Cycling UK Forum

531colin wrote: ↑13 Apr 2024, 8:57pm

Labe wrote: ↑13 Apr 2024, 7:11pm …………
Yeh the stiff neck thing was me thinking back to when I road a classic roadie back in the late 80’s early 90’s with long stems that actually dropped the bars to almost inline with the top tube (at least mine did) , it seems on these gravel bikes they use a shorter reach stem which actually raises the bars as well.
So all should good ( fingers crossed)

……If that’s the last time you rode drops just get something secondhand to play about with riding position, now isn’t the time to worry about the details of flared drops gearing minutiae and all the other candy floss.

This sounds sensible. New bikes will still be there in six months' time when you know better what you'll be happy on.

Slowroad wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 8:32pm Stoats are good - but smaller than they used to be

Still bigger than weasels though.

Carlton green wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 1:59pm

Bmblbzzz wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 1:02pm

Carlton green wrote: ↑13 Apr 2024, 1:11pm Lion Bell, h’mm. They might be good BUT at circa £25 each they certainly aren’t cheap , when I saw the price I nearly fainted .

I quite like these mini flick or ping bells for circa £5 : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320713627171 ... C4W816KCN4
Mine have lasted and served me well.

It's a long time since I last saw a bike with "suicide levers"! Do you use them?

Yes, all the time and I was out in the bike this morning; those levers might not be ideal but think ahead and they’re fine, etc. The bike was supplied with them as new, it was sold to my Mrs approaching forty years ago and I must have been using it for twenty years. When I had back trouble the Mixte frame allowed me to keep cycling and cycling helped my back (all well now), I liked the ease of use so much that I kept with it - great for utility and local use.

Thanks. I also had a bike new with that type of lever approaching forty years ago (it would be 39 years this summer, if I still had it) but found the braking so bad that I removed them after a couple of years. Mind you, that brake also had chromed steel rims.

Shimano tried to introduce a 10mm pitch chain sometime in the past (early '80s?) but it too was Betamax.

MKS, with big metal toe clips but no straps.

531colin wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 9:03am

Carlton green wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 8:54am

531colin wrote: ↑14 Apr 2024, 8:12am …..
I think is what we established, pages ago

Without wishing to be controversial the many pages of this thread are a mix of personal experiences with a few bits of physics thrown in here and there. Though I respect the experiences of others I’d really like to see a decent scientific analysis that’s then proven by test results. Short of that I’ll be taking things steady and looking for feedback from whatever brakes I’m using at the time.

Without wishing to be controversial, do you have any experience of disc brakes on bikes? Having used both,
I’m of the opinion that tandem drag brakes and bike disc brakes need a different method of use.

I have disc brakes but have never ridden a tandem, so could be making incorrect assumptions here... but aren't these brakes for different purposes? The clue being the name, drag brake. Designed as a drag, to control the tandem's speed going downhill, rather than to stop it outright. HGVs have something similar, usually either hydraulic or involving electric eddy currents.

Carlton green wrote: ↑13 Apr 2024, 1:11pm Lion Bell, h’mm. They might be good BUT at circa £25 each they certainly aren’t cheap , when I saw the price I nearly fainted .

I quite like these mini flick or ping bells for circa £5 : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320713627171 ... C4W816KCN4
Mine have lasted and served me well.

It's a long time since I last saw a bike with "suicide levers"! Do you use them?

There are people especially younger ones who are wearing earphones constantly ( they miss so much about their journey IMO )

I agree, where they're actually listening to music or whatever through the phones. But many of them, in an urban context at least, are using the earphones as either a "don't disturb me" sign, plausible deniability for not responding to verbal abuse, or to mitigate some sort of noise intolerance that may be related to autism or similar.

Bmblbzzz wrote: ↑5 Apr 2024, 6:19pm I was going to ask a similar question: how do I know which maps I've downloaded? I wasn't sure the green shading indicated squares already downloaded, but again, I know I've downloaded more than it shades. Android, in my case.

It seems fine now. I think, ahem, I simply hadn't actually downloaded a couple of squares I thought I had.

I wonder if the market for a frame like this with rim brakes isn't in part down to the fact that a) it's steel, b) it's a classic name. The first factor at least means it's already aimed some way behind the hyper edge. Though true old skoolers should note it does come with a carbon fork and the headset is threadless.

I think it looks gorgeous but no way can I justify another bike, especially not at £1400 frame alone. Looking forward to possibly seeing some photos of built-up bikes in this thread in the future though!

Man-hours or person-kiloseconds.

Psamathe wrote: ↑11 Apr 2024, 1:19pm

Bmblbzzz wrote: ↑11 Apr 2024, 12:55pm

Psamathe wrote: ↑9 Apr 2024, 8:02pm
For a given hill the energy needing to dissipated will depend on the mass (rider, cycle, etc.), the potential energy. So my <60 Kg on an unladen carbon bike with BB7s will have a lot less energy to dissipate than a >100 Kg rider fully laden with camping gear, 2 days water riding a more than solid steel bike with BB7s.

Very different amounts of energy being dissipated through the same braking systems.

So I'd expect any steady state speeds to vary significantly.

Ian

Surely it will also vary with rotor size and material, caliper and pad design, ambient temperature, wind direction and speed... even direction of sun relative to rotors... Far too many factors to give one speed.

My understanding of physics (claiming no expertise) is that the amount of energy to be dissipated is just total mass and height (assuming gravity is constant). Things like rotor size, material, etc., wind, speed, etc. will affect how that energy is dissipated. eg 100 Kg dropping 1m altitude will lose 981 joules potential energy. Assuming start and end speeds the same, that means there is 981 joules will turn into heat irrespective of what sort of braking system you have.

Ian

Obviously rotor size etc doesn't alter the amount of energy to be dissipated. It alters the rate of conversion of that energy into heat and the rate of dissipation of that heat to the atmosphere.

Possibly. I don't recall the angle of my upper arms, but neither do I recall any tension or discomfort. It was all bar-knee stuff!

Psamathe wrote: ↑9 Apr 2024, 8:02pm

pwa wrote: ↑9 Apr 2024, 7:44pm I have heard the suggestion that if one goes very slowly indeed, braking all the time, overheating does not happen. But if I remember correctly, the speed at which that holds true is around 4mph. At that speed heating and cooling are balanced. ...

For a given hill the energy needing to dissipated will depend on the mass (rider, cycle, etc.), the potential energy. So my <60 Kg on an unladen carbon bike with BB7s will have a lot less energy to dissipate than a >100 Kg rider fully laden with camping gear, 2 days water riding a more than solid steel bike with BB7s.

Very different amounts of energy being dissipated through the same braking systems.

So I'd expect any steady state speeds to vary significantly.

Ian

Surely it will also vary with rotor size and material, caliper and pad design, ambient temperature, wind direction and speed... even direction of sun relative to rotors... Far too many factors to give one speed.

cycle tramp wrote: ↑9 Apr 2024, 8:59pm

Bmblbzzz wrote: ↑9 Apr 2024, 10:01am It depends on the bike though. Decades later (about ten years ago) I bought some modern North Road bars and fitted them to a hybrid I had at the time; the result was weird, both in position – my hands were too close to my body, the bars would sometimes hit my legs on tight turns – and in handling. So after a while I put the straight bars back on, even though they were not comfortable.

Ah... did you try raising the handlebars? I've found north road bars to be at their most comfortable a few inches above the saddle

Tried them at various angles. Probably tried raising them, can't remember now. What they really needed was a longer stem to compensate for the difference in reach to the bars between straight bars and NRs, but that would have been too complicated with a quill stem. So I put the straights back on and gave the bike to a relative!