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chrisonatrike wrote:
Sounds like car owners are now experiencing what cyclists in some urban places have had for years:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-64400336
It occurs to me there’s likely more to that story. Those panels are a pain to remove. I suspect someone has the same car with front end damage they either can’t afford to fix or don’t want to report, and targeted an identical car to get the panels they needed.
chrisonatrike wrote:
It’s because (parts of) society don’t have any taboo about crap driving but all of society is very pro-driving. Or has it as aspiration “gonna get a new car!” or requirement “you don’t have a car?!”The first of those struck me the other night at the pub. The kitchen had closed and the cook was at the bar having a beer. She was talking about buying a new “K5” (which I had to look up, turns out it’s a Kia, starting about $25k US.) She was excited about replacing her six year old car, she’s single and I’m pretty sure she earns somewhere between 1/5 and 1/4 what I make, and I’ve never bought a new car in my life! My current car is 18 years old and cost less than half that used! My car, plus my wife’s car, plus all of my bicycles probably add up to about $25k.
only very rarely step in dogshit or on broken glass in normal daylight conditions. I always wear shoes though.I always wear shoes when cycling, even though there’s less risk of stepping on glass or in poo.
But do you wear a helmet when walking? If not, then why not? People fall over and hit their heads when walking. Surely it’s no less onerous putting on a helmet for a walk to the shops, than it is for riding there on a bike?
Far more important is the shower helmet, the stairs helmet and the lightbulb changing/ladder helmet
You forgot the vheicle occupant helmet
Surely the pub chair helmet comes first!
It amuses me this eye rolling attitude “cult of bike helmets” jog on FFS. If you don’t want to wear a helmet fine, but Christ on a bike (with a helmet? who cares) people can be way more preachy about not wearing helmets.In multiple bike groups on Facebook, there are two common kinds of posts that become about helmets.
1. Someone posts a pic of their cracked helmet with a paragraph about “my helmet saved my life, make sure you all wear your helmet.”
2. Someone posts a nice photo of themselves on a ride with no helmet in the photo, and inevitably will get at least one of “where is your helmet?!” or “just trying to be helpful here, and I’d feel terrible if I didn’t mention this, but you should probably be wearing a helmet.” WE ALL KNOW ABOUT HELMETS!
I can’t think of any time anyone has commented “why are you wearing a helmet, that looks like a nice safe bike path” or “I don’t wear a helmet, you shouldn’t either.” Not a one.
I wear a helmet the vast majority of the time. I don’t evangelize in either direction, but the helmet evangelists are by far the most annoying.
Pictures from East Grinstead car crash into high street shophttps://www.theargus.co.uk/news/23226611.pictures-east-grinstead-car-crash-high-street-shop/
Obviously needs more bollards.
What camera do you have? I
What camera do you have? I know some recent DSLRs will cleverly time the shot to match the max brightness of fluorescent lighting, assuming that’s what you’ll be dealing with.
I decided to risk it this morning. Took the gravel bike with 650b 48mm tyres. From Bath to just after Warmley it was sketchy – quite a bit of ice, but manageable riding carefully with the big tyres. From Mangotsfield into the centre it was fine – looks like that has all been gritted as there was no ice at all.I’ll see what the conditions are like on my ride back to Bath this evening, but given the state of the first half of the path this morning, I don’t think I’ll commute in tomorrow. I’ve got a pair of studded tyres on order, so will be much happier to ride in on icy days with those when they arrive
Let me know if you find anything good in that tyre size. I had to put 650b x 38 mm studded on my gravel bike last year because there wasn’t anything closer that would fit (I can’t clear a 27.5 x 2.2 inch.)
If you’re going to be riding
If you’re going to be riding it in the cold, it’s best to keep it covered but not inside. Every time the bike goes from warm to cold, it draws air into all the voids (bearings, frame) as the warm air inside contracts. That air contains moisture.
The only temperature related issue I’ve had started around -15 °C when my freewheel stopped freewheeling. The oil in there got thick enough that it would keep turning with the wheel when I stopped pedalling, feeding chain forward towards the crankset and causing the chain to drop. I disassembled, cleaned, and replaced with Dumonde Tech freehub oil rated down to -40 °C/°F.
Oh no, spoilers!
Oh no, spoilers!I’m watching it in a few minutes.
IanMSpencer wrote:
What routine maintenance are you doing on electronic shifting?I’d count charging batteries as routine maintenance. Also replacing coin cells in the controls.
I’ve not tried electronic
I’ve not tried electronic shifting, but I’m sold on tubeless, at least for 32 mm and wider tyres. My one bike set up tubeless now has over 12000 miles / 19000 km on it, and I’ve had to use plugs to seal punctures twice now. No need to remove the wheel, just bang in a plug or two, reinflate, continue riding. Occasionally I will develop a leak that requires me to pump up a tyre before each ride for a while, but it eventually sorts itself out. Overall a reduction in time spent faffing around with tyres, and more than an order of magnitude reduction in having to do it by the side of the road.
I do wish setting up tubeless was easier. Some of my slow leaks have turned out to be the tape starting to unstick inside. The tape is also a pain to get on stretched tight enough, the last six inches or so never sticks down well. Has anyone tried any of the rim strip solutions instead? Examples:
https://www.universalcycles.com/shopping/product_details.php?id=80828&attribute=222852
They really become useful
They really become useful below about -10 °C. Higher than that and there are at least some decent glove choices.
On motorbikes and e-scooters, they’d likely be useful at higher temperatures due to the lack of self-heating.
I’ve fallen on black ice a
I’ve fallen on black ice a few times. I’ve been doing judo for over 25 years, so never been hurt as a result, other than slight bruising so far. I solved the problem with studded tyres.
Is there a common UK term for
Is there a common UK term for them? Normally here they’re “bar mitts” (which is a brand) or “pogies”, sometimes “poagies”, but non-winter-cyclists are unlikely to know either term.
I was using these ones from Dogwood Designs at the time, but on a different bike.
I was on a winter ride
I was on a winter ride downtown, and had put pogies on my single speed bike that had only a front brake, activated from the left bar. As I approached a T junction from its branch, with stop signs for all three directions, I signalled to turn left, which meant pulling my left hand out of the pogie. A car was also approaching from my right.
Then I went to brake, immediately realizing that my brake lever was inside the pogie, whereas my hand, needed to pull it, was inconveniently outside of the pogie. I thought for sure I was going to T-bone the car.
Luckily I was going slowly enough and had sufficient traction that I managed to execute a U turn before the intersection, which also scrubbed off 80% of my speed. I was eventually able to un-suction-cup my sphincter from the saddle.
I ordered an additional brake for that bike the next day. I’ve also learned that I can brake without putting my hand back inside the pogie, but my reactive brain did not have time to experiment with that while it was happening.
This was in the US, so only one brake is required, although two is smart for obvious reasons. Also to visualize the equivalent situation in the UK, switch left and right in all cases.