Cycling UK Forum

pete75 wrote: ↑17 Feb 2025, 1:36pm

cycle tramp wrote: ↑17 Feb 2025, 12:15pm ...our small island was once, and shamefully, the centre of a very large, quite brutal empire...the East India tea trading company was one of the biggest companies in the world...

..things settled and the empire became the common wealth..

..but even during the second World War, men who understood conflict went out and changed the nature of warfare...

..we have and we will continue to do things our way.

Who an din what way?

PDQ Mobile wrote: ↑17 Feb 2025, 10:22am

cycle tramp wrote: ↑16 Feb 2025, 9:54pm
I'm guessing tge IMV stands for 'in my view'.. in which case the idea that by voting for a cause you somehow 'appreciate ' or 'like' the figurehead is incredibly infantile.
As an anarchist I appreciate that it's possible that all parties can have good ideas and all parties can have bad ideas..

...and by appreciating the complexity we are in a better position to make choices...

"IMV" says that's what I (capital) think.
It is a marker of a personal opinion, and also a recognition that others will hold a different view.
( in your view I have been, King Canute, a birdbrain, and "infantile" in the last month, I try to refrain from such and just present my arguments)

roubaixtuesday wrote: ↑16 Feb 2025, 9:23pm

cycle tramp wrote: ↑16 Feb 2025, 8:38pm
Britain has long had a history of saying 'stuff you, we'll do it our own way' and in doing so we've brought the world, Oasis, Madonna, the Beatles, The Internet, the telephone, pneumatic tyres, Middle Eart, Harry Potter, James Bond, the SAS, Beatrix Potter, William Morris, the Harrier Jump Jet, Charles Dickens, the Mini, the Vincent Black Shadow...
..we'll survive in the same way we ways have, luck, innovation, effort, an acknowledgement of risk and sheer bloodied mindedness..

A very good description of British Exceptionalism.

Unfortunately, it's entirely ficticious and believing it is exactly what has dragged us down as a nation.

PDQ Mobile wrote: ↑16 Feb 2025, 9:29pm The EU is a group of autonomous democratic nations that also have a common Parliament where things get voted upon.
Some of those nations share a currency (which helps stop banks raking off money on trade and currency exchange).
Goods move pretty freely around.
It is in many way an astonishing success, born out of endless conflict.
Something hopeful, yet obviously not easy.
Compromise is the key.


The UK was never part of the full free movement Schengen area (we opted out) and we held the ability to control migration from the EU in our own hands.
But we never implemented it because it was "good" for our economy.

Immigration from further afield (now 600000 odd) was always our own autonomous visa based system.
These numbers are now since Brexit vastly increased, for obvious reasons, but it's more of a one way system from further flung places.

Refugees and asylum seekers came then as now, but various crises and wars (some of which we took part in) really increased the flow.
We lost by leaving the EU any equal membership leverage on the French who had, to some extent, been holding our border.

Putin deliberately pushed those refugees onward into the EU, sometimes forcibly- he knew what it would cause. And he caused some of it at the source, Syria amongst others.
It is those high refugee numbers that are causing the rise of the extreme Right in the EU; NOT the free movement within it.
.......
As an aside if my pretty decent memory serves me well, "pwa" stated many times on here that LEGAL immigration though freedom of movement was his biggest concern.
If you vote for a cause then you vote for its figurehead too. IMV.

PDQ Mobile wrote: ↑16 Feb 2025, 10:53am

pwa wrote: ↑15 Feb 2025, 7:59am Well it is the morning after the day before and I am still feeling stunned by the speech by Vance. What a nasty piece of work he is! And listening to his tirade, I could feel the trans-Atlantic alliance being torn.

But the rhetoric from the Trump admin is so similar to that of Farage in the 2016 referendum one would struggle to get a fag paper between them.
Farage has been a supporter of Trump appeared regularly at Trump rallies.
And yet in 2016 you voted for Farage and his disaster Brexit.

AllRides wrote: ↑16 Feb 2025, 4:33pm So I love my bike, which I use very much for utility cycling. I’ve made a commitment to use it for any journey under 5 miles.

I’m trying to think of ways to reduce this friction and use the bike more. I’d love to hear anything that works for you!?

Ron wrote: ↑15 Feb 2025, 6:38pm

cycle tramp wrote: ↑8 Feb 2025, 1:51pm Another link with more information https://lavozdeibiza.com/en/current-new ... -cyclists/

I'm beginning to have some sympathy for the driver.
The unproven claims made in the press report are quite outrageous. The police investigation is barely started but the press has already got the driver hung drawn and quartered.
Read the press cutting again and pause and consider ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"man runs over seven cyclists", "seven cyclists....injured.. after being hit by a car" , " the driver was travelling in the same direction when he hit them"
It would be nothing short of a miracle had there been no fatality after seven cyclists had been hit and run over. by a motor vehicle.
I doubt if any British newspaper would print such an article.

simonhill wrote: ↑15 Feb 2025, 2:07pm

rareposter wrote: ↑15 Feb 2025, 1:47pm
https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/chaintesting/

Lab condition testing - obviously real world may vary!
But the difference is pretty stark in places. Average of all 12sp chains to reach 0.5% wear is 3000km. Shimano 8 and 9sp chains wear to 0.5% in 1000 and 1500km respectively.

That's very interesting, surprising frightening and unbelievable.

I haven't time to delve (on tour) but should I be replacing my 3 x 9 with a 1 x 12. Will it be virtually bullet proof on my expedition tourer?

arnsider wrote: ↑14 Feb 2025, 8:13am I rode a Thorn Nomad tourer and often joined my local CTC branch rides.
I'd bought a light Kinesis T2 just before my Polymyalgia and was a bit distraught not being able to use it.
The purchase came partly because of the ribbing I used to get riding my heavy steel Thorn.
The Thorn is hung up in my cupboard and no longer gets a ride.

simonhill wrote: ↑14 Feb 2025, 1:26pm

Of course those who want to ban over 80 drivers, surely that should apply to all road users, cyclists included. No thanks. I'll go for the physical.

Airsporter1st wrote: ↑14 Feb 2025, 9:05am As is often the case, the blanket ban on drivers over the age of 80, proposed earlier in the thread, targets a whole generation of people for the transgressions of the few.

LittleGreyCat wrote: ↑14 Feb 2025, 2:27pm I am puzzled as to why some riders seem to decry using the full range of gears available.

Am I unusual in using the full range on normal flat(ish) rides with a few very steep but short hills?

pjclinch wrote: ↑13 Feb 2025, 7:56am

cycle tramp wrote: ↑12 Feb 2025, 8:09pm For some reason, most flat handlebars are now considerably wider than they use to be which means your wrists, and perhaps elbows are taken out of their natural angles...this is made worse by dropping the handlebars below the height of the saddle..

I suspect the "reason" may be fashion, driven by downhill/enduro type MTBs where I imagine it's pretty relevant but for those of use who haven't had our fear glands surgically removed it's a bit of a moot point (and indeed makes riding singletrack a bit harder if the trees encroach close enough).

Pete.