Cycling UK Forum

Vorpal wrote:

Gearoidmuar wrote:I'm getting nervous of cycling. Motorists are becoming more and more agressive in their driving and I ain't happy..

This was shot by a GoPro on my handlebars within the last few days...
In Cork, English car, but very probably an Irish driver. This kind of overtaking manoeuvre leaves no space for the cyclist...

If it were me, there, I'd be riding out in the middle, so drivers cannot overtake. That's what I have taught others, as well. The advice is based upon Cyclecraft by John Franklin.

That's good advice V but you run the risk of rightly or wrongly antagonising a motorist behind who thinks you ought not to be there. That can lead to them 'shaving' you close when they do overtake as their idea of a suitable punishment.

Mick F wrote:How did I first get into cycling?

As soon as I could climb on something and pedal it, I was away! Maybe aged 2 or 3?
I was onto two wheels as soon as I could reach the pedals on my sister's bike, maybe aged 7?

Years 1996 to 2004 I stopped because I was busy busy busy holding down two jobs and renovating this bungalow. Other than then, I was never away from riding unless enforced because I was at sea in the RN.

A dyed in the wool pro Mick.

Revolution wrote:One of my earliest and sweetest memories is of sitting on a seat strapped to the cross bar of my Mum's bike as she peddled me around the cow parsley sided lanes of Dorset. I had not a care in the world. Now, 47 or so years later cycling can still evoke the same pleasure for me. Sadly, my Mum is no longer here to thank but her gift of a love of cycling will always be with me.

Ahhh Cross bar riding. As a kid we could ride cross bar anywhere. But we could also roller skate down main roads too traffic was so light. Today I think we'd be dead inside 200yds.

When I was put into the sidecar on my parents' tandem at 6 months. Actively, when I was promoted to Kiddiecrank stoking on said tandem at 5 years.

(for the uniniated... Kiddiecranks were a device which clamped a mini chainset to the seat tube, complete with tertiary chain to the lower 'real' chainset, at a height which could be varied with leg growth. To begin with my dad also had to clamp wooden blocks to the pedals.)

I can't remember a time when I've not been 'into' cycling,other than a short period in my late teens early twenties there hasn't been a time when I've been without a bike,usage would vary enormously due to other commitments but it's been a lifelong addiction which,unlike other addictions I've had,has always been positive .
I was given my first two wheeler(a single speed childs Rudge roadster with rod brakes)by my friend, Peter Burroughs from down the street,who's dad had won a new bike in a competition.
I still remember the knock on the door and from out of the blue Peter saying 'I've got a new bike do you want my old one' I was 9years old,happy days.........

ChrisButch wrote:When I was put into the sidecar on my parents' tandem at 6 months. Actively, when I was promoted to Kiddiecrank stoking on said tandem at 5 years.

(for the uniniated... Kiddiecranks were a device which clamped a mini chainset to the seat tube, complete with tertiary chain to the lower 'real' chainset, at a height which could be varied with leg growth. To begin with my dad also had to clamp wooden blocks to the pedals.)

Amazing. Would like to see one of those.

reohn2 wrote:I can't remember a time when I've not been 'into' cycling,other than a short period in my late teens early twenties there hasn't been a time when I've been without a bike,usage would vary enormously due to other commitments but it's been a lifelong addiction which,unlike other addictions I've had,has always been positive .
I was given my first two wheeler(a single speed childs Rudge roadster with rod brakes)by my friend, Peter Burroughs from down the street,who's dad had won a new bike in a competition.
I still remember the knock on the door and from out of the blue Peter saying 'I've got a new bike do you want my old one' I was 9years old,happy days.........

Snap. We poor kids all knew one rich kid (who was a decent bloke) whose parents bought him a brand new bike (they were also the first in the street with a car. An Austin of England I think it was) with twenty one gears and a 'double clanger' front gear. We did our first long ride to Box Hill and back. Quite a feat for a bunch of 9-10 year olds (not sure I'd let a nine year old of mine do that today). As you rightly say..Happy days..

ukdodger wrote:

ChrisButch wrote:...(for the uniniated... Kiddiecranks were a device which clamped a mini chainset to the seat tube, complete with tertiary chain to the lower 'real' chainset, at a height which could be varied with leg growth....)

Amazing. Would like to see one of those.

They are still about. Also here's Sheldon on the subject.



The next stage (for legs that have grown longer, but not long enough), is crank shorteners. There are various designs, but all work on the same principle, and these Santana ones had the best photograph:



For obvious reasons, both are only intended for the stoker of a tandem

drossall wrote:

ukdodger wrote:

ChrisButch wrote:...(for the uniniated... Kiddiecranks were a device which clamped a mini chainset to the seat tube, complete with tertiary chain to the lower 'real' chainset, at a height which could be varied with leg growth....)

Amazing. Would like to see one of those.

They are still about. Also here's Sheldon on the subject.



The next stage (for legs that have grown longer, but not long enough), is crank shorteners. There are various designs, but all work on the same principle, and these Santana ones had the best photograph:



For obvious reasons, both are only intended for the stoker of a tandem

That's a brilliant idea. If I still had kids that age I'd go for that.

As well as the aforementioned kiddiecranks, I have the haziest memory of my father experimenting briefly with another device, which involved connecting rods linking the tandem cranks in some way, rather like those on a steam loco. In my mind that dim memory is linked with an image of my dad swearing loudly - which he rarely if ever did. That, and the fact that they evidently didn't last long, suggests to me that this device wasn't the cleverest of inventions.

Slightly OT ..........

My Aunt Nancey was an American from Florida. Born maybe 1910? When prohibition came in in, her father did a little moonshine running down the backroads of Florida! When Nancy started school, her father gave her a car. She was 9 or 10 years old. She couldn't reach the foot pedals, so he fitted wooden blocks.



----------------------------
Just to put this into perspective with little old me from Wigan, she was in Kenya during the war as a personal assistant to the US diplomatic corps. She knew the Roosevelts quite well and did some work for Eleanor Roosevelt . My uncle (mum's older brother) was in the RAF in Kenya and they met there, and after the war they married and moved over to West Palm Beach.

Ah, the eleven plus. A proper bike was often the reward for passing it in the 50's. I got mine in 1958, a year before passing my exam to the grammar school. I've been a committed cyclist ever since, but can the comprehensive pupils of today claim the same?

jezer wrote:Ah, the eleven plus. A proper bike was often the reward for passing it in the 50's. I got mine in 1958, a year before passing my exam to the grammar school. I've been a committed cyclist ever since, but can the comprehensive pupils of today claim the same?

What that they're committed to cycling or passing the 11+?

ChrisButch wrote:When I was put into the sidecar on my parents' tandem at 6 months. Actively, when I was promoted to Kiddiecrank stoking on said tandem at 5 years.

(for the uniniated... Kiddiecranks were a device which clamped a mini chainset to the seat tube, complete with tertiary chain to the lower 'real' chainset, at a height which could be varied with leg growth. To begin with my dad also had to clamp wooden blocks to the pedals.)

As I posted upthread, my (passive) initiation was in a sidecar attached to a tandem. And I went through all the "growing up" stages mentioned here, But I also remember an in-between stage, which was also passive....a child seat that was either behind the tandem or my Dad's solo. It was a rigid old thing, with wooden seat and backrest, and steel arms. But the biggest impression was being taken around Bradford which, in those days, was paved in cobbles or setts. I vividly remember being shaken to the bone, and I was (probably) less than 3 years old.

I initiated my own kids differently. First kid on a child seat behind the tandem. Then second kid behind and first on a seat between my legs. Then second kid between my legs and first on an Islabike trailerbike. Then I bought a Bob Jackson childback tandem and first child stoked (with crank shorteners) and second went to trailerbike. The first went solo, and second to Bob Jackson stoking. And finally I got to be solo again!! Quite a cycle (pardon the pun)!

And, before anyone asks about the glaring omission in this brief history......I became divorced half way through. Wasn't the tandem's fault, though.

Geoff.D wrote:

ChrisButch wrote:When I was put into the sidecar on my parents' tandem at 6 months. Actively, when I was promoted to Kiddiecrank stoking on said tandem at 5 years.

(for the uniniated... Kiddiecranks were a device which clamped a mini chainset to the seat tube, complete with tertiary chain to the lower 'real' chainset, at a height which could be varied with leg growth. To begin with my dad also had to clamp wooden blocks to the pedals.)

As I posted upthread, my (passive) initiation was in a sidecar attached to a tandem. And I went through all the "growing up" stages mentioned here, But I also remember an in-between stage, which was also passive....a child seat that was either behind the tandem or my Dad's solo. It was a rigid old thing, with wooden seat and backrest, and steel arms. But the biggest impression was being taken around Bradford which, in those days, was paved in cobbles or setts. I vividly remember being shaken to the bone, and I was (probably) less than 3 years old.

I initiated my own kids differently. First kid on a child seat behind the tandem. Then second kid behind and first on a seat between my legs. Then second kid between my legs and first on an Islabike trailerbike. Then I bought a Bob Jackson childback tandem and first child stoked (with crank shorteners) and second went to trailerbike. The first went solo, and second to Bob Jackson stoking. And finally I got to be solo again!! Quite a cycle (pardon the pun)!

And, before anyone asks about the glaring omission in this brief history......I became divorced half way through. Wasn't the tandem's fault, though.

I lugged my daughter to her school and back on one of those. Wood seat covered in thin black plastic with bent metal arms. Being a lunatic even at that age she would hammer my back with her hands shouting 'faster faster'..

I think the child's seat that places them in front of the rider is a better version. Then they can at least see where they're going which increases their pleasure.