February 2012
2 posts
January 2012
8 posts
4 tags
Left hook from First Group bus
Seeing as First Group Glasgow don’t have a published email for contacting them, we’ll go with an open letter… Regrettably the photo taken further down the road doesn’t show anything useful (unless of course you count braking whilst tailgating another cyclist)
Driving without due care, R150 GSF, 18h05, South Frederick St
Dear Sirs Can I invite you to discuss with the...
Blackout SOPA
To add weight behind the shoal of minor websites shutting down tomorrow in protest at SOPA (wikipedia and reddit, to name two) Darkerside will also be going dark. Or at least, not updating.
Given the ability of the American legal folk to create vague legislation and then hand out astronomical penalties for breaching the footnote on page 47 (ITAR springs to mind), freedom of speech on the web...
@darkerside →
In another lucky break with available user names, I’ve broken into twitter. Part of the logic was it’s much easier to update twitter via text, and 3G signal across much of the west coast is patchy at best. It also seems a better platform for random thoughts, grumblings and photos and lets me keep this blog for more in-depth stuff that might be vaguely interesting to read…
...
Finally found what I hope is the original source of this image - Lisbon Cycle Chic*
I’m going to neatly use this image to illustrate a point made by ExcitableBoy on a recent CityCyclingEdinburgh thread, which I hadn’t really thought about before. Namely:
Cyclists do not delay motor vehicles. Motor vehicles delay cyclists.
Neat, eh? Let me expand a bit. In my mind, a delay...
December 2011
2 posts
2 tags
MacGyver's Shoes
As subtly hinted at by this morning’s tweet, I have been road testing a budget option of winter-proofing my SPD shoes.
Shown half-way through the delicate procedure, you may notice one of the bomb-proof Shimano shoes has been subtly modified to block off the toe ventilation. The end result should hopefully be toasty piggies, whatever the weather.
Does this work?
No. No it...
Realtime gritter movement from BEAR →
I find this kind of thing oddly fascinating. Look at them go! Ahem…
Anyway, first snow of the winter, so still on the spikey-tyred upright. Mainly slush, so only real issue is hidden potholes. Dug the helmet out of the cupboard for a bit of extra warmth and muppetry insurance.
November 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Oscar mans the breach
Excitingly (and somewhat mysteriously) the recumbent front disc brake managed to eat its own pads on the way home last night. I know, I didn’t know that could happen either. As a result, you may have heard me limp past last night making a noise like a tin can in a washing machine. It appears that part of the spring which keeps the two pads apart somehow got sucked between the caliper and...
Cold & Dark Ride II
Having missed the first Cold & Dark Ride organised throught the Glasgow Fixed Gear forum due to a front brake cable deciding that existance as two separate halves was just more fun, I finally got out last night with NiallC from the forum for the rerun. Ended up being a very pleasant evening ride along mainly quiet, unlit country lanes. Even the rain held off.
Also discovered that a heavy,...
October 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Electrifying
Wheel back, dynamo fitted, light cabling done, heavy rain falling. Ideal Scottish testing conditions. Watch this space…
September 2011
10 posts
1 tag
The Need For Speed
Finally got around to writing the post that really describes the point of this blog. Regret you’re unlikely to find a philosophical epiphany, but there’s some faintly amusing alliteration.
I have a 30 mile (each way) commute, which is a bit of a pain. Currently 20 miles is done by train, which costs 30 quid a week. Travel time is about 3 hours a day. Disregarding the sanity of doing...
Ambulance cover for the Great North Run
The Great North Run 2011 took place last Sunday. As well as being the occasion where a large number of unsuspecting men lose all the skin from their nipples, it is one of the world’s largest half marathons with over 38,000 runners and therefore a somewhat challenging duty to cover from an Ambulance point of view. It’s one of the few events where British Red Cross, St John Ambulance...
For the terminally intrigued, I’ve thrown up pages with a bit more detail on the machine in question, as well as the loon riding it. You’ll find the links at the top.
It's rude to point
It’s also unnecessary if you are blessed with the conventional style of indicators in your car.
The easiest way to indicate from the Fuego appears to be a nonchalant bent-elbow pointed finger in the direction intended. Whilst in the front of a queue waiting to turn right at a crossroads, I noticed that the driver of the car opposite was also pointing out of his window, signalling clearly that he...
3 tags
H*lmets
Thought I’d treat you to an exceptionally dull summary of a post I made on YACF, pondering whether helmets offer any real benefit on a low recumbent.
As an initial disclaimer, this is not intended to sway you opinion one way of the other. Helmet wearing on bicycles is one of (if not the) most contentious issues that comes up on every forum vaguely related to cycling. Personally...
3 tags
WatchNifty video from Human Power Team Delft, in case you’re too lazy to click on the previous link
3 tags
3 tags
A rich man's world
I’ve had many odd remarks thrown at me on the recumbent, but this is probably the most bizarre. Said by a fairly professional looking business woman as she stalked in from of me in queueing traffic this evening, with genuine scorn in her eyes. I’m going to put my lack of witty repartee down to mild lead poisoning from a particularly smoky bus earlier, but what I would have said is...
August 2011
4 posts
2 tags
Slicks
Brand new set of lightweight slick tyres are waiting for me at the post office, bought to replace the bomb-proof but bomb-heavy Schwalbe marathons on at the moment. Because speed is always the sensible choice…
Sadly the sink must be unblocked before I’m allowed to collect them.
2 tags
July 2011
6 posts
2 tags
A wobbly commuters guide to stopping and starting
Three weeks in, I think I’ve more or less got the hang of manoeuvring in traffic without being a liability. The bit I’ve found hardest to get used to is stopping and starting, mainly because below about 5kph my balance gets a little dicey. I thought I’d jot down my thoughts on the subject here, in case anyone else starting out finds them useful. Given that I still have that...
Light up
We were blessed today with one of the West Coast’s world beating instant rainstorms, of the type that has drivers hunched against the windscreen staring through a world of spray.
On that note, a useful link to various ways of mounting lights to recumbents. This becomes interesting when
mounting lights on the handlebars just serves to illuminate your knees
the only bits of the frame at...
Overconfidence and ditches
A steady downhill, will speeds reaching an effortless 35kph
A sweeping right-hander, bike leant over like Rossi, Fleetwood Mac resounding in my head
A switchback, to an unexpectedly sharp left
A bit of a wobble
A departure off the paved surface, still at about 30kph
A descent into the 2’ gentle ditch by the side of the road, pannier rack sending a plume of earth onto the tarmac and...
Glen Fruin
Glen Fruin is the local loop from work, a pleasant 12 miles starting with a killer climb, but then progressing to an ego-flattering back section which is all gently downhill, followed by a final climb and subsequent clenched descent down a straight road into Helensburgh.
Courtesy of the GPS on my handlebars, I can confidently state that last Monday’s freewheel down this descent reached...
3 tags
Lying down on the job - the Nazca Fuego
So, a recumbent bike. Wassat then?
As artfully depicted above, lounging by the side of Gare Loch, the Nazca Fuego is a strange looking thing. As pictured, she includes:
Steel frame, with aluminium boom (silver bit at the front)
20” front and 26” rear wheels
Bizarre tiller steering thing, attached to a somewhat narrow set of handlebars
A wing mirror
Pannier racks (under seat)...
Hello World
And with that blindingly unoriginal title, this blog wheezes into life…
So, a quick ‘round the room’. I’m Rob, I recently purchased a daft bike called a recumbent, and this blog is a humble attempt to catalogue my first forays into a new world of lying down on the job. Quite why you’re here, I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted that you...