Road Cycling Essentials

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Osian said:
Interesting, not seen them before although they make sense. Out of interest, as I can't figure it out, how does it preload the headset?
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Took me a while to figure it out as well, but i rekon that the clamp you can see below the stem is attached to the top of the steerer tube and the bit above the stem is part of the same thing (the steerer tube is actually a normal length and not really long as it looks like). Kind of like bolting an extension onto the top of the fork steerer which is preloaded and clamped on the same way a normal stem is.
 
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Osian said:
Interesting, not seen them before although they make sense. Out of interest, as I can't figure it out, how does it preload the headset?
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Imagine the silver part is the stem, the cap on the top has a longer bolt than usual that runs all the way down from the top cap to the star nut inside the regular length steerer tube. You tighten that as normal and tighten the stem raiser pinch bolts as per a regular stem.

That means the headset is nipped up and all is tight. That leavs you able to put the stem that is actually used at any point on that raiser.


Gt tachyon bikes use a similar system. They use a physically longer steerer tube and use a long(3" say) spacer that has a groove down it(like a locating washer). The top cap preloads the spacer thus the headset and the stem pushes them all together to lock it down.
 
Gloves have turned up today which are nice. As suspected, I think the eBay seller is an Evans employee stealing stock, because they have turned up with an Evans label on them. Unless you get a VERY good discount there I would say his stuff is all knocked off.

Fibre flare has arrived but the seller has sent me a shorty, despite depicting it as a full length one. *Sigh* typical, but explains the low price. At least this is a more trustworthy-looking seller and should resolve no problem.
 
Some truly shocking driving by these two muppets.
I can kind of understand the first one as the van partially blocked the guys view.

But how in gods name do you not see an accident RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR CAR...
and then drive over the poor bloke.

Jesus wept.

 
Saw that a couple of months ago. What cracks me up is the woman trying to drive off with the frame stuck under the car whilst claiming she hadn't done anything wrong!
 
[DOD]Asprilla;20582796 said:
Saw that a couple of months ago. What cracks me up is the woman trying to drive off with the frame stuck under the car whilst claiming she hadn't done anything wrong!
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Quite shocking. Looks like she would have happily driven on if she was able to. I ride that stretch of road a fair bit on my way to Ealing and it's a nice downhill run past Greenford Road....well nice unless you get knocked over then run over by a moron.
 
Oooh that makes my blood boil. I'd be going off the nut at some of those idiots. Some are just the usual day to day things but I'd be kicking the side of cars there!

Whats the script witht he mondeo person holding the horn on? Frustrated that a cyclist doesn't want hit by a door by the sounds of it?
 
Some of those in the last video were bad. But it's kind of hard to see his road positioning. The guy seems like he's looking for trouble to me. One of those bike police people.

I wouldn't dream of hitting someones car unless they were literally about to knock me off. All you do is make their impression of cyclists even worse.
 
Scubascorpion said:
Some truly shocking driving by these two muppets.
I can kind of understand the first one as the van partially blocked the guys view.

But how in gods name do you not see an accident RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR CAR...
and then drive over the poor bloke.

Jesus wept.

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Unbelievable, are we are sure the woman who ran him over is actually human?
As she sure didn't act like one... what a total b***h!

He's there injured, his bike is crushed under her car and she's acting like he's inconvenienced her. Scum.



As for the second video, I'd say that's quite typical of commuting in London as I've had my fair share of similar incidents over the past couple of years. I noticed he was yelling out number plates, do you think he reports each one?

What was quite amazing was how vicious some of those Black Cab drivers were, even when they had passengers on board. I suppose though there are some people out there who clearly are just plain mental. The craziest one I ever had was a Black Cab Driver who went mental at me because I was in the ASL, designed for Cyclists at the traffic lights. He tried to knock me off, saying I shouldn't be going in front of people so it was my own fault. Then used just about every curse under the sun before calling me a 'Four Eye ***t', when I was wearing sunglasses!
 
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milgo said:
Some of those in the last video were bad. But it's kind of hard to see his road positioning. The guy seems like he's looking for trouble to me. One of those bike police people.

I wouldn't dream of hitting someones car unless they were literally about to knock me off. All you do is make their impression of cyclists even worse.
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I sort of see what you are saying with that aspect, there do seem to be some people who post camera videos who seem to always be having issues.

However I'd say a lot is also down to being a competent cyclist. If you cycle at a snails pace in the gutter, or are mostly sticking to cycle lanes, you aren't likely to have many issues. It's people who can cycle well then tend to have these issues because they are often cycling at speeds to match traffic, yet there are many idiots who see a Cyclist and have to get past them.


Personally I've only once hit a car.
I was waiting in an ASL with some other Cyclists waiting for the lights to change on my commute to work. An African woman in a old Merc pulled up behind me, but she was busy smoking and looking out of her side window, so she wasn't paying attention to the road. I suddenly felt my bike move from under me, realising she was creeping forward and had hit me. I managed to right myself, pull my bike to the side, I shouted and then slammed my fist down on her bonnet. She suddenly swing around to look forward and went absolutely mental. Despite me arguing that she was in the ASL and had hit me, even with other Cyclists saying the same... it mattered not... because I had touched her car. So that kind of showed me that no matter what happens, if you touch a car, the person will just go mental, so there is little point.
 
Sometimes I ride at commuting times and I ride at about the same pace as the traffic on the whole. Sometimes you have to touch the brake when a bus overtakes you. It's not that easy for them either. When I drive I don't carry on at the same speed regardless of what is going on and then get angry and hit peoples cars.

A lot of these guys with cameras carry on and head into a problem you can see approaching, just to prove a point to someone who will never learn anyway.

This isn't aimed at you nexus. Your example is probably worthy of a fist to the bonnet.
 
That is something that a lot of people overlook, i agree. At the end of the day even when driving my car people cut me up and drive like idiots, yet people don't (or rather, less people) record it and put it on youtube.

I guess the issue comes down to the fact that you're far more vulnerable on a bike, you also have to work harder to get where you need to go so people making it even more difficult is very frustrating. The combination of the two inevitably result in a much more aggressive 'persona'.

Ultimately the biggest problem i have is this; many motorists don't seem to think that the same rules apply to overtaking a bike as they do overtaking a car. As a result of this ignorance of a very basic rule I've had no end of problems in my first few months of cycling. More than half a dozen times i've been forced into nearly hitting parked cars etc as cars (mostly vans!) refuse to leave adequate room as they pass.
 
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Streeteh said:
Ultimately the biggest problem i have is this; many motorists don't seem to think that the same rules apply to overtaking a bike as they do overtaking a car. As a result of this ignorance of a very basic rule I've had no end of problems in my first few months of cycling. More than half a dozen times i've been forced into nearly hitting parked cars etc as cars (mostly vans!) refuse to leave adequate room as they pass.
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That's going onto assertive cycling now. Once you start that then those issues start to fade. It's also why it looks like a lot of the videos posted the cyclist is a foot or so away from the kerb.

Personally I cycle assertively with a bit of common sense. If I'm going anywhere near 30mph (such as down a hill) then I'll purposefully be in the very middle of the road as I don't want cars to even dare overtaking me. However if there's clearly enough room for a bike and a car to get through and I'm doing 20mph or less then sure, I'll move over and tuck in a bit more.
 
Russinating said:
That is horrific. Found this as one of the similar videos. Equally depressing footage.

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That guy's attitude stinks though, no wonder he gets so much grief. I ride those routes occasionally and a lot of those cars aren't anywhere near as close to him as his camera is making it look. He's also not giving himself enough anywhere near enough space.

The other video is quite shocking though. The woman's driving doesn't surprise me to be honest. My own observations on the road tell me that she didn't do it out of aggression, more that she had no clue that she was driving over his bike and leg and then had no clue that there was a bike tangled under her car. She probably cried afterwards.
 
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