Cycling UK Forum

xerxes wrote: ↑23 Mar 2023, 12:35pm I am in agreement with Billy Connolly about cruises - "Like being in prison with the option of drowning".

Not just me then.

The nearest I've been to feeling tempted was this, but I never found an insurance company that would cover both sailing and heart arrhythmia. I didn't know they'd gone bust until today.

simonineaston wrote: ↑22 Jan 2025, 5:59am I've always taken the view that my right hand might be busy applying suitable force to the front brake and so the bells on my bikes always sit near my left hand.

I go for the hands-free option in case both my hands are occupied with both the brakes.

In general, you don't necessarily need to remove the wheel to mend a puncture, although in this case, if it's a large nail, it may have damaged the tyre enough to need replacing.

To repair a puncture with the wheel in, just lift the tyre bead off the rim, pull a bit of tube out, patch it, then stuff it back again.

From this month's Which magazine:

"Similar to last year, the common thread among the highest-scoring models for reliability is that they're predominantly fairly basic petrol-powered cars"

"Newer cars spend a fifth more time off the road on average than older ones."

[XAP]Bob wrote: ↑20 Jan 2025, 1:30pm You're only ever one illness away from being seriously disabled... Mine was seven years ago (Feb 2018).

I don't know what your particular disability is, but in general, I don't see why a key is any more difficult to operate than a door handle, door, or steering wheel.

All in all, I'm glad I got used to doing without a car 20 years ago, because the prospect of finding anything suitable just seems to have been going downhill ever since.

Biospace wrote: ↑6 Jan 2025, 1:21pmAre you aware of the relative carbon footprints for, say, a 20 mile trip by bicycle and one by more economical car?

Yes, very aware, I spent a lot of time looking into it in detail. The best option depends on what you eat and whether you own a car.

When I opened this I thought it was going to be a thread about Granny Stoppers.

Farming Today were talking about them yesterday morning with a guy who used to be in the mountain rescue until a paragliding accident put him in a wheelchair. Apparently, it's deliberate policy to put awkward gates & stiles at the beginnings of walks in order to deter people who are likely to have difficulties with the terrain higher up, and the ex-mountain rescue guy was now backpedalling on his views, and supporting their removal.

horizon wrote: ↑23 Apr 2021, 9:43am

TrevA wrote: ↑22 Apr 2021, 7:49pm

Bmblbzzz wrote: ↑22 Apr 2021, 6:56pm
Please explain! If the Super Galaxy and the Horizon use the same frame, then how can a larger frame have a shorter top tube?

Not the same frame. My wife’s Horizon is 520 tubing and more sloping geometry than my Super Galaxy which uses 853 tubing and only slightly sloping top tube. They are both circa 2008/9.

Mine is the year 2000 531 Horizon which, chemical analysis notwithstanding, is identical to the Galaxy and Super Galaxy for that year (they appear together in the brochure spec.). My daughter has the later version (still a good bike IMV).

My Horizon's the 2000 model too, that was the last year that they made them with the same frame, in 2001 the Horizon had a frame with a sloping top tube.

Are women more inclined to worry about what others think of them? Cycling isn't a particularly productive way to go about getting yourself a positive image in the UK.

Reaction time is a bit of a woolly concept because it's so variable depending on circumstances. The national average reaction time from seeing a brake light to getting your foot from the accelerator to the brake is 300ms, but that's if you are anticipating the light, and are poised ready to react. The time it takes to wake up from a daydream and realise there's something to react to can be from a couple of seconds to the sky's the limit though, and people who've just woken up tend to brake hard first then decide how hard later.

Maintaining a safe distance behind the car in front is a feedback loop: the gap you see determines braking and braking determines the gap you see, but the problem with feedback loops is that if any time delays are large enough to be significant, negative feedback becomes underdamped and unstable, and the faster you're going the more significant any given delay will be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wm-pZp_mi0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rryu85BtALM

I wonder how many people allow more space behind an autonomous car that has faster reactions than they do.

bungle73 wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 5:17pm

axel_knutt wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 5:16pm

rareposter wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 4:24pmAnother example though of putting an electronic thing onto something that doesn't bloody need it.

Yup.

bungle73 wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 4:34pmIf I try and use it without the gauge how I'm am supposed to tell what pressure it's at??

I've spent most of my life pumping tyres with no gauge.

And how does that relate to a schock??

If you're going to worry about how to maintain something the time to do it is before you buy it, not when you're stuck without it.

The bits you can see on street view look very doable, but perhaps the bits you can't see aren't. I went over the road 2 miles to the east of it en-route from Edmundbyers to Alston last time I was up there, if I'd known about this I'd quite like to have had a go at it.

But punctures - learn how to repair one.
But potholes - watch where you're going and don't ride through puddles.
But I'll get lost - learn how to navigate.
But I'll get sweaty - cycle slower.

I don't think I've worn wellies since I was young enough to grow out of them. I remember trying my late father's on before chucking them out. I've never cycled in cycling shoes either though.

[XAP]Bob wrote: ↑14 Jan 2025, 4:02pm

axel_knutt wrote: ↑14 Jan 2025, 1:22pm

[XAP]Bob wrote: ↑14 Jan 2025, 9:55am There is a reasonable amount of pressure - because some of the basic things that would help are pretty easy to legislate, and would result in everyone having lower bills.

I don't see that as desirable at all, what's needed is some form of progressive charging system so that it's affordable to use a sustainable amount of fuel, and prohibitively expensive to use more.

Politically it's definitely a pressure.
Progressive charging would help a different target, but it's still a "capital investment wins" scenario, which doesn't actually help the least well off.

You absolutely don't want to make it more expensive to use more electricity "because you're using more" without *what* you're using it for being taken into account... there is a difference between someone using electricity as a replacement for gas/petrol/diesel and someone using electricity for whatever it is you consider profligate.

If you measure total energy consumption it will go down when switching from a boiler to a heat pump even if electricity goes up, and if you don't whittle fuel bills down to the absolute minimum there'll be money to subsidise capital investment in insulation. If people choose to use their allowance on fairy lights draped around the house rather than heating, they're free to do so but won't have much room to complain they're cold.

[XAP]Bob wrote: ↑14 Jan 2025, 9:55am There is a reasonable amount of pressure - because some of the basic things that would help are pretty easy to legislate, and would result in everyone having lower bills.

I don't see that as desirable at all, what's needed is some form of progressive charging system so that it's affordable to use a sustainable amount of fuel, and prohibitively expensive to use more.