Cycling UK Forum

Manc33 wrote: ↑27 Aug 2024, 12:35pm I ended up using 4 x 2mm cable ties and attached it to the inner chainring, that had to be 24t (22t is too small). Luckily the inner chainring has holes, making it possible. I had to cut notches in the plastic on the magnet disc so the chainring can recess into it. I have done over 1,000 miles with it like this and it's been fine.

simonineaston wrote: ↑20 Aug 2024, 8:30am I’m intending to mount the sensor on five stand-offs, each glued to the inside of the crank web - see photo and diagram. Each of the five stand-offs will have its own magnet used to keep the pas in position. Does that sound appropriate to you, dear reader? Can you think of a better way?

I'm just wondering how the cable binder and araldite solutions are working for you? Any feedback after a few months use?

(I'm struggling with how to connect the sensor to an Alfine 39 tooth cranks, really annoying)

Another good reason to take an extra lead with two pins rather than use your current one with an adapter is that the adapters rarely provide a snug fit. That's fine for a hotel room or the washroom on a campsite, but may be a bit fiddly when using an outside socket with nowhere suitable to place the charger.

But if you do end up taking an adapter, take one that does provide a tight fit with your UK plug.

Thanks for the further information, more to think about there.

I'm wanting a 250W motor, I think it'll be enough oomph for me and will save the extra bureaucracy involved in getting a more powerful motor. Will also check out Nano.

Bmblbzzz wrote: ↑26 Sep 2024, 1:30pm Ooh, I hadn't thought of a grater! How big is it? Do you have a link to something similar so we can see what you're talking about, size wise etc?

For some reason I can't upload images here, but it's a little hand grater, there are plenty of variations and sizes out there. On mine the grating surface is maybe 9 or 10cm long and about 6cm wide, and it has a handle about the same length. I saw a similar sized one in a local supermarket the other day, I think it was a Co-op but it could have been Sainsbury's. Worth its weight in food.

Bmblbzzz wrote: ↑18 Sep 2024, 7:34pm I tend to use cous-cous or bulgur wheat as a grainy base, because they just need soaking in boiling water, rather than actual boiling themselves. Then some veg, cooked in the pot, and maybe some sauce or canned beans or similar. I'm not sure this is really healthy but it does at least include fresh veg.

I'm with Bmblbzzz on this, base carbs plus fresh veg and some bean or other legume based protein plus herbs/spices see me right, even over long tours of several months.

Cous-cous is ever so handy (pasta works, too, and some kinds of rice can cook in a thermos during the day - just pour boiling water in at breakfast time and it'll be ready by lunch). I also like the baby-muesli type stuff you get in Germany and other countries. Basically it's ground up muesli (oat flakes and dried fruit and seeds). Because it's ground up it's very compact compared to normal mueslis and makes for a handy, space-saving breakky.

Beans/pulses can be bought ready-cooked in cans or jars and are added at the end of cooking to warm up. Otherwise hummus, tofu, quorn etc along with nuts are other sources of protein that I use during the day (breakfast, tea, snacks).

Fresh veg, if it is to be cooked, is often the most difficult element in one-pot Trangia cooking. The thing that really maximised my fresh-veg intake while on tour was a small grater. Root veg and fruit like carrots, beet, apples, fennel root etc can be grated into the pot and are cooked through in just a minute or two. The grater itself is big enough to use easily, but small enough to fit into the top of my Trangia when I pack it away. Highly recommended!

Thanks for the advice so far. It sounds like the forks shouldn't, in theory, be a problem but I wasn't aware of needing to double check the hub and axle widths, so that's very useful advice.

Presumably I'll need to make sure my A-Head stem is nice and tight before putting a motor on the front wheel? I've never been able to get it quite right, but I've been riding the same stem for over 40,000 and there's no signs of fatigue or increasing play. Perhaps I'm being too perfectionist when determining how much play is acceptable?

Manc33 wrote: ↑24 Sep 2024, 1:57pm These days I have a rear hub motor on and it's miles better being at the back IMO. I considered mid-drive but was put off by only being able to have a single chainring and it having to be bigger than I'd want, then there's the chain wear and slamming into gear.

I don't want to give up my hub gears, I could imagine downgrading from my Rohloff to a Shimano 8-gear with motorised assistance, but I really don't want to go back to mucking around with derailleurs and looking after multiple rear cogs. As with you, I'm a bit put off mid-drive because of the stress on the chain (or on the other bike, the belt).

On the other hand I'm happy to have more weight at the front. I usually have lots of weight on the back, I'm not particularly light myself and I have years of pootling about with front panniers so I don't expect much pain from shifting the centre of balance of my bike and having heavier steering.

With age increasing and health decreasing it's time for me to look at electric assistance. I'm loathe to give up my bike, and a little daunted by the prices of buying a new ebike, so have been looking at adding a front hub motor. I'm currently taking a closer look at Yose, but I know Swytch also has its fans on this forum.

One concern I do have is how to assess whether the front forks will take a motor? I have little concern about my own bike (it's disc-ready, even if I'm still sporting rim brakes and there's no suspension), but my partner doesn't want to be left behind in the e-revolution and I'm wondering about the suitability of the forks on her two bikes.

Both sets of forks in question are rim brake-only, steel, quill rather than A-head, no suspension. What kind of things should I be looking at when assessing whether they're suitable for a front hub motor? Anything else I should bear in mind when adding a front motor?

Thanks for your thoughts

G

This post has been prompted by a comment by Nirakaro on the Best route from UK to Singapore viewtopic.php?t=162309 thread. (I'm not having a go at Nirakaro, I've had these thought often but have just got round to posting about it).

nirakaro wrote: ↑26 Aug 2024, 9:07pm Haha. Forgive me if I’m sceptical, but late-evening posts by first-posters, with hugely ambitious plans that they’ve clearly given not a lot of thought to, are not unknown on this site. In the cold light of morning, such posters are rarely heard from again.

This is a fair point, but I struggle to see why this kind of thing is said so often on this forum. While we may choose to be irked at the lack of manners of those who post and run, or (as the majority of members here seem to do), we could welcome the opportunity to rub our collective beards and speculate or share relevant information. I mean, come on, for many on these boards the idea of poring over maps to plan a route from the UK to Singapore or weighing up whether a bike is worth saving from oxidation is something we enjoy doing!

If we are sceptical about the good faith of single posters, we could just wait a bit and see if they come back. Otherwise, treat the question as a stimulus for conversation and enjoy the ensuing debate

PS I won't be near the internet for the next few days, so I myself will be guilty of posting this and running.

windysmithy wrote: ↑25 Aug 2024, 4:09pm just thought id add that a leatherman or similar is not detected if its in a steel camping pot. both ways, which i was pleased about. Another person had their (folding) swiss army knife taken off them at st pancras.

I had an Opinel knife picked up in the scan, even though it was buried in my Trangia (aluminium). Obviously that was the last I saw of the Opinel, although the security guy was really nice and told me to tape it under my saddle next time. The baggage handling people don't want you to leave anything on the bike when you hand it over but the security people aren't worried about knives or tools you have no access to during the journey. (BTW, that Opinel had already been on the Eurostar many times before anyone thought to question it.)

As regards the Swiss army knife, they've tried to take one of these off me too, wouldn't believe me when I pointed out it was allowed under their own rules ("Small folding pocket knives with blades under 75mm without a locking mechanism are the exception and are permitted" from https://www.eurostar.com/rw-en/travel-i ... ited-items ).

MyGrove wrote: ↑22 Aug 2024, 2:02pm Note you do have to install the BRouter Android app too. BRouter is only performing the routing in the background for OsmAnd. BRouter does not do any mapping.

Yes, it's a bit of a pain to set up, and I always forget to download new navigation information when I look at other areas, but it works well and is stable. Here's the howto set it up for anyone interested in adding offline routing to their Osmand app (Android only): https://osmand.net/docs/user/navigation ... g/brouter/

MyGrove wrote: ↑22 Aug 2024, 2:15pm GraphHopper https://graphhopper.com/maps/?profile=c ... =Omniscale also can be used to create routes taking gradients into account. There are three built-in bike profiles but there is also a Custom Profile accessed from the 'cog' icon.

Thanks for this, I hadn't realised Graphhopper could be that configurable (only ever used it on the openstreetmap.org website).

The Brouter (bike router) engine can take gradients into account, although it's not particularly intuitive.

Go to a cycle route planner that uses brouter (eg https://bikerouter.de) and choose the Trekkingbike profile in the top left.
Then choose the spanner on the right hand side to customise and scroll down until you see Uphillcost.
Type in a number there - the bigger the number the more it will try to avoid gradients, and a 0 means you don't care about hills. I usually put 1000 in if I'm feeling lazy and want to find the flattest route and you'll need to play around with that number to find out what works for you.
Now just plan a route by clicking on the map, but note it will still take you over hills if there are no other reasonable options available.

You can use other profiles too, although not all have a nice little box to type your "Uphillcost" in. In that case, switch to the Profile tab in the same customise menu and look through all that text for Uphillcost. If you can't find it, then add this to the bottom (I've used 500 as an example, but use your own number): You can do the same thing if you're using brouter with the Osmand map on your phone.

As others have said upthread, it's the kind of thing lots of us don't worry about. I did worry on my first long tour but soon stopped bothering.

I've been in some pretty dodgy looking places in eastern Europe with dodgy looking geezers hanging around the supermarket and had to leave everything on the bike (except bar bag) because how can I tote rear and front panniers plus tent plus bar bag around the supermarket? Nothing has ever happened on tour (or off), at least not by human hand: once a fox (could have been a racoon, but I saw a fox nosing around) slashed a pannier, presumably to get to the food inside.

I regularly note how inconsistent I am about this - if I leave my bike at the local supermarket I'll usually take both panniers with me (I clip them to the outside of the shopping trolley), but on tour they'll stay on the bike. I get confused when I'm on a long day tour and dither around trying to work out what to do with the pannier.

On the other hand, I have had a bike bottle stolen in a city, and a deposit drinks bottle nicked in Germany. And someone stole my bike computer once in a 'nice' area in a small town in the UK.

geomannie wrote: ↑15 Jul 2024, 4:33pm
It's good, but not much different to Open Cycle Map.
https://www.opencyclemap.org/

There's also https://www.cyclosm.org (also available as a layer on the main www.OpenStreetMap.org site).

Similar to OpenCycleMap (uses the same OpenStreetMap data), but is useful in terms of not only showing cycle paths (distinguishing between separated paths and paint-only paths) , but also making a guess at which roads are less 'scary' (based on speed limits and whether motorised traffic is permitted). Have a look at the key on the cyclosm.org page.

Hedgemonkey wrote: ↑13 Jul 2024, 4:51pm Many thanks for all advise, I was never in any doubt that the forum wouldn't spring into action.

You'll probably get more and better targeted advice if you give us some clues as to what kind of riding you enjoy (road, tour, mtb, hilly, flat, town, countryside etc) along with any particular interests (geology, museums, food, half-timbered towns ...). Germany has oodles of variety.

staffs cyclist wrote: ↑14 Jul 2024, 9:14pm I am thinking of basing myself in Saarbrucken (in the South West)for a few days in September, to explore Saarland, partly because it is the driest part of Germany and its relatively close to England, but cant work out if its actually an interesting/attractive place to visit. Anyone know?

Yes, the Saarland is lovely. Lots of different kinds of cycling available, good river and rail routes and some nice hills too. Interesting towns and landscapes. France is just over the border (of course) if you get bored of German tidiness, and Luxemburg isn't too far away either.

I hadn't replied before because my experience is over ten years old, and I was hoping those with more recent experience would jump in.

But, for what it's worth, in 2013 the national route 1 signage between the south coast and Bergen was almost adequate (but not quite) for navigation solely by sign, and north of Bergen was non-existent. I note that the route between Stavanger and Haugesund has changed dramatically since those times, so no idea what the signage is like on those stretches.

Roads north of Bergen are so scarce that I actually used a ripped out page from an Europe road atlas for navigation, don't recall the scale but probable in the 700k to 1 million range. That was perfectly adequate, although it missed out a few very small but pertinent roads, and of course, the options to go around tunnels, but these are easily marked up on the map before leaving.