"What is the best pedal?" is a silly question, but

"What should I be looking for when buying pedals?",

"Is a few grams of weight all that distinguishes the fancier (judging by their price tag) pedals from the regular ones?",

"Are all clipless pedals equally easy to learn on?",

"If I'm initially buying just one pair of cycling shoes for a road bike and an MTB, should I select SPD or SPD-SL?"

are all valid questions. Note that the last question, and perhaps the one before it, are opinion-based, but that is still quite alright IMO.

Yes - but you've given a list of good questions, none of which are shoppiong

Shopping is "Should I buy the mid-range Look Keo for $200 or the carbon version for $400 ?"

and someone chimes in they got the budget version for $50 on sale last year

There should perhaps be a generic response:

"We can't make up your mind for you, but if you ask us instead to explain an obscure feature in this product, or to give you an opinion about whether such and such feature is valuable because it ends up being used in practice, we'll be happy to help."

"In other words, tell us what you're looking for, and we can segment the market for you."

At one point I asked a shopping question (bicycles.stackexchange.com/q/68520/48599).

In retrospect I could have just said "I can't make head or tail of the literally hundreds of cyclocomputers on the market. How do I segment this market?"

That is, after all, the question to which Weiwei gave an (excellent) answer.

Just added a fun little question. Hopefully it's actually answerable.

Glad to change the wording if anyone thinks that would be beneficial.

The problem is that a ton of questions are product dependent

and time dependent. 15 years ago a more expensive road bike was primarily just lighter (and maybe had 1 or 2 more gears). These days you get hydraulic brakes, electronic shifting, power meters, aerodynamic features etc. etc.

yep - and today's good answer will be stale in a decade too.

Whether we close old answers as dupes of newer ones, or just link, or someting else, has not been determined

@Criggie Just a curiosity, does SE provide some statistics on the number of questions that have been not submitted because the "suggestion engine" suggested something when writing the question?

@Renaud how would you know why somebody stopped asking their question?

sometimes it helps just writing your problem down :D

Why I don't know, but if you have visited several suggestions and didn't post the question, a plausible cause is that the answer has been found.

I don't know - there's a metric hogshead of stats kept but I can't find anything like that

The exposed stats say QUestions asked per day and munidane things like that.

@Renaud I don't think there is a way to get that data. As Michael said, even if there is a suggestion made, it may not be relevant to a discarded post

@AndyP converted to SI that longest ride is a double century! kudos!

Almost exactly two score and a half metric leagues.

1078,3979 furlongs

@AndyP They are everywhere in Ibiza, and seem to be ridden mostly by drunk tourists (huge generalisation, perhaps) who should not be allowed on them or pavements

@AndyP The fact that e-scooters are banned in the UK is not really contributes to the point I raised, which is: this is probably the best mean of transport for "lazy people". I more often hear from e-bikes users that they actually want to exercise, but at lower levels, or they want to be able to choose when. It's a flexibility that only an ebike can offer.

@AndyP long rides just make you feel like shit for days

32°C on my ride today - don't see that often in Scotland!

I have a Decathlon Riverside 120 bike here. Shifting quality is quite bad and I'm wondering what are the first things to try to improve it?

I have just replaced the cassette and chain and re-indexed the gears, but the improvement was marginal. I have also wiped / oiled the shifting cable. What else can I do?

Would replacing the shifter itself help?

@Szabolcs does it shift properly in a repair stand (or when suspended by a string)? That pretty much rules out flex

proper cable installation usually makes the biggest difference, if all the other components are in okay-ish shape

I don't have a stand or the possibility to hang it so I just put it upside down. It shift okay (not great), but it seems to be extremely sensitive to adjustment ... The shifter looks flimsy on this one and the indicator jumps wildly on every shift before settling in its position.

maybe I should try replacing the cables? What's next after that? I guess it's the shifter, not the derailleur that makes the difference?

with these extremely cheap components it’s probably a combination of everything

@Michael The reason I suspected flex is that after I got on the bike, it didn't shift properly and I had to re-adjust it. But then when the owner of this bike tried it, it wasn't right again, and had to adjust it back to how it was after re-indexing it the first time ...

I’ve fortunately never had to spend much time with cheap components, but with better components in my experience when it’s hard to adjust correctly (either shifting up works correctly or shifting down, but never both) it’s cable friction or a bent derailleur hanger

or you are not adjusting correctly ;)

@Michael That seemed like the most likely possibility, but with my own bike it was so much easier to adjust it. Just followed the Park Tool video and all was fine, with plenty of room for adjustment.

the few times I had to work on 7 or 8 speed trekking bikes they were dead simple to adjust and quite robust (compared to my own 10 and 11 sped road bikes)

OK, I'll try to replace the cables. It's cheap enough and it's about time I learn how to do this.

the cable housing is just as important

and a cable housing cutter is really worth it. A dremel or angle grinder works but it’s fiddly.

I have the cutter :-) I'll replace the housing as well.

buy a few meters of housing and a pack of housing end caps, those things are always good to have at hand and quite cheap in bulk

and the cheaper stainless steel cables are probably good enough, no need to go for the fancy coated ones for 8€ per piece

Note: I would rule out flexing. Cables should move freely in the sheath to absorb frame flex, and if you can turn the handle bar without changing gears, you should have enough margin.

@Renaud the problem with “dynamic” frame flex is that it effectively changes cable housing length and therefore makes everything go out of adjustment

depending on load

but such a cheap steel frame is probably more on the rigid side of things

I think this was more a problem on racing road bikes with very light steel tubes

BTwin branded shifter and RD.

I wouldnt be that confident about ever getting them to work right

Was thinking to a personal experience: when I replaced the butterfly handlebar of the trekking to a flat one, but you're right, indeed after some thinking, it's not because you don't have a lot of housing (only between the handlebar and down tube, and the chainstay and derailleur, it's apparent for the rest), that the cable "effective length" cannot change under flex.

yup - I've had that happen with a bar bag.

I've managed to use a brake noodle to close up radiuses

like the folding bike, I used a brake noodle at the handlebar end to do a relatively sharp turn straight out of the brake lever and down the steerer, rather than the big loop

cyclingnews.com/news/…

@AndyP Is considered to be the Scottish manifestation of the heatwave currently hitting/heating continental Europe? (40°C expected tomorrow in Belgium).

@Renaud Basically yes. Its thought it might be possible England could break 40C (for the first time?) tomorrow. I mostly enjoyed it to be honest. Only got a bit much because I was doing quite a hard ride with no stops. I imagine if i'd stopped for a nice cool cola and fresh water in bottles i'd have still been quite happy

Ended up doing a small diversion on the way home and got extra water at my sisters house. I took extra in my pockets, but not enough extra aparantly

Not typical temperatures, but a pretty typical distribution for the UK

32°C is still bearable when cycling (provided that some basic precaution are taken). Good that you didn't stop, it's when you stop that you feel the heat ;) Did it come with wind?

@AndyP It's rebranded Microshift.

@MaplePanda your question hit the HNQ. Definitely doing something right :)