Articles Category: Cycle
How to easily & perfectly align your Stem
I don't know about your but I've always had trouble aligning my stem perfectly parallel to my front wheel. It's even more infuriating when out on the road or tail sensing even the tiniest misalignment which niggles you for weeks or even months.
The trouble is that it's really hard to quantify if it is actually out of kilter or just in your head! more »
How to remove bicycle tyre marks from painted walls
This is probably the bain of a lot of cyclist's lives, well the ones that keep their bikes indoors anyhow, despite how careful you are it is just a matter of time before you inadvertantly catch a tyre on the wall as you wheel your bike around.
No probs you would think, bit of Cif and the mark'd come right off. No such luck here, for some reason more »
How to clean the lid and nozzle of your Camelbak Podium bottle
My first encounters with Camelbak Podium bidons were not great, I borrowed a bottle from Ali for use on quick ride but but I was soon struggling with it!
What I hadn't experienced before in my two decades of cycling was an increase in nozzle length, every time I wen't for a sip I ended up punching myself in the face - I'd have to relearn how to more »
Rivington MTB ride
I'd been itching to ride Rivvy ever since I realised that it was here that they held the Manchester Commonwealth games.
I'd had a couple of attempts which ended up not being that great but it is when I happened across this route that the trails really hotted up.
This route takes in the (obligatory for me) broken road descent and a lap around more »
TF2 Extreme Wet Lubricant
TF2 Extreme Wet Lubricant
Reviewed by Martin Childs
Weldite, 75ml £3.49/ 125ml £5.79 (£46 per litre)
Seriously sticky, but too much goop?
I thought I was on a winner here, an extreme wet lube with TF2 for extra slipperiness at an OK price.
Well I was just plain wrong! This stuff does live up to it's extreme moniker but it more »
Custom sprocket ratios for 9 speed Campagnolo 12-26
One of the great thing Campagnolo pays particular attention to that other manufacturers often overlook is gear ratios.
A regular rider might only notice jumps between sprockets when they are excessive such as on super wide blocks, the reason for this is that we automatically compensate for a non optimal cadence by slowing down or speeding up. The more »
The secrets of Alex Dowsett's hour record bike
Had an awesome time watching Alex Dowsett's excellent showing at todays world hour record attempt.
First off some stats about the bike:
Canyon Speedmax WHR custom built with track drop outs;
114inch gearing (55x11)
Continental Tempo 22mm tubulars (13-15bar pressure)
Campagnolo Pista disc wheels
Weight 7.71kg
He had a total of four frames more »
How to make a Shimano disc brake bleed spacer block
The official bleed spacer is both really expensive to buy for what it is and hard to come by.
Have a look at Shimano tech docs site, here you can see the official tech sheet detailing bleeding spacer you need. You may get lucky at your local bike shop, if you ask nicely they may have one to spare. If you want to save a few pounds and make one more »
Decathlon / B'Twin tyre lever review
Decathlon / B'Twin tyre lever
Reviewed by Martin Childs
Decathlon, £2.50 for three
Thin enough to get under the tightest bead but strong and cheap.
This is definately one product that bucks the old saying of:
Light, strong and cheap: choose two
These little strokes of genius from Decathlon are where tyre levers are at. My previous more »
Lake Vyrnwy Kingfisher Spotting!
Spent a second fantastic weekend camping in Shropshire in mid June, having previously visited in 2011.
Marty opted for a day mountain biking around the Long Mynd area which I did enjoy thanks to the spectacular views of the Shropshire Hills. But the highlight of my weekend was a trip to RSPB Lake Vyrnwy on the Sunday. We packed more »
Continental GP4000S - correct install orientation/rotation direction
Want to know in which direction to install yor new Continental GP4000S tyres? read on....
Not that the sipings have any effect on performace (I did read an article somewhere in which the representative from Continental said that customers expect them so thats why they are on there), but it is nice to know you've installed them in the correct more »
How to shift the time in your GPX file
Here are the intructions to shift the time of you GPX file, especially useful if you have just bought an Aldi GPS watch:
Step one
Download and install GPS Babel.
Step two
In the folder where you store your gpx files create a new text document and rename it
GPX minus 1hr.bat
making sure you change the whole file name including the file more »
Aldi GPS watch review
Aldi GPS Watch
Reviewed by Martin Childs
Aldi, £64.99
Awesomly bargainous.
What can I say, picked one of these fellas up today, its really great for only £65.
I'll get a more thorough reveiw once I had it a while but heres some initial notes.
Features which set it apart from anything in its up to more than double its more »
Giant P-R3 Tyre Review
Giant P-R3 Tyre
Reviewed by Martin Childs
Front weight 285g, £20
Rear weight 287g, £20
A solid performer, decent enough quality for a stock tyre.
These tyres originally came from Ali's 2012 Giant Defy 1. The bike arrived with a slow puncture which eventually gave way a couple of rides into ownership.
I had bought some more »
Wilko Performance Lubricant cycle oil review
Wilko Performance Lubricant
Reviewed by Martin Childs
Wilko, £2.49 (£25 per litre)
All the lubing you need at a lower price.
One thing that really winds me up is the commercialisation of cycling. This includes when companies take some generic product stick a label on it with the picture of a bike and charge many times the price. more »
Chilterns Red Kite road ride
Following a visit to Windsor castle we stopped off for a road ride in the Chilterns. We had read that you can see red kites in the area so I was particularly excited to combine a bicycle ride with wildlife watching!
I had hoped to see at least one red kite and I was not disappointed! We spied many red kites on the drive to Watlington and upon more »
Gower Peninsula Circular road ride
This was a landmark ride in a way for me as usually when we go camping I leap upon the opportunity to take the MTB somewhere new, but somehow I persuaded myself into taking the road bikes instead.
Maybe it was the lack of some really decent trails or the fact as we'd be in my sister's tent there'd be enough room to bring my retro roadie indoors to more »
Hayfield figure of eight route - MTB ride
This route is a goto classic of mine, the north loop ridden clockwise, the climbing is pretty easy but there are some cracking descents.
The south section is ridden anti-clockwise - it is not so imperveous to being wet and sloppy in the winter months, but give it a bit of frost and it'll be good to go.
The highlight of the ride is the decent from more »
Moel Famau Double - MTB route
The Clwydian Mountain range is and Area of Outstanding natural beauty. Once you gain a bit of height anywhere the views are stunning and on a clear day you can see over to Merseyside and Snowdon.
I seem to ride here a lot in winter as most of the going is on well engineered paths and fireroad so is enjoyable even through the roughest of more »
Peaks road quicky (aka the Sarah Storey ride)
For some reason given that I ride offroad way more than I do my road bike, my first ride post is fully on-road...
This route developed from the want of a ride encompassing some great climbs of the peaks without the boredom of the 30km journey there and 30km back! So the hunt was on for a place to park up - as usual for me it needed to be more »
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