La Flamme Rouge **off topic discussion**

tomasrojo

P_1 wrote: »

Next time you're stuck there with no lock, leave it in with the lads in the Spar on Church Road, they'll keep an eye on it for you.

Also worth having on a bike you don't generally carry a lock for:
https://www.evanscycles.com/hiplok-z-lok-combo-EV338781

magicbastarder

we pulled out the oil boiler out of our house and had a gas one put in - quotes ranged from €2k to €3.5k, and we actually went with the most expensive.the lowball quotes were cash in hand, no breakdown of the work, etc., didn't get a great vibe off them.

that €3.5k included replacing boiler, immersion tank, full flush of the system and a few other bits and bobs.
then a few months later, electric ireland put us on a customer research panel and installed a fancy heating control system for free.

we burn about €250 worth of firewood a year, and the last 12 months gas bill was €650. not bad for a 1950s four bed semi.

LollipopJimmy

magicbastarder wrote: »

we pulled out the oil boiler out of our house and had a gas one put in - quotes ranged from €2k to €3.5k, and we actually went with the most expensive.the lowball quotes were cash in hand, no breakdown of the work, etc., didn't get a great vibe off them.

that €3.5k included replacing boiler, immersion tank, full flush of the system and a few other bits and bobs.
then a few months later, electric ireland put us on a customer research panel and installed a fancy heating control system for free.

we burn about €250 worth of firewood a year, and the last 12 months gas bill was €650. not bad for a 1950s four bed semi.

Which fancy system did you get? I got Climote when it was launched, brilliant thing but it seems to have been left behind by the offerings out there now. It's done through sim card so I have to pay a sim registration fee every year

LollipopJimmy

tomasrojo wrote: »

Also worth having on a bike you don't generally carry a lock for:
https://www.evanscycles.com/hiplok-z-lok-combo-EV338781

I don't bring a lock because I never go in anywhere and leave the bike locked, I was at most 20feet away from it and thought I would be ok with it actually being inside the shop. Lads in work saying I should have battered him but no craic in that, I'd say he's sore enough from being slammed to the ground and now he has hassle from the Guards and a court date to skip...

magicbastarder

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

Which fancy system did you get?

honeywell total connect comfort. every rad has its own wirelessly controlled thermostat, so we essentially have 11 zones in the house. can be controlled by smartphone; one benefit for us is that if we light the stove, the heating auto-balances against it so we've no worries about leaving the heating on or fiddling around with heating settings in the rooms with the stoves.
also, the heating connection to the immersion tank is on a controlled valve too, so we usually have no 'loss' to the tank when the heating is on - or can easily turn the gas on just to heat the tank and nothing else.

ford2600

Cost comparsion of different fuels on second page of attached.

A new more efficient engine is going to be cheaper to run irrespective of fossil fuel used.

Given WA usage I'd look at
*checking air tightness. Improving door/window seals and caulking frames can help a lot
*are windows decent & properly fitted
*is house built with cavity block; pretty common in Dublin and limits insulation to external or dry lining
*you can pump hard to reach areas although you might regret it when trying to access services some day!!
*have you an open fire? If so fit stove or block it with baloon(leave vent pipe to side). Remember to take down once a year for the universal sky fairy
*install heating controls; bedrooms don't need to be as warm or heated as often as living space
*do house occupiers like baths/long hot showers? Water is 1000 times denser than air and is expensive to heat

There are grants for boiler, controls, insulation, before & after BER.

magicbastarder

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

Which fancy system did you get?

also, one benefit of our system is that it benefits from, but does not depend on an internet connection. there have been cases (not in ireland IIRC) of peoples' heating systems being bricked when the provider turned off the servers.

tomasrojo

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

I don't bring a lock because I never go in anywhere and leave the bike locked, I was at most 20feet away from it and thought I would be ok with it actually being inside the shop.

Yeah, I use my Brompton for local trips (built-in lights, spare inner tube stuffed into the top tube, has a frame pump and I've cable-tied small wrench and tyre levers under the saddle; very handy grab-and-go bike), and I don't bring a lock with me, as I can fold it and bring it with me, but I'm going to get one of those cable-tie locks, in case I'm distracted one day. Use it like a nurse's lock, so the thief has to carry the bike away, and gives you more time to catch up with them. Weighs almost nothing, and you can just thread it through the saddle rails or something like that.

Ray Bloody Purchase

I'll just leave this here.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/man-overtaking-aggressively-stuck-at-traffic-lights-like-a-knob-20180510164455

tomasrojo

magicbastarder wrote: »

also, one benefit of our system is that it benefits from, but does not depend on an internet connection. there have been cases (not in ireland IIRC) of peoples' heating systems being bricked when the provider turned off the servers.

The Twitter account @internetof**** is worth following for things like that.

(**** being s h i t)

magicbastarder

yep, i already follow him.

dastardly00

I've been using an ad blocker for years.

Now Cyclingnews won't let you view the website if an ad blocker is active.

The w**kers! (<<< totally unjustified I know!)

magicbastarder

actually, cycling weekly uploaded a video about how they make money a few months back - at least it's an attempt to show transparency:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOBnH0xqEUw

Hurrache

dastardly00 wrote: »

I've been using an ad blocker for years.

Now Cyclingnews won't let you view the website if an ad blocker is active.

Lots of websites have started to do it. I'm sure there's plugins out there that get you around it though.

I don't like the ads, but I do see the hypocrisy in me wanting content from websites without contributing to their funding, but more often than not not enough for me to disable my blocker.

LollipopJimmy

The Guards phoned me about the bike thief last night. They actually charged him last night with theft and criminal damage cos of a scratch on my bike - the Guard told me to look hard and find a mark so he could add criminal damage.

Very quick turnaround I thought.

LollipopJimmy

And yesterday's good work of stopping a bike thief has been undone... went out today after work, bib, jersey and business socks... forgot to put socks in my bag

magicbastarder

i have managed to introduce myself to the concept of countersteering - an interesting concept, and one that i think cyclists largely do unconsciously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C848R9xWrjc

TLDW - controlling your lean is a vital part of steering a bike, so for example if you want to take a left, you would briefly steer the bike right in order to pivot you into a left lean; thus allowing you to then turn left more efficiently.
if you were to simply swing the handlebars left, the bike would pitch to the right, exactly the motion you don't want for a left hand turn.
needless to say, i probably have this wrong.

magicbastarder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llRkf1fnNDM

MediaMan

The first hundred years of the bicycle. I'll never complain about clipping in again!

Video Link

Idleater

magicbastarder wrote: »

i have managed to introduce myself to the concept of countersteering - an interesting concept, and one that i think cyclists largely do unconsciously.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-bicycle-problem-that-nearly-broke-mathematics/?WT.mc_id=send-to-friend

Eamonnator

I'm trying to find out, if a rider has been provisionally suspended for doping.
I've got this list on U.C.I. website:

http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/CleanSport/18/56/48/20180508ProvisionalsuspensionsEN.XLSX_English.pdf

It doesn't show anybody testing positive in April, but doesn't fully satisfy my curiosity.
Can anybody point me to another site, that might give me more up to date news?

RobFowl

Eamonnator wrote: »

I'm trying to find out, if a rider has been provisionally suspended for doping.
I've got this list on U.C.I. website:

http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/CleanSport/18/56/48/20180508ProvisionalsuspensionsEN.XLSX_English.pdf

It doesn't show anybody testing positive in April, but doesn't fully satisfy my curiosity.
Can anybody point me to another site, that might give me more up to date news?

Nationally or internationally ?

Eamonnator

RobFowl wrote: »

Nationally or internationally ?

Internationally.

RobFowl

Eamonnator wrote: »

Internationally.

UCI site then, they update it sporadically and without much fanfare....

CramCycle

Eamonnator wrote: »

Internationally.

I heard a name flagged in the last few days but it is not up there yet.

Eamonnator

CramCycle wrote: »

I heard a name flagged in the last few days but it is not up there yet.

Me too.

magicbastarder

it wasn't me.

manafana

any thoughts on a local level, do people, feel a few lads are doping to win a4 etc?

Lusk_Doyle

manafana wrote: »

any thoughts on a local level, do people, feel a few lads are doping to win a4 etc?

I know that I am.

P_1

Bilbao tomorrow, have some time to kill in the morning so I'll try me some Basque hills on a rented town bike. I reckon tomorrow's pints will be well earned. Though the weather is looking more Irish than Spanish!