anybody fancy a ride on this?

rotafix ftw!

i've had an old cog stuck on the flop side of my rear wheel for months, despite the usual soaking in penetrant spray, grunting, hammering and breaking chain whips trying to get it off; there it remained, grinning it's 16 worn out teeth at me. then i remembered seeing some way of using the bike frame itself as a tool to get it done.

enter the rotafix method



it was still a bit of a struggle but off it came... no way it would have shifted with a chain tool.

rotafix 1 - old cog 0

"i like to ride my bicycle......."

i know it seems a strange conception but i accept being shouted at, spat at, thrown misiles at and driven at while i am on my bike. it's all a part of cycling......for now.

common predictions are that the world will run out of oil in 25 years. assuming they are right in the next 5-10 years short journies will have to be made walking or by bicycle and long journies will be essential only.

for 200 years the bycycle has been the first real freedom people get. as a child, remember the first time you went out on your own on your bike, you could cover twice as much ground in the same time, you got to see more of the world and still get home in time for tea. sadly today when you get older; you learn to drive and "grow out of" bicycles into cars, yet the motor car is 18%ish efficient. the bicycle is 90% efficient. i grew out of bicycles when i got a car; then i grew out of the car into to a bicycle.

travel by bike and the passenger to weight ratio is 5/1 by car it is 1/10... and that is being kind to the car. is that really progression? if the rest of you rlife followed that we would all "need" a 5 bedroom house yet people live perfectly well in small flats.

by bicycle you can travel anywhere between 4000-7000 miles on the calorific equivilent of a gallon of unleaded petrol. in the most frugal car you can get today you are looking at about 70 mpg for diesel; and you get to eat a load of pies and not get fat.

seriously, fossil fuel based transport is done (and more worringly the fossil fuel based economy); it cannot survive simply because there is not enough fuel to go 'round. catch the bus and (in reading at least) you are promoting growing fuel crops instead of fuel.... what would you rather do; eat or get to work by bus? or go b y bus and somebody dies of starvation... go by car and you lose on ever angle. ZEV (zero emmisions vehicle)or HPV (human powered vehicle) are your only real choices.

and this from somebody who has 2 cars ans is moving 120 miles from work. i should just kill myself now. although i still will only drive 1000 miles a month.. less than the average.

talk to me in 20 years time.

i hate to go on.....

actually, that's a lie; i like to complain, and moan, and generally point out how shit the UK is at a lot of stuff; and this will be no exception. but i digress......

cycling came to the news again today as a "fuel free" form of transport because those i like to call "fucking idiots" have been panic buying petrol and diesel (all because 2 haulage companies that service i petrol station chain that runs 10% of the petrol stations in the country are on strike. ZOMG!!!!!11! WTF!!111!! we'd better buy all the petrol; and all the bread and milk while we're at it.) Unfortunately people still aren't getting it, cycling still has a bad rap.

1. cycling is still seen as "poor mans" transport; conjuring up wartime images of factory workers leaving heading home on their bicycles. factory = working class = poor = "i'm not riding a fucking bike, what do you think i am? poor or sommit?"

here was me thinking everybody likes a bargain. we're always being told that shopping around is smart and "why pay more" why does this not translate to transport? or if you're really worried about looking poor you can easily spend £3k on a bike and tell everybody how much it cost.


2. bikes are too expensive.

nonsense. give me £50 and i'll get you a bike that will get you anywhere. if you're lucky you can even get them for nothing.


3. the weather here is too nasty for cycling. it's always raining etc:

copenhagen is the cyclingist city in the western world (i couldn't find details for china... strange that) a third of all trips are made by bicycle (a third by car, and the last third by train or bus), but the climate there

is pretty similar to london, but london has less rain in the summer

linky has more uk graphs

where around 3-4% of journeys are made by bicycle.


4. i'll get all dirty and sweaty if i ride a bike to work, and cycling gear looks stupid.

depends how you ride... i go flat out whenever possible; but i can shower and change when i get to the office. if i'm going somewhere i can't get washed up then i just ride slower. and tell me, do these people look stupid?





and did you notice their bikes... no? that's because people don't notice your bike. just ride one.

5. it's not safe, i'll end up under a car/bus/cement mixer.

sadly, motorists are blind to cyclists most of the time; but the only way to change this is to make them more aware, and the best way to make them more aware is to get more people cycling. it would be a help if the pitiful managers of the uk actually put their hands in the coffers once in a while and added some infrastructure.. but that's a whole other rant. it's a bit of a catch 22: cycling isn't as safe as it could be, but to make it safe more people need to be cycling.... i'm sure i don't need to point out the long term health benefits outweighing the short term chance of being squished; i'd rather be in fine health until i get squished than fat, lazy, poor and unsquished.

92, not squished.


so if you're able bodied, and traveling less than 10 miles (for a start) just leave the car at home. it's easy; and you'll feel better.

i'll leave you with this zen proverb:

A Zen teacher saw five of his students returning from the market, riding their bicycles. When they arrived at the monastery and had dismounted, the teacher asked the students, "Why are you riding your bicycles?"

The first student replied, "The bicycle is carrying this sack of potatoes. I am glad that I do not have to carry them on my back!"
The teacher praised the first student. "You are a smart boy! When you grow old, you will not walk hunched over like I do."

The second student replied, "I love to watch the trees and fields pass by as I roll down the path!"
The teacher commended the second student, "Your eyes are open, and you see the world."

The third student replied,
"When I ride my bicycle, I am content to chant nam myoho renge kyo."
The teacher gave his praise to the third student, "Your mind will roll with the ease of a newly trued wheel."

The fourth student replied, "Riding my bicycle, I live in harmony with all sentient beings."
The teacher was pleased and said to the fourth student, "You are riding on the golden path of non-harming."

The fifth student replied, "I ride my bicycle to ride my bicycle."
The teacher sat at the feet of the fifth student and said, "I am your student."
more quotes

mooooooo

really stupid saddle covers

bike nerd

i was discussing replacement cranks for somebody's bike and the question of crank length came up.. somehow i ended up with a short essay:

my opinion is shared by a vast amount of pro riders, coaches and ergonomists (is that a word). don't get anything longer than 172.5. i use 170 which is probably a bit long for me, 165's would be better but i couldn't get any.

most people use cranks that are too long. you need to be 6'+ (or have freakishly long legs) to use 175s. cranks too long will push your knee angle under 90 deg on dead top centre, this is not good for your knees, they don't like to push out from an acute angle like that, you know it aches when you stand up from a crouch... it's the same thing. there is no physical detriment i have been able to find from using shorter cranks (apart from possible inefficent cadence, but that's what gears are for).

it's a problem for mass market bikes that they use mass market parts which for economies of scale are punted out at whatever size they decide will bolt onto the majority of frames, on "tiny" and "small" frames you will get 170s; "medium" will be 170 or 175 and "large" and "extra large" will be 175. 4 frame sizes, 2 crank lengths... you get the idea.

people argue that you need good long cranks to get decent leverage. this is utter nonsense on a bike with gears, yes crank length makes a difference but this can be compensated for with the geary gubbins. singlespeeds and fixed wheel have their own concerns but still too long is too long (there are exceptions - specific hill climb events will benifit but we're talking short term use). lots of singlespeeders complain about having sore knees; this is less to do with the lack of gears and more to do with the added stresses of a misproportioned bike setup.

i've argued this with people before and it makes even more sense to me written down. take my opinion as you wish but i'm right :)

sage

click for biggerness

bring back the 50s

seems i'm a bit behind the times. bikes have been great since before i was born...... funny that

just the one please mrs wembley

not content with one gear bikes on xmas day i migrated to one of these

but now i'm thinking one of these is more hardcore

more words here

what's wrong with this picture?

WANT!

really. i do

w00t

"ride a bike? you must be rich"

well, according to ben webster writing in the times i must be very rich The richer people become the further they cycle.

the article raises a few good points (and a few better quotes) but i think it misses the point slightly. i really don't think it's "young people" that need to be educated about cycling. kids know bikes are fun; it's the adults that seem to think it's something that you grow out of that need a gentle shove, and i really don't know how to shove them. i would like to think that most adults don't have role models in the same sense as they did when they were younger (perhaps i am crediting people with more intelligence than they really have), but i can't imagine any adult seeing *insert footballer's name here* riding a bike and thinking "maybe if i ride a bike i'll earn £45k a week too".

i still believe the whole of society, along with this country's pathetic attempt at cycling provision (CTC notwithstanding) needs to be changed before we will see the shift that needs to happen.

*edit*

apparently in the paper version there is a table showing that the highest fifh's average annual mileage was 63 miles, and the lowest fifth 26 miles.

63 miles is a sunday morning ride.

we're all doomed!

i must be poor

actually, while we're on the subject of transport. why is it when you're walking somewhere people see you as somebody walking somewhere; when you're running you're obviously getting fit so well done you; driving is driving... but when you're on a bike you are little more than a target for ridicule "haven't you grown out of that" (no, i grew into it); pity "can't you afford a car" (umm, actually this bike cost more than your car)or general amazement "you ride to work?? why is that?" (roll out standard why i ride to work speech) or in some cases a target to have things thrown at you or for people to drive into you.

it just baffles me sometimes.

cars cars everywhere

it seems the brats are back to school this week.. i know this because the roads are once again a static line of single occupancy cars all the way from my house to my office. every morning i pass about 7 miles of queueing cars; about 90% of them with only the driver. A good proportion of the remainder are just on the school run.

this really makes me dispair for peple now and in the future. have we really become so lazy that we have to drive everywhere? are we really so scared that our children will be abducted that we cannot let them out of our sight? are we really so snobbish that we refuse to take public transport?

sadly it's not so easy to solve. i wrote this piece a while ago:

we hear more and more about this governments pitiful attempts at an "integrated transport policy" (integrated?! ever tried getting a bike on a train?) and trying to get the fat lazy proles out of their tin kingdoms and onto something slightly more physically and environmentally friendly. this however will never happen for many reasons; the overriding of which i will mention thusly:

1. cars are cool. they go where you want, when you want, door to door; and you don't have to put up with sharing your space with the general public.
2. other forms of transport are not.

now.... i could leave it there, most people would agree with what i've said, but "leaving things there" just aint my bag baby. so lets look into it in a bit more detail.

cars are something that heralds the onset of adulthood. they make you feel like a man (or whatever the politically correct female equivalent is these days. i hear biatch is not acceptable anymore). when a boy gets to 16 he can zoom about like he owns the world on some irritating pathetic chicken chaser gay scooter mobile; but when he gets to 17 that's it. he becomes nothing short of a GOD! no longer reliant on public transport or tapping your old man for a lift and that seems to continue throughout some peoples lives. a car is how you get from a to b, even if b is within sight of a. a car is a status symbol, a nice car means more than manners and upbringing, no matter how deeply in debt it gets you. it doesn't seem to matter that in a lot of cases a car is not the quickest way to get about as long as they are in their metal box that's just fine.
this has led to other transport methods to get a bad name.
the bus is for poor people and OAPs.
the train is late, dirty and doesn't go anywhere near where you want to go so you have to get a bus as well. you might as well hire a car or people will think you're poor.
bike. are you fucking mad. that's for hippies, green freaks and poor people.
walking is fine to get to the freezer to dig out a ready meal but that's just about it, it's no good for more than 10yards, you'll probably get cancer or something.

now, that grinning idiot* you lot voted in can bang on and on as much as he likes about "green taxes" and "sustainable transport" but until the masses have a change of attitude towards the mighty motorcar nothing is going to change; and with this country loves being american, that just won't happen.

strangely enough i own 2 cars. i don't use them much though. i'll walk, run or cycle in preference. this makes me better than you.


*former pm tony "grinning idiot" blair