Cycling UK Forum

Brompton the company are pretty hard-line on price maintenance, which is one of the reasons they're so strict about only supplying authorised retailers. IIRC they only allow discounts on previous season's or discontinued bikes (accessories they're slightly less strict about), so waiting until the au...

AFAIK you can just use any other SA shifter for the rear hub; the old-skool trigger ones are nigh-indestructible, aren't they? And cheap.

Whilst I really like the ergonomics of the shifters, they do appear to have internals made of finest cheese. The no return seems to be a known issue; my dealer replaced my RH shifter no questions asked.

My OH's been offered a bike with a Nexus SG-C6001-8 disc braked hub for a good price - apparently it's spent most of its life in a garage, but I doubt it's had much maintenance. My OH wants to use it as an all-weather commuter, so I suspect better lubrication is a good idea. If I've understood Bruce...

I was told the thing about most people wanting the stiff block by a Brompton dealer mechanic. I think I misunderstood what you meant by what had changed; the bike's basic suspension design is the same, but Brompton claim the new block has different materials and so is suitable for a wider range of u...

AIUI they've not changed the basic suspension design; it's just that people overwhelmingly wanted stiffer blocks, and only very rarely wanted something softer. So now there's only one block offered, which is similar to the old 'stiff' one; if you want anything else you have to find NOS or go afterma...

It's worth noting that Brompton have continually tweaked the bikes, so modern ones have more or less significant improvements over older models. For instance, all bikes now come with a stiff suspension block; the newer brakes and all-metal brake levers are more effective; modern M-bars are shallower...

Sadly over the years they've been cheapened - the old riveted-on strap loop is now a stamped slot which is very difficult to use and I suspect the quality of the aluminium is lower as they seem a little thinner and softer - a real shame. I don't know about softer, but aren't the more modern 'Ultral...

the Bernoulli principal: half the people argue it keeps planes in the air, the (other) half disagree. Really? What is the counter argument? Air flows over the top of the wing travels faster that below the wing, the pressure difference produces lift. If the upward lift force is greater than the down...

(Drifting OT...) There's a common incorrect explanation for wing lift that relies on shape of a typical aerofoil. According to this, you imagine two air molecules at the leading edge; if one goes over the top of the aerofoil and one under the bottom and they meet at the trailing edge, then the one t...

I notice that Rivendell are also selling Tange cup-and-cone BBs; from a Grant P blog post I understand he convinced them to do a run with spindle lengths suitable for road doubles and triples (apparently most quality cup-and-cone BBs made these days are for track - Keirin? - use). They are things of...

Yeah, the rationale is that at night people will use the light as their reference point for your position; if the light were all the way over to the left then there could misjudge how much space they had to give you. I think there are similar rules for how far from the body edge car headlights can be?

I suppose about half of my bikes are step-throughs (does a Brompton count I wonder?); for town/utility biking they're far more practical, especially when wearing civvies. OTOH as a tall and fairly powerful rider I prefer the reduced flex of a diamond frame for spirited riding or touring.

Interesting; did police have to buy their own cycles, or was this just advertising pointing out that you too could own one of these Leviathans?

Gallileo explained all this 400+ years ago. Ignoring air resistance both bikes will descend at the same rate. Well yes, but the OP said nothing about ignoring wind resistance; in the real world it's likely to be the biggest factor in downhill performance. Ignoring rolling resistance, the bikes will...