r/ukbike

I'm changing locations for work and now I definitely need a good lock and chain combo. It's at an undesirable area where bike theft is always frequent so I'm nervous now as I've always been able to bring my bike indoors but not at this new office. Any UK stores or UK online for quick delivery? I need it by Wednesday next week. I can go to decathlon in London but only if they have a very reputable lock. Thank you in advance. EDIT: Bike is £500 and also a video link to show me how to use both the Ulock and cable. I've been lucky for many years not to think about security hence not even learnt this.

I'm looking at lots of budget vintage road/touring bikes, hoping to find something 70s or early 80s. Does anyone know how Puch 2500 hi-ten steel compares to Reynolds 531 / 501? And what are the best sites for finding new tyres & tubes, whether the wheels are 26-28" or 700c? Thanks in advance

I'm planning to riding Brighton to Bristol in the next month or so and was wondering if anyone has been along the Kennet & Avon canal between Newbury and Devizes recently?

New cyclist looking to pick up a hybrid or gravel bike in the used market. From my reading, hydraulic brakes are the way to go and mechanical discs brakes suck. I avoided bidding on a really nice boardman bike because of this. Not sure if that the right choice. Since I'm in the used market I'm not sure being picky is the best idea. My budget is ~£200-250. Maybe I need to increase my budget if I want hydraulics.

I was a very keen cyclist for many years and have been lucky to have a great local bike shop.
However, the LBS clothing range has always been fairly limited, and so I used Wiggle, CRC, and Evans (I’d often pop into Evans near Chill Factore).
Now that Wiggle has gone, CRC and Evans are a shadow of their former self, what are the solid alternatives these days?
I was particularly fond of Wiggle’s DHB brand stuff, their cycling shorts were fantastic quality, no nonsense kit.
Does DHB still exist in some form separately of Wiggle?

Hello! I'm looking for some ideas or advice for an ambitious, hopeful, possibly-too-difficult-for-us project.

I used to love cycling around for leisure and my husband still does. He's fit and healthy. I, however, have ME, which is very debilitating for me. I struggle daily with fatigue and pain, both of which are made worse by exertion / exercise. I continue to hope and try to find a way to improve my condition, but as it is, I have no way of cycling on my own. I miss getting outside.

Regarding my mobility, some days I use a wheelchair, and some days I can walk slowly, with/without crutches. It depends on my level of pain and fatigue on that day (and how much I've been walking in previous days). If I am seated, a back rest and preferably arm rests are pretty essential for me. The support that these give to my torso means my back pain is less intense, because my back muscles aren't as engaged.

We would love to have a form of tandem bike that works for us. We think we'd have to either buy a used tandem to customise ourselves, or build a custom bike from tandem/bike parts.

Here's a wish list of the things we'd need, or would like, for our dream tandem:

• Two seats, one can be a standard man's seat, one more like a padded square seat, with a back rest and simple arm rests.

• Pedal powered, mostly by my husband. An electric assisted version would be great, but out of our budget.

• If possible, I'd like pedals too. This would mean I'm not restricted to just being a passenger, and on good days I could pedal too. The majority of the power would still be from my husband, but if I have the option of getting some gentle exercise when I am able to, that would be great.

• The normal tandem style (one in front, one behind) is fine with us. I've also seen some with side by side seats and some tricycle versions. These look interesting, but are they too wide and impractical for country roads and passing cars? Also, a wide and heavy bike would be a negative for my next point, which is...

• If a foldable tandem is a possibility, that would be even better. We wouldn't be restricted to the area we live in, we could also travel around and go on holidays, taking it with us.

Practical limitations:

• Our car is a decent size, but not a van. We hope to one day be able to afford something like a Transporter / Sprinter / Trafic and convert it into a simple camper (we could adapt it to my needs and make travel easier for us), but we can't afford a car upgrade for a while. So, if a folding tandem is possible, we'd want it to fit in a medium sized car when folded / broken down.

• We don't have the budget for the fancy accessible tandems selling online for thousands. Our budget would be in the hundreds, spread over the winter months whilst we work on it.

• We don't have any bike or mechanical experience. My husband's good with woodwork and has plenty of tools, but aside from bike puncture repairs he's never worked on bikes or cars.

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Is this too ambitious for us? Is it possible? I have no idea where to start with this. Any pointers and help would be much appreciated.

Hi All,

I recently bought a rather expensive e-bike to replace my car on shorter journeys. I've bought a gold rated lock and an extension to also lock up both wheels, and sometimes even take the battery seatpost with me to deter thieves, but I'm finding that leaving it locked up is giving me quite a lot of anxiety.

I'm scared to leave it locked up too long which is limited where I can go with it and what I can use it for. I've also seen a lot of posts recently about people getting robbed while riding, kicked off their bike and threatened at knifepoint - I saw one post of that happening exactly where I had ridden my bike only an hour earlier.

Obviously I have got insurance, and I'm not dumb enough to put up a fight with someone holding a knife. But do you guys have any tips to feel more secure while riding and when locking up your bikes?

Thanks in advance!

I'm in need of a bike rack for my bike. Specialized Turbo Tero X. The bike weighs 23.6KG.

When looking for a bike rack, each listing I see has a section if its suitable for an e bike. Yet the load capacities are over 30kg.

What's stopping me from using one of these racks that lists they aren't suitable for an e bike if my bike is under the weight load capacity?

Hello, I just came back from a bike tour that had some gravel sections. I enjoyed it but my road bike was definitely not the bike to do it on so I am looking to get into more gravel and off road riding. I tried gravel bikes and much prefer to have front suspension so looking to get a hardtail.

Question is should I go for a trail or xc bike?

I am not super flexible so I'm worried an xc bike would put me in an uncomfortable aggressive position (equivalent of a road race bike while I ride endurance bikes) but at the same time don't want to get a trail bike that would be quite sluggish.

Advice appreciated, thank you.

heya we are currently debating whether to take the ncn7 or ncn1 to edinburgh.

has anyone taken either or both before and give us some advice / suggestions.

We have a gravel bike and a trekking bike with a bit of baggage so we cannot really do mountain bike type roads.

cheers

I take my old man out on the bikes and he loves it but he is painfully slow.

I'd like to be able to take him on longer trips. Figured some electronic assistance might help.

Can i pick up something that will help him for £600-700? we only go out one a month or something.

I don't want to buy something thats a load of crap

We cycle on rough narrow country roads

I switched from ebike to titanium gravel bike earlier this year, and I’d like to keep riding when the bad weather turns up as Autumn approaches, but at 140kg I’m not sure what options I have as many normal options (e.g. Wahoo Kickr) are not rated that high.

It would be preferable to use my bike as I’ve put effort into getting it to fit me well and be comfortable, but tbh whatever works.

Any advice, please? Budget would probably be relevant but for the purposes of this exercise perhaps ignore it initially.

Hi guys, hope you’re all good. Not sure if this is the correct place to post but I’m struggling a bit.

Reasonably good/experienced mountain biker here (20+ years, XC/enduro background) but looking for a road bike for fitness. I know nothing about road bikes at all, so no idea what I’m looking at online and it’s a tad overwhelming. Fairly mechanically minded (have built probably 15 mountain bikes frame up in my life) so used or frame only is no issue if that’s the way to go, but that’s not often the case in the mtb world from a cost perspective.

Don’t really want to go full dentist spec just in case I don’t enjoy it, so wanted the community’s views on:

Absolute non negotiables (eg on a trail/enduro bike a dropper post - is there a road bike equivalent?)

What you’d get if you were me (absolute noob, reasonably fit, riding Essex countryside)

What to avoid (brands, spec, geo etc.)

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen these posts on mtb forums and I know they’re so wide reaching they’re a bit annoying and folks respond in kind, so mods please delete if this isn’t appropriate.

Suspect everyone will want to know budget… it’s highly flexible depending on what you all say but ideally £1,500-£3,000 of that helps at all.

If this slips the net, thanks in advance all for any advice at all.

TLDR help, don’t know what I’m doing

I was looking for a hardtail for long expeditions that I can take on bikepacking adventures on rough trails and gravel paths. My budget was 3K, and I wanted to prioritise good steel and titanium frames, so the choice got quite limited, as it seems most hardtail frames are XC racing and either they are aluminium or carbon. After researching a lot I have been able to shortlist these which are available through Cycle to Work:
- Sonder Broken Road TI XT: It is made out of titanium, is light so can be good for unloaded easy trails too.

- Cotic Solaris: XC bikes which might work as a decent bike for bikepacking too, but this one is getting very expensive if I go for XT level components, and I want to keep it under 3K.

While Sonder seems to fit the idea of what I want, the only thing that worries me is the parent(Alpkit) went under administration recently and although they got new funding, they shut down their only London store. Bike is using standard components except the sliding dropouts, so I guess I can stock up on those, but it still makes it a bit uneasy.

Is this something I should worry about or should it be fine since other parts are quite standard? The only other issue might be that I will not have any local store which will be true for any brand unless I buy mass market ones like Trek, Specialized etc

Are there other fully built bikes which are available in UK that can easily work with Green Commute Initiative that are similar to Sonder Broken Road?

or should I just get an aluminium XC racing bike like Marin Team 2, Specialized Chisel Comp etc and make use of mounts like Tailfin/OMM if I want to bikepack. How are these aluminium frames for long multi-day rides? Do they feel supple enough to make for comfortable rides?

I was hit by a van a few days ago whilst cycling home from work. I feel I was very lucky as I escaped few just cuts & bruises (and all over body-aches of course, which are now subsiding). Anyway, it got me thinking that I ought to get myself a camera to attach to my bike helmet and wondered what others use.

I'd prefer the idea of getting a cylinder-shaped one as they appear more discreet/less bulky and, whilst I'd love to have a 360 degree camera, I don't feel I can justify the spend and would rather keep the budget below £100.

Video quality is important, but I suspect that 1080p would be enough; acceptable audio may be useful for recording conversations if I do get involved in another accident, but I think less crucial.

I've been looking at the Riderr Vue, which is available for around £80.

If anyone has experience of this, or similarly priced products (or arguments in favour of something more expensive) I'd be most grateful to hear.

Thanks all.