Cycling UK Forum

axel_knutt wrote: ↑31 Oct 2024, 4:41pm

Sweep wrote: ↑31 Oct 2024, 4:01pm

axel_knutt wrote: ↑26 Oct 2024, 12:46pm Unlike when I'm at home, I don't usually bother with fruit & veg on tour, it just doesn't contain enough calories to justify the space and weight it occupies. Pasta, couscous, cheese etc contain 18-20 times the calories of a courgette for example, per unit weight.

What about potatoes?
Pasta always strikes me as particularly inefficient - takes up a lot of room (all those damn holes in many varieties) and needs a fair amount of water to be boiled up and hence a pan of a fair size. Potatoes and veg can be cooked with very little water.
Er, not entirely reasonable to compare the energy benefits per volume of courgettes with your chosen nosh

Pasta is more than four times the calorific value of potatoes, and the waste space on spaghetti is lower than potatoes, taking them as roughly spherical. The amount of food you need to fuel a ride is metered by the energy it contains, and the burden associated with carrying it related to the size & weight, so the relevant metric for measuring the efficiency in transporting it are the calorific values by weight and volume. Fruit & veg just aren't an efficient way of fuelling, it's like building a BEV using lead acid cells instead of lithium.

Fruit and veg not for fuelling axel - note the thread title. Veg is good for all sorts of reasons.
Of course if a short ride or you can just fuel and damn the consequences/sort yourself afterwards you could just ride on a dripfeed of syrup.

Spaghetti, though no holes, is a particular pig to cook in my opinion. I do know that I'd have real problems cooking it in a Trangia 27 pan. And wouldn't dare try in Italy where I'd be mocked/deported for not using a bucket of water and a fistful of salt.

I also have memories of a campsite in the Outer Hebrides where the pasta took forever to cook and only speeded up when I managed to arrange my body as a windbreak.

Navrig wrote: ↑31 Oct 2024, 4:09pm I can't post specifics to legal requirements but I can share my experience of this scenario.

Manchester - Dunbar.
Transpennine Manchester to York then ECML York to Dunbar

The TP service was massively delayed meaning I was going to miss my connection and I knew this before arriving in York. The problem, for me, is that my connection was the last train to stop in Dunbar. Later trains going on to Edinburgh at a time after the last return train to Dunbar.
I cornered, politely, the TP train staff and explained the predicament. He wrote me a "pass" on his official paper confirming that I was likely to have problems getting home.
After arriving at York I jumped on an ECML to Edinburgh but jumped off at Berwick where I picked up a taxi. I then sent in a claim to TP for the cost of the taxi using my tickets, the TP staff note and my taxi receipt. They paid up. I was rather unsure of the chance of them paying up so I claimed the taxi as a business expense too It was about £54.

The extra payment didn't offset the family disruption of getting home at midnight and the terrifying taxi trip up the A1 in the most horrendous of storms.

So - speak to the staff, ask for confirmation of the delay, know your get out options and restrictions. I would try to avoid connections times of less than an hour, maybe even 90 minutes.

Many thanks for the detailed reply Navrig - sounds reassuring.
Other responses welcome of course.
On changing time I would usually leave half an hour to allow for bike wrangling.
To be honest I feel that this is enough for any decent company.

My question maybe not as daft/nervous as it sounds on second thoughts, to be fair to myself - am currently somewhere where Northern has cancelled two trains in a single morning* from a local station which only has one train an hour. Enough to screw the best laid plans.

* The reason for one of the cancellations was given as "last minute timetable change". You can't make this up.

It's hassle such as this which means I usually take just a single train - simplifies everything - including delay repays.

anyways more responses/experiences welcome.

Galactic wrote: ↑26 Sep 2024, 1:47pm

Bmblbzzz wrote: ↑26 Sep 2024, 1:30pm Ooh, I hadn't thought of a grater! How big is it? Do you have a link to something similar so we can see what you're talking about, size wise etc?

For some reason I can't upload images here, but it's a little hand grater, there are plenty of variations and sizes out there. On mine the grating surface is maybe 9 or 10cm long and about 6cm wide, and it has a handle about the same length. I saw a similar sized one in a local supermarket the other day, I think it was a Co-op but it could have been Sainsbury's. Worth its weight in food.

TK Maxx is quite often good for utensils which though supposedly aimed at the style conscious kitchen hero can be good for camping use. As some are quite dinky. I have a neat cooking spoon and spatula I bought at TK Maxx which is little different from a kinda neat looking set I saw in a camping shop. I also have a dinky grater and I think that quite possibly came from TK Maxx as well some years ago.

axel_knutt wrote: ↑26 Oct 2024, 12:46pm Unlike when I'm at home, I don't usually bother with fruit & veg on tour, it just doesn't contain enough calories to justify the space and weight it occupies. Pasta, couscous, cheese etc contain 18-20 times the calories of a courgette for example, per unit weight.

What about potatoes?
Pasta always strikes me as particularly inefficient - takes up a lot of room (all those damn holes in many varieties) and needs a fair amount of water to be boiled up and hence a pan of a fair size. Potatoes and veg can be cooked with very little water.
Er, not entirely reasonable to compare the energy benefits per volume of courgettes with your chosen nosh

mattheus wrote: ↑31 Oct 2024, 9:49am

Jon in Sweden wrote: ↑30 Oct 2024, 9:45pm
Triples made sense when everyone was on 6-8sp cassettes, but it's 11-12 now and they are just outdated.

Mate, you're riding a bicycle. In 2024. We have 200mph motorcycles, working jet-packs, single-wheel "hover-board" thingies!

"they're outdated" just isn't a sensible argument, sorry

yep I rather squirmed/pondered at that statement.
Surely won't be long until his 11-12 is considered "outdated" by some?
What then? send it all to the scrap-heap and hail the new boss?

UpWrong wrote: ↑31 Oct 2024, 1:15pm
9-speed Shimano sucks because of the poor pull ratio,

sorry, I don't understand this.
There are good pull ratios and bad pull ratios?
sexy ones and not so sexy ones?
Does the pull ratio matter as long as all the bits work together and the gears change?
(have built up several 9 speed bikes from original 7 speeds and all work)

Apologies for what doubtless sounds like a daft question, but I am doing some trip planning and have usually before for simplicity avoided trips, especially with the bike, involving two train trjps.

And after the recent northern hoo ha (though I know that involved "anytime" tickets) am particularly nervous.

So can I ask what my rights are with the following scenario?

Journey booked in a single booking on one of the major train company booking engines (Not Trainline - do not want to pay a booking fee) but with two train journeys - second journey with a second train company. Both trips with a specified train departure time. (for economy obviously)

If my first train is delayed and I miss the booked second specified train what are my rights?

Can I use the ticket on the next available train?

Can I insist that the next available train is one that can take my bike? (ie possibly passing on the next train and taking the one after that)

If I can go on a subsequent train does this have to be on the same day? (as there are clearly scenarios where the missed connection may mean that there are no more "second leg" trains available on the day you set off.

Thanks in advance for what probably sounds like a real newby question, but we all know that the British train system, and its regs, can be less than user friendly at times.

RickH wrote: ↑31 Oct 2024, 1:52pm

Vantage wrote: ↑21 Oct 2024, 8:30pm

Sweep wrote: ↑20 Oct 2024, 5:44pm
I think they also pretty recently closed their central Bolton branch.

Couple years ago. They moved it to the middlebrook retail park to facilitate all the drivers Having said that, everything in Bolton town centre is leaving.
It's alot smaller now with the resulting fewer choices of things to buy.

I thought the new store at Middlebrook was supposed to be, in theory at least, a larger store. Despite it being closer I've not been in more than a couple of times. If I don't get stuff from Green Machine in Horwich I tend to use Winstanleys in Wigan or Merlin in Chorley (both mainly online stores but you can just roll up & buy stuff).

So Merlin have a shop as well that you can just browse in?

Have bought stuff from them online in the past - their Chorley base might well be within riding distance for me when in those parts.

By the by - got a mail from Decathlon the other dayall about inviting me to pop along for a range of exciting activities, yoga etc. No thanks Decathlon.

Currently available in some Aldis for £4.99.

Although certain reservations about not being StVO I found hard to resist at that price, especially as my Lidl rechargeable front has just died.

First impressions - seems quite well made and I rather like the status display.

Will try to use it on some dark lanes soon and report back.

Back also seems quite well made.

Jon in Sweden wrote: ↑29 Oct 2024, 10:14pm I really don't think that there is any need for triples these days. I say that as someone with a 531 framed Mercian with an Ultegra Triple.

You have plenty of range with a couple and a wide range cassette on the back. In most cases, way more range than with a triple. For example, my Canyon Grail is on a 48/31 at the front and an 11-36 cassette. I have climbed the 3 highest and hardest climbs in Norway on that (2 of the 3 were gravel, with long, long pitches at 15-17%).

I think especially where UK 'gravel' is concerned, you're dealing with a lot of mud and having the complication of a triple just seems unnecessary.

I'm not saying go 1x (I'm still not convinced by that yet), but a 2x system will give you ample gear range and you've a lot of different groupsets to choose from. I honestly cannot remember ever seeing a gravel bike running a triple.

For reference, I ride about 8000km gravel a year and go to plenty of events and some races.

Were you carrying much on these climbs?
(Ok, admit am a triple fan,find no problems with, would find a fag to change to anything else)

Oh, will be going through Euston a fair bit in the near future.

I await to see with interest whether the great expanse of blank blackness at the head of the platforms (where ever since the Brits invented the railway most rail operators have put the departure info) bursts into life as departure info or a dirty great big cinerama advertising screen blasted at the captive audience.

As it was, waiting in the seats staring at the blackness I had to get up every so often to walk over to the sideways mounted departure info screens.

Edited for typo

Jdsk wrote: ↑29 Oct 2024, 4:55pm "The ‘Euston rush’ on its way out as early train boarding introduced":
https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.u ... introduced

Jonathan

yep was reported by beeb web who picked up the press release.

It does seem to have had some small but noticeable effect.

I went through Euston very recently after a bit of a gap.

The West Coast line Avanti train was called maybe 14 minutes before departure.

Am pretty sure that as I waited (a long time - I always arrive early) nothing was called anything like 20 minutes before. Not even the London Overground services.

I had been checking the web page indicated above

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/

and it gave a convincing sounding provisional platform number for the train.

As soon as the train was reported as preparing I checked again and sure enough the provisional platform was now firmed up/confirmed.

I headed for the head of the platform and sure enough a fair number of folk were already on the slope/ramp so they must also have been using an online system of some sort. As was the chap I nattered to.

We headed down and half way down were asked for tickets (including my bike ticket) by a nice Avanti lady who confirmed the state secret that this was indeed the Glasgow bound Avanti train.

I didn't wait around but had the impression that she was just checking a sample of tickets.

I saw no repeat of the sheer stupidity of having a barrier where every single ticket of a motley crew of folks desperate to get on an imminently departing train were subjected to forensics.

The journey it must be said was great* and all of the Avanti staff were very helpful.

They do seem to be quite strict on checking these days that all luggage is removed from the bike - bit of a drag especially as I was the only bike for my entire trip, but I can live with it.

* no idea if the driver was the esteemed Pendodave.

AlanInBangor wrote: ↑27 Oct 2024, 1:20pm

Sweep wrote: ↑27 Oct 2024, 11:47am Apologies if being thick.
Which Avanti route is this on?

Holyhead to Euston. These are bi-mode so run on diesel to Crewe, where the pantographs are raised. I understand that all the Hitachi IET variants have these horrible cupboards but I don't know if they're also split between carriages.

Phew, thanks. My normal route with them is West Coast where they have changed bike stowage for the worse (not at the suggestion of staff as far as I know - everyone I have spoken to has said the change was bad and that they weren't consulted) on the pendolinos but is still managable if you choose the right trains.

Apologies if being thick.
Which Avanti route is this on?

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