quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Yeah! Yeah! I want all that! I'm getting bike boner now! I'm going to print that out and hand it to the guy in the shop. Also - I must remember to get some playing cards to stick in the spokes.
Spokey dokies FTW
Actually if you have a decent bike shop like the one near me, they'll sell everything seperately. So you can pick whichever frame you want, front forks, headset, handlebars, wheels, etc etc, and then get all the parts back home and spend a day putting it all together and oiling everything ready.
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Wearing: The same old shit. I need a proper clothes rehaul. I think I might start by buying myself a duct-tape wallet. It's the accesories that count.
This weekend: Really boring, but you know....alright. Tonight after work - beer with colleagues. I like my colleagues that I work with at the moment. When I get in I will more than likely be helping one of the nurses I use to work with with her laptop. Except she wants me to fix it over the phone because she is paranoid about being mugged by bringing her laptop into work so I can't even pick it up for an hour. At least at work I can force myself onto people to look at what they are talking about. :cry: - Can't do much tonight as I have to swing by the bank tomorrow and ask for an overdraft or be shafted right in the wallet flaps, because the tax office have decided to take another hundred pounds of me at random and rent and council tax bill come out next week. It's a fucking nightmare because that's around the same time that they keep promising to fill out my contract for a permanent role, so I may then go about 5 weeks sans cash. So Mr Bank Manager, I'll wash your car in the midday sun in my underwear if you grant me this one wish. Saturday evening. Beers in the Ben Crouch as the little drumming boy Pat celebrates turning 12, probably.
Outlook: It's not all that bad is it? Life is good. Things are on the up.
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Im going to get something like this I think. Having used a cheap mountain bike for a few years I can confirm that getting uncool mud and chain guards is a good plan. As is getting a lightweight frame. Plus I have never used any of the front gears, there being few mountains in London. I also want panniers and a basket on the front to keep puppies in.
Did you find out if the OU does the Cycle to Work Scheme Ringo?
This weekend....I am going to a restaurant based on the fact it has a nice picture of a manatee on it's sign, in favour of another place which is called The Blue Legume and has a picture of an aubergine on it's sign. Aubergines are not legumes, and any chef that can make that kind of mistake isn't touching my dinner!
Tommorow Im going to a James Bond theme party, followed by a housewarming. I expect to get home some time Sunday night Posts: 2793
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If you live in Oxford are you actually allowed a mountain bike? I thought everyone had to ride around on a battered old bike with a wicker basket on the front exuding an aura of smugness?
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quote:Originally posted by Ringo: What bike should I buy this weekend?
My advice, which may be freely ignored of course, but hopefully it's got some value:
1. Get a hybrid/city bike. They are strong enough to handle daily hammering on crap roads in any weather, but not fat and bouncy like a mountain bike.
2. Get hub gears. This will give you about 7 gears in a range which is plenty good enough for any road route. They are low maintenance because the whole thing is sealed in the hub of the wheel, so no exposed derailleur cogs flapping about and trapping mud and shit. Disadvantage is that if they go wrong there's pretty much nothing you can do to fix them yourself - but modern hub gears are very reliable in my experience.
3. Get grip shifts. Pretty standard now anyway, but essential I would say as you keep a solid grip on the steering while you change gear - not even having to move a thumb.
4. Get kevlar tyres. Schwalbe Marathon Plus are something of an industry standard and quite a few new bikes come with them already fitted. They pretty much eliminate punctures. Some evil things will still get through (mainly thorns from hedges), but even that is very rare. Little shards of glass etc which used to cause me a flat about once a month in the past are not a problem now.
5. Get narrow, semi-slick tyres. The Marathon Plus tyres are ideal. Those thick, knobbly mountain bike tyres are horrible on tarmac. The difference is total.
6. Get mudguards. For some strange reason these aren't considered cool?? Even though it doesn't rain much these days, the road is usually filthy and you will get covered in shit without them.
7. If you're riding streetlit roads all the time then just get a pair of tiny flashing LED lights. They last forever on a couple of AA batteries and are visible from miles away, and they're easy to unclip and stick in your pocket. They're also completely legal nowadays, though I doubt anyone was stopped for using the even when they weren't.
8. Get a mirror. Again, they're not considered cool apparently, but they can save you a lot of hassle and it's good to know what's coming up behind just as much as what's in front. Obviously you still have to do the lifesaver glance before you make any moves, same as in a car, but a mirror gives you a lot of confidence and time to see gaps for moving out etc. They fit into the end of the handlebar and you can easily whip them off if you're leaving the bike locked up somewhere.
I think that's about it for the actual bike, though there's other things like luggage and clothing to think about.
I've got a Decathlon Triban 5, but there's quite a few similar things around. I've heard good things about the Halford Carrera Subway? Supposed to be excellent value for money.
Triban:
Carrera:
(with derailleur gears - think you can get them with hub gears though, not sure)
Bar end mirror:
Marathon Plus tyre:
EDIT: Took me while to write that and I see lots of others have posted since. Hope I haven't repeated/contradicted. Will read now.
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baskets are smug. They're second only to some kind of organic hemp bag that proudly declares it's eco-friendliness in giant letters on the side. The only truly acceptable way to carry something is in a a thin blue plastic bag as distributed by all corner shops.
I did see another super-smug bag recently. This chick had a bag made of that plastic canvas type material, in the design of an old Penguin book. Something about that fired something within me, so I stood behind her on the tube and dribbled some saliva onto her hair.
[ 26.01.2007, 07:25: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
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Obviously I could look, useing the power of the internet...but Im going for lunch now (three bean and lentil soup, with walnut and rasin bread).
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posted
Whilst looking for a piece of shit bike with streamers coming out of the handles to post and say 'this is ringo's bike' I found this which for some reason has had me in hysterics.
quote:Originally posted by Abby: but Im going for lunch now (three bean and lentil soup, with walnut and rasin bread).
That is a damn smug lunch choice. I had a meatball sub which is A) much more working class, salt of the earth food and B) better
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quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: dang, are they Christian bikes?
I have little doubt that Jesus would be riding one if he came back one day, yes. Even if he didn't really want one, the advertising contract would surely be irresistable.
1. Bearded man in robes cycles past on Decathlon bike.
2. Pretty girl shouts, "Christ on a bike!"
3. Cut to pretty girl buying bike while angelic choir sings in background.
Got to be worth a cool couple of mil $$ to the Messiah I'd say.
Those Kevlar tyres are, I dunno, about 12 quid each? Maybe fractionally more. Worth every penny.
EDIT: First website I Googled to says £22 each Don't think I'd have paid that, but maybe I did. Still think they're worth it though.
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I'm still trying to get hold of one of those folding bikes that IKEA gave out free to all their staff at Christmas. There's usually a few on eBay but they've been selling for about 70 quid each so far. I'm hoping to scam one for about 30 quid when the demand drops a bit.
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not...
You reached over with your hand and knocked my Jap over
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I actually want to buy a bike at the weekend now despite the fact that I already have one and that I never use it now.
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The one we have is made by Pacific Coast Choppers. I think they've gone out of business. The forks are a little bit out of alignment, but it goes alright. Can't get the spares. One of the pedals is knackered, so I tried to get some beartraps, then regular pedals, then old-fashioned rubber ones... none of them fit. Different sized thread. American, maybe. Stupid Americans.
quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: If SilverGinger 5 is working class, then I'm a fucking Mayan jungle warrior.
I never claimed I was working class, I claimed my lunch was. And working class food is better than posh food in every way.
Examples Meatball sandwich > Weird bean soup Pie and mash > Caviar stuffed in a pigs trotter or something Steak and chips > Lightly sauteed swan wing with a kestrel jus
quote:Originally posted by not...: I actually want to buy a bike at the weekend now despite the fact that I already have one and that I never use it now.
Louche
Carved TMO on her clit just to make you feel bad
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Please can we make the thread tangent into the different social classes of food now? I am bored with the bike tangenting.
What social class is spaghetti? When I was growing up it was considered to be very posh. But now I bet it's slipped a bit and is more common.
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quote:Originally posted by Louche: Please can we make the thread tangent into the different social classes of food now? I am bored with the bike tangenting.
What social class is spaghetti? When I was growing up it was considered to be very posh. But now I bet it's slipped a bit and is more common.
Spaghetti is working class. Tinned spaghetti (for kids) is middle class. Linguine (for adults) is middle class.
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see I would associate pie and mash these days more with gastro pubs and the like than 'working class' grub. I can see well groomed, toned, late twenty somethings from clapham all meeting up for pie and mash on a sunday afternoon, after a saturday evening of coke fuelled dancing to deep house at a newly opened bar/club near brixton. Sunglasses, slogan t-shirts, maybe a hat or a scarf that was self-knitted. Chat about mortgages, parent's summer house, holidays, and maybe spend 20 - 30 minutes discussing some false collective memory from childhood. Find out that everybody just read the same book.
[ 26.01.2007, 08:07: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
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Don't think I'd have paid that, but maybe I did. Still think they're worth it though.
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