Cycling UK Forum

531colin wrote: ↑17 Jan 2025, 10:49pm It always amuses me when folk bang on about THE Galaxy; at times the bike changed annually, as Dawes changed which factory made the frames they stuck a Dawes badge on.

Some of the UK made lugged and brazed frames were dreadfully floppy, probably due to poor preparation of the frame tubes, and incomplete brazing under the lugs. (The tubes are supposed to be accurately mitred so they fit with less than 1mm gap so the tubes are brazed together and brazed into the lug. Didn’t always happen.)

I've ridden a SG from the late 80s/early 90s which was rather floppy, presumably they sold on the brand name and looks? The last Galaxy I enjoyed over thousands of miles was the one below, pictured shortly after purchase in the mid 2010s and dating from around 1981 with plain gauge 531 frame tubing. I'd just replaced the straight bars with the flat-topped drops, later found some original randonneurs. Slightly inert unloaded, but sure-footed and comfortable over longer rides even without much load. On a camping trip it excelled, 27" rims gave a fine ride.

Wheelyhappy99, you've previously been highlighted for your casual, misleading words and an approach which attempts to discredit those who question your own beliefs.

You've repeatedly suggested that some of my posts which you disagree with are somehow misinformation, yet so far you haven't provided a single example of this.

If you're going to persist in making these claims, quote the relevant posts and explain why you believe what you do. I'm happy to be put right if mistaken, but please do so directly with reference to what I - and especially not others - have written.

wheelyhappy99 wrote: ↑19 Jan 2025, 11:28pm What an interesting response.

Whenever I dip in to this forum topic there seem to be a lot of new posts from yourself and Carlton Green. What they have in common are lots of opinions and unattributed, often inaccurate, information.

For recent-ish examples:
-the assertion that the Zapmap app may be too clever, with no explanation of how or why this is the case.
-quoting an 'old boys' opinion that EV chargers will break the distribution network. Someone who does not appear to have any training or first hand knowledge of the technology.

Whoever Carlton green was quoting happens to echo the electricians, electrical and Grid engineers I've chatted with, despite their full awareness of increased levels of local generation, domestic storage, Smart Grid load shifting and a possibility of district heating systems.

Clearly local grids will not be allowed to "break", instead there is substantial upgrading required to cope with greater loads. Are you suggesting this won't be necessary, typically?

axel_knutt wrote: ↑20 Jan 2025, 12:59pm 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.

The numbers are very interesting, certainly highlighting how very inefficient our industrial food production has become, despite all the insistence that supply chains grow ever more efficient.

Presumably vested interests are delaying changes, then. I’m not at all convinced energy prices will fall so much in Britain no matter how much change there is in proving mechanisms - the private sector has too many fingers in the pie.

I was warned at some point by 2030 prices would have tripled, disconnecting from the grid is now pretty much a certainty over the next 15 years, I foresee further well above inflation rises yet to come.

PDQ Mobile wrote: ↑13 Jan 2025, 7:09pm If we all used much less then a grid supported by carbon neutral sources would be far more achievable.

Over-consumption is indeed the real issue.

[XAP]Bob wrote: ↑13 Jan 2025, 2:23pm There is no reason for energy to be scarce as a result of decarbonisation.

What I said was that energy would be more scarce, not scarce. There's a huge difference, perhaps "less plentiful" sounds less concerning?

However, even ignoring the fact that a limitless supply of energy - which is how people have been led to believe it is over the decades - tends to more pollution and more waste, one reason there would be less once we've thoroughly decarbonised is that EROIs are lower for renewables, nuclear and storing excess RE further reduces this figure. In theory we could increase capacity as much as we wished, but that's most unlikely to happen in a world of limited resources and limited finance.

Well, we're always looking to reduce consumption - but of energy, not just electricity.... Similarly EVs use massively less energy than ICEv - even if powered by an oil power station.
Over the last several years we have significantly reduced our electricity consumption - through energy efficiency improvements all across the board. The major exception is the growth of data centres, and their current insatiable appetite for power to run pointless AI tools.

I did highlight electricity rather than total energy, note. Some new power stations for these data centres are fossil fuel powered - see the "Data" thread. Our electricity Grid is anticipating large increases in demand over coming decades, even though we are an economy of office workers and import ever more goods, goods often made with energy from coal.

The world certainly isn't reducing overall energy consumption either - completely the opposite. If we look just at Britain, then total energy consumption has fallen slightly, in line with our loss of industry, more efficient appliances and devices and no doubt because some can no longer afford to keep as warm as they once did.

You're assuming that we would wait until the stored energy has run out before we use any other power source.
If you have 100GW of wind capacity then at some points in the year you'll be over-generating like crazy, and can return to the "old days" of managing supply to match demand (once all the storage is full of course).
At other points in the year you'll be under the "normal" demand, but you can both reduce that demand, and supply a significant proportion from the wind you have, massively increasing the effectiveness of the storage facilities available, and they then *don't* run out.

Yes, and I believe some are talking about more than 100GW wind capacity (combined).

Tidal power is incredibly difficult to build without massive alterations to ecosystems, which is something we'd rather avoid where we can. Of course the longer we hang onto fossil fuels the more it will make sense to sacrifice estuary based ecosystems to save the entire planet - but we could still do it without that sacrifice.

You make the re-purposing of an estuary sound as if it's akin to a nuclear disaster. We live in a time when we assume the natural world is incapable of accommodating change, when in reality that increasingly applies to mostly one species, basking in the glow of fossil fuels and controlled nuclear reactions.

As it is, we're making huge changes to ecosystems with the vast levels of pollution associated with overconsumption of goods from the more polluting nations and AGW. Why is the ecosystem argument placed in the way of tidal energy when the natural world is being harmed far more by war, nuclear mistakes/accidents/disasters and the burning of fossil fuels?

mjr wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 10:11pm

Biospace wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 8:17pm Have you looked to see how many times more is/has been channelled for RHI and FiTs than for social Support (WHD and ECO)?

The government has also used levies to support contentious business like Drax.

No, have you?

Isn't part of that due to low take up of social support because of a combination of scare stories fuelled by fossil industry and the unwillingness of some older people to change unless it's definitely financially beneficial to them, no matter the benefit for later generations?

The reasons for Drax benefitting from Green Levies are complex and contentious. If the poor and needy haven't claimed what they're due because of scare stories then that's a pretty grim state of affairs. I had a quick look earlier and from what I could tell FiT and RHI claimants had benefitted around 1.5x to 2x more than those from ECO and WHD.

The contrast with how poorer sections of society in Germany have taken up solar compared with those in the UK is stark. We're even still debating whether or not new builds should be solar equipped by default.

[XAP]Bob wrote: ↑13 Jan 2025, 1:00pm There are a number of perverse market conditions at the moment, which we could, and should remove/rework to give everyone cheaper and more intelligent supply, as well as incentivise transitioning away from fossil fuel use as much as possible.

Is there much pressure to rebalance these conditions, or are too many political party donors benefitting from the high bills?

So you believe that if we manufactured more in the UK, we would trade less?

axel_knutt wrote: ↑13 Jan 2025, 1:59pm

PDQ Mobile wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 8:45pm ^^^
The above makes the extortionate road fund cost of my older car seem worthwhile.

Whatever happened to the days when you just put a key in and turned it?

Without exhausts, HT leads, spark plugs, clutches, cambelts and alternators to go wrong, these poor people have to make a living somehow...

Car electronics systems have grown piecemeal over the years, there's probably a case for someone to introduce a new system which rids drivers of the constant reminder they're inside a mobile computer.

[XAP]Bob wrote: ↑13 Jan 2025, 1:04pm If you disconnect the 12v battery then you'll hard reboot the system, no need to do anything about the traction battery, without the 12v supply it will not do anything at all.

A friend with an EV had a recurrent fault which disconnecting the small 'starter' battery didn't solve, whereas doing a full hard reboot (as the garage described disconnecting the traction battery) did solve it. This was done by the main dealer/specialist, there wasn't any encouragement for people do the work themselves - perhaps it should be mentioned that working with HV electrics is not for the general public.

roubaixtuesday wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 9:46pm

Biospace wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 8:14pm As above, where is my continual advocacy for free trade reduction?

It might help to study the differences between Free Trade and Unrestricted Trade.

Ah, OK, so you're in favour of trade, but it should be restricted. And free.

And as per your every post on the matter, there should be less than there is now.

Makes perfect sense. Got it.

Those who appreciate the difference between the two definitions might understand better.

Choosing to import from a broader base of nations than a small number does not imply less trading. But making a positive choice to manufacture domestically when overall costs are not so much greater would seem to make sense to me.

sjs wrote: ↑11 Jan 2025, 9:30am My issue was primarily with the car, not the charger. Both of them use 4g, but the car was not connecting to it, so for instance the car's app was telling me that it had no internet connection. That went on for most of yesterday. If t'web is to be believed, it's a thing with eVWs. The least complicated way to fix it, apparently, is to wait, typically for a period between hours and days.

A hard reboot is suggested to cure the problem (disconnect both low and high voltage batteries for a few minutes), although some have said VW's app support can be useful - if you're able to navigate through it.

Here's someone who had an issue with the software on their VW and his solution:

• Reset the Infotainment Console to remove all previous profiles

• Remove all accounts from the myVW app

• Create a new account in the myVW app

• Add the primary driver account in the ID.4, following the steps in the Infotainment Console. We are going to completely ignore this profile later

• Create a new account via https://carnet.vw.com/ to use for the actual primary driver, NOT in the myVW app. This will require a second email address and a second phone number.

• If you’re using gmail, you can use the `+` trick for creating a vanity email address. If your email address is paul@gmail.com, add a `+` and whatever after the account name. I.e. paul+vwid4@gmail.com. We have to use carnet.vw.com to create the account because the myVW app flags the email address as invalid. The myVW app requires a phone number it can text message but carnet does not. I used a Google Voice number for this step.

• In the myVW app, while still logged in as the user we created in step 3, add an authorized user to the vehicle and use the same email address from step 5

• In the vehicle, add a new user profile, but DO NOT USE THE QR CODE! Instead, click on the “Login with email” section in the upper right corner

• Log into the profile with the email address and password you set up in step 5. This is now your REAL primary driver profile

• Make sure you are in the profile, and make adjustments to the vehicle as you need (e.g. seat position, ambient lighting, driving mode, etc)

• Get out of the vehicle, lock the vehicle, unlock the vehicle, enter the vehicle, depress the brake pedal

• Repeat steps 5-14 to add and save a secondary driver profile, though now you can use a real email address and phone number for all other users

mjr wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 5:18pm

Biospace wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 12:10pm At the time (2013), energy prices were a fraction of what they were but green levies had added considerably to them, most affecting those least able to pay, with the extra revenues funding feed in tariffs for those who could spend many thousands on renewable energy installations.

The extra revenues have also funded a lot of free and grant-assisted upgrades for those least able to pay high energy prices, so let's not pretend it was all bad.

Have you looked to see how many times more is/has been channelled for RHI and FiTs than for social Support (WHD and ECO)?

The government has also used levies to support contentious business like Drax.

roubaixtuesday wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 1:35pm

Biospace wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025, 12:36pm I'm more interested in where my continual advocacy for free trade reduction can be found!

search.php?keywords=Trade&terms=all&aut ... mit=Search

As above, where is my continual advocacy for free trade reduction?

It might help to study the differences between Free Trade and Unrestricted Trade.

PDQ Mobile wrote: ↑10 Jan 2025, 7:14pm ...
At the moment just under 6% wind.
Zero solar.

But lots of gas, biomass, and nuclear.
Demand is high.

3C878773-749B-402C-A65F-6D6EF29A485D.png

We're a very long way from the Grid being decarbonised, and once it is energy will be more scarce - so why is there so little mentioned of reducing consumption of electricity? This would speed our route to "Net Zero" and place us in a stronger position once we have learned how to rely without constant fossil fuel burning.

We've grown used to seemingly limitless levels of supply and most have adjusted our lives accordingly.

To overcome a shortfall of 20GW of power once stored energies had been used in a period of little wind or solar, the levels of redundancy required would be simply massive. Of the order of 200GW to 300GW capacity of wind energy if there was a 5 knot gentle breeze, for example.

Our lack of determination to get on with building tidal power to me suggests that a reliance on fossil fuels is intended for a long time yet, but clever accounting and carbon storage (I see the billions being thrown at that as a big mistake when they could be used to build clean energy) will somehow, it is hoped, make that perfectly acceptable.