Shimano’s new SLX gear had left LX as a bit of a fifth wheel in the Japanese giant’s MTB armoury, so the decision was made to rebrand the groupset as touring and urban kit. We’ve been running some of this kit on an urban bike for the last month… The most obvious changes in the design are the chainset, which is now available in a road-friendly 46/36/26, and the control gear which comes as an integrated V-brake and shifter unit, with big, friendly displays and chunky levers. Technology wise the 09 groupset is at a similar level – you get the dual release on the shifters, and Hollowtech II technology – and the prices are a fairly close match too. Shimano claim to have shaved a couple of hundred grams off the overall weight. So what’s it like to ride? well, the chainset, which in terms of ratios sits between a MTB triple and a compact, gives pretty much the perfect range of gears for your urban riding. I was pairing it with a 12-25 cassette; the mech will handle anything up to an 11-30, so it can go lower, but even on the steeps the 26/25 bottom gear was plenty low enough. The shifters take a bit of getting used to, both in terms of looks and function, but the changes (longer levers, bigger displays) are well thought out given the urban bent. Shifting is light and accurate. We didn’t run the V-brakes but we wouldn’t anticipate any problems, as they look only cosmetically different to last year’s offerings. Overall it’s a good full groupset in a sector where manufacturers normally have to use a bit of a mix-and match approach to spec. Expect to see it adorning plenty of £700-£1000 urban steeds in 2009. Click here for the image gallery
New Shimano LX: it’s LX, but not as we know it.
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Latest Comments
Would you like to take another run at that?
That's what Big Brother tells you...
Can only go on what's in the article myself - can't actually read the report itself as none of the links on that page seem to work - how did you get to it?
1984 was written by George Orwell not Orson Wells.
Very brief look at this but I'm not sure it says anything much new, or particularly useful. Yes, they point to "some women who rode a hire bike possibly didn't ride before but might ride after". OTOH the *number* of women vs men surveyed didn't appear to be stated (except for one graph with a n=... - which was a lot less than the 5000 mentioned, and there only about half as many women responding there). Otherwise I think it just covers what regularly comes up (albeit perhaps it has to be repeated): - much fewer women from minority ethnic backgrounds. - Women care about socially safe parking locations far more than men do. - Women feel less safe on the roads due to external issues that they have no control over: traffic, road conditions and infrastructure, and harassment.
Interesting counterpoint to the 'hire bike menace' narrative (obviously with the caveat that the report authors have a vested interest in selling the benefits, but...) Appears hire bike schemes go some way to addressing the cycling gender imbalance and, given the point about parking immediately outside the destination, dockless schemes particularly so. https://micromobilitybiz.com/forest-report-finds-shared-e-bikes-are-helping-close-london-cycling-gender-gap/
@chrisonabike True, things went back to normal once the pandemic was over. In this case, however the problems are still ongoing, and aren't likely to be resolved in the near future. If anything, they're going to get worse. Food shortages are predicted because of the effect that the heatwave has had on crops. This is bound to push prices up. The Straits of Hormuz aren't likely to reopen anytime soon and the strategic oil reserves are running low. Russia is having to import petrol because its own refineries have been badly hit, so that's even more competition for an even more scarce resource. I think that more and more people are going to see cycling as a way of cutting household bills.
I think if "grown up" cyclists * are quibbling about ASLs we've very much missed the road safety point anyway. (Not to mention the wider "better transport choices" picture). ASLs are poor-to-useless "cycling infra", even for their design intent. If the idea is "for less confident cyclists" then a design that requires that you re-position in front of the motor traffic - waiting to accelerate - seems unhelpful. Of course they're only designed to help when traffic is stopped, and you can reach the front in time and if vehicles aren't already occupying them. As we're noting here drivers frequently ignore them - whether that be deliberate, a lack of road craft, because they were concentrating on following the vehicle in front, or because the paint has rubbed off. * Aside: shouldn't cycling also be safe and accessible for kids? Or should they only be allowed to do this when accompanied by sufficient qualified adults? Or be limited to parks and otherwise being driven around by their carers? Perhaps there is another way...?
Hi Bungle, I saw you follow-up comment. I can't imaging there's a tolerance of 4 seconds on camera enforced lights, seems an odd decision - an offence is committed if a vehicle starts crossing on a red, any tolerance is discretionary. There does seem to be some odd thinking about 'advanced stop lines' where the rules relating to them are identical to a regular stop line, as explained correctly elsewhere in the Highway Code. It does seem a regular offence. Where I live it doesn't help that some of them are very faint and disappear in rain.
@ktache Not sure he's totally ruled out of the worlds yet (though I think it would be best if he doesn't), normal recovery time is about eight weeks but surgery can halve that...depending on the nature of the break he could be just about fit to ride by the time of the elite men's race, but he'll have missed a lot of training. Hopefully his managers and team will persuade him to wait until Lombardia, if not just to knock it off for the rest of the year.
