-
@smallfurry - I suppose it must be - it's a ratio after all! Cheers N
-
Yes I think dear Phil meant the mountain climbs are 20 miles long...
-
As well as fixed wheel bikes (and geared bikes) I love motorbikes and have been lucky enough in the past to have acquired a couple, a Honda VFR800 and a Harley Dyna Wide Glide. The Harley is belt drive and the belt has never caused a problem and as far as I am aware it has never needed tensioning. I'd suggest that this empirical evidence would mean that belt drive would be sufficiently strong on a bicycle.
On the other hand the chain on the Honda is included in every pre-ride check and often needs tweaking, a simple enough operation with an elliptical tensioning system but all the same...
Should a belt drive on a bike need tensioning, then elliptical bottom brackets as used in tandems could be one solution.
I think the market is pretty huge - single speed and hub geared which mostly is commuter/general purpose where dirty chains are not appealing.
I skimmed through the thread but didn't spot how gear ratios would be calculated in these systems, sorry if it was there, does any one know?
-
*I…
I just took a ride….
…on my silver machine….*
I really have too - it’s in my garage. Though I’m not feeling mean, as the lyrics go on to say, but nicely relaxed.
In the early Seventies, Hawkwind released a single that became their biggest hit. It must have been on Top of the Pops that I saw it - back in the days of family viewing we’d gather around the moron’s lantern in the lounge as the classic Led Zep signature tune introduced the show. I was nine years old. And this track blew my mind! Mum hated it - she preferred those nice puppy love Osmonds. Dad didn’t understand it; Andy, my big brother, thought both it and I were stupid; but one of his mates had an afghan coat and cowboy boots so I knew he really liked it - or said to his mates he liked it. Ha!
*Do you want to ride
see yourself going by*
This space rock anthem has everything, I was hooked, it’s been one of the sound tracks to my life. Those guys were so cool… the nine year old me would love to have a silver machine… a silver space machine - or a time machine… the Silver Surfer…
*flying sideways through time
it’s an electric line*
It triggered my imagination with Carl Sagan space and The James Burke Special electronic science fiction. I read Alfred Bester’s Tiger Tiger (The Star’s My Destination) and was introduced to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy.
And I have a silver machine in my garage. And I really have just been for a ride on my silver machine.
It’s an American import Bianchi track bike. Not ideal for use on the road as the frame geometry is fierce; built for ultra smooth velodromes, it hits Berkshire’s disgraceful potholes I pay for very hard. Wide flange hubs reduce even the small advantage of spoked wheels. But the single speed fixed wheel gives maximum drive, ultimate efficiency. No derailleur, no block, no cables, no gear levers, no chain rings, no over-lapping gear ratios and other such road-bike paraphernalia - just 68 inches for each rotation of the pedals.
The last fixed wheel bike I used came into the bike shop, tired, unloved, battered. Dings and dents in the top tube from wooden-basin smashes, potentially lethal splinters flying. But I could see the beauty underneath. I bought it for £50. Resprayed it. Stuck a new TA chain ring on it and got a gear of about 63 inches. Room enough for narrow mudguards and joy of joys there were lugs already on the dropouts to fit them. This soon became my most favourite bike ever, the only one I regret selling.
The new one has no mudguards, nowhere to fit them. The chrome tubes are clean. Even the pump clamp is cable-tied to the seat tube. Single front brake. Rear braking by pushing back; don’t try to freewheel downhill, just let those legs relax and spin freely.
*It flies out of a dream
It’s antiseptically clean*
It turns out Hawkwind’s Silver Machine wasn’t a space ship. Or a time machine. But a bicycle. A silver bicycle. And I’ve got one in my garage.
*You’re going to know where I’ve been
On my silver machine.*
______________
Silver Machine lyrics by Calvert/Brock -
@mmcarthy blush blush! haha! Thx! :)
-
Oops! haha! How embarrassing is that?! :/
-
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN-j9H0nIDs"]YouTube-
Pink Floyd - Bike[/ame] -
When I worked in a bike shop many years ago a customer had a similar problem, but it was a seat post stuck in seat tube.
The only solution was to heat the seat post so it melted - being aluminium with a much lower melting point than the frame it wasn't a problem.
The paintwork was buggered though...
-
I am looking forward to getting an iPad... my macbookpro will become my new desktop.
Transferring files - why not simply use the drop box, or at the desktop GO "connect to server" and logon to the target machine that way?
Cheers
N
-
I hate tapes, always did and hated vinyl too. When CD's were launched I binned tapes and records and replaced with CD.
Now I have all my music on a dedicated laptop which is linked by WIFI to 2 x HIFI systems on Airport Express boxes. I can play any playlist on the laptop to either or both HIFIs at the same time.
Any iTunes equipped machine can also pick up the playlist and also play any music to itself or any "zone".
I can use my iPhone as a remote control.
Or at least I used to be able to do this until I got a BTHome Hub which refuses to recognise the Airport Express boxes so:
1) I told BT I'm not paying until they fix this (I checked with sales before ordering and they told me all would be well :/)
2) I met BTs Director of Research and Apps at their research centre and he had no idea you could do this, was intrigued, thought it was a router set up issue and promised his team would investigate.But I have no music in my house since early Jan.
Hey ho.
-
@STE5.. it became very noticeable all of a sudden... I'd forgotten about chain gauges and assumed the bike shop knew what it was doing...
-
I love this place. Lots of two-wheeled madness but mostly motorbikes, some bicycles:
-
Sad news indeed.
I'm a motorcyclist as well as a cyclist (I love 2 wheels) and generally motorbikers are far more road aware than motorists - motorbikers have even greater risk of injury than cyclists. Mostly due to careless motorists. There's something about 4 or more wheels...
-
The bike also had chrome drop outs.
I ended up working at Allins for a couple of years, just after John and Ray bought it from Stan and Anne Butler, grandparents of Gethin I believe. The shop is long since closed but I do remember as a customer queuing to get service as dear Stan and Anne didn't have a till as such, they hand wrote every sale on a till roll and used a wooden draw for the cash...
The course was/is somewhat controversial because it is asymmetric and the prevailing winds assist on the longer outbound leg.
-
I like mine. The dealer though fitted a deraillieur chain to a track cog which caused a bit of an incident which I'll post about l8r...
-
Oh.. I'm new here too. Ride a fixed around the Chilterns. 73". Bianchi track bike with front brake. Used to race, now just potter. Will try to get to London events, would love to watch a polo match...
-
As there's no cake they'll just have to eat some bread.
-
Looking forward to my spangly new iPad....
-
I love:
sailing (the beauty of it all, arriving in the early morning, getting the sails set just so, the rhythm of the watch system)
rock climbing (solving the problem, the focus, fingery balancy technical elegant moves)
hillwalking (the Lake District in the winter/spring/autumn), scrambling
camping (rain pattering on tent when snugly dry on the inside)
motorbikes and motorcycling (wind in face, mixing it in London traffic, balancing the bike on the throttle & clutch, being at one with the bike, being in "the zone", multi-day road trips, the rhythm of the road, the multi-coloured aromas of summer evenings)
cycling (similar in part to motorbiking) and bicycles (the beauty, the aesthetics of the machine, the spectacle of a race)
frosty mornings
dinner parties (good food, good conversation, good company), creative writing (well I try!), creative people (always inspirational), positive people, creating programs about people, film editing, audio editing, animation
Apple Mac (since Lisa seduced me in 1985 and I popped my computer cherry), iPhone (why would you use anything else?), iPad (want vs need)
unexpectedly meeting old friends, the company of women, pretty & athletic tomboys, design, being on my own, being in company, independence, being with my boys (currently 18 and 27), meeting new people, music, Ronnie Scotts, innovation (I won an award for it haha! lol), art, music, freedom, shopping (Paul Smith, Uni Qlo, Armani, Converse, Levi 513 to name a few), earth tones, autumn shades, vanilla, nougat, strong fresh coffee..
I love my girlfriend's French accent when she speaks English. I love her sense of humour, her strength of spirit, her intelligent thoughts. I love her creamy soft milk-and-honey-coloured skin which shimmers with gold, her flame of white-gold hair, sparkling sapphire-blue eyes and ebony white teeth.
-
From the side on aspect of the photo all looks well - saddle position looks OK to me and a longer fork rake should make the bike less twitchy and more stable.
But is the frame itself true? Forks and downtube look OK in the pic, but it may be worth getting a frame builder to stick it in a jig and check vertical alignments and twists...
LFGSS
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
I should be working but seem to be here instead.