Gotta put in my two penceth.

@ Spanner

Butterfly bars – NOOOOOOO! Don’t do it! I rode a 3,500mile tour on them and have vowed never to use them again. A flat bar with LONG bar ends works much better, atleast for me.

I set them up nearly flat so I could stretch into them.

The curves between the flat section where your brake levers are and the forward facing bar endy sections have a really large radius curve which is really uncomfortable and stop you hooking your thumbs off the edge. Takes quite a bit of usable area off the bars, both fore and aft aswell as side to side.

I also found the forward aero section was always just TOO far away to be useful. (and I was a fairly flexible 21 year old when I was using them)

I then tried moustache bars set slightly closer to me than the butterflies. They were super-comfy but the brake levers were always in the wrong place. The levers never followed the angle of my wrist during braking and you couldn’t set them up to without losing the hoods position.

REAL road-bikes require drops, but for a roadbike used for commuting…
Profile Airwings.

Not JUST for the hipster fixie kids, great bars. That bikes not mine but I have ’em too. Nice for a commuter road-bike because you can access the brakes from the full length of the extensions and not just while sitting on the hoods. In traffic your rarely going to get down in the drops anyway.

Flat-bars and barends are a poor imitation.

I love the floating brakes on the orange. Connected to the swingarm so entirely purposeless, and that front chainguide with its extra rollers. and and… just so much

I guess my one off-topic post was a little disengenuous and rather pointless in a subject I’m quite interested in. I’d also like to say, I’m not trying to pick holes but am interested in your point of view.

@Sam

I have read in a number of places that due to the low weight of a bicycles front wheel (as opposed to something like a motorcycle) the gyroscopic effect was negligible and that it only really affects (perhaps) bicycles while airborne? Do you think differently to this?

The greater gyroscopic effect and longer thinner contact patch (more pneumatic trail) of a 29″ wheel requires less trail for equivalent steering response, all else being equal.

I have set of these. They have a cock in the dropout (and two rake options)

…that is all.

Owned a roadrat and now a pompetamine. Despite being much cheaper, the pompetamine rides MUCH better.

As for the roadrat, what peterpoddy said.

I’ve been sewing cycling caps.

Toying about making a batch to sell.

I owned a mk1 grey soul.
It was heavy but with shortish forks I really liked it. Snapped through the breather hole on the chainstay.

I owned a roadrat too, that one snapped through a dent in the downtube.

They both taught me the lesson of not buying bike bits which you can’t afford to replace. :(

I’m getting a hint of the last train to Aberdeen.

Take a gap year, gain some additional life experience.

That’s another thing, I think Scottish Unis are free for me but others aren’t? I’m more likely to sway towards something that’s free..

Look at european courses. LOADS of free ones, including free ones taught in English. You’re scottish, scotland has free tuition for EU nationals aswell as scots, the same free tuition often applies in europe. Look at german engineering courses! It’s just the English which have a crumby deal with uni.

Only if you’re a particularly long armed and long legged short person then the small would be the right size but go to the bikeshop to try a few. Fit is more important than on an mtb.

Pushes the front end further out meaning less weight on the front wheel, will also give you a higher caster so heavier steering.

If you wash out the rear wheel before the front and your steering is a bit light then by all means.

What do you want to hear?

as an aside, your steering rate and the point of inversion (where your bicycle will start self stabilising) will be at a higher speed too. But I think if you’re talking about 66/67deg headangles low speed steering is not the issue

Seatclamp canti hanger and headset spacer hanger. Job done. Will cost you sub-£15 total

another dmr, minimum insertion. Loved her.

There’s a great bodge I’ve seen turning a dual-control mtb lever into independent dual brakes from one lever. up and down activates the front brake and pulling back and forward activates the rear brake. Something to do with drilling out pins and springs in them.

Double brake lever. Pulls both brakes.

Long answer: Your headangle will increase by about half a degree compared to your sagged fox fork. If the fork you’re using is one of the 29er forks with increased rake your (mechanical)trail will decrease (by the increase in rake) and make your steering feel lighter.

If you’re bikepacking then the weight of what you’re carrying on the front will make your steering feel heavier again anyway.

Short answer: It’ll be fine

Don’t touch the brakes!

I quite like this one

The bike polo segment was brilliant.

First edition soul, sometime 2006. Chainstay snapped. Loved that bike.

Roadrat, 2009-2011. Downtube snapped. Did around 10,000 miles on it. Didn’t love it. Flexiest bike I’ve ever owned.

If anyone from here is there then say hello. I’m going to be there on a ridiculous looking blue polo bike with mallet.

Colin
Edinburghbikepolo.com

My custom frame has 14.6″(370mm) chainstays on 26″ wheels.

It also has a 75 degree headangle and 480mm width handlebars. A bicycle which is in the opposite extreme to ALL the big mountainbike trends.

It is so sharp however that you need to be super accurate when you’re riding; get your body language perfect or it WILL pitch you off. It torques up into powerwheelies during sprints and it’s so short you only need to push your weight a little forward to be able to break traction on the rear wheel. It turns better than ANY bike I have ever owned.

’tis a polobike, it rides like an overgrown bmx and I love it.

anyone?

that bike polo looks way rad, got to try and get that going down our way, I missed the bit where they apparently do it on fixies, all the time I was there they used single speed free hubs with narrow bars. Interesting rules to, only like for like contact, bike body or stick thing, love it.

Bike polo IS way rad! People playing in all of the major cities around the UK and indeed Europe. Nae fixies in sight, If you look closer at the bikes you’ll spot that most folk are running dual brakes, two brakes through one lever. Interesting machines. Great game.

My current widest bars are on my Polo bike. They are 520mm wide flat bars.

I think I speak for everyone on this thread, the UK has a knowledge based economy and YOU – Edukator – are a wierdo.

The Clan were awesome last year, as was the Animal Relentless team. The test tracks were pretty cool too. Unfortunately the rest of it was a bag o’ salesmen.

This year the rumour is of a HUGE bike-polo tournament taking place in the middle, which will be brilliant. Best teams from around europe.If you can put yer snobbery aside, polo is amazing to watch.

A little Urbex

A little Trials

A little bike-polo: http://www.edinburghbikepolo.com

Cats have been sent to earth from the planet canopus to stop humans disposing of their waste in drinking water. Yes!

Conspiracy theories from 2.35 onwards

I play bike-polo. It would be much nicer if it wasn’t so niche and people realised it wasn’t JUST for hipsters.

Bike polo!

I’m going to watch this in Edinburgh next week.

The kit has always worked fine and I always recommended it. But I spoke to the lad who runs the company at a bike show, he asked me what I thought and I told him it works well. At this point he started a tirade of abuse against all the people who say bad things about superstar.

He came off as a total asshat and I no longer buy superstar.

Have you been? I hear they have an amazing bike-polo tournament there this year.

Meet rudolf.
It’s for playing bike polo! Intentionally steep headtube angle. Trailstar LT with 400mm long forks.

Meet rudolf.
It’s for playing bike polo! Intentionally steep headtube angle. Trailstar LT with 400mm long forks.

I had this happen to me whilst cycle-touring a few years back.

To cut the story short. Two guys in a car threatened to slit my throat if I didn’t give them my bike and all my stuff. I refused and rode off, thank god they didn’t come after me. Was quite freaked out.

Another lad had the same thing happen to him about a week later, he wasn’t so lucky and got in a fistfight, breaking bones and put an end to his round the world cycle-tour.

Was on the Kazakh-uzbek border, so not the safest of places by a longshot.

Seeing the Milky way on top of a ridge in Charyn Canyon – castle’s valley (Kazakhstan) whilst being kept awake by the worst diahorea my bumhole has ever experienced.

Meet rudolf