Cycling in heavy traffic

[Dave Kahn]

Bob Flemming <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...

> Undertaking is fine, if there's room we all do it, but I'd suggest that when this happens, be
> careful and watch for those cars turning left...

... and car doors opening, and pedestrians stepping off the kerb, and pedestrians crossing the road
through the traffic, and people getting off buses, and oncoming cars turning right through a gap,
and cars creeping forwards at turnings, and...

--
Dave...

 

[Dave Kahn]

"Thomas" <tom [at] greysheep [dot] co [dot] uk> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> "the Mark" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...

> > I heard a horn close behind me coming home from work today, I looked round to find a volvo close
> > behind in the bus lane I was in. It's amazing how slow you can go when there's a strong head
> > wind.
>
> Heh, and strangely enough this is one of the things I definately *don't* remember from cycling a
> few years back - wind REALLY slows you down... being stoopid, it actually took me a while to work
> out quite why I wasn't going as fast as usual the other day. D'oh.

I think you missed some subtle irony there. However, when you commute by bicycle you soon begin to
wonder why the wind is always against you. The scientific explanation is that during the morning it
fills one end of the country up with extra air. In the evening this naturally tends to flow back the
other way.

--
Dave...

 

[Paul Kelly]

> Bob Flemming <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
>
>> Undertaking is fine, if there's room we all do it,

And if there isn't someone does it for us?

pk

 

[Richard Goodman]

"Bryan" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...

>
> I'm usually going the other way between 6.30 and 7, on my way form Uxbridge to Rotherhithe, so am
> always looking for an excuse to have a rest (recently I've been getting punctures just before
> shepeards bush, so have had a bit of a rest)

I think that means you're going the same way as me - uphill. My journey is from West Ken to
Tottenham in the evenings, usually around 6.30 ~ 6.45. So that seems to make two of us going up and
two going down, around the same time.

Rich

 

[Geraint Jones]

[email protected] (Dave Kahn) wrote:
( Ithink you missed some subtle irony there. However, when you commute ) by bicycle you soon begin
to wonder why the wind is always against ( you. The scientific explanation is that during the
morning it fills ) one end of the country up with extra air. In the evening this ( naturally
tends to flow back the other way.

Point of information, your subtle ironiness: although (as you know) this is not the explanation for
headwinds, it is not one end but the middle. These countries being an island in the morning it fills
the middle of the countries up and in the evening it empties back out again.

 

[Thomas]

"Richard Goodman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > That's 3 of us on this route then in this thread alone. How about a meet
> one
> > evening somewhere on that stretch?
> >
>
> I'd be 'up' for it - literally ;-)

Excellent - shall we say some time in the next fortnight?

Thomas.

P.S. Sorry for the late responses on some of these - my ISP's news server's playing silly buggers.

 

[John Blake]

In message id <[email protected]> on Thu, 12 Jun 2003 13:33:20 +0000 (UTC),
Geraint Jones wrote in uk.rec.cycling :

>[email protected] (Dave Kahn) wrote:
> ( Ithink you missed some subtle irony there. However, when you commute ) by bicycle you soon
> begin to wonder why the wind is always against ( you. The scientific explanation is that
> during the morning it fills ) one end of the country up with extra air. In the evening this (
> naturally tends to flow back the other way.
>
>Point of information, your subtle ironiness: although (as you know) this is not the explanation for
>headwinds, it is not one end but the middle. These countries being an island in the morning it
>fills the middle of the countries up and in the evening it empties back out again.

So its nothing to do with aerodynamics and wind resistance from piercing the air faster than the
cars, leaving them to travel in the dirty hole in the air full of turbulence behind you?

--
I don't do arguments, read the reply properly to get the context. Kind regards. If you want to take
it to email remove THE SPAM BLOKA

 

[Richard Goodman]

"Thomas" <tom [at] greysheep [dot] co [dot] uk> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
>
> Excellent - shall we say some time in the next fortnight?
>

Ok for me, although a Tuesday or Thursday would be best. Otherwise I'll have to get special
dispensation from TPTB, who generally demands that I be home asap on the other days...

Rich

 

[Dave Larrington]

Doesn't work in Denmark, though, and here's why:

Steel mills produce steel. Flour mills churn out flour. Go round the back of a cotton mill and
you'll find them loading cotton fabric into truck. And windmills generate wind. Stand next to a
stationary windmill and you'll not feel any wind. Fact.

The prevailing wind in Denmark, as in much of the UK, is from the south-west, but we frequently
observed shifts in the wind direction towards evening, sometimes all the way round to the east.
This, obv, is caused by the windmills nearer Copenhagen being turned around to pump back the air
sent towards Sweden during the day.

Danish Windmill Theory (c) Steve Donaldson, 1993/

Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
===========================================================

 

[David Marsh]

[Interleaved quoting: please read to end for all comments] Dave Larrington wrote in uk.rec.cycling:
about: Re: Cycling in heavy traffic

> Doesn't work in Denmark, though, and here's why:

What doesn't work? I missed that..

> Steel mills produce steel. Flour mills churn out flour. Go round the back of a cotton mill and
> you'll find them loading cotton fabric into truck. And windmills generate wind. Stand next to a
> stationary windmill and you'll not feel any wind. Fact.

Heh, that's absolutely true. ;-)

> The prevailing wind in Denmark, as in much of the UK, is from the south-west, but we frequently
> observed shifts in the wind direction towards evening, sometimes all the way round to the east.
> This, obv, is caused by the windmills nearer Copenhagen being turned around to pump back the air
> sent towards Sweden during the day.

These days they fetch it across the Øresund by train, however.. ;-)

(Hmm, actually there is a long line of windmills in the Øresund so maybe there's some truth in the
theory..?

--
David Marsh, <reply-to-email is valid at time of writing> | Glasgow, Scotland. [en, fr, (de)] |
http://web.viewport.co.uk/ | Learn usenet and netiquette: read news:news.announce.newusers |
>I scorefile posters who don't quote in traditional interleaved style.<
begin Once upon a time, there was a badly-broken newsreader program...

 

[Dave Larrington]

David Marsh wrote:

> Dave Larrington wrote in uk.rec.cycling:
> about: Re: Cycling in heavy traffic
>
>> Doesn't work in Denmark, though, and here's why:
>
> What doesn't work? I missed that..

Dave Kahn's and Geraint Jones' comments re Wind.

Hateful stuff, wind. Can't see the point of it. Turn it off, say I.

Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
===========================================================

 

[Just Zis Guy]

"Dave Larrington" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> Dave Kahn's and Geraint Jones' comments re Wind. Hateful stuff, wind. Can't see the point of it.
> Turn it off, say I.

We have done the Next Best Thing, though...

--
Guy
===
I wonder if you wouldn't mind piecing out our imperfections with your thoughts; and while you're
about it perhaps you could think when we talk of bicycles, that you see them printing their proud
wheels i' the receiving earth; thanks awfully.

 

[Dave Larrington]

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:

> We have done the Next Best Thing, though...

True, though by the end of yesterday's race I was spening as much time as possible hiding behind
Other People on the upwind leg of Castle Combe. Pete Cox' outsize tailbox makes for an excellent
windbreak; Bob Knight's does not, as well as having an effect described by Chris Cox as "like being
stared out by a demented puffin".

Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
===========================================================