Search found 1184 matches
- 29 Feb 2024, 12:48pm
- Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
- Topic: Wider implications of e-bike power limit consultation
- Replies: 1
- Views: 431
Wider implications of e-bike power limit consultation
Over in the e-bike topic section there's a discussion of the news that the government is to consult on the possible increase of the legal power limit on e-bikes. Subject to the moderators' indulgence, I'm posting an alert to this here also, since it has potentially wider implications for cycling provision in general, and forum members without e-bikes don't necessarily look at that section. The potential for unintended consequences with this is obvious. Much of the recent public hostility to urban cycling provision has been a reaction to the widespread use of illegally overpowered ebikes or electric motorbikes, and this will only be stoked by the media making a meal of this consultation, which they undoubtedly will. The timing is curious, to say the least.
- 15 Feb 2024, 8:07pm
- Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
- Topic: Mudguard design
- Replies: 56
- Views: 6576
Re: Mudguard design
The type shown in Mike Sales's post were those widely used in the UK. (I've never seen those rather nasty-looking 'chain' ones in your link before). I used them for many years, and found them remarkably effective. You did need to adjust them frequently to get just the right 'brushing' effect. The key advantage, especially when hung off the bottom of a mudguard, was that they lightly brushed off the foreign object before it had had the chance to realise where it was and even think about embedding itself. I've still got them fitted to one old bike. Despite the flimsy appearance, they were remarkably robust.Pebble wrote: ↑15 Feb 2024, 11:34amwhat are they, where do they go ?Mike Sales wrote: ↑15 Feb 2024, 11:12am How about incorporating something like these tyresavers?
tyresavers.jpg
a little search for 'tyresavers' finds this
https://www.velobitz.co.uk/vintage-styl ... int-wipers
i wonder whether it was the noise or the fact they probably didn't work ?
- 7 Feb 2024, 5:49pm
- Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
- Topic: Fixing a non-working front derailleur
- Replies: 73
- Views: 3373
Re: Fixing a non-working front derailleur
When the OP bought her bike, these questions might never have arisen had this, and the many like it, still been available:Cugel wrote: ↑6 Feb 2024, 3:00pmWell, it's no doubt possible to make a black box of a bike rather like the black box of an iThing (that white shade they make them is a lie) which works very nicely until it doesn't and then joins its pals in the landfill.ChrisButch wrote: ↑5 Feb 2024, 8:07pm
I think that rather misses the point. It's perfectly reasonable for a potential bike owner not to want to acquire those minimal skills. Whether or not she could relatively easily acquire them is beside the point. It's perfectly reasonable to expect there to be on the market a bike that satisfies the four conditions I mentioned in my earlier post upthread - a bike which would not require even those minimal skills of its owner. Such bikes were once readily available and relatively cheap. That they no longer exist is one of the disincentives to cycling, and one of the main reasons those persuaded to give cycling a try soon give up, at the inevitable first mechanical problem.
On the other hand, we could all change out ways for the better*, even if it does get a bit more demanding.
* Although wary of the notion of "better" with its assumption that everything can and should be put into The Great Hierarchy of Relative Worth, I'll here define "better" in this context as "a method of making, owning and using things that keeps them repairable forever". Not a popular notion these days, I know, as the black boxes are so "convenient" (until their landfill exudations give you cancer via the tap water, air or even the cucumbers they grew on top of the full fills).
- 5 Feb 2024, 8:07pm
- Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
- Topic: Fixing a non-working front derailleur
- Replies: 73
- Views: 3373
Re: Fixing a non-working front derailleur
I think that rather misses the point. It's perfectly reasonable for a potential bike owner not to want to acquire those minimal skills. Whether or not she could relatively easily acquire them is beside the point. It's perfectly reasonable to expect there to be on the market a bike that satisfies the four conditions I mentioned in my earlier post upthread - a bike which would not require even those minimal skills of its owner. Such bikes were once readily available and relatively cheap. That they no longer exist is one of the disincentives to cycling, and one of the main reasons those persuaded to give cycling a try soon give up, at the inevitable first mechanical problem.Cugel wrote: ↑5 Feb 2024, 4:37pm
Which are the unhelpful comments? I suppose it depends on what one regards as the fundamental problem for the OP.
Personally I feel the problem is one of attitude rather than some technical thing. She's convinced herself that, "I can't .... " for whatever reason. The obvious answer, then, is to find a way to believe, "I can .....". Merely agreeing with the OP's own assessment of her lack of abilities is the most unhelpful (and condescending) attitude of the lot!
- 3 Feb 2024, 12:47pm
- Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
- Topic: Fixing a non-working front derailleur
- Replies: 73
- Views: 3373
Re: Fixing a non-working front derailleur
Just a general reflection on the case for derailleurs.
If all the following conditions apply:
- You ride your bike frequently in all conditions, and wish to continue doing so.
- You store it an exposed location.
- You have no interest or skill in maintenance, and don't want to do even minimal servicing.
- Your available budget for purchase and maintenance is modest .
...then the OP's conclusion, based on decades of experience, that
"derailleurs, a transmission system absurdly open to the elements, is a flawed technology"
is entirely reasonable, and, again given the conditions listed above, accurate.
A century ago, bikes which continued to perform reliably for many years, for those to whom those four conditions applied, were widely available.
Today...
If all the following conditions apply:
- You ride your bike frequently in all conditions, and wish to continue doing so.
- You store it an exposed location.
- You have no interest or skill in maintenance, and don't want to do even minimal servicing.
- Your available budget for purchase and maintenance is modest .
...then the OP's conclusion, based on decades of experience, that
"derailleurs, a transmission system absurdly open to the elements, is a flawed technology"
is entirely reasonable, and, again given the conditions listed above, accurate.
A century ago, bikes which continued to perform reliably for many years, for those to whom those four conditions applied, were widely available.
Today...
- 25 Jan 2024, 12:54pm
- Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
- Topic: LTN politics
- Replies: 50
- Views: 3105
LTN politics
Interesting detailed account in today's road.cc of the politics behind the decision not to end prematurely the LTN trial in Exeter, - a project which has provoked particularly vituperative opposition. In this case elected members refused to accept a remarkably loaded officer's report, which used the sketchiest of data to support a case for ending the trial. It's quite a long piece, much interrupted by ads etc, but some of the most interesting detail is towards the end...
https://road.cc/content/news/councillor ... ial-306369
https://road.cc/content/news/councillor ... ial-306369
- 10 Jan 2024, 12:44pm
- Forum: Cycle Camping sub-forum
- Topic: Dartmoor wild camping ban now to go to Supreme Court
- Replies: 19
- Views: 4845
Re: Dartmoor wild camping ban now to go to Supreme Court
Against, I think, the general expectation, the Supreme Court has today agreed to hear the appeal. Date to be fixed.
- 30 Dec 2023, 4:25pm
- Forum: Lands End to John O'Groats
- Topic: London -Penzance GWR
- Replies: 15
- Views: 2304
Re: London -Penzance GWR
Unfortunately the platforms 8/9 bike parking is at the far end of the station from the 1st Class lounge.
- 17 Dec 2023, 6:41pm
- Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
- Topic: why should i use LONG blocks in my cantis?
- Replies: 56
- Views: 6371
Re: why should i use LONG blocks in my cantis?
In the days of Mafac cantilevers, their long blocks were sold as 'Tandem blocks', and were therefore presumably intended to have enhanced stopping power. They were duly fitted to our tandem. They worked pretty well. But whether they were any more effective than the shorter Mafac blocks on our solos? Hard to say. They did inspire confidence. The only problems were overheating rims rather than stopping power. I do remember, however, that they were a pain to set up - a tiny error in the rotational angle and one end or the other would transgress onto the tyre or below the bottom edge of the rim braking surface.
- 1 Dec 2023, 8:16pm
- Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
- Topic: Keyhole Bridge, Poole
- Replies: 6
- Views: 943
Re: Keyhole Bridge, Poole
Unfortunately, subsequent coverage in the Bournemouth Echo suggests that this was a Pyrrhic victory - the Council has conceded the legal argument, but this doesn't mean the bridge will be closed again -
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/ ... g-victory/
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/ ... g-victory/
- 23 Nov 2023, 8:19pm
- Forum: On the road
- Topic: How can I carry a Brompton on another bike?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 1938
Re: How can I carry a Brompton on another bike?
How about one of these ? -
https://www.trail-gator.com/
https://www.trail-gator.com/
- 17 Nov 2023, 8:02pm
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: Is this dangerous?
- Replies: 52
- Views: 5642
Re: Is this dangerous?
It happened to me even with those massive dimpled French aluminium guards, bolted to the fork crown, which Jack Taylor used to fit to their bikes, the bikes themselves with huge clearances. Front wheel locked on a mucky steep descent on Exmoor during an Audax. Never found the cause, but badly bent the Cinelli-crowned front fork, wrecked the wheel and knocked various bits off me - leaving the wretched mudguard unscathed.
- 16 Nov 2023, 11:00am
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: Gore-Tex: is it really this bad?
- Replies: 112
- Views: 11018
Re: Gore-Tex: is it really this bad?
The move to shorter mountain jackets was driven by climbers needing something that could comfortably be worn with a harness. It spread, illogically, to the wider outdoor market in the way these things do.
- 12 Nov 2023, 3:08pm
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: Gore-Tex: is it really this bad?
- Replies: 112
- Views: 11018
Re: Gore-Tex: is it really this bad?
The problem with modern boot design is that to meet demand for a lighter boot, manufacturers (even those like Scarpa traditionally of high quality) have relied on a Goretex membrane for proofing, and have drastically reduced the thickness and quality of the leathers used. It only takes a pinhole in the membrane for the entire system to fail, which it will inevitably do IME in at most a couple of years' regular wear. The problem is further exacerbated by using cheaper construction of the uppers, with more stitched seams (again liable to failure) rather than a single cut of quality leather. There are still bootmakers using traditional techniques, (without Goretex), which only require regular care to retain their proofing - and proofing treatments available are now very good. Altberg (British, despite the name) is an outstanding example. At a price, of course.pwa wrote: ↑11 Nov 2023, 11:59am
On the other hand I find Goretex in shoes and boots a waste of time. I am currently struggling to keep my wife's very expensive Scarpa leather + Goretex hiking boots from leaking, through the use of leather treatments, as the Goretex clearly isn't the guarantee of dryness that you might hope. This is her second pair, the first having been sent back with the same fault. We are going to try to seal them the old fashioned way, with waxy applications and a bit of heat from a hair dryer, having given up on Scarpa supplying us with a waterproof pair of boots. I've had other footwear with the Goretex marking that has been similarly disappointing.
- 26 Oct 2023, 9:44am
- Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
- Topic: People are right to trespass in fight for right to roam in England, says Green MP
- Replies: 177
- Views: 24699
Re: Right to roam
The density of the local PROW network, as has already been mentioned by others, varies widely by area. Here in Mid Devon the situation is at the opposite extreme from the happy environment which you describe. Footpaths and bridleways alike are few and far between, and rarely linked. From my own house, surrounded by many miles of livestock farms, none of the 'dotted green lines' which you find so reassuring can be reached without a lengthy road walk, and even those are brief fragments. Partly this is a consquence of landscape history in what Oliver Rackham calls 'ancient countryside', where the bulk of the original connections between the scattered farmsteads have long since become surfaced minor roads. Partly it's the relatively recent loss, through neglect or hostility, of existing paths. If you look at a reprint of the late nineteenth century '6 inch' OS map of my area, you will see many marked 'paths' which never made it onto the Definitive Map of PROWs maintained by the local authority after the statutory requirement was introduced in the 1949 Act.pwa wrote: ↑25 Oct 2023, 8:12pm
If it doesn't, they have poorer access to farmland than we have here right now. I can and do walk in all directions from my village, crossing fields, some cultivated, others for sheep and cattle. If we lost that but had free access to all tracks, I reckon we would have poorer access through our countryside down here. For walking. I wouldn't want that.
Because of this disparity in the local inheritance across the country, my instinct is that to rely on locally-tailored solutions will only result in years of local argument before there's any action. A blanket change would, of course, be intolerable to many interests: but it would least settle the arguments quickly. And the experience of Scotland, where the anticipated mayhem didn't materialise, is encouraging. It would, however, depend on strong and determined government. I wish I could say that seems likely.