Search found 2722 matches

by thelawnet
6 Nov 2023, 4:02pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: London ride share schemes
Replies: 2
Views: 4042

Re: London ride share schemes

Had a number of experiences of the Forest bikes being a bit dodgy:

1. flat tyre
2. lots of crunching noises from the pedals/bottom bracket area
3. quite a few loose saddles; saw one where someone had ripped it off entirely
4. the communications between bike and server got broken somehow and the rental didn't end
5. today's experience was quite alarming - the bike was moving by itself, and it could easily have caused an accident. even holding the brakes on hard the bike still wanted to take off, and you can't end the rental until you've sent a photo in of the bike parked, so it was only after taking a random picture and 'ending' that the motor actually cut out. There does seem to be quite a bit of variation between bikes, some of which have 'over-eager' motors where even the slightest pressure on the pedal will have the thing mopedding along, and others where it doesn't kick in until you actually start to pedal

It's also noticeable that they are not very fast as they are set to 24kph/25kph, and you can pedal to get up to perhaps 27kph or at the most 28kph, but it makes very little difference in the grand scheme of things whether you pedal or not, so you can be overtaken by even an unpowered Boris bike, let alone a road bike.

They have also increased the price of their 120 minute/5 day bundle to £9. I expect they will increase other prices in future too.

I would probably prefer an unpowered rental bike but dockless bikes are more convenient, so that is where I am for now.
by thelawnet
28 Oct 2023, 12:09pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: London ride share schemes
Replies: 2
Views: 4042

Re: London ride share schemes

Forest have put their one day bundle up from £3 to £4, with no change in the number of minutes.

This tends to make public transport more attractive for very irregular use, albeit that 13 minutes a day + £1 (for a single journey) is still well worth it.

They have also introduced a monthly scheme which is £60/month which seems very expensive, but is discounted to £45 until 1 December.

This gets you 50 extra minutes per day (so 60 rather than 10), with unlimited free hires. This is nominally 350 minutes a week. Considering the £12 bundle costs 250 minutes for 7 days, £60 seems too expensive.
by thelawnet
29 Sep 2023, 11:13am
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: ShImano recall
Replies: 67
Views: 9317

Re: 105 Hollowtech chainsets hollow ?

djnotts wrote: 24 Sep 2023, 10:52pm 2.8m recalls? This may take some time. And money.
they are not recalling them.
only paying bike shops a miserly fee to inspect those of customers who choose to bring them in, and if they are found to be failing then they will replace them.

only a tiny proportion of products will be replaced.
by thelawnet
27 Sep 2023, 1:07pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: London ride share schemes
Replies: 2
Views: 4042

London ride share schemes

I had a go on 'Forest', formerly Human Forest. https://www.humanforest.co.uk/

They are pretty good, with some exceptions.

They claim to be 10 minutes free daily, which isn't really the case, as there is a £1 'parking fee', charged each time you return a bike.

I took an ebike from the West End to Walworth, and one from the City to Tufnell Park.

The ebikes are everywhere in Central London and a bit beyond.

They provide this map:

Image

Essentially one is not allowed to end a ride outside in the red area, and it may also be subject to a 10kph speed restriction in red areas.

The entire borough of Camden there is a restriction on leaving bikes (imposed by the council), so you can only leave it in a designated parking bay, but Human Forest reduce their 'parking fee' to 50p in Camden, which compensates.

Otherwise if you leave a bike in a bike stand, which is probably designated by Forest as a parking location, then you get 2 free minutes (valid for 5 days), which is certainly not worth the effort of searching for one, although ok if there is one nearby.

The minutes otherwise cost 19p/each, but you probably should avoid paying this.

Otherwise there is:

* 1 minute x 3 for watching an advert, expires after 7 days
* 10 minutes free daily, expires at midnight each day
* various sign up bonuses, for new users, expires after 7 days (I got 20 minutes with code 'London')
* 26 minutes (for you and the referee) for referring a friend

You can buy a bundle:

* £3 for 30 minutes valid for 24 hours with unlimited hires = £3/day
* £5 for 60 minutes valid for 3 days with unlimited hires = £1.67/day
* £8 for 120 minutes valid for 5 days with unlimited hires = £1.60/day
* £12 for 250, or £20 for 480 minutes, valid for 7 days with unlimited hires = £1.71/day or £2.86/day

These are on top of the 10 daily free minutes, so e.g., 1 day = 40 minutes, 3 days = 90 minutes, 5 days = 170 minutes. For very occasional use, you can accrue the daily 3 minutes to 7 days, so for a single journey of 30 minutes you'd only pay £1, or for two 15-minute trips £2, but otherwise the bundle options are probably a good choice in that you can go from station to office to gym to restaurant to station without paying £1 each trip.

There are no monthly plans.

The bikes seem ok, I have seen people claim the seat post doesn't go up enough, but they are scarcely bikes - the motor kicks in with the slightest pressure on the pedals, so more like an emoped than anything else, so doesn't need to be that ergonomic.

It is essentially cheaper, faster and more convenient than using public transport, although that depends - for example, a train journey to a London terminus followed by bike is likely to be cheaper than combined travelcard, whereas for those commuting by underground journey that might not be the case.

The app needs some work in that there is no GPS functionality to help you find a bike or to reach your destination, and they haven't partnered with Google maps, which only give information on Tier, Dott, and Lime.

So:

* Forest £1 + 19p/minute (but 10-13 minutes free daily)
* Lime £1 + 27p/minute (no free daily minutes) or electric scooters £1+17p/minute (no free minutes)

Lime have the following pass options:

* £6 for 60 minutes for 3 days unlimited
* £11 for 120 minutes for 5 days
* £20 for 250 minutes for 7 days

AND

* £9 per month for 'LimePrime', which removes the £1 fee, but still leaves you paying 27p/minute, so is essentially useless.

It is more expensive than Forest, so i suppose the thing going for it is it seems to go a bit further west; on the negative side £11 for 120 minutes in 5 days is much worse than £8 for 170 minutes in 5 days.....

The classic 'Boris Bikes' aka Santander are left in the dust, as they require you to use docking stations, which can easily add 15 minutes to a journey. However, you can ride one for

* £1.65 for each 30 minutes one off on a non-ebike
* £3.30 for each 30 minutes one off on an ebike
* £20 per month or £120/year for unlimited 60-minute rides on non-ebikes, plus £1/hire if the bike is an e-bike

If you are happy with docking stations and no motor, the monthly/annual subscription works out much cheaper than the electric bike options.

Dott have ended their ebikes and are only offering escooters.

Tier charge:

* £1 + 23p/minute

OR

* £5/month for unlimited unlocks (£1 for first month)
* £6 for unlimited unlocks + 60 minutes for 24 hours
* £10 for 5 unlocks + 50 minutes for 7 days

They are also not allowed to be parked in Camden or the City of London, making them useless for many people, on top of being expensive.


I expect the above information to change in the future; it is accurate as of today, but probably things will be very different in 5 years. At present I would suggest that at around £30/month based on a 46-week working year, the Forest ebikes are a very good deal and make more sense for commuters than folding bikes or trying to leave a bike in crime-ridden London. If one commutes from home to work on ones own bike then using your own bike may come out ahead. Also they really aren't great for long journeys or high speeds - they will essentially do 15mph all day long without effort, and though I didn't really try, I perceive them as electric Boris bikes - clunkers with motors without any aerodynamics - so an exotic electrically aided road bike would be a lot faster, although expensive...
by thelawnet
24 Sep 2023, 6:27pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: ShImano recall
Replies: 67
Views: 9317

Re: 105 Hollowtech chainsets hollow ?

There is a video here



on the mechanism for failure in these crappy products.

(from a year ago).

the author has a new video



where he suggests that one accelerate the process of failure, since every last one of these products is garbage, but they will only replace those that have been exposed to conditions where they are sowing signs of failure, and hence ideally they would replace all of them, but because they are cheap barstewards, they are not doing so.

it is unfortunate that Shimano never bothered to explain that they had fixed the products several years ago, but still had lots of stock of the chocolate teapot versions, so there was no way to identify which products were (or should be) considered worthless, and which ones were perfectly fine.
by thelawnet
21 Sep 2023, 7:48pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: ShImano recall
Replies: 67
Views: 9317

Re: 105 Hollowtech chainsets hollow ?

thelawnet wrote: 5 May 2021, 5:10am The Ultegra & Dura-Ace are known to have a serious design fault which causes frequent fracture. The 105 is also hollow bonded but the bonding is in a different place and failures do not occur.

The non-series chainset FC-RS510 is solid.

So:

RS510 - solid, slightly heavier
105 - hollow/lighter, does not fall apart
Ultegra/Dura-Ace - also hollow slightly lighter still, tries to murder you.

It appears that Ultegra/D-A fail due to a combination of weather conditions/time, not any superhuman rider strength. Therefore they are probably quite ok for pro riders, but bad news for people who just want a bike to ride.


Shimano have finally accepted limited responsibility for these products causing serious injuries, but possibly only in the US and Canada.

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/shimano-crankset-recall/

The affected products:

Ultegra FC-6800 / R8000
Dura-Ace FC-R98000 / R9100/R9100P

Apparently they fixed the design flaw in July 2019, but still continued to sell the old stock until August 2023

The production codes for the crappy cranks are:

KF, KG, KH, KI, KJ, KK, KL, LA, LB, LC, LD, LE, LF, LG, LH, LI, LJ, LK, LL, MA, MB, MC, MD, ME, MF, MG, MH, MI, MJ, MK, ML, NA, NB, NC, ND, NE, NF, NG, NH, NI, NJ, NK, NL, OA, OB, OC, OD, OE, OF, OG, OH, OI, OJ, OK, OL, PA, PB, PC, PD, PE, PF, PG, PH, PI, PJ, PK, PL, QA, QB, QC, QD, QE, QF, QG, QH, QI, QJ, QK, QL, RA, RB, RC, RD, RE, and RF.

Shimano will only replace your crank if the glue is failing and apparently only in the US & Canada, so if the product still seems ok, then you can just wait and see if it kills you a few months down the road.
by thelawnet
23 Apr 2023, 8:30pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Electric groupsets
Replies: 7
Views: 692

Re: Electric groupsets

Not electric only; the 12-speed is electric only. the 11-speed still exists.
by thelawnet
19 Mar 2023, 3:38pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Microshift groupsets
Replies: 10
Views: 4665

Re: Microshift groupset range 2023

zenitb wrote: 18 Mar 2023, 11:07am Thorough and informative post as usual thelawnet - lots of good work in there - I am still trying to digest it all!! In my opinion this could go in the "Too Good to Lose" section as a reference article for Microshift groupsets in 2023. It would certainly help getting compatible spares for Microshift AND Shimano equipped bikes in the future...given Shimanos propensity to phase out stuff.

Many thanks for posting.

George

That was from 2019. Not too much has changed. But they have added children's groupsets.

These are:

* short-reach Advent 1x9 shifter
* short cage (for 20" wheels) 11-34 and 11-38 Advent 9-speed rear derailleur
* an entire children (focused) 'Acolyte' 1x8 groupset, either with the short cage (20") 12-38, or standard 12-42 and 12-46.

All derailleurs have option of clutch.

They also added 'Advent X', which is 1x10 with a 11-48t cassette, either in lightweight G104 (424g, £35 from Wiggle) or H104 (£25 from Wiggle).
by thelawnet
19 Mar 2023, 6:12am
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: New Shimano CUES groupset
Replies: 47
Views: 4326

Re: New Shimano CUES groupset

zenitb wrote: 18 Mar 2023, 11:17pm Very interesting ... somehow this fact escaped all the excited commentary from the cycling press...
I suppose the point is that this was launched as 'durable, but heavy, for ebikes' 2 years ago https://www.pinkbike.com/news/shimano-i ... train.html, and now they are saying 'durable for everyone', and downplaying the 'heavy' part.

IMO it's not such a big difference in that even if the cassette wears out less frequently, I'm not sure if you change your chain frequently that cassettes wear out particularly frequently in the first place, and the bike still needs maintenance of everything else at the same frequency.

They haven't given any weights for the cranksets, I assume they are the same as the old Deore/XT stuff in that respect.

Also this is a 'leisure' product, so they don't want to get rid of the existing mess/line-up that I can necessarily see, in that there will still be a need for a lower-end groupset than this, which starts at '4000' level. There have been any number of past 'leisure' groupsets, but what they are not doing is replacing their MTB or road line-up with this. It seems that this will eventually be an alternative for people who want to make hybrid drop bar bikes with mtb gearing or whatever.

This is basically a replacement for their 'T' components.

There you had 48-36-26 and 44-32-24 triples, no doubles. The triples were paired with 11-36t cassettes. This gives a ratio of 48/11 or 26/36. A range of 6.

I should draw attention to the Cues sprockets:

11-13-15-17-20-23 is fixed across ALL of the linkglide cassettes

The options are then:

* 23-26-30-36 (2x9)
* 23-26-30-36-43 (2x10)
* 23-26-30-36-43-50 (1x11)

* 23-26-30-34-39 (2x10)
* 23-26-30-34-39-45 (2x11)

* 23-28-34-41 (2x9)
* 23-28-34-41-48 (1x10)

* 23-28-36-46 (1x9)


The double cranksets are:

46/32, 40/26, 36/22 with a 14t gap, which work with any of the 2x setups above

OR

46/30, which is for the 11-36 2x9, the 11-39 2x10, or the 11-41 2x9.

The hollow-armed (lighter) U8000 crankset is only available in 46/32, or 42 or 40t 1x. (I guess because 26/45 and 22/45 they see as unnecessarily law)

It can be seen that this ends up with a range of around 5.8x, which is not too bad. (obviously singles are going to have bad ranges).

It can also be seen that the 46/30x11-41 2x9 gives one of the better gear ranges in the line-up. It's almost certainly lighter than the 11-45t 11-speed cassette. It seems Shimano were lazy in creating the 11-39t 10-speed cassette, and should add an 11-41 10-speed cassette at a later date.....

While the U8000/U8020 rear derailleurs all have clutches, for some reason the U6020 (2x RD) is missing it. This means, for example, that if you want the 11-39t 2x setup, then you won't get a clutched derailleur, you are forced to use the 11-45t 11-speed cassette and its matching derailleur if you want a clutch
by thelawnet
14 Mar 2023, 2:15pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: New Shimano CUES groupset
Replies: 47
Views: 4326

Re: New Shimano CUES groupset

The points I can see.

Firstly, this nothing new, just a lot of marketing codswallop as usual, a re-branding of 2021 linkglide e-bike components as well as other older components.

So:

* linkglide chain (there is only one) are rebranded 11-speed MTB chains, or you can just use any 11-speed road/MTB chain (which just vary according to their coatings). there are no new products or even rebranding here, and you don't need to buy a linkglide/cues chain.
* linkglide cassettes fit onto all but 12-speed MTB hubs (which are built for 10t small cogs), and they match with the linkglide shifters.

There are:

* LG700-11 or LG400/LG600-11 (same thing) in 11-45t or 11-50t options. The 700 is 609g in 50t, while the 600/400 is 780g in 50t.
* LG400-10 or LG300-10 in 11-39t, 11-43t, or 11-48t. They weigh the same only different coatings.
* LG400-9 or LG300-9 in 11-36t, 11-41t, or 11-46t. Again, different coatings only.

The 9-speed cassetes are all new.

The BL-U8000 is just a rebrand of the BL-T8000 (long lever). It's a hydraulic lever, and pretty pointless as a new product and most bikes will ship with a non-Cues brake set.

The shift levers:

* SL-U8000-11 (rebranded M8130, but now there is both -R and -L, whereas M8130 was R-only)
* SL-U6000-11 - cheaper version of U8000 without the instant release etc.
* SL-U6000-10 (rebranded M5130)
* SL-U4010-9 - this is Alivio level
* SL-U4000-9 - this is Acera level, lacking two-way release

The rear derailleurs, which work across speeds:

* U8000 (rebranded M8130) for 1x11-50t or U6000 - same thing but cheaper jockey wheels
* U8020 for 11-45t with a front derailleur, or U6020-11 with the cheaper jockey wheels
* U6020-10 for 11-39t, with a front derailleur
* U4000 for 1x11-46t or 1 x11-41t
* U4020 and U3020 for 11-36t with a front derailleur

The cranksets are:

* U8000-1 is 40t, 42t
* U6000-1/U4000-1 is 30t, 32t, 40t, 42t

Then:

* U8000-2, U6010-2 is 46/32
* U6000-2 is 46/30 or 36/22
* U4010-2 is 46/30, 40/26, or 36/22
* U4000-2 is 40/26 or 36/22

Previously you would use any 1x crankset; now there are doubles, and matching shifters. They claim no compatibility between the cranksets and existing stuff, but it seems you could just older cranksets and shifters if you wanted to.
by thelawnet
20 Oct 2022, 6:20am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Are we all Trussed up...
Replies: 1566
Views: 1780863

Re: Are we all Trussed up...

Here is Charles Walker, who seems a thoroughly principled man.

Here he was in 2020, objecting to the police throwing an old lady into a van for protesting against lockdown



And here on Tuesday objecting to the newest anti-protest laws.



Finally here yesterday noting that the government is a disgrace and a shambles, and those who supported Truss should be embarrassed.

by thelawnet
31 Aug 2022, 9:26pm
Forum: Racing, Olympics, TdF, Competitive cycling
Topic: British Cycling Balls Up its Transgender Policy
Replies: 61
Views: 15283

Re: British Cycling Balls Up its Transgender Policy

Jdsk wrote: 20 Jul 2022, 9:00am I think that you're probably right for events where muscle power is crucial.

There is Chris Mosier:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Mosier

Lots of awards for being LGBT, nowhere near close to winning any male races.
by thelawnet
30 Jun 2022, 1:34pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Shimano 105 R7100 groupset, 12-speed, Di2 and disc only
Replies: 18
Views: 1203

Re: Shimano 105 R7100 groupset, 12-speed, Di2 and disc only

Jupestar wrote: 30 Jun 2022, 12:51pm Like clockwork!

The next iteration of Shimano mech groupsets will surely be 12s. so i'm sure to maximise income the strategy is to bring your top of the range max upgrade 12s first. Dura Ace Di2, came first, then Ultegra Di2, now 105 Di2.

I'd expect to see 12s mech groupsets for Dura Ace, then Ultegra and then 105 in the next few years...

Then we start it all over again with the next big upgrade 13s Dura Ace Di2. or maybe a curveball and its back to 3x8 ..

When Apple upgrade Iphone from X to X+1. they make it max impact. then spend the next 1/2 years bring out X + 0.25 and X + 0.75.. for those they couldn't tempt with X+1. Until the next big reveal.... X+2!
I don't think so. They sell 12s hydraulic electric, and then everything below that is just recycled 11 speed stuff. Tiagra is currently 10 speed, and runs on the same ratios as 11 speed, so they will just bring Tiagra to 11 speed mechanical, Sora to 10 speed and Claris to 9 speed.

There is no need for 12 speed mechanical, since 12 speed has no real advantage in the first place - the goal is to add £1000 or more on the price of these bikes by making 105 electric + hydraulic. Next step is to make the electric gubbins obsolete in a few years, it's a win win for them. The market for people who MUST have 12 speeds rather than 11 but don't want all the latest tech isnt really there, and they figure post-covid that they can charge far more for bikes.
by thelawnet
21 Jun 2022, 5:36pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Which group set?
Replies: 18
Views: 910

Re: Which group set?

I'm honestly doubtful about big differences between road groupsets.

Nowadays:

1) you'll pay a huge premium for hydraulic disc brakes, so if you skip that, especially second hand you'll save a lot
2) Shimano push 105 hard because they make lots of profit on it, but it's obviously rubbish to claim it's so hugely different from Tiagra.
3) they want to sell the electronic gubbins because that's the next step in making disposable bikes with huge price tags, again this will tend to make stuff without this cheaper
4) there's a lot of nonsense about groupsets which I think is rubbish in that they will say that 'the minimum level is Durex' or whatever, but a groupset is fundamentally just a marketing concept, and whether you have Durex or Trojan or whatever is not constant over time - at one point for example Sora or below had a different brifters style, you wouldn't have wanted that, probably, but now that's not the case. For the brakes you have hydro vs not, and then there could be break points (tee hee) on things like double pivot brakes and then a particular groupset level has slightly better ones, or you get carbon fibre rather than fibre glass rather than aluminium rather than steel.
5) most of it is maintenance; when I got my 105 (old 10 speed) bike from Decathlon, it was unridable. I sent it back and it was still rubbish tbh. Since I learned how to set it up myself it's now great, there was never anything wrong with it. I don't get on that well with the position of the brake levers (which aren't infinitely adjustable for reach), but if I wanted to sell it and replace it with a new bike with 12 speeds and hydro discs, then I'd be spending a lot of money for quite minor improvements
6) there's often other things besides groupset, like more expensive bikes will yes have a better groupset but also lighter, non-groupset wheels typically, and say more carbon fibre, etc. So you are not necessarily just choosing a groupset, especially at that price range, but between a lower and higher spec of bike.
by thelawnet
20 Jun 2022, 5:18am
Forum: Racing, Olympics, TdF, Competitive cycling
Topic: British Cycling Balls Up its Transgender Policy
Replies: 61
Views: 15283

Re: British Cycling Balls Up its Transgender Policy

Jdsk wrote: 19 Jun 2022, 9:09pm
Jdsk wrote: 17 Jun 2022, 12:53pmI do have a personal view on how the decisions should be made: due process by the governing bodies, review of the science as it emerges, encouragement of submissions from the many actors, acceptance that change will happen, and everything done out in the open.
New eligibility criteria for competitive swimming:
https://resources.fina.org/fina/documen ... FINAL-.pdf

Jonathan
Indeed. By decisive international vote banning all of the male-to-female athletes we see today from sport (they can still compete if they transitioned before puberty, but it seems to me that these untested drugs are likely to wreck any chance of that).