@AndyP Yeah - the US specifically had a boom period after WW2 through the 60s due to war reparations. The UK was still paying off war debt through into the 90s, and rationing went on 3x longer than the war itself for some things.
come and try Scotland. In winter once something is wet it stays wet unless you bring it indoors to dry. In my particular case I also live within ~50m of the sea so salt in the air even
I got 4200 km off that cassette- should have known better. Downside, the chain broke and I managed to loose 1/3 of it between the break and coming to a stop. So fitting a new one was the only option.
Yeah - dark, uphill ride to home, in the rain, with a headwind from the south pole, and there are no streelights for ~1/3 of my commute, AND its 80 or 100 km/h road there. Yeah that's unpleasant
I do wipe my brake rim tracks every couple of rides in winter - can feel the grit otherwise, know its not doing the metal any favours.
I have a mountain bike here which was not used at all for a period of ~8 months or so. It seemed that the biting point of the brakes has changed compared to what it was: now the levers came much closer to the grip.
I performed the piston mobilization procedure on the front brake, as described here (for reasons unrelated to the gap in use): magura.com/en/components/techcenter/…
After this, the biting point has changed considerably: it bites much earlier.
Does this indicate that the brakes need bleeding?
I did hear some "slurping" noises when repeatedly pushing the pistons back. The bike was upside down when working on it, out of necessity. I know that this is frowned upon as any air bubbles can rise into the brake caliper.
Now there is a significant difference in biting point between the front and rear brakes (I didn't touch the rear). An additional question: how to remedy this?
@Szabolcs When that happened to me, a week later it stopped working entirely and I had to replace the oil entirely. I'd go get it checked by a professional.
@Szabolcs "The bike was upside down when working on it, out of necessity." can’t you suspend it from the roof somewhere? E.g. tie a string to a roof joist and the just put the saddle nose into it. It’s what I do in the shared bike garage here. Can’t have a bike repair stand here.
@Szabolcs have you tried just pressing the brake levers a couple of times (with the bike the right way up)?
you can also press the pistons back in to “reset” the position
@Erlkoenig Theres SO many miserable people out there! Can have a perfect day and yet still they are so absorbed in their own misery they can't return a cheerful 'Hi'
Maybe at home they have a screaming kid, a wife that doesnt like them and a dog with a bad case of the runs. The misery of the bike is less than the misery at home :P
@Erlkoenig if you meet another rider every five minutes or so greeting is the polite thing to do. When you meet more than five cyclists every minute greeting becomes indistinguishable from a persistent tremor.
@Erlkoenig Alan was known for their Aluminium frames.
Yeah - probably get maybey 8 hours of sunlight in the day. The Sun is just peaking over the horizon as I go to work, and will be down by the time I go home.
there is a huge difference between being able to do basic stuff (move around, take a shower etc.) and being fully recovered and pain free even in all-out exercise and extreme positions
Even Antwerpen was good. I thought Bruxelles had horrible bike infra and hardly anyone biked there. But it is still massively better than any German large city
@AndyP I could hardly hold back posting here after a day of cruising at the sea side on a Holland-Bike tandem.
We visited the Zandmotor!
It's so cool to see it in real life after it was in the news for about two decades.
@AndyP I really liked the two solutions to the number one reason for but having dinner lanes.
If there isn't enough space for safe bike lanes (a) close the street for car traffic (exceptions: services and special needs NY neighbours; retractable barriers with key cards) (b) make it mixed use, pedestrians, cyclists, cars permitted anywhere, does speeds, cars walking pace to slow cyclists pace.
I've never worked so hard climbing on such a flat route. Apparently my stoker found it a hilarious practical joke not to pedal at all whenever we went uphill.
All the extra weight was tough, especially since we stopped at the fishery port at Scheveningen for lunch. 30 kg bike + 40 kg stoker + 5 kg seafood inside stoker. And that on a full stomach.
