Cycling UK Forum

deggelton wrote:
As for Ratatouille's suggestion .....

Well it does Deggelton credit (if he is who he claims to be) that he's put his head above the parapet. And that he's read some of the way through this thread. And it's nice to get a mention, even if for the wrong reasons! I suppose someone who's just coming to terms with being away from the beloved steering-wheel for a year is bound to be on a bit of a downer in the sense-of-humour division, and will find it harder to recognise light-hearted flippancy when it comes his way.

Anyway, as to the other comments he's made, I leave it to others to answer if they wish.

I should have added, Mary, that we met many other MTBers on this walk, and all but this one were the very model of courtesy! And the gate was on National Trust land, there wasn't any livestock at that particular place today but I'm sure the area is grazed at other times of the year.

I've cooled down a bit now. I was seething!

Sorry. I feel impelled to post this.

We were out walking this morning in the countryside. Walking, not cycling. Approaching a gate in the path, a MTB comes towards us full-tilt from the other side. You'd expect the rider to stop, open the gate and ride through, or wait for us to hold the gate open for him (as we would have done of course). But that's not his way of doing things. He continues at full speed at the gate, trusting to his guess (correct) that the latch is not fully engaged. Wheel strikes the gate with some force, gate swings violently open and he pelts on without a by-your-leave. My wife, only a few feet away, is rather startled: so am I if truth be told.

And we're not talking a kid or a teenager: this is a fully-grown adult male of considerable bulk.

The best I can wish for this person, is that if he tries this stunt again on a sturdier gate which withstands this assault, he ends up trashing his front wheel, forks, and with luck headset and frame too. He deserves no less.

There were plenty of other people about (it was near a car park), many with young children. Would you believe me if I said this was one occasion when I was glad to be without my bike?

Maybe to be more charitable, he might have been having a bad day. As I am. If, Mr MTBer, you are by the remotest chance reading this, can I ask you please to treat country gates, as well as other people's property, and others you meet in the countryside with less contempt? Yes I know gates can be a nuisance. Yes I know they slow you down. But they're there for a purpose, they belong to the farmer or landowner who has to maintain them in good order.

Their only redeeming feature was that you could remove a crank with ordinary DIY tools, no need to carry an extractor. Claw hammer, anyone?

But whilst I'm all for 'retro' when we're talking, say, rear hubs, headsets, pedals, etc. etc., the cotterpin is the one feature that I'm glad to see consigned to the 'classic' section! I was so relieved when I took possession of my first-ever cotterless crankset (at vast expense: I think it cost me £15 which was a lot of money in the 1970s!) and came to realise that the days of wrecked B/B bearings due to over-exuberant hammering, were at last over!

Bear in mind that most TTers spend most of their time on the bike training, and only a small fraction of the time actually competing. But I suppose many of them choose to train on the same type of road as they will be competing on - namely D/C's. It is during training, that the casualties may, and sadly often do, occur. I don't know of any instance of a fatal collision during an actual TT event, on a D/C. But of course motorists see the large number of competitors in brightly-coloured kit, warning signs will have been put up, the hi-viz clad marshals and so on, so they are more cyclist-alert on such occasions. Certainly I am, should I happen to drive past one.

Perhaps I was wrong to assert that D/C riding can be as safe as ordinary road cycling. After reading Chris's authoritative analysis above. Perhaps I haven't felt particularly threatened on the occasions when I've unavoidably taken the D/C - but perhaps that's luck - or foolhardiness. I acknowledge better advice.

It is also a pity that we (myself included) have strayed from the original topic of this thread which was about the tribute to Marie Vesco. Maybe it would not be amiss, to belatedly suggest an alternative route for London to Brighton which would have avoided the D/C and maybe this tragedy. One of many possibles, this is not the route taken by the big BHA ride next Sunday, but it is a perfectly viable route and I'm familiar with most of it (it may coincide with one of the CTC recommended routes, I haven't checked). I've only included the section south of Crawley, I'll leave it to others to fill in the rest.
Link

I am in two minds about this.

When a couple of smashed-up cars were placed on the island in the middle of a busy roundabout near me, just before Christmas one year, with placards carrying stark warnings about drink-driving; there was widespread local resentment with the motoring organizations bleating about drivers being 'distracted'. Eventually the wrecks were removed.

No-win situation perhaps. But the deceased need to be shown respect and commemorated somehow.

Counting cycling casualties - KSIs - is, sadly, easy.

Counting 'amount of cycling', less so. How is that measured? Certainly I have never been asked by any authority, whether I did more cycling in 2007 than 2004. I have never been logged in a traffic census. I may have been photographed, but how would the information be collated?

I am inclined to distrust the second figure, rather than the first.

Don't I just know it? Some ten years ago, when my then Head of Department learnt that I was a cycle-commuter (doing all of 2 miles each way on reasonably quiet roads), he got the cold shivers and pleaded, he can't afford to lose me (possibly true, at that time), could I please wear a suit of armour for the ride to work (I think he revised that, would have settled for full motorbiking leathers plus full-face helmet). I'm afraid I didn't oblige!

And there was the time many years earlier (different employer, different commute, about ten miles this time) when a Director spotted me as he breezed past in his 4x4 (a rarity in those days, of which he was intensely vain) and insisted I put the bike in the back and 'hop in'. When I politely declined, he got a bit shirty, what's got into me, he's offering me a lift isn't he? what is this with not wanting a lift and in his nice big fancy car too...?

Perhaps best to get used to it. But be polite, always! They mean well!

Manx Cat wrote:Day two is how to make big bangs, and violent chemisty! Guess which day will be more fun then... (If its not banned... infact the course is called 'SUrely its banned?' So maybe light is emerging at the end of the tunnel....)

Ha! I remember the days in the 1960s when the celebrated Brian Shaw late of Nottingham Uni, used to give his famous explosive lectures, I was lucky enough to to attend one of those. Health and Safety (well, H&S 2009-style) gurus eat your heart out! Among the highlight showpieces were, firing a tallow candle from a blunderbuss through several sheets of solid steel; touching off a milkbottle full of explosive oxygen-acetylene mixture; torching a wad of cottonwool soaked in liquid oxygen. Don't try any of these at home folks! He knew all about H&S as it was (sensibly) regarded in those days, he took the correct precautions, AFAIK no-one ever got hurt.

Might have the odd pair or two, rusting away in the bottom of a bag of old bike bits which I never got around to throwing out. Should I hang on to them? Getting valuable?

P.S. just remembered: my unicycle (which gets no use nowadays) has cottered cranks. Another thing to hold on to.

Not just you downfader, I can't see the link to the comments now, just the original five letters. Perhaps if the editor thought the sequence of comments was going to develop into a slanging match, and decided to chop the lot; if so, fair enough. Nothing can change the outcome.

To be serious for a mo' - I suppose getting a wasp or bee in your mouth is going to be unpleasant - if not downright dangerous. Never had that, but once, cycling after dark, I had a 'near miss' involving a cockchafer which slammed into my cheek at considerable speed. Boy did that smart, that's one heavy critter to be on the wing! But I think the insect came off rather worse than I did.

I once had a good old-fashioned Bobby draw up alongside me on his sit-up-and-beg, at traffic lights.

He said "I'm so glad you stopped at the lights". A bit annoyed at being patronised, I felt like retorting "I would have stopped at the lights even if you hadn't been there - unlike some". But I held my peace. The Law, after all, is the Law.

Regarding your accident: hope the kids, and the other car occupants involved, were OK.

Perhaps you should write to the editor of the newspaper (not the letters editor, the general editor), repeating (as best you can recall) the exact words that you posted and asking why they were removed.

If comments are being removed merely because the opinion therein runs contrary to the opinion of another contributor, that is out of order and should be condemned.

However I am a bit uncomfortable about the idea of posting oneself outside a prison gate and 'holding a silent protest'. I've no doubt that this does happen on occasion, usually no harm is done, but it smacks a bit of vigilante-ism. I notice that the comment containing this suggestion has not been removed.

Needless to say, standing outside a prison waiting for a released prisoner to emerge, won't kill anyone. Driving a car in a certain manner, will.

Did it wriggle and tickle and tickle inside you?

That was the spider, wot done that!

IIRC the sequence was fly-spider-bird-cat-dog-goat-cow-horse* - but I don't remember all the words.

*"she's dead, of course"

So: what do you do when one of our six-legged friends inadvertantly insinuates its way down your throat?

Happened to me this morning on the ride to work.

After a fit of vigorous coughing in vain hope of dislodging said intruder, can think of nothing better than to shrug, mutter to oneself the words of the famous nursery rhyme (didn't try the follow-up! ), and press on.

Tips?