Search found 1185 matches

by ChrisButch
24 Mar 2024, 6:15pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Huntingdon: Angry pedestrian guilty of killing cyclist
Replies: 244
Views: 15319

Re: Huntingdon: Angry pedestrian guilty of killing cyclist

Reading some of these comments I'm tempted to wonder if it might not be a bad thing to extend sub judice restrictions to appeals.
by ChrisButch
29 Feb 2024, 12:48pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Wider implications of e-bike power limit consultation
Replies: 1
Views: 454

Wider implications of e-bike power limit consultation

Over in the e-bike topic section there's a discussion of the news that the government is to consult on the possible increase of the legal power limit on e-bikes. Subject to the moderators' indulgence, I'm posting an alert to this here also, since it has potentially wider implications for cycling provision in general, and forum members without e-bikes don't necessarily look at that section. The potential for unintended consequences with this is obvious. Much of the recent public hostility to urban cycling provision has been a reaction to the widespread use of illegally overpowered ebikes or electric motorbikes, and this will only be stoked by the media making a meal of this consultation, which they undoubtedly will. The timing is curious, to say the least.
by ChrisButch
15 Feb 2024, 8:07pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Mudguard design
Replies: 56
Views: 6629

Re: Mudguard design

Pebble wrote: 15 Feb 2024, 11:34am
Mike Sales wrote: 15 Feb 2024, 11:12am How about incorporating something like these tyresavers?

tyresavers.jpg
what are they, where do they go ?

a little search for 'tyresavers' finds this
https://www.velobitz.co.uk/vintage-styl ... int-wipers
i wonder whether it was the noise or the fact they probably didn't work ?

The type shown in Mike Sales's post were those widely used in the UK. (I've never seen those rather nasty-looking 'chain' ones in your link before). I used them for many years, and found them remarkably effective. You did need to adjust them frequently to get just the right 'brushing' effect. The key advantage, especially when hung off the bottom of a mudguard, was that they lightly brushed off the foreign object before it had had the chance to realise where it was and even think about embedding itself. I've still got them fitted to one old bike. Despite the flimsy appearance, they were remarkably robust.
by ChrisButch
7 Feb 2024, 5:49pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Fixing a non-working front derailleur
Replies: 73
Views: 3396

Re: Fixing a non-working front derailleur

Cugel wrote: 6 Feb 2024, 3:00pm
ChrisButch wrote: 5 Feb 2024, 8:07pm
I think that rather misses the point. It's perfectly reasonable for a potential bike owner not to want to acquire those minimal skills. Whether or not she could relatively easily acquire them is beside the point. It's perfectly reasonable to expect there to be on the market a bike that satisfies the four conditions I mentioned in my earlier post upthread - a bike which would not require even those minimal skills of its owner. Such bikes were once readily available and relatively cheap. That they no longer exist is one of the disincentives to cycling, and one of the main reasons those persuaded to give cycling a try soon give up, at the inevitable first mechanical problem.
Well, it's no doubt possible to make a black box of a bike rather like the black box of an iThing (that white shade they make them is a lie) which works very nicely until it doesn't and then joins its pals in the landfill.

On the other hand, we could all change out ways for the better*, even if it does get a bit more demanding.

* Although wary of the notion of "better" with its assumption that everything can and should be put into The Great Hierarchy of Relative Worth, I'll here define "better" in this context as "a method of making, owning and using things that keeps them repairable forever". Not a popular notion these days, I know, as the black boxes are so "convenient" (until their landfill exudations give you cancer via the tap water, air or even the cucumbers they grew on top of the full fills).
When the OP bought her bike, these questions might never have arisen had this, and the many like it, still been available:
Image
by ChrisButch
5 Feb 2024, 8:07pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Fixing a non-working front derailleur
Replies: 73
Views: 3396

Re: Fixing a non-working front derailleur

Cugel wrote: 5 Feb 2024, 4:37pm
Which are the unhelpful comments? I suppose it depends on what one regards as the fundamental problem for the OP.

Personally I feel the problem is one of attitude rather than some technical thing. She's convinced herself that, "I can't .... " for whatever reason. The obvious answer, then, is to find a way to believe, "I can .....". Merely agreeing with the OP's own assessment of her lack of abilities is the most unhelpful (and condescending) attitude of the lot!
I think that rather misses the point. It's perfectly reasonable for a potential bike owner not to want to acquire those minimal skills. Whether or not she could relatively easily acquire them is beside the point. It's perfectly reasonable to expect there to be on the market a bike that satisfies the four conditions I mentioned in my earlier post upthread - a bike which would not require even those minimal skills of its owner. Such bikes were once readily available and relatively cheap. That they no longer exist is one of the disincentives to cycling, and one of the main reasons those persuaded to give cycling a try soon give up, at the inevitable first mechanical problem.
by ChrisButch
3 Feb 2024, 12:47pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Fixing a non-working front derailleur
Replies: 73
Views: 3396

Re: Fixing a non-working front derailleur

Just a general reflection on the case for derailleurs.
If all the following conditions apply:

- You ride your bike frequently in all conditions, and wish to continue doing so.
- You store it an exposed location.
- You have no interest or skill in maintenance, and don't want to do even minimal servicing.
- Your available budget for purchase and maintenance is modest .

...then the OP's conclusion, based on decades of experience, that
"derailleurs, a transmission system absurdly open to the elements, is a flawed technology"
is entirely reasonable, and, again given the conditions listed above, accurate.

A century ago, bikes which continued to perform reliably for many years, for those to whom those four conditions applied, were widely available.
Today...
by ChrisButch
25 Jan 2024, 12:54pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: LTN politics
Replies: 54
Views: 3589

LTN politics

Interesting detailed account in today's road.cc of the politics behind the decision not to end prematurely the LTN trial in Exeter, - a project which has provoked particularly vituperative opposition. In this case elected members refused to accept a remarkably loaded officer's report, which used the sketchiest of data to support a case for ending the trial. It's quite a long piece, much interrupted by ads etc, but some of the most interesting detail is towards the end...
https://road.cc/content/news/councillor ... ial-306369
by ChrisButch
10 Jan 2024, 12:44pm
Forum: Cycle Camping sub-forum
Topic: Dartmoor wild camping ban now to go to Supreme Court
Replies: 19
Views: 4877

Re: Dartmoor wild camping ban now to go to Supreme Court

Against, I think, the general expectation, the Supreme Court has today agreed to hear the appeal. Date to be fixed.
by ChrisButch
30 Dec 2023, 4:25pm
Forum: Lands End to John O'Groats
Topic: London -Penzance GWR
Replies: 15
Views: 2334

Re: London -Penzance GWR

Unfortunately the platforms 8/9 bike parking is at the far end of the station from the 1st Class lounge.
by ChrisButch
17 Dec 2023, 6:41pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: why should i use LONG blocks in my cantis?
Replies: 56
Views: 6379

Re: why should i use LONG blocks in my cantis?

In the days of Mafac cantilevers, their long blocks were sold as 'Tandem blocks', and were therefore presumably intended to have enhanced stopping power. They were duly fitted to our tandem. They worked pretty well. But whether they were any more effective than the shorter Mafac blocks on our solos? Hard to say. They did inspire confidence. The only problems were overheating rims rather than stopping power. I do remember, however, that they were a pain to set up - a tiny error in the rotational angle and one end or the other would transgress onto the tyre or below the bottom edge of the rim braking surface.
by ChrisButch
1 Dec 2023, 8:16pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Keyhole Bridge, Poole
Replies: 6
Views: 961

Re: Keyhole Bridge, Poole

Unfortunately, subsequent coverage in the Bournemouth Echo suggests that this was a Pyrrhic victory - the Council has conceded the legal argument, but this doesn't mean the bridge will be closed again -
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/ ... g-victory/
by ChrisButch
17 Nov 2023, 8:02pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Is this dangerous?
Replies: 52
Views: 5666

Re: Is this dangerous?

Brucey wrote: 17 Nov 2023, 3:02pm my record is a gnat's under a mile with a new set of Bluemels celluloid mudguards before I wrecked 'em.

One way or another,pretty much every set of full-length mudguards I have ever bought has turned out to be a major disappointment.
It happened to me even with those massive dimpled French aluminium guards, bolted to the fork crown, which Jack Taylor used to fit to their bikes, the bikes themselves with huge clearances. Front wheel locked on a mucky steep descent on Exmoor during an Audax. Never found the cause, but badly bent the Cinelli-crowned front fork, wrecked the wheel and knocked various bits off me - leaving the wretched mudguard unscathed.
by ChrisButch
16 Nov 2023, 11:00am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Gore-Tex: is it really this bad?
Replies: 112
Views: 11053

Re: Gore-Tex: is it really this bad?

pwa wrote: 15 Nov 2023, 6:21am
One thing I hate about most modern hiking jackets is that they are too short.
The move to shorter mountain jackets was driven by climbers needing something that could comfortably be worn with a harness. It spread, illogically, to the wider outdoor market in the way these things do.
by ChrisButch
12 Nov 2023, 3:08pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Gore-Tex: is it really this bad?
Replies: 112
Views: 11053

Re: Gore-Tex: is it really this bad?

pwa wrote: 11 Nov 2023, 11:59am
On the other hand I find Goretex in shoes and boots a waste of time. I am currently struggling to keep my wife's very expensive Scarpa leather + Goretex hiking boots from leaking, through the use of leather treatments, as the Goretex clearly isn't the guarantee of dryness that you might hope. This is her second pair, the first having been sent back with the same fault. We are going to try to seal them the old fashioned way, with waxy applications and a bit of heat from a hair dryer, having given up on Scarpa supplying us with a waterproof pair of boots. I've had other footwear with the Goretex marking that has been similarly disappointing.

The problem with modern boot design is that to meet demand for a lighter boot, manufacturers (even those like Scarpa traditionally of high quality) have relied on a Goretex membrane for proofing, and have drastically reduced the thickness and quality of the leathers used. It only takes a pinhole in the membrane for the entire system to fail, which it will inevitably do IME in at most a couple of years' regular wear. The problem is further exacerbated by using cheaper construction of the uppers, with more stitched seams (again liable to failure) rather than a single cut of quality leather. There are still bootmakers using traditional techniques, (without Goretex), which only require regular care to retain their proofing - and proofing treatments available are now very good. Altberg (British, despite the name) is an outstanding example. At a price, of course.