Cycling UK Forum

Sweep wrote: ↑19 Sep 2022, 6:19pm rubbish disposal? - that's an intereresting bolt-on charge?

That was the only place I've ever had it in Germany, but it seemed to be standard on Swiss campsites (at least at the time - no idea if it's still the case). It was a flat rate that varied between 50 Rappen and 2F50, which seemed a bit steep considering the couple of jars and wrappers I produced of an evening when compared to the sacks of rubbish thrown out by the camper vans.

Over a decade ago, first campsite you hit when you go up the river Lahn from its confluence with the Rhine in Germany. Reasonable enough place, but they wouldn't let me pay the night before, even when I said I might head off early the next morning.

Anyways, come the morning (I managed to sleep longer than usual), I pop round to settle up, only to be told I'd lied about my tent. Apparently it wasn't a small tent, but fell into the large category, and I'd be required to pay more than agreed on the previous night. Big argument followed (it was only a couple of Euros difference, but it was the principle of the matter, having already been obliged to cough up for rubbish disposal, despite having none to dispose of, and this extra charge not being mentioned the previous night).

Their argument seemed to be based around the fact that my tent had been measured with Germanic precision and found to exceed the bounds of a small tent. My argument was that my tent was only just big enough for me to fit into, was light enough to be carried around on the back of the bike and therefore could in no wise be classed as 'large'.

I found their attitude threatening and vicious, and I shall never darken their site again.

Greenham women used whiskey bottles a lot - don't know whether it was the screw-top blends or the corked single malts.

Screw remover tool? Like a drill bit and you drill into the top of the damaged screw/bolt and it unscrews itself.

I picked up a set from Aldi or Lidl or somewhere like that one time, fortunately never needed to use them (and come the day they are needed, I probably won't be able to find the damn things).

I've been using the Abus curly cable lock for about 15 years, as an extra lock to my D-lock (eg when D-lock doesn't fit round lamp post or to secure front wheel). Works fine, getting brittle (and therefore not so elastic - now needing a little encouragement to go back into a spiral) after all this time, but since it spent about 10 years outside in the sun and rain I think that's pretty good going.

The thing about all those cable locks (as you probably already know, but worth mentioning just in case) is that they can be cut with a serrated knife or a pair of pliers (slight, but not unrealistic exaggeration - in reality it would take the smallest size of bolt croppers to do the job quickly) and are therefore only any good as a visual deterrent for casual 'borrowers'. I've recently somehow managed to leave the lock hanging off the back rack where it rubbed against the back wheel. The plastic coating of the cable has worn down as far as the wire cable and it's now obvious how flimsy the whole thing is.

This isn't a recommendation to avoid the Abus curly lock - on the contrary, most other makes are likely to be equally bad or even poorer.

Thanks to Chris Jeggo and Stoneybatter for naming and sourcing the book I mentioned, along with H.G. Wells' 'The Wheels of Chance'. Am going to have a good read first chance I get!

EDITed to add:

Ah, finished Three Men on a Bummel - enjoyed it muchly, but it wasn't the book I was thinking of. Despite notionally going for a continental cycle tour, there was narely a mention of actual bicycling, the longest cycling-related description being a satire of bicycle advertisement posters.

The search for the book I read years ago continues, although now I have Wells and Harper to keep me company for a while.

I do remember reading a book many, many years ago, of the same genre and era as "Three Men In a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome describing the outings of three (self-described) lazy young Londoners who thought nothing of doing 100 miles a day on roads that they considered normal, but the descriptions of which would suit the poorer sections of the Pennine Way, all with the iron boneshakers of the time (one even on a penny-farthing, which was going out of fashion at the time of writing) and heading down long, steep hills at great speeds with only the benefit of carbide lamps. Stern stuff.

Wish I could remember the book, would love to read it again.

Was the label ever really there? Was it valid or even with any point if it was?

I guess it's a way of quickly narrowing down saddles that support a relaxed (neither speedy nor upright) posture and not too much padding. So a 'city' saddle is likely too wide and too soft, and a road saddle is to narrow and hard for most tourers.

And yes, it was there as a label, still is on a few brands (but not so much in English language markets). So for example, a look at www.selleroyal.com in English shows no touring saddles. Yet in German there is a section "Touring & Trekking", in French "Randonnée et voyage" etc.


Perhaps a better way of phrasing the question would be:
Since most saddles are no longer marked "Touring" or "Trekking", what is the closest label (gravel, mtb, e-bike etc) for the purpose of narrowing down suitable touring saddles when looking at manufacturers' websites?

I like http://brouter.de/brouter-web - click on the wee profile icon on the left and it'll colour the route according to gradient.

It also shows profile, exports gpx and can work out four route options for each cycling profile. I like to use the CyclOSM layer (under layers --> more). Once you've got it set up the way you like, just bookmark the URL and it'll remember your settings.

If you want more and beta options then look at https://brouter.m11n.de/

It's Largely Fashion I perceive

Oh, absolutely. Yet after years of touring, I still haven't found a suitable saddle for my posterior, and it seems ever more urgent that I do so. Hence my looking at saddle descriptions and attempts at deciphering manufacturers' patent fitting systems/categories.

And also, breakages happen.

First of all, apologies for Yet Another Saddle Thread. Have searched through the site, but not found my answer, and I really am rather confused .

When I look at manufacturer's descriptions of intended use for their saddles, Touring (or Trekking if you want to be all continental) is rarely to be found nowadays, whereas it used to be a common designator.

Is Gravelbike the closest description in terms of saddles? Commuter and Urban don't do the job (they presumably suit a fairly relaxed inclination, but don't suggest five or ten hours a day in the saddle), and obviously road is the designation for a shaped pallet knife on rails while I'm not really sure what MTB suggests in the saddle department.

What kind of rider are we old-fashioned pannier-toting world-exploring tourers (with or without drop handlebars)?

The "pads" are quite wide so accommodating for many widths.

Thanks for the extra info, definitely helps.

12 out of the next 14 nights I had to get up for a nocturnal wee.

That definitely suggests some pressure in the prostate area. Perhaps I should keep focusing on cut-out/split saddles.

I have a couple of Passport Navigator saddles which are Charge Spoons (same plastic base, same factory, slightly different finish). One of them is currently not on a bike so I took a picture with a ruler.

Very useful - thank you. It looks like the side of the saddle slants downwards from about 15mm from the edge, giving it a sit-bone-relevant width of about 12cm - would you agree? If so, that would be perfect for me.

Which is why I've ended up with the Selle Italia Novus Superflow Endurance mentioned upthread. Cutout all the way to the nose (which is also dropped for aero/on the drops position).
I'm not sure what your definition of "long distance" is but I use this for 1000k multi-day rides without issue. With the Brooks I'd get perineal numbness.

This looks very interesting, have added to list to watch out for on ebay. (I'm a bit of an easy rider, will do 50-80km per day for months on end or other times just to the shops and back - but would dearly like a saddle that doesn't hurt like dickens after just an hour!)

This or a similar thread crops up at regular intervals

Very true, and I read them all But this time I've found out about the Charge Spoon (don't know how I missed it before!), which suggests that there may be value in rehashing the old chestnuts (no apologies for jumbling metaphors).

+1 on checking the valve. Had this recently, drove me up the wall for a couple of weeks, didn't want to throw out a demonstrably sound (yet somehow still deflating) inner tube!

Putting the inner tube (including valve) under water showed nothing. But suspecting the valve, I held it under water for longer. Got one teeny bubble of air from the valve every 90 seconds or so which confirmed my suspicions.

In the end I used part of the chain tool from a multi-tool to loosen, brush clean and reinsert the valve core. Apart from talc or perished rubber another possibility is that the wee core (?) is bent.

Charge spoon... Now and hopefully always on every bike

Lots of mentions of the Charge Spoon, which I haven't come across before. So now I'm interested.

I normally go for saddles with a cutout, due to the old perineal numbness, anyone have any opinions on whether the charge spoon is so amazing that I can forget about worrying about the lack of cutout? (Obviously subjective, as with any other saddle).

Can't find a website for the manufacturer, just wondering about widths of the spoon and scoop (I have a fairly generous sit-bone distance of about 115mm)