Buffalo & Doozerie - The mild musings of two grumpy old men!

Lusk_Doyle

buffalo wrote: »

I don't know where you cycle, but in most places the road is below eye level.

I suggest you read my posts above again to more fully understand the point I was trying to make. You appear to (either deliberately or unconsciously) have snipped the part which explains what I believe is good practice.

???

Your exact post was quoted.

buffalo

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

???

Your exact post was quoted.

Not in the original question: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=102007052&postcount=1314

CramCycle

Chuchote wrote: »

Well, yeah, lots of lights can be pointed down, but will they illuminate the road before you if there aren't streetlights?

Yes, the good ones will illuminate the road for quite a distance but will be no more blinding to oncoming traffic than a car with correctly aligned dipped headlights on.

OleRodrigo

You cant beat a hub dynamo for regular commuting. The initial cost and degree of hassle to setup make them worthwhile in no time.

As pointed out, the German makes are a good bet as they are already approved for use on German roads ( an by extension, are OK for Irish ones )

Some forward thinking civil servant could use those standards to regulate the domestic light market and get ride of those offensive strobes. But if we cant even adapt derelict Nama buildings for the homeless, there's not much chance of that.

Chuchote

Can you put a hub dynamo on a bike with disc brakes?

OleRodrigo

Chuchote wrote: »

Can you put a hub dynamo on a bike with disc brakes?

Yeah, the hub just needs to be a ' disc ' version.

doozerie

Chuchote wrote: »

Can you put a hub dynamo on a bike with disc brakes?

I have one on my commute bike, which has disc brakes. There is a decent range of disc-compatible dynamo hubs available these days.

I've been using this dynamo for about a year now, combined with good quality front and rear lights, and I wouldn't willingly go back to battery-powered lights.

doozerie

My daughter and I have developed this bedtime routine recently whereby if she is quick at getting herself ready for bed I let her watch an inappropriate music video before she climbs into bed. The video isn’t always inappropriate, sometimes I’m a responsible parent and watch the entire video myself first to see if it is suitable, but it doesn’t always work out that way. And the world of modern music is well and truly packed with videos that would have had the parish priest burn down the house in my day for even daring to think about any of the images contained in them.

We started this bedtime routine safely enough, over the course of a couple of weeks we watched one video each night by OK Go, every one of which is entirely about fun and entertainment. They are great, if you’ve never seen any of them you should take a look, Upside Down & Inside Out is a great example. You go to bed with a smile on your face after watching one of those, which is exactly what I’m seeking from any video that I let my 7yr old watch. We are like a scene from The Waltons or Little House on the Prairie (for anyone old enough to remember that saccharine sh1te), we watch a “nice” video, hug, say goodnight, and everyone goes to bed smugly filled with the joys of life.

But once we ventured away from OK Go and into the territory of more chart-based music videos, things veered sharply off course. The Waltons and the Ingalls (I even remember their family name, some days I can barely remember my own name, why can I remember the name of a fictional family that I strongly disliked, why is life so unfair?!) would never have stood for it. Tits and ass are the order of the day.

Thankfully I’ve managed to avoid the worst of the videos that go along with songs that my daughter has heard on the radio and has liked. Take for example Ariane Grande - Side to Side - don’t click on that in work by the way. This was one for which my daughter recognised the song name and she asked to watch the video the next night, so I watched it myself first.

The first clue as to its suitability was the YouTube still for the video, which showed Ariane Grande and Nicki Minaj in something I presume is meant to be a sauna. I’ve never seen a sauna like it, of the saunas I’ve been in they’ve never been filled exclusively with fit, toned, beautiful people, wearing perfect hair and perfect makeup, and little else. I try not to dwell on my memories of real saunas but some nights the nightmares worm their way to the forefront of my mind, I wake up screaming at the recovered images of excessive body hair, combovers, hobbit feet, beer bellies, and the grimaces of sweaty faces struggling with the intense heat. I’ve clearly been going to the wrong saunas.

The majority of the video was predictable enough given that intro. There were lots of women writhing in various ways in various places. Personally I can’t see the appeal of squirming all over a communal shower wall, but again maybe I’ve just not been using the right communal showers (cue some more disturbing memories of male showers). Maybe female showers really are exactly like the fantasies of teenage boys (not the teenage boys of the Waltons or Ingalls, obviously), but my inner voice was screaming “that’s simply NOT HYGIENIC!”.

I certainly don’t want to impose barriers for my daughter at such an early age, “writhing in a shower” is arguably as valid a career choice as any, but I’d like her to see it as just one of many choices rather than her logical role in life. Given that it’s a video by and for a female singer (in theory anyway) I thought it might break out of the cliches for a moment rather than just pandering to the drooling males in the audience, but sadly no.

The final straw was the scene on the exercise bikes. Yet again I was left wondering why there was such a massive disparity with the few spinning classes I’ve attended. My classes represented smelly sweaty airless sufferfests, the class in the video represented some very strange sexual activity. They tried to make the pedalling motion sexy by throwing in a curious hip movement that made it look like they were geriatrics, painfully dislocating their hip joints with every turn of the pedals. Just. No. I’m not letting my daughter watch that travesty of cycling technique. Ariane Grande, go stand in the corner and think about what you’ve done. And no writhing while there.

YouTube helpfully auto-played another video before my inner old man fully recovered from the shock of the previous one. This one was The Weekend - Starboy ft. Daft Punk. I thought I was on safe ground here, it opens with two men sitting at opposite ends of an office table. They were both fully clothed. Good start. They were excessively clothed though, as it happens, one was wearing a balaclava the other was sporting the latest in trendy beefy zip ties on his wrists and ankles. So far so weird, but hey, who am I to stand between people and their art, maybe it’s a physical representation of self-restraint. Or something.

Balaclavaman proceeded to walk behind the other guy, put a plastic bag over his head, and suffocate him. To death, like. What. The. Jaysus.

Having established himself as some kind of sociopath, Balaclavaman pulled off his balaclava. Well, why wouldn’t he, I mean who is around to see the face of this guy who just simulated killing someone in a fairly gruesome way. He swaggers down a hallway and opens his mouth to sing. I was wondering what was going to emerge. Some heartfelt hardcore treatise on man’s inhumanity to man? Some gravelly gangsta rap?

No. What emerged was quite a girly voice banging on about something or other. I skipped further into the video to see if there was a point where something as boring as remorse was expressed. But no. There he was smashing things with a large brightly-lit crucifix. Bless him. He then climbs into a car with a black cat that transforms into a Jaguar, and they drive happily down the road together. We have a black cat, on the outside it’s a 9-month old black young fella, but on the inside it’s a wild Jaguar with a serious lack of social skills. Living with a Jaguar is not nearly as calm and peaceful as that video suggests.

I learned later that the video is supposed to represent his killing off an earlier persona of his because …something, something, I don’t know and I don’t care - we all have issues, but we don’t all use them as an excuse to produce a pointlessly violent and utterly sh1te video to inflict upon the world. That’s not “art”, it’s just immature posturing. Another video on the banned list, then.

I’m gonna have to start finding some “safe” videos for my daughter again. The Nolans it is…

Chuchote

Jesus. Wake up in the early hours and log on to see what's happening in the world and you sink down in the bed again with confused notions of Laura Ingalls and John-Boy Walton and the rest writhing in a rustic sauna.

Ryath

Here's one that for you that combines great 60's music and cycling! Move on to Danny MacASkill then. Hadn't seen any OK Go videos in years must show my own daughters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ud5T5I4XcA

smacl

Chuchote wrote: »

Jesus. Wake up in the early hours and log on to see what's happening in the world and you sink down in the bed again with confused notions of Laura Ingalls and John-Boy Walton and the rest writhing in a rustic sauna.

Forget Debbie does Dallas, here on the 410 we now have Laura does John Boy. Great idea for a new retro-crossover series, anyone got the number for Netflix handy...

odyssey06

I predict a spike from Irish IPs accessing Ariane Grande videos on Youtube... to think last time I saw her she was elegantly attired sharing the stage with that nice young man Michael Bubblelays.

magicbastarder

to my ears, ariane grande and demi lovato sound like things starbucks would sell.

RobertFoster

magicbastarder wrote: »

to my ears, ariane grande and demi lovato sound like things starbucks would sell.

Just to be obtuse, make sure you order a large Ariane and a half Lovato.

magicbastarder

at least they'd have plenty of room to write your name on it.

Seve OB

Heading down the N11 to Wicklow on Saturday Morning, nice and warm in my car, I passed a group of cyclists just after Druids Glen Turnoff, maybe 7 or 8 of them. I thought to myself fair play to them out for a spin on a bitterly cold and frosty morning, but I also thought I wouldn't like to be cycling on such a busy main road and some of them seemed to be cycling dangerously close to the traffic lane.

No more than a hundred yards past them I saw one terribly lucky guy who appeared to loose his wheel on the yellow line or a cats eye. I don't think he took any of the others down with him, but there was a wobble or 2 as he luckily fell into his buddies and not into the traffic lane, but his bike went out there and a few things (bottles & whatever) fell off his bike and went out as far as the outside lane. It was early enough, 9:45 or so and traffic wasn't heavy, but there were cars coming who had to take avoidance measures and luckily enough nobody to close to make contact.

Coming home Saturday evening, about 5:30 I was on the inbound lane N4 at the second garage. I saw what appeared to be a mopehead up ahead in the bus lane but sailing very close to the busy traffic. I was taking the next turn for Chapelizod and as I got closer, I saw it was actually a cyclist with the best rear light I have ever seen. I don't know why more people don't use decent lights like that, mine is pretty good, but probably not quite his standard. He had a large enough backpack on him, was dressed in black with no reflective gear on him at all, but the very decent light certainly made up for that. I couldn't help but think he was cycling like a nutcase though, so close to the traffic and at times cycling on the thick white bus lane line. There were no busses or taxis in the lane and no cars merging out from the garage so there was no reason for him for not keeping a good bit to the left out of harms way. My mind went back to that morning and how quickly I saw the guy end up on the deck, but he was lucky as there was little traffic. I'm looking at this guy with his heavy looking backpack and great rear light, but if this guy goes down here, it's curtains.

On to this morning, coming up to 10am coming down through the Phoenix park just past the Aras. A girl in her club gear is cycling in the hard shoulder, but again, with no cars for a considerable distance ahead, she is basically cycling on the line while heavy traffic moves past her within a foot or 2 of her, while she has plenty of room to her left to cycle safely in.

WTF is it with these people who choose to cycle as close to the traffic as possible when there are clearly safer alternatives.......

Of course then I realise that this bird is a nut job as I'm sitting at the red lights waiting to exit into busy moving traffic on Parkgate street. Down comes yer one on the inside lane freewheeling at pace, doesn't even look to her right as she breaks the red light and merges out into the traffic with one car having to brake as she went out in front of him, and then she starts to weave pretty carelessly between the traffic swapping lanes a few times before she disappears in the distance.

Nutjob.

spyderski

There's plenty of mopeheads around alright. Especially on a Monday morning...

magicbastarder

i did a double take over that too...

Chuchote

Seve OB wrote: »

WTF is it with these people who choose to cycle as close to the traffic as possible when there are clearly safer alternatives.......

Cycle a mile (km in new money) in another man's saddle before you judge him. It may be that the surface where these people were riding was too crap to cycle on. For instance, Beaver Row in Donnybrook/Clonskeagh - you have to stay out and a lot of the time you have to ride up out of the saddle, the surface is so bad on the end near the metal bridge. For instance Leinster Road, from Harold's Cross to Rathmines, has a series of badly degenerated patches on the part where you'd normally cycle for large parts of the road on either end, and so cyclists tend to stay in the middle of the road where it's safer.

I lolled at mopeheads too. Realised after a moment that mopeheads is what they were riding in Roman Hollday.

Seve OB

Chuchote wrote: »

Cycle a mile (km in new money) in another man's saddle before you judge him. It may be that the surface where these people were riding was too crap to cycle on. For instance, Beaver Row in Donnybrook/Clonskeagh - you have to stay out and a lot of the time you have to ride up out of the saddle, the surface is so bad on the end near the metal bridge. For instance Leinster Road, from Harold's Cross to Rathmines, has a series of badly degenerated patches on the part where you'd normally cycle for large parts of the road on either end, and so cyclists tend to stay in the middle of the road where it's safer.

I lolled at mopeheads too. Realised after a moment that mopeheads is what they were riding in Roman Hollday.

I would accept your argument if you spoke of the roads in question.
But I do know the roads, I cycle regularly in the Phoenix park, a brand new road (well ok its about 5 years old now) but the surface is perfect, so no excuse there. The N4 inbound, resurfaced only last week, again, perfect road. N11, I've not cycled there in an awful long time so can't comment but I do drive it a good bit and it is not noticeably bad at all. At any rate, that is probably the most dangerous of the 3 roads and the one where any bit of cop on should tell you to stay as far away from the traffic lane as possible

Oh and I know Leinster road very well, I used to live there. It is a world of difference cycling there & Beaver row to the other 3 roads especially cycling on the N11, with cars not far off Motorway speeds!

Lumen

Seve OB wrote: »

N11, I've not cycled there in an awful long time so can't comment but I do drive it a good bit and it is not noticeably bad at all. At any rate, that is probably the most dangerous of the 3 roads and the one where any bit of cop on should tell you to stay as far away from the traffic lane as possible

The problem is that the further away from traffic you cycle, the more likely you are to pick up a puncture.

So there's a trade-off between a tiny risk of being clipped and a small risk of a puncture. I normally cycle in the middle of the hard shoulder.

Seve OB

Lumen wrote: »

The problem is that the further away from traffic you cycle, the more likely you are to pick up a puncture.

So there's a trade-off between a tiny risk of being clipped and a small risk of a puncture. I normally cycle in the middle of the hard shoulder.

That's a fair point, I think the middle of the hard shoulder is fine, I would probably be a bit left of center myself

I remember once cycling out the N3 around Blanch. It was a pretty scary experience, one I never returned to!

Weepsie

Picture the scene. Calm, Saturday morning. Little traffic on the road. Cycling down Mobhi Road towards Phibsboro in the Bus/Cycle lane. Not a single car ahead of me, not a single car in the adjacent lane which goes the same direction. Only one car coming the opposite direction.

A taxi however decided to get up behind me, despite probably seeing me anything from 20-50metres back. Beep at me and overtake in the other lane.

At the lights I told him it was unnecessary given the road was empty. Blah, blah cycle lane (pointing to the lane which is for traffic going the other way). When this was pointed out, it was blah blah, middle of the road. I said it's a bus and cycle lane, I'm allowed.

I could have been right on the kerb and he would've given out I think as he was in no way impeded and never actually tried getting back into the lane I was in. I tend to have my silliest things like this on empty roads on a Saturday for some reason.

CramCycle

So I am getting more and more used to the commute along the N11, go on the cyclepath and there are several points where it becomes almost like a round of cyclocross with a blindfold on, go in the bus lane and while the majority of drivers are respectful, there is typically one taxi driver who beeps at you, as he slows down mid overtake. Typically he will turn right in less than 150m, and never sees the irony that he could overtake easily, therefore he was not obstructed.
Last night coming home, it was typical Irish weather. I have decided that no great effort would be made on my part, time to relax. Just coming past the Montrose, I come close to catching a guy with TT bars, yellow booties, and a range of Aldi walking lights (the ones you wrap around your arm or leg, 10 or so red LEDs), one round his ankle, one round his arm, one on his bag. This man means business. His helmet is a garish yellow which has to be said, is probably more noticeable at close range than the typical RSA builder outfits for children.
As we come upto the lights, as he is down on his TT bars, which as far as I could tell, aren't rigged up for brakes, they go green. I am sure he would have stopped and off he goes, into the wind and the night. As we start the not so steep climb out of Stillorgan, I find I have caught up to him. I can't overtake as his instance on being in a TT position without any bike handling skills means he is wobbling all over the cycle lane. It was at this point I realise that his lights are only visible on a wet day at a maximum of about 20m. The cycle lane becomes flush with the road again (I have at this point overtaken him 3 times, only for him to pass at traffic lights and then roll thorough on red, I then have to stick behind his wobbling shenanigansuntil the next break). This time there is no lights for awhile, I overtake and go on my way. The Foxrock lights catch me a short time later, and while I sit there waiting he yet again rolls up, a little more apprehensive this time but he rolls through regardless. Back to square one, but this time I sit back and figure if I give it a break, I won't see him again. I nonetheless do, as he skips the queue at the Cornelscourt lights, much to the chargrin of several people who shake their heads. I took the road at this point as there are a large number of cyclists and traffic is not that heavy that I could not be overtaken easily. The next lights comes along and it is only myself and a lady on a purple sit up. I stop behind her and yet again, the same thing. Rolls through the red, in between traffic. As the crossing traffic gets a filter light for southbound, I see a Garda van. I think to myself what are the chances, what are the chances.
Woop-woop! That's the sound of da police!
Blue lights, in it pulls and I see him and another guy getting stopped. Our light goes green and we roll up slowly behind. He is explaining his position, the Garda gives him a verbal warning. It turns out the Garda was pulling over the other cyclist for something else and my time trialing friend carries on. At least he may have learned I feel, at least he may gain some knowledge that if he doesn't run them for the right reasons, let him not run them out of fear he would be caught. We roll upto the bridge before the turn for Shankhill. He is there waiting. He has learned, I am so proud. Oh. Wait. No. He pushes off, this time actually missing a car that had to slam on. I look around and see the 84 bus driver facepalm, I feel his annoyance. I see my time trialling enthusiast a few more times, once nearly getting sidelined by a car who had a green light but his enthusiasm for TTing meant that my relaxed spin was left behind, and I am all the more thankful for it.

buffalo

I felt like I struck a blow for the well-behaved cohort today, albeit accidentally. Coming to a red pedestrian light on the NCR, wide enough cycle lane - I'm on the right hand side as there's another cyclist just ahead and to my left who I was working on overtaking.

She comes to a stop at the light, I slow and come to a stop just behind her to her right. I think about trackstanding and turn my front wheel to the left. This is when I become aware of the muppet behind who has decided he's not stopping for the red light and that the best way forward is in between the two of us who have stopped. However as he shunts forward, his right pedal comes up and his shoe rubs all along the outside of my wet and dirty front tyre.

He wobbles and pedals on, followed by another guy who overtakes properly (though also breaking the light). About 20 seconds later I'm right behind them at the next set of lights, where I can see the guy in front muttering to himself and trying to rub the dirt off his shoe.

I hope it never comes off! muahaha!

buffalo

Another cheering sight this morning - there was a Garda at the top of Whitworth Road making someone in a car do a U-turn on top of Crossguns bridge.

Looked like the driver had come up from Whitworth and taken an illegal left. This manoeuvre means you have to drive through a pedestrian crossing while people are using it. Nice to see the Gardaí not only stopping (and hopefully ticketing) them, but also making them take the proper route.

Weepsie

buffalo wrote: »

Another cheering sight this morning - there was a Garda at the top of Whitworth Road making someone in a car do a U-turn on top of Crossguns bridge.

Looked like the driver had come up from Whitworth and taken an illegal left. This manoeuvre means you have to drive through a pedestrian crossing while people are using it. Nice to see the Gardaí not only stopping (and hopefully ticketing) them, but also making them take the proper route.

This pleases me, as though it's not a frequent occurence, you do occassionally see some eejit doing it. Saw the car myself. Seemed to see a lot of Garda cars about the place this morning in fact.

All the Garda cars in the world wouldn't have stopped the numerous RLJing cars I saw this morning though. Moved way beyond amber gambling. It's become normalised.

CramCycle

Traffic corp where kerb crawling up the N11 to catch drivers on their phones last night. Great to see them doing a few other things out of the routine.

On a personal story, hands up yesterday morning, I was completely in the wrong and a huge thanks to the 46A driver who reacted quite quickly. Coming down the N11, there was a 145 pulled in and a 46A coming up behind it. I was in the bike lane and as I passed the 145 I decided to overtake the person in front of me. I looked around and decided, bus lane as they were taking the lane and it was at one of the narrower parts. Just before I moved over to the bus lane my front wheel snagged, jerking it sideways. Instead of concentrating on the road, I concentrated on staying up right and swerved maniacally out into the bus lane which was about to be occupied by the 46A. Thankfully he held his nerve and reacted quickly, resulting in a close pass but no injuries. 100% my fault. At the next lights I could see him preparing to defend himself, I think he expected me to sideswipe him with abuse. I rolled up and I could see his face ready to answer my abuse. I just held up my hands and said sorry, 100% my fault, it wasn't intentional just stupid. He looked at me like a disappointed parent realising that their child had learned the lesson and the wise words that were prepared for handing down were meaningless.

OleRodrigo

Weepsie wrote: »

. It's become normalised.

In the city center, it's been normalized for a long time.

Seve OB

CramCycle wrote: »

Traffic corp where kerb crawling up the N11 to catch drivers on their phones last night. Great to see them doing a few other things out of the routine.

On a personal story, hands up yesterday morning, I was completely in the wrong and a huge thanks to the 46A driver who reacted quite quickly. Coming down the N11, there was a 145 pulled in and a 46A coming up behind it. I was in the bike lane and as I passed the 145 I decided to overtake the person in front of me. I looked around and decided, bus lane as they were taking the lane and it was at one of the narrower parts. Just before I moved over to the bus lane my front wheel snagged, jerking it sideways. Instead of concentrating on the road, I concentrated on staying up right and swerved maniacally out into the bus lane which was about to be occupied by the 46A. Thankfully he held his nerve and reacted quickly, resulting in a close pass but no injuries. 100% my fault. At the next lights I could see him preparing to defend himself, I think he expected me to sideswipe him with abuse. I rolled up and I could see his face ready to answer my abuse. I just held up my hands and said sorry, 100% my fault, it wasn't intentional just stupid. He looked at me like a disappointed parent realising that their child had learned the lesson and the wise words that were prepared for handing down were meaningless.

Bet it wasn't as near as this lad

https://www.joe.ie/sport/watch-cyclist-lucky-alive-hair-raising-near-collision-lorry-580526?utm_content=buffer25f61&utm_medium=Social+organic&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer