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Today I, Bollocks.....


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A few days ago now but i've calmed down now.

Flex fans, ummm, set the car up for a strobe check on the dizzy, was leaning over to get the strobe in position, blipped the throttle to clear the idle and then pressed the strobe trigger at the same time as the new rad gave out and sprayed coolant everywhere, mainly over me, i even pressed the strobe trigger a second time to make it stop, nah, B0ll@cks

Turned it off, stripped off the rad shroud and theres a bit of fan in the radiator from where it contacted the steering rack at revs and broke off, double B0ll@cks.

Should be repairable and nothing dented really apart from my pride.

 

 

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What is it with "smart motorways"?    I travelled yesterday from Lancaster to London, to see Son & Family.    To minimise infection risk, I went by car.  "Smart" M6, south of Preston, was chaotic.   Every gantry had conflicting speed limits, and fictitious warnings of Vehicles stalled, lanes blocked.  The warinng's of queues ahead were real, as everthing slowed to a crawling speed.   In my first three hours on the road, I travelled 80 miles. 

At J16, the "smart" bit finished everything smoothed out and we travelled at 70mph, until the next bit of "smart"

Isn't this the worst idea on Earth?   I was eight hours on the road, on what should take no more than six.

Edited by JohnD
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Yes John it’s crap and dangerous especially if you break down.

on Thursday eve I took my gearbox to Pete cox 

hot and clammy evening and with the inside lane coned off with 3 narrow lanes slowing sharply with brake lights everywhere passed an hgv that had pulled up sharply.

I passed it doing 15mph to see a lady in front of the hgv had come to a stop to raise the roof of her back merc slk !!!!!

it had started to spit with rain so she had decided to come to a halt in the new inside narrow lane to raise the roof !!! 
 

I just hope that behind in the 3 lane tail back there were mo shunts or injuries!!!

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Nothing as traumatic as fan breaking up or gearbox committing suicide, but the other day I was about to put my new pistons in the Spitfire block. Got my new big-end bearings out to fit into rods first and found they were -020 instead of -010. Checked the invoice and I'd ordered the right ones, so a packing error by James Paddock. No drama, ordered another set on Wednesday. Dispatched on Thursday, but I haven't had a visit from the postman since! Waited around today but still nothing, presume Royal Mail are suffering from this 'pingdemic' business. But that means i've lost another weekend on the rebuild... 

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Hah!  I ordered anew set of Maxpeeding rods.  They never arrived, so I asked the suppliers.   "Returned, Could not find address", so delivered to local PO.  A/they had my address in full, and B/ they never told me that was where they were.

Then they had the gall to ask another £10 to redeliver them!

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And!   On Tube today with Son & Family.  Announcement that ' Due to staff shortages, the Circle Line is closed"

WHAT?   That's like Armageddon is here!  The Tower has fallen!  London must be a wasteland of desperate, taxi-seeking walkers! 

Luckily, we're on the Southern Overground! 

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45 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

GT brake light switch fell apart so brake lights on all the time

They do that. Switches are rubbish…..

 

47 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

headlight high beam light doesn't work anymore.

They do that too….. If you are lucky, giving the wiring behind a bit of a stir may fix it (hopefully without un-fixing anything else). Otherwise……. :pinch: May the force be with you…..

53 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

New engine is getting better too.

:smile:

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  • 1 month later...

Bike riding today.  SM (unusually) declined.  Too windy.  It was quite windy, from the north, so I thought a bit about my route in advance and went north in the hope that when I got tired of going north I could turn round and the wind would blow me home.....

Did it work?  Did it hell :mad:  Went round in a 24 mile loop, wind in face all the way......... How does it do that? :huh:

Still, it was a good ride any way and not that slow either (by my low standards at least).  My legs feel a bit heavy now....

For perspective, young 'un did a casual 65 miles this morning and his average was over 20 mph to my 15 mph.....

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:blink::huh:

Generally, my cycling man tells me, a traffic cone in that position means a really bad mishap has occurred……:pinch:

Forgot to mention that at one point yesterday I was overtaken, going reasonably hard up-hill, by an elderly lady :ohmy:…… happily for my ego, her bike turned out to be an e-bike…..

Maybe I should get one…… the guy I got the GT6 from had a home made conversion. A fairly chunky looking mountain bike with a motorised back wheel. Apparently it would do “at least 60mph” (he wisely chickened out!).

Possibly not strictly road legal in the UK!

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34 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

Apparently it would do “at least 60mph” (he wisely chickened out!).

Possibly not strictly road legal in the UK!

I have managed nearly 60 mph on the bike once according to my Garmin - very downhill and overcome with enthusiasm.

It then occurred to me that lycra and polystyrene (expanded or otherwise) are not noted for their abrasion resistance.

Having come off at 30 - 35 mph on a couple of occasions the ensuing dermatological abrasion was quite enough.

I have managed to resist that temptation since

Edited by Escadrille Ecosse
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back in '92 I did the London to Bright bike ride.

Getting near the end there is a serious steep down hill section.

In my struggle up one side I was overtake by an ambulance.

On going down the other side at a sensible speed I came to a sharpish bend and directly across the bend

in the road was a bicycle/cyclist shape in the rater thorny hedgerow where the keen cyclist passed through.

Apparently it took some getting him out.

 

Roger

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16 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

her bike turned out to be an e-bike…..

Maybe I should get one…… the guy I got the GT6 from had a home made conversion. A fairly chunky looking mountain bike with a motorised back wheel. Apparently it would do “at least 60mph” (he wisely chickened out!).

Possibly not strictly road legal in the UK!

I am lead to believe that e-bikes are also better for developing/maintaining fitness levels which I always thought to be counterintuitive. However they (whoever "they" are!!) reckon that because most e-bike set-ups have a variable input, or assist, rate it allows you to continue pedalling on hills etc where normally you would end up blowing like a grampus!

The road legality side is just bizarre, but then I guess it is the usual case of progress always being several stages ahead of policy.

Phil

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Son's partner has an electric bike, and she let me have a go when I was last with them.     There's no 'accelerator' or throttle lever, it only assists if you pedal, and pedal significantly!  Conversely, Daughter has one of those "Peleton" exercise bikes, which simulate hills and get more difficult to pedal as you seem to ascend the Col de l’Iseran.

Edited by JohnD
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7 minutes ago, thebrookster said:

I am lead to believe that e-bikes are also better for developing/maintaining fitness levels which I always thought to be counterintuitive. However they (whoever "they" are!!) reckon that because most e-bike set-ups have a variable input, or assist, rate it allows you to continue pedalling on hills etc where normally you would end up blowing like a grampus!

The road legality side is just bizarre, but then I guess it is the usual case of progress always being several stages ahead of policy.

Phil

I have converted my old bike (that I used it for London to Brighton bike ride in 2000, that last hill is difficult going up and down) to electric using a kit from Swytch. The bike must be 25 years old and is a bit like Triggers broom, new gears, chain front folks, saddle etc... ;) 

Its 250W and can be set to limit to 15mph (legal) or 20 mph (illegal). Its great very good fun and I find myself going further and faster (~19mph) when I go out for a ride. Not many hills in the fens but its great when there is a head wind. 
Very enjoyable to ride, you can choose the amount of help from the motor (with a trade off on distance) but I can get well over 30 miles from it without the battery going flat.
If you want speed you need Bafang conversion, 750 W and probably good for over 40mph... very illegal but looks the same a s250W system...
Bafang BBS02B 48V 750W Mid Drive Electric Bike Motor Ebike Conversion Kit Mid Motor for Mountain Bike Road Bike : Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

Mike

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44 minutes ago, mpbarrett said:

I have converted my old bike (that I used it for London to Brighton bike ride in 2000, that last hill is difficult going up and down) to electric using a kit from Swytch. The bike must be 25 years old and is a bit like Triggers broom, new gears, chain front folks, saddle etc... ;) 

Its 250W and can be set to limit to 15mph (legal) or 20 mph (illegal). Its great very good fun and I find myself going further and faster (~19mph) when I go out for a ride. Not many hills in the fens but its great when there is a head wind. 
Very enjoyable to ride, you can choose the amount of help from the motor (with a trade off on distance) but I can get well over 30 miles from it without the battery going flat.
If you want speed you need Bafang conversion, 750 W and probably good for over 40mph... very illegal but looks the same a s250W system...
Bafang BBS02B 48V 750W Mid Drive Electric Bike Motor Ebike Conversion Kit Mid Motor for Mountain Bike Road Bike : Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

Mike

Mike

I didn't realise that there is a speed limit for e-bikes. Very good. Over here, there is no limit (I checked) and some of the pay-per-minute e-scooters are seriously fast, evidently reaching 50kph, since they can keep pace with road traffic.

The surgeon who re-attached my index finger some years ago tells me that he sees up to ten serious wrist and finger injuries a week resulting from e-scooter and city bike usage (presumably, there are corresponding figures from orthopedic surgeons who deal with the elbow upward).

Warsaw is currently on an anti-car crusade, making routes into and through the city slower and subject to more restrictions, and increasing the priority of bikes and scooters. This would be fine if (i) there was a coordinated public transport system to offset the restriction on car use and (ii) casual bike users were obliged to observe at least the very basic precepts of the highway code and not assume that their safety is other people's responsibility.

Paul

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in the UK and EU its a limit of 15 mph and 250 watt motor and you have to pedal to get any assistance. You can have a throttle to get the bike up to 5 mph max independent of pedalling.
But you can buy wheel motors up to 1 kW and there is quite a large number of people building custom fast E bikes... I think in the US its 30 mph limit (probably state dependant).
In Histon we have the E scoters you can rent. Some sort of strange trial as they are illegal to buy and use personally. 
You have to ride them on the road not pavements but I dont think i want to hire  one, small wheels and big pot holes dont mix well....

 

Mike

 

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