stapfam

Only a gentle ride today and down to the LBS- Had to enquire about prices on a few parts but I have a problem with the new bike- Only had it a month and the tyres -Both front and Rear- Have a flat area on them. Only about 5 to 600 miles on them but at this rate- I will need new tyres shortly. So decided to look at a new tyre he has in. It is a Tubular tyre for Clincher wheels. In other words- It is a Tyre- with a Tube sewn in(To put it Crudely) and these tyres normally require a special wheel for them but they are lighter and less rolling resistance. They are not cheap and not a name I know but are Called "Tyro" and come 21 or 22 sizing. Only worry from my point of view is Punctures but they also use a Chemical that can be added to the tyre- Either before or after puncture- that WILL seal a puncture. Not certain about that.

Second he has received a bunch of Giant- Limited edition C.F.Frames marked T Moblile "Team". these frames are C.F. and when I picked one up- I could not believe the weight- Or lack of it. I honestly thought he had passed me an empty box- but on opening it there is a frame and forks complete with headset and the claimed weight is 1200 grammes. I do not believe that cos is felt a lot lighter. He is building them up as Bikes for customers to their spec and here is a $4,000 Frame fitted with Ultegra for around $3,500. So if you want a TDF frame- Unused from this year- Then I know where you can get some-Cheap. Only problem with them is the Colour- White.

Had to go for a coffee afterwards to review the prices on a few Upgrades for the Boreas and I might not be changing much on it before the winter- Just have to ride a "Heavy" bike for training purposes this year. Nearly got wiped out by an impatient driver in a traffic jam- but got a result. The car that was closest to me while I was swearing at the driver- Had a couple of big lads in it. They decided to let the driver know what an idiot he was- They were off duty policemen- In the Cycle Division from a Town up North- down here on holiday. And they were BIG.

Ride home and completely unevenfull except for the wildlife. I saw a Ferret- Don't know if you have them but they are "Domesticated" animal that is used for Flushing rabbits out from their warrens. Obviously an escapee but he did have a nice Juicy Burger in his Mouth- Where he got that from I do not know but there is a Restaurant about 1/4 mile away from where I saw it.

Now About that Flipped. Sorry to upset some of you but should be Re-Flipped. I have flipped the stem on the Boreas to give me A lower bar to saddle height. Decided to try it in the week and so far it has not had any adverse effects on the back or the shoulders. In fact-It has cured a problem I was getting after a couple of hours in the saddle of Pins and Needles in the Hands. Still have a problem in deciding if it is right but the bars are now 2" lower than I had them set up and it seems to work.

backinthesaddle

great story, the one about the off-duty cops in the car next to you is a fantasy come true for those of us who want to take matters into our own hands with drivers. what did they end up doing?

I've been having a problem with numb hands, my LBS suggested experimenting with bringing the bars up higher, that hasn't done anything, maybe I should be dropping them a little instead? I'm old school, I've had the bar top more or less even with the saddle, but whenever I watch TDF on TV I'm aware of the awesome drop that the pros have. I think that even if solved my hand problem it would give me a massive crick in the neck though.

stonecrd

Sounds like a nice day out. I had my stem on the new bike installed flipped, this week I decided to go lower and removed 1.5 spacers, two left. Found a little ache in the lower back after the first ride but today went well. I like the lower position, probably give it some time and pull another spacer. The only downside is that I don't want to cut the fork tube down so I just pop the spacers on the top of stem, it isn't the best look though.

stapfam

The two policemen laid into this driver verbally and they let him know in no uncertain terms- that they were not happy with him. As they pointed out- Being offduty and not in their County- They could still report him- and even detain him until the local police came to arrest him. But as they were on Holiday- They did not want to do that- but if he did not stop going on about idiots on Bikes- They were prepared to lose a days holiday just to get him off the road.

Now on that bar dropping for me. Last year I got a road bike- A Giant OCR3. and I had to buy a new stem to stop the neck crick and to ease the back a bit. It put the bars 1" below the saddle and It was comfortable. When I got the Boreas- I did one quick ride as the shop set it up and then decided to raise the bars by flipping the stem to set up as near to the Giant as possible. That put the bars at 2" below the saddle. Earlier this week I looked at the bike and on a whim- decided to see what would be the effect of flipping the stem and putting the bars 4" below the saddle. Did a midweek ride on it and no back pain and no neck crick. Longer ride today and I will see if there are any pains tomorrow.

On the hands side- It has had the opposite effect of what I thought it would do. I still rested the hands by flexing the fingers- but the Pins and needles never came.

Digital Gee

Ah, white!

Dogbait

Ferrets at the drive through... they're taking over.

dorosz

>The two policemen laid into this driver verbally and they let him know in no uncertain terms- that they were not happy with him. As they pointed out- Being offduty and not in their County- They could still report him- and even detain him until the local police came to arrest him. But as they were on Holiday- They did not want to do that- but if he did not stop going on about idiots on Bikes- They were prepared to lose a days holiday just to get him off the road.<

NOw that's a great ride story, even the bike riding police here just don't seem to get it some days it's heartening to here about oficers who actually told off someone like that while they were on Holiday!

dorosz

Hear I swear I typed hear...I just know the computer did that...it couldn't have been me