Cycling UK Forum

If you only need something that will allow you to raise your seat after you've got on, and lower it before you get off, you might be able to get away with using the first ever dropper mechanism from the 1980s. I reckon it would be pretty simple to make one yourself from a big spring, but there is still new old stock being sold for around thirty quid, e.g. here: >https://shop.baroudeur-cycles.com/produ ... -hite-rite< Looks a bit odd, but would save you the faff of trying to route the actuator cable, which gets a bit complicated because (1) you'll probably have to use the less-common variant of the dropper post itself as your bike probably hasn't got internal cable routing holes and (2) you'll probably need to use the less-common variant of the actuator lever as your bike probably has a front derailleur, so there won't be space on the left handlebar for a paddle-style actuator.

pwa wrote: ↑15 Aug 2023, 11:38amLuckily for me my home is 100m above sea level. But the food I eat comes largely from lower-lying areas.

I think we're already seeing how climate change is really going to change our lives, and it's not going to be most of us actually getting our feet wet, despite the headline-grabbing floods, droughts and wild-fires etc. Instead, it's going to be seemingly mundane problems with world food production and prices. This will result in social unrest, mass migration and extremism in politics, which I think we're currently starting to see in the UK.

I remember listening to the following series of 5 short Radio 4 programmes on tipping points this time last year, and feeling pretty despondent about what the science was starting to show. But the climate data which has been coming out recently puts this into a whole new perspective:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00180cb

wendyb wrote: ↑5 Aug 2023, 4:02pm So with winter just around the corner I am starting to think about lights, front lights. In the past I have used cheap Cree lights and been quite happy. Anybody use these now? What would other riders recommend for off road night riding?

Is this for riding mountain bike trails at night? If so, you really want two lights - one on your head, and one on your bars. They'll need to be very bright, so cree (or similar) will be your best bet. If you're riding fast through twisty stuff in the dark, I've found a light with a wide, even spread works much better. In the past, I've tried an ultra-bright cheapo cree-type thing, and I found it quite difficult to pick out hazards and understand the terrain because they tend to have a small bright spot in the centre of the light beam, making it difficult your your eyes to pick out what's around it. I've since switched to a Halfords light (on my bars), based on a recommendation, and although it's nominally less-bright than the cheapo light, the uniform, wide beam makes it much easier to see what's in front of you: https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-a ... 53350.html I'm still using the cheapo light on my helmet, where I find the narrow hot-spot isn't such a problem as the light is always illuminating whatever spot your head is pointing at. For your helmet light, go for one which has got a separate battery pack, linked via a curly cable. You can then attach the heavy battery at the back of the helmet, whilst the little light-head unit can be attached to the top of your helmet, where it won't wobble around as it doesn't weigh much. Here's mine:https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295289140169 ... R6rLtP24Yg

Richard Fairhurst wrote: ↑3 Aug 2023, 9:34amThe app is finished (version 1 at least) but it's currently waiting for Google to approve it!

Thanks Richard - I'll definitely be giving it a try once Google release it.

Lookrider wrote: ↑2 Aug 2023, 5:03pmAny other easy cycle apps come to mind
Preferably where the sustrians routes cycle paths etc jump out more than the roads do

I use Google Maps quite a lot for cycling. It's not perfect, but it usually give you a reasonably sensible route, and tends to favour Sustrans routes if they're available, and will tell you what their NCN number is in the route description. Routing is just a matter of clicking on where you want to go, choosing 'directions' and clicking on the cycle symbol near the top. That's all I do, but you could then click 'start' for it to start giving you turn-by-turn directions. To show bike-friendly roads and NCN paths overlaid on the map, click the 'layers' icon on the map screen and select 'cycling.'

There are other ones out there, like OSMAnd and Komoot, but I've rarely used these so I'll leave it up to someone else to recommend them or not.

Re. Cyclestreets: it's probably just a matter of waiting. They're aware of the problem, so my guess would be it won't take much more than a month for them to issue an updated version that works on newer Android versions.

Lookrider wrote: ↑2 Aug 2023, 2:43pm It sounds like as you describe
There's no maps
Saved routes etc are there but in viewable
I cannot see where it says to allow data when I down loaded the app
I'm not tech savvy

Okay, I've just had a look myself, and seen that Cyclestreets are claiming the problem with maps not displaying is a known issue with new versions of Android, but it can be fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling the app.

So find the app icon on your phone and press and hold it until two boxes pop up. Keep the icon pressed and drag it up, which will make two further options appear at the top of the screen . Drag the icon to the one on the right: 'uninstall.'

After its uninstalled, go into the Google Play app, find Cyclestreets and reinstall it. If the developers are correct, this should fix your maps.

And yes, I've just checked and you're right - 'cycle travel' is not yet available on Android.

Lookrider wrote: ↑2 Aug 2023, 9:29am This is out of date I know but is related
I've had cycestreets app on an android phone for several years and love the simplicity of it
I now have a new Google phone and the downloaded app does not show any maps at all ???
There's a recent review on the app page suggesting others have this issue
Has anyone else had this on cycestreets apps
Thanks techno people

I'm still using it on Android, and it's still working for me. However, some time ago they 'updated' it, getting rid of the offline vector maps. So now you need a data connection for maps. This may be related to your missing maps - e.g. have you given your app permission to use data? (The elephant in the room here is that without the offline vector maps, we might as well switch to the cycle.travel app, which I just haven't got round to yet )

Steve O'C wrote: ↑1 Aug 2023, 8:57amI assume the torx head screws outlined are the brake bleed points?

That's definitely the case for the caliper one. As you say, you'll need to find the adaptor with the right thread to screw into it so you can connect up the bleed hose. Can't help much with that, other than pointing towards this kit which a bloke on Reddit claims had the right adaptor for his Vanmoof: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0784 ... =UTF8&th=1 Not cheap, and you will probably find one of the many cheapo universal brake bleed kits on eBay/Amazon have probably got the right adaptor in there.

As for the one under the reservoir, that looked a bit odd to me, as I'm used to bleeding brakes through the top of the reservoir, either by taking off the cap and pouring fluid in directly, or via attaching a funnel to a port in the cap. However, it looks like the Vanmoof system has to be bled by sucking the fluid up from the top (rather than pulling it down to the caliper) in which case, that torx screw is probably the bleed point. Again, you'll need the right adaptor to screw in and connect the syringe to. I've never bled this sort of system before, but here's a YouTube video of a similar type being bled:

My recommendation to anyone thinking of replying to this thread is to take note of the very specific nature of the OP's request. He has already experienced frustration with at least one of the other threads he's started today: viewtopic.php?t=157353

maximus meridius wrote: ↑30 Jul 2023, 11:15amRevealing. I make a post referencing to other posts where forum members clearly state their attitude to cost, worth and value. Explicit information on which to make a judgement about them. Which I did.

You have imagined you know things about me, specifically my motoring habits, without any information. Apart from presumably taking exception to the "tone" of my post.

For information I drive a 17 year old tiny hatchback, with a 1.4 litre engine. The registration plate is the one the car was first registered with.

You're right - I didn't know anything about your motoring habits, which is why I made no comment about them. My point about the 'tone' of your original post was that it really didn't sound like something the owner of a small/economical car might write - the use of words like 'skinflint' etc. will inevitably have people drawing conclusions about you. The world is, depressingly, still full of people keen to be admired for their tacky over-consumption, so my comment gave you a heads-up to correct the misleading impression you'd given that you were one of these.

Pinhead wrote: ↑30 Jul 2023, 11:22amNothing wrong with changing the car every few years, my sons is 4 next year and he will change for a new one.

Unless you care about the environment.

SpaceCaptainTheodore wrote: ↑30 Jul 2023, 10:18amRegarding the recycling/incineration thing, I used to be a waste management specialist (in a niche area). Sometimes combustion is genuinely the least worst option, and the technologies can be pretty clean.

Although I'm completely unqualified in this, I've always thought the same - incineration seems to be the least-worse option when compared with landfill. It seems to be a choice between immediately belching a load of CO2 out of a chimney or leaving something nasty in the ground where, in the long term, it's going to give off CO2 as well as finding it's way into watercourses etc. I'm very pessimistic about the ability of humanity to organise itself effectively to prevent climate change, but we can at least minimise the amount of plastics etc. we're going to saturate the environment with for hundreds of years after the demise of our current industrialised civilisation.

Good luck with your experiment. The glue I used is this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195901755911 ... R9yZsuO0Yg Obviously, the larger the patch, the greater the glued contact area and the better the chance that it will withstand the pressure. A good starting point for patch material would be the casing from an old knackered tyre, although I got away with using a much more mundane and seemingly-weak fabric on my mountain bike tyre.

I had a 1" long cut on the side-wall of a mountain bike tyre. I decided to repair/reinforce it as the tread was still good and I try not to throw anything into landfill until I've exhausted all repair possibilities. I did the repair by gluing an internal patch made from strong material. (I won't specify which material I used, as that would definitely derail this thread, but the glue was a very strong contact adhesive used for drysuit repair.) When I finally retired the tyre 2 years later, I'd worn the tread down to nothing, but my patch-repair was still going strong. This may or may not be relevant to your tyre which may take 100psi more than my mountain bike tyre.

Earlier in the thread, mention was made of taking your old tyre to a recycling centre. I'm yet to be convinced that they will do anything other than burn or bury it. I've searched online for bike tyre recycling technology in the UK, and this brings up specialist companies who charge you to drop your old tyres or Li-ion batteries off, but are suspiciously quiet about what they actually do with the things... I'm sure there are industrial processes which could strip the rubber from the casing in order to 'recycle' both however, as with much recycling technology, this is too expensive and time-consuming to cope with the vast amounts of waste we produce, so instead our 'recycling' is dealt with by sleight of hand, i.e. burned or being shipped off to poor countries who promise us they'll recycle it rather than dump it... As individuals, the best thing we can do therefore is to minimise the amount of stuff we buy and throw away.

I'm giving the OP the benefit of the doubt and taking their point as being that it would be good to support struggling local bike shops etc.

They've really shot themselves in the foot with the tone of the post though - which comes across a bit like: "AREN'T I GREAT FOR SPENDING SO MUCH ON MY SUV AND PERSONALISED NUMBER PLATE! I GET A NEW ONE EVERY YEAR OR WHEN THE ASH-TRAYS ARE FULL TOO!'

keyboardmonkey wrote: ↑19 Jul 2023, 8:01pm From the OP elsewhere before anyone else spends time on this thread:

Thanks for posting this. It's always helpful to know that a thread-starter is likely to be a one-post-wonder so we can decide whether it's worth our time responding.

The thing that I've found remarkable about this episode has been the lack of reflection from those indulging this individual as to whether these never-ending threads have been helpful to him. It was immediately apparent to me that this was a person who really didn't need any further opinions to obsess over, quibble with or use as a segue into off-topic and forum-inappropriate discussions. I made quite a few 'comic' attempts to point out the problem, but this forum has an unusually high propensity for people to repeatedly provide chapter-and-verse responses to thread-starters regardless of obvious red flags. In this case, the 'red flag' was that opinions were supposedly being sought, but then being ignored or challenged based on information found online - not a crime, but a guaranteed recipe for members to get their noses put out of joint whilst the OP moves ever further from a decision. Another frequent 'red flag' is new members starting threads to ask questions which could have been answered via 5 seconds on Google - these all too often turn out to be 'one-post-wonders' and sometimes prove to be the work of scammers, possibly using AI tools. We've also had a few examples of people repeatedly starting supposedly-innocent 'creative writing' threads, when it's been painfully obvious to me that they've got an 'agenda.' By the time they're finally banned, they've usually succeeded in generating many multi-page toxic threads focused on whatever particular axe they're grinding.

It must be difficult to effectively moderate stuff like this if you haven't recognised the red flags, but it would help if all of us showed a bit more discrimination when replying, rather than just pile in with chapter-and-verse without taking the time to read what's already been discussed.