PedallingNowhereSlowly
Well-Known Member
Long post. Sorry I'm not known for my brevity.
TL;DR: I've bought a new bike (as per title). I'll report back on how it performs over the coming months.
I've traded in some wife points today and ordered another new bike.
That's two so far this year. And 6 if we include the second hand bikes bought since I started cycling again last year.
One of those second hand bikes, a decade old road bike, is on long-term loan. And if the loanee doesn't buy it, it will probably be making it's way to the for sale section in due course. My original plan, having sourced some non-worn out wheels and replaced the chain and cassette on said bike, was to use it as a summer bike.
I'd picked up an 'audax' bike to use as a winter bike, trying to do things on the cheap. That turned out to be well past it's best with a frame that flexed so much, the mudguards rubbed on the wheels no matter how much they were adjusted, even after re-shaping the mudguards several times with a hot air gun. The frame has by now, hopefully, been made into soft drink cans.
After having spent more time fettling bikes than actually riding them, I ran out of patience. So a Ribble CGR Ti was ordered. And that is a mighty fine bike. I'm planning to use that all year around, mainly for club runs. And perhaps not when it's actually raining or likely to rain on account that I'm time poor and bike cleaning is the first thing that goes out of the window.
After that came an MTB, courtesy of another forummer. I'm not much of a mountain biker, but I managed 25km on it yesterday over several muddy trails.
Sadly, as if to spite me, the old Ridgeback Gas Pipe Hybrid I already owned broke a spoke. After nearly a month, I still haven't gotten near the thing to pull another spoke out, in order to measure properly and order a replacement. And consequently, I've been walking/driving more and cycling less. I will get it sorted - maybe during the next bank holiday. Or the one after that.
Then the opportunity came up to acquire another hybrid, this time a B'twin Riverside 120. I thought the Ridgeback was heavy - this one really is heavy. It weighs almost as much as the Ridgeback without any of the adornments (muguards, rack, kick stand, toolkit, locks). It's also a 'one by' set-up with 7 gears. Very 'sit-up and beg' seating position. I think this will be an ideal bike for knocking around on and one that I'll not be too upset about getting half-inched, so I think it will be a future going-to-town bike, providing a bit of redundancy with the Ridgeback. I've managed 80km in a day so far on the Ridgeback. I don't think I'll be attempting more than 10 on this! I've got to address the loose headset, ticking front wheel, rusty chain and terrible braking first, and I suspect that I won't get started on that for a couple of months.
So why the Trek? Well, I wanted something low maintenance which I could just hop on and ride. Not only that, but something I don't need to worry too much about cleaning or oiling after a long soggy ride. As an added bonus, if my wife ever decides to try riding a bike, she should be able to jump straight on it and be relatively comfortable.
The 2024 flavour doesn't seem to be in stock anywhere yet.
The 2023 flavour is hard to come by, but I think I've found one at Mike Vaughan - which is a bike shop in Kenilworth IIRC. It was also discounted to ~ £1300. The £1750 RRP is a lot to justify for someone who doesn't even have a regular commute.
There were a number of other bikes I contemplated
It's ironic, that in the time it's taken to write this post, I could have pulled that spoke! I've composed this in small fits and starts during the course of a couple of days - mostly whilst waiting on jobs that take a couple of minutes to run.
I also appreciate, that I could have bought a much cheaper bike with one or more derailleurs, asked the LBS to fix it when it goes wrong and still be quids in for quite a few years. Thing is, I've always worked on my own bikes and I've found bike shops don't generally do a better job than I do. Admittedly, when a hub gear goes wrong, it's not nearly so easy to fix. And p*nct*res ... well I'll try my luck finding and repairing them in situ rather than changing the tube. Or lose an hour somewhere trying to work out how to get that back wheel out and back in and think about whether that's something that can be done on the road. It may be that I've solved one problem by creating another. Or maybe my usual luck will hold out (I've seldom punctured).
I've also gone for the staggered frame. The conventional framed step-over version is even harder to get hold of, and where it is still available, it is not discounted. I don't think I'm going to mind this too much and it might make it more appealing to the chief of the household, such that she might try it.
Hoping that the tyres adequately soak up the bumps, given that the District 4 has aluminium front forks, the only compromise I feel I've made that I might be unhappy about, are the back swept handle bars. I read that they make climbing more difficult and although the terrain around here is not mountainous, there are some definite lumps. We will see how that pans out.
This is my first hub-geared bike and first belt driven bike. I'm looking forward to it and I'll also look forward to reporting back on how it goes.
TL;DR: I've bought a new bike (as per title). I'll report back on how it performs over the coming months.
I've traded in some wife points today and ordered another new bike.
That's two so far this year. And 6 if we include the second hand bikes bought since I started cycling again last year.
One of those second hand bikes, a decade old road bike, is on long-term loan. And if the loanee doesn't buy it, it will probably be making it's way to the for sale section in due course. My original plan, having sourced some non-worn out wheels and replaced the chain and cassette on said bike, was to use it as a summer bike.
I'd picked up an 'audax' bike to use as a winter bike, trying to do things on the cheap. That turned out to be well past it's best with a frame that flexed so much, the mudguards rubbed on the wheels no matter how much they were adjusted, even after re-shaping the mudguards several times with a hot air gun. The frame has by now, hopefully, been made into soft drink cans.
After having spent more time fettling bikes than actually riding them, I ran out of patience. So a Ribble CGR Ti was ordered. And that is a mighty fine bike. I'm planning to use that all year around, mainly for club runs. And perhaps not when it's actually raining or likely to rain on account that I'm time poor and bike cleaning is the first thing that goes out of the window.
After that came an MTB, courtesy of another forummer. I'm not much of a mountain biker, but I managed 25km on it yesterday over several muddy trails.
Sadly, as if to spite me, the old Ridgeback Gas Pipe Hybrid I already owned broke a spoke. After nearly a month, I still haven't gotten near the thing to pull another spoke out, in order to measure properly and order a replacement. And consequently, I've been walking/driving more and cycling less. I will get it sorted - maybe during the next bank holiday. Or the one after that.
Then the opportunity came up to acquire another hybrid, this time a B'twin Riverside 120. I thought the Ridgeback was heavy - this one really is heavy. It weighs almost as much as the Ridgeback without any of the adornments (muguards, rack, kick stand, toolkit, locks). It's also a 'one by' set-up with 7 gears. Very 'sit-up and beg' seating position. I think this will be an ideal bike for knocking around on and one that I'll not be too upset about getting half-inched, so I think it will be a future going-to-town bike, providing a bit of redundancy with the Ridgeback. I've managed 80km in a day so far on the Ridgeback. I don't think I'll be attempting more than 10 on this! I've got to address the loose headset, ticking front wheel, rusty chain and terrible braking first, and I suspect that I won't get started on that for a couple of months.
So why the Trek? Well, I wanted something low maintenance which I could just hop on and ride. Not only that, but something I don't need to worry too much about cleaning or oiling after a long soggy ride. As an added bonus, if my wife ever decides to try riding a bike, she should be able to jump straight on it and be relatively comfortable.
The 2024 flavour doesn't seem to be in stock anywhere yet.
The 2023 flavour is hard to come by, but I think I've found one at Mike Vaughan - which is a bike shop in Kenilworth IIRC. It was also discounted to ~ £1300. The £1750 RRP is a lot to justify for someone who doesn't even have a regular commute.
There were a number of other bikes I contemplated
- Trek Distrct 1 / 2: They have roller brakes instead of disk brakes. It's just a little bit too hilly around here to risk overheating them; they are chain driven instead of belt driven; they have suspension forks
- Trek District 3 Equipped: 100 lumens instead of 180 lumens from the equipped front light, Nexus 8 speed rather than Alfine 8 speed, Gates CDN components instead of CDX, 'Revoshift' shifter instead of trigger shifter - if it wasn't for the shifter, this is the model I would have plumped for.
- Canyon Commuter 6 / 7 : 2.5kg lighter than the Trek, Carbon Fork (instead of Aluminium), more expensive, only very basic information about it's geometry published, lower system weight (120 kg as opposed to 135 kg), no supplied kick stand, Gates CDN components instead of CDX, has no rack lugs lacks some flexibility, looks a bit 'flashy' for a commuting bike
- Canyon Commuter 9 Ltd: Very nice, lighter still but very spendy, looks too special to leave locked up
- Cube Tavel Exc/Pro: Practically unobtanium at the moment although very well priced; Pro has great tyre clearances; 115kg system weight is a no go for me as I do like to load a bike up occasionally
- Ridgeback Supernova Eq: Very well priced, being available for ~ £900 and the only thing I found it lacking was the belt drive. If it wasn't for the colour not hiding dirt very well, this could have been it.
- Boardman URB 8.9: Not an equipped bike but it is at least belt drive and the RRP of £899 would mean it could be similarly equipped as the Trek and still be cheaper; however, difficult to find any current stock
It's ironic, that in the time it's taken to write this post, I could have pulled that spoke! I've composed this in small fits and starts during the course of a couple of days - mostly whilst waiting on jobs that take a couple of minutes to run.
I also appreciate, that I could have bought a much cheaper bike with one or more derailleurs, asked the LBS to fix it when it goes wrong and still be quids in for quite a few years. Thing is, I've always worked on my own bikes and I've found bike shops don't generally do a better job than I do. Admittedly, when a hub gear goes wrong, it's not nearly so easy to fix. And p*nct*res ... well I'll try my luck finding and repairing them in situ rather than changing the tube. Or lose an hour somewhere trying to work out how to get that back wheel out and back in and think about whether that's something that can be done on the road. It may be that I've solved one problem by creating another. Or maybe my usual luck will hold out (I've seldom punctured).
I've also gone for the staggered frame. The conventional framed step-over version is even harder to get hold of, and where it is still available, it is not discounted. I don't think I'm going to mind this too much and it might make it more appealing to the chief of the household, such that she might try it.
Hoping that the tyres adequately soak up the bumps, given that the District 4 has aluminium front forks, the only compromise I feel I've made that I might be unhappy about, are the back swept handle bars. I read that they make climbing more difficult and although the terrain around here is not mountainous, there are some definite lumps. We will see how that pans out.
This is my first hub-geared bike and first belt driven bike. I'm looking forward to it and I'll also look forward to reporting back on how it goes.
Last edited:
