Cycling UK Forum

Then there is the Groucho Marks approach, "I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would accept me as a member."

crg wrote: ↑17 Sep 2022, 4:32pm

6.5_lives_left wrote: ↑17 Sep 2022, 8:33am Most bike suppliers ship alfine and nexus equipped bikes with 3/32 (inch) wide chains and sprockets but the hubs will accept also accept 1/8 (inch) wide sprockets (you may have to do a bit of filling to take a fraction of a mm off one surface of the sprocket to make it fit {1}). I have replaced the chains and sprockets with 1/8 wide parts on 3 of the alfine/nexus equipped bikes that I own. In theory (and in my subjective judgment) you get better/longer wear with the 1/8 parts. I still use the original 3/32 wide chain rings on the front because 1/8 wide chain rings seem to be difficult to get hold of.

As elCani said, your 9 speed chain is probably a bit narrower than 3/32 chain which is the stuff that they use (used) on 5/6/7 speed derailleur bikes single speed 3/32 widechain.

{1} A flat sharpening stone of the type used to sharpen woodworking tools like planes and chisels is a reliable (but slow) way to shave a bit off a 1/8 sprocket if it doesn't quite fit.

So file an 1/8" sprocket and a 3/32 chain will fit - did I get it right?

No
1/8" sprocket
1/8" chain
3/32 chain ring at the front

You file the 1/8" sprocket only if it is a tight fit on the rear hub (if the split ring won't fit in it's groove). Some 1/8" sprockets are a bit oversize (in width). Shaving a bit off one face if it is oversize will make it fit snugly. No more than a few 1/10 of a mm.

Most bike suppliers ship alfine and nexus equipped bikes with 3/32 (inch) wide chains and sprockets but the hubs will accept also accept 1/8 (inch) wide sprockets (you may have to do a bit of filling to take a fraction of a mm off one surface of the sprocket to make it fit {1}). I have replaced the chains and sprockets with 1/8 wide parts on 3 of the alfine/nexus equipped bikes that I own. In theory (and in my subjective judgment) you get better/longer wear with the 1/8 parts. I still use the original 3/32 wide chain rings on the front because 1/8 wide chain rings seem to be difficult to get hold of.

As elCani said, your 9 speed chain is probably a bit narrower than 3/32 chain which is the stuff that they use (used) on 5/6/7 speed derailleur bikes single speed 3/32 widechain.

{1} A flat sharpening stone of the type used to sharpen woodworking tools like planes and chisels is a reliable (but slow) way to shave a bit off a 1/8 sprocket if it doesn't quite fit.

pete75 wrote: ↑3 Aug 2022, 10:36pm But it will be mainly drivers who are paying that subsidy through taxation. People who drive pay the bulk of UK tax. It's the group of people who don't drive, mainly the poor and elderly, who are being subsidised by the tax drivers pay. Remember motorists don't just pay fuel duties/tax, they pay a hell of a lot of income and others taxes as well.

Someone I know well pays over £100,000 per annum income tax, never mind VAT, fuel taxes, VED etc. Please tell me how her driving is being subsidised by anyone else. Before I retired I was on a modest salary but was still stopped almost £2000 in income tax and NI each month - I doubt my motoring was being susbsidised by others either.

My emphasis

This page on the office for national statistics website contains a figure (figure 1) showing the weekly earnings of a full time employee on median salary, between years 2011 to 2021. You claim that your stoppages were circa £2k. A full time worker on median salary in 2021 has to work about three weeks to earn what you paid in stoppages each month. I wouldn't call your salary modest, I would say it was somewhat fat when compared against median salary.

How many years does your median salary worker have to work to pay your acquaintance's annual income tax bill?

Slightly off topic but elsewhere in Oxfordshire, they have just resurfaced the bridge that crosses the Thames in the middle of Wallingford. When they repainted the white lines, they got rid of the pair of less than a meter wide "cycle lanes". They have now put painted bicycle symbols in the centre of the road.

For those not familiar with this bridge, it is traffic light controlled with only one lane of traffic available. Vehicles wanting to cross have to take turns to use this single lane. It is long too, probably more than 200 meters.

I think it is an improvement, or at least it will be when they get rid of the temporary lights and reinstate the full time lights.

Jdsk wrote: ↑16 May 2022, 6:34pm "... the Guardian publishes private documents at the centre of an extraordinary row between Priti Patel and police leaders."
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ce-leaders

It's worth reading the second.

Jonathan

It is pretty clear that the Chief Constables don't think much of the Home Secretary's proposal.

Off topic, but the address to send the responses has been 'blacked out' (redacted). Except if you select and then cut and paste, you can recover the text in the blacked out section. It is easy to mock, but it is actually very hard to properly redact an electronic document. If someone asked me to do it, I am pretty sure that I would not do it successfully.

As you are in Reading, a good place to try might be Saddle Safari in Marlow. I don't know if they do tricycle hire, but they do sell recumbent tricycles, including electric versions. I think one of the owners is a recumbent trike user (I could be wrong).

But definitely worth asking them for advice.

I have no connection to the store other than being an occasional customer. I live in a neighbouring town (Wycombe)

Sorry for not providing an update.
I got a private message (PM) from Zulu Eleven back in July 2021. Unfortunately I didn't spot the PM for a few weeks but when I eventually logged into to post a message rather than 'lurking' as I usually do, I found the PM. I passed on Zulu Eleven's details to the councillor Saf, who in turn passed them to another councillor.

Unfortunately I have changed jobs since then so I am no longer in contact with Saf. I don't know it there was any follow up.

I don't know any further detail, sorry.

I have an ebike with an internal hub gear. If I get a rear wheel puncture while out on the road I use a pair of toe clip straps (christoff) that I store on the handle bar. (If I am desperate, I have another pair on the pedals).

I find a park or road side bench or gate to a farmers field and tie the frame of the bike to that bit of road furniture to hold the back wheel off the ground. Then with the second toe strap, I put that through the wheel rim and around the pannier rack so that when you loosen the track nuts holding the wheel on, the wheel doesn't fall out of the frame. You can slowly slacken off the toe strap to allow the wheel to drop slightly out of the frame dropouts. You then have space to get the chain off the sprocket, remove the control cable and the cassette joint. The same technique helps when reassembling the cassette joint and chain on the sprocket and fitting back into the dropouts.

I do it this way because the frame of the bike is too heavy to lift off the ground one handed while manipulating the rear wheel with other hand.

horizon wrote: ↑11 Jan 2022, 1:02pm

francovendee wrote: ↑11 Jan 2022, 8:41am It shows them up as the bunch charlatans they are.

It also shows up the public as mugs. It was well known half way through the pandemic that the government was issuing rules on the basis of public demand, the public duly believing that they were necessary. No-one likes to be taken for a numpty, hence the public anger at something that was obvious from the start. A little self-reflection on their part might not come amiss at this point.

What you wrote doesn't ring true with me. I don't believe the government were issuing rules based on public demand in 2020. Back then they were issuing rules based on what scientific advisers were telling them to do, but often delaying their implementation so that the measures were less effective than they could have been (shutting the stable doors after the horse has bolted).

I can believe that in Christmas 2020 and most of 2021, the government (ministers and Johnson) were paying less attention to scientific advisers. And what a storm January 2021 was! I am not sure that is the same as "issuing rules on the basis of public demand". I think it is that some section of the public were weary and certainly ministers and backbench Conservatives were weary and that political capital could be made by relaxing the rules. There is a touch of Bolsonaro about Johnson.

However my experience of 2020 was probably very different from most people in that I was working on-site at a large engineering firm for pretty much the whole of 2020, bar 1 week at the start of lockdown in march 2020. No furlough, no work from home. That very much suited me.

Bump

Now a news article on the BBC website

There was an article in today's dead tree print of the Observer today about possible Government plans to sell off the Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre. There is a link to a copy of the article on the web here.

These are the people who developed the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine, partly (or wholly?) through public money.

I was vaccinated with two doses of Astra Zeneca (I'm in the upper 50s age group). I believe that it has been manufactured and distributed at cost price until very recently and the intention is to continue to distribute it at cost price to developing countries.

Given how successful the AZ vaccine was and what a valuable resource it is for public health and future vaccine development, it seems unwise to flog the knowledge (intellectual property - spit), equipment and people off into private hand. Some things are best funded by and ownership retained under the state or public bodies.

I fear that the government will be looking at the empty coffers and make a different choice.

My brother pointed out to me that the Anne Sacoolas and Julian Assange cases are linked.
It is a Quid Pro Quo with the americans. Anne Sacoolas gets prosecuted for a driving offence and Julian Assange gets thrown to the wolves.
Assange didn't have any friends amongst government ministers anyway but with this deal the government get some good publicity for themselves and boy do they need it. Or maybe instead of government I should have written Foreign Secretary?

tenbikes wrote: ↑9 Nov 2021, 4:02pm Ok, so my original battery is 48v 17.5ah and weighs 4077g.

Supposedly identical battery recently purchased as a spare/second to extend riding range is only 3835g

A quality cell weighs 45g, so the missing 244g equates to approx 5 cells short but if course I'm not going to break the security deal to check. I suppose it could hold the same number of cells, but if lower quality, though they are supposed to be Samsungs.

I have used the new battery for three rides an it seems to run down faster, but if course keeping all the variables constant is pretty much impossible.

Both batteries charge fully to the same value, but can they both be 17.5 ah given the weight difference?

When you say "both batteries charge to the same value", I take it you mean that they have the same voltage (48V ?).

If these are lithium cells, the voltage of each cell will be approximately 4V (a little more if the whole battery is fully charge, a little less if it has been depleted).

5 cells wired in series is only 20V but the battery is 48V. Something doesn't add up. I don't doubt your voltmeter or your measuring scales but I don't think it is likely that the difference between these batteries is the presence or absence of 5 cells.

Could your assumption that the weight of each cell is 45g be wrong?

I have 3 lithium cells from a dismantled (laptop) battery here and I measured them as weighing 125g for 3 cells, i.e. 1 cell is about 42g. So your guess of 45g is probably about right (I don't trust my scales for anything other than cookery).

Another recommendation here for B&M lights because of the way they put the beam of light onto the roadway where you need it.

The last time I bought an LED lamp I think it was a 60 Lux B&M (it might have been more, I can't remember exactly). This was as a replacement for a factory fitted LED lamp on a bike I was using for a hilly commute on unlit country lanes. I don't know how many Lux the factory fitted lamp was but I couldn't see far enough ahead on the descents to avoid having to brake. With the replacement B&M lamp I could see much further and didn't need to brake as much on the descents (and felt safer).

I have used 3W (500mA ?) halogen dynamo lamps in the past and even a 10 Lux Led lamp out performs them.

I have had the misfortune to occasionally met cyclists coming the other way on unlit lanes using retina burning lamps. They possibly have a role if you are using them on bridle ways at night and want to be able to see and avoid low hanging branches, but it is pretty antisocial to use them on the road IMHO.