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

koutoubia

magicbastarder wrote: »

that'd make an interesting thread. cyclist confessions

OK. I will get mine out of the way early.
I was cycling down a place called Baggot Road on my dads old racer with a mate on the handlebars.
There were two of the finest Gardai walking in the same direction.The Gardai were alerted to our imment arrival by what may or may not have been drink related harmless banter.
The friendly Gardai signal for us to stop but my handlebar perched associate decides to to advise me in a loud voice 'Dont stop for the baxtards!'
However he was so vociferous in advising me that I lost control and went straight into the kerb and crashed a few short metres from the Gardai.
I ended up in court for bike related charges eg no lights on my bike.
The judge wasnt impressed by me or the Garda and threw the case out.
This was 1986!

magicbastarder

speaking of which, when did the terminology change from 'racer' to 'road bike'? was there a circular?

RobFowl

magicbastarder wrote: »

speaking of which, when did the terminology change from 'racer' to 'road bike'? was there a circular?

Possibly not long after than when MTB's made their arrival to these shores

robyntmorton

On a group ride on Sunday I was unfortunate enough to have a mechanical. The drivetrain was slipping. I was able to abandon to the support van, brought the bike home, and to the LBS on Tuesday. Was diagnosed as a failing freehub.

Unfortunately, being an OEM wheel, they were unable to obtain a new freehub for it, and so are replacing the whole rear wheel.
€60 for the wheel, €40 for service and labour on moving parts to the new wheel.

The bike is 10 months old, approx. 800km on it, bought from CRC, so it obviously is still within warranty. I've authorised the LBS to do the work on it, as I really can't be without the bike.

I've emailed CRC about the issue, detailing my reasons for going to the LBS, not following warranty procedure, and asking if anything can be done, even as a goodwill gesture.

What do you think? Would it be taken as I'm just chancing my arm, or should I reasonably expect them to do something?

ThisRegard

magicbastarder wrote: »

that'd make an interesting thread. cyclist confessions (of being caught both on the bike and in the car).

Driving through Stoneybatter one morning rush hour a couple of years ago and was turning left, traffic queued for going straight, no buses around so I popped into the bus lane. Garda around the bend pulled me in. I explained what I was doing, grand he said, but leave it a bit longer before you jump into the bus lane next time.

Dropping someone to Heuston Station one morning and exited the park at Parkgate Street. Didn't know the lanes outside the gate, found myself in the left turn only, unless you're a bus, crap, I went straight when the lights went green and tried to get into the correct lane immediately. Garda on a motorbike spotted what I was done and and pulled up alongside me. I explained what had happened and how I was unfamiliar with the layout and was trying to get to the station. Grand he said and away he went.

Driving to work and stupidly went through a light that was more red than orange at Baggot Street Bridge. Garda on a motorbike spotted me and I got the blue light and siren treatment. Pulled in and got the lecture, apologised profusely and humbly, colleague who was a passenger was mortified, but amazed I talked myself out of trouble.

I suppose I should throw a bike story or two in.

Stopped at a red light at a junction with a straight or left turn, I was going straight. Car pulled up behind and beeped me. I took a look but didn't recognise them so turned back again. A couple more beeps and I got fed up, threw my hands up as if to say WTF. Lights went green and we went our way. Only later did I realise there was a left turn filter light and I was blocking them from turning. Bleedin cyclists.

Cycling home from a girlfriends when I was in college late one night and there's a shortcut through a park and playing fields I used to take. It was a great downhill and had a little kicker that launched you into the road in the nearby housing estate. A garda car was shadowing me and cut me off. Guy was pretty ignorant, wanting to know where I got the bike, told them my parents and he asked where did they get it? WTF, I said there's my house, go ask them. Right he said, and he left me at that point. My only regret when I got home was not telling him Santa gave me the bike.

A few years before I has on my dads racer and approaching the same kicker mentioned above but as I wasn't on the bmx or mtb I stuck to the path but made an amateur mistake. I was leaning to the left and wanted to keep up my speed so pedalled. The left down stroke hit the kerb, launching the rear of the bike sideways and into the air. I remained on it but soon realised the rear wheel was banana shaped. Mid 80s spare wheels weren't too easily to come by, financially and commercially, and it was my dads my main method of transport. So when I got home I told him sone kid threw a brick as I was cycling by and that's how it's buckled.

And a big confession now. I was involved in a hit and run with a pedestrian when I was cycling on a footpath. I hurt her enough to make her cry. I asked was she ok but bottled it and legged it. 7 year old me was terrified to leave the house for the rest of the day.

Gah, it's good to get that off my chest. I'll sleep peacefully for the first time in decades.

magicbastarder

a chap i know went on a skiing holiday just over 20 years ago (he's about a year older than me, so born around 1975). the day before he set off, he realised he'd forgotten to arrange insurance so hopped in his mum's car and drove into (i think) baggot street to get it sorted. he was not insured to drive the car.

anyway, as he's parking, he clipped the car in front of him. oh ****, but gets out, thinks 'no real damage done' and is about to walk off when the owner of the other car runs up, having seen the clip. anyway, in very short order, the owner is also joined by a garda. the below is an abridged version of the conversation with the garda.
'is this your car?'
'eh.. yes it is'.
'can i have your name please?'
'eh..... eveyln o'driscoll'
(cocked eyebrow from the guard, who clearly does a quick 'what's easiest for me' mental calculation)
'date of birth please'
'eh, 7th july 1947'
'okay, please present your licence and insurance at your nearest garda station within a week'.

there was a bit of a 'mum, can we talk?' moment for him when he got home.

Doctor Bob

And you thought your cycle was windy yesterday?

https://www.duic.nl/algemeen/fotos-storm-op-fiets-utrecht/

tomasrojo

Great photographs there.

MediaMan

Doctor Bob wrote: »

And you thought your cycle was windy yesterday?

https://www.duic.nl/algemeen/fotos-storm-op-fiets-utrecht/

Wow, incredible!

...and not a helmet or a hi-viz in sight :rolleyes:

Doctor Bob

MediaMan wrote: »

Wow, incredible!

...and not a helmet or a hi-viz in sight :rolleyes:

I know. The carnage!

Won't somebody please think of the children!!!: https://twitter.com/wildfireslovato/status/834797424627609600

[Trigger warning: don't watch the video if footage of un-helmeted and un-hi-vizzed cyclists upsets you.]

Chips Lovell

The Dutch: Nation of reckless daredevils

magicbastarder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5i4CL4vlhw

buffalo

I can see the Indo's sub-editor's train of thought as they selected an image for this piece...



Actually, no, no I can't.

eeeee

:rollseyes:

Oh but we don't need feminism :rollseyes:

Not reading the independent has been one of the better decisions I've made in recent years

magicbastarder

sod the picture. are the indo seriously peddling that topic as worthy of discussion?

Chuchote

Interesting report:

http://www.engineersjournal.ie/2017/02/23/cycling-infrastructure-engineering-roads/

In the first of a two-part article, Gerald Fogarty examines the current cycling infrastructure in Ireland, the best road position for cyclists and how engineers can accommodate the needs of both cyclists and motorists when planning

rollingscone

nee wrote: »

:rollseyes:

Oh but we don't need feminism :rollseyes:

Not reading the independent has been one of the better decisions I've made in recent years

https://youtu.be/BZoXyIxqFRc

Alek

Plenty of ice patches between the Viewing Point and Glencree this morning...

manafana

anyone see the rte programme which covers off on nuclear power, you'd have clearly agree that it is a better option than our overuse of coal for power. Safety has come long way, would thought somewhere like isle of man would be keen on employment it could create.

CramCycle

Alas, thanks to Sellafield and all that went with it, nuclear power is a political no go in Ireland. Best we can hope for is an increase in use of Water and Wind generation for the next few years.

magicbastarder

i'm not going to try to look for it now, but i read an article a few years ago about an alternative to the standard reactor design, which is far safer, cannot melt down, and produces far less waste. the reason the standard reactor design (according to the article) became standardised is that reactors were originally designed to create material for nukes, rather than to generate power. but it's the design that is known, and no-one has poured much money into standardising the alternative.

magicbastarder

https://what-if.xkcd.com/

1 in 500 is much shallower than i would have expected.

ThisRegard

Oh man, I'm disgusted, I never knew about the Haleakala downhill bike ride when I was there.

manafana

magicbastarder wrote: »

i'm not going to try to look for it now, but i read an article a few years ago about an alternative to the standard reactor design, which is far safer, cannot melt down, and produces far less waste. the reason the standard reactor design (according to the article) became standardised is that reactors were originally designed to create material for nukes, rather than to generate power. but it's the design that is known, and no-one has poured much money into standardising the alternative.

they where saying the nuclear waste is now much more minimal and nothing compared to effects of coal burning, our biggest source is still cool which is nuts, wind is limited from cost point of view for now, water still needs research to improve and would have go to sea bound to increase, sun has limited potential for us for now.

Thud

ThisRegard wrote: »

Oh man, I'm disgusted, I never knew about the Haleakala downhill bike ride when I was there.

Or the other way, 4,205m of climbing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOIHwZ_6bx4

Sarz91

magicbastarder wrote: »

i'm not going to try to look for it now, but i read an article a few years ago about an alternative to the standard reactor design, which is far safer, cannot melt down, and produces far less waste. the reason the standard reactor design (according to the article) became standardised is that reactors were originally designed to create material for nukes, rather than to generate power. but it's the design that is known, and no-one has poured much money into standardising the alternative.

Thorium reactors?

Chuchote

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-for-donald-trump-good-news-is-bad-news-1.2990794

Fintan O'Toole on Trump's loyalty mechanism - interesting piece.

From their perspective, the best news is anything that supports a narrative of danger and decline. Success stories – unless Trump can claim direct personal credit for them – are bad news and, in this inverted logic, best buried.
Consider, for example, the greatest current success story of job creation in the US. There is an indigenous industry that is growing at a phenomenal pace, making American jobs for American workers.
This industry increased its workforce by an amazing 25 per cent in 2016 alone.
It is called solar power, and its growth is part of an even bigger good news story.
Recent official figures show 374,000 people working for solar firms, a 32 per cent rise in jobs in wind power in 2016 alone, and 2.2 million people now employed in manufacturing or installing energy-efficient products, an increase of 133,000 last year.
These jobs are being created, of course, in response to the climate change that Trump calls a hoax. So they are bad news.

magicbastarder

Sarz91 wrote: »

Thorium reactors?

that does sound like what i read about.

tomasrojo

The NPR Planet Money podcast had an episode a few years ago and installation of roof-based solar panels in the States. Plenty of people with no interest in climate change were installing them because the cost of installation had fallen so dramatically. Essentially, instead of paying a bill six times a year (or whatever) you repay the equivalent of a small mortgage to the installers. It was surprising to hear just how cheap installations had become in so little time. 80% drop in costs in ten years? I can't remember.
It's in there somewhere!
|
|
V
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/04/10/398811199/episode-616-how-solar-got-cheap

Sarz91

magicbastarder wrote: »

that does sound like what i read about.

Thorium nuclear fuel is really cool for a lot of reasons. But there are a lot of clarifications I like to make when discussions about this stuff come up. I find that the Thorium Evangelical Internet Community spreads a lot of questionable information while advertising their fuel. I get it... they're trying to rebrand nuclear energy to get away from the negative implications. Maybe they're right too.

There are literally thousands of nuclear reactor design options based on different combinations of coolant (water, gas, sodium, salt, CO2, lead, etc.), fuel form (uranium oxide, uranium metal, thorium oxide, thorium metal, thorium nitride, TRISO, pebble bed, aqueous, molten salt, etc. etc.), power level (small modular, large, medium), and about a dozen other parameters. We really only have 1 kind in commercial operation (uranium oxide fueled, pressurized water cooled reactors) and it has a lot of disadvantages over some of the other possibilities. Among all these options, there are a whole bunch of combinations that give performance far superior to the traditional reactors in terms of cost, safety, proliferation, waste, and sustainability. Thorium-based ideas are among them, but Thorium isn't some new thing held back by conspiracy.

The key advantage of Thorium over all other things is that it uniquely allows you to make a breeder reactor in a thermal neutron spectrum. This advantage is subtle and fairly minor compared to the advantages that it shares with uranium fuel in advanced reactors.