Cycling - Introduction
'Terry Talks Technical' -
Cycling articles on technical issues, from Colchester Cycling Campaign newsletters.
- Practical bicycle tribology - lubrication
- "Lights!" said Fred... - See and be seen
- Getting Tooled Up - Basic tool kit
- Hang About - Bike storage
- It's A Let-down - Punctures and how to avoid them
Our solo bicycles
We are not super keen cyclists but we do enjoy getting about on our bikes, mainly commuting to work. Terry just does it in the summer but Chris braves the elements all year round.
Chris's bike was custom built based on a Nigel Dean frame with ATB componants. The componentry started as Suntour, but has evolved over the years as things got replaced or upgraded.
Terry took the off-the-peg route and went for a Dawes Stirling with the fancy "butterfly" handle bars which give a good variety of hand positions and a semi-upright sitting position.
The Tandem
A Thorn Voyager from St
John St Cycles, Bridgwater. A great bike which has done all we have
asked of it. It's fast and stable, and the Vee brakes are awesome. We
set the captain's and stoker's pedals 90 degrees out of phase, which we
find makes for smoother progress especially up hills. We also fitted a
larger outer chainring because we kept running out of high gears.
The stoker's bars have been the subject of much mucking about, we settled
on straights with climbing pegs on backwards. Not ideal - the shape is
right, but it would be improved to have a smooth curve instead of the
chunky joints. The effect is similar to standard stoker bars, but more
compact.
We fitted a bottle cage to the stoker's stem, much more convenient for a quick drink.