Cycling Advice

I've got a decent road bike that I use for long distances, but recently have been messing about on my sons Hybrid bike, for just a bit of local cycling, and really liked it. Have just bought a Boardman "Adventure bike" (or gravel bike)...best thing ever!! as fast a road bike, but smooth as anything on dirt tracks, woodland trails etc. Its great fun, addicted to going out on it now, feel like a 10 year old wanting to play out on my bike ha ha!
 
I think once you have had decent disc brakes there is no going back.

Bad disk brakes suffer from alarming deterioration in performance where as rim brakes perform consistently at a mediocre level. On an ultra tight budget then maybe there is a place for rim brakes but I've had hydro disk mountain bikes for a decade at least, my road bike is currently a cable actuated hydraulic caliper which is decent but my next road bike will be full hydro brakes.

The cycle industry have perfected the art of tinkering with component standards so upgrading things is never simple and you can never go backwards. I thought my current disk road bike might be the a frame that i could use for 10 or 20 years (its is only 5 years old) but all new road disks are flat mount brake calipers and bolt thru hubs so I cant get new brakes to fit without some sort of adaptor and my upgraded wheels will not fit my next bike. You just have to go with the changes and enjoy the better tech.
Yup.

You only have to look at the number of 'standards' for bottom brackets.
 
Thanks mate and yes that’s the route, come from Blackley to Hollingsworth lake then up and down and back.
It’s a 50-34 mate.

You're just down the road from me then, been out this afternoon to socially distance meet up with a cycling mate and my was wind brutal, got a good 40 miles in with 3.2k climbing @14.7 felt like I was hanging on for grim life at times and just avoided a flying wheelie bin!
 
You're just down the road from me then, been out this afternoon to socially distance meet up with a cycling mate and my was wind brutal, got a good 40 miles in with 3.2k climbing @14.7 felt like I was hanging on for grim life at times and just avoided a flying wheelie bin!
Haha, was going to go this morning but saw that wind so sacked it till tomorrow, climbed up Dovestones the other week and it was brutal up there, turned round at the car park near the top as it was that bad, did the whole climb the week after when the wind had gone. Was out in the car couple of weeks ago on the cat and fiddle and a kid up ahead on his bike got blown over!! Thankfully for him all the traffic saw him and stopped, lucky call.
 
Great stuff.

I would not upgrade that bike, keep your money for a better model. Most bikes have 10 speed rear cassettes now and the chains, shifters etc etc are not compatible. The best advice re bike spec is hydraulic disc brakes - they are in a different league to anything else. If you have cable disks now be warned they take a lot of maintenance and fiddling to keep them sharp and even with that they lose their power with time as the pads / disks age and cables stretch. The best value for money bikes are around £400~£500 flat bar hybrids with hydro disks. You get a lot less bike for your money with a road bike. I'm in the market for a road bike with hydraulic disks and its going to cost me ~£1,250 or more.
https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/ribble-r872-disc/
 
I remember going up Blackstone Edge to see the TdF. Stopped about halfway up (to admire the view of course) and turned around to see a small child about 4 or 5 year old pedalling up on a small trike happy as larry. Of course I'd done 20 miles to get there, that was my excuse.
Great day that, the helicopters appearing out of nowhere, the gendarmes on their bikes. I went to Paris to watch the final stage, the year Floyd Landis "won" it, but nothing could beat the day I spent watching the prologue in London. All day spent watching the cream of cycling whilst nipping in and out of the boozer. Topped off with Spartacus smashing everyone to bits, the motorbike following him couldn't keep up, he fucking rocketed down Pall Mall and the surrounding roads. I did Brickworks, Windgather and Goyt Monday, so peaceful, so great to be out on quiet roads. Blackstone Edge is one windy bastard, I remember our kid doing a hilly TT there way back in the day and it was a fucking monsoon; riders getting blown straight back down. I'm hoping to get out and over Winnats soon - last time I keeled over, although I'd already done 70 miles of a 100 mile sportive when I got there. Came to a grinding halt and couldn't get unclipped in time. Timber! Cycling's fucking ace!
 
Haha, was going to go this morning but saw that wind so sacked it till tomorrow, climbed up Dovestones the other week and it was brutal up there, turned round at the car park near the top as it was that bad, did the whole climb the week after when the wind had gone. Was out in the car couple of weeks ago on the cat and fiddle and a kid up ahead on his bike got blown over!! Thankfully for him all the traffic saw him and stopped, lucky call.

Lucky indeed the C&F is a fast bit of road, for some reason I detest the Dovestones climb not sure why because it’s not particularly hard I just don’t like it. I have been doing Huddersfield Rd climb to Denshaw then going up and over Rippy Rd and turning left at the turnpike pub over to Baitings reservoir, barely see a car on that section although the Pig Sty with a satellite dish always make chuckle, hate to say say but Yorkshire has some great scenery
 
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Haha, was going to go this morning but saw that wind so sacked it till tomorrow, climbed up Dovestones the other week and it was brutal up there, turned round at the car park near the top as it was that bad, did the whole climb the week after when the wind had gone. Was out in the car couple of weeks ago on the cat and fiddle and a kid up ahead on his bike got blown over!! Thankfully for him all the traffic saw him and stopped, lucky call.
I had to get off my bike few years ago on the Cat and Fiddle or I'd have been blown over. It's got to be the windiest fucking hill in the world. Much prefer and always choose to ride up Derbyshire Bridge which runs parallel. I've got 66mm deep section rims so currently sat waiting for the weather to calm down so I can get a few evening miles in.
 

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