'Best Bike' out of hibernation

wastelander

Decided to ignore the gusty winds and take advantage of the dry roads this am to take the upgraded Somec Titano (new Ultegra-SL groupset and Deda Newton 31 bars and stem) out on it's first jaunt of the year. I'm still recovering from an Achilles injury so took it steady over a very short 12 mile trip but threw in a couple of sprints and climbs and both the bike and ankle stood up well - the only only thing is that now next week I'm going to be back on the winter spec commuter...damn!

fossyant

Jolly good - nearly took the best bike out, but decided not to - started raining half way round my circuit, and the winds changed direction - honest !

Mark Alexander

think yourself lucky. I'm in work!! :evil: not getting out at all this w.wend other than the ride to work :?

vermooten

We thought about the taking no1 bikes out yesterday, sooooooo glad we didn't. Riding through the swampy roads of Monmouthshire made us look very much like the riders in Paris-Roubaix that time. Not good for posh bikes.

TheGreatGatsby

I'd love to be able to take my best bike out but seeing as though its spread around the wprld in parts at the moment I'm gonna have to sufer the winter hack for a bit longer

gats

meagain

Sunday's light traffic plus dry roads equalled one of the engined ones for me.

yogi

Planned to take out the best bike on Saturday - glad I didn't. One 2 mile stretch of road near a farm and the bike and me were filthy.

Mark Alexander

TheGreatGatsby wrote:

I'd love to be able to take my best bike out but seeing as though its spread around the wprld in parts at the moment I'm gonna have to sufer the winter hack for a bit longer

gats

That must have been one hell of a crash!!

I managed to get the best bike out to get my TT position set up after the winter changes. Hell it feels stiff and jittery compared to my winter and fixed steel pompino bikes. Very odd :?

Jeff Jones

I think I'll give it another month before the Ridley gets an airing.

I was riding home from Oxford yesterday following a planned quiet route when I ended up on a muddy track near Barbury Castle. I asked a couple of mountain bikers if it linked up to somewhere near Marlborough, and they said yes so I kept going. They warned me I didn't have a suitable bike, and they were right. 6km in 45mins, including many stops to clean the mud off my wheels/forks. I'm glad it rained later because some of the mud washed off.

McBain_v1

No way is my shiny Enigma coming out from under its duvet until the weather improves. For the moment I'm on my beloved 1991 Raleigh 631 with Ultegra and it got a bit squeaky due to severe amounts of water and farm road crud on Sunday Still, I'd like to upgrade the specfication on my winter bike, but then I stop myself and say "Save it for the summer bikes you fool!"

gumball3000

I always make myself ride 1000 miles before the best bike comes out. Should be there early next month. The Six 13 will have to get an airing as my Super Six is still sat at the dealers in the US waiting for Si SL cranks to become available.

Eat My Dust

My best bike is really waterproof so I ride it all through the winter!!

Hudster

My question is, what will happen to these best bikes if exposed to such small levels of grime? As a mountain biker originally, I am used to having to swap groupsets ever year etc, but the level of dirt, sand and salt is far great than that you experience on the road.

I've had my road bike for about 4 years and only had to replace the chain, cassette and brake pads once in all that time. Including commuting. Cables were in need of replacement but everything else was fine. I've just swapped it for a much nicer bike and I'm hoping to run that year round (except maybe in the very worse of conditions). Oh, and I've swapped the parts as they're still running nearly as new.

You get rain and dirt in summer, and our summers are difficult to distinguish from our winters sometimes. Just clean and polish the bike after every ride or at least every week. So basically my question is why the second bike and is it a bad idea for me to run my good bike year round?

Eat My Dust

Where do you live? I suppose it depends on how bad the road conditions are. I haven't seen a gritter this year and haven't seen any snow or ice, so I suppose my bike isn't being exposed to as much grit as others who live in colder climates. It depends on how many miles you are doing as well, I've done around 3000 miles since the end of september and that's me about to stick a new cassette and chain on my bike which I don't think is all that bad.

robbie the roadie

Hudster wrote:

So basically my question is why the second bike and is it a bad idea for me to run my good bike year round?

Please see this thread

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... highlight=

I ride my steel singlespeed pompino all through the winter as it offers room for full length guards, makes you work quite hard as it's heavy and obviously only has one gear so helps you ge the most out of even shortish rides. It also makes my best bike seem absolutely ace when I get back on it, though it does take me a while to get used to the racing geometry again :shock:

i think that a second bike is nice to have but not essential if your really only using it at weekends then so long as you keep it clean and lubed then it's going to be ok. In reality most peoples winter bikes tend to be their old summer bikes anyway, rather then specific winter rigs.

richardjallen

vermooten wrote:

Baring your teeth is a sign of weakness amongst primates. When someone smiles at me, all I see is a chimpanzee begging for its life.

When an animals teeth have ground down they can no longer eat, get thin and die. Perhaps we smile and show our teeth off to tell everyone how much life we have left in us.

wastelander

Funny how we spend a fortune on Ti/Carbon that is imperious to the elements, then somehow convince ourselves that it's far too nice to submit it to the worse that winter can throw at us so get a second bike - and I include myself in this argument! (Although I bought a 2nd bike purely to save the pride and joy from the cold, dark, wet nights!)

As has already been suggested, I suspect that to most of us 'winter' should really be 'bad weather' e.g. mudguard equipped, perhaps 25's instead of 23's etc as we all tend to take our pride and joy out whenever we can.

As an aside, who else has the same saddle/bar combo's on both foul weather and best bikes?

SteveR_100Milers

Its not the frame i'm worried abhout, its the moving parts such as brakes, cables, chainset etc etc. Summer bike had Ultegra / Dura Ace = lots of money to replace. Winter bike has Sora Tiagra not so much money. Likewise wheelsets....