The Bicycle Thread

[charlesr]

http://bicycleshapedobject.wordpress.com/hall-of-shame/

[Anpanman]

Seeing as i'm investing in a new bike, can you guys recommend any insurance providers for them to protect against damage or theft?

Thanks

I use ETA;

https://www.eta.co.uk/insurance/cycle

[charlesr]

Yeah it's Halford's. I have been told if i was to get it that i should take it to a professional bike shop to get it set up properly as Halford's are known to be poor at that.

To be honest, I just like supporting my local specialist bike shop. I know they know what they are doing and I'd rather purchase items from them to ensure they continue to exist (because I can no longer be bothered to do my own servicing). Even if they don't have my favoured brands in stock, they get them in on request.

My father in law has some lighting shops and someone came in, looked at a lamp and asked to see the box. They then scanned the barcode with their phone and she had the balls to say "excellent, I can get it cheaper online". It's very short-term thinking though. I'm presuming they wanted to actually see the item before purchase because hey, lights are quite specific items that you have to live with for a long time so you need to know they will work in situ, so where is she going to go to do this if the shop shuts down?

[Anpanman]

I usually buy from Leisure Lakes, fantastic showroom and the guys tend to bike themselves so know what they are talking about.

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

Can anyone recommend a cheap but decent set of suspension forks for my Giant STP please? I'm gonna be mostly using them for off road/woods & a bit of street. Not gonna hammer the bollox off em

[charlesr]

What do you call cheap?
I presume you need 100m?

Last year's Recon Silver will do fine (?130) http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/M...?ModelID=69357 and have lockout for the road.

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

Errrrrrr, was hoping to pay a lot less than that actually. What are SR Suntour suspension forks like?

[smouty]

You do get what you pay and I would rather have no suspension than rubbish.
Check out the reviews though as the Halfords bike on the last page had Suntour shocks and was highly rated but I'm guessing something higher up the range at ?180.
This is what Bikeradar says - The Suntour Raidon X2 is much better than the oversprung and lifeless forks fitted to many budget bikes. You can set the air spring and rebound to suit you, and it tracks fairly well thanks to 32mm uppers and its 15mm axle. Where it suffers is in comparison with the more expensive Epicon fitted to last year's bike. The Raidon can get knocky on choppy surfaces. There’s a bit of flex between the upper and lower legs, and front braking on steep descents can create some disconcerting fork flutter.

These Suntour are ?40 http://www.grippedcycles.co.uk/index...product_id=661
They weight 2.5Kgs and you may be happy with them for occasional use.

[charlesr]

Hmm. My forks were ?450 and I considered them to be the cheap option. Mine are almost a kilo lighter than those ?40 suntours though

Hang on, do you have rigid forks on your bike at the mo? I thought it came with suspension. If rigid, do you know what travel you can have on your forks safely without screwing with the geometry? Mine were supposed to have 80mm forks, and I went with 100m and it has made for a more laid back feel, but makes the downhills more manageable.

Also, I just realised the Recons I linked earlier have coilsprings - sorry I thought they were airshocks. Any cheap suntour is going to have coil-springs too (such as those ?40 ones). If you are light or heavy, they are almost certainly going to be the wrong spring rate thus making them useless for you, so you need to find out if you can get different springs to match your weight otherwise, what's the point (the altertnative is more expensive air forks that you can tune the spring rate with a pump).

The next thing is that the weight of these things is going to outweigh (!) any benefit you get from changing from a rigid fork - yeah, you might shave a few seconds on the downhills, but on the uphills, you'll lose loads.

Have you looked on pinkbike for cheap second hand ones?

[SuperBeatBoy]

Look at what i came home with today

[charlesr]

Nice! Those pedals like a bit small though. or is it just the photo?
DMR V8s ftw

[SuperBeatBoy]

They are a bit especially for my size 12 feet, they do the job well enough for now. Will upgrade them soon. But the overall performance and smoothness i'm getting out for it is a huge stepup from my other crappy barossa. handles like a dream! Will give it a good go tomorrow.

[charlesr]

I've got a very similar colour scheme to you with white gfx on black paint and the odd bit of red. I have the white DMR V8s with the grease port and they look fantastic.

[Anpanman]

Look at what i came home with today

You beauty, what a great looking machine, nice one hope you enjoy it.

A bit jealous now, git hehe!

As for forks, agree with some of what charles said in that do you really need suspension on the front, my Cube is the first mountain I've had non rigid forks (Orange Clockwork, Cannondale M700) & I find the balance of the bike really odd, very front heavy. I go through some rough stuff on the way to work and back but to be honest nothing more than I used to tackle on my Dawes Chevron five gear racer thirty years ago, so I'm thinking do I really need them.

Read this and it got me thinking;

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10017&t=12829771&start=20

[smouty]

The nice thing about the Cube is that you have a remote lockout on the forks.
I wouldn't consider a bike without this.
Also if you have rigid forks make sure you have the correct size headset eg 1"1/8 not 1" which many budget bikes have. A 1" headset will severely limit your choice of forks and it would be better to replace the frame IMO.