[David9694]

Now the nights are drawing in, there are old copies of this on Ebay for £3 or £4.  If you’re under 40 and missed this, it’s still worth a look.  It rapidly takes you through what cycling is and can be, getting and keeping a bike. 

Not sure what happened to mine, but this is the book that got me hooked and to some extent you might say radicalised me. All the stuff about drivers and cars 2ww talk about is charted in there – and they hadn’t even got phones back then.

Steel was real and “10 speed” meant “10 in total” (minus the 2 illegal gears, of course.)

Topic

[David9694]

So in the fictional movie,

So in the fictional movie, the space vehicle runs empty to Mars (a genuine expected  life support system failure) and NASA send out faked signals from it from sort of Hanger 18 set-up in the desert to keep the dream alive, etc.

Journalist Elliot Gould’s technician buddy starts to notice the signal mis-match and he is disappeared – which helps puts Gould on to the story of the faked space trip. Then the empty space craft has another mishap, fatal, and the astronauts now realise they are in effect dead. 

imagine a small boy watching this stuff on the big screen absolutely blown away!

[ktache]

They never added the time

They never added the time delay to the communications.

NASA managed to do it when they faked the moon landings…

[David9694]

Yes, OJ is in that one as one

Yes, OJ is in that one as one of the would-be astronauts. James Brolin, Elliot Gould, Telly Savalas, Karen Black…

“Beep! this is Paul Cunningham from Capricorn control…” one of those voices you never see, like the police radio despatcher in every modern American movie with police cars. 

EDIT: No wonder his voice seemed such a familiar https://www.nasa.gov/topics/people/features/paul_haney.html

[David9694]

“Zowie! These 9 speed systems

“Zowie! These 9 speed systems are a game-changer!” 

Plenty of used copies available for the price of a cuppucino. 

[ktache]

Syncros made a solution,

Syncros made a solution, their cattle prod stem with hinge.

Always lusted after one, but went for the standard cattleprod for my (now retired) Getting to Work bike.

[armb]

That’s the one I had.
That’s the one I had. Probably still have, somewhere.

[David9694]

Original 1975 edition just

Original 1975 edition just landed.  No jokes, please. 

Another calliper adjustment to a slightly faster looking F W Evans. It’s usually a double locknut on that type, but you could jiggle the assembly so it was even. Quite a fast handlebar and levers set-up for my tastes. 

[chrisonabike]

Amen to most of that.  For my

Amen to most of that.  For my next “adventure” machine Spa look like a good source.

Except for those tall gears I’d take Richard’s bike.  Most used bike I’ve owned (still do) is a nth-hand Dawes Galaxy, steel, quill stem, down-tube friction shift *, cantilever brakes, threaded everything.  Off the peg, the’re “boring” bikes, but as the thousands of miles roll by it just keeps going.  Used as a shopper, commuter, multi-day tourer, cargo bike (60kg with trailer, have done a flat move), for day runs out. Differences from the late 70s (or 80s when I think it’s from) – it now has a sealed bottom bracket (easier to replace) with external bearings.  Slightly tougher tyres (although I remember the plastic strip you could put inside your BMX tyres).  Hub dynamos aren’t new but the Supernova LED front light is literally night and day compared to the Every-ready bricks I tried not to carry.

* Just occasionally (steep uphill or downhill) this gets hairy – shifters on the bars and by the brakes do have some benefit.  The rear shifter lever has optional indexing but after going through lots of wheels and deraillieurs I realised I couldn’t be bothered to adjust indexing each time.

[David9694]

Light, cheap, strong,

Light, cheap, strong, reliable and simple are my bike stuff criteria. 

On that basis, I’m not convinced about: threadless headsets over threaded, , brifters/ indexing or disc brakes, and CF still seems a bit new fangled, but let’s put that down to my crappy power:weight ratio. d12 strikes me as one more thing to have to fiddle with and to go wrong. 

We seem to be no better off with press-fit b/bs.  Brifters are by definition indexed, d/t levers can be either – I find friction levers to be the best for me on a 2 or 3 x 10s system.  

So that’ll be me poking around for my next build on Spa, SJS and Ebay with the Stronglight chainset, Dia Compe levers in my basket, or older series Shimano callipers, a quill stem.

SPDs, LED lighting, the wider availability of alu and Ti frames, Kevlar in tyres, better saddles (I.e. other than leather) have made the cyclist’s lot better.

In the world of Richard’s Bicycle Book, disc brakes exist, but are mainly on things like tandems. Steel is real.  There is some basic indexing, but it’s all downtube and occasionally stem mounted. Brake levers don’t seem to have gone aero yet. Tan wall tyres complimenting a sports or touring bike. 
 

[chrisonabike]

I like a quill stem for light

I like a quill stem for light(ish)weight quick height adjust.  Although actually I didn’t do that very often. Which then brought out the other issue – they’re in position to catch sweat as well as rain, and when they get frozen up…

+1 on the other things though.  I’m not troubled by lack of indexing but then I don’t race.  I’m now over half with disc brakes so I may become accustomed to their charms. Currently appreciating the new belt drive and Alfine for city work with the occasional ramble too.

[NOtotheEU]

Unless you want to change the

Unless you want to change the handlebars. I bought a new set of drop bars in 1990-ish and they are still in the shed unused to this day. 

With you on the lights though. My £15 ebay specials are so bright I have to run them on the lowest setting or cars coming the other way will keep flashing their lights to complain.

[ktache]

There was never anything

There was never anything wrong with the quill stem, it was the double locking nuts that would occasionally cause a problem.

Bearing seals on wheel hubs and lights have come on in leaps and bounds and I wouldn’t want to go back to the early 90s there.

[NOtotheEU]

I still love my square taper

I still love my square taper BBs, nutted axles and strapless pedal clips but I couldn’t imagine ever going back to non-indexed gears, rim brakes or quill stems. Downgraded my last new bike to 8 speed too for longer service life, cheaper replacements and parts interchangability with my other two bikes.

[David9694]

We need to see fireman (Steve

We need to see fireman (Steve McQueen) squirrel and/or Architect (Paul Newman) squirrel. 

[NOtotheEU]

brooksby wrote:

He had quite the acting career, really.  Wasn’t he in The Naked Gun/Police Squad as well?

“Surely you remember The Naked Gun/Police Squad?”   “I do, and don’t call me Shirley!”

“There’s a Zucker Brothers movie I want to see at the cinema”   “what is it?”   “It’s a big building that shows films, but that’s not important right now”

Along with Airplane some of the funniest comedies ever made.

 

[Author]

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