Cycling UK Forum

I saw this some time ago. It is an excellent video. To find out if a place has a cycling culture you really need to ask only one question: Do teenage girls ride bikes? Britain has a very long way to go.

simonhill wrote: ↑1 Dec 2024, 8:32am Be aware that most of the e-SIMs like Airola are data only.

They don't do calls or texts.

I currently have a foreign e-SIM, but have left my UK SIM in as background. This enables me to receive texts (free) and calls (expensive so I ignore) from UK and more importantly to use WhatsApp over internet for calls and messages.

Signal https://signal.org is an alternative to WhatsApp with good security and better privacy.

pwa wrote: ↑30 Nov 2024, 7:23am

al_yrpal wrote: ↑29 Nov 2024, 10:32pm

The only way to deal with single-skin wall construction is cladding, internal insulation or demolition. Or you just wear lots of jerseys and freeze.

Before you do that measure the thickness. In my house iexternal walls are 350mm solid brick. This has an insulation factor only a tiny shade worse than a brick and block cavity wall. Thus hardly worth going to the expense and disruption of internal cladding especially as large sections are further enhanced with thick fireplaces and pillars.

Al

Yes, wall thickness is another contributor to insulation.

Are you sure it is important? Insulation is much more significant. Adding insulation between the layers of a brick and block cavity wall is very effective. See U-values.

853 wrote: ↑23 Nov 2024, 1:26pm ...

Eventually it dawned on me that applying modern materials & methods has consequences. Specifically in terms of ventilation and heating. A mixture of modern uPVC, double glazed windows, giving higher levels of weather sealing & draft exclusion, added to modern tech like showers & washingmachines results in much higher levels of moisture held on air that stays put inside the building, unless deliberately extracted. Combine that with the large areas of cold walls resulting from single-course brick construction, lacking insulation and you raise the likelihood of damp & its unpleasant sibling, mould.
You can take steps to ameliorate the problem, of course and the home I’m referring to was cosy, dry and entirely mould-free, once I‘d worked out what worked & what didn't.
One way to promote air flow is to eshew super-sealed uPVC window frames. Another is to unblock all the fire places…
(none of the above really addresses the op’s questions, however I quite enjoyed typing it…)

All good points, that you probably learnt the hard way, and worth raising about mixing "materials & methods" from two very different eras.

In recent years (I believe it was 2022) the regulations on windows changed and new ones have to have trickle vents. Another thing worth considering is a de-humidifier, which are now quite cheap and effective.
[/quote]

Trickle vents do not exist in Germany. The windows seal well with adjustable locking points around the frame.

Everyone here knows what to do about damp: forced ventilation at least once a day. Early in the morning when the outside air is cold and the water has condensed out as dew you open all the windows wide and change all the air in the house as fast as possible. The warm humid air is replaced by colder air which contains less moisture. The walls and furniture barely cool down in the short time. After you close the windows they warm up the fresh cool air quickly and the result is warm dry air. You can buy a humidity meter to see when you need to do this and how effective it is. One with a dew point indicator is especially useful. A 10-20% reduction in relative humidity is easily achievable.

Why do it this way? You lose far less heat from the house than by leaving a window open, having a trickle vent, or suffering traditional leaky British windows. Many new replacement windows I have seen in Britain do not seal properly because they do not have adjustable locking points around the frame. They open outwards and have sliders that prevent proper compression of the rubber seals. British houses leak heat the fastest in Europe (reference: Europe’s energy crisis in data: Which countries have the best and worst insulated homes?).

My sister in Britain just replaced many old windows with triple-glazed aluminum-faced wood ones. The increase in comfort is remarkable.

The only way to deal with single-skin wall construction is cladding, internal insulation or demolition. Or you just wear lots of jerseys and freeze.

The SON website FAQ page has this:

Do bearings on a SON hub dynamo need any maintenance?
SON Nabendynamo bearings are sealed on both sides; they are lifetime-lubricated grooved ball bearings. Normally they run maintenance-free for many 10 thousands of kilometers and need neither lubrication nor adjustment. Should a fault nevertheless occur the bearings will be replaced by the manufacturer.

axel_knutt wrote: ↑28 Nov 2024, 12:01pm

Carlton green wrote: ↑27 Nov 2024, 7:53pm Perhaps I’ll be putting some white tape on my rear mudflap - insulation tape is cheap and will last a while - the mudguard itself is silver with a red refector and a light. I use silver mudguards because I like them and I already have them but had never realised that going for white - or otherwise reflective - was such an easy and obvious (when you think about it) safety choice. Maybe some white tape on the seat stays would be worth the few minutes effort too. My pedals have reflectors built in. Observing the visibility of other cyclists - ideally when driving a car - helps one usefully question and amend one’s own visibility.

If I was still cycling I might be tempted to get some of these.

I bought something similar in red and white and stuck them on as many suitable places on my bikes as possible. Mine are a bit more subtle and don't change the aesthetics of the bikes too much.

I'm now looking for a way to make the front of my black Brompton bag reflective without damaging the fabric. The old one had a triangular reflective are in the middle. I thought about one or two of those dangly reflectors in white that I see sometimes on kids' school rucksacks here.

For utility riding I wear normal clothes. My jackets are dark in winter, as are my trousers usually. My bikes are covered with reflectors and have fixed and flashing lights front and rear. I always wear reflective trouser bands. All my pedals have reflectors front and rear. My philosophy is that the bike should do the visibility. I don't want to look like a cyclist.

For sportier, touring and exercise riding I have some stretchy cycling-specific clothes. The legs are black in winter and dark red in summer. My two jackets are both bright red but not fluorescent.

The young men I see on lightweight road bikes are almost invariably dressed in black head to toe. Everyone else here in Germany wears a great variety of clothing. Some on expensive-looking e-bikes wear fluorescent clothes. Many on city bikes wear everyday clothes.

H. D. Thoreau wrote "I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes."

My wife is a similar size. She has this bike with 26" (50-559) wheels and Rohloff gears. Although it is described as a city bike, it works well for her for touring. We don't go camping, so luggage is not too heavy. We don't go rougher than gravel bike tracks. The gears are excellent and far easier to use than her previous derailleur, which used to defeat her on hills - no longer. This make may not be available in UK.

Pure aluminium is a soft metal and I doubt it would be suitable for your use. You need an alloy which is much stronger. I'm not a metallurgist, but I know that much. See Wikipedia. I see you have already ordered something. What exactly is the alloy?

forcycling wrote: ↑23 Nov 2024, 9:12pm I just came across your post and I’d be very grateful if you could share the maps with me, i have a teasi without any maps at all, icloud would work for me.

kind regards and thank you so much for your time

Please PM me your Apple-ID and I'll try to share the files.

EdT wrote: ↑22 Nov 2024, 6:42pm The various Nexave series (ignoring the fishing reels) are shown on this Shimano history page
https://www.shimano.com/en/100th/histor ... .php?id=70

Thanks. The parts look a bit different mounted on a bike and covered in muck. Identifying Shimano parts from pictures like that is a bit like telling apart little brown birds hidden in a bush.

colin54 wrote: ↑22 Nov 2024, 8:34am A previous post by 'thelawnet' about the different types of Nexave, with photo's.
viewtopic.php?p=1540373&hilit=nexave#p1540373

Thanks. I don't recognise the one I had in these photos. It was mechanical, not electronic.

rareposter wrote: ↑22 Nov 2024, 7:07am

plancashire wrote: ↑21 Nov 2024, 10:09pm Has anyone else ever encountered a Shimano SPCM3? There's a similar thing with Di2 electrics - I mean the mechanical one. How does it work? Why does it exist? What problem is it trying to solve? Tell me the many ways it can go wrong so when my customer reappears I am ready.

Ah, the joys of Nexave! I *think* - from what you're describing and what others have said - that you're probably working on a "comfort/hybrid" bike with two push button shifters, rather than levers like a Rapidfire system, am I right?

Yes, it had push button shifters for both front and rear.

rareposter wrote: ↑22 Nov 2024, 7:07am Is the rear mech a low normal? As in, if you disconnect the cable, where does the mech go, the smallest cog like a regular mech or the biggest cog? If the latter, that's a low normal mech which the spring tension shifts "the other way", ostensibly to help it get to bigger cogs which you kind of need with push button shifting where you don't have the cable pull leverage. However, when they go slack or the spring wears, the only time it'll shift reliably is when it meets the shift gate on the cassette, which I suspect is the pause in shifting that you're describing.

I do not remember which way round it was. Sorry. It was hectic, so I had no time to do anything other than fix it, which I did.

colin54 wrote: ↑21 Nov 2024, 11:58pm Could it be this FD-C900 Nexave from the 2001 brochure, described as 'Power Changer' and described as using pedalling torque to execute shifts (page 6) - 'New features for 2001' ?
https://na.s-tec.shimano.com/s3_assets/ ... no_STI.pdf
Tech docs :-
https://si.shimano.com/en/pdfs/si/F870A ... 00-ENG.pdf
https://si.shimano.com/en/pdfs/ev/FD-C9 ... 0-2015.pdf
Is it to assist those button type bar controls perhaps ?
I note it also says with regard to the rear derailleur - 'Low effort Linear Action rear derailleur is much easier than conventional RD.'
A date code off the derailleur may assist on tracking down the info' if the above is not the one your customer has.
Good luck.

Using pedalling torque would explain the way the front changed. The low effort rear did not move beyond 1 and 2 until I did extensive lubrication.

Bmblbzzz wrote: ↑2 Nov 2024, 8:08pm Poorly trained dogs on extending leads are even worse!

Agreed. I never cycle between a dog and its human. Even without a lead, the animals often return or are called back to the human.