First time bike commuting since October last year. I used to come in once a week but stopped when we got the puppy and on the odd occasion I did come in I drove.
Was Ok coming in, downhill and quite cool, but think it might be a bit sticky going home in an hour so and uphill. ![]()
Didn’t a lad get done for hitting a pedestrian who was on their phone, because they were riding a fixed the court said: no brakes, dangerous, your fault mate.
Well I just had a play, think it depends on the greatest common demoninator of the front and rear chainrings.
If you always stop with the same foot, then think you can never have more skid patches than the number of teeth on the rear chainring, but you can have less:
S = R / G
where S = number of skid patches, R = teeth on rear chainring, and G = greatest common denominator of the numbers of teet on both chainrings.
If you can stop with either foot I think it gets more complicated - you could be half a tooth out on the rear wheel, so if the answer above is odd you may have to double it to account for that.
Don’t quote me on that though obv
So yeah 17 and 19 look like a good number of teeth to have on your rear chainring, unless you happen to have 34 or 38 teeth on your front chainring ![]()
This subject could make a nice one for the maths thread I reckon
Think I remember reading about that- wasn’t the crux of it that they had a rear brake (their leg) but no working front brake & that’s illegal - you need both rear and front brakes ??
isn’t that what I said
yer so a 42 / 18 , my other option considering I bought a 42 for the front, simplified to a 7/3 so has 3 skid patches
killed a ped, and had no brakes, well the rear is your legs but no front. I always rode with front brake, pretty stupid not to, which is more than enough on its own anyway unless you are riding way too fast
Yeah, he was riding a PX track bike.
The pedestrian stepped out in front of him so was in the wrong but the police “proved” that the lack of front brake (which is illegal) meant that he couldn’t stop quickly enough anyway.
He didn’t make things easier for himself by standing over the injured woman and shouting at her immediately after the crash and his social media posts before the crash showed a history of reckless behaviour on his track bike.
His posts afterwards also showed a lack of remorse.
I think if he’d been a normal commuter and had shown remorse afterwards he would have got support from the cycling community, but he was a complete dick and ended up going to jail
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Is this the LFGSS guy?
Who actually went online to post about it afterwards?
What an utter ![]()
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Puncture for me on the way home.
Had to be the rear.
Then a slipping/wonky wheel.
And a rubbing brake.
Grr!
Wtf do you do to all your bikes?? Do you ever get a ride without issues?
What cunt decided the river crossing would only open at 9 fucking am on Fridays? A massive one, that’s who.
Basically from that point the entire day has been a raging fire.
Forced myself to smell the roses though. Stopped for these two pics and a fabulous f&c wolfed down in the sunshine and gale force winds ![]()
Fixed. Rear wheel.
PITA to get straight during a ride.
First puncture on that in about 7 years ![]()
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EDIT; cleaned and straightened before parkrun ![]()
Man, I forgot what a mess rim brakes make in the wet.
That awful grey sludge everywhere.
After spending a good hour sorting my rear wheel out.
Which included removing the tyre and checking for abrasions.
Another bloody puncture this morning.
And my valve on my spare tube was annoyingly short.
And didn’t have a removable core. FFS.
I had a valve core remover and extender.
Must be on 30psi. With a 20kg pannier. And 4km of off road. Tyre was squirming all over the place.
A lunchtime of fixing the pressure and praying I don’t get another on the way home beckons!!!
Good luck for the return journey!
Rear wheel changes are always a feckin nightmare - I hardly ever manage to tighten the nuts enough to stop the wheel slipping in the drop-outs when the full load goes on.
The first ride is usually punctuated with stops to reposition the wheel and re-tighten the wheel nuts
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That’s what I put on my strava and above!
@mw22 mocked me.
Ride home was fine.
Apart from the 30°
It wasn’t the heat… There was just no air. Could barely breathe.
It’s also no wonder there’s so much cyclist hatred. Followed a group of 6 onto a 60mph road.
Bloke at the front taking selfies.
Rider in 5th wheel pretty much on the centre line… Was opportunities for cars to pass, at best he was blocking there view. But if we want 1.5-2 metres for cars overtaking. We can’t get that riding in the middle of the road (for no reason).
He got gapped a bit later… When half his crew got bored waiting at a red light and rode thru. Still persisted on his middle of the road line. I was kerbside… Thought about undertaking him
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ANOTHER EFFING PUNCTURE (slow) last week.
Noticed it was flat last night.
So I went HAM ![]()
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Duct tape inside the tyre.
Triple layered.
Wrapped the new tube in the old tube (slit it and slid the old one over)
Crr like a dog this morning ![]()
A good 4 mins slower, but no incidents.
If it could stop being ultra windy now, that’d be awesome.
Mainly a tailwind home. But some fierce crosswinds and headwinds winding my way back ![]()
Get the echelons going
Have we suddenly turned the corner to winter already?
14c the app said… glorious sunshine outside. Yet the air was cool.
The local park often gets a covering of fog, was glorious blue skies - 400metres up the road;
Fog felt much thicker. Glad I run lights - saw another rider who just disappeared into the murk.
Glad I went arm warmers - 14c my @rse.
Well after 9 unenjoyable years of commuting on it - finally swapped the Norco out for the Media.
Stupidly painful weekend of swapping the tyres and falling to mount some bits. But got enough done to use it.
Lots of positives - 32mm tyres are SO much better. Still think Im running PSI too high, despite all the calculators suggesting it needs to be higher still.
Only downside so far - the size of the brake hoods. I use to use them as an alternative position just now and again, no chance on this - HUGE.






