Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
Also, sharing the road is not an issue for cyclists, it’s drivers that can’t share.
Yeah, right, its always somebody else’s fault. Admittedly failure to share the road when cycling usually comes down to inconsiderate group cyclists rather than individual solo cyclists. I’ve had a bellyfull of this behaviour cycling in France over the Summer, even sometimes struggling on my bike, let alone the car, to get past the tourist brigades swanning around gaggle astern.
Big difference, but not as
Big difference, but not as much as the numbers suggest. I made a similar step a couple of years ago, moving from a decent alu bike, to a carbon 3kg lighter. I did the maths, 34/32 to 36/28 loses me 21%, and 3kg reduced my all up weight by around 4%, leaving a 17% numerical difference. Given that the steps between your bottom gears is about 12%, the new setup effectively raises you by a gear and a half. On the road, it doesn’t feel that much to me. Maybe it’s the stiffer frame transmitting more power to the road instead of twisting the frame twice per rotation, or maybe it’s the psychological advantage of riding a nice bike. I still ride both bikes, but on a tough ride I’d take the new bike every time, despite its higher gearing.As the OP, I need to point out that the original post was targetted at a SINGLE (unknown) cyclist who beleived it was acceptable to leave an inner tube and CO2 cannister by the roadside. Both items being totally undegradable and a hazard to wildlife.Why on earth has this been distorted into a criticism of ‘ALL’ cyclists?
We have got too far away from the the words and intent of the original post.
And … before you people who enjoy throwing brickbats start, I’m not posting this to further my blog, my ego, my income, or any other fatuous reason you can come up with, My post was because I found the behaviour of a fellow cyclist abhorant AND human nature being what it is, dismayed that I and the cycling community at large risked being judged by the act of an idiot.
It’s a sad thing that so many have either missed or chosen to miss this single simple point. In respect of the former, I apologise for not making it clearer, to the latter all I can say is that you must clearly think that the actions of this person is not worthy of condemnation.
For that reason, as the OP, let’s forget the post, we are just going around in ever decreasing circles.
Wow, you’ve received a lot of flack here! I for one can understand where you were going with it, and I do think you’ve been picked up wrong. For me ClubSmed’s post from a couple of days ago about dogs was a good analogy. The fact is, one piece of dog dirt on the street does reflect badly on dog owners in general. Yes its wrong that such generalisatiosn are made, but that is human nature. Those suggesting that we somehow try to educate people making generalised statements about an amorphous “group”? Well, I wish them luck with that! I’m happy to see anybody called out for littering, whether it’s a bike tube, a coke can thrown from a car window, or dog dirt. (And don’t get me started on horses on cycle ways!)
davel wrote:
I got into clipless when I started going longer distances (~50 miles) and found they were useful for that. My thinking is your muscles share the load a bit more efficiently, so they’re able to go a bit longer before fatigue –Me too. There are physiological studies which claim to prove that a cyclist generates negligible additional power with clips. But I find particularly on longer climbs, the ability to use a bit more of the stroke relieves a bit of fatigue. I put it down to either gaining a contribution from other muscles, and/or maybe using a bit more of the contraction of the same muscles.
Sounds like you need a cut out saddle or noseless saddle like Adamo. Shorts only allow long sessions in the saddle. A comfy saddle is first then paddingThis!
You don’t say what level of seat fitting you have undertaken, but I had a similar problem with the stock seat that came with a £2.5k bike, plus a couple of Fizik seats the bike shop loaned me. I was taking the weight on my perineum instead of my sit bones. It turns you that despite being very slim (5ft11 with 30 inch waist), I have wider than average sit bones. The result of this was my sit bones dropped off the sides of the seat. A wide, rather than medium, seat, combined with perineal relief (Specialized Power Pro) solved my problem.
£560 fine plus £760 charges –
£560 fine plus £760 charges – pointless because this is small change to her.
15 days rehabilitation – again pointless because she clearly doesn’t understand that she has a problem.
Boatsie wrote:
From earlier… Why do we need less grip to corner with larger wheels? Moment of inertia. Formula on internet. Force is proportionate to square of radius. Hence if we use same tyre width/compound on a larger wheel and a smaller wheel then the larger wheel will not only have a larger tendency to remain at velocity from each point of tangent but also more tangents to accumulate sum of forces with. Hence because the wheel is lawful to that of common physics, a greater force will be required to move such sidewards.I take it you didn’t study science at school? Apart from what you say above being absolute nonsense, your generalisations “same tyre width/compound” are laughable, and ignore the very important contribution of tyre pressure and contact patch size and shape.
Your internet formula describing rotational intertia of the wheel has nothing to do with changing the direction of linear momentum of the bike. Any gyroscopic effect in the wheels is negligible compared to your momentum (mass x velocity) in a given direction, which you want to change to a different direction.
Incidentally, Schwalbe, who I assume know a thing or two about tyres, have some interesting stuff on rolling resistance on their website. A few of the highlights: Larger diameter reduces rolling resistance, but so does a wider tyre up to a point, which might explain the recent trend from 23mm tyres to 25mm and 28mm. Smaller diameter tyres inflated to the same pressure have a higher rolling resistance than a large one because a small tyre when deformed by load, is “less round” at the contact point. And you can’t solve this by inflating a small tyre more, because then your contact patch becomes smaller. So if you want an easy ride long distance on road, stick with your 700c tyres.
A quick look however https://www.francebikerentals.com/our-bikes and it’s €40 per day for a touring bike which seems steep to me IMO if i was to hire for 6 days that works out at €240. They have already made back maybe a third of the bike on an approximate value of the bike.
It’s down right effing annoying how difficult it is to actually take your own bike down to what is a wonderful part of the world to cycle. I wonder if eurostar will ever review their carrier rules which is so frustrating to cycle tourists. Surely the tourist board of Provence and UK/French cycling groups should lay pressure on what is a monopoly by eurostar and a undeserving one at that?
As for my cycling trip in May it’s looking unlikely now as rentals seem overpriced and i dont fancy flying which requires an ache of ballage using rail was meant to take away.
Prices above a little high. For example Provence Cycles in Malaucene will do a carbon Synapse 105 for 175 euros for 6 days. Bedoin-Location, similar.
+1 with the bike hire idea. The last two times I’ve been to France I left the bike ay home and hired a carbon fibre, 105 equipped bike when I was there. These places are often owned and run by British ex-pats.I live in the Luberon, 40km East of Avignon. Every small town has very good bike rental shops, my locals beling Coustellet (shop full of £8k bikes!) and Apt, so no difficult getting a good spec rental. ConcordeCX has some good suggestions for TGV to Avignon, but if I was flying I’d use Marseille rather than Avignon.
I suspect, that most of us
I suspect, that most of us buying a road bike, especially one with race geometry, are influenced by advertised weight, and half a kg is probably enough to sway our judgement between two bikes, all other things being equal. It may well make no measurable difference on the road, but I too would be miffed if I found the marketeers had put one over on me. As for describing it as “Superlight”? Come off it Boardman, with pedals on this is an 8kg bike!
It seems unanimous then! Not
It seems unanimous then! Not a trivial task anyway if you want to end up with a bike which is both comfortable and handles properly. Its a lot more than simply changing bars over. I assume you are looking for a more upright position, and as you can’t shorten the top tube, you would need a shorter stem, which would probably screw up the handling.
A random user will be selected to receive a free pair of Oakley sunglasses!No they won’t because you don’t ask for an email!
…which probably means that some law is being broken here!
shay cycles wrote:
As others have said, make it clear to him that he WILL fall off during learning. If he is uncomfortable with that, there is your answer. (I took up cleats 2 years ago in my mid 50’s and fell off the obligatory twice, both at slow speed due to forgetting to unclip at junctions, resulting in a gentle roll over onto knee then elbow, no harm done.)This is just one of a good number of posts saying he “will” fall off. Come on! Really!
This is a man who has cycled for many years, is used to clips and straps and clearly knows how to ride a bike.
Switching to clipless pedals for such a person is not a challenge.
Neither I, nor the majority of my friends, had any falls brought about by switching to clipless pedals. Simple to learn sat on the bike leaning on a wall and clip in and out a few times before actually riding – it really isn’t that difficult.
PS my dad swithed at around 60 – he didn’t fall off either.
It’s not, it is one of a good many posts from people who have fallen off converting, including one poster who fell off while converting from one type of clipless to another. Maybe you and your friends, and your dad are just smarter than the rest of us. Then again, maybe those you are criticising just think it a sensible precaution to assume the worst, rather than being a smartass.I am 72 now and bought my first bike 3 years ago at 69. I had to walk it home from the local LBS because I had never owned a bike before . A few trips to the local park away from traffic and learning first to ride and then indicate etc. allowed me progress to roads. I enjoyed it so much that I realised I must ride clipless and spent more time at the local park to get used to cleats. Yes I fell off a few times and have done on the road but of course it was worth it. I imagine that there is nobody who has progressed to clipless riding who would revert back and nobody regrets the falls they have made in order to now ride clipless.Age is just a number , determination is more relevant so please don’t advise someone not to try something just because of there age because you could be depriving them of the joys of riding clipless !
A great post! I think we all know that at 70, some people are still as sprightly as some 40 your olds, while others are, well, er, old, so to some extent, only he can judge! I personally wouldn’t use cleats in the city, but all my riding is on country roads.
Having said that, I think for young whippersnappers to say to somebody who is clealy wanting to make the most of his latter years: “You’ve managed for 70 years without doing cleats/hang gliding/skydiving/kite surfing (delete as appropriate) so why start now” is a little patronising. There is enough evidence around that old people who continue to do new stuff live longer and are less of a burden on the NHS and their families, so good for him! When you stop doing new stuff, all that’s left is more of the same for the rest of your days, and how many of us relish that thought?
As others have said, make it clear to him that he WILL fall off during learning. If he is uncomfortable with that, there is your answer. (I took up cleats 2 years ago in my mid 50’s and fell off the obligatory twice, both at slow speed due to forgetting to unclip at junctions, resulting in a gentle roll over onto knee then elbow, no harm done.)
sw600 wrote:
”I wish I didn’t have this extra low get-out-of-jail cog and instead was able to have ever so slightly smaller gaps between some of the ratios” said nobody, ever. Get the 11-32.An absolutely priceless quote. On 95% of my rides I never need to use 36 front / 28 rear. Every now and then I venture up the notorious Talla, half a mile or so of 20%. I am happy to carry a 32 rear for just those occasions. I took advice on this site a few months back for just this situation, and without exception I was advised “get a 32 FFS”. So to the OP “get a 32 FFS”.
