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Recently went through this process myself. My conclusions were to buy two locks, 1 D-lock and 1 chain type lock. Rationale: any lock can be broken given the will; d-locks and chains require different kit to break; it's likely that a thief will only carry one set of kit; having two different locks increases the difficulty somewhat.

The best rated locks I found were:

D-locks: Kryptonite New York or Fughedaboudit (the small yellow one), ABUS Granit X-Plus 54
Chains: ABUS Steel-o-Flex, any of the ABUS/Kryptonite chunky chains.

I just use my D-lock in the day, there are plenty of bikes round where I am with crap locks that would be far easier to nick.

Courant

Dammit, you should obviously make sure your general bike setup is good first, stuff like saddle height, position, tilt etc. But if you heel is sticking out naturally and you change te cleats to effectively force it back in, you could make things worse.

As a quick and simple test, sit down somewhere where you legs can dangle without touching the ground and see what way your toes point (out/in/straight). If they naturally point in, you really shouldn't force them back, as this will have a knock-on effect to your knees, and possibly upto your back. These things are way more connected then you might think ;-). You should adjust the cleats so that your foot points in it's natural direction.

Apart from the fact your heel was kicking out, was this causing any issues origianlly, like pain/discomfort?

+1

Few more points. You can check your foot orientation simply by lying on your back. Your feet will naturally flop a little to the outside - have someone see how far this is for you and it should be obvious if either one foot is more than another or if you're feet are pointing quite far out. My right is a little more turned out than my left so I correct for it. A mate (non cyclist!) has feet that point out 45 degrees, no joke!!!

It might be a fore/aft cleat position thing too.

It could also be a muscular imbalance round the upper thigh/hip - the muscles that control the rotation of the leg. Hard to tell without the aid a physio.

I'd vote for paying some cash out and seeing someone who knows about bike fitting.

Courant

Touche is great, love mine and great mail order service from the shop.

If you go for it, you'll most probably be wanting the 60cm frame, unless you're very short in the legs. Their 60cm frame (measured c-t - which I have and I'm also 6'1") is actually 56-57cm c-c seat tube, 57cm top tube. Best thing is to get your measurements and have a chat to them on the phone, they'll be able to advise you and get the stem length more or less right.

Couple of other points - the capo looks very much a track bike, whereas the touche is solidly road. This means the handling is more chill (a good thing IMO) but also it has mounts and clearances for mudguards and a rack should you wish to fix them, which you may well do if you're commuting.

Courant

Skoota, my left knee has felt the same for 6-9 months now. Not hurting, but I'm aware of a slight inflammation and pressure under the knee cap.

I should probably lay of riding for a while, but it's such a huge pain to get the bus to work and I miss the bike. My two week touring holiday in France and Spain next month probably won't help...

I'd really get this sorted - what's mild discomfort now could very well develop into chronic tendonitis or cartilage problems. Chances are one of four things is happening: too big a gear; saddle too low; knee too far forward (either as a result of foot/pedal position or saddle being too far forward); your knee is swaying side to side during your pedal stroke. Quad strengthening always helps.

Courant

oblique - don't have looks but a set of time impact road pedals (very similar system to the looks). No problems at all with them, they work great on fixed.

However, check which cleat you have before forking out for a pair of keo pedals (if that's what you decide to do) - older look cleats and those for the newer keos look very similar but are incompatible (the keos are smaller, IIRC).

If you're riding road, I'd probably go with the looks, I've heard eggbeaters give you hotspots when riding for longer periods. Alternatively, virtually any road pedal cleat system will be compatible with your road shoes (you just unscrew the cleat and screw the new one in, and the cost of the cleat compared to the pedal is small, so you're not losing much by changing the cleat) so you're not constrained to just the looks. Again, I highly recommend Time road pedals! This guy knows his stuff: http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/features/rxspedals.shtml

Courant

this is weird cause i have been having just the left knee feeling funny for a week or so, it dosn't really hurt just feels...there. Do you know what i mean? I bought a smaller sprockt the other day and it's not got any better yet, might try the gluco and cod liver option thanks courant.

Dude, supplements are not a cure and certainly won't help in the short term! If you've got pain, you've got to find the reason for that pain ASAP, for there will be one. Changed anything recently? Saddle, position, number of miles per week, pedals? Your big gear could well be a problem, but if you've aggravated your knee, you won't see any improvement by using the smaller sprocket until your injury calms down. So, rest, ice, ibuprofen. Where's the pain? Front (under the kneecap), back, inside, outside? This gives a clue as to what might be causing the problem. What's the nature of the pain? Ache, click, sharp?

Courant

Oh, and a few more things...

Consider taking glucosamine & cod liver oil supplements. Opinion is divided about whether this will provide any short term effect (it seems to work for some people) but it does appear that this will lessen your chances of arthritis later on. Also, for both of these the risk of side effects is very low.

Knee supports don't actually do much in this case - they're more useful for muscular injuries. Your issue is going to be stability and a bit of neoprene is not going to add much and, if anything, might give you a false sense of security.

Courant

I had meniscus surgery on both knees. I have to just take it a bit easy and I cant ride quite as hard as I used to and take a break at the sign of any pain. The whole thing really bums meet out. My bike is a massive part of my life and I feel awful when I cant ride. Old age I suppose. C'est La Vie.....sigh...

In which case you need to proceed carefully! However, don't be bummed out about it, there's plenty you can do - keep a really positive attitude.

What I understand about cycling and knee injuries is that cycling puts your joints through a very controlled range of movement. You can only do yourself damage if one of two things happens: you lack stability in the joint (and this will be an issue with menisci injuries); you're loading your knee in an abnormal manner. Fortunately, both of these issues can be addressed: stability can be gained by strength training (not just the big muscles, but also all the supporting muscles and your core group); abnormal loading by proper positioning on the bike and the pedals (which will involve finding a pair of pedals that gives you the movement and position you need to make your body work), and, of course, gearing down so you reduce the amount of force going through the knee.

Getting yourself into a position when you can ride regularly may take some time and effort but is definitely achievable if you put your mind to it. (Why not write a blog too about your efforts - my gf found a really informative blog by an active sportsman recovering from an ACL injury and it was both really helpful and inspiring). View it as a challenge not a hinderance!

First off, I would find a good physio who's also a cyclist (and ideally has coached cyclists). They'll be able to make sure you're not doing yourself damage and can ensure you've got enough stability and, if not, give you a training plan to give you that stability.

Go and find a good pilates teacher for extra stability work.

Get fitted, as others have said. Buy new pedals at the same time and work out what might work. (Speedplay & Time are the obvious two candidates for good biomechanics)

Take it easy!

Courant

What kind of surgery? I only ask because my gf had her ACL done a couple of years ago and my sis too, together with cartilage issues. As I understand it, cartilage/miniscus problems can cause more complications, but if it's ligament damage rehab is pretty good as long as you take it easy and take time to build up strength/stability. Although (and you might not like this) by gut reaction is that you should take ever effort to reduce the potential for adverse forces on your knee. This means: get pedals that allow as much free float as possible (so your knee can find the most advantageous alignment); gear down as low as possible (and learn to spin to maintain your speed!); sort out your bike position by getting fitted properly. (That said, I'm no medical expert, just a keen sportsman who's seem a few people go through knee injuries!)

Courant

Pearson Touche. They don't quote prices for the frame-only but I'm sure they'd sell you one and it would be reasonable, they're really friendly. It's firmly in the road geometry camp 72 or 73 degree seat tube, although the wheelbase is quite long to accomodate slightly fatter tyres and mudguards if you wish. It has bosses for just about everything - two bottles, mudguards, rear rack. With a carbon fork, it's a really nice ride, I'm super impressed with mine - it's clearly not in the same league but it compares favourably with my carbon Look! Handling is reasonable snappy but not edgy - you can quite happily don a jacket while cycling along. Surprisingly smooth ride too. I think it's a really good compromise and my riding patterns sound very similar to yours: commuting plus weekend riding up to ~70miles, plus the odd TT.

I'm going to write a decent review of it here when I get a chance, because I'm dead chuffed with mine, it fills a distinct niche and doesn't get commented on much here because it's not up there in the same coolness league as various track bikes.

Courant

I too have a pair, red pad, white stitching. Put it this way - they're cheap and they do the job (and as such they're very extremely good value) but when they're the last pair of shorts I'd chose to take on any ride lasting over, say, an hour. The padding is just about ok, the fabric is thin and wearing/stretching quite a bit so it doesn't hold you together as much. On the plus side, they're flat stitched and the cut suits me well. As a budget commuting pair that get worn daily on short rides to and from work, great, I'd almost definitely buy another pair. For any other usage, I'd suggest you look elsewhere - in my experience, money spent on shorts is money well spent. Again, judge these on time - 1hr is about the cutoff for these IMO.

For mid-priced bib shorts, Pearl Izumi suit me really well and I think they're excellent value given the amount of use I've put them through. I have both the Attack and the Slice Ultrasensor, and both are excellent.

Courant

Geniuses are great, they're absolutely the ones to go for if you're a roadie. The rubber pad on the heel allows you to walk around fine, assuming your cleat lets you!

What pedal do you use?

Courant

+1 for the sidis too! Although try them out for the size, the "up one" strategy might not suit - I'm a slim 45 for normal shoes, and my sid's are 45 as well.

Courant

Time cleats for Time pedals! Different brand, different "type", same concept. Every pedal manufacturer has their own system.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=tech/2003/reviews/time_impact-mag-ti

Courant

I use my Time Impact road pedals on my fixed and they're absolutely fine. No issue clipping in. I can recommend time cleats for walking in - you make a bit of a clip-clop sound but you don't slip around!

Courant

Interesting, because the frame should be ballpark fine (although verging on the small size) for 6'1". What are the actual bike dimensions (seat tube and top tube centre-to-centre) and how high do you have your saddle (centre of botton-bracket to saddle top)?

For sure the stem and bars may need adjusting. Another possibility is the saddle position, maybe it's too far forward or the stem does not have enough set back? If you move the saddle back, clearly you increase the reach to the bars, but it also enables you to bring the saddle down a bit, because the distance from your hips to your feet has increased with a purely horizontal saddle movement.

Also, where exactly is you back hurting? Shoulders or lower back?

Courant

Panniers are absolutely the way forward!!!! I think one of the biggest crimes commited by cyclists unto themselves is not using panniers because they think they're either uncool or heavy - once you try them, there's no looking back!

Seriously, a pannier weighs about the same as a rucksack, the only extra weight you add is a rack, which is about 500g. In practical terms, this is, what 0.6% of a typical 80kg rider+bike+kit combo. In other words, nothing, you're not going to notice the extra weight unless you're cycling up long big hills. On the flip side, you'l be cycling more efficiently because you haven't got a bag on your back.

Anyway, panniers can be cool in a retro way... I can highly recommend a Carradice Bike Bureau for combining immense practicality (it's the best bag I've ever owned, it's just perfectly designed - see the review below) with old-skool pannier coolness :-)

http://www.etherfarm.com/synapse/archives/product_review_2003_carradice_bike_bureau/

+1 for the saddlebags too, love them!

Courant

The other thing with thighs is gearing. As others have said, it's pretty hard to bulk up just by riding, you'll just tone up your legs (and bum and tum, for that matter too!). However, doing fast short rides with a big gear has potential to add bulk. No fear, 9 miles is plenty long enough and pick a spinny gear and you'll be fine!

Courant

You do need to try a few, but it makes sense to optimise the "money spent" vs "chance of finding your saddle" tradeoff. As such, can I suggest you start with a San Marco Rolls. They don't suit everyone but they're definitely down the comfy end of the spectrum and the tend to suit a lot of people. Plus, Parker International have them on sale around the £18 mark at the minute and they can be typically had around the £20 mark.

Courant

Two seasonal ones for you:

Broad beans at the minute are great. Broad bean risotto is simple and delicious, with really nice delicate flavour. Chop an onion finely and sweat very gently in olive oil. When it's gone translucent, add shelled broad beans and rice, stir to coat the rice and continue heating for a few minutes till the rice goes a little translucent. Add an optional half a glass of white wine, turn the heat up. Add vegan stock (dilute it more than it says on the packet, otherwise the flavour will overwhelm the beans). Cook/stir/add stock as per risotto to get the consistency right (google this if you haven't done it before!). Delicious!

Also, swiss chard is in season, or failing that, so too is spinach. Either works really well with black-eyed-beans. Soak the beans overnight. Next day boil them up for an hour or so. Drain most of the liquid, but not all (the liquid level should come about a third to halfway up the pan). While the beans are cooking, chop and gently fry and onion & garlic in a frying pan with olive oil. When this is cooked, throw in the chopped chard or spinach and cook for another 5 mins. Use lots of green! Chuck this lot into the partially drained beans. Add salt, pepper, and cumin. Cook further until the beans are well done. Add lots of lemon and lots of chopped flat-leaf parsley. Add some more, you probably haven't added enough! Serve with rice or flat bread. A middle eastern recipe, a lot of middle eastern cooking is very veggie friendly. I can highly recommend any of the books by Tess Mallos, Claudia Roden or Sonia Uvezian.

Enjoy!

Courant

The argument still holds. Take journeys around, say, the N Circular. It's quite easy to have a commute of ~15miles each way (Enfield-Ealing, for argument's sake) which will take you around 45mins door-to-door, compared to a much longer tube journey in and out of central london. Cost would be £7.50 (25p a mile). OK, maybe a bit more because you'll be stuck in traffic. This compares very favourably to a tube ticket, especially if there are two of you. If you're in a client-facing job, cycling may well not be an option for that journey. Using a car is not an unsensible option (from an individual perspective) in this instance.

Courant

Hello,

Some more about the economics.... Background: at the minute I live outside of london and do a fair few miles for my job, so I've worked this out quite closely because it makes quite a bit of difference to my cashflow! I also ran a car while being a student (for a variety of reasons), so I'm also had experience running a car on a really tight budget.

Basically, it's quite easy to run a car for a total cost of ownership between 20-35p a mile (including fuel, tax , service, depreciation, everything!) for a quite a wide range of number of miles per year (anything from 4000 -> 30000)

Typical example (low mileage):

Car cost - £1500 (8yr old Honda Civic, say, enough for a family, reliable, economical)
Finance cost at 6% - £90
Depreciation at 20% - £300
Annual Service - £150
Insurance - £400
Tax - £150
Fuel 6000miles at 15p a mile - £900
Consumables (tyres, oil, etc.) 3p a mile - £180

So, fixed costs per year of £910 or £2.50 a day. Variable cost of 18p a mile with a total cost of £2170 or £6 a day. Total cost per mile is 36p. Do 12000 miles and the per mile figure drops to 27p.

35p per mile is about the same price as the train for long distance routes, if you can get a cheap train ticket (a big "if", especially if you have to travel at peak times), so you're winning as long as you do a reasonable number of miles.

If you do lots of miles, it pays to "buy" fuel economy by trading it off against depreciation. For example, get a newer turbo-diesel:

Car cost - £8000
Finance - £480
Depreciation - £1600
Service - £400
Insurance - £400
Tax - £150
Fuel 25000miles at 11p a mile - £2750
Consumables (tyres, oil, etc.) 3p a mile - £750

Fixed costs are then £3030 or £8.30 a day, variable cost 14p a mile, total cost £6530 or £17.90 a day, giving a cost per mile of 26p.

What I'm saying is that if you travel more than about 100miles a week cross-country, a car works out cheaper than a train, and far more flexible: if I were to replace my regular work car journeys with train trips, one wouldn't be possible (it would have to be a cab or a very long bus route) and the others would more than treble my travlling times for a similar in cost. Using the train really isn't worth it! In town, and for local journeys, I cycle - if that's all I did, I'd sell my car. And I agree, owning a car in central london is a bit excessive.

This is where change is needed if we're going to cut car usage. Trains have to be better and, most importantly, cheaper than driving. And everything possible should be done to force people out of cars in the city centre. Here's where green taxation really has a use, assuming it's done such that the net tax increase is zero (i.e. green taxes should be used to reduce the tax bill for everyone else, say, by a reduction in income tax). I'm also strongly in favour of road charging - I don't consider it fair that someone in the middle of wales should be clobbered for driving 10 miles to the local shops, just because millions of people chose to get stuck in jams in city centres rather than make use of alternatives.

Courant

I'm absolutely dead chuffed with my Pearson Touche and it has a number of reasonably unique points as far as OTP options go: it has mountings for mudguards and a rack; it will take up to 28mm tyres with mudguards; the geometry is more relaxed road rather than edgy track; this last point is particularly helpful when loading up the rack, it still handles respectably well with 15kg on the back; no toe overlap; the frame is very light, and the whole thing is fast enough that I may even consider doing a time trial on it! Plus the staff at Pearson are super helpful and accommodating - despite being an OTP, you can basically spec it up as you like and they'll do their best to meet your needs. If the touche is too expensive (basic price is £550) they also do a version with a cheaper frame but similar concept around the £450 mark. Well worth looking at, it's an excellent package at an excellent price and a really nice ride to boot.

Courant

http://www.lutoncameras.co.uk/

They are olympus authorised and very good, they serviced a number of my OM cameras over the years (until I sold up and went digital...!). Give them a call, they'll be able to give you an estimate over the phone. With the OM-1, it might be worth servicing it anyway if you've never done this, the seals can wear and the mechanism needs a bit of TLC every now and then. Great camera though, I really abused mine and it never let me down!

However, if you're on a budget, I'd second the external lightmeter recommendation.

Courant

Doh, just noticed you've probably already done the ride to Brighton! What tyres did you end up getting?

Courant