Cycling UK Forum

rogerzilla wrote:Put a spare D-lock of your own on it along with the note, then they have to get you to "release" them.

I've experienced this in London about 25-30 years ago. I locked my bike up to a railing outside a block of flats in North London and returned after an hour to find it overlocked with a chain. Spoke to police who said we don't care what you do and that you are entitled to recover your property by any reasonable means, so I hired a pair of bolt croppers and sorted it out. The practical truth (sauce for the goose etc) is that it appears that you can do what you want (not unreasonably or unnecessarily vexatiously) in order to secure access to and enjoy use of your property be it a bicycle or the fence to your property - provided that no other offence is committed, such as obstruction or theft. You could also live and let live for a little while longer, perhaps?

Personally, I don't bother with railings in residential areas these days as people are much more aggressive and disproportionately sensitive about their private side of the private/public boundary...

Hell is other people as someone once said - was it Sartre?

Which puts me in mind of the first limerick (in questionable taste) that I learned as a child: There was an old man of Madras...I am sure you remember the rest

reohn2 wrote:

Abu Milhem wrote:................. I have learned to dismount with care and to incline the bike - with its' top tube still in harmony with Gaia - in order to protect my knackers.

Of course it does depend on the circumferential dimensions and the slackness of the scrotumnal skin containing the above mentioned knackers!

PS, Gaia will,I feel sure,be pleased to be mentioned in connection with the subject.

PPS Occasionally I see bicycles with a horizontal top tube design, for sale with dings in the said TT.I have often wondered how these have occured, I am now aware of the cause of such unfortunate dings

ncutler wrote:

Abu Milhem wrote: - with its' top tube still in harmony with Gaia -

Are you suggesting that the earth is flat ?

Nick

To the beholder standing on the earth it appears to be - leaving aside the relief of mountains etc. And It is in the eye of the beholder where beauty resides - which was the wholly partisan and subjective point I was making. Please forgive me for starting that sentence with a conjunction.

Because, at one time they were all needed! We deliberately led a family life without independent motorised transport while living in two homes: at that time it was: 4 tourers (Raleigh Clubman x 2, Orbit tourer, Nigel Dean tourer x 2, 4 tricycles (including my daughter's Pashley Pickle), a Pinarello Treviso, 2 tandems Mercian and a Longstaff, and my daughter's heavily modified Universal making 13 in all. We now have the same two tandems, 2 tourers (an Evans and a Nigel Dean - the Pinarello was stolen and replaced with a 531c Nigel Dean), a Longstaff racing tricylce in 653, my wife's Marin hybrid and my son's second Islabike (oh, and we do have a car). Two of my older bikes are out on permanent loan and my former partner's two tricycles and tourer left with her. Current ownership 9 in all and all in regular use. The garage is tidy enough to keep the car in (as all the bikes are hung up) but we don't as it's only a car...

Wheelbuilding: a good wheelbuilder told me many years ago that my 6th wheel would probably be OK. I agree, after building about a dozen various wheels. You need these: a Spokey (quite probably red and yellow), a good truing stand (expensive), Jobst Brand's book: the Bicycle Wheel, patience, and a modicum of mechanical aptitude. The only rule of thumb I dare offer is that concentric truth adjustment requires a minimum of half a rotation of the spoke key, and for lateral truth that is probably a maximum increment. The other is that truing is easier when the spokes are tight. This you learn; it is tricky to measure and pass on..

Good luck!

An entertaining read, this thread. It is amusing that the justifications appear to be technical on both sides of the fence. My 2 cent's worth is that a flat (or as I prefer it - in plane with the earth it travels above) top tube (crossbar - what is that, I wonder?) is supremely elegant and is of course a concomitant of the bespoke frame - like a suit. Affected, yes, but beautiful - and that matters, to me at any rate. I don't care about convenience for manufacturers or standover issues. I have learned to dismount with care and to incline the bike - with its' top tube still in harmony with Gaia - in order to protect my knackers.