Today's Bike Ride

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Originally Posted by Wheeze

Cracking ride into work today. Managed to slip down the outside of a queue coming onto warwick avenue, short cut the mini roundabout and got a good swing up into Clifton Gardens. Swift descent down to the canal at Little Venice, scooting around the i-pod wearing, nero toting bipedal obstacles, fast dap past Sheldon square and then one of those heart-stopping swerving paths through two opposing streams of commuters walking in and out of Paddington Station. Steady pedal past the longboats in Paddington Basin, sniffing the coal stoves, and then out onto the back road by St Mary's Hospital. Long pause at the lights on Edgware Road but then a long succession of greens on the back-hack through Marylebone....even got across Baker street without slowing! Couple of shouts to more i-pod clad oblivious stray walkers before a final swing to the office. Yey! The joys of urban bike commuting ( I do not do not do not miss the sweet lanes and hills of home........erm.....)

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That sounds like a fun ride. I'm staying with a friend at the mo in Hampton Wick and had a couple of rides along the Thames and a ride in Richmond Park, I do enjoy riding a bike in london enjoy the scariness of it and whizzing pass the traffic!

Kin want one, not sure they're for sale yet? Local Genesis dealer not heard owt, avin one though, when i find one:thumbup:

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Is that a disc braked Pompino????

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Originally Posted by stevefoster

Kin want one, not sure they're for sale yet? Local Genesis dealer not heard owt, avin one though, when i find one:thumbup:

Attachment 5814

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Originally Posted by Hanneke

Is that a disc braked Pompino????

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No Hann, it's a Genesis Day One Disc.

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Originally Posted by ZootHornRollo

not cheap though

I was thinking of getting it done for my new bike but you're looking at £150-200.

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Adrian, we have a top Bowland member who was manager and mechanic for a top pro cycling team, back in the day. As a thank you for going out supporting our vets' team at championship races ( throwing them a banana and handing out bottles of water ) he just watched me ride past their house a couple of times on both the 'crosser and the sportive. You would not believe how minute the adjustments were that he made - cleats on shoes ... saddle height .... saddle fore / aft .... stem height .... angle of bars in the stem .... biggest was position of brake levers on the bars (latter only on the crosser). It added up to a terrific improvement in comfort and 'endurability' on the bike. And all done by intuitive observation, no fancy jigs or anything.

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Originally Posted by Masham Man

That sounds like a fun ride. I'm staying with a friend at the mo in Hampton Wick and had a couple of rides along the Thames and a ride in Richmond Park, I do enjoy riding a bike in london enjoy the scariness of it and whizzing pass the traffic!

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It's called making the best of a bad job. There's only one thing I hate more than city living and that's city commuting. Da bike transforms all that but it looks like I'll be ducking underground tomorrow if the weather forecast is anything to go by!

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Originally Posted by stevefoster

No Hann, it's a Genesis Day One Disc.

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My mate has the 'lower spec' version ( plain Genesis Day-One ) with canti brakes, which allows him to use a flip-flop hub; fixed one side, s/s freewheel on the other side. He loves it to bits and as he is usually on fixed, the cantis are merely a back-up! It was one of these (in fixed mode) that Richpips of this parish rode in the 2011 3Peaks CX, but he had swapped out the Cr-Mo fork for a disc specific carbon fibre one, still cantis on the rear.
Mind, you could do that by flip-flopping the rear disc wheel and using one of those fixed rear sprockets that bolts into the disc mounting holes on the hub, in place of the actual disc; leaving you with the basic legal requirement of a front brake on a fixed wheel bike!
I would rather like the Day-One Alfine 11 in place of my current 'crosser/hack/winter bike; but would have difficulty in justifying the £1800 price tag to my SO, having spent so much on the Sportive only 18 months ago!!
Speaking of the sportive bike, it had its first airing of the year this evening; managed to squeeze in a hour and a half before it went dark, on the hilly lanes around Chipping and Beacon Fell en route to the Bowland Bats "end of batting barbeque" at Carwags.

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Originally Posted by wheezing donkey

My mate has the 'lower spec' version ( just Genesis Day-One ) with canti brakes, which allows him to use a flip-flop hub; fixed one side, s/s freewheel on the other side. He loves it to bits and as he is usually on fixed, the cantis are merely a back-up! I would rather like the Day-One Alfine 11 in place of my current 'crosser/hack/winter bike; but would have difficulty in justifying the £1800 price tag to my SO, having spent best part of £2.5k on the Sportive only 18 months ago!!

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I need to be abducted by aliens:w00t:
ASAP:wink:

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Originally Posted by wheezing donkey

Adrian, we have a top Bowland member who was manager and mechanic for a top pro cycling team, back in the day. As a thank you for going out supporting our vets' team at championship races ( throwing them a banana and handing out bottles of water ) he just watched me ride past their house a couple of times on both the 'crosser and the sportive. You would not believe how minute the adjustments were that he made - cleats on shoes ... saddle height .... saddle fore / aft .... stem height .... angle of bars in the stem .... biggest was position of brake levers on the bars (latter only on the crosser). It added up to a terrific improvement in comfort and 'endurability' on the bike. And all done by intuitive observation, no fancy jigs or anything.

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Good stuff. I do get a few niggles - left hip, lower back. Just seems like another spend too far at the moment, cycling's enough of a cash vacuum as it is ...

I have been recommended the same bloke in west London (Scheritt, 'the Bike Whisperer') several times - he spends three hours min. with you and includes shims / wedges etc in the price. Which is high, but then that's west London for you - and he's booked up til mid-April, so there you go.

No niggles, just sore legs after a hard turbo session last night... Had some pent up frustration (of the good kind) to ride off, so made it to 20 minutes at 5 beats above lactate treshold :w00t: