[hawkinspeter]

Clown? That’s a bit harsh as

Clown? That’s a bit harsh as he couldn’t find it in stock anywhere else.

As far as expensive toys go, I’d be much happier if people bought expensive bikes rather than status-symbol cars that are significantly more expensive and don’t provide health benefits (quite the opposite in fact).

And yes, sanitary products should be front of the queue for zero-vat rating. If you can afford to spend £5000 on a bike, then I’m sure you can afford to spend £6000 without affecting your quality of life but that doesn’t mean he has to be happy about it.

[hawkinspeter]

Ouch.

Ouch.

£1000 VAT doesn’t sound too bad, though I’d love to see bikes and bike parts be VAT free to encourage active travel but that’s probably a step too far for the UK.

More importantly, what was the £5000 bike?

[hawkinspeter]

Tubeless – Conti GP5000TLs

1. Tubeless – Conti GP5000TLs are my current tyre of choice though they have a reputation for being tricky to fit (not in my experience and I don’t consider myself particularly skilled with fitting tyres)
2. I like 28mm for the comfort, though having read about the 105% width/tyre ratio, maybe I should be going for 25mm instead. I might experiment with the front tyre to see how I get on with it.
3. Caffelatex works well and I put about 40ml per tyre and top up when I remember (which is nice and easy with MilkIt Valves though they’re expensive for what they are).

[hawkinspeter]

Thanks for the link.

Thanks for the link.

I’m now considering getting my bike registered as a statue so any collisions would result in “defacing of a statue”.

Maybe a picture of Churchill on the back would count?

[hawkinspeter]

I just threw up in mouth a

I just threw up in mouth a little searching for this image

[hawkinspeter]

Slightly off-topic, but the

Slightly off-topic, but the pop-up lane by the BRI is probably the most hazardous. As it’s nicely downhill it’s tempting to pick up speed, but there tends to be a lot of peds around there and they can step into the cycle lane if they’re passing each other. Also, there’s the motor vehicles turning into the hospital itself or looking to park that may or may not be looking out for cyclists so it’s well worth being vigilant around that specific area.

[hawkinspeter]

OldRidgeback wrote:

As a motorcyclist myself (as well as cyclist) I can tell you that Harley riders aren’t much liked by other riders as a rule. They have an attitude that they’re on Harleys and are therefore proper bikers somehow, despite the fact that so many only ever ride out in fair weather at the weekend on their shiny toys.

Never mind the Harleys, how about a bit of hate for Goldwings? A reverse gear on a motorbike?

[hawkinspeter]

I don’t mind them using lanes

I don’t mind them using lanes if they’re empty and they don’t block cyclists. I’ve seen a few using the non-pop-up white paint lanes over the years but it’s quite rare. I’ve had more issues with motorcyclists in the ASL block when they want to turn left and I’m there on their left but not had any collision.

I most often encounter motorcyclists when filtering between 2 lanes of stationary traffic and then there’s the conundrum of who should go first. As a cyclist, I can squeeze through smaller gaps but the biker can go quicker so I usually motion for them to go first unless I can see that they won’t be able to progress very far.

[hawkinspeter]

I like the Prime carbon

I like the Prime carbon wheels from Wiggle: https://www.wiggle.co.uk/prime-rr-50-v3-carbon-clincher-disc-wheelset

I reckon they’re really good value and the black edition ones are their newest ones that they sell separately:

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/prime-blackedition-60-carbon-disc-front-wheel

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/prime-blackedition-60-carbon-disc-rear-wheel

They’ve got some 85mm versions too if you want extra speed and can cope with the crosswinds.

Here’s a 38mm set: https://www.wiggle.co.uk/prime-rr-38-v3-carbon-clincher-disc-wheelset

[hawkinspeter]

Just seen this snippet on

Just seen this article on BoingBoing about cyclist hate: https://boingboing.net/2021/03/17/the-strange-psychological-phenomenon-that-explains-why-people-hate-cyclists.html

Here’s a section from it:

Fundamental attribution error obviously extends far beyond cycling. That was just my first introduction to the (regrettably unmemorable) phrase. But I think cycling is a good microcosm for the utter absurdity of this unfortunate phenomenon — a way to stress the importance of pushing back against our petty instincts towards this error. Bicycles are largely harmless; in fact, the very same people who complain about That One Asshole On a Bike Who Blew Through A Stop Sign very probably own bicycles themselves! But that doesn’t stop them from making assumptions.

You can extend that same thing to almost any form of bias. Consider a white person who says terrible things about Black people while insisting they have Black friends and are not racist. In the cars-vs-bicycles metaphor, they see white people as the cars — the normalized, accepted, default situation. When they see another white person do something shitty, it’s just kind of accepted. But when a Black person does a similar thing, their brain over-emphasizes it, extrapolating the anecdote into a grand representation of all Black people. That’s fundamental attribution error.

[hawkinspeter]

The wireless unit can easily

The wireless unit can easily go into the frame. When I tried one, I had it connected straight to the battery in the seat tube. (Don’t know if a metal frame might affect it though).

[hawkinspeter]

So basically it doesn’t

So basically it doesn’t matter what we do as they’ve already made up their minds. Even if we obey every possible law and regulation then we’ll still be hated by them as they once saw a cyclist that looked at them a bit funny.

Personally, I don’t tend to ride in groups so I’m not really affected either way by this but it just seems to me that the covid risk from cycling outside in a group is likely to be minimal. I don’t know if there’s any studies performed on groups of cyclists (apart from the computer simulations of aerosol distributions which I don’t think are particularly useful in terms of disease transmission) so I could well be wrong. 

[hawkinspeter]

I take it the frame provides

I take it the frame provides access to the button and charging port of the EW-RS910 or you’ll have issues. Otherwise, you’d be best off roughly measuring the distances required from where you plan on installing the cables and add on a bit of slack. Extra cable isn’t a problem so err on too long rather than too short.

 

[hawkinspeter]

Cycloid wrote:

OK – Read cause

Well, I’m not convinced that the angry drivers are applying causality correctly. The vast majority of poor overtakes that I’ve encountered have ended up with the overtaking vehicle stuck at the next set of traffic lights or the next traffic jam whilst I happily filter on past. They’re just having an emotional outburst as they’re so frustrated so let’s not pretend that appeasement can be effective.

[hawkinspeter]

‘Reason’ has nothing to do

‘Reason’ has nothing to do with it.

[Author]

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