Search results for:

Is it just me or does your rear wheel look slightly oval?

It's leaning quite a bit into the wall but that still looks mental. I think I might have left the panorama setting on; I used it in one of my other tags to get more in shot but sometimes the stitching goes a bit woobly. Can't really remember now. Haha.

Just figured out the other tag too, but I guess Crop's already on it.

Well here's the old tag. Got me out of the house :D

No idea where the new one is, sadly, but that'll teach me to have been so lazy with the last few.

Oh, and double piss, a new tag. Haha, well at least it was a nice ride.

Aw, piss. Right when I got off my arse and got to the tag as well. Well, I'll go off and tag something new and see what anyone decided on here when I get back.

Was too lazy to get the last two that were just around the corner and now I am punished with this, which I had always wanted to tag!

Urghhff, miles away, though. Hnngh.

^Unfortunate choice of name- given your experience.

Ha, too true. I was also wearing my most aggressive t-shirt with a load of different sharks on it, which failed to intimidate them in any way. So as an FYI, 5 sharks is not enough sharks to intimidate a gang of youths.

The weirdest part of the whole ordeal was when I was being given the guided tour of my neighbourhood by the undercover cops; the sheer amount of people on the streets, normal unassuming see-them-every-day people, and I mean this was about every third person, at just 11.30 on a Thursday night on a busy-ish road, was known to them. Cheery waves or one finger salutes passed back and forth. Crazy.

Guess I'm more lucky that it took this long for anything to actually happen and I got off so lightly in comparison. Mental. Hope the poor rider heals up fast.

Yeah, I stay well away from the park and the canal at night now. This kind of thing is exactly why I came here looking for a new bike in the first place - jumped by the canal in Victoria Park, teenagers with a knife to my chest. This was only a few weeks back, so I can't help but wonder if it's the same bunch.

The police were as helpful as they could be, I thought - we spent a good hour driving around the neighbourhood with one of the undercover crews that had been camped out nearby but seems like these kids can lurk anywhere and disappear completely in a matter of minutes.

And it's not like the canal isn't busy either, I'd only just overtaken a girl on a boris bike and an elderly lady walking her dog, so I was glad at least it hadn't been them. I'd been up and down that same stretch of park and canal twice a day for two years, stone throwing kids and all. You can just never know if it's safe off the main roads around there, apparently even in broad daylight now. Please be careful out there!

Sorry about that, had to rush the uploads due to the biblical amounts of wet coming down. Hopefully they should show now?

Guess I need a better mobile solution for this if I get to do another...

Sodden but victorious

Old tag - Irie Dance Studio, Fordham Park:

New - I wonder, wil tons of people already know this one? Related to the previous, in many ways.

Sorry if the pics are massive, fist time caller n that.

Ouch, cheers for the warning! Maybe I should try and get that and the chainset/cranks upgraded before the other bits I wanted to change then.

Is that a noticeably catastrophic event when it goes or does it just seize/grind/erupt into holy flame? I really should learn about the insidey bits of these things properly...

I started on the 46/15 they give on the fuji track, first fixed i ever mounted, i got used to it in the city but it is very high still if you're stopping and starting all the time. I changed the 15 to a 17 not long ago. The multi-tool from condor is quite useful and they sell cogs for like 7£ there.

I test rode with the 46/15 fixed and it was surprisingly stiff. It *was *the first time I've ever ridden a fixed as well, so maybe that threw me a little...

The shop fitted a 16 on the freewheel side for nowt and that feels just about perfect, maybe a little spinny when I get to higher speeds, which I guess will get more noticeable as I get a bit fitter.

Anyways, here it be;

And that's right - sparkly ass metallic brown, yo.

Thanks again to everybody for all the help, it's really appreciated and I'm brimming with glee every time I've ridden it so far. Now I just need to learn how to take it all to pieces and find shiny new things to fit...

Saw this the other day, not quite as cheap as reflectors but could be good for visibility/budget-tron-cycle shenanigans

The Nite Ize Spokelit multicolored lights - YouTube

[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nite-Ize-Spokelit-Bicycle-Light/dp/B001SN8IUM

](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nite-Ize-Spokelit-Bicycle-Light/dp/B001SN8IUM)And something similar but less jazzy from Cateye;
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=64511

Haha, I haven't even been to the shop yet, so you poor folks are bearing the brunt of my ignorance at the moment. I'm hoping if I go in having done a little bit of homework I can be sure to get exactly what I'm after and not walk out having spent all my money on boxes of out-of-date energy bars and no bike.

Think I have a handle on it now, though. [strike]Higher the teeth the better for a beginner, I guess? [/strike] Nevermind, been reading through some gear ratio threads and can vaguely follow now, looks like 46/18 might be good then.

Thanks again for all the help, I know I sound like a dumbass right now but it's all been super helpful to me.

This is where the holes in my two-weeks old beginners knowledge start to show through...

So, as long as I get a sprocket with the same amount of teeth as the old one - I can get the chain off, wheel off, flip wheel, screw on sprocket, put wheel back on, put chain back on, tension chain and tighten wheels? And the tensioning can just be done by eye safely enough?

Just worried about having to do anything with the chain, like changing links or the like.

Hopefully i'll have recovered enough that I can drag myself down there on Thursday but if you do happen by again, that'd be amazing! Superstar!

Worst comes to worst I can try and put the thing on myself. I have a friend with some 'tools'. What can possibly go wrong, eh?

Haven't actually made it to the shop yet, my run of crappy luck has culminated in being bedridden with some ill the past few days.
**
ltc - **Thanks for the recommendation - I'll most likely be on this every day as well, so it's good to hear it holds up!

shams99 - Awesome, that's great to know! Was hoping they could drop a new sprocket on the flip-flop and put the wheel on the other way round but that'd probably be fine for now too. Cheers for the info, much appreciated!

Cheers guys! Awesome help and damned fast too; think I can probably hop down the shop tomorrow and get measured up, finally.
**
prevailrob** - Thanks for the info! I'll try and get them to put some clipless pedals on. I don't think I trust myself with them yet, especially with all the wet around these days.

miro_o - I honestly hadn't considered bargain-fu; usually I'm too concerned about not looking clueless in case I get sweet-talked into buying stuff I don't need... But I'll give it a go!

Dammit - Cheers for the advice! I'll keep the fixed sprocket then, just in case. Maybe once I'm a bit more used to the feel of the bike I can give it a try.

Super excited about this. Haha!

I'm thinking of getting one of these from Evans as my first singlespeed for commuting with. But, as I know sweet chuff-all about bikes, I had a few, likely imbecilic, questions...

The flip-flop hub doesn't appear to come with a sprocket on the freewheel side, which I'd prefer to use. Is this something I could reasonably fit myself or is it something i can ask the bike shop chaps to do for me? Can I take the one off of the fixed side, or should I just buy a new one?

If it is something I could do, does anyone know if the stock chainwheel is 1/8 or 3/32? I'm presuming I'll need to get a chain whip and follow some video tutes to get everything off?

It looks like they fit both brakes as standard but is there anything else I'd need to do to make it good for road use? Are clips a good idea on London roads? I've never used them before and worried I'll need a month in the park to get comfortable enough to avoid going teeth first into taxi.

Cheers :S

Slick work, fingers. Slick work.

Took me a good minute to spot that. Now I have 'You can Call me Al' in my head.

Cheers for the welcome!

Oh hai!

I'm new to basically everything - started cycling a year or two ago for the ol' commute, riding an armchair of a bike with too many gears and a frame made primarily of suspension. It was an expensive hassle to look after and pretty much falling apart when I was mugged and bikejacked on the canal. So they kinda did me a favour taking it off my hands.

For the last couple of weeks I've started obssesively trawling these forums and I'm now looking to get my first singlespeed, probably an off-the-peg, as everyone selling used seems to be 8 feet tall and I have no idea how to put something together myself yet. I'd love to find out more about learning to build and do maintenance and generally try and get less clueless about all this stuff.

Yes.

Oh, I'm in East London btw. Pleasure to meet you al!