Cycling UK Forum

pwa

I think the pogoing would be a deal breaker for me. I hate that trait in any bike. It is one reason that I don't run bigger volume tyres as soft as some people like them, on a 700c bike. I accept a little bit of road judder as the price of not pogoing.

pwa

PH wrote: ↑3 Feb 2025, 10:46am
Sweep wrote: ↑2 Feb 2025, 3:23pm Thanks for the recommendation PH. Would you recommend doing it N to S or S to N finishing in Holyhead?
I've done it twice, both times from Holyhead, finishing in Cardiff and Chepstow. I've done that for logistics, I can't think of a reason not to ride from the South, but haven't done so. Either way Chepstow <> Bristol is an easy ride for plenty of train choice.
I've been over Gospel Pass a few times on different rides, I'd agree with rotavator that it's easier from the South, but I prefer it from the North, IMO it's a more scenic climb and the descent goes on for miles on roads where you can let it go a bit. It's a fantastic view if you're lucky with the weather, but it is Wales...

I too prefer the Gospel Pass from the north. Take the undulating approach very easily. There are only a couple of steep bits, notably just after a cattle grid, and you can walk those bits. I went over in the snow once, and walked a mile or more of it. But try to avoid peak traffic times on it. Before 9 am is a good time. After that on summer days it attracts some sightseeing traffic.

pwa

pjclinch wrote: ↑1 Feb 2025, 1:44pm
pwa wrote: ↑1 Feb 2025, 8:55am
Absolutely. I love the fact that there are Moultons out there. A neighbour has one and I admire it immensely. A lot of bike in a compact package. It would just never be the best bike I could have for my purposes. And the small matter of the price.
For some values of "small", of course...

But the TSR is a lot cheaper than a lot of sports machinery people are happy to buy up, and the SST isn't close to the sort of money the NS models go for.

My first Moulton was a TSR 8 I bought on eBay for £700, never regretted a penny of that.

This is still all dear compared to what you could buy a similarly functional "normal" bike with similar quality bits for, but that's not always the only things to consider.

Pete.

No, of course not. But it goes some way towards explaining which Moultons are now so niche. You have to love bikes to break out your plastic and buy one. If I got one I'd want the cheapest with disc brakes, which would be north of 11k if my memory serves me. Now in the past I could talk myself into big purchases like that, so I do understand it and don't condemn people who will pay that. But you need to be consumed by a passion for them to dig that deep into your pocket. Lovely things though.

pwa

pjclinch wrote: ↑1 Feb 2025, 8:42am
pwa wrote: ↑1 Feb 2025, 8:01am With the great tyres available now (in common sizes) the simplest and most low maintenance way of getting a small amount of cushioning for road and smoother tracks is via the tyres. To me, a Moulton looks like an overly-complicated route to the same goal. 700c with great tyres is hard to beat.
And for me n+1 will be a Shand Tam with wide 29er tyres, but the thing is to look at the package as a whole rather than fixate on wheels and/or suspension.

A Moulton SST is a general purpose jack of all trades, master of none bike designed to do a lot of stuff quite well, and it's my weapon of choice as a general hack bike. I enjoy riding it more for what I use it for more than any 700c/29er bike I've ever ridden irrespective of tyre choice. I'm not fussed about complications when riding, I'm just enjoying the overall ride.

The Shand will be used on long off road tours, for which I'll enjoy it more than the Moulton, but it really boils down to what particular use one has in mind.

Pete.

Absolutely. I love the fact that there are Moultons out there. A neighbour has one and I admire it immensely. A lot of bike in a compact package. It would just never be the best bike I could have for my purposes. And the small matter of the price.

pwa

Listening to the radio, I caught someone saying that studies had indicated that the extra traffic from a third runway at Heathrow would largely be people getting off one plane and immediately getting on another. Which casts doubt on the amount of economic benefit beyond the immediate area.

pwa

With the great tyres available now (in common sizes) the simplest and most low maintenance way of getting a small amount of cushioning for road and smoother tracks is via the tyres. To me, a Moulton looks like an overly-complicated route to the same goal. 700c with great tyres is hard to beat.

pwa

cycle tramp wrote: ↑31 Jan 2025, 8:16pm
pjclinch wrote: ↑31 Jan 2025, 7:15pm
cycle tramp wrote: ↑31 Jan 2025, 4:56pm Perhaps the ultimate performing bicycle under all your points would be the recumbent bicycle - an acknowledgement that it is not weight which holds back the performance of any bicycle, but rather wind resistance.
Again it's implementation dependent. You won't go any faster on something like a Streetmachine than you will on a typical road bike. A velomobile, on the other hand...

Pete.
*Massive thread drift alert* yes, I take your point, but because the wind resistance is less on a recumbent, you may find yourself travelling at a (slightly?) faster speed on a recumbent for the same effort on an upright....

Depends on terrain. In a hilly area where you tend to be either climbing or descending on twisty lanes, you pay the penalty for the extra weight going up, and can't always go any faster down the other side because on a lot of descents your top speed is capped by what is safe. On flatter terrain you may indeed find you have an advantage.

pwa

To stop a bit jumping around, you need to fill the hole you have made to give the centre of the bit something to bite into. So plug it with a crude dowel, tapped in with a hammer and sawn off flush. Working in places like that I have done this using bits of stick taken from nearby hedges. Any bit of wood will do, as you are only going to drill it out again almost immediately, but with a slightly wider bit. The only function of this plug is to steady the wider drill bit as you widen the hole a tad. I must have done this dozens of times when I have drilled a hole a bit too narrow. It takes five minutes to sort.

pwa

The statisticians will want a few years of data to be able to say something conclusive, but the early indications are so positive that it would take a brave or foolish politician to advocate a wholesale return to where we were immediately prior to the default 20 in Wales. And the Welsh Tories are now sounding a little more nuanced in their opposition to the policy. I suspect that they are retreating to just campaigning for a return to 30 on some main roads.

pwa

Every half way serious comment on "sustainable aviation fuel" that I have heard has concluded that it is not feasible. Rachel clearly knows something we don't. Or she is fibbing.

pwa

[XAP]Bob wrote: ↑29 Jan 2025, 11:58am
pwa wrote: ↑26 Jan 2025, 8:45pm Someone we know is house hunting and found this house for sale in Tenby. Lots of charming cottage character at a reasonable price. And then they went down the page and opened the Streetview. Is the corpse included in the price?
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/ ... el=RES_BUY
If you go up the road you can see a lady stepping over him to go into the door, and then a few clicks down the road see him get back up and enter the house as well.

Clearly saw the GooCar a street or so away and decided to pose - it's relatively common.

Yes I am sure you are right. But it did make us laugh. We glanced at the pretty images, then clicked on the Streetview and saw the legs hanging out of the door. Not the image you want to present if you are trying to sell a house. I am not even sure the house on Streetview is the correct one.

pwa

I believe that tandem would not look out of place in the National Cycle Museum. Are there any other examples of Tony's work there, I wonder?

pwa

cycle tramp wrote: ↑29 Jan 2025, 8:21am
mattheus wrote: ↑28 Jan 2025, 10:42am
pwa wrote: ↑28 Jan 2025, 7:34am
I think it smells or burnt rubber.
I'm happy to bow to RZ's expertise on this one.
It's been a long time since I had my nose in a bush.

Dear, oh dear!

pwa

cycle tramp wrote: ↑28 Jan 2025, 7:23pm
pwa wrote: ↑28 Jan 2025, 8:23am
Carlton green wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 9:46pm

That’s an interesting observation; for better control I use my rear brake in preference to my front and on a bike I certainly don’t want my front (steering) wheel locking but could tolerate my rear wheel locking. The rear wheel usually has most weight over it and (given a grippy surface) is less likely to lock (skid) than the front; of course heavy braking and going steeply down hill does transfer weight to the front, but I can’t remember the last time that I noticeably unweighted the back wheel. On bikes with cable operated callipers the front wheel will always work best, that’s because of the additional losses in the (longer, springier and bendier) cabling going to the rear wheel. So the wheel that I nearly always want to brake most (particularly steep descents excepted) has the noticeably weaker brake .

559 steel rims; your local recycling centre might be able to help …. but I think you’re better off leaving things as they are (if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it).
There are some proper hills around here, and having to do some vigorous braking going down a 1 in 7 is something that happens. The rear brake isn't able to do much for you in that situation. The front wheel is the one with grip then, and the one that can take the speed down to zero. So for me, a bike that doesn't have decent bite in the front brake is unfit for use around here.
That's fair enough, but the first time i cycled from Bridgwater to Lynmouth I did so on a bike with steel rims and I cycled down Countisbury hill... got to the bottom and both rims were really quote hot..

Presumably in the dry? I remember ordering my first pair of aluminium alloy rimmed wheels, probably around 1985, and I got them partly because the man behind the counter in the bike shop told me the braking would be better. He wasn't wrong.

pwa

Just widening it out a bit, I don't know of any shoe type that provides reliable grip on smooth, slippery surfaces. Hiking boots certainly don't, and trainer style hiking shoes aren't much better on ice or algae covered wood. There are numerous strap-on things advertised to put on your shoes and, I guess, give you metal studs to walk on.

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