slime is great and 'how many helmets ?'

mr p said:

OK two posts in one here, sorry..

I was out cycling my MTB on the New Forest tracks today and I have
never seen so many other cyclists.. some days I can get around the
whole forest with out seeing another cyclist. I am wandering what this
obsession with helmets is these days though, it must be a fashion
thing from what I read !

I think It is because they think cycling unsafe, many of them will be
weekend cyclists.
Or those who have restarted cycling after a long period not on a bike
and have been to a local toy shop and been persuaded to buy a plastic
hat with the bike.

Quoted message said:

Finally ( thirdly !) one of the spokes in my front wheel broke today
and the wheel is rather wonky now.. I've often thought the wheels
could be better, if I were to invest in a new pair to replace the
( presumably machine made ) ones that came with the bike, would they
likely stay straighter / be stronger ? Should I struggle to true this
one up as much as possible with a new spoke or maybe take it to a
pro ?

If it were me, I would replace the spoke, and a few each side and true
it up. If you can't do a reasonable job, then replace the wheel, and
keep the old as a spare

Martin Dann wrote on 06/04/2007 22:36 +0100:

Quoted message said:

If it were me, I would replace the spoke, and a few each side and true
it up. If you can't do a reasonable job, then replace the wheel, and
keep the old as a spare

Replacing the spoke and tensioning up the rest to prevent a reoccurence
is pretty simple. The instructions can be found on Sheldon Brown's website.

--
Tony

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there
is no good evidence either way."
- Bertrand Russell

mr p said:

Finally ( thirdly !) one of the spokes in my front wheel broke today
and the wheel is rather wonky now.. I've often thought the wheels
could be better, if I were to invest in a new pair to replace the
( presumably machine made ) ones that came with the bike, would they
likely stay straighter / be stronger ? Should I struggle to true this
one up as much as possible with a new spoke or maybe take it to a
pro ?

I would get a spoke and fit it yourself. Its good practise should you ever
need to do it. Front wheels are easy to do, rear can be harder (not least
because sprockets often have to be removed).

You should be able to true the wheel easily as only the broken spoke should
need any adjusting (OK, when its nearly spot-on, there may be tweaks
elsewhere). When done, give the spoke a fairly strong heave with fingers to
an adjacent one to take the tension up, then check/tweak again.

A "good enough" wheel truing jig can be done by turning bike upside down and
holding a pencil against a fork. When wheel spins, you can see from tip of
pencil whether the rim is right or left of true. (I doubt one spoke out
could have made the rim significantly oval, so shouldn't need to worry about
that). Posh version of same has lever dial gauge clamped around fork
(because I have a dial gauge in the shed).

Quoted message said:

It's a Claude Butler Cape Wrath disc BTW ( '05 ) Has shimano hubs and
mavic rims, which were seemingly assembed by a monkey though, and
evidently maintaned / PDI'ed with simmilar care !

If money for new wheels is available, you could add some very posh light
ones and have tubeless tyres thrown in as well.
But for general riding, I expect the standard wheels are adequate.

- Nigel

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

Martin Dann said:

mr p said:

OK two posts in one here, sorry..

Quoted message said:

I was out cycling my MTB on the New Forest tracks today and I have
never seen so many other cyclists.. some days I can get around the
whole forest with out seeing another cyclist. I am wandering what this
obsession with helmets is these days though, it must be a fashion
thing from what I read !

I think It is because they think cycling unsafe,

It is! If you come off through your own actions or from an others,
and land on your head without a helmet, it's going to hurt and could
easily be fatal!

Quoted message said:

many of them will be
weekend cyclists.
Or those who have restarted cycling after a long period not on a bike
and have been to a local toy shop and been persuaded to buy a plastic
hat with the bike.

I personally will not risk riding my cycle without wearing my helmet.
No chance.

<snip>

"Dundonald" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

I personally will not risk riding my cycle without wearing my helmet.
No chance.

Oh dear! There is no credible evidence that a flimsy plastic hat will
give significant protection against a serious head injury.

Sorry chums!

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

Dundonald said:

It is! If you come off through your own actions or from an others,
and land on your head without a helmet, it's going to hurt and could
easily be fatal!

http://www.cyclehelmets.org

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

"Dundonald" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

I personally will not risk riding my cycle without wearing my helmet.
No chance.

Oh dear! There is no credible evidence that a flimsy plastic hat will
give significant protection against a serious head injury.

I have to admit that I normally wear head protection whilst out on my bike.

Off road the plastic and polystyrene lid has saved me from some nasty
bumps and scrapes on the head from low branches.

On road the protective ability of a fleecy hat cannot be overstated in
the winter (I get very cold ears and head without a hat), during the
summer a light cotton cap helps protect from the sun's heat and glare.

Having said that, with the gorgeous weather at the moment (warm and dry,
but not to hot) I've been going bare head.

Matt

Dundonald said:

Martin Dann said:

mr p said:

OK two posts in one here, sorry..

Quoted message said:

I was out cycling my MTB on the New Forest tracks today and I have
never seen so many other cyclists.. some days I can get around the
whole forest with out seeing another cyclist. I am wandering what this
obsession with helmets is these days though, it must be a fashion
thing from what I read !

I think It is because they think cycling unsafe,

It is! If you come off through your own actions or from an others,
and land on your head without a helmet, it's going to hurt and could
easily be fatal!

Quoted message said:

many of them will be
weekend cyclists.
Or those who have restarted cycling after a long period not on a bike
and have been to a local toy shop and been persuaded to buy a plastic
hat with the bike.

I personally will not risk riding my cycle without wearing my helmet.
No chance.

You must be new here...

Dundonald wrote on 06/04/2007 23:36 +0100:

Quoted message said:

It is! If you come off through your own actions or from an others,
and land on your head without a helmet, it's going to hurt and could
easily be fatal!

Quoted message said:

I personally will not risk riding my cycle without wearing my helmet.
No chance.

<snip>

INCOMING!

--
Tony

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there
is no good evidence either way."
- Bertrand Russell

Matthew Haigh wrote on 07/04/2007 00:41 +0100:

Quoted message said:

On road the protective ability of a fleecy hat cannot be overstated in
the winter (I get very cold ears and head without a hat), during the
summer a light cotton cap helps protect from the sun's heat and glare.

And as Simon of this parish can attest, a cotton cycling cap can Save
Your Life™ in a big crash.

--
Tony

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there
is no good evidence either way."
- Bertrand Russell

Dundonald said:

Martin Dann said:

mr p said:

OK two posts in one here, sorry..

Quoted message said:

I was out cycling my MTB on the New Forest tracks today and I have
never seen so many other cyclists.. some days I can get around the
whole forest with out seeing another cyclist. I am wandering what this
obsession with helmets is these days though, it must be a fashion
thing from what I read !

I think It is because they think cycling unsafe,

It is! If you come off through your own actions or from an others,
and land on your head without a helmet, it's going to hurt and could
easily be fatal!

Quoted message said:

many of them will be
weekend cyclists.
Or those who have restarted cycling after a long period not on a bike
and have been to a local toy shop and been persuaded to buy a plastic
hat with the bike.

I personally will not risk riding my cycle without wearing my helmet.
No chance.

Whilst there are certainly cases where a helmet will save your life they form a
microscopic proportion of all cycling accidents.

There are several downsides to wearing them that almost certainly outweigh the
advantages.

If you'd like to have a look at a collection of interesting facts, statistics
and ideas about helmets, see here: http://www.cyclehelmets.org.

mr p said:

OK two posts in one here, sorry..

I was out cycling my MTB on the New Forest tracks today and I have
never seen so many other cyclists.. some days I can get around the
whole forest with out seeing another cyclist. I am wandering what this
obsession with helmets is these days though, it must be a fashion
thing from what I read !

On a different note, I had a thorn stuck in my tyre today, so I pulled
it out half expecting an early tea break but the slime miraculously
stopped it straight away.. marvelous stuff, I could see a little blob
of green on the tyre, but it hardly lost any pressure, highly
recomeded stuff IMHO

yes is good stuff i used to use it, though it's no good against snake
bites and the like.

snip wheels

Quoted message said:

Simon

roger

On Apr 6, 6:48 pm, Helen Deborah Vecht <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

"Dundonald" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

I personally will not risk riding my cycle without wearing my helmet.
No chance.

Oh dear! There is no credible evidence that a flimsy plastic hat will
give significant protection against a serious head injury.

Sorry chums!

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

Are you shure you're a doctor ? 🙂

Dundonald said:

On 6 Apr, 22:36, Martin Dann <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I think It is because they think cycling unsafe,

It is! If you come off through your own actions or from an others,
and land on your head without a helmet, it's going to hurt and could
easily be fatal!

It isn't! If you use your head for thinking instead of for landing on,
cycling is totally safe!

Quoted message said:

I personally will not risk riding my cycle without wearing my helmet.
No chance.

I personally have never worn a helmet while cycling, and never will. No
chance.

John Kane said:

On Apr 6, 6:48 pm, Helen Deborah Vecht <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

"Dundonald" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

I personally will not risk riding my cycle without wearing my helmet.
No chance.

Oh dear! There is no credible evidence that a flimsy plastic hat will
give significant protection against a serious head injury.

Sorry chums!

Are you shure you're a doctor ? 🙂

Definitely not a member of the BMA, anyway. 😉

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

"Dundonald" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

I personally will not risk riding my cycle without wearing my helmet.
No chance.

Oh dear! There is no credible evidence that a flimsy plastic hat will
give significant protection against a serious head injury.

Sorry chums!

Helen, there is no credible evidence that replying to someone who makes
this kind of assertion will provide a net health benefit to this
newsgroup, as the small increase in the safety of that person due to a
greater awareness of risk assessment and reduction in complacency could
easily be outweighed by the greater stress and anxiety caused to other
newsgroup readers by yet another helmet flamewar.

A

In article <[email hidden]>, Ambrose Nankivell
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

"Dundonald" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

I personally will not risk riding my cycle without wearing my helmet.
No chance.

Oh dear! There is no credible evidence that a flimsy plastic hat will
give significant protection against a serious head injury.

Sorry chums!

Helen, there is no credible evidence that replying to someone who makes
this kind of assertion will provide a net health benefit to this
newsgroup, as the small increase in the safety of that person due to a
greater awareness of risk assessment and reduction in complacency could
easily be outweighed by the greater stress and anxiety caused to other
newsgroup readers by yet another helmet flamewar.

Lively discussion, please. :-)

Quoted message said:

Definitely not a member of the BMA, anyway. 😉

The bma drs that voted at that reps meeting were mostly fat car
addicts who thought little about it and swallowed the usual crip from
some politically active hlmet evangelists.
The rest of us were out on our bikes.
Unfortunately one cannot always choose ones colleagues in every little
particular.

TerryJ

Nigel Cliffe said:

mr p said:

Finally ( thirdly !) one of the spokes in my front wheel broke today
and the wheel is rather wonky now.. I've often thought the wheels
could be better, if I were to invest in a new pair to replace the
( presumably machine made ) ones that came with the bike, would they
likely stay straighter / be stronger ? Should I struggle to true this
one up as much as possible with a new spoke or maybe take it to a
pro ?

I would get a spoke and fit it yourself. Its good practise should you ever
need to do it. Front wheels are easy to do, rear can be harder (not least
because sprockets often have to be removed).

You should be able to true the wheel easily as only the broken spoke should
need any adjusting (OK, when its nearly spot-on, there may be tweaks
elsewhere). When done, give the spoke a fairly strong heave with fingers to
an adjacent one to take the tension up, then check/tweak again.

A "good enough" wheel truing jig can be done by turning bike upside down and
holding a pencil against a fork. When wheel spins, you can see from tip of
pencil whether the rim is right or left of true. (I doubt one spoke out
could have made the rim significantly oval, so shouldn't need to worry about
that). Posh version of same has lever dial gauge clamped around fork
(because I have a dial gauge in the shed).

Quoted message said:

It's a Claude Butler Cape Wrath disc BTW ( '05 ) Has shimano hubs and
mavic rims, which were seemingly assembed by a monkey though, and
evidently maintaned / PDI'ed with simmilar care !

If money for new wheels is available, you could add some very posh light
ones and have tubeless tyres thrown in as well.
But for general riding, I expect the standard wheels are adequate.

OK managed to put a new spoke in from an old wheel ( had to take the
disc off ) and I am totally amazed by how straight I've managed to get
the wheel now.. just with an adjustable spanner and 20 mins of work !
looks like I wont be buying a new bike after all 🙂.

PS. counting the lids again today.. definiatly a fashion thing, esp.
the little kids with the straps undone !!

Simon