Buy her a mountain bike for Christmas…

New sport, new outlook on life, new people to meet!!

hammer and cold chisel should work 😉

Ohhh, and…

to selectively quote

As for the spooky factor. There's nothing there at night that isn't there in the day too

… that's not entirely true

There's one piece of forestry on my route home that I don't do on dark evenings 🙁

This time of year my commutes turn into solo night rides…

Sometimes you get spooked, and it is worth taking a bit more care and ride within limits etc.

The main risk is if incapacitated and getting cold. We all think we are tough etc when riding, but there is a big difference between being hot with exertion on a night ride and soon finding yourself shivering with cold trying to fix a puncture – all because you kit is sweat soaked and your no longer generating heat through exercise. Factor in an injury…

…but as said, same can happen daylight solo

I had an oem pair on a Giant Reign – if i'd kept the bike I would have changed them for Fox 36 Vans….

Suitability might depend on how heavy you are – I found the Nixons to be very "divey", quite unnerving on a bike like the Reign

Got to agree – trickily worded, blue or white could be considered to be correct.

But to go to heraldry, the st georges cross is defined as a red cross on a white ground, saltire a white diagonal cross on a blue ground – so the ground will be blue

Renault 21 Turbo – 141 mph

or…

Saab 9000 Turbo 16 – should tick the 5 door box – and 141mph I believe

Ynysybwl

Ashamed to say it but…

Citroen BX 4TC

Group B rally car to rival Pug 205T16, but 5 door body

I think the Merc 190E was a 4 door only

Struggling with the 5 door bit….

Plenty of 3 door and 4 door.

Peugeot 309 GTi 16v was goon for 140ish I believe, but rare in UK and not sure if it was in the 3 and 5 door body style.

The ferrari engined Lancia Thema 8:32 had plenty of go 150? but 4 door.

What about the 5 door Ford Granada – wasn't there a Cosworth engined one of those before they went to the fugly Scorpio body style??

The language that vowels forgot…

presumably you refer to English??

Welsh has more vowels… a, e, i, o, u, w, y

re my questions regarding LCA of petrol vs diesel…

I know that when it comes to the emisisons from housing, CO2 is used as a yardstick as it is difficult to fairly quantify the other emitted gases, and a reduction in CO2 will usually reduce otjher gases anyway – its all about reducing combustion.

Although this is changing

i can only assume that vehicles are the same

… is not where I was going. At the point of combustion a diesel vehicle is more carbon efficient – but I am intrested to find out the relative benefits of diesel compared to petrol when the refining and transportation contributions are compared. I strongly suspect that the benefit of diesel become less apparent and are only justifiable in terms of HM Revenue extracting more £££ from consumers…

I was asking for interesting and reasoned debate about it, and so far I've only recieved 1 or 2 substantial reasoned thoughts.

1) fit people use less CO2 normally
2) the actual co2 per km of a person (original post was a guess/rubbish memory)

In which case you have (chosen?) to overlook the most important 👿

ie, that hydrocarbon fuels are releasing CO2 from geological formations, and cannot sensibly be compared to fuel / food derived from the biosphere.

I'd also like to see some credible articles on life cycle environmental costs for different fuel classes. Through taxation policy, our Government have made diesel far more popular – all on the (flawed?) basis of environmental benefit. These benefits are largely down to the higher mpg economy of diesel (ie lower CO2 per mile), but ignore PM10s, PM2.5s and SOx / NOx… and the fact that EU refinery capacity is geared to producing gasoline, not diesel – which has to be imported in bulk

Dawkins "The God Delusion", if you haven't already – should be on all school curricula….

It'll make kids never want to read a book again

OK – maybe A Level students… stimulate the appetite for intellect

I know what you mean, although have never equated it to a calorie burn value… stopped wearing a HRM about 4 yrs ago when the batteries died.

Mountain Mayhem does it for me most years – combination of ragging it all weekend, invariably getting wet and lack of sleep. Guaranteed flu / cold / run down knackeredness a week later.

She made the contestants look good.

That's exactly what I thought – absolute sh!te.

As was the other performer…

Having done this on a farm – digger / JCB backhoe and sling the post. dig out around the base, lift post and plant in ready prepared hole…
Can't see that engine hoist type idea working unless you're on hard firm ground. Same constraint might well apply to any gantry arrangement.

Back to the Victorians – the big industrialists were motivated by money, not progress… so no, they wouldn't have done anything different

Make sure you buy reinforced sidewalls………

Sounds more like a problem with the flue / chimney…..?

Get a Pace RC305 before they replace it with than abomination that was on the front page recently! Not the lightest bike, but great fun

"Sniper One" and "The Circuit" offer engaging insights into the recent / current situations in Iraq and Afghanistan (amongst others).

Both well worth reading – offering a straight talking inside view of a deeply cocked up situation.

Dawkins "The God Delusion", if you haven't already – should be on all school curricula….

If your stantions are too smooth to live with, why not sell the forks on for £££ now, and get something rough enough for what you're after, instead of trashing these and having to buy something else afterward?

Not a bad idea – tell you what, I could do a swap….

… somewhere in the spares box I have a pair of 1996 RST 381s (?). I know for a fact that the stanchions on those are as rough as rats..

… thought this was a stalking thread….

From previous contacts with a few industrial clients, I know a lot of manufacturing processes use acid and alkali surface treatments. Worked with a brake caliper manufacturer who used to do a lot of these sort of surface treatments – ie a chemical etch of the metal surface, instead of a physical, abraded tretament.

How the hell that could be done away from a dip bath, or indeed done safely, I have no idea. DO NOT TRY AT HOME caveats apply…. But, IF you knew some contacts in the metal plating industry, they might be able to try it for you.

As others have said – best left well alone IMO

Anyway, you've proved that a lighter bike is quicker than a heavier bike on that particular journey. Well done.

Thinking about this over lunch, and I don't think I have proved the lightest bike is quickest – despite that being my intuitive position on light vs heavy bikes.

What I think I have shown is that the stretched out XC race type frame geometry is quicker than the shorter more modern / upright geometry of the Pace / Reign

The light race hardtail is quickest, yes, but there is only a pound or two difference between that and the Pace. There is approx 8lb weight difference between the Pace and the Reign, yet both their quickest and average times are almost identical….

If advantage was based only on lightest weight, there should be a much bigger gap between the Pace and Reign. Whereas comparing geometry, both of these feel like hard work on the climbs, whereas the stretched out position on the race HT is a real advantage on climbs.

…ETA… and in terms of "that particular journey", it does have a good mix of terrain and gradient. Approx 4 miles of country lanes with undulating 10-20m climbs / descents, a 150m lane or forest singletrack climb, followed by another mile of lanes, a 200m woodland / quarry descent and flat riverside cycle path

When I first built up my bike (Feb 04)I used a Hope headset and the thing constantly required adjusting / tightening. I replaced it with a CK headset and haven't touched it since (2004).

The Hope has found service on a couple of other bikes, and hasn't worn out etc, but has always required constant tinkering

My first spds were m545s (or their mid 90s equivalent). Easiest way to make the transition

you log your commuting times and bikes that you've used.

That IS dedication.

Your just too polite to use the word anal???

I keep a log of all my rides – one way of motivating myself to ride regularly.

It also works on another level…… In discussions with my wife, x miles per year commuting = £y saved in fuel and £z in car running costs (typically £100-200 in fuel, £500-600 in typical ppm running costs) Very useful in bike budget discussions!!!

As an environmental professional I also find it interseting to equate bike commuting mileage to CO2 saving etc…

OK, slightly different scenario, but I have looked at my log for commuting betwen 2006 and 2009. Rider fitness and weight have varied a bit, as has bike components, expecially tyres – BUT, over that period of time I have had access to either 2 or three bikes for riding to work, and the relative mileages and average times for the same journey cast some light on the heavy bike vs light bike question…

Bike 1 – 2715 miles, average time 1:07:51, best 0:53:31

Bike 2 – 454 miles, average time 1:12:22, best 0:55:53

Bike 3 – 1058 miles, average time 1:12:14, best 0:55:32

I am really surprised by the results too!

Bike 1 is a circa 24lb race geometry hardtail. Very quick uphill on the commute, but a bitch to handle on the downhills. It's no coincidence that this bike has by far the highest mileage on this journey – it's light, quick and the bike of choice.

Bike 2 is also a no surprise – a circa 32lb Giant Reign. Fun on the DH section of my commute, but a tractor everywhere else. When I rode this to work I was absolutely shattered by the time I got home.

Bike 3 is a real surprise – a Pace RC305 built up to about 25.5lb. It feels slower uphill that the other HT, but is quicker DH – all down to the geometry rather than the rather modest weight difference. BUT, the average time on this bike is almost the same as that for the Giant, which always left me knackered (the Pace doesn't).

I guess that the Giant must have been significantly quicker downhill to account for the similar times. FWIW, I sold the Reign, because it wasn't getting enough use. For all day rides it was just too heavy and impaired my endurance too much

the amount of power drawn from the engine can be altered by the alternator depending on how charged the battery is or what sort of elec loads are present

I didn't know that – impressive if that's right.

Regenerative braking is a very old concept – at least as old as electric rail power….. just that the automotive marketeers have been slow (100+ years?) in the uptake.

Sloe berries tend to be small, hard and more bitter in a very dry year (or in this case, perhaps if that bush was in a poor spot??)

The larger, sweeter berries are most likely damsons

null

As usual, Sheldon has (had) some well thought out views…. and is far more supportive of the concept than many have judged

I had Biopace chainrings on a Peugeot road bike and always got on with them

crap new carbike features

😉

bikes with hinges in the middle

explictly ruling out difference in strength between two riders.

Don't see how you can. If they are the same strength, then their strength to weight ratios will be different. If the ratios are the same then their power outputs will be different

O2

Too many variables. Is the heavier person carrying 10lb of extra lard or 10lb of extra muscle??

Automatic gearbox