Cycling UK Forum

Airsporter1st wrote: ↑16 Apr 2024, 10:59am In common use where I live and in the main, scooters (personal and hire), cycles, cars and pedestrians seem to co-exist reasonably safely and peacefully.

Where is this Utopia?!

Most 38s, all 39s, fine on standard Brommie arms. If need to go lower, change drive arm. The P6 has a 38 on OEM spider, the S6 running a (manual change!) 38/34 double on Spa arm.g[/attachment]

Weird, heavy rain to sunshine between 7.30 and 8.30. Strong wind a constant!

^ too old to test my nerve - "The insurance is only available to riders aged 21 and 70 years old." (I assume means from 21 to 70!)

^ I assume my licence covers it. Wonder what the insurance cost will be? But do I have the bottle.....

And HoC Library briefing paper:

"In 2023, the UK’s exports of goods and services totalled £865 billion and imports totalled £898 billion. The EU accounted for 41% of UK exports of goods and services and 52% of imports in 2023.

The UK generally imports more than it exports meaning that it runs a trade deficit. A deficit of £187 billion on trade in goods was offset by a surplus of £153 billion on trade in services in 2023. The overall trade deficit was £33 billion in 2023.

The UK had a trade deficit with the EU of £109 billion in 2023 and a trade surplus of £75 billion with non-EU countries.

The trade deficit with all countries decreased to £5.1 billion in the three months to February 2024 compared with the previous three months. Exports increased by 0.1% and imports decreased by 1.3% in cash terms over this period."

Exports of course, literally, only half the picture! Also distinction between goods and services tell a different story.

"The total trade in goods and services deficit widened by £6.2 billion to £14.9 billion in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2023, because of a large fall in exports of services.

The trade in goods deficit widened by £1.4 billion to £49.9 billion in Quarter 4 2023, while the trade in services surplus is estimated to have narrowed by £4.8 billion to £34.9 billion.

Total imports of goods and services fell slightly in 2023, while annual total exports rose by £36.8 billion (4.6%), which saw the total annual trade balance narrow by £36.7 billion to a deficit of £53.0 billion."

I've never tried to understand the differences between the old and new State Pension schemes, but it seems I'm not going to enjoy an additional cup of coffee per week. Presumably a deliberate, if marginal, cost saving measure at the expense of "older" old people.

"On its front page the Daily Express decries what it calls a "triple lock pension injustice for millions". Writing in the paper, former minister Baroness Altman explains that fewer than one third of pensioners have received the full 8.5% increase in their retirement income this week. She says that is because men aged 73 and over, and women older than 71 are on the old basic state pension and have received a smaller rise, leaving them £200 a year worse off." [BBC News]

rualexander wrote: ↑11 Apr 2024, 7:40pm

horizon wrote: ↑4 Nov 2022, 5:05pm You should be able to wear the same waist size as you did at the age of 14 (I think it's 14).

Why?
At age 14 your skeleton is not fully grown.

Surely when one stops growing varies between 14 and 18?

I was same waist (30") from mid-teens until 72, when, as expected, hormone treatment following prostate cancer radiotherapy increased it to 31"!

@reohn2: "IMHO from what I saw of Thatcher I think she lnew full well what she was doing,trckledown my a**e!"

Agreed. And if she didn't her guru Keith Joseph certainly did. He was SoS Trade & Industry and his stated objective was to abolish the Department - boosted all our morale, not.
I had it on very good authority that when he signed off Industry Act Section 8 approvals for inward investment support he put his head in his hands and moaned ".... why did I let you convince me to retain this legislation...."
All concept of industrial policy was abandoned.

@Nearholmer: "IMO, one of the things that makes this country feel so unpleasant at the moment is that people feel everything to be precarious, insecure, about to spin-off in a direction that makes their life worse, and that cuts differently for different people."

Much truth in that I think. Plus those who, like me, who fear not for themselves - I'm too old and poorly to worry about my "future" - but for their children and grandchildren. The rise of the hard right adds to the insecurity for many.

Speeds increase and so too does street furniture, often unprotected. In the powered 2 wheel world the TT is the nearest equivalent to cycle road racing - that had to be removed from mainstream racing series back in 1977. Shielding the worst hazards on a 36 mile course is difficult enough, on a 1 or 3 week tour simply impossible.

Increasing injuries and fatalities seem inevitable. How long pure open-road racing can continue is surely questionable. Two or 3 fatalities in one race would I think cause massive budget Teams to reconsider their business model.

I don't see that the IoM model, privateers, amateurs, semi-pros, can be adapted to the costs, distances and logistics of say the 3 3-week tours.

Perhaps slow/reverse racing bike tech? Raise min weights? Ban discs? Ban electronic shifting? Reduce entrant numbers? Different racing licence categories?

Not same "answer" re each bike, altho all higher than in the past. Average would be "level".

Carrs leather oil?

Population size starting to bite as Ukraine lowers conscription age. Time is definitely on Russia's side, with nearly 50m persons of military age, compared with Ukraine's 16m.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has said more than 600,000 of his troops are fighting in Ukraine, but has not revealed how many have lost their lives there.

A classified US intelligence report released in December estimated that 315,000 Russian soldiers had been either killed or wounded since the war began - which it said was almost 90% of Russia's military personnel at the start of the invasion.

In February, Mr Zelensky said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the start of the war, but US officials have put the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed as at least 70,000 and as many as 120,000 injured." (BBC News)