Cycling UK Forum

The cold hard fact of the matter under discussion here is that you take your life in your hands these days whenever you have the temerity to venture out onto our wonderful road system on a bicycle !! By far the majority of drivers either regard cyclists as a nuisance and inconvenience that simply should'nt be there or, worse still, ( and this applies mainly to so called 'professional' drivers ) as someone whose safety can be deliberately endangered by their actions. We all know some of their little 'tricks' - who hasn't been treated to the old classic of 'white van man' or similarturning left right in front of you when the driver obviously KNOWS you are there ???!!!

The only drivers who have the slightest regard for cyclists are those who cycle themselves. Driving standards in general have deteriorated over the years to what I consider to be an all time low.
Stand at any traffic light junction and count the number of drivers blatantly crossing on red long after the change - you'd be surprised. The sad thing is that the police seem to take far less interest in routine traffic infringements than they should and if its a cyclist who has had his/her safety threatened by the actions of some of these people then they seem even LESS interested. Its about time the government launched a tv ad campaign to highlight the problems experienced by cyclists. Maybe the cycling organisations should start a pressure group for just such a campaign.
Meanwhile, wear a helmet and pray before you leave home !!!!

I find mini-roundabouts frequently frightening, especially those which were once T-junctions. Drivers crossing the top of the T in either direction still treat it as a T, not giving way when required to to either cyclists or other drivers.

Stilly, your complaints that are being ignored were sent to the "organ Grinder's Monkeys" - the Council Highways employees (or worse, their sub-contactors). They are powerless if they have been given inadequate budgets by their political masters - and they are not in a position to either complain themselves, or even agree with your complaints!

To complain, you need to contact the Organ Grinder him/herself - that's your locally elected County Councillor. Ask them, in a letter copied to the media and cycling groups, why the Council, acting as the Highways Authority, is failing in its responsibilities under the 1980 Highways Act!

Only by turning the spotlight on their failures will anything result. If the locally elected politicians have themselves voted to raid the Highways Maintenance Budget, and reallocate funds to Education or Social services (as the Law permits!!) to get themselves reelected, then go to your MP with the facts.

If your MP is of the same political persuasion as the Council, and fails to support your case, then you need to complain to the Ombudsman pointing out that the 1980 Highways Act is being ignored by the political process.

"All that is needed for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing". If the good cyclists, (and that includes the CTC) continue to do nothing, then the present evil system of Highways Maintenance will continue.

MG,

Unless it is essential to meet your design aim I don't think there is a lot of point in bothering to design a rack. There are so many already on the market that there is probably one you could use.
As someone has pointed out there are also various bike bags that are designed to be carried off the bike as either shoulder bags or backpacks. But these all have the same problem - they are designed to fit the bike as a single panier on one side of the rack. Anyone who has ridden a bike with a lot of weight in a bag on only one side of a rear rack will tell you that it messes up the handling. If you could design a bag that would work as a single backpack off the bike, and then split into two bags (easily without having to re-stow the contents) to spread the load on both sides of the bike rack, then you might be on to something.
And if anyone knows of something like this already then I'd be pleased to hear about it.

Ben,
As the lads have said, there is no particular connection between tyre width and puncture frequency and it sounds like your bike shop may have been trying to offload a bike or some wheels/tyres that aren't selling well which usually means they're not good because cyclist don't generally throw money around. The only difference a bigger tyre would make is a slight improvement in comfort and a proportional loss of speed. Mudgouard clearance will often be compromised too.

Like the guys, I would recommend a good quality puncture proof tyre with either Aramid or Kevlar proptection. As with everything else, the more you spend the better you'll get.

If you have got plump thighs remember to use a hard narrow saddle even for long distances.
It is very good for the groin muscles, especially
where it matters.

Then you have got nothing to chafe yourself against.

If you are leaving to morrow you won't have time for that either

This is a duplicate of the topic in Bikes n Bits in order to increase awareness.

The lack of Coleman Gas in France has been the subject of many previous topics. I have spoken to representatives of 3 companies in France who say they will keep stocks in their stores.

These are: Decathlon, Intersport and Sport2000.

Usually you can find one of these in many French towns. lternatively Markhill do 2 different adapters to use with screw fitted stoves.

The Cartridge adapter, part number 92496000 take the piercable 190 gram cartridges and is much smaller and lighter than the Karrimor equivalent.

Also Markhill do an adapter to allow the use of Camping Gaz sealable canisters on screw threaded stoves. This is part number 924971000.

If using a gas stove other than a Camping Gaz, either or both adapters would be a sensible choice to take on a tour abroad.

Both adapters can be obtained from Chris Davidson Agency. Tel01665 510660 or email cmd@chrisdavidson.freeserve.co.uk

The lack of Coleman Gas in France has been the subject of many previous discussions. I have spoken to representatives of 3 companies in France who say they will keep stocks in their stores.

These are: Decathlon, Intersport and Sport2000.

Usually you can find one of these in many French towns. lternatively Markhill do 2 different adapters to use with screw fitted stoves.

The Cartridge adapter, part number 92496000 take the piercable 190 gram cartridges and is much smaller and lighter than the Karrimor equivalent.

Also Markhill do an adapter to allow the use of Camping Gaz sealable canisters on screw threaded stoves. This is part number 924971000.

If using a gas stove other than a Camping Gaz, either or both adapters would be a sensible choice to take on a tour abroad.

Both adapters can be obtained from Chris Davidson Agency. Tel01665 510660 or email cmd@chrisdavidson.freeserve.co.uk

After article in CTC mag I'm cansidering buying either an Omega Axis or Airborne Audax titanium frame.

Anyone got experience of how they wear with daily commuting and weekend long rides in all weather?

I'm wary of their rep for fragility

Pete 'n orl,
I am glad you have sorted that one,
and I cannot presume that anybody shares my
political opinions either but Alisdair Darling is the one to deal with this particular hot potato,
technology for which is apparently now available.
(bbq!)

We would certainly have a huge problem outside my home with tuppeny ones, where the road is already vastly overused already, after the euro-directive of 1999 re heavy lorries on B roads.

Department of Transport have some extraordinary skills believe it or not and
I suspect that one of them would be for each area/district/county to keep very careful checks by means of satellite on blockages such as you describe.

highways management departments are keenly aware of such blocks already and would be all
eyes and ears for new developments.

I very much favour the new integrated satellite
technology for charging an honest rate for
what the county provides. For anybody who races through at high speed, penal rates should apply.

It has got to be done, and to raise "Whatif"
questions does not help in principle. I am politically very much in favour of people like my brother who spend more on petrol per month than I earn in six, paying the proper price for the roads he uses so liberally.

Was it not Morris or Nuffield who was a socialist on the basis that ALL men/women might have a car. I feel fairly sure that had such man/men lived today they would also have made similar egalitarian remarks about proportionate charging for road users.

It will turn out to be throughly fair for the cycling classes and the virtues of cycling wherever possible will be even more fundamentally clear to all top rate toll payers.

If you can park and cycle 3 miles shortcut and save £10 by doing so, then you are going to take cycling more seriously aren't you????

I take your point above though very exactly.

Gar

We (two of us) are planning to cycle part of the Danube path in mid September starting either at Donaueschingen or Passau. Answers to any or all of the following would be gratefully recieved.
1 How do we best get ourselves and our bikes to the start without using a plane or car? The ideal would be by eurostar but we have heard a few horror stories.
2 At that time of the year how likely is it that we can book reasonable overnight beds as we go along? We have pretty basic German!
Any other advice that folk would deem useful happily accepted too! Thanks.

PLEASE HELP
I am trying to arrange a charity bike ride to raise money for cancer research. Can anyone either help me by directing me in the right route to get some clues as to routes or can someone help!!!!!!

If any beginner read some of these enormous lists one doubts they would ever leave home, especially when the person has hinted she only has a small bag.

Choose stuff in order of 1. Risk, 2. your ability to fix things. There is absolutely no point carry stuff if you won't be able to use it on a day ride. The suggestion of Cyclecover home recovery is by far you best bet for bigger breakdowns.

Then if you are to become a regular longer distance rider learn to maintain your bike at home, and start carrying the items you know you use.

The risk suggests on longer rides you should always be planning for punctures, and you should be able to both replace a tube, know how to mend a tube and carry an old piece of tyre to put under larger splits in an emergency.

After that the nice people from the tool companies have done the job for you, either the Alien or the Cooltool multitools have a good selection of bits on the standard multitool, personally I rate the Alien.

Does anyone have experience of either the Kettler Country Cruiser or Pendo models? I'm considering these two models after a long
absence from cycling. Initially I'll be using road, tracks and towpaths.

Easyjet fly Bristol-Berlin for about £45 each, £10 extra for the bike, which has to be in a bag, which you can get from the CTC shop for £4. Either use the bags as camping groundsheets on tour, or have them delivered to your pre-booked, final night's accommodation.