I hate roundabouts.

Set off last night around 1900 for an evening ride after zeroing my speedo
odometer for a new year's target. Beautiful crisp evening, past the sights
and sounds of Hull Fair (biggest travelling fair in Europe) and eventually
onto the Humber north bank.

Pootled along the dark foreshore path, listening to the football and
watching the ghostly ships passing by until it was time to join the traffic.
Riding down from the docks I have to turn right at a large roundabout. I
move into the right hand lane, stick arm out and now I have two lanes of
traffic coming in at 50 mph on my left.

Most times sensible motorists will slow down appreciably so that they've
made it clear that you've been seen. This time though a motorbike and two
cars just kept going so our paths were going to cross. I mean what do you
do? Keep going on the off chance that they will back off? You can't do
that - you've got to take the safest option - so I veered off right into the
centre island.

Then the flaming traffic stopped - wondering what I was doing - pity you
didn't do that before pal - I'm not a mind reader. Yes, I really don't like
large fast roundabouts one bit.

Anyway the new rear Schwalbe Marathon Plus was given a 20 mile workout. It
has affected the handling (which I'll get used to) somewhat, there seems to
be a slight flexing when cornering, no doubt due to the 5mm "smart guard"
flexible layer, but then there's the peace of mind that punctures should now
be very rare indeed.

Maybe I should look at the Gents road bike in last night's paper for 25
quid- I feel after 5000 miles on a heavy hybrid with fat tyres that if let
loose on a road bike I can fly and then give all those roadies who've burnt
me off in the past a good pasting ;-)

--
Simon Mason
Anlaby
East Yorkshire.
53°44'N 0°26'W
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net

Simon Mason wrote:

I hate roundabouts too, I often take another route to avoid the ones under
J27 of the M62. Your story also reminded me of the cyclist I saw riding on
the hard shoulder of the M1 last night.



--
The Reply & From email addresses are checked rarely.

"Simon Mason" wrote in message
...

... I
move into the right hand lane, stick arm out and now I have two lanes of
traffic coming in at 50 mph on my left.

Any roundabout that allows high speed entry puts all road users at risk, and I
dislike them even when driving a car

Simon Mason wrote:

Maybe I should look at the Gents road bike in last night's paper for 25
quid- I feel after 5000 miles on a heavy hybrid with fat tyres that if let
loose on a road bike I can fly and then give all those roadies who've
burnt me off in the past a good pasting ;-)

Hope you won't be disappointed. Weight and tyres only make a small
difference, what really slows you down on the hybrid is the comparatively
upright seating position. Riding on the drops you might gain something like
2 or 3 mph on flat roads.

Andy

"MSeries" wrote in message
...
Simon Mason wrote:

I hate roundabouts too, I often take another route to avoid the ones under
J27 of the M62. Your story also reminded me of the cyclist I saw riding on
the hard shoulder of the M1 last night.

Funnily enough I drove around that roundabout yesterday afternoon after
visiting Roundhay - I would definitely not like to attempt to cycle around
it (doesn't bear thinking about!) - it has double roundabout and I nearly
always miss my turning for Hull and either take the M621 back into Leeds or
end up at Ikea.

Simon

"Andy Koppe" a n d y @ d c s . e d . a c . u k wrote in message
...
Simon Mason wrote:

Maybe I should look at the Gents road bike in last night's paper for 25
quid- I feel after 5000 miles on a heavy hybrid with fat tyres that if
let
loose on a road bike I can fly and then give all those roadies who've
burnt me off in the past a good pasting ;-)

Hope you won't be disappointed. Weight and tyres only make a small
difference, what really slows you down on the hybrid is the comparatively
upright seating position. Riding on the drops you might gain something
like
2 or 3 mph on flat roads.

Hmm, I got the impression from reading cycling mags that shaving a gram off
some part by drilling it out was the difference between life and death. I
know that half of this is hype and companies trying to compete with each
other on weight alone, but I thought I might gain more than that. Certainly
going from knobbles to slicks on a MTB makes a large difference- anyway it's
only 25 quid.
Simon

Simon Mason wrote:
"MSeries" wrote in message
...
Simon Mason wrote:

I hate roundabouts too, I often take another route to avoid the ones
under J27 of the M62. Your story also reminded me of the cyclist I
saw riding on the hard shoulder of the M1 last night.

Funnily enough I drove around that roundabout yesterday afternoon
after visiting Roundhay - I would definitely not like to attempt to
cycle around it (doesn't bear thinking about!) - it has double
roundabout and I nearly always miss my turning for Hull and either
take the M621 back into Leeds or end up at Ikea.

Simon

If you came from Leeds you will have passed very closely by my house. My
rides often mean I have to go up the A62 to turn right at the first
roundabout on to the A650 towards Bradford, that is the last exit. Most of
the vehicles have just come off the M62 and are truning right to IKEA or
Batley, few seem prepared for slow moving traffic in their path.

I have permanently adjusted my routes to avoid the J26 (M62/M606)
roundabout AKA Chainbar. Nightmare.

--
The Reply & From email addresses are checked rarely.

Simon Mason wrote:

Hmm, I got the impression from reading cycling mags that shaving a gram off
some part by drilling it out was the difference between life and death.

Though this is in a sporting context, where winning is so much better
than second best, and everyone is on a more or less identical design of
machine.

Weight will only make a real difference to speed where acceleration is
concerned, a = f/m (don't forget that you're fighting an acceleration to
climb a hill, so it'll make a difference there even if you just maintain
speed). Once you're anything much into double figures of miles per hour
aerodynamics is the really important bit for ultimate speed, which is
why the fastest HPVs have their weight *increased* by adding fairings.

But keen roadies are fast becuase they get out and go fast a lot. It's
the engine that makes the *most* difference. Just buying a racer helps,
but I would wager *very* good money that if I swapped my Brompton with
Lance's racer he'd *still* beat me out of sight, and then some.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Simon Mason wrote:

Maybe I should look at the Gents road bike in last night's paper for 25
quid- I feel after 5000 miles on a heavy hybrid with fat tyres that if
let
loose on a road bike I can fly and then give all those roadies who've
burnt me off in the past a good pasting ;-)

Hope you won't be disappointed. Weight and tyres only make a small
difference, what really slows you down on the hybrid is the comparatively
upright seating position. Riding on the drops you might gain something
like
2 or 3 mph on flat roads.

Hmm, I got the impression from reading cycling mags that shaving a gram
off some part by drilling it out was the difference between life and
death.

Yeah, that's the impression manufacturers are keen to create. Although it
sometimes seems like they're believing their own hype.

Weight savings have an effect when climbing or accelerating, but they've got
to be seen in relation to the combined weight of bike _and_ rider. Although
a small difference might well decide the outcome of a race, it will be
insignificant to most "normal" riders.

At constant speed on flat roads saving weight has next to no effect.


Certainly going from knobbles to slicks on a MTB makes a large difference-
anyway it's only 25 quid.

Yes, that does make a big difference and must be the cheapest way to tune
your MTB, because knobblies are so utterly unsuitable to roads.

With a slick tread and pumped up to their respective maximum pressures there
isn't much difference in rolling resistance between narrow and wide tyres.

Andy

Simon Mason wrote:
"MSeries" wrote in message
...
Simon Mason wrote:

I hate roundabouts too, I often take another route to avoid the ones under
J27 of the M62. Your story also reminded me of the cyclist I saw riding on

visiting Roundhay - I would definitely not like to attempt to cycle around
it (doesn't bear thinking about!) - it has double roundabout and I nearly

Its not that bad..... I find these better than some of the smaller ones.

I have been riding in 3 days out of 5 using these roundabouts and not had any problems.

Steve

--
Steve Foster
s . p . foster (at) leeds . ac . uk