Cycling UK Forum

If you get black muck up your back then your mudguards are not big enough.
You need the sort that wrap round the wheel and go low down at the back, not those bits of plastic hopefully fitted many inches above a mountain bike's rear tyre.

One flashing, one steady at rear. Flashing to be noticed, steady to judge distance. Also gives you a backup in case either stops working. I have two front lights; one which is to let me see (angled down to hit the road about 15 feet in front of me) and one to be seen, which puts out light sideways, ...

There was a study done, I think in New Zealand, which showed that helmeted cyclists tended to be passed closer by vehicles than non-helmeted ones. Add to this that a helmet won't help you about 90% of the time if you get knocked off, and one has to wonder if the safest thing would be to make cycle h...

Why the assumption that an 'old fashioned' upright is a poor bike?
Some old uprights are excellent, designed for everyday use. And you can ride them in normal clothes, too.
You don't need all the latest gear to ride up mountains. Just to be reasonably fit and have a bike with low gears.

The guideway is narrower than a single carriageway road - the buses pass very close. That way there's room for a cycle/horse/pedestrian track, and they can prevent other vehicles using the guideway easily. The old railway track was only a single line; I doubt it would have been an cheaper to lay a d...

I see that solar lights have now appeared on the section between Histon and the A14; should reduce the Ninja cyclist/pedestrian hazard quite a bit.

It's only once in a blue moon that I witness lights being fitted anywhere other than the handlebar. My front lights are fitted on a bar which attaches to the bottom of my bike basket; if I mounted them on the handlebars the basket would be in the way. (a basket is a very useful thing on a bike as y...

The problem is not bright front lights. The problem is bright front lights which are not angled downwards. Car headlights on dipped are angled down so other road users are not dazzled. A lot of bike lights seem to be angled to point straight at the eyes of other road users. This is anti-social at be...

It is worth pointing out that only one small stretch of the cycleway (the bit round Fen Drayton lakes) floods. Everything south of Swavesey is passable year round. I commute daily on this cycleway from Histon to the Business Park on Milton Road. Great route; flat, smooth and traffic free. You do occ...

I don't understand the opposition to bells. A high pitched ping travels further than a voice, and immediately identifies you as a bike. A voice behind could be a pedestrian. When walking, (or cycling for that matter) I much prefer having a bell ping behind me than someone shouting 'on your right' or...

Little 'pinger' bells don't make unwanted noises and are much better at alerting pedestrians than shouts. I have one on each side of my handlebars, so I'm bound to be able to get to one of them in an emergency, and if both hands are free, I can make a pleasing two-tone 'ding,dong' sound by pinging l...

Surely the issue isn't with brightness of lights, it is where they are pointed. Some cyclists have front lights pointed straight ahead so they blind other road users, and also don't illuminate the road ahead for the rider. I have my front light angled down to a spot about 15 feet in front of me - th...

I use a pair of wool Dachstein mitts bought for winter walking in Scotland. These are extremely warm even when wet, although they have nylon covers to keep them dry (and loops to go round your wrists so you can't drop them if you want, although those are more useful when fiddling with crampons half ...

A bike computer just counts wheel revolutions and converts that to distance using the circumference of the wheel, which you put into the computer.
What's wrong with that?
If you want to convert the number back to wheel revolutions, divide by wheel circumference.

I have one flashing and one steady light on the rear. I find flashing front lights distracting even when they are on my own bike, so I have two steady lights. One low-ish power one pointing straight ahead (it also puts out light to the side); this is the 'be seen' light. One high power light tilted ...