Adding “in the Jungle” makes it quite a lot worse I think. “Go back to the jungle” is a common racist insult.

:D

I’ve completely lost track of who we’re talking about.

Interesting article. The intersection of cycling and mental health happens all over, my mate Neil runs Common Wheel https://www.commonwheel.org.uk/

My daughter’s favourite threat for a while was “I’ll put Blu Tak in your shoes again.”

I like the idea of starting a bike co-op as a way of treating depression. I’m certainly much happier being my own boss rather than being a corporate minion, even with less money and more responsibility.

crocodiles eat their young for example

Yeah, but they spit them out again afterwards.

The targeted ads on this post are funny :D

I have a Leatherman with locking blade in my pocket all the time at the shop, because I’m always needing to cut things. Once, while two BTP officers were in the shop, I absentmindedly flicked it out and lashed a parcel open, they didn’t blink an eye.

It’s all down to situation really.

It’s a great article – I know lots of people for whom the bike or trike is a lifeline,

Bought from an official UK online retailer or a grey import?

Why take children to pubs in the first place…?

Because it’s really funny when you get them drunk…

Bok! Bok. Bok bok bok. Bok bok bokok. Bokok. Bok!

We have chickens.

Not by accident, no – if they’re silver-soldered instead of brazed, a blowtorch would be hot enough to get them off with concentrated heat.

But really you’re just playing the torch over the frame gently and brushing, not firing it full blast at one point – if he paint actually blackens and burns, you’re using too much heat.

A, because I never wear a helmet anyway.

Thanks guys. Heat sounds less likely to cause damage to me, so might try that first, but not sure I trust myself with a blowtorch enough to not damage the metal.

Steel frame? You won’t be able to get it hot enough to do any damage with a blowtorch.

Blowtorch and wire brush is the simplest and least-messy method. Don’t burn the paint, just heat it and the brush will bring it off.

Braze-ons are easiest to remove with an oxyacetylene torch, but can just be cut off and filed down.

And now, after 7 years of Tories, it’s more than 10x bigger again…

Just like every other industry, then – except the bike industry isn’t so good at it…

I’ve sold quite a few electric bikes either for getting-home-from-the-pub purposes, or to people who’ve lost their licenses through drink driving. Basically, be careful.

(Unlike me when I was a student, cycling home from the Union bar at night. I was riding 1m out from the kerb, not wobbling much, it was only when I saw oncoming lights did I realise I was on the wrong side of a dual carriageway…)

Rusty Spanner – Member
This is a great plan, though – get the serfs who really care about this kind of thing to pay for it, leave the rest of us alone.

Still, as long as you’re ok, eh?

In this case, yes – the idea is a voluntary lottery, isn’t it? It’s not compulsory. If people feel the need to bow and grovel and give away their money, why’s that my fault?

I’m not suffering, insufferable maybe…

You do have to admire the Tories’ epic procrastination – they should be trying to sort out Brexit, but instead they’re changing the colour of the deckchairs passports, complaining about Big Ben not bonging, and buying a new floating gin palace which will invariably cost three times the estimate then sink.

This is a great plan, though – get the serfs who really care about this kind of thing to pay for it, leave the rest of us alone.

Chow mein kampf maybe?

<applauds>

unpainted high end aluminium full suspension frame made in Asia, excellent quality, ready for assembly: around 150 £

Yup, that’s about right. But that’s your base price – then you need to add painting, a good paint job is what sells many bikes and that can double the price. Then you need to ship it to the assembly factory, and build it up into a bike. But before you get to that stage, you need to design the frame – and that’s not just the frame design itself, it’s the market research to work out that you can sell, it’s the costings to work out if you can build it for what people will pay, it’s a lot of work by clever people that you need to pay for.

Oh, and to get a frame for £150, you can’t just buy one – you need to commit (and often pay upfront) for lots of them.

Whilst the above is a good rough calculation, the bike industry will sell stuff for as much as they can

Whereas every other industry just gives stuff away if you ask nicely?

How the hell do manufacturers justify a £6k mountain bike, there’s not exactly many parts to a bike especially when you can buy a bloody motorbike for the same money.

Economies of scale – motorbikes are made in much bigger numbers, and most of the bits (like the engine) don’t completely change every year. It’s not the number of parts, it’s how expensive those parts are to make.

It’s going to be fascinating to watch the development of bikes as urban transportation bearing in mind the increasing influx of hire or sharing based models (from Boris to Mobike et al)

How this will affect the market for consumer owned models is going to be really interesting to watch, much as how the car market is affected by autonomous vehicles

Yes, it’ll be interesting – apparently private hire car usage is way up, mostly due to Uber et al, so it doesn’t even have to be autonomous. Though there are indications that that modal share isn’t coming from car drivers, it’s coming from bus and train users, so it’s not good.

How this’ll work with the bike industry no-one knows. The UK doesn’t do much non-leisure cycling at the moment, the hire schemes might do a lot to get more people thinking about using bikes for transport, especially if electric bike schemes get off the ground and work well.

Cycling infrastructure is what’ll really decide it.

That’s brilliant – I’ve seen a few of them when exploring old places.

Re the above.

I remember your shop on the switchback having a sign on the door which stated:

‘ We don’t fix ordinary bikes’

You meant it too

I’ve completely changed since I moved to Maryhill.

It now says “No repairs, try Bike Love ->” :D

What product category doesn’t continually improve and refine every year? What manufacturer doesn’t keep tweaking, launching new models?

This isn’t anything special about the bike industry, it’s how all consumer goods work. Who still has a first-generation iPhone?

Ach, I give up – it’s a holiday, I can’t be bothered arguing with reality-denying Brexiteers.

the fall in sterling is helping manufacturing

It isn’t really. Most UK manufacturing is reliant on imports of raw materials and components, the fall in Sterling has harmed that. Then if (when) Brexit imposes border checks and costs, that’ll kill modern JIT manufacturing. Finally, much UK manufacturing is of high-end products which are less price sensitive.

Nah, I think because you have kids you have only one point of view.. and thats your own universe

Could say that about anyone, really. Maybe people who only do stuff for themselves are the most solipsistic?

It’s a daft argument – have kids, don’t have kids, neither choice is intrinsically better.

It’s a perfect storm of direct online sales and Brexit at the moment, plus the longer term things of competition from other consumer goods (a bike isn’t the big Christmas toy any more) and the general death of the high street.

But the bike industry has never been particularly profitable…

As a big fan of HP calculators I love that HP watch. Does it use RPN?
Edit, maybe not as there’s an = button. Shame.

It’s not RPN, but it can take the time or date as an input – it can do calculations ON TIME ITSELF!

http://www.hpmuseum.org/hp01.htm

bencooper – really like that HP. But they go for stupid money on Ebay! Did you pay thousands or was it a bargain?

I think I paid about £250 – it’s not got the box or any fancy stuff, that probably brings the value down a lot.

Yes. Very, very few women make false claims of rape compared to how many men commit rape. Conviction rates are abysmally low. The victims need to be protected.

Do people still carry penknives, keys and other potentially useful accoutrements around with them? I though these days you just call the police

Problem is, lots of these things will get you lifted by the police ;-)

I probably fall somewhere on that list – always have wallet, phone and keys (with Leatherman Squirt and titanium prying thing). Usually also have Leatherman Charge Tti and often a Crunch too, and bit sets.

I like fixing things.

You don’t want one of them, you want one of these:

Hewlett Packard HP-01 by Ben Cooper[/url], on Flickr

Occasionally, when I’m feeling flush, I buy it a set of the special batteries – with occasional use they last a week, maybe 10 days ;-)