Cycling UK Forum

I think that what's happened isn't so much that the mean body mass of the tyre is out of gauge , but that it has fiddly protuberances in the tread which thrust out sideways intermittently. This creates more of a buzz type friction than a constant grinding wear; overcoming which requires little in th...

Specifically; tyres that are a tad too wide for the frame. I needed to replace the 28mm back tyre on my trusty-but-aged Raleigh Rando which serves as my commuter/winter bike. Having no proper specalist bicycle shop in town I went into Wilkinson's, but could find only 35mm tyres in 700 size. I duly p...

Trouble with these studies is that they aways identify the problem several decades too late. Vehicles had been using asbestos in their brake blocks for a long time until banned relatively recently. Anyway - I suspect that just being stuck behind a bus/ lorry/ diesel car is going to inflict damage ev...

For me The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of bike commuting is epitomised by the situation where three cyclists converge at a roundabout simultaneously, stop and engage in a Mexican standoff to see who makes the first move. You know how it is... shooting nervous glances at one another, beads of sweat fo...

Well done - a very enjoyable route and a major milestone on your cycling roadmap. Here's to your next century.

I've been very fortunate too not to have suffered too much abuse. Maybe the odd harangue about my flashing front light (seems to be a bone of contention generally for motorists), but nothing else that springs to mind. In the distant past though I have suffered the ignominy of a cabbage aimed at my h...

Live in Motherwell myself and have done the Ayr run several times in the past, going via Strathaven and thence over the moors to Muirkirk, Lugar and Cumnock,etc. Last time I returned via Douglas and Lanark which - I think - was comfortably over the 100 mile mark. It's a great run on a good day but '...

The rest of the poem gets published when either (a) the bridge collapses, or (b) The Royal Society for Cycling Poets presents me with my Genesis Equilibrium 931.

Oh mighty and imposing Forth Road Brig
Opened in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and sixty four
Alas a crack in your steelwork both wide and big
Could send cyclists, cars and lorries and more
tumbling into the silv'ry Forth
with a mighty roar.


(William Topaz McBicycle)

Hah foolish two-wheeled imperialists! The Peoples Republic of NorthLan will not pander to your capitalistic mode of transport. Vis a vis the bulldozing of Motherwell town centre in the mid 70s to bring you the glorious one-way (at that time), never-quite-finished ring road and the associated underp...

The power of CTC! After my comment about the lack of road markings a few days ago, they have suddenly appeared on the roundabout. All hail CTC!

It is also devoid of road markings for some reason. And there is considerable shrubbery growing up in the inner perimeters which prohibits any half-decent sight lines. Safety-wise it doesn't have much going for it. I'm going to nominate it as one of Scotland's most bicycle hostile entities.

This is my area too and I haven't heard anything about it either so hopefully not as bad as it might seem. Talking of the nearby A725 roundabout this really is Russian Roulette on a bike. I cross it in the mornings just before 7am and in the afternoon just before 4pm. Cars, HGVs, busses and vans ten...

When I were a lad, cycling 30 miles up the A939 Cockbridge to Tomintoul Road to the village school at 6 o'clock in a 1960s January blizzard we didn't even know about gloves. All we had to keep us warm was our grey serge school shorts, string vest (if we were lucky) and a cap; plus the hope that ther...

I dunno… I dunno. Something about those pics just makes me think of Sprouts Mexicane.