Cycle Storage - Part 2

Back some time ago I added some bike hangers to my garage to make some more space on the floor: Wall Hangers.

I keep acquiring bikes and currently in the family "peak bike" is 8 when my son is back from university. Admittedly one of these is my now "dead" Giant since my accident but this is still quite a lot of bikes to store. 

I had recently tidied my garage and moved things around and this made some more possible space to hang a 3rd bike where the 2 currently hang. I bought this from Halfords:

£10.99 less the 10% British Cycling discount so a reasonable £9.90. Its pretty well identical to the earlier ones but a slightly different detailed design.

Some drilling and screwing later I now have this:

The offsetting means 3 in just over the space for 2 and I can get any one of then out without moving the others (albeit carefully)

Proviz Gilet - Extending the Commute Window and Cycling in the Dark

I commute quite a lot but I have some personal "guidelines". These are mainly

• don't commute when its icy
• don't commute when it will be dark on the way home (I'm less bothered about being dark in the morning as there is a lot less traffic)
• look at the weather forecast and try not to commute in the rain

These are not hard and fast rules and apart from the icy one there is some scope for flexibility.

The main one is that I feel less comfortable is commuting home in the dark. Because of this its rare that I cycle to and from work after the end of October and before late February and this is despite having enough "be seen" lights.

On the rear I have 2 Smart Lights and a Fibre Flare Shorty Side Light (in red) and use all 3 in flashing mode. The Fibre Flare is a really effective light and throws a good bright light all-round. Powered by 2 AA batteries this lasts at least 30-40hours in flashing mode.

On the front I have a Lifeline 1W Led and more recently I have bought a Knog Blinder Skull.

The Knog is a small USB charged bright white LED front light with a constant mode and 3-4 flashing modes. Its most definitely a "be seen" light rather than a see light but its really effective. I tend to use it in the normal flash mode (50% on/50% off) and it gives about 2.5-3 hours run time, which for me is enough either to commute both ways or for a medium length morning ride where I use it for the first few hours when the visibility may be lower at the start of a ride.

I don't think the Skull adds anything to the performance and is just a design feature!

Some of these lights are discussed here: link

Despite quite a few lights on my bike I still feel vulnerable about being seen - both from the front or rear. I saw on the Internet before Christmas some reviews of the Proviz ultra reflective clothing range and was pretty impressed with what it seemed to offer.

Proviz Gilet in "Reflective Mode"

Basically it looks like a full top made of the silver reflective material strips that are normally a small part of normal HiViz clothing.

The prices ranged from around £50 for the Gilet to around £75 for the jacket and this was a lot of money - and a search n the internet showed that the prices were consistent across a range of outlets. Fortunately Halfords stocked the jackets so I was able to have a thorough look at what they were and get a better feel for value and quality.


The jacket was well made but the material is quite heavy and appeared to have no breatheability at all. Its difficult to tell in normal light and just looks like a matt grey nylon material. Others had commented on this and this meant that perhaps the Gilet was a better bet since the lack of arms might stop too much sweaty heat build up.

I hesitated for a few more weeks before deciding that the significant increase in visibility I would get would make me feel happier cycling in the dark. I repeated the earlier trawl for the best price but the prices were very consistent. In then end I ordered it from Proviz direct (http://www.provizsports.com/en_gb/) - the price was within a pound or so of the lowest, there was free postage and a "free gift":

The Ankle or Arm band - a strap of the Proviz material with LEDs built in

(although what I received looks nothing like this).

In terms of size I would normally say that I was a medium for most things. Proviz did not have any Medium in stock but the size chart suggested that a Small would be OK - although I was not totally sure. I am certainly not heavily built but getting a small was a risk.

The gilet arrived after a few days - well packed and no damage to the packaging. It was quite a small package but surprisingly weighty. Compared to my other more "traditional" gilets (in nylon) it is a lot heavier.

Opening the packaging and getting the gilet out confirmed the good quality of manufacture (good seams, no spare threads etc). What I had not expected was that there are 2 zipped side pockets and the back of the gilet is made of a slightly different material with perforations in an attempt I assume to improve breathability. The weight of the material at the front was the same as the jacket and is quite heavy. There is a small logo on the left breast.

The Small size was absolutely fine for me - the Medium I think would have been far too big, so it might suggest that sizing is generous - however the chest size for a Small was my chest size s perhaps Proviz just have a medium that's bigger than other companies. The neck is quite high and will be irritating but does seem to fold down to a more sensible level. In normal domestic lighting the colour is the same matt grey but if the lights are turned off you can see even with light spilling from another room how the light is reflected back and the material starts turning white and reflecting back.

I first used the gilet about a week later. It was a cold morning (1-2DegC at most) and I wore the gilet over a base layer, long sleeve jersey and a long sleeve jacket (in this case one of Aldi's finest). Despite being a Small this was the right size for me. Temperature wise it certainly kept the chill off and I did not get excessively warm by any means. Its difficult so see how reflective it really is when you are wearing it, but on my commute (a mix of lit urban and unlit rural roads) what I noticed was how much more room most drivers appeared to be giving me (some on the other side of the road completely). I got the same room on the way home as well. I don't know if this was some sort of psychological perception or if I really was that much more visible and as a result was being given room. A sample size of 1 commute (2 rides) is totally inadequate to draw any conclusions.

So what can I summarise so far?

• The gilet is well made
• It has pockets that were useful
• The material is quite heavy and might be too hot in warmer months
• It does appear to be very reflective
• The sizing may be on the larger size than you expect - make sure you select by Proviz size rather than assume that your normal size will be OK
• Its quite expensive compared to other reflective clothing
• I did feel more visible in it that normal but am still a lot more cautious in full dark conditions

Bargainacious Ultegra 10 Speed Cassette

Every now and then some great offers appear and they are too good to pass. An example of this was my Scott (here and here). This week it was an offer from Halfords that I found out from a post on BikeRadar in the Commuting Chat section in the long running thread "Tell People About the Bargains you've spotted". This was for an Ultegra Cassette for £20 - but only  a 12-25 and not any of the other ranges.

After a little bit of deliberation (well not a lot) I decided I'd get one as a spare. I knew that for the Scott I'd not be able to put it on and just leave it - I need the 11-28 I have on for any big hills or long rides - but for a lot of riding it would be fine and when I needed lower gears I'd refit the 11-28.

The Giant has a 105 12-25 cassette fitted for most of the year and I manage fine on that and have used in the winter for some rides. I am on the 34-25 for some (slow) climbs but I can live with it.

I wrote about cassette sizes here and here

Unfortunately our local Halfords did not have any in stock  - there were some in Castle Bromwich and also in Stratford upon Avon. We decided that I'd cycle down to Stratford whilst my wife would drive down. We'd meet at Halfords, I'd put the bike in the car and we'd go into Stratford proper for a walk round and some lunch. About 30 minutes before I left I had a polite call from the store confirming that it had been put aside. 

I set off on my bike and did a meandering route criss-crossing the A3400 on this route:

It was pretty cold and some of the smaller roads were still icy so care was needed but I still arrived within 10 minutes of my wife and within 5 minutes of the planned arrival time.

We went to the Costa where I also got changed, had a coffee, and then strolled over to Halfords.

Compared to the Solihull store the experience was really great. I handed over the emailed ring and reserve confirmation. The assistant recognised the order and observed that she'd spoken to me earlier. She went to get it and found it within 30 seconds. I asked for the 10% British Cycling discount which was accepted without any issue which brought the price down further to £18. I was asked for my membership card which I had and there was a short conversation about needing to check as people had been asking for it without any proof. I also offered up an Electron gift card as payment that I had for Christmas and that all went through OK as well. So all in all a good deal and a good experience.

Here's the proof:

When I service the Scott for this year's riding I'll weigh the cassettes I have and compare the weights (105 12-25, 105 11-28 and Ultegra 12-25).

Then we went into Stratford and had a very pleasant (late) lunch in one of the many eating places in Sheep Street and a walk around. Despite it only being 40 minutes drive I don't think that I have been to Stratford for a number of years - we'll have to go again when the weather is better - although a cold winters day certainly kept the crowds down and made it a pleasure to walk round and park!

Bike Transport

We've been on holiday for a week in Suffolk. We took one of my bikes, my son's bike and my wife's (new) bike. This involved 3 bikes on the car: my Giant on the Thule 961, my son's Boardman on my home made 961 and my wife's Trek on an original un-modified Halfords carrier that was the basis for my version of the Thule 961

The biggest problem I found fit this set up was my height. You need to be quite tall anyway to use the standard Halford's carrier and with it fitted to the centre of the car I could only just reach to tighten it up (no handle thing like the current Thule equivalents). I had to resort to using our small 2 step step ladder thing to reach properly, which I then had to put in the car and take with us. More thought later would have identified that I should put this carrier at the edge of the car and not in the centre - lesson learned for next time.

My Home Made Thule 561 in Use

In an earlier post (here) I described the home made version of a Thule 561 that I made by modifying a Halfords roof cycle carrier. Here are some pictures of both my sons's bikes on the roof of my Focus estate - the Boardman in on the Thule rack whilst the Giant Seek Hybrid in on my version.

Being extra cautious I have used some rope between both bikes. The wind was very strong and we had a 150+ mile journey up the M5.

The Giant on my version - its not going anywhere!

The Boardman on the Thule Rack

Detail of the front fork clamp

 I was very pleased with the performance of my modification

My Home Made Thule 561 Bike Carrier

Update 17 October 2013 Bit of an update here:My home made Thule 561 more details

Updated 15 June 2013

I am fortunate to have a number of bikes over the years and have bought various racks and carriers to carry them on a car. I initially bought something similar to this (the rack not the bike!):

Halfords "middle of the range" roof carrier

The one I have is (looks) a bit better than this and in fact I have 2 of these. Its a quite high quality aluminium extrusion with a down tube clamping arrangement, which is lockable. The wheels are secured using self-locking cable straps much like pedal toe-clip straps. The frame clamp is a light weight steel tube.

Advantages of this type of rack are that the bike remains assembled whilst being carried and the down tube clamp provides a degree of stability

Disadvantages are

• the bike is very tall when trying to fit to the rack - it was almost impossible on a Land Rover Freelander 2
• the down tube clamp could provide more lateral stability and would be better if the base was wider to give more triangulation
• for fat down tubes the clamp needs to be dis-assembled before it will go round the tube and then needs re-assembly once held around which is very difficult one-handed
• the overall height of the vehicle becomes very tall once a bike is fitted

I also have something similar to this (not quite the same as mine is older):

 

The reason for getting one of these was that about 12 years ago I was lucky to start having company cars. The scheme I am on is fantastic and means that typically I don't keep a car for much more than 6 months, and I have a wide choice of vehicles (from 2 manufacturers). A down side to this (if there is such a thing!) is that its expensive to keep up with roof bars for all these cars and the days of a universal gutter mounting roof bar are long gone - all modern cars need a special fitting system. As such a tail gate system is a better compromise and fitted all the cars I had. However I was never that confidant about the overall robustness (especially with plastic bumpers) and always used some extra rope for belt and braces through the tailgate hinge to the bike.

In the end, because I wanted to transport my Focus Cayo and did not trust the tailgate rack for an expensive bike I bit the bullet and bought some "quality" roof bars - some Thule ones to be precise for a Freelander 2 I had at that time. I duly had a trial fitting of the bars - I can see why they cost more as they fit really well and securely and fitted my Focus to the roof with one of the Halfords roof carriers as above. I was less than impressed.

I was concerned about the clamping arrangement for the frame - the frame is quite a large diameter which meant that the clamp was awkward to fit and then I was nervous about how much clamp load to apply to secure the bike as it moved more than I wanted even when I had reached the maximum load I felt comfortable with for the clamp. In reality I know that carbon fibre frames are very strong, but a down tube clamp load is not what they are designed for.

The solution for this was a relatively easy solution to get a Thule 561 Cycle Carrier

This is an excellent piece of equipment and is, of the 3 bike carriers I have, by far the best system for carrying a bike. Almost all of the load of holding the bike to the rack is done by the quick release clamp through the front fork. As this part of the bike is designed for high loading then there is no issue with this. The retention strap for the rear wheel is really only to stop the wheel bouncing. The carrier is also very simple and quick to fit to the roof bars. Both fixing points to the roof bar have an adjustable over-centre clamp. The rear clamp is just clamped, but the front is lockable, as is the fork clamp.

I have found with experience that you do need to do these really quite tight or the rack will move slightly.

Once the roof bars are on the roof it takes no more that 10 minutes to fit the 561 and bike and secure it all. It really is excellent.

After a couple of years and the growing interest of my son in cycling it became more necessary to get a second quality carrier like the 561. The easy option would have been to just buy a 2nd one, however being an engineer and having something to start from I felt that I could make one using one of the Halfords units as a starting point. So this is what I did.

The Mark 1

The original plan was to make some form of quick release fork mounting mechanism using a spare front axle that I would fix to the aluminium channel of the Halfords unit. I had given this some thought and had in my mind a fabricated solution of some sort. It needed to be fabricated as I don't have access to either machine tools or any welding equipment, and although my father does have some machines and a gas torch welder these are not easily accessible. Therefore the plan was to make something using various angle and box sections.

However another project I was working on had involved some improvements to my garage and as part of this was thinking about some secure bike racking. Whilst searching for this I came across the following from Saris:

This was exactly what I had been looking for and at £16.99 from Chain Reaction Cycles was cheap enough to take a punt at.

Having acquired the most complex piece rather than having to make it I was enthused to actually finish the project. The plan was to use a rectangular section fixed to the aluminium extrusion and then mount the Saris clamp to that section. Here is a photo of it completed to show the aim.

End-on view of mount showing construction

Another view to show construction

Another View

Overhead view

Side View

The aluminium was order via an eBay supplier. I got a 500mm length of the rectangular section cut in 3 pieces (2 off 125mm and 1 off 250mm) and some 5mm aluminium plate - a 250mm square cut into 2 off 125mm square and a 125x250mm piece. The reason for the definition of the sizes is that 2 cuts were included in the price. The section was sawn and the plate guillotined, and the sizes were within 0.5mm. I was very happy with the material and the service and would use the supplier again.

This all looked great and worked in the garage. However when fitted to the car a problem came to light. The way the the end of the carrier is fitted to the roof bars is via a metal pressing that rests in the bottom of the V of the section. In normal use this clamp is the rear of the carrier and takes no load, whilst the other end is clamped with a more stiff structure (not shown).

Here is a couple of pictures that sort of show how the rack is clamped at one end - the end I added my new design to:

Given that this end is normally just having the rear wheel sitting in it its a more that suitable design. My design however had the front forks mounted here which put all the side forces onto the extrusion which was not supported

As a result the highest load from the bike is through my new additions, and the design had no stiffness where needed.I t was quite unfit for purpose and a complete redesign was required.

This led to the mark 2 version:


Here are some pictures of a much more substantial version that is fit for purpose.

It was used to bring back one of my sons bikes from Exeter University. 150+ motorway miles with very strong winds proved to be no problem - the bike was securely held and I was very happy


More words to follow describing the reasons for the redesign strategy at a later date.

The Mark 2 version - end on view

The Mark 2 version - side view

The Mark 2 version - another end on view

The Mark 2 version - yet another end on view

The Mark 2 version - another side view

The Mark 2 version - end on view

Sheffield and the fall out

Went up to Sheffield on Wednesday to take one of my sons to a University Open Day, and as he didn't really want me to go round with him I took the opportunity to take my bike and do a loop just a few miles to the west of the university. The loop was 39 miles in total and was really tough - 4100 feet of climbing, windy and hailed a few times. Just about got round but did walk for a few yards a couple of times I am afraid to admit. 

Also had a funny chain "off" about 10 miles from the end - got all jammed up. Seemed OK so carried on and also commuted to work on the Friday although there was some vibration at times when I put some power down - I had a nagging doubt that the bottom bracket bearing is going. Anyway Friday evening when back at home looked at the chain and saw a partially failed link. I fiddled around with my chain splitter and some spare links and made a bit of a pigs ear of it, so did a few other jobs (cleaning, swapping wheels etc that I had planned to do) and had another go successfully, only to then spot another broken link.

At that point the chain went in the scrap bin. It had only done 700 miles, so whether there were some manufacturing faults or I damaged it in the chain off incident I don't know. It was a KMC X10 series chain - (I have used a lot of these in 8 speed guise as well and not had problems before).

Anyway needing a new one fairly sharpish I went to Halfords and got a Shimano 105 chain - bit more expensive than on-line but not overly. Will get a spare in over the next few weeks. Then when fitting the chain and checking the shifting realised that the lower jockey wheel bearing was also shot -put back together for the time being until can get another set, so a more expensive couple of days than I had hoped. Fuel saved so far this year commuting just about covers the spares costs!

Used the Reserve and Collect service at Halfords. They could have made a better job as it took them about 15 minutes to find the chain.