I think there's only 1 bike hire place on Orkney - so i don't hold out much hope of them having a
recumbant. How do they perform off road? can you point me to any sites where it says a single brake
cable is illegal - i wasn't aware of this. Looks like I'll just be cycling one handed on my normal
bike and hoping for the best. ( I already have my front brake on the "wrong" side because i prefer
it that way) Building an ABS system with only one hand would be particularly taxing (painful) - had
enough trouble fitting new chainset and servicing and fitting different suspension forks. I've been
to Orkney before, our aim is to cycle on all the orkneys - we did a few last year - Flotta was the
best especially the "road" down through the oil terminal past the old YMCA building. I was on my
road bike then and was surprised that it survived - It eventuall broke a few weeks ago when cycling
off road round here (newcastle). This breakage resulted in building a full sus MTB which was
involved in the incedent below on its second time out! Lucky it wasn't damaged - the wife would have
killed me if it was. I've got it on rollers at the mo so I can start getting fit again when my ribs
heal enough. I fitted a non compact 48 36 26 front chainset and combined with an 11 rear and briefly
had it up to an indicated 44mph (according to the bike computer fitted to the rear wheel) could have
gone faster but ribs hurt! Cheers Colin
"bikingbill" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Brakes: Single-lever brake is of course illegal and dangerous, although traffic & hills in Orkneys
> aren't generally too bad so you probably would
be
> OK. I suffered a front-cable failure at speed a few weeks ago, and can say that this particular
> law is a rather sensible one 'cos I did eventually
stop
> without injury. I did see an ingenious ABS device years ago in a German techie mag. It worked by
> mounting the back brake onto a spring-loaded arm pivoted on the rear hub. The single lever
> operated this brake. A cable ran from the brake arm to the front brake to operate it. The more
> brake pressure on the back the further the arm would move hence the greater the pull on the front.
> Until the back wheel locked, then the arm would spring back, releasing
both
> brakes. Then the brake would re-apply itself so long as you held the
lever.
> Just like in a car. Ingenious but illegal unfortunately. I'd love to know
if
> you try this and get it working. Hope you enjoy Orkney. Don't miss Skara Brae. Bill
>
> Two wheels are cool but four's a bore.
>
> >>> Colin Anderson<
[email protected]> 01/07/2003 23:37:41 >>>
> I managed to hit a brick in the dark on a cycle path the other night and ended up with broken
> right wrist and a couple of broken ribs. been to the fracture clinic today and the consultant says
> 8-12 weeks if i'm lucky. trouble is I'm cycling round Orkney in 8 weeks time so anyone got any
ideas
> about one handed cycling? The best i can come up with is to (somehow) get the 9 speed shifter onto
> the lefthand side of the bars and hope for the best / make do with 9 gears rather than 27 (too
> many anyway). Should be able
to
> make some sort of clamp so both brakes can run off one lever. any suggestions welcome.
> p.s. even though i've got an XM estate i don't think a tandem would fit on the roofrack. Cheers
> Colin
>