La Flamme Rouge **off topic discussion**

magicbastarder

waiting at lights on the way back from lunch, on my cheapo single speed, about five minutes ago. a car pulled alongside me and the chap - mid 70s, probably older - winds down the window.
'what's going on here', i wonder.
first thing he says to me - 'is that not a fixie? why don't you flip the wheel around?'

seamus

tomasrojo wrote: »

Fairly interesting look at using behavioural economics to help rebalance distribution of Citibikes in New York. Once they established a leaderboard of "angels" who redistributed the most bikes, some people got pretty competitive.
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/12/11/675828915/citi-bike-s-better-angels

I'm always curious to see how these kinds of schemes might translate into different cultures. Would this idea make any difference in Ireland at all? Would anyone care?

For example, there used to be a very popular forum called "SomethingAwful", which many here might know. It still exists, but it's more niche now. Not long into its life, they began charging a one-off fee for signups. $10 to register a new account. The site grew. And grew and grew. And because of the signup fee, spamming and trolling was kept very low. People loved it.
Because tipping culture is so strong in the US, there is a cultural sense that if you are using a service, then volunteering a small fee as compensation is only fair.

I recall thinking at the time, that if boards started doing the same thing, the entire site would be killed, stone-dead. Irish (and European) culture just wouldn't support a sign-up fee, no matter how nominal.

Likewise, I wonder if an "angels" competitive leaderboard would die on its arse in Ireland.

Some shots of the new Team Sunweb kit for next season. I quite like it.

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/nicolas-roche-team-sunweb-kit/

CramCycle

magicbastarder wrote: »

waiting at lights on the way back from lunch, on my cheapo single speed, about five minutes ago. a car pulled alongside me and the chap - mid 70s, probably older - winds down the window.
'what's going on here', i wonder.
first thing he says to me - 'is that not a fixie? why don't you flip the wheel around?'

I like him, and 100% agree with his views,

seamus wrote: »

Likewise, I wonder if an "angels" competitive leaderboard would die on its arse in Ireland.

It might or it might not, the fact that there is an element of competition in it means that it may actually take off in a limited capacity.

ednwireland

Deleted User wrote: »

Some shots of the new Team Sunweb kit for next season. I quite like it.

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/nicolas-roche-team-sunweb-kit/

red is the new black

ednwireland

ednwireland wrote: »

red is the new black

A few reeling in the red next year , Cofidis new kit http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cofidis-switch-from-red-to-white-jersey-for-2019/

Lotto Soudal http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/red-is-the-in-colour-for-2019-pro-teams/

magicbastarder

saw a comically badly damaged on east wall road today - obviously had rear ended someone at speed very very recently, and then realised that someone was actually driving it. we had assumed it was a write-off; there was bodywork from the front valance dragging off the ground and the inside of the front wheel arch (probably the lining) dragging on the wheel. by the time we copped, the lights had turned green so we didn't get the reg to ring the gardai about it.

magicbastarder

it'd be great in strava if you could suppress personal record alerts for segments you've only cycled a couple of times.
i got a second best this morning on one segment, which also happens to be my slowest time.

Wishbone Ash

magicbastarder wrote: »

it'd be great in strava if you could suppress personal record alerts for segments you've only cycled a couple of times.
i got a second best this morning on one segment, which also happens to be my slowest time.

Much worse when you get something like "5th Overall" and then discover that the leader board has only 5 riders on it.

Boscoirl

My Strava got hacked a few months ago,they changed all the details. I though I had fixed everything but I started getting top 10s in a lot of segments they had changed my gender to female. I even had a QOM

Miss Enfilade changed my dressing for me earlier. Thinks 5-7 more days before stitches come out. Not happy with the movement in my thumb but she says I need to wait as the stitches are across the joint and are likely restricting me.

Alek

My Strava got hacked a few months ago,they changed all the details [..] I even had a QOM

Crafty!

CramCycle

Alek wrote: »

Crafty!

Same thing happened to me with a load of NSFW videos on my home PC, my phone, everything, must have been hacked by some troublemakers :pac:

Eamonnator

I assembled a bike yesterday for a friend. It's for his 11 year old daughter.
It has front "suspension forks" and "rear shocks". It weighs 16 Kgs. It is horrendous, I have never seen such a ball of sh1te. I have seen full on DH mountain bikes, that weigh less.
It's no wonder, they are so many bikes, lying unused in sheds, around the country.

Eamonnator

Eamonnator wrote: »

I assembled a bike yesterday for a friend. It's for his 11 year old daughter.
It has front "suspension forks" and "rear shocks". It weighs 16 Kgs. It is horrendous, I have never seen such a ball of sh1te. I have seen full on DH mountain bikes, that weigh less.
It's no wonder, they are so many bikes, lying unused in sheds, around the country.

That bike is likely half her body weight, 11 y/o is what 35kg give or take??? :eek:

CrowdedHouse

I still get flashbacks to several years ago when a friend/neighbour asked me to help Santa by minding a bike for him. He asked me would I mind assembling it, I said no bother.

In my innocence I assumed it would be straighten the handlebars and put on the pedals.....

I had planned to do it Christmas Eve but for luck I had a day off before and with nothing better to do I decided to have a look at the bike, I nearly fainted when I saw a million pieces in the box, hardly anything on the frame. I had no problem putting it together but it took me a good couple of hours, just glad I didn't leave it til Christmas Eve night!

ford2600

Eamonnator wrote: »

It's no wonder, they are so many bikes, lying unused in sheds, around the country.

I was tasked with obtaining two bikes for wife's nieces lately. Once they hit xs adult height its hard enough to get something decent sub 400 and certainly near to 300.

Once you hit xs ladies bikes you are looking triple rings.


Giant do nice bikes for children up to about 9 or so with mtb trigger shifters and single chainring for about 300, but there seems to be a gap in market above that height. What child on a greenway or whatever needs 21 gears.


The majority of stuff is junk and shouldn't be on sale at all. I don't know how it complies with any standard.

I did a London Paris cycle years ago as a leader for a charity. One of the participants tuned up in one of those dual suspension £100 mtb's. He never got to the English countryside before it failed

Eamonnator

My only consolation is, because it will never be used, I'll never have to service it.

Hurrache

Had a couple of odd, but related, incidents the last few weeks which I can't work out.

A few weeks ago I was traveling the M11 onto the M50 with a bike on the rack on the roof. I passed a truck and pulled in to the lane ahead of it and it flashed me. My lights were on but no fogs. A few minutes later I went around a roadstone type truck and it too flashed me. I was getting real paranoid at this stage so I watched people in cars that drove by but no passengers or drivers were agog as to any issue with the bike or car.

Then the weekend I had it happen again on the M50, another roadstone style truck flashed me as I went by it and pulled in ahead up further up the road.

The only thing I can think of is there's a bit of flex with the Thule carriers and it may look worse from high up in those trucks.

I'm stumped at this stage.

Wishbone Ash

Did the truck drivers flash you as you were in the process of moving back into the same lane? Was it wet/raining at those times?

Hurrache

Around the time I had moved in, but I wasn't cutting it close, I Ieave a reasonable distance before pulling back in. Conditions were poor and wet first time, very dull the second, hence my lights being on.

I haven't changed my driving behaviour in 20 years or so driving, and I've never experienced it any other time.

Wishbone Ash

Hurrache wrote: »

Around the time I had moved in, but I wasn't cutting it close, I Ieave a reasonable distance before pulling back in. Conditions were poor and wet first time, very dull the second, hence my lights being on.

I haven't changed my driving behaviour in 20 years or so driving, and I've never experienced it any other time.

In poor driving conditions truckers frequently flash their lights when a vehicle has overtaken them and is in the process of moving back into their lane. It's a signal to the other driver that it's safe to move across. It's usually done for other truck drivers as, in dull wet conditions, with a long vehicle, visibility in the mirrors is compromised and there is considerable spray caused by multiple wheels making it more difficult to judge where the end of the trailer is. Some truck drivers do it for small vehicles also.

Hurrache

Yeah, I'm aware they do it usually with other truckers. That may have been the case with me, but I was moving in already when they flashed. I had images of the bike hanging off the roof or something.

magicbastarder

https://twitter.com/SurreyRoadCops/status/1074954844899667968

Chips Lovell

Who are these sensible policemen? Can we poach them and put them to work in the Road Safety Authority?

Harrybelafonte

Hurrache wrote: »

Yeah, I'm aware they do it usually with other truckers. That may have been the case with me, but I was moving in already when they flashed. I had images of the bike hanging off the roof or something.

That's what it is. They're just giving a heads up that you're ok to move back in. I still feel major unease at it when it happens

RobFowl

Ah Lads, where is the Christmas fairy advert gone? Was practically having a wet dream picking through the liquidation stuff from a closed shop...

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=108914244#post108914244

taking bets on how long it takes (even though technically the OP managed it)

De Bhál

magicbastarder wrote: »

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=108914244#post108914244

taking bets on how long it takes (even though technically the OP managed it)

within the first 5 posts i'd imagine

CramCycle

Got to 22