Search found 196 matches

by NickWi
23 Nov 2020, 7:29pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Navigation in Scotland
Replies: 38
Views: 2451

Re: Navigation in Scotland

May I make a suggestion. Subscribe to the OS map app or something similar and download the 1:50,000 maps of the area you're planning to pass through, plus some either side. I think OS subscription is £24.00 for the whole of the country and right down to 1:25,000 level. That’s really only the cost of three or four paper maps though you can find free verions is you can put up with the adverts. My reasoning for using an app on a bike tour is is three-fold.

One. Where you're going has some of the most magnificent scenery, quiet costal villages/ports and some of the most spectacular view this country has to offer. Finding some of these means taking a detour, improvising and figuring how you get back on route yourself. Paper OS maps are brilliant for this but are unwieldy beast to control in a brisk wind. The phone app gives you all of that and less the chance of the map being blown out to sea with the next strong gust. Secondly, the number of paper maps you need will be costly, not mention you’ve got find somewhere to carry them (and keep them dry). Lastly, you’ve said you’ll be taking your phone with you, well not your taking a Garmin and that's one less item the charge at night!

Really lastly. Never ever exclusively rely on an app when your mountaineering. I always take paper ones with me along with a compass and know how to use it; but touring on the road is different and if you’re taking in the sights then an OS based map on the phone ticks an awful lot of user friendly boxes.
by NickWi
16 Nov 2020, 8:44pm
Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
Topic: What can i do as an individual?
Replies: 25
Views: 2014

Re: What can i do as an individual?

I once heard Chris Boardman say he'd been in the Netherlands and he hardly saw any cyclists. What he saw was lots of people on bikes.

We need to transfer that attitude to the UK so cycling isn't some you 'do' but becomes part of what you do. If that means for short trips I wear ordinary clothes, ride an upright bike and be seen as a person rather than cyclist, then I'll be happy to play my part in that. BUT, once I want to go a bit further or faster (I can do one or the other but rarely both nowadays), I've spent a bloody fortune on Castelli kit and I'm dammed well going to use it!
by NickWi
14 Nov 2020, 10:00pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Keeping warm when stopped
Replies: 63
Views: 4134

Re: Keeping warm when stopped

This comes down to the old I'm a roadie and therefore wouldn't even consider carrying something even loosely resembling a saddle bag as it'd add an extra xyz grams/ruin my aerodynamics/look crap, crap whatever. Vs I'm a boring old fart who doesn't care about weight nowadays (mostly) but feels safe in the knowledge that I carry enough 'kit' with me to replenish a battalion.

I used to be the former, I'm now the latter, and much warmer at pit stops than I ever used to be!
by NickWi
5 Nov 2020, 9:36am
Forum: Lands End to John O'Groats
Topic: First LEJOG
Replies: 19
Views: 3447

Re: First LEJOG

Taking a scenic route, even if it only has an afternoon off route detour AND a 10 day route, (possibly just nine if you take the rest day you mentioned) do not really go well together in the same sentence when you’re talking LEJOG. If you’re not careful you’re going to end up head down staring at that patch of road ahead of you and miss what’s going on around you, particularly as the best Scottish scenery is going to be when you’re feeling tired, travel weary and feel like you just simply have to keep peddling to make it to tonight’s B&B in a reasonable time. Been there, seen it, rode into a ditch & fell off because I was over tired.

Please don’t take this like I'm trying to put you off, far from it and whatever route you take you will enjoy it, but if you are going to ride Glencoe, stay in a local B&B, set you’re alarm, get up early and do it a 5.00am before the trucks, tourist and worse of the lot, hired motorhomes are on the road; then yes, you will truly enjoy it.
by NickWi
15 Oct 2020, 10:03pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Rohan sale
Replies: 48
Views: 3868

Re: Rohan sale

I've used their stuff on and off for the best part of thirty years. Quality was good, still is good, but the brand has move more adventure leisure than the full on outdoor kit it used to be. That's not a bad thing and whilst it may not suit some, you get what you pay for.
by NickWi
15 Oct 2020, 6:25pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Dover to Durness
Replies: 2
Views: 543

Re: Dover to Durness

The route the London - Edinburgh - London Audax takes should help with a big chunck of it.
by NickWi
14 Oct 2020, 1:42pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Helmet outer casing has degraded in only 3 years
Replies: 35
Views: 1753

Re: Great Helmet Design

Mike Sales wrote:All plastics suffer UV degradation, don't they? If the protection for the foam has gone it cannot be good.


Plastic moulders can, and indeed do put UV inhibitors into products proir to moulding to prevent UV degridation. I don't know if helmet manufacturers do, but it really ought be standard practice on anything that's regulalrly exposed to the sun. The plastic buckles that we used to supply for the chin straps certainly had a UV inhibitor in them.
by NickWi
13 Oct 2020, 10:01pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Wall mounted work stand - any good?
Replies: 7
Views: 803

Re: Wall mounted work stand - any good?

I bought the cheapest Park Tools stand earlier in the year (their PCS-9.2). Not cheap whatever way you look at it but it's the best workstand I've ever used. If their Bench/Wall units use even the basic head that I have, I say go for it. Expensive, but you get what you pay for.
https://www.parktool.com/category/bench-wall-mount
by NickWi
2 Oct 2020, 4:40pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: 'Operation Close Pass' initiative
Replies: 0
Views: 255

'Operation Close Pass' initiative

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/cri ... e-drivers/

Good in the short term, but long term will it actually have any affect?
by NickWi
26 Sep 2020, 10:21pm
Forum: Electrically assisted pedal cycles
Topic: Ebikes and fitness
Replies: 63
Views: 3659

Re: Ebikes and fitness

Surely it depends on the type of ebike you ride and the amount of power assistance you normally use. I have an Orbea Gain that weighs in at 13.5kg and with that type of ebike the whole package is designed to assist rather than power you along. You still have to use your gears, huff & puff to get up hills (well I do anyway), but the point is it's still mostly you putting in the effort.

As far as fitness goes I’d actually go the other way, I’m riding further, faster and more often than I ever did on my leg powered machine, and enjoying it more to boot. Am I fitter as a result? My gut feeling is yes, but not by thayt much. When I ride my leg only powered machines I do notice the lack of assistance, particularly on the hills and think bloody hell, this is hard work, but otherwise I do think my ebike riding had help my general cycling . For me an ebike is not about fitness, it’s more about the enhancing the balance of more mile, more smiles, less effort into position that equals more enjoyment.
by NickWi
24 Sep 2020, 11:10pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Dynamo Headlight - Does it Still Work?
Replies: 29
Views: 1125

Re: Dynamo Headlight - Does it Still Work?

Hi All,

Thanks for all your replies, the good news is it still works. I tried the battery quick touch method and the light flickered, then talking to a colleague at work he had a bottle dynamo rattling around in his 'spares' box, he brought it into work today, I cobbled up someting in the shed and after spinning the wheel for about thirty seconds, then hey presto, light!

Thanks all.

Lastly, just a thought. Is it just us cyclist who keep things as 'essentials spares' even though it's old technology and you'll probably never use it again, but you want to keep it 'just in case', or is it just me.
by NickWi
21 Sep 2020, 8:48pm
Forum: Electrically assisted pedal cycles
Topic: Anybody bought an Orbea Gain ?
Replies: 11
Views: 1443

Re: Anybody bought an Orbea Gain ?

As of early Sept '20, 63 pages worth of light reading!
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/orbea-gain.229793/
by NickWi
20 Sep 2020, 10:02pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Dynamo Headlight - Does it Still Work?
Replies: 29
Views: 1125

Dynamo Headlight - Does it Still Work?

Apologies if I'm asking a stupid question that's got a very simple answer, but how do you test a dynamo headlight to see if it's still working if you haven't got a dynamo wheel to attach it to?

I have a Busch & Muller Lumotec IQ2 Luxos U that’s been rattling around the shed after I took it off my old touring bike. As we’re moving house soon and will no doubt be told by she who must be obeyed that ‘all that junk isn’t coming with us’, I dare say I’ll soon be having a shed clearance sale and want to know if the thing still works or not. Dynamos produces 6v AC, a 6v battery gives out DC, but as it's an LED light (which I understand run on DC anyway) is it so simple as to just wire the two together?

I know I could just try it, but I don't want to wreck a hundred quids worth of light if I'm wrong. Do I need a ‘thingy’ to go in between them or am I missing something very obvious?

Polite answers in simple English please as I’m the type of bloke that needs to watch a YouTube instructional video to wire a three pin plug!
by NickWi
17 Sep 2020, 8:14pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Ancient lanes and old main roads
Replies: 79
Views: 6966

Re: Ancient lanes and old main roads

The B5061 between Telford and Shrewsbury is what the A5 was before the built the new dual carriageway A5 and although still in use, it's a very quiet B road.
by NickWi
16 Sep 2020, 5:00pm
Forum: Electrically assisted pedal cycles
Topic: Derestricting motor to 500w - will I notice much difference?
Replies: 74
Views: 5861

Re: Derestricting motor to 500w - will I notice much difference?

Gangzoom wrote:A very simplicity way to think about is if you double the power output and the battery remains the same size you will halve your range, presuming you use the extra power.


Isn't there also something about doubling the speed means squaring the power due to the extra drag of the air?