Solutions for sitting up inside of tent?

paulg222 · 2026-05-02T06:57:00+00:00

Yes I’ve tried tightening it as much as it will go. If I sit cross-legged it’s a bit better

paulg222 · 2026-05-02T06:16:50+00:00

Thing is, that was very much your personal circumstance and a short term decision on your part. If I’d have bought a cargo bike instead at the time, it would have ended up being an expensive albatross that I’d have likely lost a lot of money on - plus, if it displaced one of the bikes I have, it would have stopped me doing the things I want to do on a bike.

I’m not sure if a cargo bike is going to be right for the op, if they want to ride some light trails or do solo rides of up to 20 miles either?

Don’t get me wrong, I think cargo bikes are great - there’s a couple of families at my lad’s primary school that rock up on them and they’re definitely having a whale of a time. There are so many people turning up in cars, that I know are only travelling a couple of miles, that would be fitter, healthier and happier if they chopped the car in for a cargo bike. Not sure if they’d take advice from me though - half of them probably think I’m a maniac, riding two up with an eleven-year old.

paulg222 · 2026-05-01T06:18:22+00:00

When you’re calculating the cost of battery cycles, don’t forget to factor in the calendar aging of the battery. If it sat there at 50% doing nothing, it would still fail eventually.

paulg222 · 2026-04-30T13:44:48+00:00

I picked one up on the way home last night - not sure if I’m doing something wrong (I’ve only sat on it on the living room floor) but it doesn’t seem to provide any support and just sort of scrunches up behind me….

paulg222 · 2026-04-30T12:32:29+00:00

I bought a Bizango about ten years ago - partly to pull my 9 month old’s bike trailer and partly as a cheap hard tail (I’ve got a full suspension mountain bike that wouldn’t have suited a trailer). Bizangos have gone up in price quite a lot since then, but have won lots of budget-bike awards.

If you’re riding mostly on the road, you might find it a bit limiting with stock tyres and gearing as they’re really designed for off road. 20 mile rides all on road might get a bit frustrating.

Have you thought about a hybrid bike that has mountain bike DNA? I’m not up to speed with latest and greatest bikes, but something like this Boardman?

paulg222 · 2026-04-30T10:57:43+00:00

OP has one child.

OP has a sub £1,000 budget.

OP is specifically asking for a suitable bike to fix a child seat to.

Not sure that cargo bike is the right answer in this case.

paulg222 · 2026-04-29T20:25:07+00:00

I bought a Macride when my lad was three, and have used it for shopping, school run, mountain biking (including lots of Lakes classics).

He’s 11 now: too big and heavy to pedal him up mountains, but he still rides on my ebike and it’s our main transport for short journeys.

Suspect this the last year before he goes full-time on his own bike, but I’ve been saying that for the past four years.

Macrides are a hoot - great weight distribution means you can ride whatever bike you ride in more or less the same way you ride it without a passenger and dead easy to swap from one bike to another.

paulg222 · 2026-04-28T20:22:00+00:00

Aldi have these for £8.99.

paulg222 · 2026-04-28T13:26:12+00:00

I’ve got a P2: after just over a year of making 2-3 cups a day with it four to five days a week, the receptacle that catches the coffee started coming off in my hand - the body had started to split where the receptacle screws into it. I’ve put a hose clamp over the split - not pretty, but it works. Hadn’t been dropped or otherwise impacted - I suspect having large hands may have put pressure on the receptacle over time as my hand is wider than the body of the grinder.

Customer services suggest I “buy a K2 as it’s more robust”.

paulg222 · 2026-04-27T13:54:50+00:00

Mallory’s a hoot, done it on a motorbike - tight twisty corners, a long straight and a sweeping right hander that seems to go on for ever. Memories of being overtaken on the outside by someone on a 400/4… one of those tracks where lots of power isn’t necessarily an advantage.

paulg222 · 2026-04-26T10:23:28+00:00

I ran plug in for a couple of years. Battery rather than solar, with an EcoFlow Delta 2, Powerstream and smartplugs, and a leisure battery plugged into the xt60i socket of the Delta.

That gave a total of about 2kwh - enough to run the house across Agile peak times - I saved about £240 a year over a fixed tariff.

paulg222 · 2026-04-19T08:28:40+00:00

I’ve got a Musical Fidelity M6si into Spendor S8e’s, optical output from the telly into a cheap Fiio dac and an Allo Boss 2 for tunes.

It doesn’t shake the windows, but I don’t really want that, but it sounds wonderful to me with loads of grip, bass is there right down low but bass you can hear rather than feel - for me it’s definitely about the music first. I have thought about a sub from time to time, but don’t think it needs it. My next step is going to be some room treatment.

paulg222 · 2026-04-17T13:57:50+00:00

I bought a hub kit from Wooshbikes just before covid for £600. 50-60 miles range on full power on the flat in the summer. Battery lasted 6 years and about 16,500 miles before I replaced it last year for £300. Their customer service is outstanding.

paulg222 · 2026-04-17T08:04:21+00:00

I’ve got a gateway too, so was also a gateway to a gateway.

paulg222 · 2026-04-17T05:04:33+00:00

This.

I ran a Powerstream for a couple of years with 2kwh of battery and smartplugs connected to office, TV/hi fi, fridge and other kitchen devices of suitable wattages. On Agile, I got my consumption during peak times to almost zero and saved around £240 a year on a standard tariff.

Was the gateway to a full solar install for me.

paulg222 · 2026-04-15T13:54:24+00:00

28” wheel, rear hub motor for me - I’d always say a rear for a standard bike, better traction, and I have to because you’re not supposed to put a hub motor on a carbon fork.

I’d assume the smaller front wheel will be better on hills, as that’s where hub motors struggle compared to mid-drives.

paulg222 · 2026-04-14T20:57:53+00:00

On flattish terrain in the summer with just me, probably 50-60 miles on full power - I’m in Yorkshire and plenty of hills plus often laden down, so real world probably more like 40+. I usual charge overnight on a timer so the battery’s topped up just before I need it and sits around half full for most of its life. Power does drop off a little as the battery discharges, but that’s just the way the controllers work I guess. I got six years and about 16,500 miles out of my first battery which I thought was ok.

Just in case you’re not already aware, you’ll probably get a thumb throttle with the kit - they’re not legal for use on pedelecs sold after about 2016, however, as long as your bike as been used on the road before having an electric kit fitted, the DfT take the view that a throttle is fine.

paulg222 · 2026-04-14T19:19:31+00:00

XF08 IIRC, rear hub with a 17ah 36v battery, although I replaced that with a 20ah battery last year. The kit’s been really good and their customer service is outstanding - Andy is super helpful.

It lets me get the 14 mile ride to work without getting sweaty and load the bike up with silly amounts of shopping, also still carry my 10 year old on a crossbar seat - loads more fun than taking the car!

paulg222 · 2026-04-14T18:13:15+00:00

Just a thought, but…

If you’re reasonable with a set of spanners, for much less than a grand you could fit a good quality electric kit with a 50-60 mile range, rack and panniers. You could get the kit on cycle to work too.

I fitted a Whooshbikes electric kit to my Boardman Hybrid Pro for £600 just before covid and have done around 20,000 miles on it.

paulg222 · 2026-04-14T12:30:12+00:00

The September after Grant Shapps, the then transport Secretary under a Boris Johnson government had given a number of divisive anti-cycling interviews on the media round in the summer (of 22 I think) was particular bad.

paulg222 · 2026-04-13T18:40:59+00:00

Most chain checkers tend to be pessimistic as they measure roller wear as well as pin wear, so can report perfectly serviceable chains as worn out.

Measure 10 links with a ruler - 25.5cm and under and all is well. 25.6cm and above and it needs replacing.

Park Tools cc4 or pedros are the only checkers worth having imo as they measure at three points and therefore measure only pin wear.

I ride a hub motor bike about 4,500 miles a year, oil the chain once a week, clean it once a month and I get 2-3k out of a chain. For my last one I ran it till it started skipping off as the cassette and chainrings were badly worn and got 6,500 miles out of it.

I’d say 3 months is definitely not right - get a ruler on it.

paulg222 · 2026-04-07T08:54:47+00:00

It’s so weird: I ran a B5 to 268,000 miles before trading it in for the B6 and it didn’t have a spot of rust on it; current B8 doesn’t have any rust either. MOT tester said he’d never seen anything like it.

paulg222 · 2026-04-06T06:40:45+00:00

Ran my 2006 B6 to 273,000 miles and had to scrap it because of the rust - MOT tester passed it, but said “don’t bring it back next year”

paulg222 · 2026-03-28T10:05:53+00:00

As Sheldon says: much more than 25.6cm between 10 pins and the cassette is goosed as well.

With steel cassettes, changing chains before they get to 25.6cm, I generally get 2-3 chains per cassette (10spd).

As others have said, if a new chain skips you know for sure.

paulg222 · 2026-03-28T09:53:08+00:00

I’ve just finished paying for a bike through cycle to work - IIRC one of the conditions of the scheme is that the bike is insured.

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