Cycling UK Forum

Thanks Scott for that. I keep banging on about the comfort of the Brooks B17, in particular the Titanium model, so it's nice to get some support! It seems like a comfy armchair after all the others, and that's without any breaking-in period. You pays your money.....

A pair of modern long reach caliper brakes will work much better than old centre-pulls ever will, especially with the latest compound block materials. I switched from old Mafac centre-pulls to Tektro calipers on my commuter bike with spectacular results. I would have used Shimano RX but the drop was too great from the rear brake bridge. Alhonga are also a good budget buy if you need a deep drop. SJSC sell these. I would also change the levers, as I remember, the levers on 80's Galaxies were pretty poor, i.e. not pulling much cable compared to others. Hope this helps. Terry.

"I'd even suggest that how hard he pedals it is the reason his racer seems more comfortable than his tourer."

Er, but I have to pedal harder on the tourer to get it to go anywhere so it should be more comfortable, but it isn't!

"the tourer probably has fatter, softer tyres and hence almost certainly provides more suspension than the racer."

The tourer has 32mm cyclocross tyres and the racer has 20mm slicks at 150psi. The frame is the only thing left that can make up the stiffness. If you were to ask my posterior, it would tell you that it gets a pounding on the tourer and a cossetting on the racer. The wrong way round really!

I'd be interested to measure deflection in the frame at the saddle and compare it to deflection in the tyres.

"it is customary to set up a touring bike with a slightly more upright riding position,"

Yes, but that's something I DON'T do cos of needing to spread the load. The riding angle is the same on both my road bikes. I agree the notion that upright = comfy is wrong in practice and leads more quickly to a sore derriere.

"It's also interesting that Raph finds his tourer more comfortable when loaded up with camping gear."

The only difference, I think, is that with more weight on "my side", the bike judders less, more flex is taken up by the tyres, therefore pounding my @rse less. I don't reckon the frame flexes more or less since the weight of the luggage is directly on the rear axle and doesn't affect the frame. The reason for the frame being stiff by the way is simply that my previous tourer was very nice and supple when unladen but would flex like a rubber lassoo when loaded up, and riding out of the saddle was like trying to climb up a blancmange.

I don't ride any harder with luggage, except up hills, when I'm usually out of the saddle anyway, so I don't think that's the reason for it being more comfortable with luggage - I think it's simply because there's less vibration at the saddle.

Old style "long" frames, with long wheelbase and a big graceful rake on the forks are, usually, very comfortable. I've had a couple in the past - a Jack Taylor and an unknown thing called a "Sun" - both were very very comfy, even with rock hard tyres on. ...whatever Mr Burrows might say, not that I'd dare to disagree of course! Since tyre stiffness varies between tifferent tyres, even at the same pressures, it's difficult to be objective, but I know that I've had frames that have been very springy and others that have been a hard one up the posterior. On MTBs I find the frame's stiffness makes no appreciable difference cos of the large amount of give in big tyres, but on road bikes the stiffness of the frame is significant. The physics of it are too complicated to say simply that frame stiffness does or doesn't make a difference. Set-up and angles etc are important, but stiffness is definitely an issue. If you can devise an experiment that could prove that all else being equal, frame stiffness was irrelevant, that would be extremely interesting!

Bernie's definition of cycling is an unusual one.
It must refer to "CTC cyclists are cyclists but
no others are"
Sunday cycling round here is phenomenal.
We have special routes and everything and off road
They bring their bikes on the back of expensive
cars and 4x4s from posh city suburbs.
The summer has to be seen to be believed; just everybody cycling.

In Bernie's day it was big gangs of cyclists going down to Brighton in troops of 40 or 50. They did not have cars. They were "cyclists". Ah Well!

gar

While it is a little sad that some people are wearing these bands without knowing what the bands stand for and while it is even sadder that others are making 'knock-offs' of the bands for personal profit, you have to admit that the bands have raised awareness and, possibly more importantly, have rased a hell of a lot of money for cancer research/treatment.

Thus the ordinary, anonymus sufferers of cancer out there are benefitting from the publicity that is given to Lance and Kylie. furthermore, potential victims of cancer (i.e. you and I) are also benefitting if this money is used to create treatments or preventions for something which we all might suffer from one day.

I know this is just a short trip in comparison to many others, but it will be my first one abroad. There are four of us (students) planning on cycling and camping for about a week. Does anyone have any advice or information about this sort of thing, or know of a good resource to find it.
Thanks

some days i wear a helmet, others i don't, its my choice see and there aint nothin' yous can do aboud it seeeeeeeeee! anyway, compusory helmets = daft idea. maybe the government could combine many pants ideas and have compulsory helmets with ID cards built in, and a shock collar for when we are naughty and think about girls, (or boys, depending on the weather)

I always said that some people use "cars as weapons" at which my airline captain brother used to laugh. I meant what I said. One day he came along and said "I think I know what you mean about cars used as weapons but what would you say about passenger aircraft used as weapons?"
He was prescient by about four days of 9/11

Aiming at a cyclist with a car by means of gesture, eye contact, turn of the car is a very serious offence yet it is almost impossible to prove that it has been done.

Over the years it has happened to me half a dozen times, and I am certain that others may
say the same.

I wonder how the public may be informed of the seriousness of such an offence, short again of
public discussion leading to regulation or legislation?

It is very little short of a terrorist act perpetrated
by possibly otherwise law abiding people.

G

I encourage you to respond to a Metropolitan Police consultation about the
priorities for its Policing Plan 2006/7 and its Policing Strategy 2006/9.

Please respond saying that you feel that the Met should be giving much
higher priority to traffic policing, including lower a tolerance threshold
for those breaking the speed limit, better investigation of road crashes,
tackling traffic issues in Community Safety Units and Police Community
Consultative Committees, providing better support for road crash victims
and putting more police officers on bikes.

Point out that traffic policing is highly effective way to tackle other
forms of crime, as there are proven links between driving offences and
other forms of criminality. You can add that, according to Home Office
research, speeding easily tops the list of the public’s anti-social
behaviour concerns – well ahead of issues such as litter, graffiti or
vandalism. See page 11 of this document for more details on this:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs04/rdsolr4904.pdf

The consultation is at:

http://www.met.police.uk/about/performa ... sultation/

The deadline for the first stage of the consultation is Friday 13th May
(tomorrow), but I have spoken to the organisers and they are going to
keep the website open till 8am on Monday morning.

Roadpeace have responded with the following priorities:

1. Traffic law enforcement, especially speed enforcement This should include
stronger support being given to safety cameras by the Met Police and
lowering the speed tolerance limit. DfT restricts speed cameras to worst
locations only and requires them to be signed but the speed tolerance margin
is a local decision.

2. Investigation of road traffic collisions (including injury collisions
which are investigated by borough police) Collision investigators only
handle the fatal and near fatal collisions and general borough police
investigate all others (over 80% of all injury collisions). Injury collision
investigations are a very low priority for the borough police and this shows
in the quality of investigation undertaken, i.e. witness statements are
posted and not taken in person.

3. Support services/treatment of those bereaved and injured in road
collisions.Previous research into the level of satisfaction of victims
with Met policeinvestigations has excluded those bereaved and injured in
road collisions.Victim Support does not assist road traffic casualties and
the informationprovided by the police is minimal and misleading. A Home
Office booklet isgiven to bereaved families but this does not even warn
families that themost common charge, driving without due care and
attention, must be laidwithin six months. No written information is given
to those injured on theroad.

4. Inclusion of traffic safety in Community Safety Units and the monthly
borough Police Community Consultative Group meetings.

Safer Streets initiative and Community Safety Units do not include traffic
safety in their remit. Traffic safety is also excluded from the regular
discussion of the Police Community Consultative Group meetings. The
Southwark Police Community Consultative Group is to hold a special session
on traffic safety but it should be discussed at every meeting. In a British
Crime Survey on anti social behaviour, speeding was the most common problem
reported. ASBOs should be used for speeding and motoring offences.

5. More police on cycles.

Police on bicycles represents a cost effective solution that should also
help police be more able to appreciate the risk to vulnerable road users and
be more proactive about protecting them.

Cheers

Neightgreen

I am now gearing up to do some touring still with a broken leg which has not healed, and it may do so before long, so:

The Varna is a basic trike bike; he makes no pretence about it. Pannier bag for general shopping is a bit of a problem which I have solved.
Now I need to put more panniers on which is again needing resourcefulness. Stacking them up may be the answer.

It is a one front wheel machine compared with others which have two wheels at the front and ONE at the back instead. Off road is slightly difficult as the grip of the front wheel is light. and spins on steep wet grass
It is hand cranked to the front wheel.

I should be able to do about thirty miles a day
on tour, and I am planning a journey to Santiago
again but cycling from St Malo. I have always gone too far too fast on push bike hybrids, so it is not a disadvantage to slow down a bit and even do alternate day riding. Many more sensible cyclists do that anyway to see more of the country they are in.

I may be able to convert this saddle (bucket seat)
so that it IS a push trike bike by kneeling on the
seat with one leg. Otherwise it is almost unpushable; not many people would want to push it! It is not necessary. He provides racing wheels for those who want them.

G

I camped (mostly) End to End last July and hugely enjoyed it but you'd need to be warmer than I was at this time of year! I've just completed webbifying my record of the trip, at

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/richard.d. ... /index.htm

which I hope might be of use to others. Have a good ride, all of you.

Here we go again, so I'm not going to bother being PC. With cycling participation falling and road traffic volume doubling in the last 20 years, where do you propose those who wish to begin cycling should learn?

Now following the comments above if you are not going to directly answer this simple question be so kind as to say so and not go of into the usual "sustrans are segregationalist rubbish".

As a CTC trained cycle trainer my borough Swindon has both borough pedestrain/cycle routes and Sustran Route 45 through it. There are whom we have only gotten to cycle only because of both routes. Those, who if they had as an alternative the old buffers organisation bleating out their "its our right to be here" mantra, would be no more be tempted to get an a bike on the road first than stay off one.

As a final feeling which organisation is expanding both in terms of its members/volunteers, route building and prize winning and which is getting increasingly old in its DA profile, its IT infrastructure, its charging its member to phone it, whose leaders remit to vastly increase membership has yet to be vaguely realised to be contrasted by the others burgeoning profile and measurable increase in cyclists now cycling by virtue of its routes in THEIR eyes being the ONLY comfortable place to cycle.

Marc

I'll offer my threpence worth. I am a Sustrans Volunteer Ranger - 4048, I am a member of the CTC and a CTC Right To Ride Member and finally I am one of many who ressurected our local BUG. We dont have any truck with petty squabling and taking sides with on or off road - pedestrian/cycle path debate and the dirctness or otherwise of routes. We meet often wearing many hats and get on with it. You know in life you get a hell of a lot of insight when wearing others shoes, after aa while you can go back to your own, usaully more enriched for it.

We are unified by the act of cycling, look for other similarites as opposed to differences.

Happy Cyclng

Marc

P.s. I forgot to add the CTC made me a qualified Cycle Instructor last year and I use loads of Sustrans Pedestrian/cycle paths to gain cycle handling skills ahead of using the busy roads for road skills.

My advice is take action yourself. You do realise you pay for the Highways Maintenance? The funding comes from the Community Charge which you pay, and from central Government funds, to which you contribute! Your elected local councillors have the responsibility to deliver these services, on your behalf, via the various maintenance contracts negotiated by councils.
Most County Councils operate a website. That may offer an online reporting facility, or a list of phone numbers. Take action yourself, reporting the faults, and keep a reference sheet with dates, locations and the council's Reference Number.
Try to find out the time taken to fix faults. My county provides an excellent service, and the rare service failures are investigated and acted upon.
Across the county border is a 3rd world county. Money they request for Highways Maintence is reallocated to vote-winning areas, such as Education or Social Services. This robbery is permitted by law, yet we hear nothing from the CTC on such issues. The elected councillors decided to spend the remaining budget on maintaining the busy roads. That left the unclassified roads to fall into ruin. Highways reports were ignored for months or years. Parish Councils were ignored. This happens because of the almost total lack of independant scrutiny of the Highways Maintenance system. After all, the elected Councillors were the ones responsible for the misallocation of funds, so they won't rock the boat by monitoring their service. And it's no good lambasting the various jobsworths for failing to deliver the service, as their masters made the decisions. If they complain, their masters will mark their card when it comes to promotion or redundancy. Private firms may lose their contract if they complain about their inadequate budgets! So we have a system designed to ensure failure. With railtrack such parallels can cause a major incident, which attract scrutiny and retribution. With Highways Maintenance there is no such scrutiny.
It's up to us to make sure the job gets done, and that requires an understanding of how the system works both in practice, and in the political environment. Don't rely on others, do it yourself; and be assertive. Just remember how hard the Councils will be if you try to make a claim. You will be faced with solicitors letters denying liability, statements that it was your fault, suggestions that you are making a false claim, assurances that the council's contractors had recently carried out an inspection and found no fault (Yeah, really!). Another County Council agreed an increase in budget for legal services so they could more effectively fight claims for damages; but did they increase the maintenance budget to prevent the claims arising?
There are also tricks played to give misleading statistics on repairs. An example was the time taken to repair a "Dangerous Pothole": 48 hours may be the set standard, but the pothole could be left for weeks after being reported by you as Dangerous before it was visited. Only after an Inspector had visited the site could it be officially categorised as "Dangerous", then it could be repaired in 48 hours to meet the target set.
So long as cyclists leave it to others, there is little chance of an effective system being put into operation in those areas where political graft is the norm.

You seem to forget that there are a mass of elderly and disabled who cannot cycle. The buses are often the only way they can travel. Londoners are spoilt for choice. Try living in the country, the ten mile cycle ride is very nice when you don't have to do it in all weathers, with no cyclepaths.

Don't be so selfish, there are others in the world besides cyclists.