Malmesbury Bikes

The itch is back. . . my trusty Saracen Kiliflyer is looking a little old, especially against M’s Specialized Hardrock. So I’m planning that shortlist again.

(Un)fortunately I was at the accountant’s this morning and Bike is next door, so I felt duty bound to pop in as they stock Orbea and I’m in love with that Basque brand. The plan was to take a look at a mid-spec Orbea hardtail, but Bike didn’t have any in stock, so it was on to other options that they did have in stock.

The sensible option is one of the Genesis bikes – they look excellent and offer superb value for money – so they’re almost certainly where we’ll be looking when the ‘change’ does happen. But they did have two other favourites. . .

• An Orange Five – they big surprise here was the weight, it was surprisingly close to the Saracen and has wonderful clean lines – at least for a full-suss bike. Compared to the Marin’s in the shop, with their huge lump of suspension componentry in the middle of the frame, the Orange looks really sleek.

• They also had a Whyte 905 – a stunning hardtail and a not-unreasonable price. On purely aesthetic terms, this bikes looks fantastic and all of the reports give it a huge thumbs-up as well.

So the short/dream list is now:

• Orange Five
• Genesis something
• Trek Fuel
• Whyte 905

I can’t help myself… even with the pennies a bit tight, I’m still on the lookout for a new mountain bike. Much as I love my old Saracen Kiliflyer, the combination of its age and my improved cycle fitness is starting to show its shortcomings.

Part of me says that a new light-weight hardtail would be the best alternative… there aren’t a stack of mountains in Wiltshire and the hardtail would give me more speed on an average run. But there’s a part of me that says “Go full-suss, you know you want to”!

I’ll come back to the whole hard-tail-full-suss debate in the next few days, but my homework on fullsussers keeps leading me back to the Trek options. I’ve tended to shy away from Trek in the past, given their mass-produced and highly branded presence in the market - and I’ve heard some questionable practices with regards their relationships with LBS’. But it seems to me that, without going for one of the smaller brands and blowing any sensible budget, most of the mainstream manufacturers are much of the same.

Which brings Trek back onto the shortlist and those Fuels and Remedys do look very nice and price-competitive.

How many times have you put off some tiny bit of maintenance because of the hassle of getting changing before rummaging around the garage in the dark searching for oil. I’ll explain about building a simple workbench shortly, but my better half bought me an Icetoolz Workshop Apron for Christmas and it’s fantastic.

No more worrying about getting a rim smear up a smart(-ish) shirt or lube mark down my jeans. Just pop on the apron - which fits well and is really comfortable - and get mending those bikes.

So those tiny fixes that have cost me dear in the past (normally gear adjustments) now get done and my cyclerides are painfree… well, at least the bike works.

A practical alternative

We’re probably all trying to save a few pennies at the moment, if only to justify a new bike later in the year. Anyway, we’re delighted to highlight a ‘new’ range of practical headwear…

… OK, you’ll need to pay your gran to knit the hat, but you’ll definitely stand-out in the peleton.

Welcome to Malmesbury Bike Club

Hi, this started as an idea to get the dads of Malmesbury a little bit fitter (”Dad’s For Life, not just for Christmas”)…

The idea…

I know how difficult it is to juggle any exercise with a busy family… and know that the ‘great exercise plan’ is often the first compromise to be made during that juggling process. So I wondered whether there were other parents in Malmesbury in a similar situation… and if there were, then perhaps I could organise something to create a regular exercise regime… and, back in November 2007, a Malmesbury Bike Club ‘of sorts’ was born…

…I thought that the easiest way to start, given that the winter was upon us, would be a fortnightly bike ride around Malmesbury - it was muddy, we all worked up a sweat, but it wasn’t ‘too’ technical and  we all got fitter.

Quite a few people have road bikes (a mix of hybrids and racers)… so when the weather improved we headed onto the roads out to Castle Combe and Chepstow.

I’m also a big fan of personal targets… so for next year a team for the Malmesbury Triathlon or a trip to somewhere mad like the Alps might be on the cards.

Why exercise?

I have two young sons and I’m desperately keen to ensure that I can keep pace with them as they grow up.

Until the boys appeared on the scene I used to do a lot of windsurfing, surfing and kayaking - but as most parents will know, when the kids are quite young, it’s not easy to escape to the coast for a couple days on a frequent basis, especially as the ideal weather for my watersports wasn’t conducive to building sandcastles and avoiding hypothermia. So I’ve happily put those acivities on hold… for a while. But I know that in a few years time the boys will be big enough to introduce my watersports to, as well as kitesurfing (as they’re always drawn to these huge kites on the beaches) - all I need to make sure is that I’m fit enough to help them learn

Just a quick note on cleaning bikes… note that the professionals would frown on this cleaning regime, but it’s not a racing thoroughbred and I’ve often found it difficult to find the time to properly maintain my mountain bike, so this is a ‘quick and dirty’ way of keeping everything running fairly smoothly…

Wash - a quick hose-down, while everything is still wet, to get rid of the bulk of the mud (especially from moving parts like brakes) will save hours of trying to scrape away hardened mud.

WD40 - the professionals will cringe at this because WD40 generally isn’t friendly to moving parts, but it’s great at dispersing water and stopping rust setting in while your damp bike sits in the garage. I normally give the chain, cogs and handlebar controls a good spray.

Oil - sometime before the next ride get some oil/lubrication onto the moving parts. Take a few minutes to get some oil onto each link of the chain and also into the various cables.

Welcome to MalmesburyBikes.co.uk - it’s a new URL, but the same team. You’ll get to know us over the next few months… but rest assured that we’ll continue to bring you enthusiastic and accurate information about bikes and cycles in Wiltshire, with a keen focus on getting out and about.