Cycling UK Forum

I have a mish mash of stuff from different kits. One of the best things is a little metal piece that has a bit almost like a lemon zester on it to rough up the tube ad powder the chalk. I replace the tube on the road but always carry the Park instant patches just in case and I find they work great - I'm still using tubes with them on after ages.

Great shots - I love photos of pylons. Here are some of mine

robwa10 wrote:What size seat post is it zen? Might have one lying around that I could let go for postage and a pint.

Thanks for the offer but I'm going to get a new carbon post for my best bike now and pass the old one down.

chris667 wrote:I had an R50 once. A fine bike that I did a lot of miles on, but the stem once broke when I was doing a 30+mph downhill in Wokingham.
If it fits you and you like riding it, what's the point of buying something "better"?
Do you have a picture of it? Just a bit of nostalgia.

I thought I'd up-loaded pics before but I can't find them now so I've done a Flickr set of them all. The Hack is the 5th pic in the set.

dgibby wrote:Think I read on this forum (or another forum) once

One I remeber from years back on teh C+ forum (Now part of Bike Radar) was from a female cummuter cyclist in London who had some dispute with a driver. At the next lights she sidled up to the drivers window and leaning down said something along the lines of "Don't do that again - I really don't want to have to go back on duty". Obviously not being a cop she couldn't say it explicitly but the words she useed (that I can't quite remember) deffinatly gave that impression.

Apart from the frame, the things I was thinking I might spend on were proper winter tyres rather than my cast off summer ones, new bar tape, new seat post (presently one of those old steel tubes), etc - just stuff to make the ride a bit more pleasant. I should be getting STIs when I upgrade my road bike. But then I got to thinking how much slower it is than my summer ride and I'm trying to decide wheher that actually matter or whether the extra effort of dragging the old iron up the hills is just good trainning.

I've not riden either Ti or C but personally I find a bike that is a better fit for me more comfortable. I have a cheap steel (just CroMo) frame which happens to be a perfect fit and i can ride all day on it whilst my much more expensive, carbon stayed/ forked Alu frame is much more stressful to my body due to it being a compromise fit wise. This is probably why many people on longer audaxs etc use steel - they can get a bike made to fit them perfectly for the price whilst the Ti one for the same price would be an off the peg one. If you're lucky maybe you can find a Ti frame that is the right fit for you.

This morning's ride on my hack was lovely and refreshing but I have now done more rides this year on my hack than on my proper road bike!

It's mainly down to all the bad weather and I've still done about a third more miles on my road bike but it made me wonder if I should really be spending a bit of cash on the hack.

It's a 2nd hand steel Raleigh R50 frame (but just the perfect size) with various cast offs. Do other people have really nice winter hacks? Is it worth getting a reasonably cheap alu frame or should I just keep spending on my 'summer' bike?

I was particullarly pleased that Dave Brailsford won the Coach prize.

I wasn't paying that much attention but did all the other guys up for the main prize have a little section about them but they lumped all 4 cyclists into one bit of film?

The one that always anoyed me was the Post office website so you could get post codes. it was some rediculous length needing numbers and couldn't have anything the same as your username etc - all you can do with it is get post codes - TO HELP THEM DO THEIR JOB!!!!

I often get a bit angry and feel like lashing out but never really do. I shout at them alot these days and will slap cars with the flat of my hand if I think they've come far to close/ havn't seen me etc. This does no damage but sounds bad from inside and will wake the driver up.

I also used to have an Air Zound (got stolen) and that was excellent. You could really get a drivers attention and there is also the embarassment factor that everyone else looks round/ no one likes having a horn blown at them. You could also get right up to a drivers window and blow it almost down their ear.

These days I usually 'ask' loudly if they are aware of what they are doing in some way - "Have you tried indicating?", "Did you see me?", "Did you notice those lightsa, mate?" etc and I'll try to get right at there window if I can or eye contact in the rear view just to try and get some association between their drving and me.

I think there used to be an ad in the back of 'Cycle' but I'm without my copy just now.

Cycle Friendly Infrastructure has been superceeded now by Cycle Infrastructure Design - mor info here.

If you are looking for on-line info etc. try searching for pedestrian refuge rather than trafic island. there should also be designs for ones that are used for cyclists to cross that give enough room for a cycle to fit (in the direction of traffic flow). This also goes for two stage toucans and should involve a staggered set of toucan signals with a longer refuse inbetween.

Personally I don't particularly like them but they are made worse when any on road cycleway markings disapear just before the refuge rather than atually getting wider and changing to a dashed white line ths narrowing the perceived road width dramatically and actually slowing traffic whilst indicating cyclists should be given space or even (gawd forbid) priority.

kwackers wrote:

pigman wrote:

allen-uk wrote:I reckon that the phrase 'Global Warming' was one of the worst-chosen in history.

Either: people think, Oh, that's alright, a bit of extra sunshine and higher temperatures.

Or: on the other hand, where is Global Warming on days like these, when you can't venture out on your bike?


A.

youre right. May seem a bit pedantic and insignificant, but for a cool-to-moderate climate, the term global warming signifies improvement, not threat. Therefore, its easy to welcome it.

It could also mean much colder winters and much wetter summers for us. Not that great then is it?

Trouble is we don't know what it means which in my book simply highlights the stupidity of our actions. Bit like shutting your eyes, stepping out into the road and hoping for the best.

That's why I try and use the term 'dangerous climate change' - much less specific about what the change is and includes more chaotic weather systems as well as average global temp rise and amplified local variations etc.

I went over again this morning. My own fault really. I had decided to take main roads but got delayed so had to take a shirt cut. A stream of some sort had decided to cover the whole road in ice. I got of and walked down the hill but decided to try my luck once there was open flowing water (plan was to ride down this) but I went over after about 10 seconds. New road rash right on top of the lot I picked up last week going over on a bit of black ice two corners from home.