Cycling UK Forum

shelaghor wrote: ↑9 Apr 2024, 8:12pm Hello
I am planning a bike ride from Bibao into France and then getting a train back to Calais. We are getting a ferry to Bilbao but need to book trains home. It all seems so complicated to book so was hoping someone knew a travel agent who could do the booking for me?
Thanks in advance

How close to Calais do you intend to ride?
We once got the ferry to Bilbao.
Started off riding to the French border Irun/ Hendaye -the ride was a bit tedious so we got on the Euskatren (Basque railway) to San Sebastian/ Don Ostia.
French TGV's may or may not have bike spaces and they will be limited - I usually dismantle my bike and put it in a bag to suit the luggage dimensions 120 x90 x30 ( cms )
Usually you can use the ter's (regional trains), there are intercites which should have bookable bike spaces.
I have used a night train service from Perpignan to Paris but the old night trains are gone and I'm not sure of the situation with the new ones.
SNCF used to have an office in London which I used once to book my itinerary (train strike ruined that)

Pebble wrote: ↑11 Apr 2024, 9:28am The best all day fuel for me is Porridge - 50/50 mix of Jumbo Oats and Rolled Oats. - a very large bowl of that in the morning can see me fuelled for the rest of the day, perfect starter for big rides or a days walking in the hills

If you can stomach porridge - a long thread on this showed that a taste for it isn't universal.

Getting back to the thread - I was always a slow audax rider and was surprised to find on one occasion I had caught up with a faster rider.
He had the "bonk". I was able to give him a cereal bar which he quickly consumed.
We rode along slowly for a while and he started to feel better.
I told him not to wait and he sped off.
Saw him at the next control and he was fine.
As others have said - always have something with you that you find palatable - I'm susceptible to exercise induced nausea - my recovery option is soda water and a packet of crisps - I sometimes go from feeling nauseous to being ravenously hungry.
l

mattheus wrote: ↑5 Apr 2024, 9:42am
Unfortunately, if you hit one from behind, you're very likely to catch the "end" to some extent, and the design of the hinges work against you

That happened to my late brother on a motorbike - his hand was split almost in two.

I try to avoid the door zone if possible - on Saturday I was overtaking some parked cars and had a car closely following me - there was a car ahead parked facing me - as I approached a woman opened the passenger door - fortunately she heard my shout and closed it.- if I'd had to brake sharply I'd have probably been hit by the car behind.

simonhill wrote: ↑5 Apr 2024, 8:40am Follow up on the radio prog the next day. They said possibly the biggest post bag on a subject that they'd ever had.

More stuff discussed. Edmond King, people not being able to go out in their cars after dark, etc but the bottom line is that a lot of people find the lights a big problem.

Hopefully some action will follow the review.

Unless the EU are prepared to go along I doubt manufacturers will want to alter their lighting to suit the UK.

roger72 wrote: ↑3 Apr 2024, 3:12pm I am 84 years old and on all three of my bikes (drop bars) the bars are 2.5" lower than the saddle.I think I am still 25 !

I'm only a youth of 82 but my bikes are set up the same - I don't feel 25.
I've tried higher handle bar heights but I don't like the position - I have gone to shallow drop bars - less than my old Cinelli Giro's.

In my cycling life I've gone from single speed, to 3sp,to 5sp, to 10sp 2x10 (my pre war time trialling uncle couldn't understand the need for so many), 3x7, 3x8,3x9, 3x10. All with increasingly lower gears - it's a long time since i struggled up the Puy de dome on 49 x 23.
In recent years I've gone from bar end shifters to brifters.
I've gone from sprints and tubulars to clinchers - I'm not going tubeless.
During the years I've accumulated a lot of spare parts redundant to my purposes and lots of cassette sprockets.
Steel frame to aluminium to titanium (eschewed carbon) - I still have a soft spot for steel frames.
I'm sure I could have acquired more up to date stuff and made more redundant but I think enough is enough.
If I can't repair or adjust it myself I don't want it.

As "improvements" are made there is more stuff available that bike mechanics have to have the expertise and tools to repair and service - and that is expensive.

After all that we still have to ride into the wind and uphill and given a sufficient range of gearing I suspect that most of us would fare almost as well with a steel framed bike from the fifties compared to a much lighter carbon confection.

Pebble wrote: ↑29 Mar 2024, 4:17pm

PM999 wrote: ↑28 May 2023, 1:56pm And from the Grauniad:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... rce-admits

Bridy Bool, a close friend of the family of one of the boys who was killed, said they still had little information about what happened to the teenagers. “They don’t know what happened,” she said. “They’re in pieces.”

She said Kyrees Sullivan and Harvey Evans were best friends. “They loved football and motorbikes. They did everything together,” she said.

Bool said the pair had been on a Sur-Ron electric motorcycle together and had not been wearing helmets. She claimed the families were upset that the boys’ bodies had been left on the road for several hours while the riot took place.

Another horrible tragedy involving one of these electric motor bikes
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c724q55eeg9o

That report seems to suggest that there were three boys on the motor bike - the14yr old "rider" who was seriously injured and two others (16yrs old and 17 yrs old) who were killed.

I did have cause to complain to the police once about three youths on an old honda 90 who tried to push me off my bike.
To my surprise the police turned up very promptly and took details.

The number of illegal electrically powered vehicles is increasing and the government appears unable or unwilling to do something about it.

briansnail wrote: ↑30 Mar 2024, 11:25am

That's the precise opposite of my view. She should be returned to the UK and prosecuted in the same way as other people who are suspected of having committed crimes. And that isn't happening while she is held in a refugee camp.

Granted.Please bear in mind she (probably) has young children.Who is going to look after them while she is in jail if convicted.Although given the shortfall in prison places she might get early release (couple of months?).If she gets a long stretch.It will be heartbreaking for the young kids to visit Mum in jail.Children care homes should be a last resort.You make a valid case but small practical problems.


*******************************
I ride Brompton,Hetchins 531

I believe she had three children but all subsequently died. Maybe she has had more.

Modern chips can see and use far more satellites so it's far less of an issue. I'll reiterate my earlier point that the software on those eTrex is not designed for the speed of cycling either, it's optimised for hiking. It'll work - to an extent - but it's not as good as a cycling-specific one.

I struggle to see why this is an issue - no-one says this about mobile phones or laptops! Even most lights these days are USB chargeable rather than battery. A powerbank will charge everything on the move multiple times, battery life on phones, GPS etc is now easily up at 24+ hrs (which is far more than they'll last on AA batteries!) and it's a lot cheaper than buying loads of AAs as well.

[/quote]
I've used my Garmin for long distances in my car - " where to? " function set up to permit routing on main roads and motorways.
My partner held it and read out the instructions.The etrex may of course be optimised for hiking (whatever that may mean)
But it can and does easily cope with cycling speeds - how do you mean "to an extent" ?
As for batteries I use rechargeable AAs - about 22 hrs.for normal use and six will usually do for a tour of ten days - obviously in extremis I can buy disposibles.
I don't wish to carry a powerbank - but I do have a phone charger.
I don't use USB chargeable lights again I prefer to swatch out batteries.
What I have works which is all I want.

Wind and rain - could be a rerun of 1951 which I was privileged to watch on TV.
It's a sad state of affairs - although the lower Thames was pretty well dead at the time there was a massive improvement until someone came up with the bright idea that privatisation would solve all ills.

Valbrona wrote: ↑28 Mar 2024, 5:43pm 'You can't have your high-speed rail north of Brum, but you can your poxy cycle track in Kent.' (Said tongue in cheek).

I could make a remark about Birmingham being in the North - but I lived in Scotland for some years so I don't think of it as being "Northern"
I must say the "improved" towpath will do little to compensate for the loss of HS2 - I assume the funding comes from the money left over from scrapping HS2 - basically what's left is a Birmingham to nowhere line.
Sorry for the thread drift.

tim-b wrote: ↑29 Mar 2024, 7:19am

...a speedo that's less accurate than a knotted rope...snip

That's the nature of GPS unfortunately. It's bound to be less accurate for a variety of reasons including the accuracy of the satellite signal being bounced around on its journey from orbit, loss of signal due to buildings and woodland, etc.

The loss of accuracy is temporary - I've occasionally lost signal under those conditions - but it will be restored as far as location is concerned as soon as the signal returns - usually doesn't take long so it isn't bound to be inaccurate.
I have one one occasion had a bounced signal which caused my etrex 30 to show that I had travelled further than I had - that's all it still reverted to giving me my correct location - looking at the route plot it showed that I had travelled several miles off route and back instantaneously - I didn't notice at the time.
It's a very rare event and isn't a problem except that if I were using my etrex in a time trial ( not that I have time trialled for decades) it would be a nuisance (as one well known time triallist found to her chagrin. )
If I want a definite mileage record - something I like to do when touring - I have a basic wired cycle computer.
I don't like the idea of a chargeable GPS device - I prefer replaceable batteries - only a couple of minutes to swap for a fresh pair of AA when the power goes.

gaz wrote: ↑26 Mar 2024, 8:21pm

gaz wrote: ↑23 Mar 2024, 11:25pm Active Travel Fund 4 Extension Capital Funding
Kent £1.2m

Seems that the money will go on rebuilding the Medway tow path route between Aylesford and Allington that has been closed for about four years.

In my view,

Pros: Certainly needs fixing, not likely to attract opposition.
Cons: It's a primarily leisure focused route with a host of unresolvable issues that will prevent if from ever being more than that.

When I've ridden it - some years past - the river banks seemed to be very popular with anglers - sometimes it was difficult to get past.
Inevitably there are meandering pedestrians - not great for cycling - probably ticks a box or two.

reohn2 wrote: ↑25 Mar 2024, 1:01pm

Pebble wrote: ↑25 Mar 2024, 12:34pm ........This is quite funny (sorry twitter link) Tory Mayoral Candidate for Manchester is campaigning against clean air...
https://twitter.com/LauraEvansTeam/stat ... 2362319110
pledges "we will not have any of these clean air zones in manchester"

She's an idiot like the rest of the Tories who've ruined this country!

I note that there is a row of parked cars in the background all partly on the pavement - presumably she isn't against that.
I wonder if her car is among them?

I assume it will be the usual disjointed system.
There will be shared use infrastructure put in where it is convenient to do so - often providing extra parking space for motorists.
I have a decently laid path near me which when not blocked by HGV's gives me the opportunity of visiting the Amazon warehouse.