Any question answered...

Ducktape on the inner tube

Consider what patches are - high strength contact adhesive and small pieces of shaped inner tube.

If you can’t find anything else at all, sacrifice one inner tube to cut patches. Try to find Bostik or similar contact adhesive and a bit of sandpaper to scuff the surfaces.

Lemon sucking - Double check your tyre for recurring punctures, embedded glass etc.

Consider a tyre boot as per ^ use duct tape around the inside of the tyre as added puncture protection strip, unless you can find something stronger that will seat in the well.

Double check your rim tape isn’t the problem with a spoke poking through.

best ways to ship a large heavy package from the USA to the UK?

Parcelhero? Any other suggestions?

Cross posted from the motorcycle thread:

Is anyone familiar with racing motor cycling regulations from ye olden days?

I've just been reading about trailblazing Beryl Swain, a Walthamstow resident who was the first woman to race solo at the Isle of Man TT in 1962. She suffered mechanical problems during the race, finishing 22nd out of 25 but was still within 3 secs of the lap record in the 50 cc class she was racing, and vowed to come back the following year to do better.

However her entry seems to have ruffled a few feathers and dented a few fragile male egos, as the governing body brought in a rule the following year which introduced a minimum rider weight, and as Beryl was a slight 7 stone it effectively meant she had no chance of making the start line, and despite trying to appeal and change the rule, she failed and it tragically effectively ended her racing career.

There was also some bullshit excuse that they were concerned that following the races' history with many injuries and fatalities to the male racers, they considered it too dangerous for women.

The last line of this Pathe news clip on Beryl sums up the attitude of the time, "slowly but surely women, the weaker sex, are muscling in on mans domain, practically no sport is sacred, thank goodness for dear old rugby league"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ocIH8rBdJ8

It seems weird today that a minimum rider weight would be a barrier to entry, with ever more of us being Fatty Mcfatfat. And I can't for the life of me try to decipher how on the one hand they think racing is too dangerous for women, but only for women below a certain weight, are fat women considered not womanly enough, or does nobody care about the fat lasses?

I've just been googling to try and find the exact wording of the rule, I'm curious to know what the actual weight limit was, but can't find exact info anywhere, does anyone know it or where to find it? Thanks.
EDIT: in your face Pathe News guy, women's rugby league is a thing now too.

It seems weird today that a minimum rider weight would be a barrier to entry...I can't for the life of me try to decipher how on the one hand they think racing is too dangerous for women, but only for women below a certain weight

Using minimum weight as an entry criterion was neither new when the ACU FIM* introduced it nor uncommon today, although it is more often implemented as a minimum for rider+machine in motor-sport today. While the case referred to above was a pretty transparent subterfuge to ban women without being a blatant gender restriction, the general case is a competitive one - in the low power classes particularly, rider/driver weight has a significant impact on performance.

*EDIT: 50cc races at the Isle of Man were GP World Championship events, so they would be under international regulation.

@mdcc_tester yes I always assumed less weight was good in the lighter classes, and that's what threw me from seeing that Pathe report above when they said she was desperately trying to put on weight. A cake eating training plan I like the sound of :)

Even though it was obviously designed to stop Beryl racing, I'd still like to know the wording of this daft rule if possible.

Anyone from BC recognise this photo? Noticed it whilst logging back into my Strava after a long time off, and wasn't attributed or anything.

Wouldn't be the first time a tech company has grabbed an image without paying for the rights to it

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I'd still like to know the wording of this daft rule if possible

We're homing in on it. Now that I know FIM is to blame, it becomes clear that it was the bloody forrins who objected, in the face of egalitarianism from the Brits (ACU)

Mr Taylor (ACU) recognised that this difficulty had arisen from the ACU’s intention to admit women for the Tourist Trophy! Count Lurani stated that he did not like the idea of having women at international events. Negative publicity had arisen when female side-car passengers had been involved in accidents. The general opinion was against women taking part in road races and perhaps other speed events. But it was decided to raise the issue again at the autumn congress.

The autumn congress took place in Brussels. ..Concerning the participation of women in road races, it would go no further than side-car passengers. The fear was too great that if there were a fatal accident the publicity for the sport would be too bad.

The 50kg (~7st.12lb) rider minimum weight was not introduced until the 1970 Autumn congress

A curious decision was then made. Riders racing a 50, 125 or 250cc machine in road races had to weigh “at least 50 kg, including ballast”

@mdcc_tester top sleuthing sir, thanks!

Count Lurani sounds like a Bond villain, so he's obviously the baddie here. I wonder if some of the whinging forrins that complained were some of the riders beaten by Beryl in 1962.

So if the minimum weight rule was not introduced until 1970, I assume the governing body simply refused to grant Beryl a race licence from 1963 on the grounds it was too dangerous for women, and the fear of bad publicity a female race death may incur. Thanks again @mdcc_tester.

I assume the governing body simply refused to grant Beryl a race licence from 1963 on the grounds it was too dangerous for women

Yes, she could still have an ACU licence to race domestically, but was denied an FIM international licence which would be required to compete in international competitions, even those (like the IoM races) organised by the ACU.

I wonder if some of the whinging forrins that complained were some of the riders beaten by Beryl in 1962

It doesn't look as though any of the people who came in behind her were forrin
https://www.iomtt.com/tt-database/events/races?meet_code=TT62&race_seq=5

They did a proper shoot with BC yonks back, I remember it being on the grams at the time, part of a focus they had on local scenes or something.

@mdcc_tester ha damn you're good! Thanks again.

That was an interesting Sunday afternoon interlude. I'd never heard of Beryl before this morning, and only learnt of her after seeing a cool mural of her in Walthamstow.

Ah fair enough

Going to stick with tiles, partly for the reasons you said and partly as the local fella eventually agreed a fair cash day rate (plus me labouring odds/sods) to just get it all done likely in a day (only a small amount and largely uncomplicated)

Even if you can get him to put tiles up you should be able to grout yourself. As long as you clean it off in time it's not hard to smear grout, may save you a few quid as well.

They did a full shoot with two members of BCC

How shit is Sram Apex 1?
I like Sram and I like the idea of a single front chainring.

But I only see Sram Apex on lower tier OTP bikes, hence my doubt. I am not expecting it to beat Ultegra or Dura Ace, but wondering to what extent it represents value for money, like how some people praise Tiagra as great for the price you are paying.

How shit is Sram Apex 1?

From new, it's going to feel like Force but heavier. I expect the RD knuckles are plastic like other cheap SRAM RDs, and I think they probably don't last as long as the metal ones, but that's some way down the road.

What's the most likely cause of fixed-gear drive train noise that only occurs under moving load? It's not a creak from standing on the pedals while the bike's stationary and it's quiet while just gently rolling, but as soon as I put any power down, in any part of the pedal stroke, it gets very noisy.

@abr @Pifko You were both on the money with this. My back sprocket was really pretty worn, it wasn't obvious until I cleaned it up, but the back face of every tooth was concave. I put a new sprocket on and it's whisper-quiet again.

Thanks.

Or something similar.

RD knuckles

U wot mate?

U wot mate?

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