Recent content by ColinJTod

I took my road bike down to Penzance about 20 years ago and cycled a loop to Mousehole and on round to Land's End, Zennor, St Ives, and back to Penzance. Over the week I was there I did that loop 3 or 4 times into a horrid westerly headwind and it was just killing my legs every time. Then the...

The brother of a friend of mine is in his early 70s and has recently bought one of those bikes. He lives in Hebden Bridge and was finding the steep local hills too much for him. The last thing I heard he is back to riding over hilltop lanes that he hasn't done for years and is loving every...

Someone else I know in his early 70s has just bought an ebike. He has been a cyclist all his life but was starting to find the local hills too much for his painful joints. He loves his new bike and is back up on those hills that he had been avoiding. I think he still has his old bike, but I'm...

Is that true even if you use very low gears and climb slowly? I couldn't get up my local hills properly until I put a triple chainset and big cassette on my bike. That made all the difference to me. I'm not quick, but I get there in the end! (Mind you, I don't have health issues.) PS I have...

I have come to the forum to research an ebike for a friend. I won't be getting an ebike of my own until I can no longer cope with the steep hills of Yorkshire and Lancashire under my own steam, which hopefully will be a decade or so in the future. (I am 64 now.) I'm coming at it from the other...

Buy yourself a chain tool and repair the chain if you have that problem again! I carry a few quick links and a spare length of chain as well as the tool, so I can cope with most such problems. I actually once broke a chain myself about 14 miles from home, but I fixed it and was riding again in...

I know what the law is now, but vfr400 was suggesting a change to a 20 mph limit whether assisted or not. I misread his post and thought he was suggesting that ALL bicycles should have a 20 mph limit at ALL times! I hadn't really thought what I was looking at in the far distance. Hollingworth...

OOPS - sorry, I read that as non-electric bikes INCLUDED! ;) I agree with all of your other suggestions but that one would be a complete pain for me! I am not super-fit but was doing 22 mph on a flat road the other night without busting a gut (I had a tailwind) and then 35 mph on a descent...

I don't like loud vehicles, but I worry that electric vehicles may become too quiet! My hearing isn't brilliant so there is a risk of me not hearing very quiet cars coming up behind me. Are there any rules forcing manufacturer's to fit warning devices to ensure at least some minimum noise...

I think that 25 kph is a sensible limit anyway. There aren't many people that exceed that average speed on unassisted bicycles, especially when hills are involved, so ebikers are not really being held back compared to them. Compared to motorcyclists, yes, but you always have the option of buying...

You do realise that 'top gear' is actually at the 'bottom' of the cassette (smallest cog at the back) don't you? If you are in a 42 at the front and (say) a 12 at the back then you should be able to pedal up to about 30 mph, and if you are fit enough to do that then you probably don't need an...

It can be... I was on a ride with a bunch of people once when we dropped down a steep lane to a bridge over a stream and were faced by a steep climb back up the other side. The rider next to me suddenly shouted 'WTF!' and ground to a halt with his cranks whizzing round at about 120 rpm. I...

I recognised that road and reservoir straight away! (Cold Edge Road and Warley Moor Reservoir.) It is a while since I have been up there but I must have done it at least a dozen times over the years. The first few times I went that way it was an unmade road higher up but eventually the...

Is that true for titanium in aluminium? (Not that it will help me, because my ti post is not going anywhere in a hurry!)

Despite knowing about the potential problem, I forgot to grease** my titanium seatpost before fitting it to my (aluminium) best road bike. When I came to adjust my saddle height years later I discovered that the post is stuck fast and I am scared to take the drastic measures needed to shift it...