I’m talking about bikes,

What else do i talk about, besides violence, weapons, japnese, sex, drink. Normal male mind really. But anyway, in this particular post i’m talking about bikes, of the pedaling kind.

First of all, I’d like to wish Fare Thee Well to my old DiamondBack S10. It’s almost 4 years old and had done over 1000 miles of the school comute; hard hack downhill, heavy on the brakes, rough roads (victoria) sharp corner on Woodshears. Then back up, racing up the alley, coping with the grass perfectl well, accelerating well out of the junction at the top, the long crawl up Clarence, mixing with traffic, blasting up Church Street (locals will know thats a fair hill) then rocketing along the Worcester Road to home. It’ll be sad to see it go. It’s long 19″ frame, its interesting rear suspension, those still good front forks (surprising for cheapy Suntours), creaky steering, rattly gear levers… ah good times on a good bike. I said ”I’m going to keep riding it untill I ride it into the ground”, fateful words as it happens.

One cold and icy morning I literally rode it into the ground. Pulled out of my drive, down the road, thinking it’s bloody freezing, through the lights without a problem. Slotted into the right turn lane, slowed right down for a car, pulled away and round into the corner. Aaand rode it into the ground. Black ice is the most obvious explanation, hit it, lost the front end, dropped it. Another explanation is the new front tread i’d purchased and put on the night before, silly cheapy Halfords thing. New treads rarley grip that well, and perhaps the recently gritted, wet, smooth tarmac proved too slick for it.

Either way, I think I can say with confidence that i’ve written it off. After picking me and the bike up off the busy junction, I started off again, stopped again a few metres on and wrenched the rather buckled deraulier out of the spokes. I then limped all the way to school after bending the deraullier in such a way it just about worked. I got it so sit in 7th, and 2nd / 3rd (depending on the weight on the pedals) while the shifter was on 1 / 2.  Utilising the front deraullier more I got to school, locked up, swore once again, and limped (leg was hurting) into Sixth Form. After explaining to various people why my elbow was in such a blackened (tarmac gunk) and bloodied state, I (in a free lesson) went on various bike websites, and calculated that it’d cost close on £100 to fix everything wrong with it. It was only £150 when new, 3 years old, very worn, wouldn’t be worth £50. Not worth fixing then. Not with a very buckled quick-fix-bent-back-to-a-rough-position rear deraullier, worn chain, worn gears back and front, slightly bent brakes, and a slightly wobbly back wheel. And to make matters worse, I limped it up the Alley, along Court Road, and then the front deraullier cable snapped! So I had to plod home with two and a half gears depending which way the wind was blowing and how hard I wasn’t pedaling.

As good as my Giant XTC is, it’s not very roady. Using it to commute on roads just felt wrong. It’s troughbred off-road, and should be used as such. So, i just wanted a new commuting bike to take the DB’s place. So, I looked round a bit, a couple of shps had some interesting options. Looking to spend £200 or less on a decent bike is always a challenge. I considered ordering a Giant through BackOnTrack, Upton had a nice looking ClaudButler. But in the end, it was Halfords in which I ended up once again. Most bikes in our family are Halfords sourced.

Halfords was dcently local, and had more or less what I was after. I also looked at, and seriously considered, road / touring style bikes. I tried to be interested and look at them, but they just didn’t float boats. Limited gearing, little or no suspension, silly little finger thin tyres. I always kept thinking back to a hybrid or mountain style bike; 21+ speeds, decent suspension, grippy 1.95 / 2.1 tyres. I, like my bike, am also a thouroghbred off-road machine. So those kind of bikes ticked more boxes in my opinion.

I didn’t even spare the Apollo’s a glance. Apollos are not brilliant bikes. Then at the 199 mark i came across two nicer options. A hard tail DiamondBack, and a blue Carrera Vulcan (the latest Vulcans have red paint jobs).

The DB had a chunky frame and red paint on the front at least. 21 speed, good; Zoom forks, hmm; Gripshifts, hmm; front disc; good; rear V, nothing wrong with V’s; Red paint, brilliant. OK, i don’t particularily like the shifts or forks, but otherwise good.

Now on to the Carrera. As i’ve said before Carreras are like Toyota’s Lexus to Apollo. But it shows. This Carrera was labelled the “Vulcan V Spec”, which meant it was your standard Vulcan, but with V brakes rather than discs. 24 speed, very good; SR Suntour forks, good; Sram 4 shifters, basically flappy paddles, so good; Dual V’s, nothing wrong with V’s, in fact these are Trekko which can be very good; blue, yes it’s a nice enough blue, but red’d be better.

I decided to go for the Vulcan. It had better everything, minus the colour and braking. But good V’s can be just as good as the cheap disc on the DB. Also, the DB had a cheap looking headset, and treaded steering cloumn – very hard to work with / on / get parts for now-a-days. The Carrera looked sleeker, it had more gears, flappy paddles (of a sort, those Sram 4’s are… different, shall we say), and i’m more used to working with / on V brakes. It ticked boxes nicely, and so thats my new commuter.

I bought it in the box, assembled it in 20 mins, and then rode it to work. I had to stop half way there to adjust the saddle. On the way home I realised there was somthing wrong with the front deraullier, and those forks are far too soft. So at home, i adjusted the end stops on the front deraullier till it changed properly and stiffened up the susupension, alot and it’s still quite soft. Well, we’ll see. i can always stiffen more, or get new forks maybe.

So I now ride a Carrera Vulcan V Spec for commuting.

Untill the next post,

Uncle Austin Wozzer