Your rants here.

rhodrich

Front brake cable snapped on the way in to work. It's hanging on by a thread, but one further yank on the brakes, and it'll all be over. Won't have time to fix it tonight, even if I've got a spare inner wire in my spares box, so facing a few commutes with rear brake only.

I don't know how people run brakeless!

Snakebite the 2nd

Rhodrich wrote:

, so facing a few commutes with rear brake only.

Is it worth it?

Not sure I'd do that myself. Limping home is one thing, but venturing out on multiple occasions is a little dodgy.

rower63

Snakebite the 2nd wrote:

Rhodrich wrote:

, so facing a few commutes with rear brake only.

Is it worth it?

Not sure I'd do it myself. Limping home is one thing, but venturing out on multiple occasions is a little dodgy.

Agree. I'd be concerned too - at a certain (not very high) speed, dependent on coeff of friction between tyre and road (and therefore conditions), braking gives way to rear-wheel sliding. In other words there's a limit on the amount of braking you can do with rear-only. Knowing the speeds you like to ride at, I'd recommend backing right off while it's like that, and replacing as soon as you possibly can.

rhodrich

Fair enough. Wife said the same thing! Back to the Dawes Chevron (Old Faithful) tomorrow.....

Brakeless

Rhodrich wrote:

Fair enough. Wife said the same thing! Back to the Dawes Chevron (Old Faithful) tomorrow.....

Why not just get out of bed 10 minutes earlier than normal and replace the cable. :roll:

veronese68

Brakeless wrote:

Rhodrich wrote:

Fair enough. Wife said the same thing! Back to the Dawes Chevron (Old Faithful) tomorrow.....

Why not just get out of bed 10 minutes earlier than normal and replace the cable. :roll:

And that's from a bloke called Brakeless.

Wheelspinner

Doesn't look like there's a shortage of alternatives:

1938 Hobbs Tandem
1956 Carlton Flyer Path/Track*
1978 Dawes Chevron Fixed
1980 Harry Hall
1986 Dawes Galaxy
1988 Jack Taylor Tourer
1988 Pearson
1989 Condor
1993 Dawes Hybrid

rolf_f

Brakeless wrote:

Rhodrich wrote:

Fair enough. Wife said the same thing! Back to the Dawes Chevron (Old Faithful) tomorrow.....

Why not just get out of bed 10 minutes earlier than normal and replace the cable. :roll:

This is a bit Darwin awards. Even if you pass over the fact that a) if you commute you should surely have some key spares and b) even if you try to pretend that it is going to be a problem getting to a bike shop for a crucial safety component surely at the very least common sense would say that the very least you'd do is spend thirty seconds swapping the rear brake cable to the front.

rhodrich

I've got plenty of key spares: spare whole bikes! Rode in on the Dawes Chevron today.

Much easier to just switch to a spare bike, and do it at my leisure. Looked for cable this morning, and all I could find were gear inners. I'm sure I've got a proper brake cable somewhere though.

Even with only a rear brake, the bike has two independent brakes (albeit operating on the same wheel), as it's fixed gear. I agree that a front brake is a lot more efficient though.

redvee

Rhodrich wrote:

I've got plenty of key spares: spare whole bikes!

Only spare bike in the singular but came in handy when I noticed a PF visit as I was about to leave for work on Monday, a quick swap around of lights, pannier and Garmin and I was ready to roll in 5 minutes.

timothyw

Eurosport - WTF is with your Giro coverage? Decisive final mountain stage, the highlights show appears to be about half an hour long instead of the usual hour and a half, and jumped over the space of an ad break from 120km to 3km to go....

I gave up last night, and today tried to watch it on catch-up, and the audio sounds like they are talking into a desk fan....

Why couldn't they completely cock up one of the sprint stages?

wolfsbane2k

redvee wrote:

Rhodrich wrote:

I've got plenty of key spares: spare whole bikes!

Only spare bike in the singular but came in handy when I noticed a PF visit as I was about to leave for work on Monday, a quick swap around of lights, pannier and Garmin and I was ready to roll in 5 minutes.

Surely a pannier change takes longer than that? Takes me an age to get the bends and angles right.

redvee

Wolfsbane2k wrote:

redvee wrote:

Rhodrich wrote:

I've got plenty of key spares: spare whole bikes!

Only spare bike in the singular but came in handy when I noticed a PF visit as I was about to leave for work on Monday, a quick swap around of lights, pannier and Garmin and I was ready to roll in 5 minutes.

Surely a pannier change takes longer than that? Takes me an age to get the bends and angles right.

Meant bag, not rack. Same rack on both bikes so just a question of lifting off one bike and dropping onto the other.

First.Aspect

Deliveroo motos. L-plates, all of them. A clue. None of them.

redvee

First Aspect wrote:

Deliveroo motos. L-plates, all of them. A clue. None of them.

Seems to be common amongst the food delivery scooter riders.

rick_chasey

Big SS gears.

Advantage: they force you to push it in a headwind even when you really don't want to.

Disadvantage: they force you to push it in a headwind even when you really don't want to.

roger_merriman

Rick Chasey wrote:

Big SS gears.

Advantage: they force you to push it in a headwind even when you really don't want to.

Disadvantage: they force you to push it in a headwind even when you really don't want to.

assuming you've got a fair bar/saddle drop my memory is that it's still less frustrating than bikes with a much more relaxed position, since they can cut though, and can use the drops etc, I've ended up in the past with all sorts of personal bests on windy days since rather than just rolling along i've got in the drops and muscled my way though the headwind.

First.Aspect

roger merriman wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Big SS gears.

Advantage: they force you to push it in a headwind even when you really don't want to.

Disadvantage: they force you to push it in a headwind even when you really don't want to.

assuming you've got a fair bar/saddle drop my memory is that it's still less frustrating than bikes with a much more relaxed position, since they can cut though, and can use the drops etc, I've ended up in the past with all sorts of personal bests on windy days since rather than just rolling along i've got in the drops and muscled my way though the headwind.

If you get a pb into a headwind, you haven't been trying hard enough the rest of the time.

First.Aspect

redvee wrote:

First Aspect wrote:

Deliveroo motos. L-plates, all of them. A clue. None of them.

Seems to be common amongst the food delivery scooter riders.

Its the sudden proliferation of uniformly branded and uniformly inexperienced moto riders that has shocked me.

I saw one without an L-plate today. He turned right from a busses and cycles only lane, and then dodged in and out of the cycle lane along George Street. Perhaps his L-plate had fallen off.

benthic

Pointed out to a motorcyclist who was wearing one of those "POLITE" tabards that perhaps it wasn't all that polite to be stopping inside every ASL box at every opportunity he had. It has resulted in a shattered rear mudguard where he kicked it. Great.

roger_merriman

First Aspect wrote:

roger merriman wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Big SS gears.

Advantage: they force you to push it in a headwind even when you really don't want to.

Disadvantage: they force you to push it in a headwind even when you really don't want to.

assuming you've got a fair bar/saddle drop my memory is that it's still less frustrating than bikes with a much more relaxed position, since they can cut though, and can use the drops etc, I've ended up in the past with all sorts of personal bests on windy days since rather than just rolling along i've got in the drops and muscled my way though the headwind.

If you get a pb into a headwind, you haven't been trying hard enough the rest of the time.

well yes I did say that. the main point being that with drops or bikes with a fair bar/saddle drop you can cut though the wind even headwinds far easier than bikes with a more relaxed even bar/saddle.

pangolin

Benthic wrote:

Pointed out to a motorcyclist who was wearing one of those "POLITE" tabards that perhaps it wasn't all that polite to be stopping inside every ASL box at every opportunity he had. It has resulted in a shattered rear mudguard where he kicked it. Great.

Seriously?? Don't suppose you got his plates? Not really worth it I guess for the cost of a mudguard but what a pr1ck.

benthic

pangolin wrote:

Seriously??

Yep.

pangolin wrote:

Don't suppose you got his plates?

No.

pangolin wrote:

Not really worth it I guess for the cost of a mudguard....

And, as I discovered this morning, a buckled wheel. I think I must have been lucky not to have hit the deck.

Once someone's red mist has gone as far as assault (and thefore they don't care of the consequences) it's best to beat a retreat... and not circle round getting the no. plate... especially over ASL violation, which is irritating but hardly the end of the world.

pangolin wrote:

....but what a pr1ck.

Yep. No sense of irony either, which is a worse character trait.

wolfsbane2k

Benthic wrote:

pangolin wrote:

Seriously??

Yep.

pangolin wrote:

Don't suppose you got his plates?

No.

pangolin wrote:

Not really worth it I guess for the cost of a mudguard....

And, as I discovered this morning, a buckled wheel. I think I must have been lucky not to have hit the deck.

Once someone's red mist has gone as far as assault (and thefore they don't care of the consequences) it's best to beat a retreat... and not circle round getting the no. plate... especially over ASL violation, which is irritating but hardly the end of the world.

pangolin wrote:

....but what a pr1ck.

Yep. No sense of irony either, which is a worse character trait.

You can always report it to the police anyway, and ask them to check the CCTV for the time of the assault...
And then get it ignored :mad:

Drew123

Benthic wrote:

Pointed out to a motorcyclist who was wearing one of those "POLITE" tabards that perhaps it wasn't all that polite to be stopping inside every ASL box at every opportunity he had. It has resulted in a shattered rear mudguard where he kicked it. Great.

Was it one of those tabards that horse riders also wear which are designed to look like police gear?

I'd like to see them 'politely' charged with impersonating a police officer...

Ben6899

Agreed re Deliveroo drivers, but I feel for them. They're invariably young kids, not earning the London Living Wage and having to squeeze in as many deliveries as possible so the p1ss-poor 'commission' puts food on their table.

I guess what I'm saying is that the secret is to not use Deliveroo; they're a sham of a business.

DrLex

Tried changing the front gear cable on Ultegra shifters and thought I needed to remove a wee hatch to feed through the cable, like the rear one. Not only was it not necessary, but in so doing, I appear to have broken it, as it won't upshift. LBS on Monday, and I suspect I'll be told it's a new shifter and re-tape. Bum!

wolfsbane2k

Apparently I need a new wardrobe after loosing 3" from my waist this year due to cycling . Wonderful news, except still need to buy the same sized shorts &trousers to get them over my enlarged thighs :-(

rick_chasey

Ben6899 wrote:

Agreed re Deliveroo drivers, but I feel for them. They're invariably young kids, not earning the London Living Wage and having to squeeze in as many deliveries as possible so the p1ss-poor 'commission' puts food on their table.

I guess what I'm saying is that the secret is to not use Deliveroo; they're a sham of a business.

Ja.

Same goes for Uber drivers.

Though they currently tend to find out once they're already signed up that they've agreed to a loan whereby they end up paying the full value of the car, plus maintenance, upkeep, fuel etc, and by the end of the loan they don't own the car!

Uber drivers are trying (with some success) to be unionised, at which point, presumably they'll start negotiating for things like pooling maintenance and petrol (rather like they do with black cabs...) and higher fees to compensate for the running costs (rather like black cabs) and we'll be in a position that they're just like black cabs except for they're not black cars. Currently their prices are unsustainable, and if you're a nerd like me you can find Uber forums and forums for Ex Uber drivers complaining of all the above.

Unless they go down the uber express route, where, to make things cheaper, you carpool with other users on selected routes to save costs (rather like a bus). I've heard in some cities in the US they're now asking people to congregate at certain pick up stops too, to save on time (again, rather like a bus).

These app firms aren't reinventing anything. They're just apps that end up copying the already well refined model. The only thing that's different is they're given monumental amounts of capital so they can undercut the existing models unsustainably, and hope that once they've established a monopoly they can ultimately revert to becoming what the model was originally, but with an app.


It still boggles the mind a firm like AirBNB is worth more than almost every big hotel chain.

jamesco

Rick Chasey wrote:

These app firms aren't reinventing anything. They're just apps that end up copying the already well refined model. The only thing that's different is they're given monumental amounts of capital so they can undercut the existing models unsustainably, and hope that once they've established a monopoly they can ultimately revert to becoming what the model was originally, but with an app.

A medallion which gives permission to drive a taxi in NYC cost over a million dollars a few years ago; it's come down substantially since due to the presence of Uber and others. This is the exact opposite of your argument - instead of capital being tied up (uselessly - a medallion has no intrinsic worth) due to regulatory-capture, it's being used to give a better service and a lower price. It sucks for the medallion owners, but since there interests are not the interests of consumers (and the big ones tend to be exploitative bastards as well), tough luck.

That's NYC and of course there's no scenario that's exactly the same in all cities; however, almost all cities have the problem that however taxis are regulated they are regulated badly at the expense of consumers. London is only good by comparison.

Here, if taxi services were being planned today, there's no way anyone would propose the idea of spending several years riding around on a scooter memorising inner-city streets, followed by years of driving around a clapped-out diesel in the hope of seeing someone waving the driver down. It would be seen as useless and costly effort for no gain.

Thankfully this will be an old argument soon - driverless cars, wherever they aren't forbidden, will completely take over. Electric, on-demand, cheap, no ownership hassles, clear legal liability, no dickheaded-driving - it'll be awesome.

--

My idea for Deliveroo and any other courier-type company is to have vicarious liability for driving infractions. If the companies want to overload the drivers (one driver I met had 130 scheduled for the day), then make the company liable for any penalties, with the threat of losing their license for too many. Never gonna happen