Posts by rcpm
Sensible gears for recreational cyclists
A 25 inch gear on a road bike? Unthinkable even a year ago How times have changed! And how quickly! If you’re familiar with chainsets, cassettes and other gear-related issues, please skip the rest of this paragraph…. If you don’t care about the technicalities, then actually it’s quite simple: just tell your bike shop that… Read More »
Free maps for your holidays
Create your route as normal Garmin devices (and probably other devices) now come with Open Street Maps of Europe pre-loaded. But if you plan to travel beyond Europe, you’ll need more maps. Whether you use Strava, MapMyride, Ride with GPS (my favourite) or, I imagine, any other route creation software, you will have no problem… Read More »
How to download gpx files from our Oxford Cycling website using Microsoft Edge
Downloading our gpx files for use on a Garmin Edge Several members have reported problems downloading our gpx files when using Microsoft’s Windows 10 browser: Edge. The quickest solution would be not use Edge (Chrome, Firefox and Opera don’t have this problem), but perhaps Edge has other advantages you want to keep. So, using Edge… Read More »
Don’t become unstuck
You could end up miles from home with a puncture that is impossible to repair. My local bike shop, Reg Taylor on Iffley Road, had never seen this (they were, however, able to sort it out). Removing a tight road tyre (a 23mm Gatorskin in this case) often involves squeezing the bead into the central… Read More »
Worn wheel rims?
(See postcript at the end of this article) One way of making a lighter wheel is to make the rims thinner, which has led to an increasing number of riders experiencing a disintegrating rim, often during a ride, as shown in this photo. One of our riders was left stranded last week when her rim… Read More »
To Garmin or not to Garmin?
GPS taking over? As some of you know, I have joined the Strauss CTC summer tours in France since 2009 and have noticed an interesting trend. On my first tour in June 2009, I don’t recall anyone with a Garmin (or similar GPS device). By 2012, four of us volunteered to help Pat and Mike… Read More »
Riding for fitness
Why do you ride? Those readers familiar with off-road riding will be aware of the range of activities which fall into the category of mountain biking: trail riding, trials (very different!) quad descending, downhilling, cross country, North shore, all mountain, freeride, dirt jumping and even quasi acrobatics (aka “urban assault”) as reported in our own… Read More »
Hills and gears
The 18-20% hills encountered on a holiday weekend in Somerset reminded me of the need for appropriate gears. This is not so much of an issue for touring bikes, which tend to come with low gears in the first place. It is an issue, however, for many of our City riders who have no intention… Read More »
Cycling Chat
A few days ago was the warmest day of the year, when the temperature reached 17ÂşC – in Aberystwyth of all places! So, as we begin to forget the rides cancelled due to icy roads, we can look forward to the cycling pleasures coming up soon. Some of you will not have come across the… Read More »