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vonhelmet wrote:
If you can’t find out where his PhD is from, you’re not trying very hard, given his cv is on his website. It’s from northeastern university, which is apparently the 40th best university in the states. He’s got post doctorate fellowships at a couple of places including Berkeley. He’s the real deal, whether you like what he’s got to say or not. Play the ball, not the man. If nothing else, this particular man knows a lot more about visual perception than you do.Yep, I agree with that – he has qualifications and we should examine his arguments and conclusions rather than focussing on whether he’s enough of an expert.
One thing that I don’t like (apart from his condescending attitude) is his comment that we shouldn’t try to change drivers’ behaviour as human behaviour is immutable, but then goes on to recommend that all cyclists have to change their behaviour. I’ve got doubts about his drunken pedestrian statistics but haven’t bothered to investigate further (there’s not much you can do about drunken pedestrians apart from avoiding them and if you are one yourself, then you’re probably not concentrating on being safe).
TLDR, the beginning bit
TLDR, the beginning bit sounded biased and judgemental so I skipped reading the rest.
He’s probably right about drivers only looking out for other motorised vehicles, so my advice is to cycle in an unexpected manner to surprise and shock drivers into paying more attention. Of course, you need to exercise some judgement in not putting yourself into a position of danger.
Ultimately, if you’re in charge of a fast moving mass of metal then the onus is on yourself to not endanger other people. It’s unacceptable to put the onus onto cyclists and pedestrians because drivers only look for other drivers.
Definitely a top buy. I preferred the look of that frame personally over the GT. It is as light as my new aluminium bike weighed when i got it last spring and mine cost over 900 euro (partly shimano 105 groupset but the rest lower quality than the Merida). Room for affordable upgrades with the bike when you do need to make any too (in the future when anything wears out..i’d imagine for the time being you are just looking forward to ride it a good while and not think of anything like that). For example FSA omega crankset is 871kg whereas you can get an FSA gossamer pro for only about £100 which is 750kg (think you’ll need swap the BB to use that, not sure, but still, pretty good upgrade bang for buck). Sora, nice high quality and solid but leaves you options ahead, even bit by bit to slowly slightly shave on weight. Wheelsets, for £180 with tires attached you have stuff like Mavic Aksium Elite which are about 1780g, probably a good 200g lighter than wheels supplied with the bike. Carbon seatpost…Deda Superleggero in sales currently 99.95 euro…huge comfort increase cause of carbon shock absorbing qualities and over 100g lighter than a supplied alloy seatpost (one of best buys i made). Hats off putting in the time on the old rust bucket. Your work riding the rust bucket will pay off now with the new bike. No sweat without tearsI don’t think those cranksets are really that heavy.
newrider7 wrote:
The GT uses a square taper cartridge bottom bracket. What would the opinions of the more experienced here be on that? As far as i know that’s a bit more old fashioned and thesedays reserved usually for lower end sub £500 bikes. Just saying. I don’t know if they are poor vs the integrated pipe type of design which I think the Merida with it’s FSA Omega crank uses. Anyway neither site you linked mentions overall bike weight. It dos mention frame weight and fork weight for the Merida…1650g for the frame, a tad heavy but i guess not off for a £599 bike and 420g for the fork, perfectly respectable i’d think. Looking elsewhere online overall weights seem very similar between these two in the Sora versions you are looking at (9.7kg for the GT and 9.85kg for Merida). I guess if you are only paying about £599 for either they are good choices (sorry i’m not in uk or familiar with the cycle scheme thing) but if I had £899 I’d probably be looking at other options for hope of a considerably lighter frame. At £899 isn’t the Spevialized Allez sport one of the lightest frames and forks going for example for that price point? (Can’t recall now but seem to remember). Maybe doesn’t have disc brakes though if that’s a must.The last time I had a bike with square tapers was a few decades ago and I’d actively avoid getting a bike with them nowadays. The issue is that if the taper starts to wear a bit (inevitable, but I don’t know how long they last), the crank(s) will start to have a tiny bit of movement in them. That movement then starts to round off the taper a bit and thus increases the wear. To fix the crank movement, most people would tighten up the fixing bolt, but that will tend to increase the wear which makes it a bit more wobbly. Rinse and repeat.
I don’t think that the weight is going to make a huge amount of difference for a first road bike – the better aerodynamics of having drop bars (vs straight bars) will make far more difference than a kilo or two.
It could be used as an argument for licensing bikes.. I think we best just keep quiet on this one. Nothing to see here.We could employ some licensing enforcement officers to go around and ticket the bikes that aren’t licensed.
As stated on that thread – it
As stated on that thread – it’s unenforceable. They can go around putting parking tickets on bikes, tables, chairs, trees etc. but it’s just a waste of time and paper.
I’d be inclined to go for the
I’d be inclined to go for the Merida as it’s a bit cheaper and you don’t yet know how enthusiastic you’ll be about commuting/riding.
I have my doubts about cable operated disc brakes as I’ve heard that they can suffer from poor performance if they’re not kept well adjusted, though I’ve never tried them myself. At that price point, I’d be inclined to go for rim brakes instead.
Edit: I’ve had a quick look at other bikes on Tredz.co.uk, but I couldn’t get their website to filter the results properly, so instead I found this on Wiggle: https://www.wiggle.co.uk/felt-fr40-road-bike-2019/
It’s got rim brakes, but a better groupset (i.e. gears) than the Merida.
Alternatively, you could get a carbon fibre frame with this one: https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/road-bikes/boardman-slr-8-8-road-bike
Ultimately, how the bike feels to you is more important than the specs of it, so it’s well worth doing a road test of whatever you plan on getting.
Well presented argument and
Well presented argument and he doesn’t even mention risk compensation.
Looks like you’ve discounted
Looks like you’ve discounted the most obvious causes – QR slipping, wheel out of true and bearing/hub movement. Bizarrely, you can get brake rub whilst applying lots of force if the wheel is particularly stiff – have a read of this: https://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Debunking_Wheel_Stiffness_3449.html
I don’t know how you’d fix that without getting different wheels with more spokes though.
I’ve got some Prime RR50s
I’ve got some Prime RR50s (the previous model to the Black Edition ones) and I haven’t had many issues with the wind. It’s only been two or three times that I’ve noticed the wind catch the front wheel and it wasn’t a problem and it was in gusty conditions. However, I’m very cautious when the wind goes above 20mph and will abort the ride unless it feels safe.
The thru-axle adaptors do the job nicely and fitting the rotor only takes a minute.
I’d give a shout out to the
I’d give a shout out to the Cycliq Fly6 – nice and bright and easy enough to fit to other bikes (if you can get another mount) and of course a decent camera. Probably not as robust as a dedicated rear light and not as cheap to replace if/when it does break, but I’m a fan of cyclists using cameras in order to keep motorists behaving themselves.
I agree the lenient sentencing needs to change.And where does the shift start? By making the message about the person that did wrong you shift the attention. Maybe once the attention shifts the onus will start to shift. Once the onus shifts perhaps the sentencing will start to reflect the actual damage done. Once that starts to happen maybe legislation will change to make the speed limits on these sorts of roads less biassed towards motor vehicles and safer for alternate transport types. Then there is even less excuse for this sort of event.
Having said all of that, I agree with the message behind it. If I’m out for anything more than a pootle on cycle paths I wear a helmet. When I used to ride motorbikes I always wore helmet, leathers, body armour, boots, and gloves (airbag suits were the things of sci-fi at that point). It would be foolish not to protect yourself and it is a message that should be re-enforced, just not as the focus after an incident like this.
A short while ago, the Govt announced (with much fanfare etc) a wide ranging review into traffic offences and sentencing, so I’m sure we’re about to taste the fruits of that hard work by them.
(The problem with focussing on PPE for motorcyclists is that anyone could have been hit by that driver – not just a motorcyclist).
My first thought would be for
My first thought would be for a more endurance geometry as flexibility tends to get worse as you age. Being in a more comfortable position can mean that you’d be able to go quicker than if you’re more cramped. That said, you may well find a racing position to be a lot of fun, so you’re going to have to try them out to see which one makes you smile more.
Found a much better solution
Found a much better solution at https://www.velopresso.cc/
(Love the name “Perky Blenders” by the way)
.It ends when you’ve beaten the shit out of them often enough for them to get the message. Does soft sentencing on motorists do anything, e.g. reduce close passes? I’ll take the hard line over the soft any day.
Unfortunately increased penalties does little to deter criminal behaviour as most people don’t consider that they will get caught. Increasing the chances of getting caught has a bigger effect so honey-bikes with trackers sounds like the way forwards to me.