Blog

Here is a Review from Simon on CUBE’s fantastic bike called the Hooper .. it’s Hub Geared bike (8 speed) with Disc brakes ..

The CUBE Hooper not just a commuting work horse.

I’ve just bought the CUBE Hooper via the cycle to work scheme from Gill Cycles in Ulverston as a low maintenance bike for commuting. Having ridden it around the south lakes area, and the 10 miles to work (and back) for a week or so, it turns out to be a much more capable machine than just a low maintenance commuting work horse....

A few of us from the Shop (Dave & Claire .. and Wendy who used to be in the shop) … and some regular customers .. were amongst the 61 folk who took on the Challenge of ‘The Greyhound’ on Saturday 12th June 2010. Organised by Martin & Jill Salter-Smith as a friendly,if tough, local challenge to raise funds for the North West Air Ambulance it’s a one-way ride from The Greyhound in Shap to The Greyhound at Grizebeck. Straight across the Lake District via Wet Sleddale, Mosedale, gatesgarh Pass, Kentmere, Garburn Pass, Ambleside, Grisedale Forest, Giants Grave, it’s a...

There was much hype and weeks of waiting so expectations were very very high before the ride! It did not disappoint, in fact it was fantastic and I bought one! I tested a few 160mm travel bikes before the COVERT, all good on the whole, but the COVERT was special. On trails it’s nimble, whips along and feels confident on the technical stuff. Up steep, loose climbs it wants to wheelie a bit (unless you’ve gone for an adjustable fork option I guess) but that’s manageable and the reason you want 160mm travel to rip downhill. That’s where...

We now have a selection of Specialized Test Saddles available for you to try.

There is a Gents Road and Mountain Bike saddle, and 2 equivalent ladies specific saddles.

I tested the Gents Road saddle, called ‘Romin’

It has a slightly upswept rear (to aid power transfer_) and a groove down the middle (_to reduce pressure and aid blood flow to those important areas!)

And I have to say that both features seem to work well for me .. I just fitted the saddle, and took off on a 40 mile hilly ride, no problems at all,...

We have just recieved our first delivery of FOX clothing, its all very good clothing at very good prices. All the shorts come with liners and all the jerseys and gloves come with very small price tags. come in and have a look!

Harry

For those of you that have an interest in downhill, my Transition TR450 is now in the shop for your viewing pleasure

To say I was a little dubious would be an understatement but at these prices I’d have been mad not to get some in the shop. For those of you who don’t scour every inch of the new product sections in magazines I’m referring to MicroShift. A new company that are looking to get among the big boys with some premium end road components and some great budget price mountain bike gear.

To start with there is the 9 speed triple road shifters for £129 that actually give a solid shift which is nothing to be sneezed at, especially...

As you should all well know, we now have Transition bikes in the shop, if you are yet to see one in the flesh you should come and take a look, I promise you will not be disappointed!

We have just recently finished speccing and building our first custom build Transition in the form of a Green Covert. We ordered the bike in with a standard Transition all mountain build kit, which included:

• Transitions own brand Revolution AM wheelset
• pretty much a full Truvative finishing kit (bar, stem, chainset, seatpost)
• Full X9 Drivetrain
• Avid Elixir...

I’m guessing there will be a few people that haven’t heard of Transition as a bike brand so allow me to fill you in.

Basically Transition are a small American rider owned company that’s goal is to make bikes that work well and are fun to ride. The good news is that they’ve succeeded in both and the even better news is that Gill Cycles is now one of only around 20 shops nation wide to stock the brand.

We currently have a Bottle Rocket frame, a Trans-Am frame built up with one of Transition’s great value build...

Fancy a day at one of the new trails near Stocks Reservoir ? .. we are going tomorrow .. depart Ulverston 08:30

Check the map and this website … http://www.singletrackworld.com/trailguide/uk/north-west/gisburn-forest-2/

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/gisburn-forest-7

cheers

Dave W.

Just a quick blog to let people know I’m experimenting with twitter at the moment. So if your phone has internet access and you want all the latest and up to date info from the shop and some random stuff about what I get up to in my spare time then create a twitter account and follow gill_cycles. I promise I’ll try and keep the “got up and made a cup of tea” stuff to a minimum ;-)

Cheers

I’ve just looked at the Fred Whitton riders list .. an impressive bunch .. Mr Jebb is in there .. and Mr Suddell (both previous winners) .. I wish them all the best in their particular challenge (which will be to break the record again .. I think that is 5:45 or something !) .. me .. well I’ll be pleased to get under 8 hours !

The ‘Fred’ is 2 weeks after The London Marathon .. which I’m also planning (and training) to run .. that training is going well this year and that’s Thanks to...

We now have a Specialized Epic Test Bike at Gill Cycles and I was the first person to take it out for a ride. This is a quick summary of my findings.

1. The bike has fantastic balance. We went out on a wintry day with lots of Snow and Ice about but I managed to stay mostly upright. When we came to the Lawson Park descent I just flew down.

2. The bike is light. I wasn’t feeling at my best on the day I did the test ride but it felt really good on the ascents.

Recently i have been riding with the Sealskinz Mid-Thermal Extra warm Waterproof socks. I have used them for downhill riding and cross country and they have been excellent in both.

I was at first a little hesitant as the old design socks were apparently not to comfy and not to breathable. They’ve fixed these problems with the new design, by having a three layer system, (merino wool inner, waterproof middle, tough outer) there’s not much more i can say except that they do exactly what they say on the tin.

If you ride in the cold or wet these socks...

its that time of year again, where we have to spend our hard earned money on rubbish gifts for people, so that in return they can give you a equally rubbish gift, that you will never use but cannot return!

However to avoid this, we at Gill Cycles have put together a collection of REALLY GOOD gift ideas for your cycling loved ones. And just in case your loved one really does have ‘everything’ We also do gift vouchers so they can choose what they want!

I would like to start by saying thank you everyone for not booking the stumpy! As no-one booking it meant that i got to take it out.

As many of you know i am relatively new to the shop and also very new to cross country. But recently in pursuit of going out riding and actually doing some riding, rather than spending the whole day pushing my heavy (but also very nice) Ironhorse Sunday downhill bike up hills to do 30 seconds back down.

today i went out on the Specialized Stumpjumper Expert(retailing at £2999.99). I have always...

Me and Jim were booked to go to a trek free-ride day, to go and have a presentation on the new long travel trek bikes. Now i must explain as me and Jim are downhill riders by trade, this day was pretty exciting to us. However as we all know the weather is not exactly pleasant at the present time and we couldn’t go. So instead me and Jim are both in work today, after a 40 minute drive from Barrow to the Shop this morning thanks to a massive puddle near Lindal.

Anyway, rant over.

Riding will have to...

To cold? to windy? to wet??

Strap on some baubles this christmas and new year with some new weather proof clothing.

We’ve got a great selection of Endura, Mavic, Dakine, Montane and Altura bike specific clothing. Theres something for everyone.

Get out there and experience the best of British.

No matter what the weather.

For the first time this year i finally got myself sorted and actually raced, for some reason i picked the one race i new, on the weather front, was bound to be a disaster!

I picked that race as the track over at Hamsterley forest is always really good. Technical, packed with rocks and roots, but really fast and really fun at the same time, also all the guys who work up there to prepare the courses and make the races happen are really nice guys and gals and the weekends are always a lot of fun.

So...

The Corrieyairack Challenge .. a 43 mile Mountain Bike Charity event over the Corrieyairack Pass … (a General Wade ‘road’ in Scotland over a very high pass ..) .. we do this as a Team event .. Mike, Kieth and Myself + Claire as our Helper (all teams have to have someone to help on the day .. Thanks Claire :-) ..) … It was great weather wise … I was determined to stay up at the front as there is a bottleneck a couple of miles in .. so I went off with the front-runners (or front-bikers ?) .....