Cycling UK Forum

meekychuppet

If you do not eat before exercise you are putting yourself at risk.

Eating breakfast accelerates your metabolism. You will burn calories better if you do.

meekychuppet

I sue Shimano SPD pedals and I have two sets of shoes, both Diadora. One pair are purely for mountain biking. The other pair I wear all day at university. Nobody yet has noticed that they aren't regular shoes.

meekychuppet

meekychuppet

Lawrie9 wrote:Would it not make sense to have an annual MoT test for bikes. People tend to ride bikes till they drop to pieces and are in an unsafe condition. It is the MoT test that for motor vehicles that keeps the auto industry vibrant and healthy. Also what about everyone who rides a bike on the road having to pass a test and get a licence. This way red light jumpers and pavement cyclists could have points on their license, fined, banned and their machines confiscated in some cases.

The MOT test means far less than it did because of the number of new cars on the road. Given the average cost of a bike the test would be unworkable - the cheapest MOT's are around £30, I have had bikes that expensive - there is no value in the test because any less would not be worth the bike engineer's time.

In order to catch test dodgers you would need registration plates, ANOTHER national database, cyclists would be extremely hard for the police to catch because they can simply nip off road and since very few people are anything other than leisure cyclists it would simply drive us off the road, making us a smaller minority and therefore with less influence and credibility and suddenly this plan seem a little bit ridiculous.

The MOT holds power because the loss of use of a car can be pretty disastrous for a person. The same is not true of a bike.

meekychuppet

peterm wrote:Not even sure it's called a webpage but anyway.

I like reading other people's accounts of their cycling exploits- for example all those accounts of Lejog/Jogle on the Waitrose sight but what is the best way of getting one on the web-starting from scratch.
My wife is into photography and was my backup last year and this year is cycling one way with me-so all you computer experts out there how do we go about writing our account for the computer.

Free if possible.

Hi - you an PM about this, but I have a mate who runs a company who will do you a good deal, and then there are countless ready made scripts you can use to host and blog everything. Most of the freebie ones have disk space limits whereas he'll do you a self publishing personal site for reasonable rates - PM if you like. I use him for my site and he's great.

meekychuppet

Edwards wrote:I also use a space grip. I have it hanging down from the bars so the light shines under the bar bag. I did wonder about the weight of the lights pulling down on it but have not had any trouble (the lights are also upside down). The twin lamps with seperate battery would probably work better in the long term as the main weight is the batteries.

I had one of those but the band attachment scratched my handlebars.

meekychuppet

PrettyBoyTim wrote:I have the Smart Halogen set that cunobelin mentioned, although mine have two 10W bulbs rather than one 10W, one 2.4W.

It is a good light set, but it does need recharging often, and it's worth getting a smart charging block rather than the one that comes with it, as it's not good to overcharge Lead Acid batteries and the supplied charger won't shut off once a full charge is attained. I got a smart chanrging block from Maplins for about £10.

I used to have them and pound for pound they are easily the best on the market in terms of value. I noticed that the battery reached its half life very quickly though and they are clunky and heavy.

I like to spend a lot on my hobby, hence why I have the Hope LED set. My next lights are going to be these:

1400 lumens no less! Very pricey etc but I love this hobby and these buggers are the mutt's nuts.

meekychuppet

Mick F wrote:Why do you need one? Are you camping every night?

My phone isn't good at keeping its charge for more than a couple of days, but Mrs Mick F's only needs charging every fortnight!

I bought another battery for mine for my double LEJOG in 2006, so had to find a power point every 4 or five nights. No problem.

GPS usage will kill my battery in about 1 1/2 hours.

meekychuppet

I commute on my Scott CR1 and I have had no end of [inappropriate word removed] from employers and colleagues, not to mention comedians who like to do things to your bike. The ones that I have caught have often had a 'nasty fall'.

I still do it because I love it but I take every single damn thing off the bike that could be feasibly removed, even though it is parked in a dedicated bay. Cycling everywhere is great. I am the fittest guy I know and I am at university with whipper snappers ten years younger than me! I am always pumped in lessons because of the endorphins/adrenaline rush and I amaze people when I eat at around 10.30 - it's just carnage.

On another note though, if my boss tried to instruct me to drive to work I would be instructing him/her to stick their thumb up their ass, not to mention the order to car share. The only reason to do that is to save money, so find out what your employer gains from a car sharing arrangement, that way you'll be in a far better position to discuss and negotiate things.

meekychuppet

After having no luck I am making my own:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Bike-Phone-v1.0/

meekychuppet

If you can spend a few quid then I use Hope LED's - they are BRIGHT.

http://www.ukbikestore.co.uk/acatalog/i ... bar%2ehtml

£152.99

They have 2 5W LED's. A 3W LED output's the same as a 10W halogen if memory serves. On full power they burn for nearly two hours and they give a better and wider field of illumination than halogens.

meekychuppet

Okay, this is a long shot. I have a HTC TyTN II smart phone/PDA with integrated GPS and Copilot live maps and navigation. Is there such a thing as a dynamo with a mini USB attachment which could charge this as I use it?

meekychuppet

jmtaylor73 wrote:Dear cyclists,

I'd be grateful for any advice ... as I don't really know what to do. Thank you in advance anyone who can help!

I was hit 3 weeks ago by a driver who pulled straight out from a side road in London without looking. I was on a London cycle route as well (smithfield market). I landed on the bike after being struck and damaged the bike, but only bruised and battered myself. I had a witness and I also went to the Police station to give them my account of the road traffic accident including a statement of my take on who was liable (the driver of course).

The bike sustained damage to the wheels and large scratches on the frame. I took it to a bike shop for a quote for repairs and they said I shouldn't be repairing an aluminium frame which was 7 years old that had been in an accident as you couldn't guarantee that the frame hadn't sustained structural damage. Although to repair the wheels would cost £200.

So as requested by the car driver's insurers, I got a quote for a replacement Giant SCR1 for the Giant OCR1 that was damaged. The car driver's insurance company have said that with bicycles they don't pay up for like for like replacement and would knock 10% off the value of the original for each year owned. So for a £725 bike bought in 2000 they'd give me £217.

I maintained my bike and like trigger's broom have had new wheels, components over the last few years so I don't see why depreciation has such an impact on the value.

An equivalent SCR1 bike would be £850 (SCR replaced the OCR). Surely given that I didn't ask to be knocked off and I'm the 3rd party when the driver was liable I should at least be entitled to a replacement bike. I also wouldn't be happy with a second hand bike for long commutes to work as I do like to know the full history of a bike I depend on.

Does anyone else have any pearls of wisdom to offer. I can't shell out £600 to get the equivalent bike and I don't see why I should get an inferior bike after not being at fault. Hiring a solicitor would cost a few hundred I guess so I'm not sure that's worth it either.

Cheers
James

I was hit recently - it wasn't hard to get what was due, after all, I had some terrible injuries. I used the first solicitor I found online.

meekychuppet

Hello everybody. Here is my short & skinny:

Name: Adam

Occupation: Student/writer

Location: Lancashire.

Cycling chronology:

Bike # 1: Raleigh Firefly, £30, second hand.
Bike # 2: Diamondback GT 10, £200
Bike # 3: Carrera GT, Free off my Pa.
Bike # 4: Scott Speedster S50, £500, wrecked in a collision.
Bike # 5: Scott CR1 - £1300, my current bike.

The Scott CR 1 has the following attachments: 2 x bottle holder, 2 x LED rear lights, Hope LED super duper lights, mounted for my HTC TyTN II phone with GPS.

I commute to university a minimum of twice a week, 42 mile round trip and I also ride it to football and other activities. My oldest son Jake has one and my partner also has a bike. When Luca is old enough (4 months right now) he'll get one too.

I am training for the Iron Man - I was hoping to enter in 2009 but the aforementioned collision that took care of my Speedster might alter that.

I am the safest cyclist I know, to the point where I recently tore a strip off another cyclist for blatantly ignoring a red light - the reason drivers hate us. I am also in recovery after a car accident that wrecked my bike and injured me so if anyone wants to bitch about young drivers I am the man to assist.

Nice to meet y'all.

Cycling UK Forum

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Re: MoT test for cycles?

Re: Creating a cycling webpage

USB Dynamo

Re: bicycle damaged by a car driver in an accident