Re-discovered biking for the commute, would like a new steer

mumrar

Hello, as a first post I'll explain that just 13 days ago, with the offer of a holiday in Australia for Xmas, I got on my bike for work as savings need to be made. It's been a few years since I rode in anger at all, save very local trips.

My daily commute is from Redditch-Birmingham, 14.2mi each way with one big climb on the inbound which I swear at daily.

My current bike is one I purchased when I was 16, it's now 17 years old, still in good condition, but big on weight and short on TLC. Since restarting I've managed to put 427 miles under my wheels, although I did have a rest day due to overdoing it. Old bike is a Dawes Back Street, cost me £450 back in the day, 21 gears (never use low front sprocket) and it's a Reynolds 531 (I think steel?!?) frame with flat bars, flick shifts (Shimano Alivio) and some uncomfy grips and standard pedals with toe-clips. I'm after a year round bike with mudguards, but I want something light, fast and slim tyred that will help me increase average speed whilst continuing to improve my fitness. Had a look at the Ribble Audux 7005 and it seems a good spec, I don't want to spend crazy (as the point is to save for a holiday) but it would help with another thing I decided to do hastily.....

.....Between when I started and when we depart (Dec 15th) I want to cover the equivalent straight line distance between our house and my sister-in-laws house in Sydney - 10590 miles! So, the speed increase will help me accumulate the miles quicker as my fitness improves, is the theory.

Sorry it's such a big post for my first ever on the forum, but I might as well dive in feet first.

The Rookie

531 is indeed steel, at least it was a good enough bike to still be viable now!

Do you prefer drop or flat bars? Most flat barred hybrids have rack mounts/mudguard holes which I think you'll need.

Simon

mumrar

I would prefer flat bars for familiarity, at the moment I travel with a rucksack so I think drop bars would do my back in.

Dalton

Excuse me for asking, but what is wrong with the bike you are riding?

You say you have ridden it for 13 days over a long commute. So it must be up to the task. Surely purchasing a shiny need steed will negate any savings you plan to make for your upcoming trip?

Maybe spend a little cash making the existing bike more comfortable and having it serviced?

Just my opinion of course!

The Rookie

For that distance you really don't want to be using a backpack, you want a rack, I get sweaty in 6 1/2 miles and love keeping cooler with a rack.

As Dalton says, you're looking at spending in excess of £500 to get a decent bike, so maybe the money is better spent with some sensible tweaks to yours.

Simon

mumrar

I see what your saying chaps. I do have a rack on the back, I'd have to buy side-mount bags as the top needs to stay clear for my tailight. My main worry with the servicing, which I know it needs, is how much downtime will that mean?

I don't need to use the bike every day, but as I mentioned that mileage target I have, that works out to 41 miles each and every day or 287 miles a week. So I'd really need somewhere that is very quick at turning round a bike service, much more so than car garages anyway!

For a bit more info, that 14.2 mile run takes me between 50-60 minutes, wind and motivation dependant, so I reckon the service will clear up some speed for me and make me feel better about the old girl. It would be a shame to let her go, as we saw a lot of action in the early days and I'm rebonding now in our dotages :-)

laughingboy

Well, the cheapest option would be to get slimmer tyres for your current bike (really, slimmer tyres might reduce rotating mass and help acceleration, but some people think that fatter tyres - because they run at lower pressures and are more pliant - actually roll better on the UK's battered road surfaces. That is, the lab tests on smooth surfaces might be misleading for real world conditions). Perhaps you only need lighter tyres of a middling diameter? 28s or 32s? Check what internal width your rims are and use Sheldon Brown's website to verify that your new tyres will fit.

A 531 frame of any vintage counts as a good and reliable frame, if a few pounds heavier than some more modern frames. So, in buying new, you are really looking to better your components. My take on this is that components wear out, and if they still work OK, financially you'll be best off replacing them as and when they do.

If you have problems with the functionality of your current components or want more than 7 speed, for closer ratios or whatever reason, you may be better off buying a new bike in the final analysis.

If you really must spend £5-600, then I'd be tempted to buy a steel frame - longevity and strength (and potentially smoother ride quality) for me make this the sensible way to go. To be fair, there are some really well designed alu frames to be had for that money. Nothing wrong with the Ribble, but nothing to get too excited about.

If available in your size, I'd be tempted by something like the 2010 Charge Juicer Mid on sale at wiggle.com. That way you get better components (and IMO a better frame) for an extra £50. However, if you're thinking of adding a rack at sometime, bear in mind that you'll need to mount it using the mudguard fixings and securing the top with p-clips or a seat post fixing - it has no rack mounts on the frame.

nation

The tricky thing about your bike is going to be that (depending on the bike shop) they may very well not have a 7-speed chain and freewheel to hand (Evans in the centre probably won't, Sprocket cycles in Digbeth might). A service shouldn't require longer than leaving the bike for a day.

I'd stick with the bike you have, to be honest. I had a look at it in one of the old Dawes catalogues that Retrobike have, and it seems like a pretty decent bike. If it had drops it would be a respectable touring rig, and it's definitely an eminently practical year-round bike.

A road bike might be faster, but probably not by as much as you might think.

alfablue

mumrar wrote:

I don't need to use the bike every day, but as I mentioned that mileage target I have, that works out to 41 miles each and every day or 287 miles a week. So I'd really need somewhere that is very quick at turning round a bike service, much more so than car garages anyway!

Bike shop servicing will soon use up a lot of money - not saying they are too expensive but the amount of fettling a commuting bike needs to keep it running sweet will lead to quite a lot of expense. Some (by no means all) LBS's will often advise fitting new parts when they can be run for many more miles, too. The best way is to get a few tools and learn to service the bike yourself. Its not hard, and sites like this one, http://bicycletutor.com/ (fantastic videos of most repair jobs) and http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help are probably all you need for advice.

Servicing is usually about fettling gears brakes, replacing brake blocks, cables, chains and cassettes. All of these are fairly simple and don't need many tools. The LBS comes in handy when you need more major jhobs done, like fitting headsets, bottom brackets, chainsets etc, which require more costly tools (though still a viable diy option).

If you learn to service your own bike you can save loads of money whilst keeping it running perfectly with minimal downtime and no waiting! It is fun too.

rolf_f

I do up to about 35 miles on some commute trips - with a backpack (and drop bars as it happens!). And it is no bother. So give the backpack a go and ignore the rack advocates unless you actually do find it uncomfortable. A good airmesh backed backpack is pretty good and it does keep the weight off the bike which helps.

No problem keeping the old bike going - but you ideally should pre-empt problems by stocking up on parts. I run an old Dawes Horizon. The 7 speed freewheel I got came from Spa Cycles who also stock various 7 speed chains. Items like spare shifters and derailleurs are easily found for less than a tenner in good shape on Ebay.

The advantage of bikes of a certain age is that they predate the time when people got fooled into thinking that stuff needed replacing all the time. It wasn't so long ago that when you bought a bike, that was it. There was no such thing as upgrades! As a result, the parts are long lasting and cheap.

Good luck with the plan. I did 10,300 miles last year. Have to say it was tough though. I didn't realise how much until I looked at my stats and found that my speed had been dropping steadily over the previous 5 months. I think in hilly Yorkshire, more than about 1000 miles in a month is too much for me.

mumrar

Thanks for all of the sensible advice, if I'm honest the DIY servicing option has just been ignored because I'm afraid to dip my toe. I realise it will actually be a way for me to understand and get to know the bike a lot better. The chain is still the original, in fact, excluding tyres, tubes and brake blocks, everything is!

The best job to free up slack will definately be to clean up the rear cassette and all the other pedal/chain mechanisms as they are quite gunked up in places.

On a side note, I seem to be leaving the bike on the larger sprocket of the three permanently, and shifting between the rear 7. This isn't the best way to use 21 gears, so what alterations to the cassette/front sprocket should I consider (sorry if I'm using the wrong words btw) to get a more useful set of gears?

laughingboy

DIY servicing is easy. If you are going to keep the old bike running, to start with I would locate a tool to remove a screw-on freewheel, then I'd change that along with the chain rather than try to clean it. The reason for this is, once you buy a new chain (any 8 speed chain will work on a 7 speed bike), it will skip if your freewheel sprockets are worn. A caked-up freewheel is likely to be worn - the black paste grinds away at the surfaces.

As for useable gears, I can't work out from your post whether you spin out in your top gear (and therefore need higher gears = bigger chainrings or new chainset/crankset), or you just need to get accustomed to using all of your chainrings.

The Rookie

On a 7 speed there is no real isue with staying in the big ring and using all 7 at the rear, although its better not to use the lowest (biggest) ring, although if the gearing suites you could fit a narrower bottom bracket and drop the 2 inner rings and shifting bits to save some weight.

For that mileage, learning DIY maintenance will save you a lot of money, an LBS typically charges around £50 for a service that will take you no more than 90 minutes and that way you'll know every part of your bike well, and be able to predict when bits will need work.

Park tools and Sheldon Brown are excellent sources on how to DIY, when I re-took up cycling 3 years ago I started by building my own bike, the first took a little while to learn how to do each part, now I can put one together easily - in fact I've built 7 now.

Know your area well, used to work at Longbridge and a good friend lives in Bromsgrove.

Simon

AndyOgy

At just 17 years old, your current bike frame is barely run in. You would have to spend a lot of money on a new frame to get one as good as the one that you're currently riding.

Don't believe me? Check out eBay and see how much a classic Reynolds frame sells for.

I regularly see people take such a frame and attach a £600 groupset, along with £500 wheels. Now, I'm not suggesting that you spend that much. I'm just saying that it's certainly a frame that can justify having some money spent on it.

If you spent half the value of a Ribble Audax on upgrading your current bike, you'd end up with a bike that offers a ride so much sweeter than the Ribble. Without seeing the bike, it'd be hard to know what to suggest. But I'd start with tyres, brake pads, all cable inners/outers and get the wheels trued by a LBS. Get them to check for chain stretch and, if there is any present, replace the chain and maybe the cassette/freewheel. Along with a general service, all that should cost around £150.

As for the hill that makes you swear, try using one of those smaller chainrings that you have. No sense mashing up your knees and drivetrain when you could simply ride a smaller gear. I always used to think that there was some shame in using a smaller gear. But wisdom finally came with age.

walkingbootweather

^ +1

You have a decent enough starting point. As others have said I would change tyres, cables, cassette, chain and grips and give it a good service. If you book in advance you can probably ride to work, have serviced at LBS then pick up ready to ride home. This will cost circa £150 but then the bike will ride as good as new. It is quite possible to undertake the work yourself with a few tools. You would probably need to spend more than £500 to get a better ride if you are buying new.

If you have a rack then get some panniers to carry the load, and consider upgrading to spd pedals and shoes.

You already seem to have decent pace and sufficient enthusiasm.

Good luck

The Rookie

Just to add that if you feel like updating you can convert your 7 speed (assuming its cassette not freewheel) to 8 speed using a 9 speed cassette with one gear taken off, a 9speed shifter and a 9 speed chain, this is what the daughter is running on her commuter (had a good 7speed wheel there was no point in binning!), gives a little more flexibility.

Simon

mumrar

Thanks again. My commute is dictated by a permanent shift pattern of afternoons. So the drop off and collect wouldn't necessarily work as I usually start 1-3pm till 9-12 at night.

I'll just have to learn a bit, hopefully with help from my Dad who did a lot of biking back in the day.

mumrar

Thanks again. My commute is dictated by a permanent shift pattern of afternoons. So the drop off and collect wouldn't necessarily work as I usually start 1-3pm till 9-12 at night.

I'll just have to learn a bit, hopefully with help from my Dad who did a lot of biking back in the day.

Oh, and I've got a 501 frame, not a 531, sure it doesn't make much difference though.

walkingbootweather

mumrar wrote:

Oh, and I've got a 501 frame, not a 531, sure it doesn't make much difference though.

Think I've got some matching Levi jeans :?

501 frameset is actually more modern than 531 (which has evolved from incarnations going back 70 years or more), but it is not so well regarded. More detail here. 501 is still fine for communting though.

alfablue

The 501 frame is not as special as the 531 but I would still want one, ideal for a commuter.

Found this info:

Reynolds 531 is a manganese-molybdenum (MnMo) steel, seamless tubeset that has been available since the 1930s in both plain and butted tubesets. The butted tubesets were avaible in several different wall thicknesses. Reynolds 501 was a chromium-molybdendum (CrMo) steel, seamed, butted tubest that made it's debut about 1983 and was available in two different thicknesses. Both tubesets have long been superceded by more advanced steel tubesets, but Reynolds still makes 531 to special order.

Reynolds used to tout manganese-molybdenum as superior to the chromium-molybdenum used by their major competitors, but eventually produced the 501 tubes using chromium-molybdenum. Both are very good steels.

The 531 sets were seamless, which is theoretically stronger, but is expensive to manufacturer, particularly for butted tubing with varying wall thickness. The 501 set was less expensive to produce because the the material was rolled to the varying wall thickness as a flat sheet, which was then fomed into a tube and welded along its length. While purists prefer the seamless tubes, I have yet to see a seamed, 501 tube fail and have no qualms about riding it.

Reynolds 531 was available in several wall thickness, but the baseline 531(c) tubeset had slightly thinner walls than the baseline 501 tubeset. As a result, the 531 tubeset was about 225g lighter.

In general, 501 was aimed at the mid-range market. Hence the slightly thicker and heavier tubes, seamed construction and in Reynolds' opinion, inferior CrMo steel. 531 was aimed at higher models, though it could be found on mid-range models by using plain gauge tubes or combining a 531 butted main triangle with lesser grade stays and/or forks,

http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index ... 50526.html
so I don't think you should have any reservations about the frame.