Cycling UK Forum

binsted wrote:I have an Altura Night Vision waterproof jacket that I am not happy with as it does not seem to be at all waterproof in heavy rain. I have spoken to the supplier who tells me all makes leak to some extent in heavy rain.

Firstly I would be interested to hear if anybody has had similar experiences and secondly I am looking for recommendations for a top quality waterproof top. I am resigned to having to buy another one and would rather pay a bit more but I would like one that keeps me dry.

I've had two Altura night vision jackets. The waterproof membrane in the first began to disintegrate in places in the second year I had it, and I suspect may have had a manufacturing fault. However, it was such a comfortable fit I kept it for dry weather rides, and bought another Altura NV for the wet ones. It's now in its third year. I've been out in it today, it's rained all day, I've kept dry. At the price, I'm more that happy with it.

Brucey wrote:Lucas Chalice? Wossit look like then? Is it the one where it has two bells that both rotate somehow? Any pictures?

cheers

No, it ain't. If ageing memory serves aright, it was a beautifully chromed 4" (100mm) dome with suitably large internal 'donging' mechanism and superbly sonorous sound.
When I wor a lad it was fashionable to wear it attached to the very end of the offside of the dropped bar, facing outward. Why we put it's beautiful chrome in such a vulnerable position is one of the mysteries of fashion, and therefore beyond all rational explanation.

pete75 wrote:30 quid for this - unbelievable!!! http://www.theoldbicycleshowroom.co.uk/ ... 3692-p.asp

I've got these on three of my bikes - I didn't know I was so well off BUT:

pete75 wrote:And for just 200 quid an offering from the prince of darkness himself - Joe Lucas - does look good though...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lucas-King-of ... 460cce1a89

If only I still had the Lucas Chalice that I forgot to take off the bike I abandoned when I got demobbed - I'd be really rich

Highkicker, you may find, when wheeling this way, that if you push the saddle right down, the bottom end of the seat post can catch the ground, particularly on uneven surfaces. If so, just raise the saddle a little - not too much, or it won't lock the folded frame - and then clamp it again.

I've always been a mapman. In my impoverished adolescence I used the map pages from an old AA year book (in those far-off days there was little traffic, so almost any road was a cycle route). When I started work I graduated to Barts half-inch maps, beautifully drawn and ideal for the mileages I could then cover. When Barts went the way of all flesh, I moved to 1" OS, and found I had to carry three or four even for some day rides. Now I use metric OS maps and seldom fall off the edge.

But I've also always been a 'I wonder what's down there' rider, i.e. I'll work out a potential route, and take the appropriate map(s), but then see an interesting byway or fingerpost, and take off into the unknown. I used to get irritated in a netwirk of strange lanes when I had to stop frequently to check the map, and even more annoyed when the map ran out. So I welcomed satnav, and wouldn't now be without my latest toy, a Garmin Edge 800, which not only tells me all the turns, but recalculates the route to my ultimate destination when I take off on a "I wonder what's down there" jaunt, as well as recording everywhere I've been for future use.

Of course, like everything else, you need to use a certain amount of common sense. If it tries to send me on a major road I either reprogram it from my map, or if I'm off the map, branch off onto the next byway - it soon finds an alternative route. It all adds to happy cycling.

I thought,wow that's a good idea,then I saw the price £610 to store two bikes,when you think what the same money could buy for bike storage it doesn't add up IMHO.

This http://www.shedstore.co.uk/garden-sheds/metal-sheds/yardmaster/yardmaster-green-108geyz-metal-shed-10-by-8 at half the price and twice the bikes?

Joe.B wrote:I used to always buy based on price, now however I see the benefit of superb customer service so for me it's either SJS, Spa or LBS.

+1

pioneer wrote:Personnally, I can't be bothered with the faffing about and working out if I'm getting any real or indeed, increased discount at all. These, days I normally use Chain Reaction. Quick, efficient, good enough for me. When it comes time to re-new the CTC shop contract, I'd like to see it going back to Bike Plus. They were much better IMO.

Ditto

I've felt for some time that the problem is not so much brightness as illuminated area of the lamp, particularly with rear lights, but probably just as true for front lights. The single super-bright LED type with a clear lens are the worst for dazzle when near, but seem to make distance judgements much more difficult when you are coming up behind them, and at a distance seem in some way to be less noticeable. What I would like to try would be a rear lamp with, say, a 10cm diameter diffusing red lens, preferably with some less bright (and so less power hungry) LEDs behind it. If anybody knows of one I'd happily buy one.

At roundabouts I always take a car line, i.e. take the lane, and unless taking 1st exit, if it's a two lane take the right hand one. Approaching the roundabout, well in advance I always look over my shoulder (even though my right eye is duff, so I don't see much ) to alert any following driver, signal very clearly, and check my mirror to make sure I can move out if need be. I think it's essential to move assertively, and definitely occupy the space needed. The worst possible place to be is in, or close to, the gutter when entering or on a roundabout.

axel_knutt wrote:My father had one of these back in the 1950's:

I too had one in the 1950s. One of the chaps at work found on Saturday night he'd won a first dividend on the pools, borrowed £50 quid (an enormous amount at that time) and went on the razzle over the weekend, and somehow acquired it, mounted on a rather nice Dawes. Unfortunately, several thousand others also won that week, so instead of the expected £75,000, all he got was about £20. Since he'd spent most of the £50, he was really in trouble. To help him out, I bought the bike+mini-motor from him for a fiver. The motor drove the bike by means of a roller which pressed on the back tyre. I tried it a few times, and then threw the motor away, having experienced the answer to a riddle current at the time - "What's the difference between a bike with a mini-motor and a new bride?" The answer to the first bit is "It knackers your tyres." I'll leave you to work out the answer to the second bit.

javatime wrote:At today's prices, a proper bike (with a hub gear , chaincase, dynamo etc) I think would have cost the equivalent of several months wages. Bicycles are much cheaper in relative terms now.

But are they? My late father-in-law (at a time when I was looked on suspiciously as "that lad making up to my daughter", i.e. mid-1950s) bought a new upright Raleigh with all the bells and whistles, including integral battery case on the down tube for the dynohub stand-lights, for less than £20, IIRC, at a time when his weekly wage as a furnaceman at the coke ovens in Rotherham would have been not less than about two thirds of that. It was a good solid bike that took him several miles to work and back for the next twenty years or so.

At that time the bike I wanted was the Raleigh Record Ace, which was about £40. Since as a trainee Chemist I was earning no more than thirty-five pounds/month and paying £6:10 shillings a week for my digs, it was but a dream - so I bought a second (?third or fourth?) hand Dawes for a fiver.

Audax67 wrote:May all cycle-path microliths be instantly transferred to the gall-bladders of the local authorities responsible for maintaining them.

That's why I rarely use cycle-paths. The only visit this year was when I forgot why I didn't, and did, if you see what I mean

My brother had one before the war, fitted to a James I think. I can't remember any more about the bike, I'm afraid. But it would have been a reasonably lightweight dropped bar model. It went with him into the RAF, and he hadn't got it when he came back from India in 1946.

I replaced the pads on my front brake a couple of weeks ago, and they now squeak most effectively. So far no one has ignored them, unlike my bell, so I've decided not to try correcting them.