Cycling UK Forum

Jdsk wrote:

Nearholmer wrote: ↑30 Apr 2022, 10:00am I think ‘electric mopeds’ are allowed a power output up to 11kW (15hp).

It's complicated and there are several different categories:
https://www.gov.uk/ride-motorcycle-mope ... quirements

Jonathan

Ah yes AM category (P is or was the licence class) 45km/h equates roughly to 28mph.
Id agree, based on my experience of riding mine, that this is too slow for suburban and rural roads - it's safe, but very uncomfortable. But 28mph (indicated) is ideal for urban areas (excepting urban motorways of course).
On the other hand, it's way too fast for sharing with unpowered /unmodified bicycles.

Nearholmer wrote: The points you make are sound, and strongly suggest that e-bikes are filling the same transport niche that was filled by dead-feeble mopeds until mopeds became FS1Es in the 1970s, I’m thinking the of the cyclemaster, velosolex, NSU quickly, and things like that.

That market is increasingly catered for by legal e-mopeds limited to 28mph - such as the one I ride (NIU Uqi) - registered, insured and requiring the rider to have a driving licence.

The barrier to adoption of legal 'dead feeble mopeds' (yes, they are) is the licence, insurance and other regulatory requirements. E-Scooters side-step all of this providing an alternative much more suited to the 21st century, rather than a throwback to the 1950s.

Its worth noting that the original mopeds (now class P vehicles I believe) were permitted on many cycle paths including places like Stevenage.

The question is - if you want to use these two groups as being similar - do you regulate e-Scooters like mopeds, or do you deregulate e-mopeds?

Here's a bad photo of my permit still cable tied to my utility bike.
I keep it there out of cussedness!

I would imagine enforcement would have been by the boat licensing team - but that was then, not now.

(And I do recall, many, many years ago a pal being challenged for his permit although I can't recall the circumstances)

Nearholmer wrote:.
I think the issue is that most towpaths are indeed footpaths in right of way terms, but are unusual because the landowner, C&RT, has granted universal permission to cycle on them under defined conditions (that you show pedestrians and wildlife “great care”).

It's actually the other way round.
Very few towpaths are Rights of Way and CRT allows them to be used as permissive paths, including cycling.

There was an understanding with the DEFRA grant that has kept CRT afloat (!) that CRT would encourage 'access for all' hence the removal of cycle permits, and improved surfaces in some areas.

There has been - and continues to be - a lot of work being done by CRT volunteers to survey and record the access to, state, width and ambience of canal towpaths across England and Wales. It's a huge undertaking and is progressing very slowly.
The output of this work will, apparently, be put to use during this year - I'm expecting it to identify areas where disabled access can be improved first, which will be of benefit to cyclists.

I toured extensively in the 70s and early 80s with AW and AWC hubs at a time when club riding had moved to dérailleurs.
I don't recall, on club rides, my speed being any different to my pals.
When touring my bike would have been quite heavily loaded and I covered some good distances in the UK and France, doing upto 65/70 miles a day.
My recollection is that the advice was for 'normal' (middle) gear to be around 63-65 inches, and that's still what I aim for on both my current bikes with three speed hubs.
I've never thought about a specific technique, but certainly hills require a different approach because, I suppose, the lack of a true granny gear means that once brute force has failed you have to resort to the 24 inch (two feet) gearing - which was not frowned on back in the day.

Nearholmer wrote: This photo I really love: my Dad on a club run to The seaside in 1957. Note the fancy gear he was using - ordinary casual clothes, plimsolls, and an old gas-mask bag! The bike was doubtless deeply secondhand.

This is the problem with marketing - capitalism's handmaiden - we can no longer just 'go for a bike ride', we are told we must have all the gear or we're not doing it right.
This is the other side of the same coin that this question seeks to address in so many areas of the consumer's life.

axel_knutt wrote: Exactly. The best coffee is the stuff you spoon out of a jar and pour boiling water on without all the faff. It's made better still by the thought that the worst cups of coffee I've ever tasted, by a very large margin, were fresh, not instant.

Funny you should say that. I bought a 25p packet of Inka which is a Polish coffee substitute with an Eastern Block heritage. I got it to use at the allotment, but it was sufficiently good for me to go back and buy another couple of boxes while it was on offer. It'll not be my everyday drink (which is tea) but it's perfectly acceptable 'coffee' for me.

Jdsk wrote:Apart from the collective bargaining and the national political stuff union membership can help with lots of practical personal issues such as job descriptions, employment disputes, and pension arrangements and problems. This doesn't get so much attention.

I've always chosen to belong to one.

Jonathan

I was a member of Unite and its predecessors for around 37 years. When I needed help with a serious practical personal issue - they were totally useless, and may have contributed to a worse outcome. Another family member has a similar experience with a different union.
I realise that this is largely down to the quality of local rep's but as union membership has declined it seems that the training, support and backup for the local reps has been severely cut back.
My faith in Trade Unions is at an all time low.

It's a while since I've ridden round that way, but I know where you mean.

The road to avoid is the A426 - there's not many roads I will not cycle on, but that's one. It's the lorry racetrack between the A5 and the M1 for non- Magna Park traffic.

Now, your real question - I think, if I remember correctly, the A4303 has a decent cycle lane adjacent to the carriageway.
The B4207 - if its the road I'm thinking of - is a 'busy country road'. Fine to ride if you must!

As pointed out by the other poster, it's probably not the roads themselves that will be uncomfortable but that roundabout.
The A5 has a reputation for being a dangerous road (the road is safe, it's the way drivers use it). Only you can answer whether you have the skills to deal with that junction (in all weathers, in variable light, etc).

nirakaro wrote:

kylecycler wrote: ↑16 Mar 2022, 4:16pm we surely don't get any kind of true impression of a place's inhabitants unless we travel there and meet people.

My experience of a few weeks in Russia just after the end of the USSR was that any interaction with government or bureaucracy was a total pain; any people I met socially were invariably hugely tolerant, warm-hearted, generous and funny.

We went to Moscow in January 1980 (USSR). We met a couple of people outside our tour bubble - and yes they were lovely & humorous people as much as the language barrier would allow.

We mustn't tar all citizens of a country with the brush with which their leader is deserving of.

I attended far too many NHS disaster exercises than I care to remember. Most involved other services such as police, fire, councils etc. Frequently the Met Office and the BBC were there too.
I can only vaguely remember one that was conflict based, and that must have been quite early on in that part of my career. Most were flooding or 'major disaster' (plane crash etc) related.
At my last job it became apparent that the main mortuary was likely to be the first part of the site to flood if the nearby river burst its banks.
We always knew where all our isotopes were stored, and who had the keys.

ossie wrote:

thirdcrank wrote: ↑7 Mar 2022, 9:22pm'.

ps...did you have the grey phone contraption things at your stations ? I recall every Sunday having to check it..It supplied a warning in the event of a nuclear attack or something. We also had a nearby Divisional HQ with a very impressive nuclear bunker.

I inherited the task of checking one of those in the hospital switchboard from my predecessor (heaven knows why he was doing it).
I became the local 'expert' (at turning it on, listening, and turning it off. Wot?) and ended up checking a few of them locally in rural Huntingdonshire for a few years. They were in police houses, pubs and I even found one in a post office that the owner knew nothing about. No one seemed to own them (although it probably should have been the council).

thirdcrank wrote:The breadth of knowledge beyond cycling on this forum has often been the subject of favourable comment and I've benefited from it.

I'm amazed to see how many military experts we have in our midst.

I had some of that at the allotment at the weekend - a group of old blokes whose military experience was probably that of having an older cousin doing national service in the catering corps knew exactly how to deal with 'the ruskies'. It was painful.

Dayglo wrote:I wonder at what point, assuming the US do sanction Poland to release it's quantity of Mig-29 fighters to protect Ukrainian airspace, Putin well get nuclear twitchy?

It's a horrible prospect, and low yield battlefield nukes have never been deployed in a war before, but if we go down the route of brinkmanship, and the Russians find it impossible to take Kiev by conventional means...

After that, there's only escalation. And more escalation.

And this is surely where its heading.
In the words of the song 'when you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose' - and the point seems to be coming where Putin has nothing conventional to throw at Ukraine.

His next step - without losing face - must be nuclear.

Whether that is battlefield nukes (very likely), nuclear attacks on Ukrainian cities (possible) or a nuclear attack on the west (unlikely), I don't know.

(I've seen an analysis that suggests a nuclear 'demonstration' of a bomb in the North Sea or Baltic Sea as a further possibility).

Whatever - it's very, very scary.

simonhill wrote:What we need is long distance cross border high speed trains going South. A geriatrics special from London to somewhere like Malaga would realistically start eating into some the mid haul flying.

I'd take one if it was convenient and straight through. Decent restaurant car, plenty of toilets and a good size baggage car.

Paris to xxx means getting to Paris first.

Spain uses a different gauge to the rest of the world* - Iberian. The only compatible line is the Perpignan to Barcelona high speed line (I gather the newer high speed lines are built to mixed gauge although I don't think standard gauge trains use them) .
This is why they have the gauge changing sheds where axles were swapped on coaches & wagons for cross border services.

There is also a narrow gauge network in Spain.

*Iberian gauge is 1668mm, standard gauge is 1435mm.