Bike!

[lnr]

Have bought new bike, or rather Richard has bought me one. Ridgeback Comet, 19" ladies frame. Added mudguards, rack, stand and lock for just over 300 quid total. Have note of frame number and will be getting it postcoded ASAP and seeing how much extra it costs on the household insurance to insure it away from the house.

http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bikes/2004/bike.asp?seriesid=21&index=3

The daft low gear is hilarious. Tried it in the lowest gear and it felt like pedalling with the chain off! Anyway, it is nice.

I have only one problem though. Lights. Here is a copy of a post I have just made to a few local newsgroups, perhaps someone here can help?

From: Eleanor Blair <ecb39@cam.ac.uk>
Newsgroups: ucam.adverts.wanted,ucam.adverts.forsale,cam.misc
Subject: FS/WTD Bike lights/brackets
Date: Sat Dec 06 15:52:27 GMT 2003
Organization: Keeper of the Purity Scores

Having recently had a bike stolen I have the following lights but no
brackets for them:

Cateye TL-LD500 rear light.  3 LEDs.  Both flashing and steady modes.
Takes 2 AAA batteries.  I can supply with batteries, either ordinary or
NiMH rechargeables.  Newer 5 LED version shown at:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/v2_product_detail.asp?ProdID=4000000423

Cateye Opticube front light.  1 LED - very bright.  100 hour life at
full brightness, 300 hours total life.  Takes 4 AA batteries.  Seen
here:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/v2_product_detail.asp?ProdID=5300004479

I'm either looking for buyers, or looking for someone who can sell me
brackets that will fit.  Looking for offers around 10-15 quid for the
pair of lights.  Will pay around a tenner for brackets.

I do have a spare bracket for a Cateye HL-LD500W Front LED somewhere:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/v2_product_detail.asp?ProdID=4000000721

Free to anyone who wants it.

-- 
lnr@lspace.org                                 http://lnr.livejournal.com/

Comments

[catyak]

I have to admit I rarely used the lowest gears on my bike even when doing the climb out of the Stroud Valley (500ft up in either 1 mile or 0.7 miles depending on which way I was going). As you say, if walking is faster...

I reckon I could have done with some higher gears for the trip down, it was hard to pedal fast enough to exceed about 35-40mph.

D

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Probably not; at very high speeds the aerodynamic penalty for flapping your legs about exceeds the useful gain, and you may as well do nothing.

The breakeven point's higher if you're extremely strong, obviously, but even then the gains are probably so small that you are best to conserve your effort for the next uphill stretch.

I went from a low 39x28 (on 700x25c) to 39x34 and then to 34x34 when I moved to Bracknell, since there are some significant hills if you go further afield, but that seems far enough to me...