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Off to St Anton on Sunday yay yay yay :D

it snowed today, and more due next week :D :D

My bike has a lot of weight at the back (upright riding position, hub gears, wheel lock, chain and toolbag) so it handles better with something in the front rack as well.

The main problem with the front load (if axle/bar mounted) is it makes it harder to lean the bike up against something.

That's been my experience as well, have ended up getting it reamed to 27.2. Hopefully it's not taken too much of the metal out.

So, this is how the scenario played out.

I took the bike to Kinoko and the problem is that the seat tube has been overtightened to fit a too-small seatpost. It's now reamed back to circular and comfortably takes a 27.2 seatpost.

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I keep seeing an advert for a Brit Gas central heating control that lets works through a mobile phone app. All about what you could be out doing while it's controlling your heating at home, which just makes me wonder why, if you're not at home, have you got the heating on.

I keep hearing it when I'm not paying attention. The song goes "Hive is watching your heating at home" or something but I always hear it as "Hi-Viz". I read FAR too many cycling websites

I didn't hit a tree, just lost it on an icy track between the trees and put my arm down to break my fall. Classic way to dislocate the elbow. There had been no fresh snow for weeks; the doctor who saw me said he'd seen loads of concussions and dislocated elbows because of the hard snow. Apparently when it snows it's all twisted knees instead.

My sis was working for a physio in Whistler at the time and I bartered some network admin for physio. They even built me a special brace so I could get back on the slopes after far less time than was really sensible :)

I think I've got the seat post stable enough to get it to Kinoko - still turns a bit by hand but seemed ok on a quick test ride. I'll give it some welly tomorrow and see if it holds. It's quite a nice saddle position actually - i'm used to riding slightly too big frames so it's no more than that. But one of the reasons for getting the 19" was I was quite looking forward to not having to jump quite so far off the saddle at the lights - there's lot of lights out there.

I can do the beercan shim, yes...but I don't really like bodging until I understand the problem. Once I get what's supposed to happen, then I can make a call on whether to fix it or bodge it :) With this one, I want to work out if I've got a seatpost that's too big, a seattube that's been overtightened, or both. I'm a bit worried that if the tube's been distorted by overtightening it'll never get a good hold on the post and I'll end up cracking up the tube.

it's definitely a 531c *sticker *at least

Mine's very similar to Bec's but the decals are gold not red. But you are right, hers has the 531 sticker. Hmmmm.

I'm 5'1" and it's a 19" frame so the seatpost has to be pretty low. I'll see if I can ride it with the fluted area fully above the clamp.

Also I've just been down to Kinoko cycles who very nicely let me measure a few known seatposts and realised I'm measuring low consistently... the 26.4 came up as 26.3, the 26.8 as 26.7. So, given that I measure my seat tube as 26.5 it's probably a 26.6 I need after all.

Kinoko suggested I bring the bike in so they can measure it, but I need to get it reasonably rideable to do that. They are round the corner from work...but it's a very long corner featuring some of London's most exciting congestion and not one I want to negotiate with a randomly spinning saddle. It adds a certain thrill to the steering when the handlebars go one way and my hips go the other...

ha - same brake levers as well!

Hi Bec - are you still around?

I'm refurbing what looks like the same model of bike and having trouble with the seatpost. I don't suppose you happen to remember anything about the seatpost size do you?

(By complete coincidence, this is the first time I've seen your redo and it looks like mine will end up quite similar to yours...it's almost all parts I had anyway but it's a B67 saddle, full silver mudguards...)

His best guess is that the seat tube was fitted upside down, so that the butt is at the top!

Isn't the butt supposed to be at the top of a seat tube? (sorry, awful dad joke)

anyway, on to the fettling.I now have callipers and I'm getting

• 26.5 as the inside diameter of the seat tube
  
• a range of 26.4-26.7 as the diameter of the main body of the seat post
  
• a range of 26.25 - 26.4 around the fluted area, varying wildly with the flutes.
  
  
  

all these are approx as the tubes are worn/scratched in places

It makes sense that the seatpost body is actually wider than the seat tube in places, because when I took the seat post out it had to be zig zagged hard out of the tube and scraped a noticeable amount of metal off the post.

I can't find a lip like Scilly's bike had so perhaps these old 531c Orbits really are 26.4. It's certainly not 27.7 unless the Maplin callipers are wildly out of whack, and we got similar measurements using grandad's old brass micrometer screw gauge.

Right now I'm leaning towards

a) it's supposed to be a 26.4 seatpost
b) the existing seatpost is either the right size or a 26.6 which has been forced in
c) if I can find a position where the existing post is ok, I'm probably best off using that while I look for a second hand 26.4
d) there's a good chance I'm not going to ride this bike to work on monday after all :(

callipers - no, but I can probably get some tomorrow.

It just seems odd that all the force holding the seat post should be concentrated on two tiny points of metal. Seems like they would wear down all the time. All the photos I can find online have the same gap between the lugs as the seat tube itself.

I'm rebuilding an 80s step through Orbit Gold Medal as an upright city bike. It's a 531c frame.

The seat post that it came with fits fine in the tube when raised quite high, but if I put it as low as I need it I can't tighten the seat tube binder enough to hold it. It spins quite freely from side to side.

This is the seat post - I think the fluted area is a little narrower than the lower part. The unfluted part of the pots is a very tight fit, in fact even with the binder bolt completely removed I scraped off a load of metal from the post getting it out.

This is the seat tube binder. The slot is about 5mm but the binder lugs have these points that mean it will only tighten by < 1mm, which isn't enough.

What's the best fix here? File down the pointy bits so I can tighten the seat tube a little more, or buy a new seat post? (and if so, what size?)

27" to 700 is usually ok without having to change the brakes and don't look out of place. If you want to keep to 27" , second hand alloy rims /wheels do turn up on ebay. I think you can get new 27" rims but not much choice and you'd have to build the wheel.

Oh...looks like you can get a new 27" alloy wheelset for under £60 27" Weinmann QR Front and QR Rear Alloy Wheels: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

To be honest for city riding steel rims with salmon kool stop pads is fine as long as you respect the limitations. I swap rims more for weight than braking. however if you/she want to ride fast I would definitely switch to alloy.

Salmon kool stops make the best of steel rims

But if you dont care about authenticity, changing to alloy wheels is easy and can be done cheaply, and you get less weight as well as better braking

What's the scariest snowboarding moment you guys have had?

Last run of the day, by myself in a gladed run at Whistler I fell and dislocated my elbow. I couldn't get out of my board or stand up, I was deep in the trees, there was no one around and it was getting dark. After about 15 very scary minutes a Dutch couple came down the run, found me and fetched the ski patrol.

The potentially scariest place I've boarded is La Grave with no fresh snow for weeks, but I was with a guide so not a scary experience.

I've seen, and suffered, far more injuries on the slopes than on the roads.

It would be interesting to know if the cycling stats include off road, trials and bmx. I suspect they do.

This is another book that goes into why we perceive things the way we do (rather than the way they actually are).

Thinking, Fast and Slow: Daniel Kahneman: 9780374275631: Amazon.com: Books

Looks like it covers similar topics to Risk - have ordered

Thanks

I've always believed there are two types of people - people whose "objective" opinions are deeply influenced by media, culture and social pressure, and people who don't realise that their "objective" opinions are deeply influenced by media, culture and social pressure.

not heard that before. brilliant.

i'd actually go further and say that not only do personal anecdotes not help sensible policy making, but they actually completely undermine any effort to ensure that kids (and adults for that matter) understand how to critically appraise sources for all sorts of purposes.

Have you read this? Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear: Amazon.co.uk: Dan Gardner: Books

It covers the way humans assess risk, and why anecdotes are more persuasive than data.

In this context it's worrying to see the effect of so much news coming from online sources. News sites respond very quickly to what people are instinctively interested in, so even if well reasoned analysis is provided it gets buried by lurid death stories because that's what people choose to read.

The BBC most read section is a great example of this. UK stories with death in the headline get voted up even if the story behind the title is just two paragraphs from a local site like BBC Carlisle. Twenty years ago no one outside Carlisle would ever hear of it, now it's national front page.

I've just (like yesterday!) changed a drop-bar touring frame into a bolt-upright, hub geared bike. The bike is now very rear-heavy. It will be interesting to see whether adding weight back to the front improves the handling.

So, a different kettle of fish perhaps, but Schumacher's doctors say his helmet saved his life. Considering the speeds must be similar to bike crash speeds, is the consensus that this is a correct statement?

Skiing speeds are way faster than everyday cycling speeds. I can hit 40mph on a snowboard and I am not particularly aggressive.

Sadly, at this point we don't know if the helmet has saved him. Right now it looks like the classic "walk away then succumb to brain swelling". It may be that the helmet saved his skull but not his brain :(

I don't think anyone denies there are some falls where helmets save lives. As I understand it the question is whether these falls are statistically significant enough in cycling over other activities to justify pressurising all cyclists into wearing helmets, and to justify putting effort and money producing and promoting cycle helmets over other strategies for risk-reduction . (And implicit in that is the fact that there are many different types and styles of cycling, so helmets may be beneficial for some but a waste of time and money for others).

I don't wear a helmet cycling in London but I do wear one to snowboard. I could snowboard in such a way that the helmet would be pointless, but I enjoy pushing myself. Similarly, I could cycle in such a way that a helmet might be a good idea, but when it comes to cycling around London I really don't have any urge to make it an extreme sport.

Even somd old panniers are just clip, clip and lift. One handed it takes less than 10 seconds.

10 seconds is ages!

and then you've got to carry them, and the clips snag on your clothes, and they are the wrong shape for stuff...it's just hassle hassle hassle all the way. I've tried loads of designs and I always go back to a bag n a bungy. I only take panniers if I have a lot of shopping to get.

panniers are a hassle for city riding if you have to leave the bike on the street - it's a faff to take them off whenever you leave the bike. Rack + normal bag + bungy is far more practical.

The O2 link doesn't work anymore. Is there somewhere else I can check the status of domains I look after?

Get a payg O2 sim, put a teeny bit of credit on it and don't remove the under 18 block?