The search for the Holy Grail *is* the hobby for some people.

I know a few folk who spend more time bike shopping and bike building than they ever do riding.

A few seem to think that cycling is an activity that can be “completed”, like a computer game. They keep buying and buying until they’ve run out of stuff to buy, mistakenly thinking that it serves any purpose beyond emptying their wallet.

Unlike with, say cars, cyclists with a half decent income can quite quickly and easily reach the summit of spec and setup, and the only thing they can then do is wait for the next model year when the manufacturers give them somewhere else to upgrade to.

It’s funny. Those guys I know on 7 year old mid-range hardtails, or second-hand slightly shonky suspension bikes are the guys who never seem to have a bad word to say about their bikes, while the Chris King, Thomson set are forever having issues.

The quest for the ultimate product is a fallacy. If the manufacturers ever did create the ultimate component they’d put themselves out of business. Keeping us all wanting is the way our world is run.

But it keeps the bikes shops open for those of us who need them to be there for when we wear out stuff and finally have to replace it, and it keeps the second hand market buoyant, so I’m not complaining.

The best thing to do, if you’re really trapped by it, is to spend a month researching the hell out of everything, test riding everything, finding the weights and specs, comparing and offseting against each other on spread sheets and generally find out what is the very best thing you could possibly buy. Then don’t bother working your way up to it – just buy the very best you possibly can, there and then.

The disappointment that comes from the ultimate purchase should be enough to let you know that you can’t buy cycling contentment.

“jackthedog…you sound like fun. Get invited to many parties?”

Yeah, thousands. That’s why I spent my Friday night talking about typography on an internet forum.

Or maybe I’m just one of the lucky few who has a passion for that which pays my bills. Having said that, it seems I’ve been out-geeked by Militant_biker, so maybe there’s hope for me yet.

That’s how much I hate it!

Edited 🙂

Ariel is a shit font, and that is a fact.

Uh-oh! Font Fascist!

And rightly so. It is actually fact – not a matter of opinion.

Arial was designed as a substandard typeface. It could only ever be a substandard typeface. It was commissioned by Microsoft for the sole reason of avoiding having to pay Linotype to licence Helvetica.

So the brief for the design of Arial was to copy Helvetica but change it just enough to not get sued. Therefore, any deviation from the original design could only make it worse.

By its very nature Arial can only ever be substandard. It’s the result of one of the richest corporations the world has ever seen deciding it would circumvent the sort of copyright it rigidly and desperately applies to its own output.

For designers, Arial is like going to see a really great band, only to find out it’s a tribute act.

It was one of those weirdy-beardy types who can never just make do with off-the shelf, always felt the need to customise and bodge, not because it was better, just to be different.

I know that sort. The chap I’m thinking of was welding together some hideous cargo trike abhorrence the last time I spoke to him.

I feel like I’m missing something, why won’t a 10spd casette fit onto that hub for 90 gear ratios?

Can you run 10 speed with a triple up front? I assumed not, which is why I didn’t originally mention it, although that now seems like a ridiculously insignificant compatibility concern after the idea of bodging together a Cambiogear and a Hammerschmidt came up.

The Cycles Maximus trikes (the ones that some cycle taxis, and parcel carrying couriers use) have a similar setup, although I think they have just 2 rings at the front.

Ah, interesting. Useful for cargo bikes then.

Folding bikes. Front derailleurs can be impossible to fit on some.

Problem solved by using a 3 speed hub with an ordinary rear derailleur.

Ah, okay.

Anyway how about 16X14 = 224 ratios?

Ha, nice. Think we could bodge a Cambiogear jobby to a Hammerschmidt + sturmey 3 speed with 9 speed cassette?

3x9x2x16 = 864 ratios?

When they get it wrong they hit snow. When we get it wrong we hit rock.

Unless you run a triple up front!

Is that the point then – to do away with triple rings?

Don’t have one myself so no pics to share but my mate has one and I think it’s ace. Bit heavier than you think it’s going to be, but a great bike. Comfortable, capable, ride all day, versatile. Really nice.

Haha, the above video is hilarious.

Junkyard – TBH that’s kind of been my overriding feeling about this EDC lark since finding out about it. It all seems to be about preparedness, and yet keeping fit and nimble, and learning basic self defence probably does more good than carrying pocket fulls of tactical gear. All the knives and torches in the world won’t stop a fat boy from being the first victim of a zombie onslaught.

Mind you, if it’s anything like MTBing, on EDC forums there’s probably already threads entitled “Have self defence courses become the latest de rigueur accessory?”

By the way, I think the fact that this thread has turned mainly into a gun conversation perfectly illustrates the image problem EDC suffers.

most houses have at least some guns in

LOL at “some”. Bit like tea light holders in the UK. Most houses probably have at least some.

I think you’ve got your causality backwards. People who are more likely to kill someone are more likely to be tooled up.

I also love the statistic that owning a gun increases your chances of being shot.

Firearms and violence are not automatically synonymous.

True. Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. People with people killing tools are people more inclined to kill people though.

I stretch sections of inner tube over the headset and the seat clamp to keep the weather out of the frame.

You can have a license to conceal carry in some states, can’t you? We need a ‘mercan to help us.

Edit: already said above.

Another here who recently discovered EDC. Came across it during online searches for a new commute rucksack. I learn that it has a big brother too – BOB.

I was shocked at first, particularly by the paranoid Americans who seemingly can’t step through their front door without carrying two different kinds of combat knife, a torch, two backup torches and 30 batteries, pepper spray, a concealed 9mm pistol, 3 loaded magazines for said pistol and a 3G iPad everywhere they go, just in case.

Quite what they’re preparing for that they think will require such specificity of stabbing and 50 odd rounds to be fired off, I don’t even want to know.

However, after a while of satiating my morbid curiosity I saw that actually, the majority of it is fairly harmless. Particularly outside the US. It’s just guys wanting to feel prepared for stuff by carrying paracord, carabiners, torches and first aid kits.

An old colleague of mine, a nice bloke, good laugh, RPG playing, computer programming, lead figure painting, proud-to-be-geek used to keep a zombie survival kit in his car with no hint of embarrassment. Everyone took the piss out of him till we ended up getting stranded overnight in the upstairs office when the river bust its banks and the RAF crew from the Sea kings hovering overhead phoned to say they couldn’t justify airlifting 150 staff to dry land.

This colleague had got a roll mat, a sleeping bag, a torch, toothbrush, those army meal ration things, he was comfy, not hungry, totally sorted. While we were all trying to prise the vending machine open in the pitch black to get at the Mars Bars because the power had gone out.

Admittedly that’s an exception scenario. Like most ultimately pointless hobbies we blokes have, it’s probably 90% about the toys. I got the impression that a lot of it seems actually to be more about the collection and creation of the kit, rather than the use of it. It’s like any hobby – a way for people to spend their money and pass the hours on chat forums.

But also like many a hobby – ours included – the nobbers give it a bad image.

Forks deffo. Back of the head tube has big hole that opens through into ends of top and down tubes, so you can tip it out there no problem.

Ouch, that sucks. Take it easy.

It sounds like you need to word your CV differently. From your post it seems you have bags of varied experience in your field, which once you get to interview (and finally get to talk to someone you’ll actually work with who knows the first thing about the job you’re applying for) will come across as valuable.

It’s just getting through the initial CV approval nonsense, where carefully written, thorough and honest accounts of oneself will always fall by the wayside when easily scannable buzzwords are so much easier for vapid HR people to get their heads around.

Giant Anthem seems to be a popular choice around that travel if you decide to go for a suspension frame.

haha see you in my exhaust fumes

Goodness me, that’ll go down well on here.

I agree with the above poster about ending up with similar bikes – that’d be a mistake IMO.

If you have a hardtail, it seems to me that replacing the Five with something a bit less heavy hitting would mean you’d be making your suspension bike closer to your hardtail. If you’re in a position to have two bikes, you might as well have two different ones and keep the contrast.

I’d go the other way with the Five – beef it up, big forks, big tyres, double and bash. That way, if I wanted short travel I’d ride the hardtail, if I wanted a suspension bike I’d ride the big fun bouncy bike.

The solution of getting a smaller travel bike seems the thing you’d want do if you were downscaling your current two bikes into one ‘do everything’ bike.

Urge do that Archi Enduro whatsit, like a full face but a bit less, erm, comprehensive.

EDIT – beaten to it

Local Motion FTW!

Nice! Never before have bike and gloves matched so perfectly.

You sir have style.

Give the bike a thorough clean first of all. A *proper* clean, so it’s as close to showroom condition as you can get it. During that process you’ll generally notice anything that needs attention.

Bloody hell! In Sheffield, just reading this thread and heard a RR Merlin. Rushed outside to see a Spitfire flying over! Literally 30 seconds ago. Freaky timing.

Best post I’ve read on here in ages. The joy of actual riding. Wonderful.

Rereading my post above, it seems really doom mongering. I didn’t mean for that at all.

Osteoarthritis sucks – there’s no two ways about it. It has changed my life, makes me realise the things we all take for granted. But to be honest it’s only really as bad as you allow it to be.

When I moped around feeling sorry for myself and hated the fact that I had to mollycoddle myself, guess what? It hurt like a bitch. Yet when I got on with it and lived life as I wanted to live it, and did the things I wanted to do, it seemed much less of an issue.

Find your own way of managing it and just get on with things. It’s not that bad, millions suffer it, you’re in good company 🙂

Oh, and keep in good shape. The less you weigh and the fitter you are, and the healthier the rest of you is, the less the knackered bit will affect you. At least that’s what I’ve found.

I don’t know about hips, but I have the same deal with my ankle following an accident ten years ago. It’s knackered, and it’s not going to get better.

The only advice I can give is to not let it stop you doing what you want to do. I have to make sacrifices day to day, can’t walk too far, if I need to run for the bus I’ll miss the bus. Can’t do busy pubs where I need to stand. Any of those will have me struggling for a few days afterwards. But I still ride hard and often. It hurts, but I’ve tried the alternative – giving up that which I love – and that hurts far more.

Unlike ankles though, they can replace hips. I’m facing a fusion at some indeterminate time in the future (apparently I’ll be glad to have it by the time I need to have it), and the more I wear it out now the sooner this will happen. But I’m not going to sit by saving myself for a future I don’t even know I’ll be here for.

Bollox to making hay – ride while the sun shines.

Trust me, if you love being active and you stop being active, it hurts far more than any joint can!

I decided I didn’t need 36s so went for 32s.

My mate went for 36s.

When I saw his bike next to mine I wished I’d gone for 36s.

I can’t speak for all the boats, but the one we got back from Hampton Court was no bother. We just turned up and they let us on, it all seemed surprisingly laid back for that there London.

We were just told to take the bikes inside and prop them up against the fire hose!

Might be worth ringing ahead to check though, particularly if it’s a weekday you’re planning.

Harry – where on earth is that?

+1

You can combine riding with other transport if you don’t fancy there-and-back or circular rides.

Last time I visited we spent the Saturday riding up the Thames from Chiswick to Hampton Court, then got the ferry back to Westminster.

Sunday we trained it out to Greenwich, took the foot tunnel under the Thames and followed the cycle network around the Isle of Dogs, and then followed the canal through the Camden throngs, and eventually ended up back up Notting Hill way.

Riding big old shopping bikes. It was ace. We ensured we made plenty of stops for ice creams and beverages along the way.

Can recommend both rides.

Frame looks nice, structurally. The lines are spot on for my tastes. I think the paint job is dreadful though.

As an aside, and this is just a pet peeve of mine TBH, I’m really sick of those extra little braces found around the seat tube junctions of many bikes these days. They always look like an afterthought.

I opened this thread assuming the title was a misspelling of Rapha, with the intention of saying what a bargain it seemed, considering.

You’re probably going to get hammered on here for this.

Not by me though. I do the same all the time. The way I see it (the correct way), there’s a name for those who don’t know they’re racing: ‘Losers’.

Bloody hell, he must be knackered.