Urc-faq

Draft FAQ for uk.rec.cycling

ABOUT THE NEWSGROUP
As the name suggests, uk.rec.cycling (urc for short) is a newsgroup for the discussion of recreational cycling in the uk. This is interpreted liberally, especially the bit about recreational, but in general anything much further away than Germany or Denmark is not of interest and crossposts from rec.bicycles.* (aka wreck.bikes) are usually too US- specific to be welcome. We participate in all kinds of riding, off road and on road, and even unicycling, but hardcore racing and mountain biking are not much discussed.

Technical issues are commonly discussed, though if you want to find out how to shave an extra second off your TT time you'll likely find another group more helpful; general matters of maintenance and repair are firmly on-topic.

Links to pictures of "readers' rides" are welcome, the tradition is that all new bikes should be photographed in your kitchen. DO NOT post pictures directly to the group, it is a text-only group and not for binaries. There is no truth to the rumour that the group charter also includes discussion of kitchens. In fact, the group has no formal charter registered.

About Usenet
If you are reading this on some kind of web site (e.g. Google Groups) or bulletin board system, please note that it didn't start there. uk.rec.cycling is technically known as a "newsgroup" and is part of a system called "Usenet" (or sometimes "Netnews"). Usenet is a decentralised distributed system of "news server" computers around the world: when you make a post to a newsgroup, you're talking to your local server, which will then send your missive onto its neighbours who will do the same until everyone has a copy.

Once upon a time most Internet discussion was conducted on Usenet, but many people these days are more familiar with web-based forums. So why do you need to know the difference? Because it has implications for how things work around here: most notably


 * posts may arrive out of order, especially when there are bottlenecks in the system or at busy times. If you see replies to posts you haven't received, it's more likely that the original just hasn't turned up yet than that it's been deleted by the Conspiracy
 * people are viewing your posts using all kinds of different computers and software, so when you say "click on the Fribotz icon" they probably won't have one.
 * there is no central moderation or administration service to complain to if you think someone's post is offensive, off-topic or illegal. You will need to find out who the poster's ISP is and file a complaint with them directly.
 * not all news reading software is created equal. If you're reading this, say, in Google Groups or through Cyclingforums, you may find that installing dedicated newsreader software will give you a more comfortable experience, including the ability to hide posts from people you don't want to see, or to highlight particularly interesting discussions.

What is the best bike?
The best bike is one which gets ridden. It might be an "ordinary" (penny-farthing, to the uninitiated), an old three-speed Raleigh, a top of the line carbon fibre road racing bike, a mountain bike, whatever.

The best bike for you will depend on where, when and how often you ride - and maybe how you get there as well.

Decent bikes usually start around £200 (2008 prices). You can find them very much cheaper than this, see "bike shaped objects" below.

Types of bikes
These are the main types of bike, described by the normal distinguishing features. Since bikes tend to be very personal, many will have been customised. These typical features are what you will most likely find on sale in shops, before people have tweaked them to be 'just so'.

Mountain bikes
Mountain bikes (MTBs) are sturdy, have 26" wheels, typically have deep-treaded tyres of 1.75" - 2.5" width, straight bars, a high bottom bracket, a wide range of gears, usually including very low gears for steep climbs, and are not normally fitted with mudguards, chain cases or other such comforts. A mountain bike these days will usually have front or full suspension.

In the 1990s MTBs really took over as the most common type of bike on sale, becoming the default for "a bike" in those who were not looking for something specific. This has led to the development of the hybrid (q.v.) bicycle, which is essentially a rigid mountain bike frame with tyre and transmission choices more ideal for road and trail riding. The term "mountain bike" now tends to be used for the more specialist machines.

Hybrids
Hybrids are similar to rigid mountain bikes in frame geometry but have narrower tyres, mudguards, carriers and sometimes a chaincase. They may also have 700c wheels, although 26" wheels are more common now. Hybrids make good commuter bikes, especially if you specify hub gears and a hub dynamo for lighting.

Town bikes
Town bikes, or Dutch bikes, are heavier built than hybrids, more upright, typically have handlebars which curve round towards the rider, are almost always fitted with mudguards and chain case, dynamo lights and a sprung saddle, often have hub gears and skirt guards on the back wheel. They are ubiquitous in many parts of continental Europe, especially the Netherlands, Denmark and parts of Germany, and are increasingly popular in the big cycling cities like London and Cambridge.

Road bikes
Road bikes, or racing bikes, have tight wheel clearances, skinny wheels, narrow saddles, drop handlebars, no mudguards and close-ratio gears. They rarely have suspension, and may well feature lightweight materials such as carbon fibre. Road bikes are good for racing and the lightweight sporty commuter; anything you take with you must go on your back.

Audax bikes
Audax bikes are halfway between road bikes and touring bikes. They are light, but built to last, often using high end steel framesets. They have drop handlebars, a wider spread of gears than a road bike, clearance for some kind of mudguards, and usually some means of carrying at least light luggage. Bottle cages are a must. Audax bikes are used for long-distance day rides and make excellent fast commuter bikes.

Touring bikes
Touring bikes typically have drop handlebars, mounting points for luggage and lighting, wide-range derailleur gears, a long wheelbase, usually 700c wheels but sometimes 26" instead, tyres are typically between 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" wide, mudguards are normal as are bottle cages, often several of them, saddlebags and other paraphernalia associated with the self-sufficient cyclist. The benchmark in touring bikes for as long as most people can remember has been the Dawes Galaxy series.

Folding bikes
Folders are increasingly popular for commuting as there is no restriction on compact folding bikes on trains during peak periods, and they can also be carried on the Tube or bus. A good folder is often significantly more expensive than a rigid bike but can be very versatile. Folders have small wheels, fold down to a hand-portable package, and should have some way of carrying luggage. Hub gears are common. Look for: a compact fold, leaving oily bits safely tucked away from your clothes. The benchmark for folding bikes is the Brompton. The Riese & Muller Birdie has a better ride but costs more and folds less compactly. Dahon are good value but may not suit the heavier or more powerful rider.

Fixers and singlespeeds
Originating in hardcore track racing but now popular through the urban chic of bike messengers, singlespeeds and fixers have only one gear, are stripped to the minimum and often are fitted with very narrow handlebars. Low maintenance is one of the keys to their success. Fixers have no freewheel, the pedals are directly coupled to the rear wheel. Everybody who starts to ride fixed crashes at least once, we are told.

Exotica
You will see, around and about, a range of cycling exotica. The weird bikes where you lie down are called recumbents and are the fastest type of bike on the planet and also the most comfortable (though the two may not necessarily be combined on the same bike). Bikes for two are called tandems, bikes for three are called triplets, bikes for four are called quads. Bikes for more than four are called weird. A cycle where two people ride side by side is called a sociable. A bike with three wheels is a tricycle or trike, one with four wheels a quadricycle, and one with only one wheel is a unicycle. Try it, you might be addicted.

Bike shaped objects
Bike-shaped objects (BSOs) look superficially like bikes, but are cheaper, heavier, worse built and with dramatically worse components. The number one seller of BSOs is believed to be Sterling House. If you see a full-suspension bike for £100 new then it is a racing certainty that it's a BSO - just the the suspension spring and damper on a good mountain bike will cost at least four or five times that. If your budget is really limited you will almost certainly get better value and longer life out of a second hand bike than a new BSO.

Bike bits
Some bike components attract a near-religious following - the Brooks saddle, the Carradice longflap saddlebag, the Rohloff 14-speed hub gear. Here are a few of the components you'll find on bikes:

Handlebars

 * Straight bars are not usually actually straight, except the very short ones on messenger bikes. They are supplied long, you are actually supposed to trim them to slightly wider than shoulder width after purchase, but most people don't seem to bother.  You can fit bar ends to give more hand positions, but basically sit up and beg is the only game in town.  That said, they work just fine for commuting and most other uses.  Gear controls are mounted inboard of the brakes and can usually be operated without moving your hands from the brakes.
 * Moustache bars are halfway between straight and drop bars, they are a shallow drop with the brakes inboard. They were popular in the 1930s and are now back in fashion as a niche product. They are, reportedly, very comfortable in use.
 * Drop bars are pretty much universal on racing bikes and common on audax and touring bikes. Brake levers are mounted on the front.  You can ride with your hands in a number of positions: on the drops for power, tucked down with hands on the brakes for speed, hands on the hoods for long-distance comfort while still being able to operate the brakes, or inboard for a change of position.  In the old days, the brakes sometimes had inboard lever extensions; these are now usually called "suicide levers" due to their inability to do anything in the stopping department.  Modern drop-bar bikes often have integrated gear and brake levers (e.g. Shimano's STI or Campagnolo Ergo) which the rider to change gear without taking his hands off the bars.
 * Butterfly bars are becoming popular with long-distance riders. They offer more hand positions than any other bar and allow the use of standard fittings for straight bars.
 * Handlebar foam (e.g. Grab-On) is a foam padding for handlebars, mainly fitted to drop or butterfly bars.
 * Handlebar tape is the wrapping tape used on drop bars, and can be obtained in an incredible range of colours and materials.
 * Handlebar grips for straight bars can also be obtained in every imaginable colour, and a range of materials from leather to high-tech gel.

Brakes
Every bike on the road in the UK must be fitted with two independent means of stopping. That usually means two brakes, one front and one rear, but fixed wheel bikes don't need a rear brake because they can be braked by the pedals.
 * Disc brakes are generally the most powerful type of brake on a bike, they work like car or motorcycle discs and may be cable or hydraulically operated. Hydraulic ones are better than cable, in the main, though there is some crossover at the margins of price.  Advantages include: high stopping power, stays clean on wet roads, no rim wear.  Disadvantages include: high cost, pad cost, problems with adjustment (drag, warping), and the vexed issue of pulling front wheels out of the dropouts - make sure your quick release is properly tightened.
 * Cantilever brakes are rim brakes, that is, they brake by clamping friction pads on the sides of the rim. They mount on two pivot posts welded one to each fork. Lever effect is used to give mechanical amplification.  These are most often found on touring and audax bikes.
 * V-brakes (technically direct-pull cantilever brakes, V-Brake is a Shimano trademark) are the most common type of rim brake on the market, they are simple to maintain, give good stopping power, but are only compatible with a small number of drop bar levers (so are less common on drop-bar bikes). Pad choice is important.  The Kool-Stop brand seems good, the salmon pink ones stop well in the wet.  You need to know how to adjust them (not a hard thing to master) as they need tweaking over time as the pads wear.  V-brakes are found on all kinds of bikes, especially mountain bikes and hybrids.
 * Caliper brakes mount on a single bolt running through the fork crown or (at the rear) bridge. They are operated by a cable at one side.  Some have dual pivots, which gives an increased mechanical advantage and better stopping power.  Caliper brakes are often found on road bikes.
 * Hub brakes are the lowest-maintenance type of brake, they are ideal for commuter bikes, more or less immune to rain and do not cause rim wear. A subclass of hub brake is the coaster brake, which is operated by rotating the pedals backwards.
 * Roller-cam brakes operate on the inside of the rim rather than the outside walls. They are no longer common but were standard equipment in the early days of town bikes.

Gears
Gears come in two main types.

In a derailleur system, power is transmitted from the chain to the the rear wheel by means of one of a number of different-sized sprockets (toothed gear wheels) attached to the wheel axle alongside each other, and the chain is moved ("derailed") from one sprocket to the next by a mechanism controlled by the rider. It is also likely to have two or three larger cogs (chainrings) at the front end of the chain where the pedals are, with a similar mechanism to select which to use.

A hub gear system uses epicyclic gears inside the casing of the rear wheel hub. Derailleurs are typically cheaper and more efficient, but hubs need less maintenance and use wider, longer-lasting chains.

Readers with less than fond memories of Sturmey Archer hub gears of the 1980s and earlier are advised that the technology is said to have advanced considerably since then.

SAFE CYCLING
We recommend that you read and understand the advice in Cyclecraft and the Highway Code. There are some discrepancies; where these exist it is probably better to go with Cyclecraft as this was written specifically as a cycling manual whereas the Highway Code is written by the Driving Standards Agency who have shown on occasion that they are spectacularly ill-informed.

Lights
Law: Any bicycle ridden on the roads at night must have one steady white light shining forwards, and one steady red light shining to the rear. They must be kitemarked to BS6102/3 or an equivalent EC standard. An amendment allows these to be substituted with flashing LED lights under some circumstances.

See this CTC article for a fuller discussion: http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4071

Use lights at night. For commuting, dynamo lights may well be best as they have no batteries to run flat. Hub dynamos use much less energy than sidewall dynamos but cost more and need a wheel build.

Lights have two purposes: seeing and being seen. Round town, being seen is usually enough and you can get away with LEDs. On unlit roads it's likely you will need something better. Dynamo headlights have optics to focus the beam on the road, lights that run off rechargeable batteries tend to spread the light around more. Some urcers use a headtorch on unlit roads as well, this is good for filling in dark shadows.

Common advice seems to be to use two separate rear lights, in case a battery goes flat or a lamp fails, and two front lights, one steady for seeing and one flashing for being seen.

That said, there is no evidential basis for this obvious advice and when lights were first proposed to be mandatory for cycles there was opposition on the entirely reasonable grounds that drivers are supposed to drive so they can stop within the distance they can see to be clear, and animals and pedestrians are not required to carry lights.

The fact that unlit cyclists are still visible is evident from the number of times drivers complain about seeing them...

Reflectors
All bikes supplied complete must have front and rear reflectors and wheel reflectors. A bike ridden on the roads after dark must have a (kitemarked) rear reflector and pedal reflectors "visible from front and rear". Try that on a recumbent.

High visibility
There is some evidence that drivers find it easier to see riders who wear high-visibility clothing, but nothing to show that this makes any difference to collision rates. Most cycling clothing is bright, especially jackets, so we think it's worth going for the brighter clothing but not to the point of obsessing about it.

France now has a law mandating the use of an EC approved high visibility jacket when riding after dark outside towns.

Junctions
Junctions are the points of greatest risk for cyclists. Here are some points to think about.

Large vehicles
Large vehicles, especially articulated vehicles, have limited rear visibility and swing round corners (i.e. they may move right and then cut sharply left). The more constricted the roads, the more likely this is to happen. The single largest cause of fatalities in London cyclists is crushing by left-turning heavy vehicles.

Moral: Don't go up the left side of large vehicles. If you do, and they start moving, stop.

Cycle paths
Where a cycle path crosses a road at or near a junction, you are at significant risk. You are out of the scanning zone of drivers turning into the road, and you have absolutely no priority - you have to be aware of and give way to vehicles from your left, your right, in front and behind, and they are not expecting you to be there, certainly not expecting you to be moving at any speed. You simply cannot take too much care when emerging from a segregated facility into proximity with motor traffic.

REPLIES TO COMMON OBJECTIONS
A lot of people are very defensive and quick to come up with reasons they can't possibly cycle instead of driving. Hey, it's OK, you are /allowed/ to want to drive. Many of the objections are reflexive and turn out not to be justified.

The Weather
Summer of 2008 has been pretty dire but in the main the weather is rarely as bad as you think. We reckon that on average you'll get wet maybe 20 days per year, and with the right clothing that's not necessarily a big deal anyway. It is probably true to say that those who care deeply about getting wet are probably not those who will be year-round cyclists, but most year-round cyclists do not consider the weather to be much of a problem - although we will certainly complain about it at length on the newsgroup.

No Showers
You don't have to emulate Lance Armstrong when you are cycling to work. If you ride sedately you will not really break a sweat, and even if you like to ride briskly you don't necessarily need a shower at the other end - shower before you leave and wear modern cycle clothing, which is designed to wick sweat away from your body and you will probably be just fine. At worst you can get away with a flannel and a towel if you really don't feel comfortable with the idea. Do allow time to cool down before changing into work clothes, though.

Too Dangerous
As far as we are aware there is no credible evidence to show that cycling is more dangerous than other activities normally considered safe. The risk per mile seems to be comparable to that for walking. American insurance actuaries calculated that the risk per hour of cycling is less than the risk per hour of being in a car.

That's not to say there are no risks or dangers, but the overall risk seems to be lower than people think. One interesting study shows that risk levels off after about 1,000 miles per year, which suggests that the more you cycle the better you get at anticipating and avoiding the danger.

There is some evidence that talking up the danger of cycling in order to promote interventions like high visibility clothing and helmets has resulted in a falsely inflated idea of how dangerous cycling actually is

If you are thinking of starting cycling, the best idea is probably to find a "bike buddy" - an experienced cyclist who can help you to learn the things you can do to maximise the safety of your riding.

Too Far
Obviously cycling is subject to a maximum practical speed of the order of 15-20mph over most journeys, and 12mph is closer to the mark for a trundly commuter. That limits how far you can go without spending all day doing it.

A round trip of 15 miles or less can very often be cycled in less time than driving, though, since you don't have parking problems and can move through stationary traffic. In London every single commuter challenge seems to tell the same story: bikes are the fastest way of getting around the place.

If your journey is longer than ten miles you could always try a mixed-mode commute. Modern folding bikes can be taken on public transport at any time of day.

Cyclists v. drivers
Motorists and cyclists can and usually do co exist quite happily but irresponsible or careless members of each group can give others a bad name. Cyclists, being the more vulnerable to injury, tend to take things personally when faced with risk caused by a driver's stupidity. Drivers have the Daily Mail, pistonheads forums and Top Gear in which to vent, we have urc.

The group tends to react badly to the assertion that cars are essential for everyone. It appears that once you have started using a bike for transport, you become more open to other alternatives to the private car, to the point that you may even begin to question whether you need a car at all. Most of us own cars, many of us will drive more than we cycle and often use cars to get to where we cycle. We do not, as a group, think much of the idea that cars have more right to the road. If you come along to tell us that the bicycle cannot possibly be a practical everyday mode of transport, expect to be shouted down by those who use it as exactly that.

We can't improve much on TRL report 549:

And in fact this will work both ways, in the context of any group of like-minded people. The group is sometimes perceived as being somewhat hostile to drivers of motor vehicles, but that is just a natural result of being cyclists in a newsgroup for cyclists, so we can occasionally have a good moan. Don't take it personally.

Some old chestnuts
A number of issues come up time after time when drivers and cyclists clash. Bringing them up again will make you about as welcome as a fart in a space suit, as Billy Connolly memorably put it. These include:
 * Cyclists don't pay road tax. Britain has not had a hypothecated road tax since it was repealed by Winston Churchill in his brief stint as Chancellor of the Exchequer.  Motorists do pay vehicle excise duty and fuel duty, taxes levied only on motorised transport.  Current estimates are that this just about covers the cost of running the road network including injuries and fatalities, but this is a recent thing, for a very long time motor vehicle duties fell well short of covering the costs to the economy of private motor transport.  The damage done by a vehicle to a road varies with the fourth power of axle weight, and if everybody cycled instead of driving then the roads would not need to be built to anything like the same standards.
 * Cyclists ride on pavements. True.  Sometimes they do this with official sanction (sometimes sarcastically referred to as "magic white paint") and sometimes not.  It seems likely that riding on the pavement, sanctioned or not, is more dangerous than riding on the road, but the existence of shared-use pavements gives the impression that it is safer or in some way desirable - it blurs the boundaries. Prosecution guidelines say that cyclist riding responsibly on the pavement out of fear of motor traffic, should not be prosecuted, and that is the key here: it's a response to a perceived danger, best addressed by tackling the perceived danger not the response. The numbers of pedestrians killed and injured on the footway by motor traffic is vastly higher than the number killed and injured by cyclists (average is less than one fatality per year), so objectively it does not seem to be as dangerous as people think, but the general view in the group seems to be that pavement cycling is a Bad Thing.
 * Cyclists jump red lights. Correct, and so do drivers.  Cyclists do it in a different way, because they have different priorities.  Accelerating a cycle from a standing start takes as much energy as riding at least 100m, and all that energy must come from the rider.  Much as drivers find it irritating, it does not seem to be dangerous, at least in the way it is usually done (exceptions exist, of course).  We don't condone it, as a group, but we're not about to pretend it represents the end of civilisation as we know it, either.
 * If you don't wear a helmet you've got nothing to protect. Oh, wow, you really got us there, we'd never thought of that at all, certainly nobody's ever put it in such clear and obvious terms before.

HELMETS
The subject of helmets is raised periodically in uk.rec.cycling, usually by new posters who do not realise the subject has been extensively discussed in the past. It shares many attributes with religion in that it provides a "hot button" for many posters, also that the topic is more complicated than many people at first realise, and that raising it again without being aware of previous discussions is likely to attract criticism. So, we earnestly beseech you, don't do that.

Insofar as the group can be said to have a consensus on the subject (which is not very far) it is that in general, effort spent on advocating cycle helmets will have at *best* a comparatively small effect on road safety, and this effort could be more profitably used on the training, cycle maintenance and highway design issues which would lead to fewer cyclists whacking their heads on the road in the first place. As a rule, we advocate reading the evidence and making up your own mind. There's a lot of discussion of the evidence at http://www.cyclehelmets.org, you might want to start there.

One final point: anything, including helmet advocacy, which emphasises the risks of cycling and not the benefits, is likely to put people off cycling. And there is pretty much unanimous agreement on urc that more cycling is good, not least because it appears to reduce the risk per cyclist per mile, the "safety in numbers" effect - this is why the Netherlands and Denmark are the safest places in the world to cycle. And when did you last see a Dutch cyclist wearing a helmet for a trip to the shops?

IN-JOKES, ABBREVIATIONS

 * AASHTA, AUSHTA: As Always (Usual) Sheldon Has The Answer - a reference to the late and much lamented Sheldon "Capt. Bike" Brown, whose website at http://www.sheldonbrown.com is the fountain source of all wisdom.
 * BeHIT - see BHIT.
 * BHIT: The Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust, a group committed to helmet promotion and compulsion.
 * BSO: A bike shaped object. It looks like a bike but the frame is solid neutronium and the components made of cheese.
 * Martlehat: A cycle helmet. Named after Eric Martlew MP, sponsor of the last helmet law attempt in the UK parliament.
 * POB: Pedestrian On Bike (pejorative). Group consensus is that cyclists are safer and generally better off practising "vehicular cycling" - riding on the carriageway, proceeding in the direction of traffic, obeying traffic laws and generally being predictable - than otherwise.  The POB is an "otherwise" cycle user.  Alternatively, "anyone who appears to take their cycling less seriously than I do".  This second usage may be considered snobbish, because it is.
 * PSF: Paving slab fairy. Long story.  Wafflycat is the PSF, and the wearing of bibshorts is the heinous crime for which slabbing is the penalty.
 * P*nct*r* f**ry: Must not be mentioned by name. The PF brings holes to our inner tubes.
 * Puncture weed: Bits of thorny material left behind by hedge trimmers on country roads.
 * uk.tosspot: uk.transport, a group largely dominated by drivers. Crossposted threads to / from uk.transport have a tendency to end in flamewars.
 * wreck.bikes: the rec.bicycles hierarchy.
 * stealth mode, full stealth mode: may refer to an unlit cyclist dressed in black, but also used ironically - festooned in lights and reflectives that ought to make one visible from space.