Commuters! I implore you!

damage36

I'm having a terrible time getting my mudguards on. And whilst I am a roadie with shaved legs, I do commuite to work, so I hope this request will be well received

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12591767

I posted over in the Road Gear&Know How section, but I realise that this is the place to be if you want help fast! Tomorrow's commute is at stake!

DMG

always_tyred

Okay, in the absence of p-clips, you need to source some zip ties (a.k.a. cable ties) - B&Q might be open until 10!!

By cranking the hell out of them (so they stretch a tad before locking) you can get a secure fit for your mudguards around the stays where you now wish you had eyelets.

How is the clearance around the brakes? If you can get the built in attachement through which the brake bolt is supposed to go to work, you are doing better than me. Hopefully you will not therefore have to get the drill out to make holes for zip ties to wrap around the fork crown. Its easier at the back because you have a brake bridge to tie things to - should the brake bolt thingie not work there either.

The attachement of the rear guards down by the bb is useful if your bike is of a design that pre-dates digital watches. Its supposed to clip to the brace behind the bb between your chain stays. You know, the one your bike probably hasn't got.

Zip tie the ornamental clip around the down tube in the vicinity of your front hanger. It will make the rear guard tip back further than designed, but this will in any case be of benefit to other road buddies as you ride safely an inch from one on another's wheels in wet weather.

As a roadie, you will love your bike and it may even be somewhat clean and unscratched.

Use bits of inner tube to protect the forks front and back from the zip ties - they will be on tight and will eventually bite into the paint. Use electrical tape around the down tube. That one doesn't ahve to be as tight.

always_tyred

Oh, and stop shaving your legs, its very strange behaviour and it doesn't make you go any faster.

greg66_tri_v2.0

I tried to fit these to my wife's bike. It was a big PITA job and she hated them. They rattled around and rubbed the tyres.

In the end (ie after about a week) I canned them and put raceblades on her bike. Shorter, but much easier to fit and no rubbing.

Probably not what you want to hear.

Kieran_Burns

Answered - but not good news

greg66_tri_v2.0

Always Tyred wrote:

Oh, and stop shaving your legs, its very strange behaviour and it doesn't make you go any faster.

That's not completely true...

damage36

F&*#-a-doodle-do.

The Spesh Allez 08 does no take full guards. Thanks v much for your replies chaps but the war has been won - rather depressingly for me. I hope wiggle are going to take back my guards now. If not I'll have to save them for a commuting bike that I won't buy for another X years.

Most recent order contained...

SKS guards
Conti Gator tyre (only 1 )
Arse-os bum cream.

I have to wait for the second huge box containing my non-foldable second tyre (I stupidly bought 1 tyre on its own, then realised a couple of hours later I would, in fact, need two).

Return order (that will cost something silly to send in the enormous box)

SKS guards - on account of the above
Conti Gator tyres - on account of being reputably sh*t

Stuff I've got on order to replace it all

SKS race blades
Michelin Krysium tyres (i ordered 2 this time! - but they won't arrive until november)

I'm a moron and I'm having a moronically bad day. :roll: :!:

Kieran_Burns

Where are you damage?

always_tyred

Greg66 wrote:

Always Tyred wrote:

Oh, and stop shaving your legs, its very strange behaviour and it doesn't make you go any faster.

That's not completely true...

Okay, so if you are dropped from orbit, arguably the golf-ball effect of the stubble would create less drag than hairy legs. However at 18 mph, I think that the effect is immeasurably small. Indeed, for all we know, the harier the better at that speed.

Oh, and who knows about the respective hydrodynamic efficiencies - could be that in monsoon weather, or very very very muddy conditions, it is beneficial to have shaved legs.

I defy you to find any evidence whatsoever that there is any aerodynamic merit to leg shaving.

(Actually, I have no idea, but I find that when I get inflamatory like this, there's a chance I can persuade someone else go look on google and save me the trouble 8) ).

Bassjunkieuk

Greg66 wrote:

Always Tyred wrote:

Oh, and stop shaving your legs, its very strange behaviour and it doesn't make you go any faster.

That's not completely true...

I reckon you just "think" your going faster, sorta like you feel faster in the rain or when riding tipsy.......

greg66_tri_v2.0

Always Tyred wrote:

I defy you to find any evidence whatsoever that there is any aerodynamic merit to leg shaving.

Aerodynamics? Oh, you're miles off the mark. Really really really icy cold. Arctic cold.

You get on a road bike, go for a ride with your hairy morlock legs on display that you just vacuumed and brushed. You fit right in. No one else on a road bike gives you a second look.

Now you go home, give 'em a quick shave (aka the 10 minute Adonis makeover) and go back out and do the same ride. I *guarantee* you will ride harder and faster.

Why? 'Cos you're going to be thinking that everyone's looking at you. And you'll be thinking they're thinking "Hmm. One of those. I bet he thinks he's all that. Well, let's see. I'll take him down a peg or two". And because of that you'll want to be about as sluggish as a fox who has just been dropped in the beagle kennels.

Of course, chances are no one will *acutally* notice your legs. Probably. But that's not really the point. If you think you're wearing a target, you're going to move yourself that bit faster.

richardc1280

No need to worry about shaving your legs, all you have to do is commute in trousers and in about err... 50 years of cycling the hairs all get rubbed off anyway.
It's a natural balance, your legs match your head.
Richardc1280

greg66_tri_v2.0

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

I reckon you just "think" your going faster, sorta like you feel faster in the rain or when riding tipsy.......

You do ride faster in the rain. Fact. Oil and water is a better chain lube than straight oil. And therefore you have less friction in the drive train. Unfortunately once the water drips off, it takes some of the oil with it, which is why you chain will feel noisy and dry after a ride in heavy rain.

linsen

After all if shaved legs made you faster wouldn't girls be faster than boys?

always_tyred

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

Always Tyred wrote:

Oh, and stop shaving your legs, its very strange behaviour and it doesn't make you go any faster.

That's not completely true...

I reckon you just "think" your going faster, sorta like you feel faster in the rain or when riding tipsy.......

I always thought it was a bit of a statement - I am fast enough to shave my legs.

Then its a bit of a problem when you are out riding like your gran (after a particularly heavy week of training, obviously).

I only tried it once, and it caused a rash and lots of itching. I chastised myself for being such a slave to peer pressure. I now regularly catch roadies by surprise by pressing the pedals just as hard as them, even though I have hair.

I did this the other week to a roadie around Aurthur's Seat. He was forced to catch up, re-pass me then slow down and explain that this was his 10th lap. To a guy on the world's ugliest and heaviest road bike with lights, battery packs, mudguards and a bag of work stuff. :roll:

linsen

Isn't it all about legs being easier to clean up when they have decorated the road with their contents?
Because roadies go fast as loonies and fall off a lot.......

always_tyred

linsen wrote:

Isn't it all about legs being easier to clean up when they have decorated the road with their contents?
Because roadies go fast as loonies and fall off a lot.......

Even that's made up. Every time I've scraped myself off the road, I have found that the hair comes right off with the skin.

Therefore, roadies seem to argue that they can't stand the pain or pulling plasters off, since this is the only benefit.

linsen

Maybe they are all closet trannies.....

Surf-Matt

Shaving legs - clearly because riders want people to see their legs muscles more clearly. The same reason bodybuilders shave/wax their chests.

Highly dubious practise and very very gay. Not that there anything wrong with being gay of course...

always_tyred

No the truth is that profession riders have a lot of massage. They shave because it makes the massage a great deal more comfortable.

Tub of lard local racers idolise the pros and copy them. In order to elevate their behaviour above that of teenage girls all having the same hairdo as Posh, numerous "reasons" for shaving are contrived.

They have pajama parties for it and everything. That's why they join clubs. Thats a FACT.

damage36

This is a proper forum. There's nothing this tangental going on in the road forums. THIS is why I waste evenings online! You guys should have joined in with my 'shaven shame' thread over there a few weeks ago.

Back to my guard v raceblades concerns...

Where are you damage?

I'm in taunton, so hope to soon join somerset RC.

PS. I'll be commuting come rain or shine tomorrow. Rain will make me veeery wet though, I call it dedication.

linsen

I shave my legs.

Oh, that's because I'm a girl

damage36

linsen wrote:

I shave my legs.

Oh, that's because I'm a girl

Fake tan aswell? :oops:
Or does that require you (me) to be at least metrosexual. Oh dear, what has become of me. :roll:
Still, these sideburns I'm working on should increase the man-factor. :?

(diverting back to race blades again...)
Black OR should I be a gimp and get carbon look blades?

NB. My frame is black but has carbon wrap seatpost and a carbon fork.

Kieran_Burns

I asked as I have a set of race blades going free to good home that was all. If you were local you could've picked them up

always_tyred

linsen wrote:

I shave my legs.

Oh, that's because I'm a girl

How come none of my teachers appeared ever to do this?

Is there a rule that says you have to be hairy to be departmental head or above, such that ambitious teachers stop shaving and glue rediculous comedy store body hair to their armpits?

As I reacall, there WAS an over representation of weirdy beardies in the upper echelons of teaching - such male bias....

There were also a lot of sandles with socks. There may be a link.

NGale

linsen wrote:

I shave my legs.

Oh, that's because I'm a girl

Yeah I see nothing wrong in shaving legs at all

reminds me I really must do mine :shock:

linsen

Always Tyred wrote:

linsen wrote:

I shave my legs.

Oh, that's because I'm a girl

How come none of my teachers appeared ever to do this?

Is there a rule that says you have to be hairy to be departmental head or above, such that ambitious teachers stop shaving and glue rediculous comedy store body hair to their armpits?

As I reacall, there WAS an over representation of weirdy beardies in the upper echelons of teaching - such male bias....

There were also a lot of sandles with socks. There may be a link.

I'm a head of subject and I'm drop-dead gorgeous

sc999cs

Surf-Matt wrote:

Shaving legs - clearly because riders want people to see their legs muscles more clearly. The same reason bodybuilders shave/wax their chests.

Highly dubious practise and very very gay. Not that there anything wrong with being gay of course...

but a lot wrong with being a shaved legged roadie... :twisted:

NGale

linsen wrote:

Always Tyred wrote:

linsen wrote:

I shave my legs.

Oh, that's because I'm a girl

How come none of my teachers appeared ever to do this?

Is there a rule that says you have to be hairy to be departmental head or above, such that ambitious teachers stop shaving and glue rediculous comedy store body hair to their armpits?

As I reacall, there WAS an over representation of weirdy beardies in the upper echelons of teaching - such male bias....

There were also a lot of sandles with socks. There may be a link.

I'm a head of subject and I'm drop-dead gorgeous

ahhh depends on what you teach though. I mean if it's drama then you have to be a little weird and hairy for that.

Me as a future history teacher in the FE sector, tweed jackets will be compulsory :roll:

always_tyred

damage36 wrote:

Still, these sideburns I'm working on should increase the man-factor. :?

Ah, is this you - bottom right?

linsen

Get your prejudices ready.....


German