Cycling UK Forum

A cable lock proved fatel for me also. I thought it was tough enough with a 1cm diameter cable but simple cutters got through it in seconds. I'd say that if the bike is going to be left for more than 1 hour then a solid lock is a must! And for bikes left for over 4 hours i'd say two solid locks are a must, one for front wheel and one for frame/back wheel.

But even that isn't a sure thing...
When i lived in oxford my D-lock key broke in the lock mech - so my bike was stuck in a very public place in the middle of town (outside the central libary). In the end i paid a man to cut the lock off with a portable angle grinder during my lunch break (1pm monday, so very busy). To my suprise not one passing person questioned this at all!

I really think a small alarm system should be deviced for our lovely bikes!

This is not my story but one of a good friend (John) who was cycling through the appropriately named death vally (god knows why!).

Death Vally for thoes who don't know is a desert located in eastern California, John had decided to cycle through this place as part of a long tour he was doing. While cycling along, totaly alone with no civilisation or mobile reception for miles, John ran over what looked to be a branch lying in the middle of the road and almost instantly he felt a sharp pain on the back of his leg. Looking down he say blood had been drawn, clearly he had been bitten by a snake!

Having been warned by a park ranger that if he were bitten on this section of desert his chances of survival were slim to none, fearing for his life John cycled as fas as possible to find mobile reception or civilication. However about an hour later with no sign of rescue and feeling increasingly unwell and faint he sat down at the side of the road resigned to his fate and wrote a short note to friends and family.

Some time passed and to John's amasement he was starting to feel better. Taking a closer look at his leg the wound look suspisiously like the side of his pedal.
Cutting the story short, it would seem that simply the jolt of cycling over the branch or what ever it was had caused his foot to become lose and the pedal subsequently hit the back of his leg. Feeling ill was most likely a consequence of the heat and exhaustion from cycling too fast!

He won't live that story down for a while!

I actualy have the gps unit you were talking about.

It does what it says on the tin i must admit. It does give good GPS refrences and the phone reception isn't bad either.

However it is a bit fiddly to set up - i've only got the 'text back' function working atm (where you phone it and it texts back a possition) which is ok. I haven't managed to get the realtime possition monitoring working yet as you have to bit a total computer wiz kid.

really i'd like it to do some data logging so i could use it to map my ride as well but you can't expect everything for this price! Also battery life is an issue if your leaving it out for a long time and want it monitored.

Looking at the post above this one i really like the idea of hiding the gps in a bike light - i think i'll adapt mine to do this!