Search found 1564 matches

by nirakaro
24 Mar 2024, 9:39pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Cycling the Adriatic Coast of italy
Replies: 3
Views: 258

Re: Cycling the Adriatic Coast of italy

I rode across from France to Ferrara eighteen months ago, and don’t recall any issues with road quality (on 38mm tyres IIRC).
Don’t miss Ferrara – small but delightful world heritage city centre, not too touristy, more good restaurants than you could shake a stick at, and the most bicycle-y place I’ve ever seen.
by nirakaro
20 Mar 2024, 12:30pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Eurostar and SNCF - packing bikes
Replies: 24
Views: 1474

Re: Eurostar and SNCF - packing bikes

MrsHJ wrote: 20 Mar 2024, 11:31am Measurements are here- non rigid (so not a box) and 135x85x30.
"Travelling between Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany
You can take your bike on board our European routes. It must be disassembled, including wheels, and stored in a non-rigid cover no larger than 135x85x30 cm."

Those dimensions seem to refer to routes on the continent.

"Bikes between London and Paris
Your bike will need to be disassembled and stored in a bike box/bag."

Eurostar's help page doesn't specify dimensions for London-Paris, but I believe they are much more restricitve.
by nirakaro
19 Mar 2024, 8:31am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Would it be unreasonable … ?
Replies: 42
Views: 1692

Re: Would it be unreasonable … ?

simonhill wrote: 19 Mar 2024, 12:33am You could look away, ride off path, fall in canal and when he hopefully helps you out you explain that you fell in because his lights dazzled you.
Of course! Why didn't I think of that? In future, that's what I'll do every time the situation arises. :shock:
by nirakaro
18 Mar 2024, 5:52pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Something to bear in mind when choosing a ferry company...
Replies: 1
Views: 303

Something to bear in mind when choosing a ferry company...

"P&O Ferries has paid some crew less than half UK minimum wage
Company is using legal loophole UK government promised to close two years ago, Guardian analysis suggests"
by nirakaro
18 Mar 2024, 4:29pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Would it be unreasonable … ?
Replies: 42
Views: 1692

Would it be unreasonable … ?

I went for a nice ride along the towpath today, sunny afternoon, lovely quiet space, everything just starting to burst into leaf. The only (small) fly in the ointment was the occasional cyclist coming towards me with a dazzling flashing front light. There’s always one or two. I mean. Part of the reason for going to such places is to get away for a bit from that twenty-first-century sensory overload; so would I be out of order, or over the top, or unreasonable if I stopped them, pointed out the incongruity, and politely suggested that they turn it off?
by nirakaro
17 Mar 2024, 1:34pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Avenue Verte (French section)
Replies: 11
Views: 524

Re: Avenue Verte (French section)

I’ve ridden it a few times. Dieppe to Forge-les-Eaux is a very pleasant converted railway line; after that, as I recall, it’s quiet French back roads and then suburban Paris.

“a lot of the info was about doing it on a Brompton and the UK section.” – that’s true at the start of those search results, but have a look at e.g. page 15.
by nirakaro
15 Mar 2024, 5:12pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: crazyguyonabike site
Replies: 19
Views: 1648

Re: crazyguyonabike site

The things you learn on this forum! I thought meiosis was a purely biological process, but apparently it’s also a synonym for litotes. And of course everyone knows what that is.
by nirakaro
14 Mar 2024, 2:49pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Tour Plans for 2024
Replies: 78
Views: 9610

Re: Tour Plans for 2024

Not sure if I’m still up for long-distance solo touring. I can still manage back-to-back forty mile days (at least, I could last year!) but it’s that sense of “out on my own, thousand miles from home, don’t know where I’ll be sleeping tonight…” that I’ve loved ever since my teens, which at seventy-six starts to feel a bit too edgy. So I’ve got a five- or six-day London-to-Leeds ride set up for next month, I’ll see how it goes. And an autumn plan for France-to-Italy, with herself along to keep an eye on me.
by nirakaro
19 Feb 2024, 4:54pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Importing a new or 2nd hand bike into the UK from the EU.
Replies: 50
Views: 4143

Re: Importing a new or 2nd hand bike into the UK from the EU.

From the OP -
Scu11y wrote: 16 Feb 2024, 8:40am... would I be able to get it back to the UK without being hit with all the import tax and vat.
Obviously I don't want to break any laws ...
What's dodgy about seeking, or offering, advice on that basis?
by nirakaro
14 Feb 2024, 1:42pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Cheap oil.
Replies: 82
Views: 4789

Re: Cheap oil.

853 wrote: 14 Feb 2024, 1:08pm
Pebble wrote: 14 Feb 2024, 12:50pm would a premium oil really help, I guess it probably could when the chains were new (first 500 mile) must experiment on next batch, but that will be well over a year away
The best way would be to use a premium oil on one half of the chain, and something cheap on the other half. You'd have to find some way of identifying which half of the chain received which oil, but it would be an informative experiment if you could do it
I’d imagine that with each turn of the pedals, a small proportion of the oil on the chain would be deposited on the teeth of the various cogs, to then be picked up by another part of the chain, reducing the value of the experiment. You could perhaps control for this by adding different coloured dyes to the two oils, and checking with a microscope. Or maybe using a radioactive marker?
However there may be better ways of spending your time.
by nirakaro
12 Feb 2024, 9:58am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: The staff of life - best served packaged?
Replies: 50
Views: 3373

Re: The staff of life - best served packaged?

briansnail wrote: 11 Feb 2024, 2:12pm No drugs is the WRONG answer.
At the risk of being sent to stand in the pedants’ (or pedant’s?) corner, a comma would have helped make the meaning clear. At first reading, I genuinely took that to mean that ‘some drugs’ would be the RIGHT answer. :D :D
by nirakaro
5 Feb 2024, 3:36pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: On pedantry?
Replies: 81
Views: 4558

Re: On pedantry?

Yes, I think you're right. Oh my effin Gee though, shouldn't we have something better to do with our time?
by nirakaro
5 Feb 2024, 11:31am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: On pedantry?
Replies: 81
Views: 4558

Re: On pedantry?

GideonReade wrote: 5 Feb 2024, 10:15am a peevee (if that's the, or indeed, a, word?).
Definitely not. That -ee ending (which I suspect derives from the French past participle) denotes the recipient of the action (e.g. a payee is the person who gets paid, not the one who does the paying). So a peevee would perhaps be the person the peever is peeved at.
by nirakaro
28 Jan 2024, 11:46am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Cheap oil.
Replies: 82
Views: 4789

Re: Cheap oil.

On tour last year, I realised I was carrying three bottles of different oils - chain lube, olive oil for picnic salads, and King-o-Shaves for shaving. Time on my hands in the tent at night, I started wondering if I could save weight by finding a single oil that would do all three jobs tolerably well. Any suggestions?
by nirakaro
26 Jan 2024, 5:48pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Keeping the chain on the chainring
Replies: 7
Views: 529

Keeping the chain on the chainring

I converted my partner’s bike from 3x9 to 1x10 (she couldn’t get on with the front shifter). I didn’t change the chainset, but just removed the inner and outer chainrings. It works nicely, except that the chain comes off the chainring occasionally (I think ‘unshipping’ is the term, though I can’t see what it’s go to do with ships) - not very often, but too often, and I haven’t been able to reproduce the problem to see why.
I thought of using the little ‘dogfang’ device that fits to the downtube to prevent this, but being sized to reach an inner ring, it’s not big enough to reach. So I’m thinking to cobble together a similar homemade thing. Or I could fit a front mech, locked into its middle-ring position somehow. Or…
Any other suggestions?