If you are looking to reduce weight on your bike or make it more aerodynamic, you might want to cut carbon fibre equipment. For example, some time trial bar tubes may be too long. Cutting ends of off, may save the odd second.

How To Cut Carbon Fibre?

• It is not easy to cut carbon fibre. But, your best bet is a fine hacksaw blade, which should cut through the equipment.
• The trick is not to exert a lot of pressue, like you might cutting wood. If you exert a lot of pressure, the carbon fibre can crack. Let the blade do the work, not your force.
• Note: Cutting carbon fibre will emit carbon dust, which is bad for your health. Use a safety breathing mask. Might also be worth having vacuum cleaner on near the cutting equipment.
• To file carbon fibre, use glass paper.

The frame of a bike performs several functions:

• Supports rider in position to ride
• Converts rider’s effort into forward movement
• Provide mounting point for various component parts
• Absorbs much of the shock of riding.

A Good Frame has the following features:

• Stiffness - to withstand the twisting and buckling forces induced by hard pedalling
• Lightness - Lower weight makes it easier to cycle up hill. Light weight frames need also to have stiffness to combine strength
• Shock absorbency - to minimize shock damage from road surfaces
• Resilience to withstand reasonable impacts
• Heat resistence to permit strong, safe joints by brazing or welding
• Aerodynamic.

Related

• Best bike frame materials
• Road bike frame size

Adult MTB (26″ Wheels) Sizing Chart

26″ wheel sized mountain bikes are suitable for all other 11 years. For children less than 11, look for smaller sized mountain bikes.

Generally, Mountain Bike frame sizes are 2- 2and half inches smaller than road bike frame sizes

Size Guide for Mountain Bike Frame Size

Mountain Bikes at Evans Cycles

Chain Reaction Cycles is one of Europe’s leading online cycle stores.

It has an extensive range of accessories and bike parts. The size of the shop enable bargain prices and it is a good place to buy replacement parts.

Chain reaction cycles also offer a wide range of complete bikes from:

Carbon fibre road bikes to commuting and bmx bikes.

www.ChainReactionCycles.com

Evanscycles.com is one of the largest UK cycle companies. It has 31 stores nationwide, including several in London. It also has an extensive online mail order division. Evans cycles has a particularly large choice of Road Bikes, from entry level bikes under £400 to top of the range pro bikes.

For first time buyers, they have many pdf guides to choosing the right bike and getting the right size.Road Bike Guide

Ride 2 Work. Evans cycles participates in the governments cycle to work scheme. Employers who join can help employees save upto 50% on the price of a new bike.

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To get a good fit for cycling shorts I advise using bibbed cycling shorts. The advantage of bibbed cycling shorts is that they can be kept in place without elastic around the midriff. Elasticated shorts can constrain the stomach and be uncomfortable on long rides. Most professionals will use bibbed cycling shorts in preference to non ordinary shorts.

If possible try on the cycling shorts before buying.

Quality of Cycle Shorts

If you cycle for more than 1 or 2 hours, it is advisable to get a high quality of cycling shorts. It will be a good investment as there is a big difference in the quality of padded inserts. On long rides, the last thing you want is saddle sores because you are using some cheap cycle shorts.

These days most shorts come with synthetic chamois leather. On long rides it is still advisable to use chamois creams or Sudacrem which helps to minimise rubbing and friction.

Hygiene is important for the prevention of any saddle soils and boils. Wash shorts after each wash. Former professional, Sean Kelly used to always wash his by hand, immediately after a stage. He didn’t want to risk the shorts being added to the general wash.

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For a long time Cycling Weekly resisted getting a website. Finally, they were dragged into the modern world and started a website to complement their magazine. (possibly in response to declining sales and a realisation of the growth of the internet)

The site gives enough news to make it worth visiting; as you would expect it only covers a small % of what is in the magazine, but, the news section is worth bookmarking. I’m surprised that they haven’t been able to use RSS feeds for their news section. Perhaps they don’t know what RSS is? Anyway if they gave an RSS feed I would subscribe to it. -

The online Shop is very sparse.  A few editions of cycling weekly , Cycling Sport and the odd DVD and VHS from 2005 constitute a pretty miserable collection.  One thing worth getting though is 5 water bottles for £6.99 - pretty good value, even if they do have Cycling weekly written all over them.

• Web Design - Pretty basic, not offensive though.
• Photo gallery OK. But, if you want to see extensive photos from procycling, you’re better off at cyclingnews.com
• Cycling Weekly Forum - Just what the cycling community needs another cycling forum.

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www.cyclingnews.com is the leading site about pro cycling. The page layout is awful. On first glance, the only thing you want to do is leave. The text is small and there are so many links it is hard to know where to start.

However, if you can negotiate the off putting home page, you will find a lot of worthwhile content and the latest up to date news on the procycling scene.

The photos section is amazing. There are some exceptional shots. They are likely to be copyrighted so you won’t be able to use them on your site, but, they make great viewing - Photo section

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Probikekit are one of the country’s leading mailorder firms, currently offering 10% of all items bought via mail order.

Throughout the year they offer special offers and discounts, especially on end of season cycling clothes and accessories. It is a good way to get good quality equipment whilst saving money. To keep upto date on their latest offers it is worth signing up to their mailing list.

You can also order a full colour catalogue from their site.

Probikekit have a good reputation for delivering speedily, without problems. I use them myself for buying clothes, energy gels and the odd accessory like new chains and cassette blocks.

www.Probikekit.Com

Cyclescheme is a government backed scheme to allow people to get a bike tax free. Working with local independent bike shops, a customer can claim back the costs of tax saving. To participate in the scheme your employer must sign up to the scheme. It works by the company buying the bike and then loaning it to you. You pay for it by foregoing part of your salary for the duration of the loan period.

At the end of the loan period, your firm can agree to sell you the bike for a fair market price. This is usually around 5% of the original value.

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