This one in particular on Melville Drive.
Just why did the bike symbol have to be removed and replaced a couple of feet east? I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark at 'using up the annual budget'.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Magical Moving Cycle Symbols
(31 posts)-
Posted 15 years ago #
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"'using up the annual budget'."
Not as such.
It was done as part of the extension of the cycle lanes on MD.
Presume person 'on the ground' decided it was easier/better to do a 'clean' one rather than repaint over.
I once suggested that that when bicycle markings were renewed (for instance on MMW and NMW) they should be in different places so that there would effectively be more (even if some were fading). 'They' didn't think this was a good idea. I didn't suggest just doubling the number as this would have been 'too expensive'.
I also suggested that they tried some of the more creative version that are seen 'elsewhere' (I seem to remember some neat examples in Velovision).
But this is Edinburgh.
There will be no David Byrne style bike parking either - 'Streetscape you know'.
Posted 15 years ago # -
But David Byrne style bike parking is public art, it is an improvement to 'Streetscape' ;-)
Posted 15 years ago # -
"David Byrne style bike parking is public art, it is an improvement to 'Streetscape'"
I think that is a more than reasonable argument.
But this is Edinburgh.
Posted 15 years ago # -
But the original has been actively 'removed' - it's not just worn, it's had that heat gun firey thingy over it to remove it. Why remove it? I don't see how the extension of the cycle lanes affects that???
Posted 15 years ago # -
I agree that it makes no sense, but I bet the 'new' design is marginally different to the original, hence couldn't be overlaid?
Posted 15 years ago # -
I think the bike faces in the opposite direction. A subtle psychological hint to stay left?
Posted 15 years ago # -
@ chdot, but this is Edinburgh
So why can't we get more?
Posted 15 years ago # -
"So why can't we get more?"
Depends how you define "can't".
The example you show wasn't installed by the council.
It was part of an expensive development (but not a private one).
So some questions I don't know the answers to.
1) Have any developments proposed any interesting cycle parking which had been refused by planners?
2) Have CEC planners ever encouraged developers to include interesting cycle parking in public places?
3) Has money from 'planning gain' ever been used for cycle parking? (PG money - known as Section 75 I believe - has been used for things like resurfacing of MMW, various new paths - inc the one due at Peffermill Ind Est - and various light controlled crossings.)
4) Will CEC ever pay for anything more expensive/interesting than standard Sheffield/Edinburgh racks?
Posted 15 years ago # -
4) Will CEC ever pay for anything more expensive/interesting than standard Sheffield/Edinburgh racks?
While browsing the latest Broxap catalogue today and marvelling at one case study in which the covered bike racks were laid end to end so that the rain would run off one roof and drip directly onto the bikes of the next rack, I studied the various popular designs of stands. The more I thought about it, the less I liked the P-stands, the Austrian double stands (cf. Edin Uni), the Penny Farthing stand, and the more I realised that the basic Sheffield Stand, perhaps with the extra horizontal bar, is everything a cyclist really needs. They just doesn't look ... thrilling, and in fact I think the reason we have so many avant-garde designs is because a regular galvanized Sheffield Stand lends a site an aura of cheap scaffolding, somehow dull and common.
Posted 15 years ago # -
Arellcat, so glad you said this. Had been debating exactly same post. Nice looks are all very well, but I want something safe and stable, especially for loading panniers & passengers. Sheffield/Edinburgh stands work every time. Am sure they could be glammed up a bit, but the basic design works and is durable. Let's just have more of them!
Posted 15 years ago # -
@Arellcat, @SRD
Wouldn't disagree - certainly more - (Sheffield/Edinburgh racks are remarkably effective).
I believe "Edinburgh" (Sheffield with extra horizontal bar) rack was 'invented' when children at Sciennes Primary found that their small bikes fell over when leant against 'normal' Sheffield racks.
Maybe some more colour? Black is a bit monotonous, not convinced by the look of stainless (or the design of the ones at Holyrood).
BUT still think there's a place for something different to 'promote' cycling - but not as the universal design.
Posted 15 years ago # -
In Windermere they have little penny farthings. Didn't have my bike so I have no idea how practical they were for bike lockage. They looked very cute but I agree that practical is better than pretty. Nothing worse than bike rack you can't lock your bike to properly.
Posted 15 years ago # -
And then there are the ones at the front of Waverley Court. Yes, they're nice Sheffield stands. But they're on a slope so locking/unlocking the bike is five times as difficult as it needs to be because the bike tries to roll down the hill.
Posted 15 years ago # -
went for walk to harlaw reservoir today with 2/3 weans. The roundabout at Balerno is being dug up, the main street is being dug up, harlaw road is being dug up and the bleeding path round the resevoir is being dug up. The other road up to Thriepmuir (the one with all the pot holes) remains untouched.
You can get a bike up Harlaw but not a car at the moment.
Posted 15 years ago # -
gembo - did you lose one en route?
Posted 15 years ago # -
"You can get a bike up Harlaw"
But can you make it drink?
Posted 15 years ago # -
SRD - eldest was on a sleepover a despicable Yankee invention :-)
chdot - very very long row of crash barriers on the pavement making the pushing of the bike quite tricky
Posted 15 years ago # -
"chdot - very very long row of crash barriers on the pavement making the pushing of the bike quite tricky"
That answers the question how?
Posted 15 years ago # -
once you have pushed the bike up the Harlaw Road pavement between the houses and the barriers you may need a drink. Upside is that the road at top is virtually traffic free all the way up to turning into the carpark across from the farm. However, the road maintennace people are occasionally going up and down.
Posted 15 years ago # -
SRD - "eldest was on a sleepover"
Personally I dread the days of sleepovers, although can it be worse than having to attend b-day parties?
But, that still doesn't explain how you took '2 or 3' ...(light dawns)... Ah, you meant 2 out of 3. Duh. Sorry!
Posted 15 years ago # -
you are right to dread the days of sleepovers SRD. When your child is at their pal's that isn't too bad but they come back crotchety through sleep deprivation. When the thing is happening at your house, all crotchety due to sleep deprivation, or maybe I am just crotchety?
Some B-day Parties approaching hell-on-earth. But you can pay people to do it for you. I found with predominance of boys Big Alisdair Ram from the Enjoy-a-ball Organisation runs a very tight ship allowing you to sit at back having chat and drinking tea. With predominance of girls the Logy Centre in Loanhead runs an even tighter ship (think Germany 1930s) but they take the kids into the Gymnasium and tire them out, and you can just give them lots of juice, water, crisps and biscuits at the end, no need to produce cakes etc. Looks a little frayed but probably have to book year in advance such is the popularity of this venue. (We are never so organised and must have benefitted from a cancellation)
Posted 15 years ago # -
It's the having to make polite conversation to other parents that scares me! My husband's done all of them so far, but I have to go to one this weekend, and am terrified. Sigh. I'm sure they're all nice people...
Posted 15 years ago # -
Quite likely that they will be people quite like you? How long do you have to stay? Gets better when you can just leave the kid and come back later for it. My youngest was at a Hannah Montanna Popstar Party which she says was good (but she was quite glad to leave). I was quite late picking her up but it was still going on (nightmare). She says the one at the Logy Gym was Great.
Posted 15 years ago # -
I had to take number 4 son to a party where I knew nobody. It was the neighbour's kid but we haven't lived here long enough to be on more than nodding terms and taking in Amazon packages for each other.
In the long run it will have been a good move but a wee bit clunky.
Memsahib would not allow me to leave a 3 yr old in a place where he knew nobody. I took two of his brothers too so he had somebody to run around the soft play with.
Cleaned out an SRAM 3 speed hub in the kitchen yesterday, part way through the next one. The bearing inside the driver is a pest. Also trying to install Windows Civilization on iMac for number 2 and 3 sons. VMWare virtual disk is expanding.
Posted 15 years ago # -
@weefoldingbike
Will a SRAM 3-speed fit on a Specialized Crossroads? if I take the Nexus 8 (now dead) off. Actually, rims also caved so could go with new wheel. Bt what gubbings will I need to make sure sprocket lines up. Maybe should go single speed? Annoying as new chain and new sprocket
Posted 15 years ago # -
If you get the right OLN (over lock nut) dimensions yes.
I would go for the Sturmey Archer over the SRAM three speed. The SRAM has next to no protection against the weather on the left hand side and driver bearing on the right isn't much better. The Sturmey has a labyrinthine seal on the cone. Other SRAM hubs might be better. I think the three speed is a very old design. Just cussed my way through cleaning another one this afternoon. The driver wasn't engaged with the clutch properly and the left hand cone wouldn't tighten up far enough so I had to take it apart a couple of times before it fitted back. SRAM parts aren't easy to get here whereas the SA bits and bobs are quite common.
Your OLN is probably 130mm, Bromptons take 100mm. I don't know if the same OLN will give you the same chain line. Hub design might be a factor. Even then I have a double sprocket on a Brompton with its wee short chainstays and it's OK in both gears.
If the Nexus isn't working you could always take it apart and have a look inside.
Or take it to Alistair Gow. If he can't then I don't know who can.
Posted 15 years ago # -
Sheldon Brown has the manual for the Nexus 8 on his web page. It has instructions on how to strip it.
If it's busted anyway you're not going to make it any worse.
Posted 15 years ago # -
thanks wee folding bike
The driver wasn't engaged with the clutch properly
I fear this is the problem. It had been moving 1-2-3-4 then there would be a long delay to jump to 5-6-7-8. A very kind mechanic of my ken had a look (no fee) giving it a clean and it became fluid 1 thru 8. Unfortunately the dirt appears to have been assisting with keeping it in gear so it now runs up and down thru the gears pretty much all the time. I think lowest and highest work, so it is a kind of two-speed but with a bit of a jump between the two gears. SA would be my preference so will carry on rather than donate to Bike Station (mostly as I have put new chain/sprocket/saddle on in recent past). Sheldon loved a Nexus, almost like he was on commission but then he was enthusiastic about all bike related matters.
I buy one dead tree a week (the Grauniad on a SaturdaY). I don't think reading books/papers online comes close to real paper, I am luddite that way.
Posted 15 years ago #
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