Recent Posts

11

Freewheeling / Re: Bicycle Quarterly

« Last post by fd3 on Yesterday at 11:04:58 pm »

I have a few issues of BQ and you can see that effort went into making them.  Effort also went into making the BHPC magazines, which are much cheaper though.
My big issue with BQ is the "science", namely that they drape articles in the trappings of science (references, citations, etc) but they are self published non-reviewed articles that self reference, which is textbook BAD SCIENCE.

12

Gallery / Re: Fully Picturesque - Touring Bikes

« Last post by nikki on Yesterday at 11:01:07 pm »

You might have better luck over on the Fully Loaded thread: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=61057.700

This one's a bit more tongue-in-cheek and ridiculously ruled:

As a parallel gallery to Fully Loaded - Touring Bikes thread, and in consultation with William Gilpin, the UMCA have released the guidelines for picturesque photos of our own touring/camping setups:



In accordance with the above guidelines, YACF announces that it will certify attempts for Fully Picturesque photos of touring bikes per the rules below.

In addition to your cycle, photos must depict at least three of the eight elements listed...

... between 1 and 3 planes
... a variety of elevation
... variable vegetation
... lights
... trees or rocks that focus the attention
... animal presence
... roughness
... a harmonious sunset

...but feel free to encourage folks to post here more often too   

13

The Sporting Life / Re: Southend Football

« Last post by Wowbagger on Yesterday at 10:50:04 pm »

Never having lived in Colchester, I can't be sure, but I don't think their fans have divided loyalties either. There is relatively little of Southend which is much more than 100 years old, and many of the residents' grandparents will have moved out here from London, so I think there is more likely to be family attachments. This is more so when one considers that Basildon is only a little over 10 miles closer to London, and according to the latest figures Ive seen, it is now bigger than Southend (185k > 183.5k). Basildon has a football team, but they are at the level that the play against local villages. I have no idea whether many of Southend's supporters come from Basildon - presumably some do - but to have two such large towns so close together, neither of which possesses a decent football club, must be pretty unusual. Bradford, of course, is bigger than both combined and is stuck with Bradford City, also League 2. It seemed that when they last had crowds turn up, their home matches typically attracted >13k supporters. In the 2019-20 season, Southend's biggest crowd was a little over 8000, at home to Ipswich, and they were then a League 1 team, albeit doing incredibly badly.

14

Gallery / Re: Fully Picturesque - Touring Bikes

« Last post by salar55 on Yesterday at 10:41:50 pm »

Where are all the touring cyclists, you have had a year of lockdown to find some pics. Last pic posted  2018    

15

The Pub / Re: Chess.com

« Last post by aidan.f on Yesterday at 10:35:48 pm »

Phew, reads as way above our level.

16

Ctrl-Alt-Del / Re: Your internet BB speed ?

« Last post by Feanor on Yesterday at 10:24:22 pm »

Had to resolve Internet Connection speed issues at Feanor Outposts in Edinburgh at the weekend.

Junior had been complaining about very poor speeds, but the VDSL should be good for 75 down 20 up, which it was when it was installed.
And upon inspection, he was getting <1 down on the MS Surface tablet thing.

Wired connection to another device gave a solid 75 down, so a WiFi issue.
It's a dual-band 2.4 / 5 router, and it was using the 5GHz band.
But so was my tablet with no issues.

Downloaded a WiFi analyser, and its showing almost homeopathic signal levels on 5Ghz, but strong on 2.4.

Shut down the 5GHz on the router, forcing a re-connect to the same SSID at 2.4 and sanity is restored.
I think the issue is with the 5GHz radio on the tablet, and I should probably force it to 2.4 if that option exists.
But in the meantime, 5GHz is shut down on the router, and complaints have ceased.

17

Bicycles / Re: 2000 Dawes Galaxy

« Last post by Basil on Yesterday at 10:21:02 pm »

When I totally destroyed my super galaxy, I had Mercian build me a frame set with all the relevant lugs and stuff in all the right places.  I transfered everything across and had the only Mercian Super Galaxy in Brum.

18

The Pub / Re: Census thread for discussions about the census

« Last post by Cudzoziemiec on Yesterday at 10:05:19 pm »

Your national identity could be the country or countries where you feel you belong or think of as home.

For me, this has varied with time and where I'm living. I remember once getting off the train in Warsaw after a weekend in Slovakia, seeing the Palace of Culture (a landmark directly opposite Warsaw Central) and feeling "I'm home" although by that time I was living in another city in Poland. And I've never thought of myself as Polish.

(I'm still tempted to write "Erewhonian", "Llaregubbian" or similar for this question, or maybe even "Odonian")

It's not Odonian here. It's A-Ionian.

A-Ionian is a new term to me but google says it refers to major scales in music, with minor scales also being called Dorian. Both new terms to me. Can't find Odonian in relation to music. 

A-Io is the corrupt, capitalist nation on Urras that Shevek goes to, where the University is.
Odonians are named after their founder Odo, rather than the Anarres moon they inhabit.

Of course! I'd forgotten the name of the country. And then there are two others on the same planet, one of which gets involved in some sort of rebellion, but I can't remember their names right now either.

Odonians are named after their founder, yes, but also for the philosophy she started, which in theory at least their moon is based upon. And that seems more apt than being named after a lump of rock.

Though I think Hubner's idea is good; and for the "Ethnicity" question too.

19

Health & Fitness / Re: Experiences of Teh Plague

« Last post by sojournermike on Yesterday at 10:04:45 pm »

Online booking now opened to those aged 56 and over.

Not for those of us in Wales yet. Judging from the figures, Wales have a slight difference of emphasis, tilting more towards 2nd doses, which would be fine by me had not my twin (in Harrogate) had hers on Satuday, and my wife (younger than me but with a minor health issue) having been invited for hers this Saturday. Not jealous.

The GP’s in Harrogate have worked together and run a big centre at the Yorkshire show ground - although they may lose that soon. I was vaccinated in the normal course just over 2 weeks ago, at age 55 and 4-6 weeks before I expected. My brother in law, who is a couple of years older than me, and registered with a Wetherby GP was invited to book the evening they opened it up and is travelling to York a week today. My mother in law, 87, was quite late being invited to her Wetherby GP’s practice. Mrs S was done in Bradford through her work (health).

It’s a bit of a postcode lottery I think, although they are all, presumably, doing the best they can in the local circumstances.

Mike

20

The Knowledge / Re: Overshoes for sandals

« Last post by JenM on Yesterday at 09:59:02 pm »

I have used sandals with neoprene type overshoes for a couple of years now. The advantages are that it is easy to get a couple of pairs of socks under the sandals and the overshoes give another layer of warmth, when required. The disadvantage for me is that they are not the easiest of things to get on....especially in a race situation.

Another option might be toe covers