Ride and Barbecue - Saturday 16th August 2014

News

Our first barbecue event for some time is hailed a resounding success when three separate groups of cyclists, starting from The Spring Centre in Havant, converged at Benhams barbecue area in QE Park around 1pm on Saturday 16th August. Many others cycled direct or came by car.

The following short video clip captures the weather, the banter and the party atmosphere on the day.
BBQIntro

Finally, many thanks to Alison and Geoff Newman, who made this terrific event so successful with their hard work feeding so many hungry mouths.

You can see Alison's photos from the day here.

Checking/replacing a derailleur hanger

Bikes and accessories

Until I saw this video, I had no idea what a derailleur hanger was, or what it did. It turns out to be a useful part to know about and is easily replaced if necessary...

Checking/replacing a drailleur hanger

Making gear adjustments

Bikes and accessories

These two videos describe how to make adjustments to your gears:

Set your derailleur limits . Note this video makes no mention of the 'half cock' position that some bikes use to allow the full range of rear gears without the chain rubbing against the front derailleur. If your bike has that feature, you'll need to use it to check all combinations of gear positions work OK.

Adjust your indexing .

Portsmouth CTC stall at Hayling Island 3 Churches Fete

News

Portsmouth CTC, in conjunction with Cycle Hayling, will have a stall at the 3 Churches Fete to be held from 12.00 to 16.15 on Wednesday 13th August in Hayling Park. Come along and have a go at our Turbo Challenge (how far can you pedal from a standing start in 1 minute?) - We have 2 bikes (one adult size and one childs size) so anyone can have a go! Call in to find out all about Cycle Hayling and Portsmouth CTC or just to have a chat about any aspect of cycling. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Fitting a Marathon Plus tyre

Article archive

I have just purchased a new marathon plus tyre which are notoriously difficult to fit. But I came across this video by Spa Cycles, which may be of interest...


Show the video

Dr Bike videos

Article archive

I've volunteered to help with Dr Bike sessions being run by the CTC for the Prudential RideLondon event.

To help prepare for the event, I've been sent some links to YouTube videos. I thought they might be of wider interest so I've included them below.

Quick check for road bikes

DrBikeRoad

The 'M' check for MTBs

DrBikeMTB

Why don't I get PCTC emails?

Featured

The emails get sent - honest. But several people claim they don't get them, or that they get them intermittently.

There's nothing special or different about the Portsmouth CTC emails. In fact, when people manage to track them down, they usually find emails from other people have gone astray too.

This note will hopefully help you find out where they are going and how to make sure they arrive OK.

It describes:

  • Some basic principles
  • The main reasons for emails going astray
  • What you can do about it
  • What we can do about it
  • Some specific step-by-step instructions

Continue reading →

Cycling in Holland

Touring

The road signs and conventions used by the Dutch are a little idiosyncratic. Click the link below to show a video created by a Dutch cyclist to explain how it all works...


Click to display the video