Cycling UK Forum

I have found the staff in one of the extremely well-known retailers (no, not H****rds - but not sure whether to name the one in question ) to be - let's say - less than 'friendly' on occasion, and yes I've waited a long time to be served. And I recall on one occasion when I did get some service, a fast-talking assistant persuading me to - quite unnecessarly - switch my taper B/B+chainset for a Hollowtech one. Now it may well be that the newer technology is better, but I resented being patronised and pressured into the (expensive) upgrade, without it being at all clear to me why I needed it.

But the young lads in H****rds, who constantly come up to me with "can I help you sir?" when I'm merely browsing inner tubes* or whatever - yes I find that a bit irritating, too.

*(Yes I do buy some consumables from there - they have the advantage of being open evenings and Sundays. But never brake blocks.)

"Never microwave pasties!!" Gasp, Shock, Horror, time-travel, causality paradox, and soggy pasties. "Let them eat rubarb crumble & custard." Miscounting is easy when one's squiffy, but inexcusable nevertheless.

"It DOES move!"

"IT DOESN'T!", ejaculated Dr Watson abruptly.

"DOES!" blustered Sherlock, as Moriarty lurched towards insanity because of opiate usage.

Dancing on the punctuation rule book, three hamsters and Holmes, Watson, Moriarty, Batman and Robin yelling "Holy margarine!", Uncle Tom Cobley, all tumbled over Beachy Head, despite double knotted laces, to their doom. But as they plummeted, a sudden icecap melting raised an updraft that transported them safely onto the deck of London bus, where Boris, smiling,

aprildavy wrote:The 360 degree turn is essential on some roads.

Yes, and often enough there's a road sign actually advising motorists to do so. Such as this one.

No: the point I was trying to put across is that it's unexpected. For example, you are about to enter a 4-way roundabout, and you see a car that's just entered it from the exit on your left, signalling right. You expect it to exit by the road you're on, so no need to wait, you can go forward. But no! The car's about to cross your path. Fair enough, you need to be alert to these situations! I'd just like the motorist to understand and not lean on his horn for a 10-second blast if I do get it wrong!

One thing that slightly annoys me, even though it's quite legal, is cars doing a full 180° at a roundabout (should that be "360°"?) Anyway, what I mean is circling the roundabout so as to leave by the same road they entered from. Our local taxis often do this - understandably - so that they can enter the taxi rank facing the right way.

It annoys me because it's a somewhat unexpected manoeuvre and sometimes catches me 'on the hop'. I think, when I'm the driver, if I have cause to do such a turn, even though I have right of way, I would be on the lookout for other vehicles, cyclists included, coming on to the roundabout unexpectedly in front of me.

As for unauthorised U-turns - plenty of those, around here. One that particularly annoys me is cars U-turning to get into a slip road to a car park which faces the opposite direction, despite a prominent "NO RIGHT TURN" sign. Simple laziness, seeing as there's a roundabout only about 100 yards further on. But then we come to the scenario of the 180°-at-a-roundabout, once more. Can't win can I?

"Merry Christmas!" cried the three wise monkeys, drinking beer spiked with pure rosemary and time at Scarborough Fair. Parsely and Sage and Onion stuffing were following behind the leftover turkey scraps and hamster chow. But when the bell tolled the sextant told them, their latitude, attitude and general course of direction replaced the davis quadrant.

Captain John Davis shouted "Quadrant! FOUR!!!!" on the Back-staff hyphens ruled supreme leader of North.

Vorpal's four words echoed through the annals of miscounting. "Following Mick's examples?! Oh.... Er... right."

"And innumerate hamsters", ready to microwave Norwegian Blue parrots and Cornish pasties with crimped shortcrust needed more seasoning and bull's eggs, "should be seared in Stork margarine", said Fanny Craddock. Don't forget theatrical agents like cake, chips and...

"Never microwave pasties!!" Gasp, Shock, Horror, time-travel, causality paradox, and soggy pasties. "Let them eat rubarb crumble & custard." Miscounting is easy when one's squiffy, but inexcusable nevertheless.

"It DOES move!"

"IT DOESN'T!", ejaculated Dr Watson abruptly.

"DOES!" blustered Sherlock, as Moriarty lurched towards insanity because of opiate usage.

Dancing on the punctuation rule book, three hamsters and Holmes, Watson, Moriarty, Batman and Robin yelling "Holy margarine!", Uncle Tom Cobley, all tumbled over Beachy Head, despite double knotted laces, to their doom. But as they plumetted, a sudden icecap melting raised

"He's behind you! Cometh Nibiru Apocalypse!" "Oh no it is!" shouted Marmaduke Hussey fairly quickly. "One, Two, Four! "Shut that door"

"Three, sir. Three." "...point one four..." - splat - "Custard Pi!" acclaimed 3.14217 abruptly.
[NO! It's 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679... ]. A vicious circle said Pythagoras who knew his stuff. "The square of the hippopotamus equals a river horse." divided by the sons of squaws wearing polkadot wellies, for the raindance. Brolly tangos notwithstanding, the River Dance cuckoo flew over the rainbow to the Yellow brick ablutions hut and removed every stitch of badly sewn Poncho hem lines before vulcanising them. "We love rubber!" Butylmercaptan, the smell! "Couldn't afford myrrh." Frank, incensed about gold cards from Wisemans, looked sheepish as he opened the shepherds pi.

"Merry Christmas!" cried the three wise monkeys, drinking beer spiked with pure rosemary and time at Scarborough Fair. Parsely and Sage and Onion stuffing were following behind the leftover turkey scraps and hamster chow. But when the bell tolled the sextant told them, their latitude, attitude and general course of direction replaced the davis quadrant.

Captain John Davis shouted "Quadrant! FOUR!!!!" on the Back-staff hyphens ruled supreme leader of North.

Vorpal's four words echoed through the annals of miscounting. "Following Mick's examples?! Oh.... Er... right."

"And innumerate hamsters", ready to microwave Norwegian Blue parrots and Cornish pasties with crimped shortcrust needed more seasoning and bull's eggs, "should be seared in Stork margarine", said Fanny Craddock. Don't forget theatrical agents like cake, chips and...

"Never microwave pasties!!" Gasp, Shock, Horror, time-travel, causality paradox, and soggy pasties. "Let them eat rubarb crumble & custard." Miscounting is easy when one's squiffy, but inexcusable nevertheless.

"It DOES move!"

"IT DOESN'T!", ejaculated Dr Watson abruptly.

"DOES!" blustered Sherlock, as Moriarty lurched towards insanity because of opiate usage.

Dancing on the punctuation rule book, three hamsters and Holmes, Watson, Moriarty, Batman and Robin yelling "Holy margarine

Edwards wrote:Any suggestions as to what I should be looking for as I am getting short of ideas?

A bigger house?
(*ducks*)

[XAP]Bob wrote:

Ayesha wrote:For someone who works 08:00 to 17:00 and considers cycling 22 miles to and from work, a morning alarm time of 05:30 will be required. A home arrival time of 19:15 should be expected and it will not be until 19:45 to 20:00 they will be sitting at their dinner table.
To get eight hours sleep, 21:15 will be ‘bed time’.

This cycle commuter will be ‘living to work’, not ‘working to live’. One hour per weekday to watch the news and swig back a cup of warm milk with two paracetamols is not my idea of a ‘Social life’.

Due to this reason, I ride 23 miles each way only three times per week.

22 miles should be achievable in an hour - given electric assistance . Two and half hours (each way) seems a little ott as an allowance - I reckon 90 minutes for a 22 miler should be reasonable (after a month or so at any rate).
If there is a shower in the office you just use that rather than the one at home, so you only lose the "second shower" time.

22 miles (without any big hills) would take me 2¼ hours. Don't assume that just because we post on the forum, all us oldsters are as turbo-charged as you!

And in the 05:30 to 08:00 timespan, how about allowing time for getting dressed? Washing/cleaning teeth? Having breakfast?

I did attempt a 33 mile commute many years ago (when I was in my 20s) - but only about 3 or 4 times a year. Those rides totally knackered me, even though I took well over 2 hours even then - I think. Not anything to boast about. And my then workplace had no cycle parking so I took the bike into the office - and got a ticking off from the boss.... I soon abandoned that idea (anyway I moved to nearer my workplace).

I think the answer is: some cyclists would be able to bring off the 22mile e/w commute, others wouldn't. The only solution is, try it a few times and see. But be prepared to abandon - or at the least drastically modify - your scheme.

Perhaps they're trying to avoid losing their benefits...

Here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/b ... ovice-tips
A bit of new year reading to dispel the post-holiday gloom...

OK only a short article, but worth a read: it's Peter Walker, the Grauniad's best voice* on bikes anyway, so you can expect it to say positive stuff. Most of the comments seem to be pretty positive too.

*Not according to one vociferous forummer, so it seems (who can't even get the name right!).

"He's behind you! Cometh Nibiru Apocalypse!" "Oh no it is!" shouted Marmaduke Hussey fairly quickly. "One, Two, Four! "Shut that door"

"Three, sir. Three." "...point one four..." - splat - "Custard Pi!" acclaimed 3.14217 abruptly.
[NO! It's 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679... ]. A vicious circle said Pythagoras who knew his stuff. "The square of the hippopotamus equals a river horse." divided by the sons of squaws wearing polkadot wellies, for the raindance. Brolly tangos notwithstanding, the River Dance cuckoo flew over the rainbow to the Yellow brick ablutions hut and removed every stitch of badly sewn Poncho hem lines before vulcanising them. "We love rubber!" Butylmercaptan, the smell! "Couldn't afford myrrh." Frank, incensed about gold cards from Wisemans, looked sheepish as he opened the shepherds pi.

"Merry Christmas!" cried the three wise monkeys, drinking beer spiked with pure rosemary and time at Scarborough Fair. Parsely and Sage and Onion stuffing were following behind the leftover turkey scraps and hamster chow. But when the bell tolled the sextant told them, their latitude, attitude and general course of direction replaced the davis quadrant.

Captain John Davis shouted "Quadrant! FOUR!!!!" on the Back-staff hyphens ruled supreme leader of North.

Vorpal's four words echoed through the annals of miscounting. "Following Mick's examples?! Oh.... Er... right."

"And innumerate hamsters", ready to microwave Norwegian Blue parrots and Cornish pasties with crimped shortcrust needed more seasoning and bull's eggs, "should be seared in Stork margarine", said Fanny Craddock. Don't forget theatrical agents like cake, chips and...

"Never microwave pasties!!" Gasp, Shock, Horror, time-travel, causality paradox, and soggy pasties. "Let them eat rubarb crumble & custard." Miscounting is easy when one's squiffy, but inexcusable nevertheless.

"It DOES move!"

"IT DOESN'T!", ejaculated Dr Watson abruptly.

"DOES!" blustered Sherlock, as Moriarty lurched

axel_knutt wrote:

thirdcrank wrote:There's an icon for the link - it's a short length of chain.

I'd found that, but then got drawn into trying to "save as picture" (right click menu). All I was getting is a .png file with nothing in it. Cheers.

Left-click on the bit of chain. A box will pop up (you may need to enable pop-ups) with the URL already highlighted, so all you need to do is press ctrl/C (assuming you're in Windows).

Then go to this forum and make your post. The 'raw' URL will be too long to post in a line, so use the URL button on the forum: highlight a word or words, click URL, then add an = sign followed by your long link (press ctrl/V), after the first URL in square brackets.
HTH.

I have used presta valves in schraeder-drilled rims without an adapter, and without problems, though it is not ideal and I wouldn't use that on a long ride. You should be all right up to about 85 psi, which is the maximum pressure for a 700x35C anyway. Don't try to inflate harder than that. And carry a spare!

A portable pump like the Topeak Morph is simple to adapt between presta and Schraeder: you just unscrew the cap and reverse the grommet and pin assembly inside.

Sergeant Major Brittain paraded his tin soldiers to the sound of distant drums Bag pipes and YouTube 'Downfall' parodies. The trouble was the sock colour regulations which forbade mixing dayglow colours with invisible black. However, the soldiers all wore fishnet helmets and tin plate medals held together with solder and Bostick, so they rationed elastic bands with Green Shield stamps - enough to purchase a super soaker for pre-Christmas delivery in preparation for The End Of the Christmas Panto.

"He's behind you! Cometh Nibiru Apocalypse!" "Oh no it is!" shouted Marmaduke Hussey fairly quickly. "One, Two, Four! "Shut that door"

"Three, sir. Three." "...point one four..." - splat - "Custard Pi!" acclaimed 3.14217 abruptly.
[NO! It's 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679... ]. A vicious circle said Pythagoras who knew his stuff. "The square of the hippopotamus equals a river horse." divided by the sons of squaws wearing polkadot wellies, for the raindance. Brolly tangos notwithstanding, the River Dance cuckoo flew over the rainbow to the Yellow brick ablutions hut and removed every stitch of badly sewn Poncho hem lines before vulcanising them. "We love rubber!" Butylmercaptan, the smell! "Couldn't afford myrrh." Frank, incensed about gold cards from Wisemans, looked sheepish as he opened the shepherds pi.

"Merry Christmas!" cried the three wise monkeys, drinking beer spiked with pure rosemary and time at Scarborough Fair. Parsely and Sage and Onion stuffing were following behind the leftover turkey scraps and hamster chow. But when the bell tolled the sextant told them, their latitude, attitude and general course of direction replaced the davis quadrant.

Captain John Davis shouted "Quadrant! FOUR!!!!" on the Back-staff hyphens ruled supreme leader of North.

Vorpal's four words echoed through the annals of miscounting. "Following Mick's examples?! Oh.... Er... right."

"And innumerate hamsters", ready to microwave Norwegian Blue parrots and Cornish pasties with crimped shortcrust needed more seasoning and bull's eggs, "should be seared in Stork margarine", said Fanny Craddock. Don't forget theatrical agents like cake, chips and...

"Never microwave pasties!!" Gasp, Shock, Horror, time-travel, causality paradox, and soggy pasties. "Let them eat rubarb crumble & custard." Miscounting is easy when one's squiffy, but inexcusable nevertheless.

"It DOES move!"

I like the idea of the paint job - it's hard to see how putting a dab of paint on the brickwork can count as 'criminal damage' if it's not actual graffiti, but who knows? As a 'crime', it must surely count as the most 'victimless' of victimless crimes...

But maybe not necessary. As approached from the south the google view shows a patch of discoloured bricks up to a certain point, near the '670' plaque. Assuming those bricks are still that colour, I need only note how many bricks are showing above the water level. Or I can use the height of the plaque itself - similarly on the other side. I'll go and have a look once the weather's been a bit dryer - if....

Why that area frequently floods is a mystery - as I said before, it's happened several times in the past few years. There's no obvious watercourse nearby. Maybe it's just a dip in the road with poor or non-existent drainage, and thoroughly waterlogged clay all around...