Cycling UK Forum

m-gineering wrote: ↑8 Aug 2024, 2:53pm Old gear (panniers etc) weighs often less than the modern stuff loaded with features.

Well actually...
I think that the racks and bags themselves are quite a worthwhile avenue to pursue in harmless and reasonably cheap weight-weeniness. I'd say that panniers in particular are often somewhat over-engineered.
I have a set of mid sized ortliebs that I use for shopping and general utiluty work. I'd also use them if I was travelling around the world.
However, for when I'm on a week long trip in the UK, I use a minimal set of similarly sized altura panniers. They're not as robust, they require more consideration when packing, they aren't as easy to lift on and off.... but they are stable and they are nearly 1kg lighter for the pair. Much cheaper as well.

Psamathe wrote: ↑8 Aug 2024, 1:38pm I'd always thought it a balance between £££ and weight. eg I take my general waterproof top a general travel one not a lightweight cycling one. Spend £100+ on a cycling waterproof top and I'd reduce my total touring weight. Buy a titanium stove (expensive) vs non-titanium (cheaper) and affects weight.

The coat is a very cost effective tweak if done with care.
I also used my normal waterproof when touring, but with a bit of judicious ebaying got a decent cycling specific one for £30 and knocked off over 300g.
Also packs much better and has a more appropriate fit.

Reading these, i get the feeling that we all have different expectations of comfort.
For me, comfort and enjoyment on the bike is important. So I like the handling to be as good as possible and going up hills to be as easy as possible. No amount of spare clothing, cooking equipment or chairs is worth compromising the hours of the day spent on the bike.
But then, I'm typically not away for more than a week, don't tour in super-remote areas and I'm happy to buy hot drinks, hot meals and hot showers as required.
Talking of which, what are peoples' thoughts on towels? "Normal" towels are not light. I've used microfibre ones, but they seem to spread water about rather than absord it. I seem to remember using a camping towel that was a bit like blotting paper once, it seemed pretty absorbent and light but I can't remember anything else about it.

It's tough to get super light with a tent etc.
I cut down on weight by excluding cooking gear, but then I cycle mainly in the UK, and even in the wilds of scotland there's normally a cafe within a couple of hours' ride.
I had a 13.9kg bike and 12.6 kg of luggage when on a short camping trip earlier this year. I'm currently working on reducing both!

There was a recent episode of geek warning (escape collection podcast) where they discussed this very issue.
They recommended an annual replacement, which sounds like a bit of a pita for those of us with (semi) hidden cabling.
I'm not sure if it's all shimano brifters, or just particular models. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me could update.

richardfm wrote: ↑7 Aug 2024, 5:45pm

mattheus wrote: ↑7 Aug 2024, 2:22pm

Pendodave wrote: ↑7 Aug 2024, 2:11pm Thus :

Screenshot_20240807_140954_X.jpg

When I first heard about this happening I thought it was insane!!!!

But it seems to work

I've done it on WhatsApp with Great Western

Thanks.
Next time I book a bike, I'll try it on Avanti.
Though I'm wondering if I'll be able to show my face in polite company again...

Thus :

Jdsk wrote: ↑7 Aug 2024, 1:52pm

Pendodave wrote: ↑7 Aug 2024, 11:41am

mattheus wrote: ↑7 Aug 2024, 10:54am The suggestion that booking bikes on trains is always seamless and trouble-free in the UK would be farcical. I haven't used twitter for it yet, but if it helps some people, that's great.

Yep.
If I'm at a station, that's fine.
If I'm not, I find I can sort one out on twitter pretty swiftly, including the checking what's available bit and the swapping from one train to another one bit.
It's possible that one can use email or WhatsApp, but once finding a solution that works as well as I could expect, I've got better things to do than experiment with lots of others that might not.
Ymmv, as ever.

Is that using official organisational feeds or from other travellers, or both?

Thanks

Jonathan

I use the official toc twitter feeds.
I send them a dm with my bike reservation request.
They send me a picture of my official bike reservation (which I wave at the appropriate member of staff).

mattheus wrote: ↑7 Aug 2024, 10:54am The suggestion that booking bikes on trains is always seamless and trouble-free in the UK would be farcical. I haven't used twitter for it yet, but if it helps some people, that's great.

Yep.
If I'm at a station, that's fine.
If I'm not, I find I can sort one out on twitter pretty swiftly, including the checking what's available bit and the swapping from one train to another one bit.
It's possible that one can use email or WhatsApp, but once finding a solution that works as well as I could expect, I've got better things to do than experiment with lots of others that might not.
Ymmv, as ever.

ossie wrote: ↑6 Aug 2024, 9:22pm

Cowsham wrote: ↑6 Aug 2024, 8:58pm I've never had twitter. ( or farce book ) Twitter is for twits.

I reluctantly have an X account only to cover a sporting hobby. Twitter can be an absolute cesspit. It's informative at times in relation to media content and footage for ongoing major events (shoot a video and post) but the stuff that's spouted by many is unbelievable and often extremist from all ends of the political spectrum. I've no idea about Facebook.

Exactly.
I have it to follow some sporting interests and to book bikes onto trains.
I've never seen anything else because I don't look.

Tezzerthebikerider wrote: ↑3 Aug 2024, 6:46am On my recent Fort William to Colchester journey all was well until it was locked in the Cupboard ar Peterborough.
I'd specifically booked an East coast train but was almost forced to stay on train into London , luckily a fellow passenger got off train to look for a Guard to unlock the said cupboard .
The Guard said if he'd not been there I should have stayed on train until London and the train company would have got me a Taxi home ,wholly inadequate I'd say

I'm obviously not familiar with your exact circumstances, but whenever I get on a train with guards and cupboards I always seek out the guard at the earliest opportunity and let them know which cupboard my bike is in and when I'll be getting off. Prevention is better than the cure!
Note that on the very long trips, guards may swap over, so remind them to leave a note for their colleagues to come.

Have to say, in a country without much useable space, I'm not in favour of brand new developments. There doesn't seem a great history of the utopian dreams of their designers being realised.

Services, transport and jobs are in our existing cities. Many of these are very low density. Apartment living works in European cities, it's surely the way forward for us.

axel_knutt wrote: ↑29 Jul 2024, 11:55am

Pendodave wrote: ↑29 Jul 2024, 10:05amWhat's next?

Put the cost of waste disposal/recycling (and/or the environmental cost of dumping) onto the purchase price of everything

I'm not sure that people's brains work like that.
If you included the price of the bags into the overall shopping bill, I don't think that would cause anyone to cut down on their use.
Once it's a separate optional extra, behaviour changes.

For car use, a flat £5 fee for every movement would be far more effective in reducing short journeys than merely increasing petrol prices by n%.

PH wrote: ↑29 Jul 2024, 10:12am

Pendodave wrote: ↑29 Jul 2024, 10:05am 2. Does this prove that, whatever stories we might tell ourselves, hitting people in the pocket is the only language we understand?

I think it's a con, it gives people something to feel good about. It might save some litter, but filling your reusable carrier bag with all your purchases wrapped in single use plastic hasn't done much good.

I kind of agree with you, but are we not in danger of letting perfect be the enemy of the good here?

Let's work on the low hanging fruit of extraordinary wastefulness before getting into the harder bits. It might be the case that once people see how good it is to change, the harder stuff actually becomes easier?

Just came to the forum, link in my paste buffer, to highlight this and discovered if been beaten to it!

Obviously great news. So two questions really:

1. What's next? I'm going for coffee cups. Plastic water bottles are obviously a huge issue, but it's tough to separate out the cost of the bottle from the contents, so not sure that behaviour could be changed.

2. Does this prove that, whatever stories we might tell ourselves, hitting people in the pocket is the only language we understand?