Bike Shop

Bike Zone Oxford. A good place to buy a bike.

Not all local bike shops are the same. Some will specialise in selling cheap hybrid bicycles and have little knowledge of road bikes. It is harder to find a shop which specialises in road bikes or mountain bikes. If you are just looking for a commuting bike or hybrid bike it is still worth finding out the shop’s reputation for selling bikes.

Advantages of local bike shops

• You can speak to (hopefully) knowledgeable sales assistants. A good sales assistant will try to find most useful / practical bike, rather than just most expensive one.
• You can take for a test ride and get a good feel for what the bike is like to ride.
• Two weeks after purchase you can take back for service (many shops offer this for free) This enables them to adjust cables which may have stretched after being used.
• Easy to pick up and take back if any problem.

Disadvantages of local bike shops

• Often more expensive, they may struggle to compete on price with large online outfits.
• Less choice of bikes.
• Many bike sizes may have to be ordered in.

Cheapest Price Bike Shops

Cycle King specialise in the sub £150 cheap hybrid bikes. You get what you pay for. See: Review Ammaco Dresden Plus, maybe I’m being a bike snob, but it doesn’t feel like a real bicycle shop. I wouldn’t get the thrill of buying a bike from here.

Non-Bike Shops

This bike from the Argos catalogue has its forks put on the wrong way around. If you buy from non-bike shop catologues, this is the kind of experience you can have. You can pick up bikes for less than £100. But, you will get what you pay for. Even if I was keen to save money, I wouldn’t want to buy from this kind of place. Buying a bike can be an exciting and enjoyable event. As H.G. Wells said  ’ you will never regret buying a bicycle’ But, that was before the day of the Asda cut price. You will never regret buying a decent bicycle.

• Non-bike Shops

Online Retailers

Online retailers like Evans, Wiggle, Chain-Reaction Cycles have sold huge numbers of bicycles online. If you know what you’re looking for, it can be a way to get your ideal bike for a very competitive price.

Advantage of Online Retailers

• The big online retailers have a large selection of bikes
• They are able to offer most competitive prices
• You can keep an eye out for bikes going on sale (e.g. last years model) This enables even bigger savings.
• They have experience in selling large quantities of bikes.
• You can order at any time, you don’t need to get into town during work hours
• Most now offer trial period, where you can return bike, if it doesn’t work out.

Disadvantages

• Harder to get personal advice
• If things go wrong, it can be awkward returning bike by mail.

Overall

Mail order becomes more desirable as you gain more experience with bike maintenance, and you know exactly what you want. Also, for more expensive bikes, there is greater scope for saving money. 10% of a £300 hybrid bike is not worth hassle of mail order. But 10% saving for £1,999 bike is much more worthwhile.

An online retailer like Evans Cycles enables the best of both worlds as you can go into shop and the bike can be delivered from its warehouses into the store.

Second Hand

Second hand bikes may be a way to get a good value bike at an affordable rate. If you look on ebay and in specific cycle magazines, you may be able to pick up a real margin

Advantages

• Much cheaper
• Enables you to get a better bike for your budget

Disadvantages

• More stressful in dealing with people you don’t know
• Difficult to gain refund if bike turns out to be lemon
• Real possibility you are buying a stolen bike and contributing to crime, which in worse case you could make you an accessory, or at least get stopped by someone who recognises their bike
• You may have to spend more time researching.

Some second hand avenues will be more attractive. I would not want to buy second hand, unless I knew the person. Second hand can be good if you’re buying off a local club mate because you know where it is coming from. But, even buying off friends can potentially be awkward if things go wrong. Make sure you give it a good test for suitability.

• Buying second hand bikes

Related

• Advice on buying first road bike

How much cake to buy? is one of the great dilemma’s of being a race organiser. I bought too many and as a consequence am steadfastly working my way through 2 giant carrot cakes…. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. I’m fairly confident that if I keep a steady pace and disciplined approach, I will be able to finish by the end of the week. Alas, life isn’t fair, and I probably still won’t budge from 64 Kgs.

When other people organise cycle races, it always looks so easy that I thought I’d enter my own race and put myself off number 10.  As it turned out I didn’t want to ride. Off the bike for so long, plus I didn’t fancy racing with responsibilities of organising.

It’s a funny thing organising an event. Before race, you worry about things that might go wrong.  But, as soon as I started putting up warning signs on the road and actually start, it seemed to go quite smoothly.

For all the idosyncracies of cyclists, and time-triallists especially, they are a pretty good bunch of people – drawn together by a mutual fascination in racing up and down roads in search of that elusive pb. It was a good experience to be on the other side of a race. It definitely gives you an empathy with organisers. I have to say, it’s easier to race than to organise!

I was actually quite lucky to have two very good timekeepers from Didcot Phoenix CC. Tip for any organiser, always get your startsheet double checked by someone else before sending out!

The racing was fast and furious.  If you don’t get a ticket for box hill Olympic road race, pop along to the A40 one Sunday morning – there’s really not that much difference.

I had quite a few willing helpers from other friends in the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team. Thanks also to Run and Become for offering some prizes. They are quite used to putting on running races, but a cycle time trial is quite a new experience for them. They asked a few questions like why do you race on dual carriageways? It’s one of those questions not so easy to answer. Though at least on a dual carriageway, you don’t have to worry about those pesky red lights..

The race was won by Danny Axford (Arctic RC ) in a time of 20.57. First women was Danuta Tinn (Maidenhead & District CC). Full results at Sri Chinmoy Races

The good news is the leg seems fine now. A couple of hill intervals on Saturday didn’t cause any problem, so it may be time to restart proper training. If things go well, I will be entering the Farnham RC 10 mile TT on Saturday – I may even offer to take any surplus cake off the organiser at the end of the race.

There were 15 cyclists waiting for this light change. Not one jumped through red-light- if nothing else you would have to weave through a lot of other cyclists to go ahead. But, if no-one else is around, the % going through red is higher.

With too much time on my hands, I thought I’d investigate what % of Oxford cyclists go through red lights at different junctions.

I didn’t spend hours, but I noticed a few things.

1. People definitely get inspired to follow the lead of people in front. If the first person stops, others are much more likely to stop.
2. If one cyclist goes through a red light, it becomes more likely that following cyclists will follow suit.

When it is busy at rush hour, with many cyclists on the road, the % jumping red lights was low. There were more cyclists jumping red lights on a quiet Saturday morning compared to a weekday rush hour when there are hundreds of cyclists going through the junction.

For example, at this junction,  the ratio going through red lights was 0/70.

However, when I went back on Saturday morning, I saw 2/8 go through the red light. (less cyclists, but also less traffic)

The % going straight through a red light at this junction was much higher. There is no crossing motor traffic – only a pedestrian crossing. Also you have buses breathing down your shoulder so there is a desire to get ahead of the buses.

However, one observation is that if a cyclist is riding through, it encourages others to squeeze through inside of bus and get to the front. It is this riding on the inside of large vehicles that places cyclists in most danger.

The advanced cyclist box encourages people to go through on the inside of buses.

Squeezing on inside of buses.

At this junction, there wasn’t any sign of conflict between cyclists and pedestrians. Most cyclists are passing pretty slow.   Though there is the potential for collision  From a practical perspective, a real concern is from cyclists putting themselves in danger by squeezing through the inside. If the lights change during that manoeuvre, there is risk of bus moving into your trajectory. But, cyclists often seem to follow the  cyclist in front. If they see others go ahead, they want to be part of it.

Human Behaviour and the Lemming Effect

I suppose this behaviour is not about cycling. If everyone is doing 80mph on the motorway, it is much easier to do 80mph yourself. If everyone else is doing 70mph, far fewer will do 80mph. It is the instinct that if other people are doing something, it is OK for us.

It is like when groups of tourists cross the road. The first person probably has a clear crossing, but then every 30 people in the party will join in the road crossing without even looking. As a cyclist in touristy Oxford, you definitely have to be aware of how a group of tourists will behave. You have to know that they will just follow the leader and not even look. If you ring your bell, they will just dance around the road not knowing where to go.

As a cyclist, two things spring to mind.

1. Just because a cyclist has gone ahead doesn’t mean that should influence your behaviour. You have to weigh up risks of cycling along inside of buses and taxes – There is a great danger doing this.
2. If you’re the first cyclist at a junction. Bear in mind, what you do will influence people behind you!

Maybe worth repeating is the statistic

“Of pedestrians injured in London in a collision caused by red light jumping only 4% involve cyclists, whereas 71% occur when a car driver jumps a red light and 13% when a motorcyclist does. As an organisation representing those two road user groups, CTC suggests IAM ought to call for more road traffic policing to enforce traffic laws, rather than highlighting red light jumping by cyclists.” CTC

However, junctions are the biggest danger for cyclists.

Related

• Stats on cycling through red lights

The first thing about the wheels is that they look pretty impressive with shiny silver and flat spokes. A rarity amongst wheels, they will actually encourage you to clean them. Recent models come in black and silver, but they look just as good, if not better.

I have no problem with the wheels staying true. The wheels have stayed true despite having ridden over some rough surfaces. It is very strong.

For one season, I used these wheels in hill climb races. Going up hill they are pretty strong and rigid. For hill climbs, I later replaced by some even lighter weight tubular wheels and tubs. But, I used these Mavic Ksyrium’s as a backup because there performance is pretty good going up hills.

For the price, £700, they are not cheap, and you have quite a few alternatives (such as Campagnolo Bullet 50 carbon, Easton Carbon Clincher and Shimano Dura Ace models). But, I think these are a good upgrade for any keen road bike rider. They would make a good choice for long distance sportives. The combination of light weight for hills and strength will be good over longer distance.

The good news is these are relatively light weight wheels, but I know they support the weight of ‘heavier built riders’ I know a 95Kg rider who has had no problems riding the wheels over rough terain.

Why is it good to upgrade wheels.

Saving Weight on wheels is the best place of the bike to reduce weight. See: Importance of reducing weight on a bike

Unfortunately, after two years, I had problem with the bearings in the front wheel. I took it to be repaired two times, but the bike shops were unable to solve the problem. In the end I discarded the front wheel, which is not great when you consider the cost.  The rear wheel has done over 7,000 miles without problems. This winter it was on one of my winter training bike (I don’t advise using a Mavic Ksyrium SL for this purpose), but it came through the wet and salty conditions unscathed.

The problem with front wheel bearings would put me off re-buying the wheels, though I can’t find evidence this problem is endemic. Also, the front wheel had done a lot of miles before problem occurred.

A note on flat spoked wheels. They are possibly more aerodynamic, they look good. You might have to get special magnet fitter and replacements can be more difficult. Depending on how much money you want to spend, you can save more weight by getting the Mavic Ksyrium SLR or Cosmic Elite

Technical Specs of Mavic Ksyrium:

Mavic Ksyrium SL

 Ksyrium Elite

A cheaper version of the Ksyrium wheels with spokes of stainless steel rather than Zicral of the SL

Transport for London Conducted a survey at 5 different locations around London and marked the number of cyclists who went through red lights.

• Total Cyclists   who ran red light – 1180 / 6322
• % Cyclists  of went through red light – 16%.
• % of cyclists who didn’t go through red light – 84%

• The number of male cyclists observed at these junctions was 78% of total number of cyclists. Women accounts for 22% of observed cyclists.
• The figure for men running red lights (17%) was slightly higher than women (13%), though there doesn’t seem to be a significant gender gap.
• In general cyclists who ride through red lights are more likely to do so whilst travelling straight ahead at a junction. They are least likely to do so when turning right.
• 54% of red light violations were for cycling straight ahead. 24% for turning left. 18% for turning right.

Since 2000, there has been a 83% increase in cycle use in London. The increased number of cyclists on the streets will have increased the actual number of cyclists running the red-light. This might explain why many feel the problem is getting worse – there are simply  more cyclists. However, the % of red light running has not been measured in years when cycle use was much lower.

The report concludes

A total of 7502 cyclists were surveyed across all of the sites. Of these, an average of 16% violated red lights, whilst the remaining 84% obeyed the traffic signals. Therefore it can be concluded that the majority of cyclists do not ride through red lights. However, the 16% that do must be discouraged from ignoring traffic signals.

Accidents at Red Lights.

Quite revealing is the statistic

 “Of pedestrians injured in London in a collision caused by red light jumping only 4% involve cyclists, whereas 71% occur when a car driver jumps a red light and 13% when a motorcyclist does. As an organisation representing those two road user groups, CTC suggests IAM ought to call for more road traffic policing to enforce traffic laws, rather than highlighting red light jumping by cyclists.” CTC

 From media coverage, it often feels running red lights is primarily a violation by cyclists. But, just 4% of accidents suggests that the danger posed by motor cars is much greater.

• Cycling Statistics
• Cycling through red lights
• Report on Cycling stats TFL pdf

Survey Question: As a cyclist have you ever broken the speed limit?

• Yes, I have a speed ticket for doing 68mph on a 30mph residential hill
• Rarely. I once did 32mph on a big hill with a strong tailwind behind me.
• No, my bike would probably disintegrate at speeds over 20mph.
• I didn’t know speed limits applied to cyclists.

In another survey cyclists were asked “As a cyclist, do you ever jump red lights,”

• “Yes, frequently.” 1.9%
• “Yes, sometimes,” 11.8%
• “Rarely” 19.1%
• “Never” – 42.7%

I’ve written on cycling through red lights before, and I don’t have too much more to say.

However, for me, a more important question is

• ‘Do you cycle / drive in a way that is dangerous to other road users”
• ‘Do you cycle / drive in a way that is inconsiderate to other road users.’

I have seen cyclists (and drivers) go through red lights, in a way which does cause great inconvenience, and annoyance, e.g. at a 4 four traffic light. I have also seen cyclists go through a pedestrian crossing because no-one was around.

Do I mind the first? yes. Do I mind the second? well, no not really.

When I see buses charging through the high street at 10mph above the speed limit passing too close to pedestrians and cyclists, it is a much more serious cause for concern because I know this could be fatal.

Roger Geffen, CTC’s campaigns director, said (link):

“As road users we would like to see road traffic laws be enforced for the safety of everyone, but let’s not forget that the risk imposed by cyclists is minimal when compared to red light jumping drivers.”

He added: “Of pedestrians injured in London in a collision caused by red light jumping only 4% involve cyclists, whereas 71% occur when a car driver jumps a red light and 13% when a motorcyclist does.

Surveys can create any impression you want. From a cyclists perspective, it would be interesting to ask questions like:

• Do you ever pass a cyclist too closely?
• Do you ever drive with attention distracted?
• Do you ever get annoyed because you have to slow down to overtake cyclists?

I’ve done quite a few very bad things in my life (like, once getting a free ride on train without paying, wasted one hour of my life watching the X-Factor e.t.c) but occassionally going through a red light at pedestrian crossing because no-one is there is not one of them.

When it comes to using the road, common sense and mutual consideration is the most important thing.

• Traffic lights – rules and common sense
• Cycle campaigners see red over survey - Road CC

Relieving pre-exam nerves.

The cycle basket chain gang. – Rules max speed 15mph

Could almost be across the channel in Holland.

‘It’s actually all gold coins in here, but who would think it on this MTB’

Keep smiling.

A Cyclist meets tail end of the Oxford town and gown fun run.

nice fold up.

I love those 1970s brake cables – who needs all that fancy internal cable routing?

Struggling to keep up.

A classic bike and a classic shot.

Yeah, but it’s not as cool as cycling.

Narrow vision, narrow handlebars

A headwind into town.

More Oxford Cycling Photos

It is said that it’s much easier to give advice than to take it. I thought after recent accident and blood clot, I should take it fairly easy. But, the leg seemed to have fully recovered, and you soon forget about the past and your own advice.

I was out cycling towards Brill on my best road bike, there was a tailwind, there was a favourite hill and the temptation to stretch the legs and cycle as fast as possible is hard to resist. It felt good to get back into race mode, to cycle at the limit, not having to rely on one leg or worry about taking it easy. It’s good to cycle, it’s much better to cycle fast.

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm got  the better of me on the next ride. Doing 10Km at 48Kmph per hour (with tailwind), was fun, but the leg was rebelling the next day. Not quite back to square one, but it has enforced patience into my recovery – it will be a while before getting back to full speed and racing up hills with abandon.

How Much Fitness do you lose After 4 weeks off?

Fortunately, it seems 4 weeks off doesn’t really affect you too much. I think I’ve lost more at the top end. But, the basic fitness still seems there. I’m quite surprised at how resilient the body is in keeping good form, despite being inactive for 4 weeks. After assuming there was no point in entering National 50, I might have a look at the calendar and try and test where I’m at. Though, I realised after lengthy lay off, rushing into a 50 mile TT, may not be best approach.

• Any cyclist with a better bike than you.
• Any cyclist who overtakes you on a hill and says ‘jolly nice day’ pretending not to be even out of breath.
• Any cyclist who is faster than you.
• Any cyclist who pretends to never do any training, but still manages to do a 200Km sportive in sub 6 hours.
• Anyone who starts an unofficial commuting race when I don’t want to get involved in such a petty unimportant thing.
• Anyone who beats me in an unofficial commuting race.

1. The Winter Racer

It’s the middle of winter and most of your clubmates are happy to settle for some steady winter miles with the odd teashop. However, the winter racer will turn up on his £3,000 carbon fibre mike (sans mudguards of course) and insist on sprinting for every road sign. The winter racer then tries to drop everyone from an imaginary road race. The funny thing about the winter racer is that when the real racing starts in the middle of summer, they tend to evaporate or fail to race very quickly.

2. The Tester with encyclopaedic memory of his pb’s.

(Tester = time triallist). Time trialling tends to encourage a sort of obsessive behaviour. In particular, some testers will take any opportunity to regale you with their long history of their personal bests.

“…I set a 52:03 on the H25/8. Of course, if I’d had a 54 * 11 sprocket I’m sure I would have got a 51….”

If the tester ever manages to get off his personal bests, he will probably delve into the great fixed vs gears debate which has been ongoing since the second world war. The fact that pros hardly ever used fixed for individual time trials doesn’t change the fact that riding fixed must be much quicker than gears.

3. The Urban Warrior.

Maybe it is not fair to call these class of people cyclists. They treat the road as an obstacle course. Red lights and one way signs are only part of the street furniture – something to be admired for their aesthetic beauty rather than being signals of when to stop. The urban warrior will charge along pavements and shout at anyone with the audacity to suggest he might have been in the wrong to knock down that old lady.

4. Mr Excuses.

It was the headwind, sidewind, wrong bike, wrong choice of gears, too hilly, too early in the season, too late in the season, too hot, too cold, old war wound…. No matter what happens, Mr Excuses will always come up with a long list of excuses for why he didn’t do better / ride further. After listening to Mr Excuses, you really feel he could win the Tour de France, if only he wasn’t so cursed with bad luck and unfortunate mishaps.

5. The Stereotype Triathlete.

The ‘super cool roadies’ (see below) love to make fun of  triathletes. The ‘stereotyped triathlete’ will turn up on a ride of road racers only to make several mortal sins.

• - Turning up with tri bars. Tri bars are the quickest way to lose any self respect you may have with a roadie crowd. I mean real cyclists don’t make life easy for themselves….
• - Not holding your line on a descent. (Unfortunately, the triathlete will not what is meant when everyone shouts ‘hold your line’)
• - Not riding in a straight line.
• - Falling off.
• - Turning up with trainers not cycling shoes.
• - Turning up in kit which exposes 85% flesh. Road cyclists just don’t wear those G string shorts and vests.
• - Inability to move through properly on a chain gang.

6. The Super Cool Roadie

Road racing is the ultimate pinnacle of cycling sport, so any other discipline is to be looked down on. The super cool roadie particularly enjoys sneering at testers / triathletes / audax riders. The super cool roadie is usually a 3rd or 2nd Cat who can’t quite make it in road racing but at least knows his branch of cycling is the most prestigious. The super cool roadie may well have retro cycling tops from the 60s and 70s.

7. The Talker and Buyer

The talker never actually rides his bike. He spends hours reading through cycling magazines finding ways to reduce the weight on his bike worth £3,000. He knows more about cycling than anyone else; his bike is immaculate and the envy of many. But, the problem is he spends so long improving his bike and talking about cycling, he never actually gets round to riding. If he ever does ride, he will come to the conclusion that to go faster he just needs to buy the latest campagnolo 11 speed groupset, and this is where he has been going wrong.

8. The Helmet Advocate.

The helmet advocate is either passionately for or against. Whatever you talk about related to cycling, they will somehow bring it back to the helmet issue.

• The pro helmet advocate will always tell you, on every ride, the 4 times their life has been saved because they were wearing a helmet.
• The anti helmet lobby will try to tell you that wearing a helmet is actually very dangerous and if people didn’t wear helmets there would be a lot less fatalities in cycling.

9. The Old Timer

“Ay, lad, things were better in my day.”

The old timer will never fail to mention how much better things were in the ‘old days’. No matter that bikes weighed 15 kilos and punctured twice as often. Things were much better in the old days, not least because everything was in black and white. (old photos)

10. My Wife Is on an Intensive EPO course

We know that some pro cyclists take dope, but, what really gets me is the most pathetic excuses they come out with when caught. The classic was Rumsas who claimed the boxes of pills “were for my wife” -  Rumsas let his wife spend several weeks in prison when she was caught with a car full of performance enhancing drugs.

What about this excuse from Adri van der Poel the Dutch world cyclocross champion and Tour de France stage winner who tested positive for Strychnine. – He said that his father-in-law, had served a pigeon pie for Sunday lunch, and only when he tested positive did he realise that the pigeons had been doped with strychnine.

I don’t know which was worse the – industrial quantities of drugs Richard Virenque took or his tearful protestations that he never took dope and was a clean rider.
Any types of cyclists you would like to add to the list?

Related:

• Things people say about Cycling

thanks to comments, post originally published Aug 6, 2008.

A year ago, I wrote and published a book “Happiness Will Follow You” It is a collection of articles on meditation and ‘self-improvement’

I guess I could have included an article on ‘How to cycle on British roads and without getting mad at inconsiderate motorists‘ But, essentially it has nothing to do with cycling. Anyway, if you can stomach the kind of book which tells you how to eat garlic bread for breakfast with a smile on your face, you might possibly like this.

Amazon UK

• Happiness Will Follow You at Amazon.co.uk – £10.95 hardback – £5.95 kindle.

• Happiness Will Follow You – at Amazon.com – hardback $17.95