Cycling UK Forum

Looks great!

I can also whole heartedly recommend that company. Sharp delivery time on my horn a few weeks ago and came with a much appreciated tea bag! Random I know, but it enjoyed all the same!

I would say that the large chain stores that have money to advertise and bulk buy for national stores are doing far more damage to to the local bike shop that the internet retailers. At a guess I would assume that the bulk of gross national cycle related sales are to Joe & Jane Public, rather than cycling enthusiasts such as ourselves. I doubt many of their shopping habits extent to the internet stores many of us use.

I can't see much of a differentiation between reputable traditional postal retailers and internet retailers. If trading on a national scale both are going to have the bulk buying power to drive their prices to a lower level than local bike shops.

The only time when I would see reason to intervene is if one retailer got such a market share that they could write there own pricing scheme, to the major disadvantage of the customer.

As a footnote I use my local bike shop where specialist tools or skills are required and enjoy doing the rest myself. While I will support the local bike shop to a degree I can't afford to get everything from there.

I would be against the idea of a brake light on the cyclist as if drivers got used to them too much then some drivers would be inclined to follow too closely as they may presume more forewarning on the actions of cyclists. I much prefer the idea of drivers treating cyclists as unpredictable and giving us the warranted wide berth.

The wrist strap is a better idea, although as some have already said there is highly reflective wrist / ankle straps already available, these work even better the brighter the lights of the following vehicle, so there are little situations where the flashing lights would be of use.

Bicycle indicators are already commercially available;

Bycygnals (£40 ish)

The advantage these gives is a standard pattern: - If the rear light is on and the indicators flash a driver will instinctively know what it means as the layout of the lights are identical to scooters and motorbikes. The wrist flashers are new and different, so when a driver sees one for the first time there will be a delay while they figure out what the light is meaning. If your product went commercial - realistically you could not expect to be able to afford TV advert time (How many major bike manufacturer adverts have you seen? The adds are just too expensive) - it would be a long time, if ever that the majority of drivers had seen them and knew what they where.

The disadvantage with the Bicygnals is that it's another handlebar mounted switch, I don't think it self cancels, and it looks bulky from those sales pictures.

I would suggest developing your product to have passive reflective wrist bands, with motion sensors that trigger the indicators (so the cyclist indicates as normal and the light flashes - no learning or bar switches needed), but having the indicators in a similar layout to the Bicygnals system so they are instantly recognisable to other road users. I would leave the idea of a brake light but try to aim to have your product covering all the lighting and reflective needs, so BS marked front and rear reflector, white high intensity light front LED, and high intensity red BS approved rear LED, and as water resistant as costs can allow.

Finally I know you haven't suggested a retail price yet but I'd advise that you'd be lucky to be able to shift any volume if they where much over the price of the only other comparable product as linked above.

However on the upside I much prefer the direction your taking to the other students design product of including a very similar system into a jacket which was aired on BBC a few months back.

Age - 26
Gender - Male
Occupation - Research Engineer (Ultralight metallic lattice structures / composite core structures / and loads of coding)

Edit:- Si raises a very good point about drinking. I ride with a rucksac hydration system and get through a litre an hour of water with lots of little slurps. If it indicated each time I did that I would be going for a refund mighty quick!

I use my XC MTB for commuting and can't consider any tyre that hasn't got a high degree of puncture resistance. Just too much glass and debree from previous motor vehicle accidents on the cycle path to do other wise.

I'm currently on my second set (rear wheel wore square and had a chunk of rubber missing after 1600 miles) of Specialized Nimbus Armidillos (26"*1.5), for my next set I think I'll be looking at the Continental Ultra Gators (26"*1.125). My Armidillos have proven very puncture resistant and one of my friends swapped to the Gators which promptly ended his bad streak of punctures on the same route. I'm considering the swap mainly due to weight, I've weighed the armidillos at between 550 and 600g per tyre, and wiggle put the Gators at 350g per tyre.

Lord Helmet

YAHO LORD HELMET!



Sorry couldn't resist!

reohn2 wrote:If someone doesn't have their bike stolen then it should be reflected in their premium.

Awkward one that. Why should your premiums be raised if you took all the necessary precautions and still suffer a theft. My premiums will already be linked to the risk of theft within an area, and to my (or at least average) risk associate to my use of the bike. I pay my insurance company to remove the risk of loss of property. I pay them to take the risk off me. If my premiums rise after a claim that in reasonable terms is not my fault then I think I'm not getting what I pay for.

I am considering coming along on a few of the rides listed here St Helens Group but there is very little detail about the rides themselves. How long are the next four rides, what is the intended pace etc?

That Koga-Miyata Infiniti does indeed look like a very nice bike.

I keep thinking about hub gears and end up thinking; "Oh their slightly heavier, and perhaps sap more energy than a normal gear setup.... blah blah blah" Funny thing is I stopped and compared that to peoples arguments against disc brakes (which in an ideal world I would have on this tourer) and they are very similar! To be honest I think I would give hub gears a go when I can afford a hub that covers the same sort of range of ratios as my current bike.

I wonder if any one is working on the constantly variable gearboxes for bikes like they've started looking at for cars? Now that really would feel weird to ride! Feet moving at the same speed but bike accelerating! Think it'd need a dose of electronic wizardry to get it working well.

Edit: As it happens both CVT and IVT hub transmissions are in development for bikes and other applications. Here are links to two different systems I found on a quick search. NuVinci Hub CVT FOMO IVT

CVT is Continuously Variable Transition, and IVT is Infinite. The definition being CVT can have an infinite number of discrete ratios between a upper and lower ratio limit. An infinitely variable transmission can vary from a geared stop to an upper limit ratio, over an infinite number of discrete ratios. I'm very interested in the IVT, or at least will be when it's hub sized and sub 2kg.

drossall wrote:Six on one pedal and seven on the other?

Groan! That'll teach me to be more careful before "Submit"!

Russell wrote:Of course the other way to avoid toe-clip overlap is to use smaller wheels - but that will open up another can of worms so I won't mention it!

Big can of worms! I'm sure I've seen some bikes with smaller front wheels, think it might of been a TT bike. It'd be an option I'd consider for a custom bike (after a lottery win or pay rise ), as both of the tyres I like (Continental Ultra Gator, and Specialized Nimbus Armidillo) are available in the same section for 26" and 700 wheels.

All that said I'd never just go out and buy a custom bike (even if the money was there) without at least trying to get used to a fast touring geometry first. If I accept that the only way I can get a disc equipped tourer (with no overlap) is to go custom, which bikes fit the fast tourer bill (- Discs, Trek Portland and Kona Sutra aren't on Ebay!) which I'm likely to find second hand? Are these 135 (mtb) or 130 (road) width hubs?

Few of the geometry sheets directly specify the front centers measurement. Is Wheelbase - Chain stay a reasonable estimation? If so I've compared that to:

Minimum Front Centres = Crank Size + 110 (from pedal spindle to tip of shoe) + Tyre Radius

Where;

Crank Size = 175
Tyre Radius = ( Tyre Circumference / 3.14 ) / 2
Tyre Circumference = 2130 from 700*28C on CTC Tyre Info
Tyre Radius = ( 2130 / 3.14 ) / 2 = 339

Therefore:

Minimum Front Centers = 624mm

Ok there are a few things ignored here, notably that when you steer the rear of the tyre moves in an arc, so giving more clearance. However, for example this gives an overlap on a Dawes Galaxy's and Dawes Audax without considering Clearance for the guards.

Sorry, didn't mean that, just meant I'd be looking for one with no overlap.

Whoops, hit a raw nerve there!

Thanks very much for the replies. I guess it's another one of those issues where some do & some don't like it. For track bikes (my old speedway bike suffered it, but you needed to get your inside foot out anyway when cornering), and perhaps TT bikes I wouldn't be that bothered about it as I guess you have to turn fairly sharply before it's a problem.

However I'm still inclined to take CJ stance on it, but a little surprised this decision seems to limit my choice somewhat. If I were to get a bike along these lines then it would be used for touring with the occasional commute in heavy traffic, so the ability to avoid idiots who present themselves with little warning without having to complete up to 1/4 of a turn on the cranks (2.1m in my current top gear, or 1.3m in a fast cruise gear) before swerving.

Thankfully I'm a long limbed 6'3 so long top tube isn't so much of a problem. My 13 feet counter act this a little though!

Thanks again.

Do many tourers and road bikes suffer toe/front wheel overlap?

I'm looking around for disc equipped drop bar fast/light duty/audax tourers (any recommendations would be appreciated, I've seen the Kona Sutra. I'm only browsing at the moment) and they seem to have minimal clearance for feet. I would need about 110mm clearance between the pedal spindle and the front wheel to have no overlap, would this badly restrict the choice?

I get spooked about the idea of my toe colliding with the wheel when I need to swerve sharply etc.

Thankfully yes. Got it to the side of the road, put chain back on, spun the wheels, checked the quick releases major frame joints around the headset and handle bars and all seemed ok. I guess that comes from riding something that's massively over engineered for road riding, a xc mtb! Felt a little odd for a few minutes but think it was because I was a little shaken. Got me home ok yesterday and back in this morning so must be ok. Wheels where due a re-tension any how.

Odd thing though, there's a scuff on the saddle I noticed this morning on the opposite side to what I thought hit the road, so the bike must have danced around a bit more than I had thought.

Pair of legs, breasts, etc! They're not identical!

...to be sure I shall look into the issue!

Ahh nuts. Just re-read your post more carefully Hubgear and you beat me to it!

Argh! Similar (but thankfully much less painful) thing just happened to me on my way home. Two kids one with a dog walked up to a pelican crossing (one that was part of a road junction) stopped, looked both ways, made eye contact with me then walked straight out in front of me when I was about a meter from the crossing. Lumped the brakes right on and had a choice between kid or dog. I hit the dog, which through me over the bars.

Thankfully I'd scrubbed off enough speed to only end up with grazes to the knee and elbow and no damage to the bike. The dog was mobile afterwards and walking around a lot so I guess the worst it suffered was bruised or broken ribs.

...and what did the kid say? "Sorry thought I had enough room!" Twit. He won't do that again in a hurry.

I do have an Air Zound to but there simply wasn't the time to use it, much the same as in a couple of vehicle accidents I've been in there wasn't enough time to use the horn, and by the time things have gone tits up it doesn't do much good anyhow. The horn is primarily there as a "Hey I'm here!" reminder to accidents waiting to happen, like cars coming backwards out of drives, narrow two way hump back bridges, buses giving you the squeeze, pedestrians cutting through stationary traffic that your also filtering through, pedestrians stepping out in front of you etc... However I only use it in situations that won't effect my ability to stop or avoid the accident. In this case I was having to move my weight around on the bike up until the point of no return over the bars, and then trying to man handle the bike (and unclip the cleats) so that I and the bike landed in the same carriageway (dual carriageway road) that I started in.