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Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

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Richt
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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by Richt »

blahblah wrote:You still a lard ass?
Just knew that would be your predictable come back :P

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by blahblah »

8-) :lol:

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by Richt »

Built for comfort not for speed. But atleast I am insulated on my bike......

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by Matty B »

yup ... didnt contribute but bought a hybrid bike last year and cycled it once or twice a week to work - circa 2.5 miles and quite flat - and still managed to find myself knackered despite being relatively young and not overweight.

have just been talked into a 40 mile cycle in April so am now attempting to up (read - begin ! )my training ... any tips would be gratefully received.

tues night in the gym i did a hilly programme on difficulty 3 (of 25) for 6 miles as a 1st step and it was fairly comfortable.

anyone got some tips for building up at a reasonable pace ... prefer being in the gym right now while it is dark as am not a huge fan of road cycling in the dark in london with all of the traffic etc and all the stopping and starting that entails.

(details of the ride here if anyone else fancies .. http://www.ukcyclingevents.co.uk/events ... -sportive/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by blahblah »

(From the Armstrong\Ferrari school of cycling) I would suggest getting your rpm up as high as possible, and increase the pedalling difficulty while keeping the rpm high.

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by unc.si. »

Matty - just a case of riding your bike 3 or 4 times a week. Anyone can get up to 40 miles given a reasonable level of starting fitness just by riding your bike. Don't need to do anything too scientific. The main thing is just getting your leg muscles adapted to riding. Can you find some quiet roads near where you live and either extend the commute onto traffic free roads or bridleways or go out on quiet roads at the weekend? Do a few weeks or 5 or 6 mile rides to get used to it then try to do 10-20 milers, with the odd longer one thrown in

As blah says, use the gears and keep your legs spinning - not at stupid levels, but more like 80rpm compared to the 50 or 60 that people often do when they start out.

One other tip that's not always as obvious as it sounds is not to push down on the pedal with your 'dead' leg - sounds daft but a lot of people will still (without realising it) have weight on the pedal when it's on the upstroke. Some of the power generated by your left leg therefore goes into lifting your right leg. It's surprising how much difference it makes when you just try and lift your leg slightly once it's on the upstroke (just unweighting it slightly really - you can't actually pull upwards unless you have clipless pedals). Try to concentrate on pedalling in circles, rather than just mashing up and down (another tip is, at the bottom of the pedal stroke to imagine you're scraping dogshit off the bottom of your shoe).

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by blahblah »

Sorry, my tip was for at the gym - and get some proper shoes and pedals, and try pulling back and lifting with unc's "dead-leg". I noticed a huge difference on hills trying to pedal all the way round with both legs.

EDIT: I assume the machine in the gym has an rpm function.

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by Matty B »

thanks guys for the advice ... the machine has an rpm display but i didn't know what i was looking for on it so that gives me a great idea.

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by blahblah »

If you do not have the shoes and pedals - it is sale time, and 40 miles will be a lot less painful with them :wink:

Although as someone far wiser than me once said, it never gets easier, you just go faster :lol:

The other tip is to try to welcome\like the pain.

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by Matty B »

I have no idea what shoes I am meant to be wearing (currently some old nike air max) or what pedals to aim for ??

Have so far spent no money on any gear and wasn't planning to go mad (except maybe padded shorts?) but all suggestions gratefully received

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by blahblah »

Depends what you use the bike for.

If you want to use it for short stuff, and longer rides then get combination pedals. One side is for cleats (proper shoes) and the other side plain (for your trainers). Shimano M324, are available for under £30, I think.

Cleats normally come with the pedals, but you do need shoes with holes in the right place fo fix them.. It is handy to know that these are clipless, which is some sort of through back to before cleats, when pedals had a clip over the top of the foot.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... delID=5937" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is a link, but the site was crawling on my laptop when I looked.

You will also need a thin, adjustable wrench (and maybe a hammer if the existing ones are gunked up) - which is more useful than a proper spanner.

If you don't want it for short use, and walking in between eg shopping, then you can get plain cleat ones for a bit less.

Having got cleats, there is no way I would ride 40 miles in plain pedals and trainers.....

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by unc.si. »

Just a couple of other quick tips if you've not done much cycling:

keep your tyres pumped up to the recommended pressure and check them regularly (reduces rolling resistance and reduces punctures).

know how to fix a flat, and carry a spare tube - so much easier than trying to find a piddling hole in your tube on the side of the road and attempting to fix it.

Get your seat at the right height, which is usually slightly higher than you first think. Quick rule of thumb is that if you sit on the seat and extend your leg down and slightly forward you should be able to just fully extend your leg with your HEEL on the pedal. That should be about right and means that your leg won't quite be fully extended when you're pedalling normally. If your hips are rocking a bit and that feels a bit overextended then drop it a bit. If your quads burn when your riding then put the seat up a touch. Once you've got it right measure it and write it down / mark the seatpost. A lot of casual cyclists have their seat too low.

Obviously the first two don't apply in the gym :lol:

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by WilBert »

Stabilisers off my daughter's bike this evening and she's riding brilliantly 8-)

New bike needed. Quick read through this post and got as far as this bargain via one of the handy links.
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... _Bike_2008" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyone have a recommendation please?

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by unc.si. »

You're not going anywhere near Nottingham or Sheffield anytime soon are you. You can have one of my kids old ones. All still in good nick.

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by WilBert »

Very generous of you, not anywhere near soon though.

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by unc.si. »

OK - worth asking anyway.

re kids bikes, I've tended to get mine from bike shops rather than supermarkets. Some of the ones I've seen in Sports Direct / Tesco / Toys R Us have been scary (paper thin brake parts). They tend to like selling 'suspension' bikes, with massive, heavy springs that do absolutely nothing, as well.

End of the day though at that age most things will be OK I guess. I'd just always prefer buying from a shop that sells bikes when at least there's a good chance they've been built up with all the bits in the right place.

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by DrBunker »

unc.si. wrote:They tend to like selling 'suspension' bikes, with massive, heavy springs that do absolutely nothing, as well.
I used to work in Halfords and can attest to this. They usually had an inch of travel if you really hammered them and weighed so much it was ridiculous. Best avoided.

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by WilBert »

Can anyone recognise this bike please? It has RST forks and marin6061 handlebars.

Image

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by unc.si. »

looks like a supermarket jobbie to me. No idea though really.

Looks heavy. Not heard of RST forks but they look cheap.

Why's the saddle pointing to the sky?? :lol:

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by WilBert »

Luggage scales say 13.5kg :lol: Probably a cheapo but it'll do me as I'm fed up of jogging after the little one on her new bike. Just wondered what make it was to see how much of a bargain my outlay was. Shimano gears and Michelin tyres and everythin' too I'll have you know.

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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by unc.si. »

Yeah - it'll do fine for that.

13.5kg - ouch

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john89
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Re: Loking for a Good Bike for Less Than £150

Post by john89 »

I think under £150 bikes are not wise choice. I would better go up over 400 to buy a dynamic bycycle or it's better to buy used one to get settled with the budget.

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