Cycling UK Forum

thirdcrank wrote:It really does say something about the driving standards in Leeds if this is how schoolchildren have to be moved about to offer some degree of safety.

I'm not sure it is an indication of driving standards rather than the level of paranoia caused by our increasingly finger-pointing, "someone must be brought to book" society.

If you wanted a more general bike, you can always add tri-bars, and that may be more appropriate depending on the sort of tris you plan to do. Cycling Plus had a round up of £500 bikes in the March edition. Below are the 6 they looked at:-

Carrera Vanquish
GT Series 5
Pinnacle Dolomite One
Revolution Cross (Magazine reviewed the Cross Sport which is slightly more expensive & lighter but has a double chainset rather than this one's triple)
Ribble Sportive 7005 (The review of this one doesn't seem to be online)
Specialized Allez (This is a slightly different bike to the one in the mag - this one has a triple chainset but apart from that seems to be more-or-less identical).

The Specialized was the winner followed by the Ribble, but the all fared OK - "Compared with some of the £400 bikes we've tested we'd happily recommend any of these half-a-dozen. The price difference isn't that much but the extra is worth paying."

Hope that is of help

Rick.

As an aside on charging, I bought a Veho Pebble 5000mAh external battery (mainly as backup charge for my smartphone if I use it a lot) and it will charge my 605 at least a couple of times on a single charge of the Veho.

Rick.

I use 25mm Gatorskin folders on mine. A touch more volume & comfort than 23s (at least in theory). I might of gone for 28s but they don't do a folder & I like to carry a spare on long trips (I've not needed it but have lent the spare to someone else 'til they could get to a bike shop).

Rick

thirdcrank wrote:I've given my glasses a good wipe and there's nothing I can see in the OP which says that.

That is what I understood from

Chris the Sheep wrote:However, they also took a sample for a more accurate blood count, and got back to me advising that I see my doctor

I assumed the "they" here was the blood service.

Rick.

@ Chris the Sheep - glad it worked out OK for you

thirdcrank wrote:I think the main point in the OP is that the Blood Service doesn't warn people of possibilities like that.

But they did advise seeing a doctor once they had the results of a more detailed test. There is a delicate balance to be struck between saying effectively "it'll be OK" and giving a list of dire possibilities that may cause great concern but that are extremely unlikely.

I don't know if they did a more detailed test than the on the spot one they did for me last year - after I failed the "drop of blood sinking in the test tube" test, they took a syringe of blood from a vein and processed some of that in a small analyser which gave a haemoglobin readout. I wasn't advised that it was likely to be anything serious, presumably as it was only 1 (mg/l?) below their limit (135) & within normal limits for my age (I gave again successfully the next time). I also don't know if they did anything further with the remainder of my sample or whether they would have done if the result had been much lower (I must ask next time I'm in).

Rick.

rapidfire72 wrote:you could always get a 16" inner tube, pump it up and stick it down near your feet.

A bit like the Topeak tent that uses the front wheel as the support at one end (& the rest of the bike at the other). Although it isn't a particularly light 1 person tent for all that.

I don't think it is still available, but I have an old Survival Aids hooped version which has been useful in the past for "discrete" camping. I've not used it for a while though as the groundsheet part started to leak and I've not got round to/ decided whether to sort it out.

Rick

Tonyf33 wrote:As for blood donations... if you're a woman under 65kg they'll check to see if you have 3.5l of blood in your system

How do they do that - drain it out into a big jug to measure it?

Rick.

roadvader wrote:im going to say were going to have the best summer ever!!

Probably in April!

mcallaghan wrote:See it in the news all the time - following a GPS leading people into sticky situations. My mom had one back when I was in HS and it wasn't exactly correct the whole time either, trying to get you to turn where there was no turn.

Something with, say, Google Maps on it or something would be a bit more reliable I would think.

Getting led astray is much less likely on a bike - unless you have very wide panniers The trouble with GPS for cars, etc. is people assume it must be right because its talking to you rather than use common sense. But the instructions are only as accurate as the map data (plus a bit to do with how the GPS unit calculates routes), just the same as a paper road map.

On Google maps their recent change of mapping has made them less accurate near here - the driving directions keep trying to route me along a footpath! I've reported it to Google and had a reply saying I was right about a month ago, but the map hasn't changed yet.

Rick

I was turned down once after having done a particularly taxing fell walk in the Lakes the day before (my count was 134!). The guy who did the test (they did a secondary test after the simple one failed) said it was probably due to the exertion of the day before which at least agrees with what you've been told. I was fine the next time I went.

A quick ferret on the net suggests that the normal range for "Men after middle age" is 124-149 (140-180 in younger adult men) so, by that score, you are within normal range - my understanding is that the Blood Service plays safe with their levels so that after donation you should be still within normal range.

Personally I don't think you need to worry, but it is your call.

Rick

because its broken at the moment!

Annoying if you want to plan a route now but will probably get fixed soon(ish) (or the site will just die - which would be a shame as it is one I use frequently)

Rick.

niggle wrote:Been thinking about a trailer for a while, but I have a problem with the hitch mounting as the dropouts are cup shaped on my Genesis like this:

snip...

Is there a solution?

How wide is the inside of the cup? The hitch for my Carry Freedom City (2009 & which I presume is standard across the CF range) is 24mm wide (12mm radius topcurve). Will that fit? If not it would probably stand a few mm grinding off round the top without seriously weakening it (the edge to hole is about 4.5mm & the bracket is approx 2.5mm thick). In any case the bracket is not hanging directly from the frame but is clamped to the dropout. If you want to check with Carry Freedom themselves their "About" page has a contact form & an email link - I've found them very responsive when I've been in touch with them.

I don't know about other makes.

Rick

thirdcrank wrote:Why would a grown-up cyclist want on of these on their bike? (Assuming they were not attached to the Pontypandy Fire service, that is.)

I think one reason could be that it is different so more likely to be noticed (whatever non-red colour, but just maybe a little more attention for blue because of the police link). In a similar vein, when I was looking for a new waterproof jacket for the winter I went for an orange Night Vision - it stands out, even in a group of hi-viz yellow cyclists!

Rick.

I've logged something over 10,000 miles with my Garmin 605 since April 2008. The only problems I've had are forgetting to start it occasionally (I eventually changed it to auto-pause so I don't have to remember to stop/start it at stops) & once it threw a slight wobbler on a long flat section, suddenly plotting me a hundred yards off the road, several hundred feet in the air and travelling at nearly 80mph! But then I've had glitches now and again with the more basic bike computers in the past too.

Battery life doesn't seem to be a problem so far - I've been using it for nearly 4 years and it has never been near run out after a long days ride (on for 8-10 hours, maybe more, continuously and still not "running on empty"), If I recall correctly it was showing about 1/2 charge at the end of an 80 mile ride last summer. On a multiday ride, especially if camping & not sure of a power supply, I carry a 5000mAh battery pack (Veho Pebble) that will charge the Garmin & my phone a couple of times.

Its been great for touring for logging where I've been & how many miles plus amount of ascent/decent. I don't do anything fancy, just download my riding to Garmin Training Center which has the added bonus of letting you view your route(s) in Google Earth. The other main use for the mapping is planning rides (usually onbikehike.co.uk) which I then download to the Garmin and follow it as a "course" (basically a pink line on the map). I don't generally use the street-by-street navigation.

My only big critcism is the quality of manuals/ support from Garmin if you aren't doing racing. I've found Frank Kinlan's Blog invaluable for filling in the gaps left by Garmin.

I've not got an 800 but it, or its successor, will almost certainly be my replacement for the 605. It is best to get the trail bundle if you want the OS maps as it is generally much cheaper that way round if you want extra maps than buying a different bundle & then the OS maps separately.

Regards

Rick.