Most recent activity
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What wheels are they?
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- I wouldn't trust a seatpost that had been subject to aggressive removal: do yourself a favour and bin it.
- Stop fucking about with the paint: it's fine. This was, is and always will be a "beater". Stick the money in your piggy bank for the next build.
- Don't fuck about with the braze-ons: all you will do is make it less versatile and it will never be whatever it is you think it will be, minus braze-ons.
You know the scrotes who have spent more on shit accessories and tacky colour-coordinated tat than the actual car is worth? Who could have spent their money on a decent motor, rather than a world of naff trying to turn a Nova 1.0l into a Golf VR6?
Build this as cheaply as possible; ride it much as possible; then build a 2.0 with a nice frame, a nice paintjob and quality components using what you have learned from 1.0.
I'm in a similar position - I sold my Paddywagon as I now have a skip-find of an old road bike which has at some point been bodged into a single-speed (still has a double chain ring on the front).
The wheels are shot - I've chucked the front already and I'm in two minds about the rear, which does seem to be much newer and in better condition.
The paintwork is pretty shabby, although the frame seems sound.
So I'm going to get the cheapest flip-flop wheelset I can find (126mm spacing at the rear) and reuse as much else as I possibly can.
I thought about getting it powdercoated but, as the man says, do this one on the cheap as a beater and think about doing a fancier job on the next one once I have a better feel for what I want.
- I wouldn't trust a seatpost that had been subject to aggressive removal: do yourself a favour and bin it.
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Green light is merely an indication of right of way. It doesn't exempt you from looking for other traffic, including fuckwits jumping the red light, before manoeuvring... Mind you, I'm not in any way trying to justify her actions, but like you said, the bikers could (and should) have given the nodder a bit more slack.
Many bikers, and cyclists for that matter, are killed every year believing blindly in their right of way. Unfortunately right of way doesn't matter shit when negotiating a ten-ton truck operated by an idiot. Well done for calling her out though, hopefully she heard you, and hopefully the whole experience will make her think twice before taking unnecessary chances in the future.
To be fair to the first bikers who set off, their way was clear when they started moving - the nodder really did come sailing through from Tooley Street very late - not just an amber gambler.
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Two nights ago, I was waiting at the lights on the south side of London Bridge by the junction with Tooley Street.
The lights turned green and the motorbikes to my right went haring off … just as high-viz nodder female comes flying out of the end of Tooley Street.
She ends up stuck in the middle of the south-bound lane with traffic going both sides of her, with her shouting at them all as if they were in the wrong.
The bikers weren't hanging around but they definitely didn't go before green. They could have given the nodder a bit more slack but, you know what, f*** her - maybe next time she won't do such a dumb ass manoeuvre. (And make me have to think hard about how to spell manoeuvre.)
I very eloquently shouted as I went past, "You're the stupid feck-wit who jumped the red light." Not sure she heard me, though, as I think she was a little stressed at that point.
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I posted a few months ago (way back in the pages of this thread) about a run in I had had with a National Express coach. I had one of those eBay Muvi MD80 cameras on my handlebars so uploaded the footage to youtube, and sent a link to both National Express and roadsafelondon with a complaint about the driving. A nice, young, female civilian police person then came around and took down my particulars ...
This was back in the early summer and I never heard anything more - I assumed it had just fizzled out ... until yesterday. I get a call from a DCI in the traffic department of the Met who explained that, on the basis of the footage I provided (higher quality on DVD not just the youtube footage) the coach driver had pleaded guilty to driving without due care (I think it was), had got 3 points, a £150 fine plus lots of costs. As a "professional" driver, this is pretty serious and could lead to him losing his job. Good stuff, I thought, he'll take a bit more care around cyclists in the future.
Next bit is that the DCI asks if I would be prepared to be interviewed by someone from the BBC who is planning on doing a feature about this - i.e. cyclists using helmet/handlebar cams and successfully prosecuting dangerous drivers based on the footage. From speaking to the BBC chap (anything for my 15 mins), it seems that there are quite a few complaints from cyclists using helmet cam footage, but surprisingly few successful prosecutions. If any of you out there have successfully used cam footage to to secure a conviction against some dangerous/inconsiderate driving, would you send me a PM? (Assuming, of course, that you're happy for me to pass the story to this guy at the Beeb.)
PS. Also posted on bikeradar as I know quite a few on there use helmet cams.
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I think we'd all agree on here - undertaking left-turning lorries is asking for trouble. You might want some back-up for your 99% statement, though - if it was that many it would be a blood bath out there.
But, more importantly, the relevance to this thread is ...?
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I'd love to report the moron who nearly took me out this morning, but I can't ...
White Vauxhall Vivaro van tried to overtake me at a pinch point (outside All Saints Church, Rosendale Road, Dulwich) despite me deliberately taking primary in advance to reduce the risk of that (so I thought). Swerves into me, pushes me towards the kerb - I somehow manage to avoid hitting the kerb but my shoes bounce out of their clips and my cranks are spinning too fast to get back in as I was doing about 20 at the time.
I catch up with him at the next lights and ask (reasonably politely, given the circumstances) what on earth he thought he was doing. The guy (early 60s, Irish, looked like he'd had a hard life) just lets loose with a stream of invective - like that priest from Father Ted. I caught phrases around jumping red lights (nope - I don't but there weren't any red lights anywhere near anyway) and being in the centre of the road - yep, to stop cunts like you overtaking me, I suggested.
When the lights go green, he then deliberately swerves towards me to stop me setting off. But I follow him all the way up to the crossroads in the centre of Dulwich Village and we resume our discussion at that crossroads.
That's the third time in three days I've had someone almost take me out at a pinch point - though this was the worst - no idea why I've had a spate of them. Fuck - I've got wound-up again now just thinking about it.
Annoying thing is: I tried very hard to remember his number plate but at some point over the next few miles it morphed into my own number plate. Bugger, I'm not reporting myself. And my Muvi knock-off has stopped working after I got caught in a bad storm a couple of weeks ago. I've tried working out the number plate but nothing fits.
LD, LF, LM, LN - I'm sure it was a London plate
52 - definitely
HFS/HVS/HDS/LFS/LVS/LDS - something like that. But tried all combinations of those and not found him.
Ah well, I might just buy myself another Muvi knock-off for next time. -
I've just done the sums myself and gone OTP.
Always meant to buy an old 70s/80s road bike and "fix" it. I'd keep all the old bits so I could always make it geared again in the future if I wanted.
But a decent (i.e. paint good, decals intact) old bike goes for a lot these days and I couldn't find one that seemed a reasonable price once I'd taken into account the cost of new wheels, chainset and so on (e.g. probably new BB and headset).
So, thanks to eagle eyed GA2G on the definitive OTP thread, any day now Triton Cycles will be delivering me a brand new Paddy Wagon for £350. Not sure I could have made up a decent fixie for that price. Cheers, GA2G!
For now, I'm just dipping my toes in the fixed water. So an OTP like the Paddy Wagon will suit me just fine. In the future, who knows?
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Will Aid - www.willaid.org.uk
Get a solicitor to draft it for you and the fee goes to charity. My wife and I, ahem, did this a few years ago - a year or so after we got married. We had it writted sufficiently flexible so that it didn't need updating when we had kids (or, "issue" as I think they are known by lawyers).
I had a WH Smith DIY one when I was single - "All to Mum" or something like that. Once you've got more complicated financial affairs, it's worth making sure it's watertight. What happens if I die? What happens if my wife and I both die at the same time, say as a result of an accident? And so on.
My brother-in-law comes from a somewhat chaotic family. His father died a few years ago. He (brother in law's father) had separated from his wife about 6 months before his death and shacked up with what I believe my mother would call a floozy. He'd also decided to amend his will himself to share out everything he owned 6 ways - i.e. 5 kids and 1 floozy. This included the family house which he owned as"tenants in common" with his wife rather than as "joint tenants" which meant that floozy now owned 1/12th of the house and immediately started pushing for it to be sold so that she could get her hands on the cash. And my brother-in-law's youngest sisters were under 16 and still living at home.
My brother-in-law was listed as executor. In the end he gave up and refused to do any more as it was such a nightmare. Last I heard it was still being argued about.
Cool - thanks. That's who all my googling keeps coming back to as the best bet for a "value" wheelset for my build.