Cycling UK Forum

Smile and wave. Arguing will do nothing to convince them and will at best lead to a situation where a motorist assaults you and the police do nothing about it despite you knowing the numberplate. The only place to discuss this is in the pub/at lunch at work with motrist friends/colleagues who may well be swayed by your arguments.

Glad you survived, hope you sue and that you save the world from a dangerous motorist. I am sure that your helmet saved you from some skin trauma, would need convincing that it saved you from a concussion.

spen666 wrote:A motorist convicted of causing death by careless or dangerous driving ( 2 seperate offences!) will receive a prison sentence far longer than 7 months .

True, but they won't get convicted of it. Part of the reason cyclists can get done for longer than motorists is that most of the population, hence most of the juries, are motorists, only a minority are cyclists - so most would be reluctant to throw stones where they have (or could) sinned, but will happily throw the book at a cyclist.
I noticed that some onlooker saying that he was riding "like a bat out of hell" had a big impact on his sentence, despite the fact he was forced onto the pavement by a swerving motorist. How can we prove that he was reckless rather than the bike spinning out of control (unlike what would happen when sppeding in a car). A bit of a moot point as the cyclist pleaded guilty.

sirmy wrote:The lack of funding for the development of wave, tidal, wind and solar has always seemed short sighted. Surely the time to develop these technologies is now before it becomes absolutely critical

One word for you to mention to your MP when you next write them on the subject: "Fusion". Fusion is nuclear power without the waste, the catch is that getting it working costs "alot" of money and unfortunately the US, UK, Japan and France are too poor. By "alot" I mean less than we spend on particle physics, probably less than a nuclear sub (we have fleets of these).
The problem with tidal and wind is that you have to run a backup plant to cover them if the wind stops - which means that they generally have a carbon cost. Solar is a suprisingly good solution, but it would need (socialist!) government action to help spred them accross the country; i.e. if I bought solar water heeting to cut my gas bills I would recoup my investment in 20 years, however If everyone in the UK got them (like cavity wall insulation now) the cost would go right down and recoup on investment would get closer to 5-10 years, which is managable.
Don't forget bore-holes and CEH for future builds.

bigjim wrote:Surely one could relocate those skills into repairs, medical advancement and care, education, local food production, better infrastructure, rich taking less etc. Maybe a change of mindset is required.

Socialist!

kwackers wrote:Whilst nuclear has it's place - at current levels and pricing there's only about a century of uranium left. Somewhat less if we all go mad and build power stations everywhere.

Nuclear is deffo not a long term solution as uranium will run out just like crude oil, it is a good short/medium term solution as continuing to use coal will kill us for sure in the short/medium term.
I'm amused when people talk about nuclear waste, but then suggest carbon capture, which is the same thing, bury a problem you will never be able to deal with.
Obviously a greater use of Wind, solar (water heating) and combined energy and heat are the way forward. As to cars, the real solution is not Hydrogen or Biofuel, but rather compressed air - compressed air production would be a spinoff of current powerplants waste. The issue is that the cars would have to be lightweight with little mod-cons, could not co-exist with current gas-guzzlers. On the plus side once we ban the old cars streets will be much safer, accidents less fatal and lots of jobs for all.

Thinking about a few ways to keep my shed a bit tidier (and fit a couple more bikes in...)

Had a look at some examples, does anyone use any of these? Not convinced that something like the veloman or peruzzo actually saves space over simply standing the bikes up, what about the cycle hooks to hang the bike from the wall? will this not damage the front wheel? If it doesn't damage the bike, I would assume something like the Mottez would be the best storage/space solution.

mrsbloomsburybarton wrote:... so even after six hours I'll be bone dry. True or false?

Only true if you cycle slowly. I don't need rain to end up a bit damp after cycling in with just the base-layer.

I run Schmidt Dynohub and Solidlights, cost £300 and the wheel has actually gone up in value! Over 5 years of regualr commuter use that's £60 a year (not that I got to spread the cost) which is well worth it I reckon.
B&M lights and a bottle dynamo, or even a cheaper (than Schmidt) hub dynamo would be considerably cheaper and still worth it. For the fit and forget value of a dyname, they're the way to go, unless it's a track bike.
But we're back to your budget and how much you cycle.

Brian, do you race at night? If not you could have a commuter dyno setup and a cheaper rechargable light (or vice-versa). If your dynohub front wheel is build with something like an open-pro rim you could run commuter and race tyres and therefore could swap between them.

Mick F wrote:The chap suggested he could powder-coat the frame too, so I asked him the price for the whole job - blast and coat.
£35 the lot.

There a re quite a few non-bike specific powdercoaters out there who offer really low prices. Often they don't cover the threads/badges and only do one colour. Is that worth the extra £1-200? probably not but it's worth bearing in mind.

james01 wrote:... strip all useful parts before you take the frame to the skip.

Or sell the frame on ebay for £10-20. If it has forwar facing dropouts remember to use the word "fixie".

sxlalan wrote:I would like to keep to the £500-£600 price range.
My main points of uncertainty at the moment are whether to go for rigid or suspension forks, drop or straight handlebars, and a steel or alloy frame. Any advice on these, along with possible bikes, would be greatly appreciated.

** Have you got a work Cyclescheme that will allow you to buy your bike pre-tax spread over the year? This would mean you could go to the higher end of your budget and then exceed it by just under 50% (bikes bought through cyclescheme are pre-tax so you save 30%) - so you could be looking at £1000, which is alot more bike.
* Suspension is for offroad mountainbiking, if you won't be doing this then don't go there. Suspension makes your bike more re-sellable, so also more theftworthy.
* As fatboy has correctly said bars will hurt your back if setup incorrectly, get a sharper angle stem or make them keep the full steerer tube when setting up and you can have a high drop bar with no backache and plenty of hand positions. For towing you could just chose some very wide drop bars as suggested by rivbike.com
* My steel bike is far more comfortable than my alu bike, but just the frame of my steel bike cost more than my alu bike. Steel can be repaired, but you would probably be claiming on insurance so you could just as well replace it. I like the artesanal craft associated with steel frames as opposed to the mass manufacture of alu frames, but frankly there is little difference between using either of them. Chances are you will want to upgrade or change your bike before either wears out.

PS - when chosing a bike you will have lots of very good reasons chalked up for/against, but you will find tht you have a gut preferance for one of them after having looked. That's the one you should buy! Even if you buy a better bike you will always woner "what if" about the one you didn't get.

gsdavies wrote:IF you do go to 700c, you MAY have a brake caliper problem in that the calipers might not reach the rim. My Peugeot has a 27" front fork on it which was a replacement for the originals from a HUGE crash many many years ago. It runs a 700c wheel with the standard caliper and it reaches OK. You might be lucky as was I.

Alhonga deep drop brakes, I have a pair I used for just this purpose. Got them from SPA cycles IIRC.

How much do you want to spend? I think you can still buy the old Smart NiCad rechargable double headlights for about £30 on ebay. Top Australian dual headlight LiOn are about £140 + import tax. How much do you want to spend? How often will you use it? If you use it every day, or say 5 days per week, then recharging (or forgetting to) can be a major hassle and dynamo lights are worth it, but if you will ride a couple times a year then it's overkill.