Cycling is quickest for commute.

On 12/06/11 08:57, Ian Smith wrote:
On Sat, 11 Jun 2011 16:46:25 +0100, Adam wrote:
On 09/06/11 11:57, Ian Smith wrote:

If you are cold, wear more clothes.

If you are hot, wear fewer clothes until you are at the limit of
decency. When you reach that limit, cycle slower.

I have never once found myself cycling along wishing I was in a car.
I often find myself sitting in a car in traffic wishing I was on a
bike.

How did you manage last December?

I cycled to work. Most of the people who normally drive didn't get
there the first few days, of course.

Ditto.


Even with three pairs of gloves on I got painful fingers on a
couple of occasions, because I couldn't cycle fast enough to get
the circulation going fully due to sheet ice.

Spiked tyres. Mountain mitts over thin liners on the coldest days. I
now have some over-mitts that will go over the mountain mitts so I'm
probably OK for another 10 or 15 degrees colder still.

I do have spiked tyres but even so, had to take it really carefully.
Again, it is the hills that are the problem. If the force of gravity is
greater than the maximum available braking force then you have no choice
but to increase your speed to uncomfortable levels, hence I often walked
the first mile down the hill when coming home in the evening.


The main thing I find with hands (which I agree can suffer if you're
not equipped) is to put the gloves / mitts on before leaving the
house, and do not take them off. Not for a second. This results in a
fair degree of fumbling - I have a padlock and chain to negotiate to
get my bike out, then have to do the padlock back up afterwards, then
put panniers on bike - but it makes a massive difference. I find my
hands stay happy in gloves, but if they get cold they don't regain
lost heat.

This is more important than what the gloves actually are. Put them
on before leaving the house, and don't take them off 'till you get to
your destination.

That is a useful tip, thanks.


And mitts are much better than gloves. For cold days I use
http://www.mountain-equipment.co.uk/...in_mitt---305/
but most years I only wear them a few days (if it's well below zero
when setting out). The last couple of years I've had thin thermal
liners underneath on a couple of occasions.

I don't have problems cycling in mitts, on either straight (twist grip
gears) or drop (downtube shifters) handlebars.

(As an aside, my first pair of those mitts ruptured a crotch seam with
very little use, but the manufacturer replaced them at no cost to me.)

The overmitt to go over that is an extra-large Buffalo mitt.

There were many occasions that month where I was afraid of falling
and breaking a limb (especially after hearing about others who had
done just that).

I fell off once last winter, but actually that was when I extended my
ride home from work by a factor of three going for an extra ride
around because I was enjoying the ride. I think if I'd stuck to
riding from A to B I'd have been OK - it was the hunting out tricky
bits that led to my downfall. Critically, I had the studded tyres on,
but hadn't let the pressure down. After falling off, I let some air
out and was OK thereafter.


It is the squirming about I don't like. I feel like I am about to go
down every time the rear wheel slips sideways due to the snow crumbling
underneath it, or catching a hidden icy rut underneath the snow.
Conditions like last December are sufficiently rare here that I have no
way of practising bike handling skills and really finding out safely
what the limits are.

On 12/06/2011 16:42, BartC wrote:


"Dave - Cyclists VOR" wrote in message
news
On 12/06/2011 15:25, Ian Smith wrote:
On Sun, 12 Jun 2011, wrote:

No, this is where your anti-motor agenda clearly shows it's face. A
car is not a "dangerous machine".

Eh? A car is a dangerous machine - that's why we have mandatory
testing of the condition of the machine, and a mandatory test and
licensing system for the operator.

Afraid not idiot. A car is an inanimate object which cannot be
dangerous all by itself.

So why does a car parked on the road still need third party insurance?


Why don't you go away & think about that.

On Jun 12, 4:23*pm, Dave - Cyclists VOR
wrote:
On 12/06/2011 15:24, Simon Mason wrote:





On Jun 12, 10:02 am, Dave - Cyclists
wrote:
On 09/06/2011 20:39, Simon Mason wrote:

On Jun 9, 8:10 pm, "Mr. * *wrote:

The last time I challenged the CTC over their pro-cycling propaganda, they
failed to reply to me. A bit like Doug.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Why don't you contact that well known petrolhead show, Top Gear and
ask them why they frigged their commute challenge so that Hammond on
his push bike was allowed to beat Clarkson, The Stig, James May et al?
I was not aware that this show would have hamstrung all of the rival
commutes to the bike in order that the bike would win.

Look at the route you retard. *Nobody commutes 'across' a city, they
commute 'into' a city.

What?
I commute into Hull through its western border, through the city
centre and then out through its eastern border.
That seems like "across" a city to me.

Hull is a collection of mud huts, not a city.

London is a city.

--
Renamed Kings town upon Hull by King Edward I in 1299.
Gained city status in 1897.

--
Simon Mason

On Jun 12, 4:26*pm, "Norman Wells" wrote:

Er, no you don't. *I can't remember the last time I wore gloves to drive.-

There are people on the cycling NG who still refer to "road tax", "log
books" and "wing mirrors".
No doubt these drivers still have "glove boxes".

--
Simon Mason

On Jun 12, 4:23*pm, Dave - Cyclists VOR
wrote:
On 12/06/2011 15:24, Simon Mason wrote:



On Jun 12, 10:02 am, Dave - Cyclists
wrote:
On 09/06/2011 20:39, Simon Mason wrote:

On Jun 9, 8:10 pm, "Mr. * *wrote:

The last time I challenged the CTC over their pro-cycling propaganda, they
failed to reply to me. A bit like Doug.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Why don't you contact that well known petrolhead show, Top Gear and
ask them why they frigged their commute challenge so that Hammond on
his push bike was allowed to beat Clarkson, The Stig, James May et al?
I was not aware that this show would have hamstrung all of the rival
commutes to the bike in order that the bike would win.

Look at the route you retard. *Nobody commutes 'across' a city, they
commute 'into' a city.

What?
I commute into Hull through its western border, through the city
centre and then out through its eastern border.
That seems like "across" a city to me.

Hull is a collection of mud huts, not a city.

London is a city.

"During World War II, Hull was the second most bombed city in England,
with 90 per cent of its buildings damaged."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-13286574

On 12/06/2011 16:38, Tony Dragon wrote:
On 12/06/2011 16:28, Dave - Cyclists VOR wrote:
On 12/06/2011 15:25, Ian Smith wrote:
On Sun, 12 Jun 2011, wrote:

No, this is where your anti-motor agenda clearly shows it's face. A
car is not a "dangerous machine".

Eh? A car is a dangerous machine - that's why we have mandatory
testing of the condition of the machine, and a mandatory test and
licensing system for the operator.

Afraid not idiot. A car is an inanimate object which cannot be dangerous
all by itself.

Tut, tut, do you not remember a while ago, Doug told us that because
cars use computers, they could go wrong, start the car up, drive it down
the road, knock over (sorry ram) a few cyclists, drive down the
pavement, knock a little old lady off her bike, demolish a front wall &
nearly kill a cyclist who was building a model of the Cutty Sark in his
front room.
I think that's what he said.

I stand corrected...

--
Dave - Cyclists VOR. "Many people barely recognise the bicycle as a
legitimate mode of transport; it is either a toy for children or a
vehicle fit only for the poor and/or strange," Dave Horton - Lancaster
University

Simon Mason wrote:
On Jun 12, 4:26 pm, "Norman Wells" wrote:

Er, no you don't. I can't remember the last time I wore gloves to
drive.-

There are people on the cycling NG who still refer to "road tax", "log
books" and "wing mirrors".

Look, I don't try to rationalise others on obscure and pointless self-help
groups any more than I try to make sense of homeopaths, vegans or Opus Dei.
All are utterly pointless exercises.

No doubt these drivers still have "glove boxes".

I expect they do. Many cars come with them.

On Jun 12, 6:24*pm, Squashme wrote:
I commute into Hull through its western border, through the city
centre and then out through its eastern border.
That seems like "across" a city to me.

Hull is a collection of mud huts, not a city.

London is a city.

"During World War II, Hull was the second most bombed city in England,
with 90 per cent of its buildings damaged."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-13286574- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Indeed.
We were the first and the last city to be bombed in WWII by the
Germans. The very site where I work today took the first daylight hit.

"Saltend, East Yorkshire (just outside of the Hull city boundary)
suffered the very first daylight raid on mainland Britain. It happened
between 16:40 and 17:00 on 1 July 1940 when a German aircraft dropped
its bombs on the oil terminal at Salt End during a ‘nuisance raid’ in
which the aircraft unsuccessfully attacked several barrage balloons.
Shrapnel from the bomb punctured a 2,500 tons holding tank and the
leaking petrol caught fire and threatened to cause adjacent tanks to
explode. The courageous effort of depot staff and fire brigades
prevented a major disaster. Two firemen, Jack Owen and Clifford
Turner, and three Salt End workers, George Archibald Howe, George
Samuel Sewell and William Sigsworth, were awarded the George Medal for
their bravery.

The final German air-raid of World War II also fell on Hull. It
occurred on Saturday 17 March 1945 and resulted in the death of 13
people while 22 others were seriously injured."

--
Simon Mason

On 12/06/2011 16:20, Simon Mason wrote:

All of those room cooling fans that are sold around the world that
purport to cool you down by blowing fast air at you which carries away
your body heat more quickly do the opposite, if you think about it. In
a closed room, they actually heat the air up by virtue of the fact
that their electric motor gives out heat.

These fans have a different effect depending on whether you are thinking
about the effect?

Adam Lea wrote:

On 12/06/11 08:57, Ian Smith wrote:
On Sat, 11 Jun 2011 16:46:25 +0100, Adam wrote:
On 09/06/11 11:57, Ian Smith wrote:

If you are cold, wear more clothes.

If you are hot, wear fewer clothes until you are at the limit of
decency. When you reach that limit, cycle slower.

I have never once found myself cycling along wishing I was in a car.
I often find myself sitting in a car in traffic wishing I was on a
bike.

How did you manage last December?

I cycled to work. Most of the people who normally drive didn't get
there the first few days, of course.

Ditto.


Even with three pairs of gloves on I got painful fingers on a
couple of occasions, because I couldn't cycle fast enough to get
the circulation going fully due to sheet ice.

Spiked tyres. Mountain mitts over thin liners on the coldest days. I
now have some over-mitts that will go over the mountain mitts so I'm
probably OK for another 10 or 15 degrees colder still.

I do have spiked tyres but even so, had to take it really carefully.
Again, it is the hills that are the problem. If the force of gravity is
greater than the maximum available braking force then you have no choice
but to increase your speed to uncomfortable levels, hence I often walked
the first mile down the hill when coming home in the evening.

try downhill mud spike tyres, soft compound rubber and low pressures.
means what you can ride down or ride up is impressive, equally
impressive is the rolling resisance!


The main thing I find with hands (which I agree can suffer if you're
not equipped) is to put the gloves / mitts on before leaving the
house, and do not take them off. Not for a second. This results in a
fair degree of fumbling - I have a padlock and chain to negotiate to
get my bike out, then have to do the padlock back up afterwards, then
put panniers on bike - but it makes a massive difference. I find my
hands stay happy in gloves, but if they get cold they don't regain
lost heat.

This is more important than what the gloves actually are. Put them
on before leaving the house, and don't take them off 'till you get to
your destination.

That is a useful tip, thanks.

some people feel cold (like my wife) some don't (like my self)


And mitts are much better than gloves. For cold days I use
http://www.mountain-equipment.co.uk/...feet/hands/mou
ntain_mitt---305/ but most years I only wear them a few days (if it's
well below zero when setting out). The last couple of years I've had
thin thermal liners underneath on a couple of occasions.

I don't have problems cycling in mitts, on either straight (twist grip
gears) or drop (downtube shifters) handlebars.

(As an aside, my first pair of those mitts ruptured a crotch seam with
very little use, but the manufacturer replaced them at no cost to me.)

The overmitt to go over that is an extra-large Buffalo mitt.

There were many occasions that month where I was afraid of falling
and breaking a limb (especially after hearing about others who had
done just that).

I fell off once last winter, but actually that was when I extended my
ride home from work by a factor of three going for an extra ride
around because I was enjoying the ride. I think if I'd stuck to
riding from A to B I'd have been OK - it was the hunting out tricky
bits that led to my downfall. Critically, I had the studded tyres on,
but hadn't let the pressure down. After falling off, I let some air
out and was OK thereafter.


It is the squirming about I don't like. I feel like I am about to go
down every time the rear wheel slips sideways due to the snow crumbling
underneath it, or catching a hidden icy rut underneath the snow.
Conditions like last December are sufficiently rare here that I have no
way of practising bike handling skills and really finding out safely
what the limits are.

thinner harder tyres will skip, bigger softer tyres are much less prone.

I didn't need to take the MTB for the commute 25mm tyres where okay. But
clearly the MTB was much much better.

Roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com