thron steel frame and silver Campagnolo Veloce groupset. The frame colour was already black (which was exactly what I wanted), so even though it would need a respray at some point soon, it didn’t need to happen right away. The general condition was OK, and it didn’t need any drastic intervention up front.

The initial plan was to make this a retro build, with chrome handlebars (Nitto Noodles), Brooks Honey Leather Saddle and bartape. Here it is in this unfinished half-way stage:

However, after a few weeks I realised that I’d changed my mind, and that my heart was really after something more modern. After all I already had the retro styled Globe Daily. So after some rethinking here’s what it looks like now:

So far I’ve replaced:

• Front tyre: removing the old yellow stripe type helped tidy up its looks immensely.
• Pedals: Shimano A530, which have cleats on one side, and normal flat pedal on the other, so that it can be used for commuting as well as road riding. I haven’t got SPD shoes yet, and I’ve got use to flipping the pedals with my foot to get the flat side
• Saddle: Charge Spoon, which is great value
• Handlebars and Stem: This was the biggest change. I found the reach and shape of the Modolo bars it came with hard to use, the brakes and shifters felt too far away. Then I tried Nitto Noodle bars, which have nice swept back tops, but the reach was still quite large. Now that I’ve swapped it for a Deda RHM 02 bar (much shorter reach) and slightly shorter matching stem I’ve got it how I need it. In order to fit the Deda stem I needed a quill stem adaptor, but it works really well. I finished this off with some Fizik gel pads and bartape for a comfy hold. This was really nice, but I found the strips that they supply to tape down the ends at the centre not very flexible, and didn’t make a smooth end. I changed this for plain black insulation tape which works much better.
• I also removed the 90s style graphics, using a hairdryer to soften the adhesive and a credit card to scrape it off, leaving just the Peugeot logo.

Overall, it’s cost me just over £200 for the original bike, plus all the additions (some of which were new, some nearly-new off ebay). I’ve learnt a lot by doing this, but I’ve had to ask lots of questions and some trial and error before getting this far, so thanks again to Simon Clayson, Matt Carey and Tim Barry for putting up with all my questions.

So was a ‘proper road bike’ for me? Undeniably yes. After just 2 weeks of using it, the Globe feels slow in comparison. I never thought the bike would make that much difference, and that personal fitness was a bigger factor, but now I can see that the bike can make a big difference too. I’ve had great fun riding this around local villages, increasing my mileage and how long I can go without stopping for a breather. It’s also been a fun geeky journey choosing parts.

It’s a project that’s still in progress, and as funds allow I plan to respray it and upgrade the wheels, but a more immediate task will be to replace the chain and clean the mucky drivetrain. I’m also starting to realise why cyclists wear lycra, and I’m coming around to the idea. Slowly, but getting there…

Recently, my favourite place to spend time on the internets has been the Rapha Films channel on Vimeo. These high quality short films are not only inspiring and enthusing, but beautifully shot, edited and scored too.

It all started with their Rapha & Paul Smith promo video:

Which was followed up by ‘City Riding’ (both featuring the can’t-help-but-want-to-imitate Cole Maness):

Then there is Rapha California, which if you ignore the anti-helmet sentiment, is brimming with atmosphere:

All three directed by Ben Ingham, with brilliant sound design by Soundfly.

I could go on, embedding just about every video they’ve uploaded, but instead, I’ll mention 3 more. Two Broad Arrows a short film inspired by the life of Sean Kelly, Rapha Rides Monti Pallidi and the Tour of California series, starting here. If you’re a cyclist then you’ll no doubt already be aware of these films, but worth highlighting for anyone who hasn’t.

The Vimeo app for Boxee is currently crashing on me a lot, so I’ve been watching these on Apple TV via Couchsurfer (yes you can Airplay from iOS too). It would be great if Apple could open up apps for Apple TV and get the same slick experience that YouTube videos and Podcasts get.

I’d be the first to admit that the geekery of bike components appeals to me as much as the actual cycling. As the author Robert Penn says It’s all about the Bike. I’m currently fiddling away on a road bike project, using a 10 year old Peugeot picked up off ebay as the basis, and choosing replacement parts is great fun.

My tastes started off retro, or ‘vintage’ as the cycling crowd would call it (retro to them means the ’80s), preferring steel, honey brown leather and highly polished metal. Recently though, I’ve been getting into the look of more contemporary parts just as much. In particular, I’ve been lusting after the Cinelli Ram bars ever since I discovered them:

The unified stem and bar shape is just so pleasingly flowing, and the variety of graphics that look good on it really show it off as a piece of art as much as a functional component:

(photos © Bike Rumor)

It makes sense to me to make this much fuss of the handlebars, its the one part of the bike (other than the front wheel) that you’ll see the most. At around £500 these aren’t going to find their way onto my Peugeot Project anytime soon, but I can’t help planning in my head what custom graphics mine would have…

It feels like a good time to do a quick update about my cycling.

The great news for me is that since October, I’ve lost almost a stone without really trying, and that feels great. If I didn’t have a bigger appetite from the exercise, I’m sure I could lose more. I’ve gone from an ever increasingly sedentary life, where the only excercise was the few yards from car park to office to sandwich shop to one where I’m always trying to find time to cycle.

It started as a commute into work, but then I began using it for errands like shopping, and now I’m taking off for an hour or so at the weekend. As the evenings get lighter I can hopefully get out on the occasional evening too. The will is definitely there, it’s just finding time that’s tricky.

I can feel my stamina building – inclines that were once left me breathless I can now do with breath. A commute that took as much as 14 mins back in October, is now only 7. I’m arriving at work feeling alive and energetic, rather than sleepy and lethargic. The change from a budget mountain-style bike to the Globe Daily has helped a lot – I can go faster and further.

I do still love my Globe Daily, but if I was buying a new bike now rather than 3 months ago, I’d be making a different choice. Rather than a town bike or hybrid, I would’ve gone for a classic road bike with dropdown handlebars for more holding positions (whereas the Daily has only really got one) and a larger gear range. The Globe has low enough gears for hills, but on flats and downhills it always feels like there should be another 2 to go to. To that end, I’m keeping an eye out on ebay and local ads for a something with a Reynolds frame as basis for a little project…

The date for this years Tweed Run, the metropolitan bike ride with style, has been announced as the 9th April. As mentioned back at Christmas, I’m planning to do next years Tweed Run as I need three things:

1. Tweeds, obviously!
2. A bit more fitness (yes, even for a 10 mile bike ride!). My stamina has been getting so much better since October, and I’m losing weight steadily. It’s a great feeling, but I want to be a more confident cyclist before I take part in anything social.
3. A little project that I’m planning, to build my own Pashley Guvnor inspired bike.

My moustache is coming along very nicely though and should be in top form for next years event!

As well as the sartorial, there’s a lot of bike geekiness with vintage ‘safety bicycle’ models appearing alongside penny farthings and modern setups. Brooks (the British saddle maker) made a short video of last years event, which is well worth watching:

I hate bike helmets, absolutely hate them. I can hear my younger self laughing at me, but I wouldn’t want my children to be cycling without one, so I grudgingly wear one too. As I read recently (sorry can’t remember the source) …

Nobody thinks they look good in a bicycle helmet, just suck it up and wear one.

Which is right of course. So far, that’s been my only concession to safety and visibility, but after reading Alan Colville’s account of his last two weeks, I might have changed my mind very quickly. It’s a must read, but in particular, this passage stood out to me:

There is a lesson to cyclists: it was important to the emergency services and everyone there after that I was wearing a helmet, with a hi-visibility jacket and was well positioned on the road. This did not stop me being hit. It did ensure that the driver was firmly in the wrong. He is being charged with a driving offence. As cyclists, day or night, we need to do all we can to be seen. It not only puts us on the right side of the law, but it keeps us safe nearly all the time.

Looks like I need to get over my fear of yellow…

My Globe Daily 1 bike has finally arrived! It took over 3 weeks after ordering it online from Evans Cycles, but it was worth the wait for the fact that it was all setup, bar attaching the pedals and straightening the handlebars. They even provide a free multitool.

Normally, I wouldn’t have bought a bike that I hadn’t a chance to try first, but all the research I did led me to the Globe Daily as the bike I wanted: a modern hybrid bike with retro styling. My heart was set and I love its looks even more in the flesh…

It has a front basket/rack (does rack sounds more manly?) with integrated d-lock holder. I’m still in two minds about whether to keep this on or not. On the one hand, it’s been useful for errands like fetching the family a takeaway, but it’s not big enough for my Macbook, so I still need a bag for commuting. Can’t decide if it looks ‘chap’ (as I hope) or just a little bit too feminine. Also the D-lock holder is a great idea, but my Kryptonite lock has a bulge on one side that means it doesn’t quite fit:

At first I thought I’d got the wrong size frame, but after saddle adjustment and getting used the different riding position too (less upright), I’m happy I got the right size.

After the mountain bike, it took a few days to get used to the bumpiness of a road bike – going from a soft but inefficient ride to a bumpy yet speedy one. A rattling rear mudguard and the D lock in its holder added to the bone-shaking feel, but now that they’re sorted it feels much less so. I might try slightly wider tyres at some point as it comes with 28c, but 35 could help soften the ride a bit.

The Daily 1 has only 3 gears compared to the 20-odd on the old bike, but each gear feels right. If anything, it feels like it could do with one more higher gear, as #3 feels fairly easy going on flats. All is good!

Finally, I must thank Simon Clayson and Matt Carey, who have been a constant source of wisdom in my search for the right bike, and getting it setup right. Thanks chaps!

Looking through the various cycling magazines, the majority seemed to focus on either Mountain Biking, Racing or health and fitness. I wanted to read something general, that wasn’t too heavy on the Lycra. I finally plumped for one, which was OK, but it just left me feeling that I should’ve spent even more money on my bike.

Fortunately, I found 2 magazines online that fitted the bill perfectly: Boneshaker and The Ride. Both are magazines that you would buy simply because they are lovely objects to behold – beautiful design, commissioned illustration and print quality (they smell gorgeous). Stonking good reads too of course!

Boneshaker

boneshaker’ magazine is a collection of articles, stories and anecdotes about people and projects doing great things with bicycles. Full to the brim with photography and illustration, we hope that it will both inspire and entertain, raise awareness and bring a smile to your face…and appeal to both bike-heads and to those who may not yet even have experienced the true joy and freedom that can be found from our two-wheeled friends.

The Ride

The idea was to create a journal of personal stories. Bikes have changed people’s lives in so many ways and we wanted to gather a small selection of these tales. We didn’t want to give reviews or race reports, we wanted to get under the skin and expose the passion that flows through riders veins…
As well as the incredible writing we also wanted the magazine to be equally strong visually. Artists, illustrators, photographers were all approached and they have helped give The Ride the stunning visual style it has.

As a Brucey Bonus, issue 1 is available as a free PDF download (direct link)

So with this renewed enthusiasm for cycling, I’ve been looking for a new bike. I currently ride a cheap mountain bike (very cheap – it was free with a dishwasher) which gets me to work and back just fine, but isn’t ideal. I don’t think I’ll ever be a mountain biker, or need a fast road-only bike, so a hybrid was what I needed. I also wanted something that looked more retro than sporty, something a Chap might ride.

After some research, I soon found a dream bike that epitomised everything I wanted aesthetically in a bicycle, the Pashley Guvnor:

Handmade in Stratford Upon Avon, these classic bikes have so much character and it was the Guvnor I particularly lusted after. At £865 though, it’s something I’ll have to work towards. Looking at the more affordable end, I fortunately found the Globe Daily One Hybrid Bike:

Exactly the kind of retro styling that I was looking for, but combined with modern technology like internal hub gears. There were more practical bikes out there, but I fell in love with the Globe! It’s been ordered, and will hopefully arrive in a couple of weeks.