Jan and Klodi's Party Bus - part II **off topic discussion**

rollingscone

Just sauntered over the ropey sections of the Royal Canal after Castleknock at 35psi on the Croix.

All hail tubeless tyres, thanks Alek for introducing me to this glorious new gospel of our Lord Jesus Bicycle.

*Shame about the fcekers using the towpath as a horse run though!

OldBean

rollingscone wrote: »

Just sauntered over the ropey sections of the Royal Canal after Castleknock at 35psi on the Croix.

All hail tubeless tyres, thanks Alek for introducing me to this glorious new gospel of our Lord Jesus Bicycle.

*Shame about the fcekers using the towpath as a horse run though!

Any hassle?

rollingscone

OldBean wrote: »

Any hassle?

Nay. I just didn't fancy having a horse fired at me.

Some other chap on Hypers got past them alright.

I was a little behind and took the gravel bypass and was about to rejoin via the tunnel when a horse thundered by.

**** this quoth the Raven and I headed for home.

Unknown Soldier

That "Call the Midwife" on RTE1 would bring H2o from an igneous rock

smacl

rollingscone wrote: »

Shame about the fcekers using the towpath as a horse run though!

You get kids with horses pretty regularly on the Grand canal too, though I've had no hassle of any kind as yet. I always shout a howya to them if approaching from behind, as much to let the horse know I'm there as anything else. Spooked horses with kids on the canal are not a great combination.

Haven't been down the Royal since last Winter. How do you find the Deep Sinking section? Thinking I'd possibly circumvent it next time around.

rollingscone

On the Tubeless it was no issue whatsoever.

Edit: The horse was riderless. It was just being sent tearing up and down the towpath.

Qualitymark

Nice piece about cycling with the family in New York:

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/gimme-shelter-in-central-park?intcid=mod-latest

Moflojo

From today's Irish Times: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/almost-14-bikes-stolen-every-day-in-dublin-says-bike-theft-group-1.2397430

Not having proper lock main reason for theft with over 4,950 bikes stolen in 2014.

I guess the bikes are just running away on their own then?

Almost 14 bicycles are stolen every day in Dublin, according to a Bike Theft Group.

The group, which was set up by Dublin City Council, said 4,950 bikes were reported stolen in Dublin in 2014.

"They say in Dublin you're never more than 5 metres from a bike you once owned." - Colm Tobin on Twitter. @colmtobin

“Alerting cyclists to the need to use higher quality locks is important. We need to make it harder for bikes to be stolen,” she said.

The solution to bike theft is for bicycle owners to engage in an arms race with bicycle thieves. Awesome.

Qualitymark

Irish Rail, stupidly, is now refusing to carry bikes at peak time, and only allowing them at all if pre-booked. Idiocy, and will be a real wrecker for bike tourism

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/1019/735901-cyclists-bikes-trains/

traprunner

9149 posts left

Darkglasses

Qualitymark wrote: »

Irish Rail, stupidly, is now refusing to carry bikes at peak time, and only allowing them at all if pre-booked. Idiocy, and will be a real wrecker for bike tourism

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/1019/735901-cyclists-bikes-trains/

Already a thread about it here -

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=97302745

AstraMonti

BrianHenryIE

https://twitter.com/colmtobin/status/654984703209021440

manafana

I have a video to post up il get round to it, its on the auld twitter machine

Qualitymark

Gardaí start bait bikes project http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/garda%C3%AD-use-bait-bikes-to-tackle-bicycle-theft-in-dublin-1.2398092 (Thought they were already doing this?)

Irish Times has a few articles on bike theft, mostly with blame-the-victim bad-lock slant. I suppose it's a start.

ThisRegard

Yeah, they were already doing this, I remember posting a link to a story about it a good while back.

tomasrojo

Qualitymark wrote: »

Gardaí start bait bikes project http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/garda%C3%AD-use-bait-bikes-to-tackle-bicycle-theft-in-dublin-1.2398092 (Thought they were already doing this?)

Irish Times has a few articles on bike theft, mostly with blame-the-victim bad-lock slant. I suppose it's a start.

I would say that the emphasis on locks is not victim-blaming in the same way as the the helmets and hi-viz brigade are guilty of victim-blaming. People leaving cars and motorbikes unattended are also advised to secure their vehicle. I suppose it doesn't address the root cause (thieves), but at least good u-locks are uncontroversially regarded as much more effective than cable locks, while hi-viz and helmets are very contested as regards their efficacy in the real world.

The real difference in attitudes among law enforcers is in that bike theft is treated as a minor offence, and car theft is treated as a major offence -- I think that the case even when the bike costs well over a thousand euro and the car has effectively no resale value.

The retailers really shouldn't sell cable locks without telling you that they're useless without a good u-lock to secure the frame of the bike.

tomasrojo

Via the excellent Planet Money podcast, I became aware that the USA is only now switching to Chip and Pin credit cards, and that for the moment people are still required to sign for purchases, but that nobody cares what they write, and people write any old thing.

Then I found this (possibly NSFW) story about a man who took derisory signings to the max.
http://consumerist.com/2009/02/03/dont-draw-genitalia-as-your-signature-when-paying-via-credit-card/
End of story is here, as his blog seems to have died under the pressure of hits.
http://www.horsepowerjunkies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78925

Qualitymark

Talking of which - way off topic - a friend was *nearly* caught by the latest scam. She got a call "from her bank" saying her account was blocked. She said, as she's been drilled to do, that she didn't discuss money affairs on the phone, and hung up.

Luckily, she'd been warned not to immediately pick up the phone and call her bank to verify - because if you do this, the line is still open and you'll end up giving the scammers all your details.

She walked down to the bank, and sure enough, her account wasn't blocked, and the bank told her that this was a currently popular scam.

The tax man

Live now 2016 Tour de France route presentation.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/watch-the-2016-tour-de-france-route-presentation-live/

Chips Lovell

From the Guardian

To help introduce the new idea to motorists, he would park himself on a traffic island in Peterborough and bark instructions at them through a loud-hailer.

Chips Lovell

And later on:

“Traffic lights are so fascist and dictatorial, telling you when to stop and go,” says Beresford. “Roundabouts are quintessentially English and democratic in their etiquette.”

Beresford is president of the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society...

OleRodrigo

Beresford should take a spin from Citywest down to the Greenhills roundabout, and then over to Tallaght to do a few on the N81 during evening rush hour in January.

Will see what he thinks of etiquette and democracy then.

tomasrojo

OleRodrigo wrote: »

Beresford should take a spin from Citywest down to the Greenhills roundabout, and then over to Tallaght to do a few on the N81 during evening rush hour in January.

Will see what he thinks of etiquette and democracy then.

Or the Walkinstown Roundabout. Why, no sir, after you. No, by all means, be my guest.

OleRodrigo

tomasrojo wrote: »

Or the Walkinstown Roundabout. Why, no sir, after you. No, by all means, be my guest.

Meant to say Walkinstown Roaundabout :)

manafana

OleRodrigo wrote: »

Meant to say Walkinstown Roaundabout :)

danish/dutch style roundabouts which encourage slow entry exit work very well, not so much the way we lay them out more than 4 exits causes issues

Unknown Soldier

OleRodrigo wrote: »

Meant to say Walkinstown Roaundabout :)

Beasty

London 6 day on Eurosport at present. Had a very enjoyable evening in the track centre last night!

EDIT - was actually sat in the seats Cav and family are sat at tonight until I noticed the "reserved" sign:o

Daroxtar

Why have I not paid much heed to 6 day cycling before????
Seriously entertaining evening.

Beasty

Daroxtar wrote: »

Why have I not paid much heed to 6 day cycling before????
Seriously entertaining evening.

A lot of that is down to the likes of Nate Koch. He's clearly the slowest of the sprinters, but head and shoulders above everyone else for his "entertainment" value

Almost felt sorry for Chief Commissaire Paul Watson last night - the elimination race was something else, with 18 teams of 2 starting off- that's 36 riders, but only 18 of them "live" at any one time. Working out who was last over the line every 2nd lap was seriously challenging!