The Cycling Chat Thread

[BigTom]

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.

I think such a junction would not have a street that is considered a side street, as the give way at a traffic lit junction is not fixed so the major/minor road changes dependent on the state of the traffic lights.

If you are talking about a road where there's only a pedestrian crossing at the mouth of the street and no lights on the other street I don't think I've ever seen such a situation - crossings are set back from the junction or the whole junction is traffic lit I think?

 

[Winot]

I think such a junction would not have a street that is considered a side street, as the give way at a traffic lit junction is not fixed so the major/minor road changes dependent on the state of the traffic lights.

Yes this is what I meant - thanks that makes sense.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

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.

Thanks for that, it's really not been explained well in the media.

 

[BigTom]

Thanks for that, it's really not been explained well in the media.

No it hasn't. There's been a lot of conversation about the two rules in that picture (happily on reddit at least there's almost no-one complaining about cyclists in the middle of the lane rule).

Most of the other changes i haven't seen discussed other than the general hierarchy change.

 

[Dogsauce]

The giving way to pedestrians is a good one - although I think it was already a requirement, widely ignored, to give way to pedestrians already crossing at junctions. It’d be nice to be more like Europe where there are kind of basic zebra crossings across the end of just about all side roads, much nicer to get about and reinforces the hierarchy of peds/cars. Sometimes the very specific requirements of U.K. crossings mean they aren’t put in where needed as there isn‘t room for thr approach markings and signage.

 

[Artaxerxes]

The giving way to pedestrians is a good one - although I think it was already a requirement, widely ignored, to give way to pedestrians already crossing at junctions. It’d be nice to be more like Europe where there are kind of basic zebra crossings across the end of just about all side roads, much nicer to get about and reinforces the hierarchy of peds/cars. Sometimes the very specific requirements of U.K. crossings mean they aren’t put in where needed as there isn‘t room for thr approach markings and signage.

There were a couple of those side street crossings tried recently

Blended ‘Copenhagen’ Crossings - Enjoy Waltham Forest

About blended 'Copenhagen' Crossings To help make walking and cycling in the borough easy, safe and enjoyable, we’re introducing a new style of crossing at side road junctions across the borough called blended 'Copenhagen' crossings. Blended crossings are designed to slow down vehicles when...

enjoywalthamforest.co.uk

Call for new side road zebra crossings to promote walking | RAC Drive

www.rac.co.uk

 

[Dogsauce]

There were a couple of those side street crossings tried recently

Blended ‘Copenhagen’ Crossings - Enjoy Waltham Forest

About blended 'Copenhagen' Crossings To help make walking and cycling in the borough easy, safe and enjoyable, we’re introducing a new style of crossing at side road junctions across the borough called blended 'Copenhagen' crossings. Blended crossings are designed to slow down vehicles when...

enjoywalthamforest.co.uk

Call for new side road zebra crossings to promote walking | RAC Drive

www.rac.co.uk

The only problem with that blended design is it’s not so easily noticed as a road crossing by small children (and likely people with limited vision). There’s one side road on our school run where the end of the road is cobbled with low kerbs and I nearly always have to grab the 3-year old to stop them riding straight out into it. Of course the new rules about giving way to pedestrians waiting to cross should help this.

 

[Artaxerxes]

The only problem with that blended design is it’s not so easily noticed as a road crossing by small children (and likely people with limited vision). There’s one side road on our school run where the end of the road is cobbled with low kerbs and I nearly always have to grab the 3-year old to stop them riding straight out into it. Of course the new rules about giving way to pedestrians waiting to cross should help this.

Same problem as Exhibition road by the NHM and Science Museum, it just looks like a pedestrianised street so you just don't notice.

 

[weepiper]

A Burns Night ode to the mountain bike hardtail. Please ignore the subtitler who is clearly drunk and should go home.

 

[weepiper]

Peter Sagan comes to the aid of “flabbergasted” British cyclo-tourist in Gran Canaria

Willie McColl was stranded with a puncture and no remaining spare tubes when a group of pros, led by former world champion Sagan, stopped to help

road.cc

 

[Mation]

Saw a bicycle lying in the middle of the road, partly underneath the front of a double-decker bus on my way home this evening

There were a few police there, but I'm guessing it happened a while before, as there was no ambulance. I can't see how they would have been at least hurt enough to need the hospital, but perhaps it wasn't as bad as could be, or as bad as it looked.

The driver was in his cab and seeming, from a distance, relaxed enough that it took me a while to work out why the bus was there in the middle of the road, no passengers, doors open. It was only when I had to cycle around the front of it - it was blocking the route ahead - that I saw.

 

[Mation]

Active Travel group disbanded after councillor accuses it of being a "sleeper cell" for cyclists

Mat Feakins said the group, which was part of Monmouth Town Council, was “hell-bent on doing everything for cyclists and nothing for anyone else”

road.cc

"This group seems to have gone off and, almost like a sleeper cell, we've got a council operating outside of a council," Feakins said.

He also claimed that the group’s members were “hell-bent on doing everything for cyclists and nothing for anyone else.”

“Most of the members of that group are cyclists, they should all be declaring personal interests,” he said, raising the interesting prospect of councillors who own cars having to declare a personal interest when decisions about parking are required.

 

[Orang Utan]

Damn, I tried to adjust my front disc brakes and accidentally broke the cap that holds the mineral oil for the hydraulics so I think I’ll need to replace the brake and remember to leave shit like that for the experts

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Damn, I tried to adjust my front disc brakes and accidentally broke the cap that holds the mineral oil for the hydraulics so I think I’ll need to replace the brake and remember to leave shit like that for the experts

How on earth did you manage that?

 

[Orang Utan]

How on earth did you manage that?

With an adjustable spanner. YouTube told me to loosen the calliper bolts to realign the pads. Could only see one bolt, which was oddly capped, so I loosened that and in doing so pulled the cap off. Still hadn’t cottoned on that I had hydraulic brakes, even after getting mineral oil all over me and wondering where it came from. My right brake, which had been a bit loose, was now totally ineffective and it took a few minutes of thinking and then suddenly twigging that it was a hydraulic brake and all the fluid had leaked out.
Still can’t work out how to adjust the brakes either. Not that there’s any point until I get it fixed

 

[weepiper]

With an adjustable spanner. YouTube told me to loosen the calliper bolts to realign the pads. Could only see one bolt, which was oddly capped, so I loosened that and in doing so pulled the cap off. Still hadn’t cottoned on that I had hydraulic brakes, even after getting mineral oil all over me and wondering where it came from. My right brake, which had been a bit loose, was now totally ineffective and it took a few minutes of thinking and then suddenly twigging that it was a hydraulic brake and all the fluid had leaked out.
Still can’t work out how to adjust the brakes either. Not that there’s any point until I get it fixed

Sounds like you undid the hose nut or the bleed port. The caliper bolts will be Allen head bolts, not with spanner flats.

 

[Orang Utan]

Sounds like you undid the hose nut or the bleed port. The caliper bolts will be Allen head bolts, not with spanner flats.

I can see what looks like a hair pin holding the two sides together, but no bolts

 

[weepiper]

I can see what looks like a hair pin holding the two sides together, but no bolts

You're looking at the wrong bit. If it's a rear brake the bolts may be underneath the chain stay, like this



If it's a front brake it will have an arrangement something like this



The thing that looks like a hairpin is a retaining pin to stop the brake pads falling out.

 

[BigTom]

With an adjustable spanner. YouTube told me to loosen the calliper bolts to realign the pads. Could only see one bolt, which was oddly capped, so I loosened that and in doing so pulled the cap off. Still hadn’t cottoned on that I had hydraulic brakes, even after getting mineral oil all over me and wondering where it came from. My right brake, which had been a bit loose, was now totally ineffective and it took a few minutes of thinking and then suddenly twigging that it was a hydraulic brake and all the fluid had leaked out.
Still can’t work out how to adjust the brakes either. Not that there’s any point until I get it fixed

I did something similar the first time I had disc brakes and couldn't get the pads out to change them, saw a bolt i thought needed loosening... I realised very quickly I'd gone wrong but it still needed a bleed and refill.

Turned out there was some issue stopping the pads coming out as they should have but I should have known not to fiddle.

I'm with you on leaving it to the pros. Anything more than a puncture and it goes to the shop.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I'm with you on leaving it to the pros. Anything more than a puncture and it goes to the shop.

I've just taken a puncture to the shop! It's tubeless and there's no hole with gunk coming out, was stumped. The shop found a rip in the beading (cos I'm a gnarly mother-fucker rider, not cos I'm fat ) - they charged £15 for the labour, probably marked the new tyre up, they charged £62 for it and internet shows some at £54, but the job's been done with no swearing from me, it's been done well and the wealth is trickling down, so all good

 

[Orang Utan]

You're looking at the wrong bit. If it's a rear brake the bolts may be underneath the chain stay, like this

View attachment 308597

If it's a front brake it will have an arrangement something like this

View attachment 308598

The thing that looks like a hairpin is a retaining pin to stop the brake pads falling out.

Thanks, I had a look again and had thought those bolts just held the brake onto the frame

 

[BigTom]

I've just taken a puncture to the shop! It's tubeless and there's no hole with gunk coming out, was stumped. The shop found a rip in the beading (cos I'm a gnarly mother-fucker rider, not cos I'm fat ) - they charged £15 for the labour, probably marked the new tyre up, they charged £62 for it and internet shows some at £54, but the job's been done with no swearing from me, it's been done well and the wealth is trickling down, so all good

as far as I'm concerned paying £23 extra total for someone else to do a job properly, and also not have spending the time and trouble on it, sounds like a bargain

 

[Orang Utan]

as far as I'm concerned paying £23 extra total for someone else to do a job properly, and also not have spending the time and trouble on it, sounds like a bargain

It’s a no brainer as far as I’m concerned. Why get oil on your hands?

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Thanks, I had a look again and had thought those bolts just held the brake onto the frame

They do. What I think you were trying to do is the fix where you loosen them, squeeze the lever to let the calliper centre itself over the rotor and then do the bolts back up while you keep the lever down. This is the quick way to stop pads rubbing on the disc.

 

[Orang Utan]

They do. What I think you were trying to do is the fix where you loosen them, squeeze the lever to let the calliper centre itself over the rotor and then do the bolts back up while you keep the lever down. This is the quick way to stop pads rubbing on the disc.

The issue is that they weren’t rubbing and I was having to squeeze nearly all the way to fully brake. I’m used to cables on calliper brakes, which would either just need tightening, or have the pads realigned, both relatively simple, if PITA processes. This operation though seems to be beyond me.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

The issue is that they weren’t rubbing and I was having to squeeze nearly all the way to fully brake. I’m used to cables on calliper brakes, which would either just need tightening, or have the pads realigned, both relatively simple, if PITA processes. This operation though seems to be beyond me.

iirc what you need to adjust (assuming Shimano kit) is what they call the “free stroke”. You do this at the lever, not the calliper.

 

[DownwardDog]

Free stroke adjusts the lever start position not the travel.

The elusive "hard and high" lever feel can only be achieved with vacuum bleeding in my experience. Especially on road bikes.

 

[weepiper]

The issue is that they weren’t rubbing and I was having to squeeze nearly all the way to fully brake. I’m used to cables on calliper brakes, which would either just need tightening, or have the pads realigned, both relatively simple, if PITA processes. This operation though seems to be beyond me.

With a hydraulic brake that symptom usually means either the pads are worn and need replaced, or the hydraulic fluid has got some air that needs bled out of it. Sometimes as bees says it can be an issue of the lever adjuster screw needing adjusted to set the bite point but it sounds like a bleed needed to me.

 

[weepiper]

I've just taken a puncture to the shop! It's tubeless and there's no hole with gunk coming out, was stumped. The shop found a rip in the beading (cos I'm a gnarly mother-fucker rider, not cos I'm fat ) - they charged £15 for the labour, probably marked the new tyre up, they charged £62 for it and internet shows some at £54, but the job's been done with no swearing from me, it's been done well and the wealth is trickling down, so all good

Make sure you're comparing exactly the same tyre because you get several tread compounds now so although the tread may look the same the casing or the rubber can be different (more or less threads per inch in the casing etc) and thus the price will be different. Also big companies like wiggle have massively more buying power than LBS's and are paying less trade price to buy the tyres from the supplier in the first place. If your LBS were to price them the same they would probably not make any profit at all.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Make sure you're comparing exactly the same tyre because you get several tread compounds now so although the tread may look the same the casing or the rubber can be different (more or less threads per inch in the casing etc) and thus the price will be different. Also big companies like wiggle have massively more buying power than LBS's and are paying less trade price to buy the tyres from the supplier in the first place. If your LBS were to price them the same they would probably not make any profit at all.

It's this one: Maxxis Minion DHR2 27.5x2.6 EXO DC 60tpi Tyre

I have no problem with a reasonable mark up, that's how business works

eta, I guess I could have supplied the tyre, their price is a fitting service, but again happy to pay a bit for convenience.