Search found 354 matches

by nigel_s
9 Jun 2016, 12:13pm
Forum: The Cycling UK brand refresh
Topic: POLL OF THE WHOLE CLUB PLEASE TAKE PART YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT
Replies: 69
Views: 61622

Re: POLL OF THE WHOLE CLUB PLEASE TAKE PART YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT

flat tyre wrote:I first joined CTC nearly 40 years ago, even back then it's image seemed to be dated and associated with blokes with grey beards, sandles and large saddlebags, doesn't seem to be much different now. So, if it truly aims to be a national cycling organisation it definitely needs a change of image, if the rebranding achieves this it's a Good Thing in my view. ...


My thoughts exactly. Even though I have a grey beard and a saddlebag.
by nigel_s
5 Jun 2016, 6:45pm
Forum: The Cycling UK brand refresh
Topic: POLL OF THE WHOLE CLUB PLEASE TAKE PART YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT
Replies: 69
Views: 61622

Re: POLL OF THE WHOLE CLUB PLEASE TAKE PART YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT

Strange fuss about nothing from previous posters.
Opened the magazine; saw the poll request; logged online using the url supplied; voted; job done.
The vote was IN, btw. Really, really do not understand why people are getting so worked up about either the poll or even the re-brand.
Perhaps they should go and start a new organisation if they feel so strongly about it.
by nigel_s
31 Oct 2010, 11:41am
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Cycle paths unsafe?
Replies: 286
Views: 20276

Re: Cycle paths unsafe?

In the unlikely event of a non-cyclist stumbling upon this thread, you lot have done a good job of putting them off cycling for keeps.

The vast majority of the British public have rejected cycling as transport because they don't want to mix with motor traffic on a bike. The CTC and its acolytes largely reject segregation on the Dutch model because they say it's dangerous, in spite of overwhelming evidence - not just in the Netherlands - of the success of the Dutch model's success in making cycling mainstream.

With cycling advocates like the CTC who needs cycling detractors.

Well done. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns...

As an Amsterdam resident said about this thread on Twitter this morning "when you're still debating elementary infrastructure you might as well join the Flat Earth Society."
by nigel_s
1 May 2010, 4:38pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Cycling to Subsidise Car Drivers
Replies: 37
Views: 2952

Re: Cycling to Subsidise Car Drivers

"...recent studies from Bern, Switzerland, show that parking space devoted to bikes generates more business than an equal amount of space devoted to cars. A study in Munster, Germany, found that cyclists buy fewer goods on each trip but spend more overall in the course of a greater number of trips."

Quoted from: http://bit.ly/9FNStw

Things are not necessarily what they seem?
by nigel_s
1 Sep 2009, 6:52pm
Forum: Cycling Goods & Services - Your Reviews
Topic: Lidl
Replies: 9
Views: 1978

Re: Lidl

Got a pair of Lidl shoes to replace my old Shimanos. Very comfortable, and feel and look the biz. At under a tenner it's got to be good value even if they don't last as long.
by nigel_s
18 Jul 2009, 6:45pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Some car drivers do care
Replies: 7
Views: 865

Re: Some car drivers do care

Of course we do.
Especially when we ride bikes too.
by nigel_s
17 Jul 2009, 1:28pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Should we pay road tax?
Replies: 42
Views: 2764

Re: Should we pay road tax?

Simple answer.
There's no such thing as Road Tax.
It was abolished in 1936.
So I think that you'd have great difficulty finding someone to accept your money.
Reminds me of the old Monty Python sketch where a chap was trying to buy a licence for his pet fish from the post office. He'd previously been given a dog licence with the word "dog" crossed out and the word "fish" written in crayon.
If you really want to know how the roads are funded just check your council tax bill.
by nigel_s
16 Jul 2009, 10:18pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Car adverts with 'Road Fund Licence'
Replies: 18
Views: 2042

Re: Car adverts with 'Road Fund Licence'

sirmy wrote:Just one small correction - roads are maintained from the grant councils receive from central government rather than through the council tax


According to the paperwork which came with the Council Tax demand, 6.2% of what I pay them this year is allocated to highway maintenance.
by nigel_s
13 Jul 2009, 8:53pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: My first ride with SPD shoes???
Replies: 25
Views: 3381

Re: My first ride with SPD shoes???

There's an interesting post over on the Eco Velo blog about this very subject.

Here's a quote:
The biggest myth in bicycle riding is the need for special cycling shoes and the benefits of stiff ones. The argument in favor of Special Shoes is this: With a firm connection to the pedal, you will be able to apply power for the full 360-degrees of a pedal revolution.

That’s one of the biggest, fattest lies of all time on any topic, but experts, riders, and the media repeat this over and over again, year after year. Coaches, trainers, people we’re supposed to listen to. Statesmen and Pillars of the Community. Even the Girl Next Door says it over and over.

And this:

When elite pedalers and lousy rookie pedalers have been hooked up to machines that measure muscle activity during pedaling, the machines tell us this:

—During normal pedaling at normal cadences, nobody pulls UP on the backstroke.
—The elite/efficient pedalers push down less on the upward moving pedal than the rookies do.

Think about that until it sinks in and you’re bored. The good pedalers — the guys in the logo costumes and the white sunglasses and shaved legs — minimize the downward force on the upward-moving pedal more. They don’t pull up on it or even unweight it. They just minimize the downward pressure on it, so one leg isn’t fighting the other as much.

That is a far cry from the 360-degrees of power the clickers and media and experts promise you.

Should be fun reading your responses.
by nigel_s
2 Jul 2009, 6:51pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: the things you come acrosswith added ingredients!
Replies: 21
Views: 1360

Re: the things you come acrosswith added ingredients!

I have the receipt...
Image
The page from the catalogue...
Image
and the bike...
Image

The only vehicle my father ever owned.
The carrier is the remains of the child seat on which I used to be transported.

Here he is on tour in 1947 with his wife-to-be:
Image
by nigel_s
22 Jun 2009, 6:10pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Cherbourg campsite
Replies: 6
Views: 536

Re: Cherbourg campsite

From my 2002 logbook: Camping Collignon is the one that we stayed at. It's east of the ferryport and only about 15 minutes away, so it's ideal for first/last nights. A quick look at Google suggests that it's still operating.
by nigel_s
10 Jun 2009, 1:00pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Sustrans gripe
Replies: 47
Views: 4621

Re: Sustrans gripe

Swizz69 wrote:
High quality Copenhagen style cycle facilities in UK are a very long way off and in my view unlikely ever to happen here within our lifetimes.


.. are there enough cyclists demanding it? ...


I don't think that Danish or Dutch cyclists demanded their cycling facilities. They had the same urban traffic issues as us back in the 1970s. As I understand it it's simply that their local authorities recognised cycling as a solution and implemented it. Whereas in UK most cyclists seem to be enthusiasts, over there people ride bikes because they can. Bikes seem to be no more important to them than a decent pair of shoes. In my view, that's the way it should be.

I don't know why they had to foresight and vision to do what they did and we didn't. Maybe it's because they didn't have much of a car manufacturing industry then and we did; therefore we had a more active and aggressive road lobby. Who knows.
by nigel_s
10 Jun 2009, 12:20pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Sustrans gripe
Replies: 47
Views: 4621

Re: Sustrans gripe

thirdcrank wrote:nigel_s

Another post essentially saying it's better than nothing.


Yes.
by nigel_s
9 Jun 2009, 9:56pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Sustrans gripe
Replies: 47
Views: 4621

Re: Sustrans gripe

Sares wrote: New users will graduate to the roads eventually.

Correct!

I'm one of them. But that was over ten years ago.

I currently help out on a local cycling scheme (Somer Valley Wheels) which is primarily aimed to get older people back cycling. We have a pretty fair local ex-railway cyclepath network (The Colliers Way) and we start people off by using the cycle route. It doesn't take long for them to get their confidence back and even though virtually all of the new starters are vehemently opposed to going on the road to begin with they soon get bored with the path. It's then that we introduce them to the local country lanes. After that they are away...

We're talking here about mainly the 55-75 age group who haven't ridden a bike since their teen years, if at all.

Sares' statement is essentially correct. I and the Somer Valley Wheels clients can't be unique, can we?

So, in certain circumstances, off highway cycle routes do have their uses.

Having said that, I agree that most of what Sustrans and highway authorities call cycling facilities are indeed, by and large, pretty low standard, and largely unmaintained low standard, too.

High quality Copenhagen style cycle facilities in UK are a very long way off and in my view unlikely ever to happen here within our lifetimes.
by nigel_s
6 Jun 2009, 8:19pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Anoraks...............
Replies: 17
Views: 896

Re: Anoraks...............

gaz wrote:
Si wrote:they're almost as bad as that lot that keep riding around photographing village signposts in alphabetical order 8)


Bunch of lightweights, meet the professionals.


I'll see your village signs and raise you the Ukrainian Bus Shelter Spotters. :!:

Or the wild and wacky world of Electricity Pylons...