Anyone not living in a major city, (i.e. a town or village) who exclusively cycles/walks/public transports about?

I grew up in Staines (population 24,000), sort of nearish to London (20 miles out), but not close enough in to have things like decent public transport (it was a Conservative borough anyway, they don't really go for that sort of thing). We never had cars, both my parents cycled everywhere. I guess I'm used to it. Now I live in Belper, Derbyshire. Population of 20,000. We have decentish rail and bus links, but loads of fantastic riding from the door, and 1/2 a mile walk in most directions to get to fields.

This is about 1 mile walk from my house.

Joe

I have a cheap windproof but no extra warmth jacket (cost I think £30) and a lightweight berghaus fleece (cost £15 or so in a sale, and has lasted 9 years so far, I think it was the least warm one they did).

Most of the time, I wear a windproof and a jersey at most. If I have to stop, I'll stick the fleece on too. I think I've also ridden with the fleece on for a whole ride maybe once or twice a year. Even up Scottish mountains in February in the snow, I've found myself a bit warm with a the very light fleece + a long sleeved jersey. Warmer goretex type jackets feel a bit nicer for the first 10 minutes of a ride before I start heating up, but then I just have to take em off or else I get sweaty (and don't start me off on the joys of 'breathable' jackets and the way they never do anything once you start sweating).

Joe

Mine actually being ridden.

While filming this video, hence the camera in my hand and the weird pose.

Joe

Probably like most things, the way to get good at going off quick, is to practice going off quick.

I am quite good at riding hard to start with, since I live at the bottom of a steep hill, so my commute starts up it. I have no choice but to ride up the darned hill from cold of a morning. It is surprising how quick you warm up if it is the only option.

Joe

put the BB tool on the BB, BOLT it on using a bolt that will reach the spindle so its got a firm "grip"
and use a MASSIVE lever

The park tools instructions say to bolt the BB tool on using your rear skewer, which seems to do the job.

As for the lever, I've used a piece of pipe from the end of a fold out washing line, stuck the spanner in that and turned (my bb tool has a bit you grab with a spanner).

Joe

You can't fit the wheels in that case with the tyres off and the wheels slightly slanted? You only need 1cm extra to fit the wheels in.

Going to the US, you usually get two cases, you could do one for wheels, one for frame.

It is great if you manage it – no hassles with paying extra baggage charges or anything, and you don't have to sign a damage waiver either, which you often do with bikes.

I second Air New Zealand – if there is a chance of using them, they make it dead easy to take a bike.

Beware the cycle charges, particularly if you're taking an internal flight as well – on some airlines you can a charge per flight (although sometimes you just get one each way).

Joe

mpeg_streamclip from squared5.com seems to do the magic for pretty much any file on PC. They are Mac people, so I'm guessing the mac version works okay.

Joe

http://www.taskled.com/techhipflex.html

It looks pretty fancy, and it is 90g lighter, but 1 hour runtime on max? Isn't that a similar runtime to a cheap torch (which also can be got with high, med and low modes). Wasn't everyone moaning about the cheap torches and saying they'd be no good for mountain biking cos you'd have to swap the battery after an hour on high?

Jolly neat and tidy though, and looks nice and small, and I bet the mounting is very well thought out.

Joe

Almost always with road tyres you won't need levers to take them off. If they're stubborn ones you might just, but you really shouldn't need levers to put em back on again.

There is a knack to it – make sure the bead of the tyre is deep in the middle of the rim where the circumference is slightly less, this gives you a bit of looseness so that you can get the last bit on easier.

There is a good video / set of instructions on how to take tyres on and off – I think on bikemagic or somewhere – called 'tool free tyre change' I think.

Oh yeah and always have a decent pump with a pressure gauge, and get em up to 100 at least.

Joe

Up the gravelly hill. You wouldn't believe I'm a few minutes away from the M1 at this point!

Is that somewhere near Trowell? It looks familiar, but I can't quite place it, somewhere west of Nottingham right? If so, you probably commute quite close to me, although I'm on the road, I don't think I could cope with Belper -> Nottingham off road every day.

Joe

I'd just leave em up on facebook. We have photo albums in our house of me with my ex. I don't see why it's a problem? You're both adults, it isn't like you were the first people who ever kissed in the whole history of the world or something.

including my sister's wedding pics although she did hilariously offer to get the wedding pics cropped so my ex was chopped off the end!?!?

Whilst I can see your mum might take down other pictures, pics from your sister's wedding? That is a bit excessive surely?

Joe

If it is just the puller thread is stripped, and you can get the bolt out, then you need a 2 prong car bearing puller. Hook the prongs round the back of the crank, pushy bit in the middle, with possibly something in the way like a 5p coin to give it something more to push on. I'm not sure what you do about chainrings if it is that side, probably take them off.

Car repair garages have all manner of puller tools, you might be best to go to one of those and ask them nicely.

Joe

It's one with old LEDs in, so how bright is it compared to a new Joystick, given those are supposed to be something like twice as bright as they used to be?

Joe

Is it really the only way to destroy data by destroying the disk, I have heard similar but thought it was an old wives tale.

Only if the CIA are after you (or a company who has hundreds of thousands of pounds to spend on the job.) To the average person, format and overwrite with zeros once is enough that there is no way it will be worth anyone's while getting stuff off.

Even then, even someone with all the tools, time and money is unlikely to be able to get it off ( http://www.h-online.com/news/Secure-deletion-a-single-overwrite-will-do-it–/112432 )

Joe

As long as you're using windows not mac, this little wonder macro should do the actual inserting a picture bit.

Where I do CStr(CInt( that is just to make sure that we only have the number, and not any carriage returns / spaces / wacky table things around it.


Sub Replace_Number_With_File()
filenumber = CStr(CInt(Selection.Text))
FileName = "c:\temp\arrow" + filenumber + ".png"
Debug.Print FileName
Selection.InlineShapes.AddPicture FileName, False, True
End Sub


Then you need to iterate over the table, and find the right cells, and find each filename that you want to do, select the right bit, and then stick it in. If you know VBA, it is pretty doable, just a little fiddly, I don't have the time to play with it myself (it is much easier if you have the actual target document to hand anyway). If you don't know VBA, well at least the macro above will let you select a single number and replace it with a picture.

Joe

There may be an official way to do this, but if it is only one or two things, then you can just cite them somewhere you have a bit of white space, and change the font colour to white (and tiny font if you need space). I know it is very gross, but it does the job.

Joe

That is going to be a pretty good tent for car camping – pretty big, and a nice porch to leave bikes in / sit in when it is raining.

Sleeping mats are vital for a comfy nights sleep. A cheap foam one costs about a tenner at most. There are much more expensive ones, which are a little bit more comfy, but they're mainly lighter weight and smaller. Sleeping mats can also be dragged out of the tent and used as something to sit on when you're hanging around outside.

If you are going camping at this time of year, and you're taking a car, put some spare blankets / duvets in, to bung over your sleeping bags in case you get cold. It will be pretty nippy by now, especially in a cheap sleeping bag. If you're really a wuss, a hot water bottle is also worth it if you are taking a kettle or something that you can heat up water and fill it up with (or even fill it with warm water from the toilet block!).

I've camped in one of the villages near Swanage, can't remember the name, there were loads of sites round there. Still a bit of a drive though for you. Nice beach in Swanage, there is also a nice castle and a steam railway. The New Forest campsites are also very nice, although I'm pretty sure they don't allow campfires. Personally, at this time of year, I'd go for an inland campsite rather than a coastal one, they can be very windy (there is one at St Ives on the cliffs which is lovely in summer, but very blowy). There must be some nice sites on Exmoor.

Don't underestimate how much clothing to bring – always bring one more jumper than you think is necessary, if you're hanging around cooking dinner or whatever, you often find you need another layer once it gets dark.

Oh yeah, if you find that you hate camping but he loves it, I can recommend cubs / scouts, a really great and pretty cheap way to let kids get the camping fix without having to go yourself.

Joe

I've got this saddlebag. It is just the right size for a change of clothes / lunch etc.

It also has the bonus that if you are a fashion victim who refuses mudguards, it makes you get a less wet back. Oh and is waterproof, which a lot of rucksacks aren't. And no sweaty back.

I have it because I ride my only road bike to work, and I don't want to have a rack on there when I go on fun rides. It has most of the advantages of panniers, without having to have a rack (although it won't take as much stuff as panniers). No sweaty back makes a real difference.

However, she's already selected a full-on road race bike over a hub-geared/disc-breaked/flat-barred commuter bike,

If I was doing 5000 miles a year*, I'd certainly want to do it on something light with drop bars, way more practical for that kind of distance than some horrible flat bar thing with no choice of position, and no aerodynamic position on the downhills – I found I take tons of extra time on my commute if I don't get low on the downhills.

Joe

*actually, looking at my riding log, it appears I am going to have done something like 5000 miles by the end of the year (and on a lightweight bike with drop bars)

Is there really no way to hook it up to the hifi? As a worst case, you could use an iPod cassette deck adapter in the tape deck?

Joe

Also, when I had loads of people over, it was for riding, so instead of going camping, they came to stay at my house on the edge of the Peak District. Even taking into account cooking / cleaning / feeding people, it was a fair bit less hassle than arranging for everyone to go camping for a weekend, at least from my point of view.

Joe

We've had I think 12 max in a 3 bed house. Last weekend, we had 10, and that was no problem at all from a sleeping point of view. To be honest it is often more hassle if you have 3 or 4 people over and one of them is a princess and the pea type / has allergies to something / can't share in a room with someone who snores / refuses to sleep on a particular type of bed or whatever. If you have 12 people over, people tend to accept that they'll be stuffed in wherever they will fit.

I bet the people with the dogs will want them in their bedroom too though!

Having said that, I am sometimes the annoying allergy person when I go round to doggy/catty houses, although nowadays I'd just take some piriton and get over it, it is a lot less hassle, and I quite like meeting cats and dogs.

Feeding them doesn't have to be a hassle – do you not live near a chip shop?

Joe

Bike hike is much better – it has proper Ordnance Survey maps as well as google maps, so is great for both offroad and road route planning.

http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=12806

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/product-SJSC-British-made-14g-stainless-steel-plain-gauge-spokes-3145.htm

Not cheap mind. If you could find a bike shop with a spoke cutting / threading machine, they might be cheaper.

You can also get motorbike places to make spokes for you, but they are often expensive and you tend to need to buy 100 or so as a minimum order.

Joe

I'd buy a cheap road bike off here and sell it on when you'd made a decision – you'd lose less money than paying the hire fee I'd expect.

Good point, I did that when I was in New Zealand – 4 months 'hire' cost me $35 NZD (about £12 at the time).

Joe

i.e. you get your £30 back after a 'test ride' if you then buy

Why not? £30 is pretty cheap for hiring a decent bike, and you don't have to buy it if you don't want. You will quite likely get something a million times better than any bike hire place to ride too.

Joe

I have lumicycles, MC-E torch (very similar to the P7 torch).

The lumicycles are nice and the backup when I broke bits was great, but they are completely outclassed in convenience and package by the torch. Not too heavy, so just stick it on the helmet, and go, plus very cheap spare batteries is a big bonus.

Joe

Completely uncompressed, 1 CD = about 600mb, so for 300 cds, you'd need 180gb. Which is probably about £30 worth of hard disk at most. With lossless compression, you might get that down to roughly half of the size with no loss in quality.

You can get a fancy 2 channel (stereo) studio quality audio output for your computer for about £100, which will reproduce CD quality audio pretty much perfectly.

If your amplifier has digital input, you can use any old £20 sound card, and send it over that, it'll make no difference (neither will the CD player you use either for that matter).

Joe

Ever been on a mountain in full winter conditions? I guess not otherwise you'd realise the stupidity of this.

I've been up loads of Munros in winter, including some in pretty bad conditions. A couple that were so bad that we took the sensible option and backed off, I'm not going to push on in a really dangerous situation. Mostly I've walked up paths, but also up gullies and things too. Oh and walked and biked in high mountains in New Zealand in winter too.

I've also ridden up Snowdon in October and got very cold weather, snow a foot deep in parts, snowline well below the tunnel under the railway. That seemed fine. Oh and ridden & walked up a bunch of times in good weather too.

and got a sensible answer. several died this winter on snowdon on what probably appeared to be safe and easy terrain….

Loads of people have died by falling off the back of Ben Nevis too, but I'm guessing you wouldn't suggest that it'd be stupid to climb up there?

Joe

I grew up riding in one of these and I used to like it a lot.

Joe

but you have to consider the consequences of a slip while riding, you aint going to be wearing crampons and carrying an axe

Yeah, for sure, ice axes on packs are always a bit slow to get off.

Although thinking about it – will be on unicycles, so we could easily have an ice axe to hand. Hmm. Just need to think about whether the risk of falling off onto the ice axe is a bit high if we're actually carrying them.

To be honest though, if the worst exposed bits were very icy as opposed to a decent bit of snow, we'd probably be turning back anyway.

Joe

Yeah, I've seen that. Isn't that if you walk on the railway rather than on the proper route? I assume in winter the railway is more obvious, so people tend to walk on that in that particular section?

I'm figuring there would be a significant chance of having to turn back at the top of the fence where he describes. But that if conditions were good, it could be a really nice adventure.

Joe

We have salary going into our accounts, and a jointy for bills / shopping.

Other than obviously neither of us wanting the other to go broke, I don't mind what she spends money on, and same goes the other way.

Joe

If the switch seems dodgy, take off the back cap, and you can see two little holes in the switch endy bit that let you unscrew it. Unscrew it a little, then screw it back up tight and make sure it is quite nice and snug.

You need something to stick in the holes, obviously a pin spanner or something made for the job is perfect, but if you haven't got one, use something random and pointy – I used the leads from a multi-meter, cos they were what I happened to have handy. If it is a little loose, you get weirdy stuff happening with the button – I know this from experience thanks to my urge to take things apart and my lack of care when putting it back together.

Joe

I got annoyed with sora and bought tiagra on the next bike (moving continent so had to sell the old one).

Sora doesn't have proper shift levers – the downshift on the front, upshift on the back lever is a teeny weeny thing. It means it is only easy to shift that way on the hoods, when you're on the drops it is a right old stretch, I used to just shift to the fastest rear cog at the top of a hill, get on the drops and not shift till the bottom. It is a massively expensive upgrade (like £150) at a later date too if you don't like them.

Joe

mpeg streamclip. From squared5.com I think. Free, will do the job.

Joe

I'd just get mudguards (you stay a lot drier if it does rain and you don't get road much on your clothes) and some cheap windproof/shower proof (altura one for about £30 is okay). For that distance I doubt I'd bother changing except in the middle of summer. Windproofs are much much more breathable than even the very expensive waterproofs, and cost next to nothing in comparison. Maybe get a cheap waterproof in case it is tipping it down – they are mostly pretty waterproof, you just have to ride slower to avoid sweating too much.

Joe

I could have done with it. I still have to consciously work on my th sound, and it is a hassle. I'd go for it now, while it is something free that just happens automatically, rather than waiting till he is an adult and it costs money.

Joe

Oh and I am an absolute stinkster by the way – if I wear a jersey for two days in a row, that can be a bit minging.

Joe

We use some kind of hippy environmental stuff that comes in little things that look like sweets, and wash at 30 degrees. Oh and I dry them on the line if possible – things are way more fresh after drying in the wind.

For commuting (I do quite a long commute too, although not 250 miles of commuting in a normal week), I have 6 polaris jerseys, which I wear for one day each then wash. I just wear normal shorts, so can't give advice on them. I find that as long as I wash the jerseys and only wear em for one day it is okay.

I have had one jersey that got tainted with the demon whiff – after a very very muddy tough guy race (basically it was 8 miles of running through mud pits and crawling under nets in mud etc.). I think once they have it, it's hard to get rid. There doesn't seem to be any correlation between expensiveness of jerseys and tendency to smell, so I'd buy cheapish ones if you have a problem with smell (decathlon do okay quality cheap ones), I only have fancy £40 each polaris ones because I got em dirt cheap in a sponsorship deal a while back. It is worth trying a too hot wash with your jerseys if they still smell after a normal wash though, I know some people do that every so often.

Oh and probably obvious but I always start out a ride a bit chilly, rather than wearing tons of jackets etc. so I don't sweat too bad except in summer. And I have a saddlebag for my gear, so I don't get a sweaty back.

Joe