CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

One of the 57%

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  1. Uberuce
    Member

    I took a quick look over my pal's bike at work yesterday and found her front brake was disconnected, which I duly fixed and told her. She said it'd been like that for two weeks and had mentioned it at the time. I have no memory of this conversation, which is no guarantee it didn't happen, but I really can't see myself letting a broken front brake go unattended.

    I was more than a little gobsmacked that she'd not been badgering me every minute of the day until I fixed it, only to have this madness topped by another colleague who told me she'd be riding down to Stockbridge with a friend who was running every red light, and when she finally caught up with her down a side street and asked why she was riding like such a nutter, was told casually 'oh, my brakes don't really work'

    [insert Jackie Chan baffled meme image]

    Posted 12 years ago #

  2. ZenGwen
    Member

    Good lord. o_O

    Posted 12 years ago #

  3. Darkerside
    Member

    There's t-junction I normally roll left through if I get a red light at silly o' clock in the morning. Combination of long wait, no other traffic, and the other lights have filters on which means nothing can conflict anyway. This morning, however, there was a van of Strathclyde's finest parked just out of my sight, but who clearly saw me trundling through.

    Best behaviour all the rest of the way to the station.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  4. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I remember a wee while back looking over a nice locked up fixed wheel bike. No brakes, but I thought nothing much of it, at least it's fixed wheel (though I always rana front brake, and to be honest would probably run two now).

    Then I noticed.

    It was a singlespeed freewheel...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  5. Uberuce
    Member

    Kap's seen that foolio, I hope. I say hope, because I'd much rather it was the same guy than have two brakeless freewheels around.

    I give myself lively moments when I go from fixed to free because my legs insist they can slow the bike down, so my brain and hands have some fast recovery work to do when it becomes obvious they cannot and that the car in front really isquiteCLOSENOW.

    It's not so bad going from riding black fruity to wee blue floofy or the iron horse because they're such different animals in terms of posture and handling, but when wee blue floofy had just been tranformed out of wintersaurus mode, I was rubbish.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  6. sallyhinch
    Member

    *ahem* confession time. My brakes normally aren't in such great working order. In fact it was only when I went to Glasgow for the Cycling Embassy infrastructure tour in February that I noticed my brakes weren't really doing that stopping thing at all. Slowing, yes, squealing, yes, stopping, no. The thing is, riding the same route day in day out, with almost no traffic and being able to coast to a stop in most cases, I don't really use them & certainly never need to jam on my brakes for a sudden stop. If they ever worked the way they were supposed to, I'd undoubtedly go straight over the handlebars.

    I have of course got them sorted out now, but I still don't really use them if I can avoid it. Course, I'm not cycling in Edinburgh and not really mixing in traffic so it's easy for me to say.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  7. Uberuce
    Member

    I know that feeling. My old iron horse has single pivot side pull calipers on steel rims, so the slightest bit of rain and I can squeeze them fully and the bike will still roll down MMW with only a moderate decrease in speed.

    Naturally I take it extremely easy on wet days.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  8. sallyhinch
    Member

    At least the squealing noise alerts people to the fact that you're coming ... and there's always your feet for a real emergency stop. It's all good practice for those icy days when your brakes don't work anyway and just make you more likely to fall over.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  9. Uberuce
    Member

    Ah, last winter I had studded tyres on a fixed gear. Like a mountain goat wearing crampons, so I was.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  10. crowriver
    Member

    @Uberuce, if you don't have them already, get brake blocks with wee leather inserts: improves braking on chromed steel rims appreciably. You could pick some up from Eastside* on your way to Arthur's Seat?

    * No I'm not on commission, I just support my LBS.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  11. custard
    Member

    Thik you folks need some discs ;)

    Posted 12 years ago #

  12. crowriver
    Member

    Nah, drum brakes are where the waterproof action is!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  13. Uberuce
    Member

    I've got the leathers, yarp. Better, but still a bit pants. The bike's long overdue a recabling, though. That ought to help a little.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  14. Nelly
    Member

    I had some braking issues last week, but reckon if you are on it every day, it kinda creeps up on you. 5 mins of tinkering on monday night, and its like having new brakes - magic.

    Custard, I have been contemplating a new (or decent used) SS for my commute for a while now - not sure if to build / buy etc - but I have discounted discs on the basis of the total pain in the a*se they make rear wheel removal if one happens on the p*^cture fairies on a cold wet november night.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  15. Uberuce
    Member

    I'm planning on putting a Sturmey dynamo/drum hub onto the front of my Day-One and leave the back as a V.

    I think Mr and Mrs Genesis missed a trick there. It's not like they don't know a lot of people have bought from their cyclocross range because they want a robust low maintenance commuter that they can ride fast enough to be their fitness regime as well.

    Last week I lent a pair of hands to chap at work whose disc/derailleur bike was misbehaving. He looked at my Day-One and said 'I think I'll be getting one of them next'

    Posted 12 years ago #

  16. Instography
    Member

    I'm planning on doing the same to my Pompino single speed - dynamo/drum on the front and 5 speed / drum on the back. Just waiting on rims.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    You might think this has been abandoned -

    But it was parked somewhere I park sometimes. There on Tue but not Wed (not seen on previous occasions).

    Posted 12 years ago #

  18. Instography
    Member

    A response to the IAM's survey. Some of you will have met the guy.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    Great piece.

    Very good that you have done it.

    Won't undo all the damage but may get IAM to consider a different future.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  20. wingpig
    Member

    Tell 'em.
    Strange how even an innocuous word like "pollster" is lighty flavoured by its sharing an ending with "hipster". Makes it sound like you design research whilst wearing ill-fitting trousers.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  21. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    "Some of you will have met the guy."

    Oh good grief. Not him again.... How'd that eejit get on the television in the paper. [/father ted]

    That really is a nice, succinct, easy-to-understand-for-the-layman piece*

    *by that I mean that when the discussion on polls and things on here between people who know what they're talking about (and let's face it, the job title says that all) it goes way way waaaaaay over my head.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  22. Uberuce
    Member

    IAM survey = Loki. Insto = a certain Avenger.

    That is all.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  23. Morningsider
    Member

    Insto - excellent article. Don't you get a bit hacked of at being called a "pollster" though, doesn't exactly reflect the detailed survey work and analysis that you do.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  24. Instography
    Member

    Ha. It's not a word I would normally use but I guess I have to accept that it's one that people can understand. And it lets me flounce around the office in tight jeans and espadrilles with no socks.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  25. chdot
    Admin

    "
    Carlton Reid (@carltonreid)

    18/05/2012 23:35

    IAM boss hits back at BA's claim that red light release was "bogus" & Evening Standard has pop at BikeBiz, too: http://bit.ly/Jmkbn0

    "

    Posted 12 years ago #

  26. Instography
    Member

    What really gets me about the IAM letter is the sentence that starts, "Disappointingly, what the press failed to report was the reason given by cyclists for this action ..."

    I mean, if they'd wanted the press to focus on that, they could have used a completely different headline. How about "Cyclists forced to jump red lights" or "Safety fears behind red light jumping" or "Cyclists' choice: be safe or be legal". Not that they're good headlines but they at least focus on the problem they're now claimed to be disappointed that the press didn't pick up.

    Whining now about being disappointed suggests a breathtakingly naive understanding of what the press would do with that headline, which doesn't really work when the problem's already been pointed out by BikeBiz, The Guardian and The Times when they broke the embargo.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  27. Rabid Hamster
    Member

    The daily commute and roadkill!
    Thought I'd repost my link here, as Instography might not have seen the commonplace red light jumping on it by cyclists. We have to get our own commuting act together before we criticise others eg peds and drivers!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  28. steveo
    Member

    We have to get our own commuting act together before we criticise others

    Really? I'm sure we've had this conversation before but am I my brothers keeper? When I drive or walk i'd don't get het up about the behaviour of others unless it directly affects me.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  29. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Can't read Facebook at work, but I'd have to say that if you're not allowed to criticise others (when they're doing something dangerous and/or stupid) if there are members of a particular group that you 'belong' to that themselves do things that are dangerous or stupid then absolutely no-one would ever be allowed to criticise anyone else.

    As a comparison - I'm not allowed to complain about drivers using mobile phones when driving because there's a junction in town that 20% of cyclists jump on red despite the fact I don't jump red and don't even go that route.

    Is like...

    I'm not allowed to complain about the Labour Party's mis-management of the early stages of the trams because I'm a member of the Conservative party (I'm not, just for the record) which when in control in Penzance put in unfair parking charges.

    I personally think that the 'get your own house in order first' argument does pander to this strange belief amongst drivers that they can drive dangerously around me because other cyclists flout the rules of the road. I ride correctly, why shouldn't I ask that drivers drive safely around me?

    Posted 12 years ago #

  30. Baldcyclist
    Member

    "
    ...this strange belief amongst drivers that they can drive dangerously around me...
    "

    All drivers? I sense a 'grouping' in that statement.

    Posted 12 years ago #

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