Live blog: Geraint Thomas wins TT nats, Alex Dowsett on the history of time trialling, Barnes sisters 1 and 2 at national champs TT, + more
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Thu, Jun 28, 2018 13:20
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Latest Comments
Pub bike 26 minutes ago
@imajez Brake adjusters mainly deal with pad wear whilst gear adjusters fine tune shifting during set-up and after fitting a new inner cable. Brake outer housing is spiral-wound and compressible giving compliance at the lever and the false impression that the inner cable somehow stretches whereas the metal strands in gear outer housing are laid axially and as such the outer housing doesn't easily compress over time keeping shifting precise. I find that a previously well-adjusted rear derailleur system that needs adjustment likely needs a new inner cable.
OkCarl 52 minutes ago
I ride expensive bikes wearing expensive helmets, my bike equipped with an expensive bike computer, fitness watch and cell phone. I carry my debit card. I worry. You would expect anyone living in Chicago to worry about bike jacking. Yet, for some strange reason. The Chicago land criminal community has not caught on to bike jacking. They like retail break ins and ATM smash ups.
chrisonabike 1 hour ago
@mattw "footpaths" Hmm... true this is an underappreciated resource and indeed in danger. But I think this is very location dependent. If we're taking in urban locations, are you talking alleys - narrow almost always no room for expansion? Or "footways" - also often not ample and we're back to "fighting over scraps" with pedestrians or even forced-conflict with "shared use"? In the countryside - perhaps? If what goes in NL applies more generally (and why wouldn't it - they're humans too) more people may be prepared to travel on bikes there than UK opinion holds. ("people depend on their cars... nobody cycles or walks ... the non-existent footway beside the A-road!"). Although that may depend on "cyclists and walkers get the direct route" which isn't always how we do it...
imajez 1 hour ago
@james-o Cable brakes and gear shifters have have barrel adjusters to deal with the inevitable cable stretch, that most certainly occurs over time.
chrisonabike 1 hour ago
@mattw I believe this is exactly the kind of thing that The Ranty Highwayman and Robert Weetman worked on for Manchester City Council. Fixing it for pedestrians *ought* to be uncontroversial. It *ought* to be a path that actually "works" to move forward for the UK. I believe Chris Boardman had success in Manchester with an approach which largely emphasised this (plus buses). BUT... I do wonder if this leaves us stuck at pretty much the status quo - because it reinforces the current "either walking, or driving" split. First we'd get "can't have cycling infra because cycling gets in the way of cars and threatens pedestrians". Then most people simply won't walk far (especially if eg. carrying shopping). Which leads to "we still really need cars!" even for very local trips. Which then kills off active travel again, because cars take up too much space and suppress active travel.
imajez 1 hour ago
@Geoff H, electronic shifting, like disc brakes and tubeless tyres is more reliable and less faff. A spare battery in with my tools, means I never have to worry about a flat battery. Only time I've ever used it was to lend to a mate just in case. The only two times I've had a torn tubeless tyres I was able to slowly and safely stop. It would have been a disaster with an instantly flat tube and loss of control when surrounded by cars or speeding downhill off road. In dozen years of using tubeless, I have had as many tubeless flats as I have had with tubes in that time. Except I've only used tubes for a few weeks in all that time. Plus and this is the really, really important thing, my ride is way more comfortable. I also have way more grip and more speed due to being able to use the correct tyre pressure - doing so with tubes would be constant pinch flatting. So a win, win, win win situation. Never been covered in sealant either. Which only happens if riding with too high a tyre pressure.
Terry Hutt 2 hours ago
@quiff I think all human generated text should have the disclaimer "I am human and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses."
imajez 2 hours ago
@jaymack I've seen a LOT of issues with old fashioned mechanical gear shifting/cables in my time. Modern electronic stuff is a lot les faff/more reliable. Personally I went electronic shifting with my new CX/gravel bike after the shifter cable self destructed inside my brifters on my older bike several times, the last two with zero warning. A nightmare to sort out. Astonishingly and thankfully, all three times it happened outside home, rather than the usual middle of nowhere I tend to cycle. Another nightmare with internal cables on my full sus ended up with me buying a wireless rear shifter out of frustration. Much better ergonomics of the shifter too. I hate cables in general, they stretch, get sticky, snap, fray, outers kink..etc. One of the best things about [hydraulic] disc brakes is the absence of flakey cables. My most recent nightmare with cables was swapping to a new dropper. An ostensibly simple 5 min job turned into a nightmare which involved buying a new lever for bars and a lot of challenging cable wrangling inside frame even after BB removal. Speaking as someone who is comfortable and quite competent at fixing bikes, cables can get in the bin. Badly designed internal cable routing can get in the bin, set on fire and dropped in acid.
Terry Hutt 2 hours ago
Tempted until I saw the price.
quiff 3 hours ago
@mdavidford Nah, only a human could have written this, whatever it means: "Cycling is inherently about people, so I think stuff created by AI shouldn’t mix it, or sports in general."
15 thoughts on “Live blog: Geraint Thomas wins TT nats, Alex Dowsett on the history of time trialling, Barnes sisters 1 and 2 at national champs TT, + more”
Meh. You don’t need CO2 for
Meh. You don’t need CO2 for proper beer anyway.
KendalRed wrote:
I like my cider like I like my women: flat, dry and smelling of apples.
Wait a minute, that sounds wrong – I’ll come in again.
hawkinspeter wrote:
How about strong, sweet and leaves a hole in your wallet
Simmo72 wrote:
I like my cider like I like my women: cold, cheap and alcoholic.
Nope, still not right.
hawkinspeter wrote:
I prefer mine in the park on a bench, cheap and not too gassy.
.
.
.
But I don’t drink cider.
KendalRed wrote:
Or proper cycling.
I get shoaled a lot in London
I get shoaled a lot in London, it’s really frustrating as I’m rather rapid from a standing start, let alone cruising speed, this happens mostly because other selfish twunts go past the white line and stop in front of me and anyone else abiding by the rules. Cycle lanes simply aren’t as wide as they should be. Vauxhall Bridge is a prime example, concrete/armco in one of the lanes.
Occasionally I pull up alongside other cyclists. I’ve yet to experience anyone who can keep up, though a couple have benefitted from a massive tow through Hyde Park 🙂 I wouldn’t behave like this if I was likely to be slowing people down though.
What I find worse though, is when I stop behind the car/van/taxi at the front of the queue at a red light (like you are supposed to), only for half a dozen dozy dawdling cyclists to amble past and stop past the white line. This then results in a gaggle of slow cyclists taking ages to get moving and the car/van/taxi having a sizeable delay to slower-than-usual forward motion, delaying everyone who is abiding by the rules. Only for the car/van/taxi and myself to overtake the lot of them about 50m later. Seriously guys, why can’t you join the queue, it’s not very British, is it!? I can understand why drivers get so frustrated by this at is does genuinely hold up traffic. ASL boxes at every appropriate traffic light would go a long way though.
ChrisB200SX wrote:
I think that’s just it – especially in London you almost expect every set of lights to have an ASL so quite often cyclists are moving to the front purely because they know 90% of the time there is an ASL which is the safer place to be..
Htc wrote:
But the point is that shoaling is deeply selfish and ignorant. As are their closely related cousins, the RLJ’er. Very rarely are they travelling particularly fast…but they will overtake while you’re stopped at the light and get in your way 50 foot further on. They’ll do this multiple times without giving a toss.
They are car drivers but on a bike. No consideration for anyone but themselves…their journey times takes precedence over everything.
It’s not cricket.
StoopidUserName wrote:
So, they’re cyclists then.
hawkinspeter wrote:
So, they’re cyclists then.
— StoopidUserName
no.
StoopidUserName wrote:
Are they, maybe, true scotsmen?
hawkinspeter wrote:
So, they’re cyclists then.
— StoopidUserName
…but not cricketers.
spot on…
😀
I dont’t think I am a shoaler
I dont’t think I am a shoaler. I often see skiny women riding antic steel bikes overpassing me, sometimes because I stop at red lights, and sometimes because they truely are faster.