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Where do you put your bicycle?


Richard Steele

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Cheers Mick and Paulene, many thanks for the warm welcome. Yes I can see that now. Havent been on the cut since last August and didnt think about the locks :cheers:

Ive been a 'lurker' on this forum for a while now and just getting the bottle to post (daft though some of them may be :):)

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I have been using a Brompton on the towpath for years, in my opinion they are no more difficult to handle than a standard full size bike. They may not be as stable as a mountain bike with tractor tyres, but as I have never ridden one of those I can't comment.

I will second that. My son worked for them as a part time mechanic from the age of 14 until he left College at the age of 19. That's where I got my Brompton from (with Staff discount of course)

 

Bromptons are one of the strongest folders (I've had one for years), and do have some suspension, making them quite comfortable on irregular surfaces.

 

They don't cope well with deep potholes, however, or high-speed manouvering.

 

I do wish they'd make a budget model, with single speed gears and no fancy bits. They are very pricey.

 

If I lived on a canal, I'd keep a brompton as my main bike. The 'luggage' you can carry on them is incredible - the rear rack is very strong, and you can get a huge bag for the front, very suitable for carrying shopping.

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  • 11 months later...

well if you do not mind having to negotiate the gunwhales when climbing over them, we found that with 6inch gunwhales we could put bike on at an angle attached by a strap to the roof . we found that there was less chance of them being snagged up by overhang when cruising and it looked good. drawback was that it was difficult to get on and off -so not for someone biking all the time. we did not find they scrathced paintwork but someone worried could put pads on contact points.

 

very rarely diod they become dislodged by overhang at the sides but personally as the person not driving but constantly walking down gunwhales from bow to stern they got in the way so i am trying to get a tow ball fitted and a thule bike carrier at stern instead.

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Mine lives on the roof, with a motorbike chain through the frame and front wheel and an Abus d-lock through the back wheel and frame. It could still be nicked by anyone with an angle grinder.

 

I wouldn't want to have a bike hanging off to the side or end of my boat, it would only take a bit of carelessness in a lock to make it into a sculpture. :)

 

There are some really good folders about, but they need to be beautifully engineered if you want one that's nice to ride and for it to last. Small wheels need to have tyres which run at high pressure to minimise rolling resistance, or they'll be like pedalling through treacle. Unfortunately, this means you need a suspension system or have an incredibly harsh, crashing ride. This is the reason there's no such thing as a cheap Brompton with simpler parts - the expense is really in the frame.

 

So in short, if you want a good folder expect to pay for it.

 

If you want a good quality non folding bike to keep on the roof, I'd suggest a good quality but old non-suspension mountain bike, built around 1985-93. Not worth a lot of money and not very "bling", so unattractive to thieves, but the relaxed geometry means it'll be comfortable for distances and quite stable. Make sure there's no expensive names on any of the parts, or frame badges, an ugly lick of paint, and a decent lock and voila! A Q-ship. Ugly, but it will work well.

 

Of course, this is only what I'd choose, the right bike for you is really the one that fits you and the one you like.

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A modern folding bike like a Brompton would fold to a fraction of the space of the old clunker I've currently picked up, and will fit into a very small space.

 

Problem is the price, which can easily be £500-£600 plus for the better Bromptons, if bought new, (and they are so popular that second hand prices are through the roof too....)

 

Compared to my £3, that sounds a lot, particularly if my wife and I both want one!.

 

Canal Shop Man has some folders at around the £110 to £125 range. Clearly they don't go as small as a Brompton, but look like they could be a good compromise between compactness and price. As a 6 footer, I'd actually need to try one though, as not all folders are truly rideable if you are tallish.

 

Hi Alan. I had a brompton and though very good the 16" wheels are a real problem, what is much better is 20" wheels that make it ride more like a 'real' bike. There is aslo the problem of the bike folding up on you if your are not very careful - happened to me once, and it hurt.

 

There is a guy who sells mainly for canal users and the quality is very good, 6 gears, 20" wheels, aluminium frame, steel forks. I believe he is known as AS bikes.

I have also just bought two folding bikes from Ebay, the supplier is in Germany but they look really good, 20" wheels etc but they also have lights, stand, bell, 6 speeds and look to have a much better riding position. Only just bought them - not arrived yet - so cannot say definitely how good they are. Will keep everyone informed if interested. The address is:

 

Nagel & Viedts

Arnd Nagel

Wetterndorf 2

21720 Steinkirchen

Deutschland

 

website: shop@klappfahrrad.com

 

Hope thats of help to you all.

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My bike lives in my engine room but them my boat is fairly unusual in having 3 shedrooms. I use an old racer with upturned bars it handles towpath quite well. I had a hercules folder for a while it was excellent but i broke the back wheel riding it through woods.

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We've got two folding bikes on board now that my daughter's home from Uni :) . One fits snugly at the bottom of my bed in a gap between the bed and the engine room wall. The other is folded in the engine room and has to be shifted to the corridor when we're underway.

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Hello

 

Do any of you have a way of securely 'hanging' a bike to the side of your boat? Preferably without having to drill any holes into the steelwork. I'm trying to figure out a way, but if you already have the answer, please let me know.

 

Many thanks

 

Richard

 

we have a few bikes, we keep the cheapeset ones outside, on the roof. we considered making a bike rack fit the back of the boat as we have a rail around our cruiser stern this could be doable. the idea is to hang them behind the tiller arm on a couple of long prongs to hang the frames on. .

but we havent gotten around to doing that yet with the 100's of other small things that need doing.

we use heavy chains and Dlocks after i had my bike stolen a couple of months ago.

 

the BEST place of all to keep bikes is INSIDE. generally safer there but they can get in the way.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Honey,

 

Did you ever get your bike back or hear any more ?

 

nope the bike vanished into the abyss. we saw a few bikes under the water this weekend, no doubt there will be some more people out there upset at the loss of their wheels.

 

I was a victime of bike thefty again last week when someone stole my NEW folding bike from our "secure" car park at work.

cctv, security pass entry, my bike was chained and these little scrotes were caught on camera with their hoods up, shimmied under the roller door as a car came in, scuttled over to my bike amongst others which were not chained, mine had a combination lock because i didnt consider parking it there very risky. these kids had time to fiddle with the lock, find the combinationa dn then have away with my bike. all on camera but their faces obscured by hoods.

 

so ive spent last week feverishly finding parts to make my new bike, and today i rode 20 miles into work from our new location over near tottenham, on the river lee.

 

ive tried to not spend too much on it because im resigned to the fact that no matter how well i lock it with secure cables, d locks and wot not, if someone likes the look of it then they will have it away.

 

the new bike is fixed ( as usual for me) with an old peugeot frame from the 80's, a pair of wheels that were c rash damaged and repaired, some old bars and a from cranks a friend gave to me in exchange for some wine.

 

complete with the obligatory "funky" colourful bell.

Edited by honey ryder
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In view of the problems with folding bikes, and the storage problem with 'ordinary' bikes, I wonder if anyone has tried a conventional bike with quickly-detachable wheels? My son had one at uni, he found it easy to take off both wheels (quarter-turn fastenings, effectively) and carry them and the frame upstairs to his room for security. That would seem to make it easy to store in eg a foredeck, or even inside a nb. Not tried it yet but it might work for someone?

 

Ian

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my bikes have QR wheels. but the problem with that is the bike is difficult to store with the chain dangling freely, and the forks can easily be damaged when theres no wheel in them. equally the fork can damage other stuff as they can be sharp.

we store our nicer bikes inside with the front wheel out and back wheel in. ive got wheel bags to protect the wheels and they slide more easily between furniture or between the bikes in storage.

i think when i have the time and inclination im going to work out how to add a bike rack to the back of our boat.

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Hello

 

Do any of you have a way of securely 'hanging' a bike to the side of your boat? Preferably without having to drill any holes into the steelwork. I'm trying to figure out a way, but if you already have the answer, please let me know.

 

Many thanks

 

Richard

 

I expect you've got something by now Richard - your question was posted over a year ago, but this Cycloc may be of interest. It's fairly unobtrusive, I think it looks good but you do have to drill holes to fix it and you still have a security problem if someone really wants your bike.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Yes,

 

This is a very valid point.

 

I doubt, however much you spend, that there will ever be a perfect compromise between how small it can be packed down, and how much like a "real bike" it feels to ride.

 

Having said that, we have recently used one of those cheap and nasty 20" wheel shopping bikes that folds in the middle as a towpath / lock wheeling bike. It's a very basic Eastern European import, weighs a ton, and, other than Sturmy Archer 3 speed gears, lacks any kind of sophistication at all.

 

Considering I paid £3 for it at a council tip, I'm genuinely surprised, that it is relatively well suited to towpath use, and I find it pretty easy to ride, despite being over 6 feet.

 

The downside, as I've said previously, is that it' doesn't fold particularly compact, but it will just squeeze into our engine room. This despite the floor over the engine in there being at "counter height", rather that dropping down forward of the steerer, as in most "trad" type boats.

 

(Incidentally, I also have a second one, also £3 sourced at the same place. This "Dawes Kingpin" was obviously originally a better bike, but being slightly larger framed, whilst a better ride and lighter, will not [quite] fit into the space just described. I continue to scour the tip for more upmarket models!....)

 

I can well imagine that the 16" wheels of a Brompton, (or many of the other ultra compact models), would cause more problems on the rough terrain of a towpath, than the 20" ones on my "scrapheap challenge" model. Even if they rode OK through ruts and potholes, I think it's bound to feel less stable used in this way.

 

I'd certainly appreciate a recommendation for a modern folder that is suitable for canal use, but folds compactly. If it didn't cost £500 or more, that would be even better!.....

 

Alan

 

Hi Alan

I have just had two of these fold up bikes delivered. They arn't the most compact in the world but do fold down enough that we can keep both inside under the breakfast bar and they don't intrude to much into the living space.

 

20" wheels, 6 speed shimano gears, bell, dynamo lights, sprung saddle. They do come from germany as I said in an earlier post. They ride really well and feel very stable on the tow path - recently used them from Lyme Green to Bosley bottom lock and back again. Used the lights on the return journey, very good.....and all this for the princely sum of £132.00 plus £30 postage. A deal I am very pleased with. The only comparable one from the uk, all the bits like, lights, bell etc were extra's on a price of £170 odd. A no brainer really. If your interested pm me and i will send you all the details.

 

jGjOFFmD.jpg

 

Oh forgot to say it also has a folding pedal..

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