The Raleigh Royal Reviewed Part 2

The Royal aboard the MV Ullyses

Since I bought the Raleigh Royal I have done almost 2000 miles on it. This includes a recent trip to England in which I done about 900 miles in two and half weeks.

Only one major problem emerged with the bike, the spokes on both wheels became very loose. When I got them tightened up, I was was told that this can only be caused by oil being applied to the threads when the wheels were being built. This apparently makes them much easier to tighten, but has the unfortunate side effect of the spokes later becoming loose. So if you buy a Royal keep an eye on the spoke tension.

For my English trip I needed to carry a lot more cargo than I usually do so I added a set of front racks. I went with a pair of LifeLine Alloy Low Rider Front Rack which I got from Wiggle at €20.29. While the front forks of the Royal come with braze-ons for front racks the Lifeline racks did not fit them. The racks came with two sets of U bolts which I used to fit the racks. To save scratching the frame I used a small piece of inner tube as padding with each u bolt.

On many occasions in England I rode, fully loaded on glass strewn cyclepaths and hard shoulders and I did not have one single puncture. So I am very impressed with the puncture resistant qualities of the Schwalbe Marathon tyres that come with the Royal.

I carried about 22 kg of cargo on my English trip and cycled in some very hilly country in Staffordshire. I found the range of gears more than adequate to pull 22 kg of cargo up some very steep gradients.

Lifeline Front Racks

Two thousand miles and the bike is running perfectly. You could pay a lot more money for a touring bike, and if you were planning to cycle around the world it would probably be money well spent. But if your touring needs are more modest, I doubt you will beat the Raleigh Royal on value for money.

LifeLine Alloy Low Rider Front Rack from Wiggle

The Raleigh Royal Reviewed Part One

The Raleigh Royal Reviewed Part Three

The Bike Inn Training Course

I’ve just completed a two week Bike Mechanic training course in the Bike Inn in Spalding, Lincolnshire, England. I’ve always maintained my own bikes, and liked to think I knew a good bit about bikes. But after two weeks of intensive training I now realise that I knew very little and that I still have an awful lot to learn.

If you want a first class bike mechanic training course and are anywhere near the British Isles, the Bike Inn is the place to go. If you pass you will get a City and Guilds qualification, but that is incidental, what this course will really give you is a serious grasp of all aspects of the bicycle, its design, manufacture, use, maintenance and repair.

The Bike Inn

The course is delivered by Alf and Theresa Webb in a beautiful old School House, in Wragg Marsh a few miles outside Spalding. Not only is the school house their place of business it is their home, and they are very affable hosts.

Alf in one way or another has worked in the bike business for 57 years, having started as a teenager working on a production line in a bike factory. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of bikes and bike components. He can with total ease recall almost any component used on any bicycle in the last 57 years. He is a total master of the subject, a natural teacher and a very nice man.

Theresa is a first rate bike mechanic, wheel builder and teacher. She has a much more direct and concise style of teaching than Alf, but together their contrasting styles make them a formidable team. In a world where so much has become bland, standardised and clinical the Bike Inn is a welcome oasis where the personalities and experiences of the trainers shine through.

In the first week they were ably assisted by former student Neil (never did catch his surname) who runs his own bike repair business in nearby Stamford. There were three teachers and seven students, a very impressive ratio. Most of the two weeks were spent at the workbench working on bikes. In the second week I built a bike from a bare frame, wheels and all.

If you want to start your own business, get a job in the industry or just learn to maintain your own bikes, you will not get a better two week training course than at the Bike Inn.

The Bike Inn Website

A Heating System Made From Scrap

As resources get scarcer in the future humans will be forced to use the debris of our fossil fueled civilisation and find new, creative and efficient ways to utilise it. In the medium term salvage and reuse will be a huge part of newly emerging economies.

Leading the way in this is Noel Higgins, a 39 year old Irish man who like many others has built a beautiful tiny house on wheels. But what really intrigued me about Noel is his brilliant heating system, which he made from an old gas cylinder and burco boiler. He has a fantastic photo essay showing the construction of the stove and water heater on Facebook.

The Irish Examiner recently had an article about Noel and his tiny house.

The future does not emerge suddenly, fully formed, it is happening in little ways all around us right now.

Bike Mechanic Course

I’m off to Spalding in England tomorrow to do a two week bike mechanic course in the Bike Inn. All going well I will be back in two and half weeks with a City and Guilds Bike Mechanic qualification. The plan is to cash in on the Irish bike boom and set up in business repairing and servicing bikes. But even if this fails I will be able to keep all my families bikes running.

I am going to Spalding on my Raleigh Royal and really looking forward to cycling across Wales and England.

So no more posts here for a while.

The Bike Inn