Cycling UK Forum

I quite often ride at night or finish a ride at night. I also like the lack of traffic. I find I can sweep along roads that I often prefer to avoid during the day.
On a clear night with a good moon like last night, I particularly like the views from the hills of the lights of the towns and villages or sometimes the ships at sea displayed below me. I find their is quite a lot of wildlife at night. In the evening the bats swooping around - one collided with my face a few weeks back. The shadow of an owl passing over or occasionally a startled fox or badger foraging along the hedges and verges.

Interesting thing that I find scarcely ever mentioned and bearing in mind that I usually cycle in the N. of Wales, Mid-Wales, and the gap between. Also bearing in mind that in the past as a professional driver I have made the personal observation that driving attitudes in different areas do vary quite considerably.

One of the things I frequently find is that motorists do not overtake when they easily could. I often find that they wait behind for ridiculous periods. When having slowed to wait, I would prefer that they passed me even if they are much closer than would be safe if they had not slowed.

One of the most dangerous things that I keep noticing is that they not infrequently give me so much room that they pretty much clip mirrors with oncoming traffic. I think often I'am in more danger of being hit by a vehicle involved in such a collision than I'am of having my elbow clipped.

This is not to say that I do not suffer the occasional dangerously close high speed pass but I find these often appear to be deliberate "punishment passes" by drivers who think they own the road.

In short it seems to me, many motorists are pretty clueless about overtaking, full stop - especially when it comes to cyclists.

Well going back to the original post...

Cycling certainly can be enjoyed on nearly nothing. The bike that I actually do the most miles on was "junk" out of the back of a shed and cost me £30 for tyres and about £60 for lights, which are very satisfactorily driven by a bottle dynamo - I use it a lot after dark, all year round really. Just about all the rest of the kit on it comes from skips.

On a 115 mile commute over five mountain ranges that I do from time to time it takes about thirty minutes longer overall than my 531 Carlton Corsair; which is much lighter and more expensively equipped. Both bikes have similar gear ranges (24"-105" on one and to 110" on the other)

It is an ancient example of the much maligned Raleigh Activa. It has its original STI derailleurs (first indexed gears) which I have worn three sets of jockey wheels out on, and I mean worn out - right down to spikes. It is in touring guise. The dropped bars carrier etc all come from skips. It is every bit as reliable and more than many a new bike and has never in thousands of miles let me down on the road.

One of the greatest pleasures it provides me is after miles of reeling in types on breakfast cereal bikes is watching them overtaking again and then see their eyeballs popping out because they don't think bikes like that should be in front.

Expensive kit absolutely does not equate to reliability or superior operation most times out of ten but does equate to fashion victims.

I have used Chainreaction for quite a lot of parts over time. I find the speed of dispatch and delivery superb, I have on several occasions ordered parts early in the evening and received them, using their free postage, the next day.
On one occasion I ordered a part that I found I didn't then need. Using the forms that come with each order and having previously emailed them, I returned it free of charge and was promptly refunded - and this was no fault of theirs.
On another occasion, a ridiculous situation, in which I acquired a number of 1 metre lengths of outer brake cable occurred. I could not seem to get them to understand that; 2x1metre is just not the same as; 1x2metres, it was resolved by them sending me 2x2metres of outer cable and not wanting the rest returned. Turned out it was most likely a data base entry error. In addition they showered me with "freebies" by way of apology. Not only that but they must have looked at my order history because the things they sent me included items that I do use.
I do find they seem reluctant to stock so called "retro" parts. As an example - I heartily dislike Hollow tech, sealed for a very short life, high resistance ( I reckon they absorb at least 1000/th of a watt more energy from the seals alone) BB's and so use the older cup and square spindle type - for many years trouble free service. These they do not supply, so I use SJS for such parts.

horizon wrote:(I have posted this before but just to reiterate.) There is a perfecty respected school of thought amongst psychologists that argues that in the face of an insuperable problem (traffic congestion in this case), a minor problem (behaviour of cylists in this case) will take on the mantle of the big problem. It will cause the same but of course disproportionate degree of outrage and concern. It's all pretty much bonkers.

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