What have you bought for the bike today ?

[ColinJ]

I did a ride with a mate today and we decided to drop down to Happy Days Cycles in Sowerby Bridge to see if they had anything that caught our attention.

Happy Days is a charitable concern helping the homeless and those with addiction problems. The 2 men who were working there today were very friendly and helpful. If you are in the area go and check the shop out!

My friend bought a couple of used jerseys in excellent condition for only £5 each.

I spotted these Sidi mountain bike shoes in my size. They too were in very good condition.

I am sure that they would have been well over £100 when new. I got them for... £10!! They felt more comfortable than the shoes that I was wearing so I think in future that I will ride outdoors in these and keep the others for turbo trainer duties.

 

[sevenfourate]

2 x different Skyway sets of grips arrived today. As did a can of Freewheel de-greaser, a Halt R65 rechargeable rear light (This looks like it will be great for just £18) and a new cage and bottle for the beater.

 

[DCLane]

A few bits and pieces;

- A Seta S1 saddle as we use them across a couple of bikes and don't have a spare.
- A Bontrager Paradigm saddle for the same reason, but are used across about 8 bikes.
- A pair of vintage RSX levers. Picked them up cheaply and I may use them on the Raleigh project as they're aero levers, although I'd prefer a NOS Dura-Ace pair.
- Three sets of 4 x BBB Carbstop carbon brake pads. I wasn't sure if the 'buy now' listing was for one, given the low price, but took a punt and all three in the photo arrived.
- A long-cage Dura-Ace 9100 rear derailleur for an upgrade plan that's forming in my head.

 

[ColinJ]

I have not bought them yet and if I do buy them, they will be for me, not the bike, but I thought I would mention this in case anyone else might be interested...

Aldi are getting ski gloves in on Thursday for only £3.99 a pair. If they look ok I will buy myself a pair.

 

[Alex321]

I have not bought them yet and if I do buy them, they will be for me, not the bike, but I thought I would mention this in case anyone else might be interested...

Aldi are getting ski gloves in on Thursday for only £3.99 a pair. If they look ok I will buy myself a pair.

Me too. Ski gloves are what I prefer to wear on the bike when it's really cold, and the ones I have are getting rather tatty.

 

[DCLane]

Having had a front light flood and fail on a very wet ride a few weeks ago I picked up a Cateye Ampp 900, using my British Cycling discount at Halfords.

Also a NOS Dura-Ace 9000 cassette via eBay for about a third of the normal price.

 

[Alex321]

I have not bought them yet and if I do buy them, they will be for me, not the bike, but I thought I would mention this in case anyone else might be interested...

Aldi are getting ski gloves in on Thursday for only £3.99 a pair. If they look ok I will buy myself a pair.

Just looked at the advert - "Chose from Black, Blue, Purple or Navy". (I thought Navy was a type of blue?)
With photos of them in Black, pale blue and Yellow

 

[ColinJ]

I did a ride with a mate today and we decided to drop down to Happy Days Cycles in Sowerby Bridge to see if they had anything that caught our attention.

Happy Days is a charitable concern helping the homeless and those with addiction problems. The 2 men who were working there today were very friendly and helpful. If you are in the area go and check the shop out!

My friend bought a couple of used jerseys in excellent condition for only £5 each.

I spotted these Sidi mountain bike shoes in my size. They too were in very good condition.

View attachment 752435

I am sure that they would have been well over £100 when new. I got them for... £10!! They felt more comfortable than the shoes that I was wearing so I think in future that I will ride outdoors in these and keep the others for turbo trainer duties.

Ah - I have discovered why they had been donated to the charity bike shop! The tread parts surrounding the cleats are worn down so the cleats now protrude. That is a nuisance when walking. Worse than that though - the shoes don't feel good on the pedals with only the cleats making contact. The shoes wobble and slip about as if the pedals are covered in ice!

I should be able to find the right Sidi spares somewhere. If I can pick them up for a reasonable price then I will still have got a bargain.

 

[Jenkins]

Had these for my spares stock delivered over the past couple of days while I was away...
SRAM Rival shifter & bar tape from Planet X
11 speed chain & cassette from Certini
2 pairs of SPD pedals (£15 per pair with cleats) from Banana Industries

 

[ColinJ]

I have not bought them yet and if I do buy them, they will be for me, not the bike, but I thought I would mention this in case anyone else might be interested...

Aldi are getting ski gloves in on Thursday for only £3.99 a pair. If they look ok I will buy myself a pair.

I popped into Aldi this afternoon. I thought the gloves were well worth the asking price so I bought a pair. They only had the yellow ones in my size (XL) but I think that is a good choice anyway to make me more obvious to sleepy drivers!

They seem pretty well made.

They are warm and windproof.

Despite the claims, I don't think that they will be waterproof, but I hope not to put that to the test anyway - I bought them for rides on dry, cold wintry days; freezing rain really is not my thing!!

I like the big cuffs to stop bitter winds chilling my wrists.

The biggest drawback is that the warm padding on the fingers make gear shifting and operation of bike tech awkward. Still - I will trade that for frozen fingers any bitter winter day!

£3.99 well spent. Buy while stocks last!

 

[Jenkins]

<snip>
The biggest drawback is that the warm padding on the fingers make gear shifting and operation of bike tech awkward. Still - I will trade that for frozen fingers any bitter winter day!
<snip>

I've not had a look at these versions, but I've got a pair from a year or two ago and they work well in the cold - they do have another drawback in the lack of any towelling like surfacing on the thumb or back of the hand and, as someone who has a very runny nose in the cold it does get a bit messy

 

[DCLane]

This morning a new short-term project arrived. I do like Principias and this is an older one - it's a 700 model from about 1998 and came needing a bit of work. At a minimum it's a new chain / bar tape / cables but there's black tape on the chainstay; i.e. "what's it hiding?" and the crankset has lost paint on the RH side. The LH shifter isn't working properly (cleaning / greasing needed?), wheels need trueing, the tyres are shot and the skewers are seized. However everything major moves although there's a few more paint chips than I'd hoped.

It'll have been one of these and looks to be close to original as the photo was the best-equipped model and I've got a lower specification one:

The plan it so get it working and temporarily use the Principia with mudguards whilst I do a groupset swap from the Viner Mitus to a recently-aquired Ridley Fenix SL. For what was a hand-built aluminium frame I'm happy overall.

The seller's been directed to here if they are interesting in following the renovation, so they may turn up.

 

[PaulSB]

I recently invested heavily in new winter gear. Expensive but an absolute game changer for me. Instead of looking like Michelin man I now only need the base layer and jacket. On really bitter days I can add my Galibier padded gilet.

I got very tired of being chilled.

 

[PaulSB]

I popped into Aldi this afternoon. I thought the gloves were well worth the asking price so I bought a pair. They only had the yellow ones in my size (XL) but I think that is a good choice anyway to make me more obvious to sleepy drivers!

View attachment 753315

They seem pretty well made.

They are warm and windproof.

Despite the claims, I don't think that they will be waterproof, but I hope not to put that to the test anyway - I bought them for rides on dry, cold wintry days; freezing rain really is not my thing!!

I like the big cuffs to stop bitter winds chilling my wrists.

The biggest drawback is that the warm padding on the fingers make gear shifting and operation of bike tech awkward. Still - I will trade that for frozen fingers any bitter winter day!

£3.99 well spent. Buy while stocks last!

Good shout Colin. Sadly the gloves are too narrow at the neck to let me get a hand in. Even XL, which when I did get on was 2 - 3cm too long in the finger.

 

[ColinJ]

Good shout Colin. Sadly the gloves are too narrow at the neck to let me get a hand in. Even XL, which when I did get on was 2 - 3cm too long in the finger.

That's strange... I assume that you did undo the straps first?

Did you mean too short in the finger?

I didn't have a problem getting them on but I did feel that they are not really XL. My hands are not particularly big but I needed the nominal XL size. I would say that the XL is really more like L! My shortish fingers filled the glove fingers.

I wore them on a 75 minute ride today and my hands were fine despite bitterly cold conditions.