Author Topic: A random thread for cycling things that don't really warrant their own thread  (Read 106128 times)

I don't know where you are - in Oxford YoBikes have an account with (at least) one of the indy bike shops (I think it's Reg Harris) who do all the repairs and stuff maybe they (or the guys who move the bikes back to useful locations) check the tyre pressure?

Ah, hadn't heard of them. The ones I've seen operating in London (o, mo, ofo, urbo) are all solid tyre.

They seem to receive a fair bit of attention from their companies. Mobike in particular like to arrange theirs into imaginary docking stations in my neck of the woods.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
This morning, whilst returning from Two Tree Island, I spied a pair of velicopedestrians riding along on the pavement opposite. Thebloke on teh leading bike had a very shiny new Rohloff hub and fattish tyres - I reckon they were 26*1.75s. My money is on it being a Thorn Nomad or some such - almost certainly a bike verging on £3000. And he was riding it on the pavement beside a not-terribly-busyroad.

They could well have been heading for Richardson's Bike Shop. I might find an excuse to go in there tomorrow and find out if they cyclists did drop in.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

We've just had a safety alert round the whole of the company in the UK. A colleague dropped his bike at ~30mph while descending south of Buxton. A nice open left hand bend on a single track road with a pile of gravel in the middle. Unfortunately he had to change his line through the bend due to a loose dog and subsequently ran wide, off the road and into a post and wire fence.

Two days in hospital three bust ribs and two more cracked, impressive road rash bust thumb and shoulder. Oh and a busted helmet that deformed and broke in the intended manner whilst preventing either head injuries or whiplash.

No evidence what he would have been like without it but it is being used as anecdotal evidence to encourage use to wear helmets when cycling.

Torslanda

  • Professional Gobshite
  • Just a tart for retro kit . . .
    • John's Bikes
A life lived to the full.

R.I.P.
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Spotted someone riding two bikes down the Pershore Road this evening.  He was doing quite well.

n+1 in action, I suppose.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Encountered a new towpath hazard recently. We're used to fishermen taking up the path with their rods and nets. We're used to oncoming cyclists doing the same, sometimes unable to hold a line due to indulgence in alcohol. On the Sharpness Canal I met a fisherman on a bike, with his rods and nets slung over his back at an angle so they took up the whole width of the path.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
In better news, there seems to have been an outbreak of common sense among parents recently, at least in rural areas. Perhaps a result of the sunny weather. I've seen numerous groups of kids – say 10 to 14 years old – riding around unchaperoned and (gasp!) with neither helmets nor hi-viz! There does seem to be a marked rural-urban divide in this though.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Riding through Fen Ditton on the cruzbike on my way to my appointment at Addenbrookes this morning, I thought I saw a blond haired youngster on a tagalong behind his mum.

As I got closer It turned into two kids and mum on a trandem. 

Cue mutual waves and exchanges of "cool bike!"
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

My wife just made a massive tactical error!   I was outside fettling the Moulton and she walked past, squinted at it and said " is that a new bike?"  Now, I've owned it a couple of years, so this means that she just admitted that she has absolutely no idea what bikes I have or what they look like, even one as distinctive as the Moulton. I may feel an N+1 coming on  ;D

Phil W

Riding through Fen Ditton on the cruzbike ...

I rode through Fen Ditton on the Brompton on Wed. Car was having new discs and pads fitted in south Cambridge, so took Brompton for a ride round Cambridge then out on the cycle tracks through the meadows to the villages beyond. Passed Newmarket park and ride and noted it was free for up to 18 hours. Useful to know should I do an audax starting from Cambridge.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
I'm sure we've got a thread devoted to bike recyling charities somewhere, but do you think I can find it? Can I cocoa.

Anyway.

The Harbour Project, Swindon.
On the look out for adult bikes in any condition (even wrecks which will be stripped for spares) to fettle and hand on to asylum seekers.

www.harbourproject.org.uk

They will collect, but I don't what their maximum radius of operations is.  Contact Richard O'Brien on 01367 850233 to arrange a collection.

Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

My wife just made a massive tactical error!   I was outside fettling the Moulton and she walked past, squinted at it and said " is that a new bike?"  Now, I've owned it a couple of years, so this means that she just admitted that she has absolutely no idea what bikes I have or what they look like, even one as distinctive as the Moulton. I may feel an N+1 coming on  ;D

Are you sure she wasn't just taking the piss out of how filthy it was before?
Quote from: tiermat
that's not science, it's semantics.

At the weekend I met the local legend, the semi-mythical cyclist who lives in Rosedale and commutes to work up Chimney Bank every day.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Cav will be waving the starting flag for some sportive or other in Cheltenham on Sunday the 5th.

Local press on the subject.  Report includes link to the sportive site if you're that way inclined and want to enter.

http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/16387995.mark-cavendish-to-start-challenging-cotswolds-cycle-event/
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Rode into Bath today and was chatting to a bloke on a very shiny Salsa Marrakesh (roughly Salsa's equivalent of a Long Haul Trucker) with bar end shifters. He said they are fiddly to use – 10-speed so the increments of lever movement are very small – but pointed out a benefit I'd never have suspected; they encourage you to use the drops more, not just when slogging into a headwind or barrelling down a hill, but in situations when you might want to change gear frequently. So in traffic, for instance, you'll be using the drops; in fact the drops become your main position, and this "helps make the bike more stable."
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Attended a 35 wedding anniversary party last night, thought I'd share the (blurry likely due to incohol consumption) photo of the centerpiece



(note, this is not a new item, but one that has recently been used to tour Japan, Alaska etc....)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
https://youtu.be/taqGZ1FNGOU

Art for safe cycling:
Quote
Zoe Power used to regularly cycle along Festival Way and after narrowly avoiding a collision with somebody walking along the stretch near Bedminster Cricket Club at night, decided that she must do something about this dangerous section of the path.
https://www.bristol247.com/culture/art/new-artwork-incorporates-led-lighting-illuminate-dark-pathway/
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Free bikes for kids if they get mum and dad to stop smoking!
Quote
To get a bike, children must meet three requirements: they must get a smoker relative to quit, maintain strong grades while improving a weak area of study, and promise to ride for an hour a day.
It's in Turkey.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/dec/11/cycles-for-cigarettes-turkish-city-gives-children-bikes-if-relative-quits-smoking-kilis
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
an hour a day on top of all that  :o  my 14 YO doesn't seem to have a spare hour, certainly not in the light this time of year
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Free bikes for kids if they get mum and dad to stop smoking!
Quote
To get a bike, children must meet three requirements: they must get a smoker relative to quit, maintain strong grades while improving a weak area of study, and promise to ride for an hour a day.
It's in Turkey.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/dec/11/cycles-for-cigarettes-turkish-city-gives-children-bikes-if-relative-quits-smoking-kilis

Seems a bit unfair on the kids.  Smokers are crap.

I note, with interest, that Waltham Forest Council have taken it upon themselves to grit/salt the segregated cycle track outside of my place of work, and also the pavement outside Blackhorse Lane tube station.

No such treatment appears to have been applied to the adjacent roads.

Who would've thunk it?

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
 :thumbsup:
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Meant to post this last week, as soon as we got back, but was distracted by shingles.  :(

Mrs B & I went to Japan for a couple of weeks to see her family. I'd not been for almost two years, & I noticed one significant change - e-mamas everywhere! Electric bikes have soared in popularity. Hordes of the buggers outside nurseries, shops etc., mostly with at least one child seat. The standard model seems to be almost cargo-bike like, step through frame, solid (some built-in) rear rack, & very often (mostly?) with a motor built into the bottom bracket & a girt big battery behind the downtube. Not the most agile of things, but stable & easy to get on & off of.

"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Dunno if this has been here before, but if not, I give you this -
https://www.messums.com/artworks/view/54145



The new organiser of the Kennet Valley Audax!
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897