Casual Cycle

What I love about bicycles is you could give a Victorian a modern day fixie, and they'd know what it was.

Guess I should say hello and post a couple of pics.

Bought my first e-bike a few years ago after struggling to ride a normal lightweight hybrid mountain/city bike. Old football and work injuries mean that as I head into middle age... my knee & ankle (on opposite legs) are becoming an issue, as is a spinal compression issue.

So I bought a cheapish halfrauds ebike, that I had to return as it failed after 250 miles, the replacement failed after 261 miles... So it was returned for a refund... that halfrauds fought all the way and tried every dirty, underhand trick they could... the outright lied to my credit card company... who thankfully saw through their bullshit and refunded me.

So I bought a Haibike trekking with the Bosch mid drive system, a 75nm motor and 500wh battery. It's good for 70 miles in eco mode and occasional battery off mode, but in reality because of hills and open countryside with strong headwinds... 50 miles is my avg as I need level 2 assist into strong headwinds some days, but the return journy can often be done on eco or battery off mode for a good section.

I guess I average somewhere in the 1.5 to 2.2% battery for each mile ridden.

Today, I used 22% battery for a 10.5 mile ride due to extra strong winds when I reach the countryside.

I avg about 10-12 miles per ride, the longest ride I've ever done was 27 miles... which was due to me leaving my phone behind on a bench and on realising when I stopped to take a pic of some nesting swans about 6 miles closer to home. 🤦‍♂️

I've done a few changes to the bike, riser on the handlebars to give me a more upright riding position to help my back stay straighter. Pannier bags, and a more comfortable seat and sprung seat stem.

I don't get out as often as I like, I prefer dry riding and around where I live there's not a great deal of acceptable cycling routes, unless you want very narrow, twisty and hilly back roads that can be quite unsafe for bikes. There's only two real routes I can take, one gives me a loop of about 9 miles around a reservoir and back through some woodland, the other a nice 9 mile ride out to an estuary and a large forest, where a further 2 miles down some gravel fire roads through it, brings you out at the beaches near a light house. Going that far is a 22 mile round trip, so I can't do it often and I need some better tires on this bike before I attempt it again as mine are road tires at the moment.

I do about 30-40 miles a week on it, less in the winter as both routes can be susceptible to flooding.

I can't fit a bike rack to my current car, I'd need to fit a towbar and hang one on that, and the bikes are far too heavy to put on a roof rack (about 30kg). So I can't take advantage of other routes in the area... But when I replace my old car next year, I'm looking for something I can use to transport my bike to a more suitable starting position.

Guess I should say hello and post a couple of pics.

Bought my first e-bike a few years ago after struggling to ride a normal lightweight hybrid mountain/city bike. Old football and work injuries mean that as I head into middle age... my knee & ankle (on opposite legs) are becoming an issue, as is a spinal compression issue.

So I bought a cheapish halfrauds ebike, that I had to return as it failed after 250 miles, the replacement failed after 261 miles... So it was returned for a refund... that halfrauds fought all the way and tried every dirty, underhand trick they could... the outright lied to my credit card company... who thankfully saw through their bullshit and refunded me.

So I bought a Haibike trekking with the Bosch mid drive system, a 75nm motor and 500wh battery. It's good for 70 miles in eco mode and occasional battery off mode, but in reality because of hills and open countryside with strong headwinds... 50 miles is my avg as I need level 2 assist into strong headwinds some days, but the return journy can often be done on eco or battery off mode for a good section.

I guess I average somewhere in the 1.5 to 2.2% battery for each mile ridden.

Today, I used 22% battery for a 10.5 mile ride due to extra strong winds when I reach the countryside.

I avg about 10-12 miles per ride, the longest ride I've ever done was 27 miles... which was due to me leaving my phone behind on a bench and on realising when I stopped to take a pic of some nesting swans about 6 miles closer to home. 🤦‍♂️

I've done a few changes to the bike, riser on the handlebars to give me a more upright riding position to help my back stay straighter. Pannier bags, and a more comfortable seat and sprung seat stem.

I don't get out as often as I like, I prefer dry riding and around where I live there's not a great deal of acceptable cycling routes, unless you want very narrow, twisty and hilly back roads that can be quite unsafe for bikes. There's only two real routes I can take, one gives me a loop of about 9 miles around a reservoir and back through some woodland, the other a nice 9 mile ride out to an estuary and a large forest, where a further 2 miles down some gravel fire roads through it, brings you out at the beaches near a light house. Going that far is a 22 mile round trip, so I can't do it often and I need some better tires on this bike before I attempt it again as mine are road tires at the moment.

I do about 30-40 miles a week on it, less in the winter as both routes can be susceptible to flooding.

I can't fit a bike rack to my current car, I'd need to fit a towbar and hang one on that, and the bikes are far too heavy to put on a roof rack (about 30kg). So I can't take advantage of other routes in the area... But when I replace my old car next year, I'm looking for something I can use to transport my bike to a more suitable starting position.

Happened mid-commute, so a nice 6-mile walk home and a holiday day spent. All four went at the same time on my Shimano deore crank. It was a second hand part and looking at that photo there're looking pretty thin in the parts that didn't go. To be doubly annoying, my phone died as soon as I got it out to let work know I'd be late.

As seen by my recent posts, my drivetrain has taken a battering this winter. Whether you're getting the nice bike out of storage or desludgifying your trooper, I thought some of you might appreciate this video as much as I did. Best tip by far is the chain lift, I'm constantly whipping quick links into the either! It is a bit just use GT85.

My rear derailleur hanger went yesterday on the commute home. Luckily it was as I started off again after a turn. Still managed to take out 2 spokes itself and possibly the derailleur itself. Luckily, I had spares back to my knackered old Shimano for now.

Weather app fail this morning, dressed for the -1 not so much for the torrent of rain that accompanied it mid-ride. Trousers soaked but lucky I had my merino wool base layers on held up enough on the water but more importantly the temperature. All hail, premium sheep hair!

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This randomly popped into my head this morning

My friend had one, It was peak cool for a 6-year-old. Mine had red wheels though it was called hot wheels it didn't have sound effects

What was your first bike and first coveted bike? Did you get your dream bike off the bat?

The biggest issue with this frame was a dent on the lower tube, I didn't have any decent blocks of wood to make a frame roller, so the wife and I spent yesterday making them as a 3d print.

While it didn't completely remove the dent, it did help make it smaller.

Before

After: the paint wearing was from sanding down ready for painting not the blocks

Sanded the frame back and treated the rust not a huge amount the worst part was the fender bracket. Currently waiting for the krust to do it's thing before giving it an acf50 paint

The used steel frame I recently brought has arrived, a bit of rust here and there are some scuffs and such, but I plan to sand it back and respray, so these aren't issues. Threads look good all round.

Going to have to put together the parts I have and slowly buy the ones I need.

Going to be a fun project for sure.

Benefit of going slow enough to notice things