The Cycling Chat Thread

[weepiper]

Is there footage? go pro etc?

Actually I'm remembering wrong - it was a hardtail, not fully rigid



No video. I believe him though, he's been riding at Fort William a long time, and he's not the only one to have done it on a bike like that - this is his pal's hardtail on the gondola on the way up from 2012!

 

[Dogsauce]

Is it this one?



i just can’t fathom the reaction times on stuff like that, basically it looks like you’re just falling for a lot of it. When I pootle round the local trail I almost have to come to a dead stop on stuff like boulders and big tree roots, these experienced guys just float over the top of the lot with milliseconds to react to any of it.

 

[High Voltage]

Be interested to hear your views on Alan Millyard's home made down hill bikes



He also chops of motorbike engines and makes V8's and multi-cylinder 2-strokes . . . for fun

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Is it this one?



i just can’t fathom the reaction times on stuff like that, basically it looks like you’re just falling for a lot of it. When I pootle round the local trail I almost have to come to a dead stop on stuff like boulders and big tree roots, these experienced guys just float over the top of the lot with milliseconds to react to any of it.

Wow, having seen that I am really gutted not to have had my bike with me, reallly gutted…

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Just booked my first ever session on a velodrome for this Sunday. I’m excited and shitting myself in roughly equal measure.

 

[weepiper]

Might try for Bicycle Figure Skating as a demonstration sport in the next Winter Olympics

 

[TopCat]

Might try for Bicycle Figure Skating as a demonstration sport in the next Winter Olympics

View attachment 304969

That says go back to bed.

 

[Orang Utan]

Might try for Bicycle Figure Skating as a demonstration sport in the next Winter Olympics

View attachment 304969

Do they not do gritting on that street then? My street gets like that but only cos it’s on private land and the management company are too tight to provide sandboxes

 

[weepiper]

That says go back to bed.

I was trying to get home from work!

Do they not do gritting on that street then? My street gets like that but only cos it’s on private land and the management company are too tight to provide sandboxes

Everywhere in Edinburgh was sheet ice yesterday evening. A thin fall of snow overnight that melted a little during the day then froze hard again.

 

[klang]

Just booked my first ever session on a velodrome for this Sunday. I’m excited and shitting myself in roughly equal measure.

wicked!

do you have a track bike or do you borrow one?

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

wicked!

do you have a track bike or do you borrow one?

I don’t, I’m hiring one as part of the session.

It’s pretty addictive by all accounts though, so n+1 and all that…

 

[klang]

I don’t, I’m hiring one as part of the session.

It’s pretty addictive by all accounts though, so n+1 and all that…

it's so much fun. fast and dangerous!

 

[Winot]

Mrs W bought me a session on the Olympic track a few years ago for my birthday. It was terrifying, exhilarating and exhausting.

 

[sleaterkinney]

Just booked my first ever session on a velodrome for this Sunday. I’m excited and shitting myself in roughly equal measure.

It's great fun, the only thing to get used to is slowing down.

 

[weepiper]

I have never felt the slightest desire to try track. One of my colleagues used to regularly podium finish at the Scottish track champs in his younger years and we have the lap marker sign from the sadly demolished Meadowbank outdoor velodrome in the window of the shop. It scares the shit out of me though.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Oh my god that was amazing. I’m totally hooked after just one session and intend to be back as soon as I possibly can.

The SPEED

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

weepiper, how do you keep you toes warm?

It’s a balmy one degrees today, I have a thick pair of socks under a thick pair of waterproof Sealskinz with 5-10 Trailcross and my feet are like ice. They are muddy and caked in it, am 15 miles in with 20 still to go and it’s getting a bit uncomfortable…




And I know, southern Jessie and that, but do you any tips or are you just double hard?

 

[weepiper]

I wear thick merino socks (my current ones are made by Funkier and go mid calf) and normal Five Tens and find that ok tbh. Yesterday when I was out I was wearing those, a long sleeve merino base layer top, fleecy lined 3/4 bib tights with long MTB shorts over the top, a thin Gore long sleeve jersey and winter gloves and it was four or five degrees. I had a Gore jacket on for the downhill bits but took it off to climb because I was too hot. Getting the base layers right is important, your extremities stay warmer.

 

[weepiper]

I am also perimenopausal so have my own internal hot water bottle and am Scottish so, possibly double plus hard too.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

A good merino base layer was a game changer for me. As weepiper says, get your core temp right and your body can afford to pump a bit of blood to your extremities to keep them warm as well.

 

[youbeauty]

They probably make me look like a bit of a twat but I've found neoprene overshoes to be the key to warm, dry feet (short of some proper winter boots).

 

[weepiper]

If you're on Instagram, have a watch of Danny Macaskill doggedly persisting until he manages to backflip an electric mountain bike in the pissing rain up the side of a dirt bank.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Christ almighty

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Christ almighty

That on a day when "It comes as ministers pledged £5.5m of investment in cycling and walking." - we'll see a lot more of that rubbish, £5.5m is the equivalent of 350 yards of motorway. To get a proper cycling infrastructure going will take billions, money they're happy to throw at cars but wouldn't dream of doing so for bikes.

 

[cybershot]

The Highway Code: are you aware of the latest updates? - Which? News

Updates introduced last year mean drivers should give way to pedestrians at junctions and allow at least 1.5 metres when passing cyclists

www.which.co.uk

Rule H3: drivers to give priority to cyclists in certain situations​

The updated The Highway Code urges drivers and motorcyclists not to cut across cyclists when turning into or out of a junction or changing direction or lane. This rule applies whether the cyclist ahead is using a cycle lane, a cycle track or simply riding on the road ahead.

Drivers are meant to stop and wait for a safe gap when cyclists are:

• Approaching, passing or moving away from a junction
• Moving past or waiting alongside still or slow-moving traffic
• Travelling on a roundabout

 

[Dogsauce]

Drivers are meant to stop and wait for a safe gap when cyclists are:

• Approaching, passing or moving away from a junction
• Moving past or waiting alongside still or slow-moving traffic
• Travelling on a roundabout

When were they ever not supposed to do those things? Did previous guidance suggest they just drive straight through them? This doesn’t sound like a rule change, more a case of adding emphasis.

 

[Orang Utan]

Most of the changes are just manners and basic decency that have been either made clearer or confirmed. If you were a decent driver you’d be doing all of those things anyway.
Not sure how any of these changes are going to affect the people they should have impacted on. These folk are drivers who still think they pay a tax that was done away with over 80 years ago, so it will probably take another century for this change to sink in.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Most of the changes are just manners and basic decency that have been either made clearer or confirmed. If you were a decent driver you’d be doing all of those things anyway.
Not sure how any of these changes are going to affect the people they should have impacted on. These folk are drivers who still think they pay a tax that was done away with over 80 years ago, so it will probably take another century for this change to sink in.

The pedestrian crossing rule is actually more significant I think. Car drivers will have to be much more aware of pedestrians all the time in urban areas. That said, it's great confirmation for cyclists to stay out of the gutter in certain situations.

 

[BigTom]

When were they ever not supposed to do those things? Did previous guidance suggest they just drive straight through them? This doesn’t sound like a rule change, more a case of adding emphasis.

The actual rule change that is not shown here is that cyclists now have priority if they are behind a driver, as if there was a cycle lane on every road.

So previously the rule was do not overtake just before you turn left but now if you are in slow enough moving traffic you are required to give way to a cyclist coming from behind that is going straight on.

In practical terms I'm not sure when a situation will occur other than when filtering through traffic jams that it makes a practical difference though.

Otherwise all the cycling stuff is clarifications (like riding 2 abreast rule) or bringing things from the national standards for cycling into the highway code (like riding centrally).

The 1.5m passing distance the police set is also being brought into the highway code. 1.5m at 30mph or less, 2m above 30mph or any speed in a 7.5t+ vehicle.

 

[Winot]

Does anyone know if the new H2 rule applies when pedestrians are crossing a side street that is (a) pelican controlled and (b) red for pedestrians?

On the face of it the new rule does apply to that situation, which seems odd.