Search found 322 matches

by swansonj
20 Oct 2020, 12:30pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Most Central Point
Replies: 18
Views: 1075

Re: Most Central Point

Paulatic wrote:The Cranes decided where the Centre of the Earth was and cycled there.
I wonder where they would have ended up if they had had Google?
Google says the centre of Cornwall is Lanivet https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornw ... re-4614038

I seem to recall the Cranes knew fine well that alternative definitions are possible, and hedged their bets as to which one they were going to choose until they got close enough to discover which ones were accessible and which not....
by swansonj
23 Feb 2019, 8:05am
Forum: Helmets & helmet discussion
Topic: New study finds there "was no difference in mortality between helmeted and non-helmeted"
Replies: 23
Views: 2627

Re: New study finds there "was no difference in mortality between helmeted and non-helmeted"

This study was published in a journal published by Chembio Publishers. Chembio are listed on Beall’s list of Predatory Journals. Translation for those not au fait with the latest trends in scientific publishing: this should not be regarded as a proper peer reviewed scientific publication.
by swansonj
28 Jan 2013, 2:56pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: GPS Need Not Apply.............Oh Alright
Replies: 99
Views: 5887

Re: GPS Need Not Apply.............Oh Alright

CJ wrote:What do we need to know the mileage for after all? I often get back from a tour with no clear idea of how far I've been - until one of the racing types that Kevin Mayne stuffed the CTC office with wants to know! I try to explain to these guys that touring is about the memories, the smiles and not the miles, but I don't think they really get it. So I cast my mind back to the numbers my GPS displayed towards the end of an average day and invent a plausible total. I can't imagine why any tourist would need to know the length of a day any better than to the nearest five miles/km and a fortnight's tour to the nearest hundred.

I take it you're not obsessed with your Eddington Number then, Chris!
by swansonj
21 Sep 2012, 9:32am
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Cantilever to Mini-Vee
Replies: 33
Views: 7003

Re: Cantilever to Mini-Vee

CJ wrote:I'm recently returned from cycling over the Himalayas.

Completely off topic, but Chris, I'm going to guess the tandem with child on 25 Aug photo 26 wasn't part of your group? Superb photos as ever btw.
by swansonj
28 Jun 2012, 7:51am
Forum: Stolen, Lost, Found, etc.
Topic: Red Raleigh Randonneur - Stolen in Cambridge
Replies: 7
Views: 1821

Re: Red Raleigh Randonneur - Stolen in Cambridge

CJ wrote:
swansonj wrote:Excellent news.

I didn't want to post this before in case it seemed insensitive. But, horrible though this incident was, what an interesting insight it gave the rest of us into how the Juden family personalise their bikes. What's with the rear-wheel dynamo, for instance?

Thanks.

Rear wheel spoke-drive dynamo? Well they're not very efficient, perhaps even worse than a bottle, overheat and fail if you ride too far too fast, but they're cheap, don't slip in the wet and can be guaranteed to work when you need them.

It's nevertheless a poor system for commuting, when lights are sure to be needed every day for half of the year. And it's rubbish for Audax - too far and too fast in the dark. But for normal touring, where one aims to ride only in the light but will sometimes miss, it's just the ticket for those few miles in the dark at the end of a long day or from B&B to pub of an evening.

With this system there is no drag when the lights are off - which is almost all of the time - and no more weight than a pair of battery lights. Unlike a pair of battery lights, that travel hundreds of miles unused in the bottom of a touring bag, they don't get their lenses all scratched up and won't have flat batteries by the time they're wanted!


Thanks for the informative reply to what could have been seen as an intrusive question, Chris. The other message I take away is that at least one member of the Juden clan cycles at least sometimes with (a) a helmet and (b) toe clips and straps!
by swansonj
26 Jun 2012, 1:57pm
Forum: Stolen, Lost, Found, etc.
Topic: Red Raleigh Randonneur - Stolen in Cambridge
Replies: 7
Views: 1821

Re: Red Raleigh Randonneur - Stolen in Cambridge

Excellent news.

I didn't want to post this before in case it seemed insensitive. But, horrible though this incident was, what an interesting insight it gave the rest of us into how the Juden family personalise their bikes. What's with the rear-wheel dynamo, for instance?
by swansonj
13 Jun 2012, 12:37pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Getting to Box Hill on 28 July
Replies: 15
Views: 5477

Re: Getting to Box Hill on 28 July

We live on the route in Leatherhead. The road is closed from 6 am onwards. I can't remember which bit of literature it is, but one bit definitely said that when the road is closed you are not allowed to cycle on it either. I believe that there are crossing points that stay open to traffic including cyclists until nearer the race time (after the trial event last summer, one of the complaints was that they closed these crossing points unnecessarilly early, and they said they would learn from that and keep them open later).
by swansonj
28 May 2012, 10:00am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: carrying a huge smartphone!
Replies: 56
Views: 6857

Re: carrying a huge smartphone!

Ayesha wrote:I crashed once and was taken to Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital Spinal Injuries Dept.
I had my phone with me. It was a lonely lane early on Sunday morning. It took quite a while to describe exactly where I was because I was looking up at overhanging branches and couldn't see a roadsign. All I knew was the last junction and which direction I was riding.
The Fast Responder Paramedic was a local, so sussed where I was.

Without a phone, I might not be riding a bike these days. Still belly-up in a ditch.... :D Or eaten by crows...

+1

I came off on black ice and broke my leg. The bike itself skidded a lot further than I did, so had my phone been on the bike rather than in my pocket I would have had a rather painful crawl/drag to reach it. I now try not to go anywhere without a phone within easy reach.

Landsurfer, following Ayesha's post, you do appear to be backing off your initial blanket dismissal of the need to carry a phone, which came over as rather cavalier and a bit critical, so thank you for that.
by swansonj
22 May 2012, 8:48pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: carrying a huge smartphone!
Replies: 56
Views: 6857

Re: carrying a huge smartphone!

In a single pannier?
by swansonj
22 May 2012, 8:46pm
Forum: Non-standard, Human Powered Vehicles
Topic: Mike Burrows on the CTC
Replies: 13
Views: 33179

Re: Mike Burrows on the CTC

PaulCumbria wrote:I've always felt you see more scenery when touring on a bike rather than in a car not particularly because you sit taller in the saddle, but because you tend to:
a) travel more slowly
b) travel on minor roads
c) travel all day

I tend to see more on a recumbent than on an upright because i'm not distracted by aching hands, wrists, arms, neck, back and bum, but there you go!


Fair enough - I'd agree with all of a)-c) but I'd add d) being more aware of your surroundings because you're less isolated from them and e) being higher off the ground. Personally, I feel a very slight sense of smug superiority about all the comments about staring at your tyre on an upright,not because I ride a recumbent, but because I ride an upright with a reasonably upright position.
by swansonj
22 May 2012, 8:22pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Riding non-stop
Replies: 37
Views: 3472

Re: Riding non-stop

Mick F wrote:swansonj
Sorry, perhaps I wasn't clear.
I mean that if I'd stopped, I'd have had the same "active" time and the same "active" average speed as if I did it non-stop.

ie 3hrs non-stop at 13.5mph - or - 4hrs with two half hour breaks but still do an "active" 13.5mph average.
Active average speed NOT average speed.


Yes, sorry, I didn't pick up the significance of "moving average" and "active cycle". I always start my cycle computer at the start of each day and stop it when finishing for the day (or start and finish of each leg of the commute), so I think in terms of the average speed averaged over all stops, lunchbreaks, traffic lights etc. I think that's more reflective of fitness level than recording a higher average over a series of short spurts with long breaks between to recuperate.
by swansonj
22 May 2012, 8:11pm
Forum: Non-standard, Human Powered Vehicles
Topic: Mike Burrows on the CTC
Replies: 13
Views: 33179

Re: Mike Burrows on the CTC

PaulCumbria wrote:On a recumbent my head is at the same level as the vast majority of road users, and you don't hear many motorists complaining that they can't see the scenery!


No, but you do hear quite a lot of cyclists saying that part of the attraction is seeing more of the scenery than in a car!
by swansonj
22 May 2012, 2:41pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Not the IAM cycling survey!
Replies: 21
Views: 11324

Re: Not the IAM cycling survey!

[XAP]Bob wrote:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=BzixmY0H1%2b5jbwLAJH4eGw%3d%3d


Thanks
by swansonj
22 May 2012, 2:37pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Riding non-stop
Replies: 37
Views: 3472

Re: Riding non-stop

As a general rule of physics: for a strictly linear system, it matters not: half an hour at 150 W followed by half an hour's break is the same as an hour at 75 W. But nothing in life is ever linear, and bicycles and bicyclists are certainly not. Wind resistance increases faster than linear, and assuming you achieve a higher speed in part by pushing harder rather than spinning quicker, I think that is non-linear too. In the presence of non-linearities, the lowest-energy solution is always the one with least variation.

So I suggest that for a given average speed over a given distance, the lowest energy consumtion will come from doing it as uniformly as possible. Doing part of it quicker then stopping will, I suggest, take more energy. (Whether "as uniformly as possible" means uniform speed or uniform power output, or put another way, what is the optimum balance between those two, will depend on how much of your energy is expended on the road and how much in wasted heat in your muscles.)

Of course, I've made the naive physicist's assumption that energy used = weight lost - any physiologists out there are welcome to explain why that may not be true...
by swansonj
22 May 2012, 1:57pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: Not the IAM cycling survey!
Replies: 21
Views: 11324

Re: Not the IAM cycling survey!

That link is barred on my current laptop - is there a direct link to the SurveyMonkey location?