New bike for the commute!

Teuchter

This cycling is fast becoming as much of an obsession as motorbikes are for me! I managed to keep up the commuting on my old, heavy Apollo mountain bike last week and decided to go for a more appropriate bike. I won an old Falcon Team Banana road bike on ebay and collected it on Saturday.

After changing the inner tubes, a general clean and lube and adjusting the derailleur (thanks to instructions on the Park Tools website) it was all set for my 8 mile each way commute.

Took it for a 10 mile test run yesterday (low speed as I had the kids with me) and rode it in to work today. I managed to shave a few minutes off my previous best time, getting an average speed of 15mph which I'm happy with for the moment.

First time I've used drop bars since I was 16 (that was erm... 18 years ago!) but I seem to be getting the hang of them and the dowtube shifters again. The skinny bars do help with filtering through traffic jams!

Now I've got a lighter bike I only have my being unfit to blame for being slow though!

Here's the bike...

spasypaddy

it might be worth spending a few quid having the downtube shifters changed to proper shifters, personally i cant use the downtubes in traffic or on a corner.

But what a nice looking bike!

BentMikey

It's beautiful!!!

Teuchter

Thanks for the positive comments on the bike! Now I'm worried that sticking mudguards on it will spoil its looks!

But then I do intend to keep this up through winter so... :?

Not found a problem with the down tube shifters - they do encourage forward planning which can't be a bad thing on the roads today!

Hackbike 6

Teuchter wrote:

Thanks for the positive comments on the bike! Now I'm worried that sticking mudguards on it will spoil its looks!

But then I do intend to keep this up through winter so... :?

Not found a problem with the down tube shifters - they do encourage forward planning which can't be a bad thing on the roads today!

I rode with down tube shifters for years.The only problem with the new style shifters I have is on the maintenance side. :idea:

fossyant

Oi, nothing wrong with downtube shifters, still using my ultegra and dura-ace shifters on both of my bikes - they just won't break.

Hairy Jock

All you need now is a good set of lights ready for the winter...