Saturday 31 August 2013

Light 'er up!

I was planning this weekend to take the train to Lincoln, then ride along a stretch of The Water Railway route and finish off on the road to where my mum lives for a visit. Unfortunately a train derailed this week and ruined the track, so no trains are going that way for a week.

As the plan was to ride a lot of B roads, many with hedges and sharp turns, I ordered a flag mount to make my recumbent a bit more visible to the mad boyracers and motorcyclists who seem to think that slowing down for blind corners is a courtesy too far.

The mount I got was the type that fits on the rear axle of the bike. It comes pre-drilled with three holes which I guess are to allow you to bolt the mount in place through rack/mudguard eyelets.

These weren't quite big enough, so out came the cylindrical file (I also had to lop off a bit of a corner because of the derailleur, but have no photo of that):

Because the pole is so long and one of the attachments is pretty heavy, I felt it'd be safer if it were attached at two points for stability. The seat is suspended however, so it'd need to be able to flex. I added an elastic band around the rack and threaded the pole through the strap ring of the bag to give it some extra stability:


That red thing on the pole is the result of my thinking ahead to winter or when the weather is poor; I added a strip light. This was too heavy towards the top of the flag pole, so I mounted it above head-height. It should complement the existing rear light.

Here's a video of it in action (during a test phase, when it was much higher):


Wednesday 28 August 2013

Learning to ride a recumbent

I bought my Nazca Fuego used from a specialist shop in Edinburgh called Laid Back Bikes operated by one David Gardiner. It took a few laps of the little road outside his shop to be able to start at all but eventually I got the very basics.

Schlepping it home on the train to Nottingham was not even slightly fun, nor was pushing it the remaining mile to my flat, but the next day I managed to take it to the nearby Park Estate which is fairly quiet and has a good layout for cycling.

I was still very unsteady by this point, as you can see here:


I've since learnt to stay upright more consistently and can set off confidently now. My turning circle is still really wide and my fitness is pretty poor, so there's a long way to go before I master it!

Tuesday 27 August 2013

Trying new shoes and SPDs

I've used a combination of SPD and Crank Bros. cleats for a while now, both in a beaten old pair of Specialized Tahoe shoes.

I get a bit of toe cramp/pain when riding the recumbent so I looked around for some advice. Can't remember exactly where I got it, but I read that you should go with light, stiff shoes with adjustable straps when riding recumbent. Sticking with the same brand I plumped for a pair of Specialized Sport MTB shoes as they were stiff, light, had tread (need to put your foot down when you stop) and three straps across the instep, arch and toes as well as a generous toe box. Also, they were on sale :)

I decided to ditch the Crank Bros. in the end. I like the way they clip in and out and have greater (sprung) float than SPD, but the cleats wear out too quickly and the pedals don't have spanner grooves making them a pain to remove; so when I bent one of the arms on my eggbeaters that was the end!

Spending a while in the turbo trainer helped me make small adjustments and test them consistently and safely with no distractions. Having the straps loose at the top and bottom but tight in the middle (after warming up to let the feet expand) worked well. No pain in the right foot but a little in the left after about an hour.

The next upgrade might be a pair of Speedplay Frog pedals as they have a wide (20 degree) free float unlike SPD (5 degree) and are reputed to be the pedal of choice for recumbents.

Bad junction

The last part of my short commute to work involves my stopping at a set of lights and walking my bike along a short pavement to the office. This involves crossing a badly designed road that splits off of Canal Street via a curved junction. This encourages drivers to tear down Canal Street and take the corner at speed, unaware that there is a pedestrian crossing a few metres down the road.

Today someone was driving a large blue people-carrier down Canal Street as I was about to cross. I looked and saw that he wasn't indicating so I stepped out. He turned at speed, deciding to indicate after the fact. I was already in the road by this point so he braked, then stared at me while I finished crossing, then screeched past me beeping his horn.

That junction is badly designed. It should be at a right angle to force motorists to slow down before they take it.

Better storage picture & speed sensor on recumbent

Since Stan whinged about it so much (I'll bet you've never heard so much misogyny and swearing from a northern physicist) here's a better image of my storage setup:


Since I've pretty much recovered from my arm operation I've swapped the trainer tyre for the Marathon Supreme on the recumbent, ready for riding tomorrow and/or at the weekend. I also found time to put the speed sensor back on the rear fork:


It's actually a speed + cadence sensor, but the recumbent setup prevents it from doing both jobs at once as the cranks are more than a metre away from the rear wheel. The cadence sensor is housed in the main body of the unit and the speed sensor on the arm. On a traditional upright bike there is overlap between the cranks and the wheel; not so on a recumbent or on a Brompton (16" wheels) for that matter.

Returning briefly to storage I used to hang my recumbent in my hallway when I had a cross bike (since sold) in the bedroom. I'm pretty sure I was testing the tolerances of the hoist as the recumbent is very heavy and guests told me that they feared to walk underneath it:


Monday 26 August 2013

Brompton storage & seat post modification

The hooks at the maximum width on the bike stand are practically perfect for hanging a Brompton like so:


The left hook fits neatly into the arch where the top tube and seat tube are supported by a short down tube. They're so small when folded that you could store about 4 of them on a single rack if you had enough hooks (why would anyone have four though?)

Also on the Brompton, I installed a Cane Creek Thudbuster ST (from the USA via eBay) to make riding on the cratered moonscape of Lincolnshire's roads a bit easier on the rear. That's also a pretty unusual saddle, an ISM from Trybike:


The Thudbuster is good at smoothing out buzz and bumps especially with the Brompton's already decent rear elastomer suspension. Not cheap though at around £150 from Wiggle and I needed to add a fair amount of weight by installing it into the existing Brompton seat post. It emulates the standard telescopic seatpost in this regard.

Bikes and Storage

I live in a small city-centre flat and have three bikes. They (and their storage) are pictured below (apologies for the poor lighting, took the picture on my phone):


It's a little hard to see but they comprise a Boardman full-sus mountain bike that I use on trails when I can get to them; a Brompton for commuting to work and journeys involving public transport and finally a recumbent that I hope to use for long journeys and weekend riding.

My flat has two bedrooms one of which I either let or keep for guests and no other storage, so all of these bikes hang up in my bedroom.

If you're interested, the 'bent is on a standard wall hook that you can get from most bike shops (it's a Delta Leonardo I think, ~£10). The stand is a Topeak Dual Touch that I got from Wiggle (~£125) and is mounted against one of my roof beams. This setup works well as my ceilings are pretty high, about 3.15 metres and I'm strong enough to lift the top bike in and out. On that note, the recumbent is the hardest to lift in and out as it weighs at least 17kg. Ouch!

I'll go into further detail about the bikes themselves eventually.

First Post

Cycling is one of my favourite hobbies so I thought I'd start a blog about it like my friend who blogs at http://geckocycling.blogspot.co.uk/. Hopefully mine will be less ranty, unless I've been crossed by another van-driving nutter that day :)

I'm not competitive or even particularly fit, I usually ride slowly for medium distances so I'm probably going to concentrate on my recumbent bike, maintenance and equipment rather than anything relating to racing. There will also be the odd moan about cycling infrastructure where I live and where I tend to ride.

I may also post off-topic stuff about my other hobbies.