Category: Blog

One of the great things about having a bike shop in Bath is being able to try out new bikes on some of the most amazing terrain.  So last Sunday we took out 2 new Lapierre Audacio road bikes for a 50 mile test ride along fast twisty A roads, bumpy rutted back lanes and up the big ascent of Burrington Coombe.  We think we’ve covered all the terrain bases

The 2 bikes we were riding were the Lapierre Audacio 400 Tiagra 10 speed triple and the Ladies Lapierre Audacio Tiagra 10 speed triple.  We’ve written before about the bikes aesthetic appearance so we won’t bore you with that again, anyway there are lots of pictures over on our Facebook page albums of the 2 bikes.  We really want to give you out impressions of how they ride, after all that’s more fun than drooling over photos online of bikes!

From the moment I got on the bike cycling down the Upper Bristol road I was struck that the bike is very direct, you put a bit of power through the pedals and it responds instantly, accelerating quickly.  This directness doesn’t compromise comfort, I think my first comment within minutes of riding was ‘wow this is more comfortable than my CAAD 9!’  The pencil thin curved seatstays are definitely doing their job here.  This matches up with what the expert reviewers tell us about the bike.  I deliberately threw the bike over broken up tarmac at the road edge, which isn’t hard to find in Bath.  The bike sailed across it with no juddering, the carbon fork also doing its job admirably of smoothing the road up front.

We headed out along the cycle path to Saltford where we turned off at the pub to head onto back lanes towards Compton Dando.  These lanes are very twisty and undulating so it gave me a chance to test how precise the steering was and whether the bike would be thrown off course by the bumpy nature of the lanes.  The steering and ability of the bike to stay planted to the road and the chosen line really impressed me.

We then picked up faster and wider A roads heading out to Chew Valley Lakes.  This would really give me the chance to test the speed worthiness of the bike, and how well it could be made to respond to steering input at speed on the flowing bends.  I put my foot down on a nice twisty flowing wide open bit of A road just after Blagdon.  The bike flew and I seemed to be able to get it to go faster and faster.  As for steering I felt that it just went directly where I pointed it, skimming the edges of corners or more upright through the middle, neither a problem.

We then turned up Burrington Coombe, which we think we last went up on the Exmouth Exodus at night, being led up by one of the amazing riders (with one gear!) from the Bristol TDO’s!  Burrington really is not terrible steep, but there are some little ‘ramps’ – steeper bits – up some of the twisty corners.  I stood out of the saddle on these short steeper sections and the bike carried on dutifully with no hint of flex, the light weight of the bike at 9kg also helped ascending.  The third little chainring was welcome on the last very steep hill after the cattle grid, a good thing to have for long rides in comfort!

All in all the bikes are pretty amazing, comfortable, fast, they corner well and go uphill fine as long as you can muster the energy!  I’d say its more comfortable at the back than my CAAD 9 and the front end is slightly higher so while less racy is more suited to long sportives and rides such as this one.  The only upgrade we made were to Conti Gatorskins just to ensure no punctures.  In the future I am going to build some new wheels as the Shimano WH-R500 aren’t the lightest, I’m thinking of some Hope hubs with Mavic Open Pro silver rims and silver spokes, I just want to stand out from the black wheel, rim, spoke crowd!

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At the start of the new uni year Bath Uni CC made this short video: http://vimeo.com/30399514 to advise students on how to check their bike over ready to start cycling to uni or for fun.

As people start returning to work and students start to return we thought we’d highlight this helpful little video once again!

The ladies Lapierre Zesty is an amazing full suspension bike.  It’s been a favourite of the reviewers this year, and they ride lots of bikes so they should know!  Becci’s ridden her’s for a couple of months now and is dropping off stuff she’d never have tackled before, so its definitely confidence inspiring.

Have a look at what the pros say here:  http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/mountain/product/review-lapierre-zesty-314-l11-41164

The Kinesis KM220L is a ladies specific hardtail bike, and its got glowing reviews from the bike mags.  We built one up and took it on quite a few rides.  Our verdict is that the reviewers were right, its very light thanks to the smaller size specific tubing and new ‘Kinesium’ tubing used.  It’s also responsive, the very stiff frame helping get all your effort through the pedals and to where it counts – this thanks to the down tube being flared and flattened where it meets the bottom bracket.  The geometry is spot on with a shortened top tube making for an easy reach for the shorter female torso.

Read the Bikeradar.com review here and see what the experts thought:  http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/mountain/product/review-kinesis-maxlight-km220-l-12-45498

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The Racelight TK2 is Kinesis’s evolved winter / commuting / training bike, I say evolved because look closely at the frame and you’ll see tweaked tube shapes that add stiffness and lightness where it counts. For instance the hourglass shaped seat stays reduce road vibration and the down tube is aero shaped at the top and ovalised at the bottom bracket to increase stiffness in the critical pedal power transmission interface.  The frame has also been praised for its versatility in accepting full length mudguards and proper rack, really great if you intend to use the bike all winter and for touring.

Why not read the independent verdict here  http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/road/product/review-kinesis-racelight-tk2-12-45502 and have a look at the photo album of the bike we have built up here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.247499878604936.63218.183099578378300&type=3

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The Lapierre Audacio is really great looking, but even more importantly the ride quality more than lives up to its appearance.  Don’t just take our word for it, have a look at the review from bikeradar.com here: http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/road/product/review-lapierre-audacio-400-db-11-43525

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Winter is here and with it road salt, mud, water and grit on the roads – oh joy!  This combination wears out brake blocks and rims quickly and gums up gear and brake cables.  So a bit of TLC in the form of a service would not do your bike any harm.  We’ve therefore got a special offer on which includes 2 free quality Continental tubes of your choice with every £30 standard service.  Our bike wash service is now £10, usually £15, we use a Nomad washer which gently sprays the bike of any muck without stripping grease from bearings, its then handwashed and lubricated with Muc-Off Bike Spray and chain lube.

A bit of a fresh new start!

So two new posts in one day- the first, if you saw, was from a little while ago, but as you can see we’ve decided to completely change the website, and introduce our online shop.

Both developments are really exciting. The new site will be much easier to maintain and keep up to date with everything that’s going on, whilst we plan to get all of our great products online, and continue to add to the range whilst offering fantastic deals and discounts.

So, in short, watch this space!

A bit of time has passed since our last blog as we seem to have been really busy both with servicing and sales, but also choosing lots of nice products that actually work in real world conditions!

We’ve put lots of effort into stocking stuff that is critical to make riding a bike a pleasure – namely the grippy bits and visual aids, in English tyres and lights.
Firstly to the tyres, we’ve found you can never ever go wrong with Continental’s Gatorskins. They are literally bomb proof. We have ridden them continuously over the winter down stony gritty lanes and not had one puncture. We’ve been sure to keep the pressure high in them as this adds to the protective kevlar bead’s ability to ‘ping’ sharp grit and debris away. My rear tyre has done just over 4000 miles and is just showing signs of wear – pretty impressive. For off road riding we are getting in some award winning Maxxis tyres – the Ardent and the Minion. These are fast and grippy in that order. The Minion is a great tyre for out front, very grippy and able to take a beating. The Ardent is more racy suitable out back and with a fast rolling flat centre and wide grippy blocks for great cornering. 
Lights are something to get really excited about, the different shapes, hues, textures and fixing options never cease to amaze! For the serious road rider or commuter we’ve got Lezyne Mini and Power Drives. They are beautiful aluminium engineered objects of art, the funky shapes are meant to help dissipate heat from the LED to optimise run times. There is also the Light and Motion Urban range which has a cool ‘side’ light function giving great all round safety visibility. Finally we’ve got some great Electr

on Terra lights. These are very reasonable priced, from £64.99 for a single head unit, but allow you to ride properly off road. So they are probably the best priced introductory light for real night time off road riding. 
Finally one thing I forgot to mention in the intro that will keep you riding comfortably through the winter – gloves. We’ve got some great gloves from Madison and Sixsixone. There is a great really nicely insulated Madison glove that will keep you toasty warm and waterproof. But if you ‘run hot’ then there is a windstopper version and the Sixsixone Storm glove. The 661 is ‘midweight’ but what sets it apart from the run of the mill is the very lightly padded palm, meaning all the feel and grip you need is not lost through layers of gel! Its a glove for those that don’t like a ‘lost feeling’ when wearing gloves.
The last bit of non kit related news is some of our smashing current offers. We’ve got free servicing labour for life on every bike bought from us as well as 15% off all our Adventure range of kids and adult bikes. There is also the 10% off all lights, reflectives and gloves winter offer! In case you can’t get to us during the day we have extended late night opening on Thursday’s ’till 6.30pm and we are now also open every Sunday until Xmas from 11am to 4pm