More on using bus lanes

Root around on http://endless-sphere.com/forums/ and ask. There are
plenty of >1kW riders there, but whether you can get a Panasonic drive
at that power, Idk.

 

A surprisingly common cause seems to be going up the inside of trucks
and then getting all surprised and squashed dead when it turns left over
their head.

 

Avoid them.

HTH.
--
des
'Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect
for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice'
(Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862))
<http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/>

 

<reads>

Hahahahahahaha!

 

<snip>

Observed today in Borough High Street, heading north to London Bridge,
and whose southern side of the road is closed for roadworks and the
building of a new rail bridge:

Two bicycle Plod studiously ignoring the swarms of cyclists ignoring
the Give Way signs, and the red lights. They installed themselves up
the top of the street, and observed calmly as the swarms of cyclists
(and one bloke on a Honda CBR) went on the wrong side of the bollards
to bypass the stalled traffic.

They nicked the motorcyclist. Nobody else. Just the CBR rider.

 

<hangs head>

 

And so you should!

 

Oi, leave me out of it - I'm not a cyclist in the same way I'm not a
biker.

 

<hint>

I cycle too, as I've made *quite* clear here. Indeed I'll be cycling most
days this summer I hope.

Do most people use rigid frame bikes on the road? I love my Edinburgh
Cycles Courier, it's as light a bike as one could buy, but the roads are
shaking my kidneys loose. I was thinking of a Kona Dawg with road type
tyres.

 

Most road bikes are rigid. You lose a lot of energy, especially uphill,
making the suspension bounce.

That said, you can lock out the suspension, some bikes even have a remote
lockout for your convenience, but you will still carry several kgs of
extra weight. A lightweight rigid road bike is a few kg, a full-sus
mountain bike is about 15kg.

And road tyres are made for low rolling resistance, although you can put
slicks on a mountain bike it won't come close.

That said, if you're not interested in going at top speed everywhere (and
plenty aren't), I reckon your idea is a winner.

 

Well yeah I bought the Courier because it's about as minimalist and
efficient as you can get. On smooth roads it's lovely.
The Dawg does have a lock out.

 

That's one thing I tend not to do - ride round the wrong side of a keep
left bollard. Over, sure, done that a few times, but generally not round
the wrong side.

It's one of those things that strikes me as just asking for a nicking.
Anything that's strict liability is askingg for trouble.

 

A middle ground option would be a touring bike which have slightly less
aggressive geometry and frames/wheels/tyres chosen to give a bit more
comfort.

Best plan is to go to your LBS and try some things out.

 

It wasn't a 'keep left' bollard. Should have explained better: it was
the line of cones running down the centre of the street.

 

And there's no gain on a road, even if it's a very poor one. Rigid
bikes are the only way to go.

IME it doesn't make them quite as rigid as a rigid, but it certainly
makes a big difference.

Naah, not as much as that. My 2007 Focus "Super Bud" is only a tad
over 12kg, IIRC. Just about half a kilo more than my Mercian road
bike, which admittedly is not the most modern tool in the box, with a
Reynolds 531 frame dating from the lat '80s, but I still ove the way
it rides, so haven't even considered swapping it for a lighter, newer
model.

Not so. There's absolutely no reason that an MTB will have any greater
resistance if fitted with the same tyres. Sure, many 'slicks' or semis
are much heavier and fatter, but they don't have to be.

 

I skimmed through looking for your and Hog's comments, and then I
realised I really didn't give a ****.

 

I still think there must be something wrong with anyone that reads,
let alone contributes to, comments on a newspaper article.

 

Your focus is probably more like 13-14 kg (although you might have bought
the super expensive model). A modern road bike is typically about 9kg.

You can't fit the same tyres, though, because the rims are wider.

And the gearing on the MTB will limit you, because you can only spin so
fast.

Look - a couple of my friends just did the round-the-isle-of-wight slog.
The bloke on the road bike kept on leaving the bloke on the mountain-bike-
with-slicks behind. They're about the same fitness, it's just that the
road bike is designed for the job.

 

Yeah but you're wierd

 

No gain? the point is to have suspension!