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Thanks for all the helpful

Thanks for all the helpful replies. It does look like ebay now (as of late 2020) has a way of confirming collection, to avoid “item not delivered” and chargeback issues, so that may make PayPal less risky. I’m just conscious that buyers might rightly be a little wary of the safety of cash on collection (I would be), and I think ebay’s terms mean you have to offer PayPal anyway (though I’m sure that’s honoured in the breach). Of course, using a courier would avoid these issues, but then you get potential issues around damage in transit instead. Clearly I’m just a born worrier. I might get back into the swing of ebay with some smaller, less risky items first!   

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Agreed. I run a GoPro on the

Agreed. I run a GoPro on the front and Fly6 on the back, and find the Cycliq much better to live with – easier to mount / dismount, no need to clear the card every day or two because the recording loops (and therefore less mounting / dismounting to be done anyway), longer battery life even though it’s also being used as a rudimentary light. No, I won’t always get a clear plate from the Fly6 in the dark, but I think that’s mainly because it’s rear-facing. I should mount the GoPro rearward as a comparison. 

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Want to make sure I get the

Want to make sure I get the results and the opportunity to participate in future!

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Completed. So that’s 4

Completed. So that’s 4 outliers in their data. I imagine I will now have the dubious honour of being on their mailing list too. 

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There may be a technical

There may be a technical distinction between tax and excise duty (or between tax, excise and duty even), but it’s common to refer to it as tax. At least the form is clear that it’s vehicle tax, not road tax – isn’t that the main beef? 

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I have very positive

I have very positive experiences with Schwalbe Marathon Plus, but not in your circumstances. I’ve used them in all weathers except actual snow, but for a shorter, flatter commute, and in London, where roads are busier and temperatures higher, so ice is less often an issue, and isolation even less so. In my experience (in a 35c size) they have been absolutely bombproof. I got over 5 years (commuting c.50km/week) out of my first set, and only one puncture in that time (and that was a nail which went in one side of the tyre and out the other!) I never had a problem with grip, but they are heavy and no doubt very ‘dead’ feeling – didn’t bother me as I’ve never known anything different on that bike (a steel Genesis Day One). I think they also come in a studded version.   

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I don’t do physics. I had no

I don’t do physics. I had no idea that all this time I’ve been cycling, I’ve been “pushing the ground backwards”. 

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“from a brand called EC90

“from a brand called EC90 (not to be confused with the range from Easton)”

But I’d guess very much intended to be confused with the range from Easton! 

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Theoretically, yes. But in

Theoretically, yes. But in that (terrifying) example:

(a) to apply a burst of acceleration effectively, you would need to know the lorry was pulling out on you. I’m not sure that would have been obvious to the driver in that clip, as it looks like the lorry driver indicated and started moving out just after the car had passed. I doubt therefore there would have been enough time in that clip for the driver to accelerate out of trouble.

(b) even if there had been time to react and accelerate, the driver didn’t have much space to accelerate into without getting dangerously close to the second lorry in front.

But I take the point – if you’re say two thirds of the way past a lorry which starts indicating, with clear road in front, then accelerator may be more effective than brake…

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Ditto again! I’d put myself

Ditto again! I’d put myself in a similar category – through my teens and twenties I loved cars, and did some mildly stupid things in cars that I would now frown on. Later I spent a bit of time working for car makers, and as a result have been fortunate enough to drive some very nice, fast cars on road and on track (and to be driven in them by people with far more skill than me). Unlike kil0ran though, despite ‘identifying’ as a petrolhead, aspiring to all sorts of exotica for many years, and briefly toying with buying a hot hatch (Clio 200, liquid yellow, since you ask), I only bought my first car (a run of the mill second-hand hatchback) a few years ago, am highly unlikely ever to buy anything more potent, and my current car aspirations waver between buying an estate and considering if I need a car at all any more (it only gets used for long motorway trips).

I still read car magazines occasionally, but they ring a bit hollow now. I have no doubt that the journalists who write for them are very skilled drivers, but seeing images of the latest preposterously overpowered Ferrari being drifted on an open road seems massively irresponsible to me now. Likewise, talking about the pleasure of well weighted steering, perfectly timed heel and toe downshifts and the ‘adjustability’ of a chassis, evocative though that is, only thinly disguises the fact that road tests in these cars involve driving which would, if not conducted out of sight on remote Welsh and Scottish roads where most people are not going to enjoy these cars, attract police attention.

I do feel a bit conflicted – I spent so much of my formative years aspiring to fast cars that, now that it’s vaguely possible, I wonder if I should do it anyway to satisfy the teenager inside me (who, by the way, had even worse taste and wanted a TVR Cerbera). But if I did, I would want to use that performance. Going 10/10ths on a track doesn’t really do it for me, and my older self just doesn’t think it’s ok to use that performance on the road. And owning an expensive performance car just to drive the same way I drive my runaround now feels a bit irrelevant and unnecessary. 

It’s true that having a performance car doesn’t mean you have to drive like an idiot. But even if manufacturers comply with the guidance in the advertising codes and don’t expressly market them this way, it seems clear to me that what they are selling is road cars with performance that, for the most part, cannot be used legally or safely on the road.   

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Yeah, your testimonial on the

Yeah, your testimonial on the Mk1 in one of those first look articles sold it for me, so thanks for the feedback. I went for the orangey one in a road biased 2x, 700 x 38 gravelking flavour, with (very excited about this) my first dynamo light setup. Now looking to complete its first incarnation with guards and some form of rando rack.

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Thanks, some good tips there

Thanks, some good tips there that I hadn’t thought of. I should have added I’m looking for something to accommodate a minimum 38 tyre, but most of these options have a size to cater for that. They’re intended for a Fairlight Faran 2.0 that I am hoping is going to be a keeper, so think I might invest in one of the metal options.   

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Also guilty, in teenage years

Also guilty, in teenage years, of using front fogs (or ‘driving lights’, as I seem to recall they were also known) not in the fog. But at least I knew how to turn off the rear one – I’m amazed how many people I see searing the retinas of following drivers in perfectly clear conditions.   

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Worst culprit: Adam err, yeah

Worst culprit: Adam err, yeah Yates err, yeah.

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“the selection” (i.e. those

“the selection” (i.e. those left to fight on the final climb) 

“battle royale” (David Millar only, but frequently)

 

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