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" - tell us your cycling problem - "

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    "
    SpokesLothian:

    Spokes Summer 2011 competition - My Cycling Solution - tell us your cycling problem - and how you solved it!! ... http://bit.ly/spk_comp2011

    Original Tweet: http://twitter.com/SpokesLothian/status/74456187315290112

    "
    Prizes include an Edinburgh Bicycle Revolution Tune-up workstand [rrp £89.99]; a ScotRail 1st-class return for 2 between any 2 Scottish stations; a Lothian Buses one-month ridacard; and prizes from Kalpna Indian Vegetarian Restaurant, Camera Obscura & World of Illusions, Jupiter Artland, Scottish Seabird Centre and Sustrans.   See info sheet/ entry form [below] for more details of prizes and sponsors.
    "

    Posted 13 years ago #

  2. wee folding bike
    Member

    They got it backwards. Cycling isn't a problem, cycling is the answer.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  3. Smudge
    Member

    My cycling problem is that while N+1 is the/an answer, N appears to be an increasing number without a logical maximum... and I'm not certain that there is an answer to the correct figure for N!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  4. chdot
    Admin

    "I'm not certain that there is an answer to the correct figure for N!"

    Sounds like (for you) it's N = N+1 - 2 ...!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  5. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Win a bus pass? Is that so you don't have to continue with problem cycling?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  6. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I'm currently content with N = 4. What I'm not content with is wheelsets (W) for bike N2 being W=1. I'd like W = 1+1. W2 costs considerably more than 1 x N :(

    Posted 13 years ago #

  7. Smudge
    Member

    I'm currently at N=3 (one road, one tourer, one MTB (plus a frameset that's free to anyone who can use it))

    However I do hanker after a folder :-/ my worry is would I actually use it or would it just be an expensive ornament (as my MTB has kind of become).

    Of course if the train was to become so busy with bikes that I struggled to get on it in the mornings then I'd have an excuse....

    Posted 13 years ago #

  8. wee folding bike
    Member

    I suppose my problem is a dragging BWR hub coinciding with a wedding anniversary which means I can't spend more time mending the bike.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  9. crowriver
    Member

    My problem is lack of storage space. Just where am I going to put the bike I'm building up from an old cromo frame once it's finished?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  10. TwoWheels
    Member

    I don't think I have a cycling problem. But my friends, they all had this big surprise thingy for me, and they told me that I have a cycling problem and they wanted me to go to meetings.

    I told them, yeah, sure, I'd love to go to meetings, but PY is about 3,000 miles away and I'd have to get up dang-all early to get there for Friday meetings.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  11. Min
    Member

    I don't have a cycling problem. I could give up any time I want to. I just don't want to.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  12. SRD
    Moderator

    @twowheels -- Good one!!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. chdot
    Admin

    I hope some of the answers above actually get sent to Spokes - they are not just looking for 'simple' suggestions.

    To selectively quote -

    "
    something exotic, as long as you found a great solution

    or more personal or philosophical matters like

    "Why on earth am I doing this?”
    "

    I do periodically wonder about the last question. Not sure whether it's enough to think about 'the things that are getting better' and ignore 'the things that don't change or are getting worse'!

    More practically my N is too big. I have gone past the stage of "each one has a different purpose". Time for a cull. The 'solution' is probably ebay.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. SRD
    Moderator

    "How to still cycle when I have two kids?" At least that's the problem I had when I joined this forum...

    On the way back from Asda this am, I worked out that I can carry 4 kids on my bike (stoker, bike seat + two in trailer) and my husband can carry 2 (2 seats or 1 seat and tagalong). I think I have answered my problem. Now I just need more kids.... (oh, and to pay recombodna for the newest seat!)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  15. chdot
    Admin

    "Now I just need more kids...."

    It would be cheaper to borrow them.

    In fact you could start a kid minding/transporting service and charge!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  16. wee folding bike
    Member

    Already got 4 (kids).

    I'll probably be picking 3 of them up from school one day a week after August so I'm starting to wonder if I could bungee a kid's bike on the trailer when it's folded. Then I can put 2 boys in the trailer and one can cycle home. If one bike fits on the folded trailer then perhaps I could even fit two on it. Two boys in the trailer is tight these days.

    Their school is being rebuilt on Route 75 but not due to move till about October. I'm not convinced the Sustrans route would help as the access point nearest the house is at the bottom of a big hill whereas the road to the school is more or less level (but involves one of the main roads in/out of town - way to go North Lanarkshire council).

    Still interested in a Moulton.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  17. crowriver
    Member

    @wfb A Moulton would be nice, but I don't fancy the price! Lovely bicycles, however I'd find it difficult to justify, and I'd have an even worse storage problem...

    @SRD I'm looking into possibilities for transporting 2 children on one bike. Currently it requires my wife to come along with one kid on the back of hers. That's fine, but a solution to carry 2 would be good. I'm not keen on child trailers, and our oldest is too big to fit in one anyway. I've always fancied a longtail cargo bike like the the Kona Ute. Maybe fit stoker bars and footrests for the oldest, then a child seat further back for the young one. Converting my current hybrid into an Xtracycle was considered, but space is an issue: tenement stairwell crowded with bikes, small shed in back green. Xtracycles are just a bit too long. How do you store your Helios? Garage?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  18. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    @crowriver Yes, storage is my problem as well. If N is the number of bikes I can squeeze into the shed then why do I always seem to have N+1 in there. Fitting them back in after a family outing is like doing a jigsaw.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    N+1 sheds?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  20. crowriver
    Member

    @Cyclingmollie Currently our wee shed holds three cargo trailers, two kids bikes, plus assorted spare wheels, tyres, crates for carrying cargo in etc. I'll probably fit a tagalong in there too. The bikes proper are in the stairwell, which limits the N+1 possibilities! Other residents need space for their bikes, buggies, etc.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  21. crowriver
    Member

    @chdot N+1 sheds? Apart from the expense, in a communal green the problem is really not upsetting the neighbours too much. They need space for sitting out, barbecues, planting stuff out, etc. Another shed might not go down well with some. Plus the security issue: bikes in sheds, whilst out of sight, are much more vulnerable to thieves and vandals. I've installed floor anchors to chain everything to in our wee 'bike store' type shed. I don't know if I'd want to put a reasonably valuable bike in such a shed, though...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  22. crowriver
    Member

    A lockup would be the ideal solution: space for storage and a tinkering workshop. If anyone has or knows of a lockup garage for reasonable rent in East/Central Edinburgh, I'd be interested!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  23. chdot
    Admin

    Random Google search -

    http://www.findaproperty.com/searchresults.aspx?edid=00&salerent=1&regionid=525

    Posted 13 years ago #

  24. SRD
    Moderator

    @crowriver 'garage?'. nope. backgreen, and raincover. green is quite secure, but still not ideal. no room in our stairwell, we're on the third floor, and in a one-bed flat. so, not much option.

    The helios does seem to be working well (will see if I can find time to post an update later). have yet to try babe in the childseat though. husband has been using tagalong and one of the front-riding child seats to good effect. But probably not ideal for a long ride/in heavy traffic.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  25. crowriver
    Member

    @SRD Good that Helios is working for you. We are on 3rd floor too. Our back green is not secure, there is access to street without any gate for some ground floor flats. So a shed was necessary. Alas our 2 year old is getting a bit chunky (14kg already!) to carry on a front mounted seat (usually max 15kg), otherwise I could try this with the 6 year old trundling on a tagalong too.

    I know some of the more expensive tagalongs mount on a special carrier rather than the seatpost, which theoretically allows a rear child seat too. However I'm not keen on forking out £300 just for a tagalong.

    @chdot Thanks, the ones in Meadowbank/Abbeyhill would actually be very convenient for me. They must be new on the market as I've been looking at this possibility for a while. If I moved the stuff currently in self-storage in Leith to one of these, then the saving might even justify the cost of renting the garage...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  26. SRD
    Moderator

    f I moved the stuff currently in self-storage in Leith to one of these, then the saving might even justify the cost of renting the garage...

    Now that sounds like us!

    Let me know if you want to try the Helios sometime. Your kids ages sound about right for it.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  27. crowriver
    Member

    Hmm. I can see that having a garage could be 'dangerous'. Then there would be little to stop me buying a cargo bike: a Ute, Xtracycle, bakfiets, Bullitt, Christiana trike, utility tandem, the list of possibilities starts to grow...

    Must.. resist.. temptation... to.. max.. out.. credit card...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  28. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    @chdot: N+1 sheds

    We sort of have that already. I could shift all the rubbish out of the wendy house. I think that could then take the kids bikes leaving me more room in the shed to work on DIY projects store more bikes.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  29. crowriver
    Member

    Ah well, my cargo bike dilemma is at an end, for now. The garages have all been let. :(

    Posted 13 years ago #

  30. DaveC
    Member

    Problem of how to manage two children of differing ages, as the 5yr old wants to race ahead and the 3 yr old will stop and throw a tantrum if so much as my front wheel goes an inch in front of his?

    Well, this evening andafter the rounding success that was POP Scotland, I bought a Tag a long from a chap in Stenhouse off Gumtree. After carefull vetting, advert had his daughter riding it,it was a nice new house and not sone dodgy flat (sorry everyone), and on opening the garage door the garage was like mine, crammed with family bikes, I paid the money and took away the tag a long. I've just attached to Mrs DaveC's bike (;-)) and ensured it secure, level and fits approx child no.2

    Finally I can go to bed.

    Posted 12 years ago #

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