Hi another newbie

[Lerxt]

Hi, I'm new. I've been lurking on the site for a couple of days and thought I'd register and say hi. I'm going to start cycling to work when I get my bike back from its service so the commute advice and chat on the site has been useful, thanks (though some of the helmet cam stuff has made me slightly anxious!).
My current bike is a 2000 Marin Palisades Trail which has been great but I've not done that much off road in the past few years. It will be interesting for me to see how the bike will feel with slicks. All being well I'll probably get a 'proper' road bike when I get a bit fitter and my other half can use the PT at the weekend (she doesn't know this yet!). Not sure what sort of bike to get though. I'm looking at the Marin street/urban range but I also like the look of the Toscana which is a CX bike - any views appreciated.
My commute is not far only 4 miles each way, and for Sheffield it's quite flat. I'm looking forward to getting back on the bike next week when I pick it up.

Cheers,

L.

 

[HJ]

Hallo...

 

[Sittingduck]

Hi Lerxt

Sounds like you have it all planned out nicely
Keep up the good work and enjoy the commutes!


SD

 

[marinyork]

Welcome.

As a Sheffield Marin citybike user I wouldn't recommend one. I'd go for something with more oomph. Just make sure you avoid the Sheffield Branch of JE James .

 

[User269]

Good on you, lucky bugger. Hope you get time to ride 'ne voyageant pas au travail' as they don't say in the peloton.
PS Start watching the Tour de France on TV next week, it'll make you go faster!

 

[HJ]

Hallo...

 

[Shaun]

 

[Lerxt]

I'm a bit unsure of going for a 'racer' as we used to call them when I was a kid. Those skinny tires don't fill me with the greatest confidence. I'm also not too bothered about speed as I just want to get to and from work in one piece (and hopefully some 'ne voyageant pas au travail').

Marinyork - I'm not sure where I'll get the new bike from but I am restricted to a couple of shops by the cycle to work scheme run at my work, J.E. James is one of them (T. Butterworths; Decathlon and Langsett being the others). I remember as a kid going to James' and just being blown away by all the bikes. They have been a bit snooty though when I've been in more recently. Have you had any really bad experiences? Also might I have seen you on a white Marin at the foot of London road?

Cheers,

L.

 

[Helly79]

hello welcome to the forum I hope you have a nice time here

 

[marinyork]

Fair enough. If you got a racer/audax/tourer you don't have to have ultra skinnies though. You could have 700x25s or 28s, or even I suppose 32s on some of those sorts of bikes (it depends on rim sizes and clearance, I'm just saying generally). That's very different from 23s. I'd say for urban environments 28s are a very happy medium. We have a lot of potholes but skinnies are doable in Sheffield. If you aren't remotely bothered about speed my marin city bike is very good for plodding around Sheffield.

I don't have great amounts of experience of T Butterworths, it's well talked about though. He'll order anything you want in. C2W sometimes puts some bizarre restrictions on though. Someone I know got their C2W bike last week and had to pick a 2nd choice bike. Anyway the family rival is my LBS. I have had bad experiences at JE James, there are threads on it. I do think some of the staff are snooty, they are disorganised. They don't have a very good reputation locally and are the butt of many jokes. There is an inexhaustible list of complaints associated with the Sheffield Branch. The other branches are fine though, there's a bloke called Stewart at Chesterfield who really knows what he's talking about, that bloke Bonj was on about at the Sheffield branch is all right too. Great stuff in the shop, well when the stock is actually there, just could be so much better. I ride on London Road often, but then again there are a lot of cyclists down that way.

 

[ianrauk]

Hello © User3143
And welcome to the site...