How to kill a Nexus 8 Shifter

Step One: Ride the bike 5 days a week for a year or so.

Step Two: Change gear roughly 1 million times per ride.

Step Three: When it starts shifting badly between gears 7-8 decide "ah I'll look at it at the weekend"

Step Four: Continue riding it whilst thinking "bugger this is getting worse"

Step Five: Leave it in 6th and limp home because its completely knackered

Steps 3 -5 happened over a period of about one and a half rides, so it was a fairly terminal failure. It didn't feel too bad at first, then all of a sudden I could barely change gear at all so opted to just leave it in 6th (the most all round gear for my ride).

The good news was I could tell it wasn't a problem with the hub. It was clearly the shifter, since it was making some horrible noises and felt like the teeth on the ratchets had mashed themselves to bits from overuse.

This was all no big deal really. I have other bikes to use and to be fair this shifter is not only second hand but has also done a hell of alot of work for me since I change gear so often whilst riding it. Mainly because the 8 speed hub allows you to pick just the right gear for whatever the circumstance, so I tend to go for the correct gear to maintain a steady cadence. Unlike on a deraileur where I might either pedal harder or faster just avoid shifting.

Practical cycles furnished me with a brand new shifter via their eBay site which was a piece of cake to fit.

Once that was on I could have a look at the old one to see what went wrong. My guess at it being the plastic rachety teeth was completely wrong. Turns out it was a teeny tiny spring. I'm not entirely sure where it goes or what this spring does, since it was in two halves and loose inside the case. This had then been mashed against the moving cable, frayed it and then caused the wholse thing to sieze up.

So there you have it. the Shimano shifters are mostly made of plastic, but it was one of the few metal parts that fatigued and broke, taking down the rest of the ship with it.

Beat up old shifter

The result of the frayed cable from all the way up at the handlebars

Shiny new shifter with cable already included and ready to fit

Shiny new one fitted, works perfectly straight away.

The old shifter taken apart - teeth were fine

This is the tiny spring which had broken - filthy fingernail for scale

This is roughly how it should look when not broken

Police, Action, Denton Roundabout!

Denton roundabout is the official Guinness World record holding roundabout for the greatest number of red light jumps by all forms of motorised traffic within a 24 hour period. Unfortunately the exact figure is unknown because they stopped counting shortly after 1 billion RLJ's when one of the counting team threw himself off the motorway bridge after going mad listening to 24hrs worth of beeping, tyre screeching, engine revving and swearing.

Sadly those record breaking days may infact be numbered for Denton roundabout. 

As everyone knows, when it gets to the end of each month, a small panic spreads across the nation's police forces as the bobbies realise they are miles off reaching this months quota because they've spent the first 3 weeks of the month filing in the forms about the 4th week of last month.

It appears that our boys (and girls) in blue have finally realised that catching RLJ cars, vans & lorries on Denton Roundabout would be like shooting fish in a barrel. A small barrel. With not much water in it. With double Uzis and extended mags.

So they hatched their plan and parked their van. And they happily snapped away all afternoon. Except I bet they didn't. Because the van is big. And bright yellow. With flashing lights on top.  So nobody was jumping the lights!. Yay!, finally. 

But.....Who's betting the conclusion went something like this "we didn't catch anyone jumping the lights, no point in doing that again!..."

Fancy cycle parking for cool hip peeps

 

This is an underground car park on Spring St in Manchester. Nice isnt it?. Let's ignore the fact that you have to lift your bike a significant height above your head and hook it on. Then the metal loops mean only a cable lock is really useable. Aaannnd you are doing all this whilst stood in on the entrance exit ramp. Bad shoulder?, bad back?, bit old?, not tall enough? prefer a better lock?, heavy bike?. Tough park somewhere else you loser!, this cycle parking is for cool peeps.

Fail.

Merc has got a good spot tho....

Plymouth Grove crash

(Not a nice post, but sadly this is the result of certain driving styles...)

Sirens and unusual tailbacks are never a good sign.

This is Plymouth Grove yesterday evening, which fortunately for the occupants is where the emergency ambulance depot is located, meaning a response time of about 10 seconds.

Unfortunately for the occupants of the black Citreon it looks as if the boy racer Focus was overtaking on the wrong side of a traffic island straight into oncoming traffic.

....crashes like this are obviously common place enough for the Police to have a special unit for the job.

Gruesome'ish bit - highlight to read:

Beady eyed viewers, or people who've seen too many crashes will notice the distinctive way the Focus windscreen is shattered. That only happens when the driver is not wearing a seatbelt and slides headfirst up and over the airbag. Suprisingly survivable though, but not always.

2011 Census: Help shape local transport

I noticed this poster up on Hyde road this week. Until I saw it, I had completely forgotten it would be the Census this year, so in what might be a first for the country, a Government advertisement scheme has actually had an effect on somebody.

 

I can't remember what any of the questions were like on the last Census, I just remember putting Jedi Knight down as religion. But if you believe the poster then your ticks in boxes will 'Help shape local transport'. A couple of minutes down the road I got the chance to take a photo of the current shape of local tranport. This is near showcase cinema in Bellevue. Imagine this level of nose to tail traffic for the next 2 miles or so til you get to Denton roundabout and you'll have some idea of what local transport in Greater Manchester looks like on most weekdays.

Visual & Mental Reasoning Test

 The test is to be completed by Mr. or Mrs. Average.

Existing cyclists or people who ride bikes please return to your respective holding pens and await the results. (or make yourself useful and go find a friend to take the test)

Dear Mr . or Mrs. Average you have 5 minutes to examine the attached imagery and complete the test.

Test begins.

Please examine the image above & take in the following scenario:

• It is a pleasant February evening
• Visibility is good & traffic is relatively light.
• The image shows an AC 100/4 Terex Demag - 4-axle mobile crane, weighing in excess of 30 tonnes & travelling at approx. 20mph
• The vehicle in question is being driven very professionally & will take great care when overtaking cyclists
• This is the most direct route available to your destination consisting of a mixture of 40mph and 30mph roads.

The question:
If at any point in the future you decide you would like to take up cycling to work (or even the shops, a local restuarant or do the school run) - Would you:

A: Prefer continuous Dutch style segregated infrastructure on all A-roads so that your interaction with vehicles such as this is thoroughly minimised.

Or

B: Prefer to cycle 'vehiculary' amongst traffic bearing in mind that you are statistically very safe indeed & of course the driver of this vehicle is exceptionally mindful of your presence.


Test ends. Pens down. Hand in your papers in the comments section below.

Class dismissed.

Exemplar facilities on Ashton Old Rd

A picture says a thousand words?...

10 points if you can guess what I did next....

Brooklyn Vs Denton

In an entirely uneven comparison I present you with Denton's finest piece of cycling infrastructure - Denton roundabout bridge.

It's features include:

• A conflicting mixture of 'No Cycling' signs on one side and shared path signs on the other. 
• It's only supposed to be used heading west, whilst heading East you must either illegally use the pedestrian crossing or take your chances with the RLJ lorries (because for some reason the equivalent cycle route was never completed and is now blocked off with fencing)
• Many people, unsuprisingly, forego the last option and simply use the bridge in the opposite direction - which means having to use the pavement down the side of a motorway slipway for a short stretch.
• Bizarrely in the photo below the sign warns to 'Look left', even though technically all cycles should be coming from the right. So this signs hints that the bridge is actually allowed to be used in both directions? even though that wouldn't legally be possible.
• Best of all. This schizophrenic oddity represents the single best piece of infrastructure available to cyclists heading into Manchester on Hyde Road - which only goes to show how abysmal things really are.

Meanwhile in Brooklyn they are busy creating this:
The Taming and Reclaiming of Prospect Park West from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

The Only Winter Cycling Accessory you need...

(along with hat, gloves, scarf, coat, double socks, boots)

is....

.....Lofthouse's Fisherman's Friend!

It's no coincidence that the Dutch spend a lot of time outdoors (some of it cycling) and they have a serious appetite for liquorice (that's liquorice 'drop' not that squidgy crap).

Your morning commute will go alot easier with a Fisherman's Friend warming your noggin.

Maybe you tried these as a kid and thought they were vile, well our tastes mature over the years and I bet you'll like them now. Try you first one when your are stood outside in the cold.

Baby Pannier

It's great to see mums on bikes, especially on a cold November morning. Cycling will forever remain a fringe-lycraclad-sporting activity until mums, grannies and children feel safe enough to take to their bikes for everyday journeys. But that's never going to happen whilst bikes are expected to mix it with buses, HGV's and 4x4's.

Take alook through the excellent Pays-Bas Cycle chic to see some ultimate biking mums (& dads!) in the Netherlands.

( It's a Toucan Crossing by the way, to get her back onto the Fallowfield loop)

Go for a spin in the park?

Crap photo I know, but his lights were too bright. This is the view that met me last night in the pouring rain on the segregated cycle path alongside Whitworth park. Yes I did say segregated, as in totally seperate from the road. And yet this buffoon has managed to drive his car up and across the pavement somewhere, into the park then down the cycle path. Where he's gotten completely stuck and had to start reversing slowly back the way he came.

This is what the path looks like in the daylight and is roughly the spot where he was when I came across him. There are now new iron railings all along the left hand side.

Reg is MX06 WHG

Frosty morning = no bikes

Normally this rack outside Tesco on Deansgate is ramjam full. Just a tiny bit of frost this morning and it's empty!, just one lone bike locked to the lamppost nearby.

My general extrapolation is:

1. No segregated cycle paths therefore Vehicular cycling.
2. Vehicular cycling is shit therefore specialist clothing gets worn.
3. Specialist clothing is shit in the cold therefore frost = no bikes.

Thanks to mudguards & chainguard I was nice and warm in trousers, padded raincoat, gloves and scarf, shame these cyclists couldn't do the same. But thats why Vehicular cycling is so shit.

Cycle Lane closed....badly

There is a patch of roadworks on Princess St near the end of Canal St, so they have closed the cycle lane. Fair enough I suppose, since it’s left only a single lane available. The problem is the pathetic excuse for a sign, plonked along with a cone right at the point where the space tightens rapidly. Nobody is going to dismount, if they wanted to walk they would have left their bikes at home. Besides they are entitled to the road just as much as any other vehicle. The sign should be 20 yards back and say ‘ Cycle lane closed – cyclists TAKE LANE’. That way everyone is within the law, everyone gets on with it and nobody gets squashed by cars suddenly swerving left.

Life's a Beach

I've just found this forgotten photograph from Scarborough (actually Filey beach). The guy seemed to be cycling the whole distance along the beach on his MTB. Not sure why he needed high-viz to do this but you never know when an angry motorist might sneak up on you and smidsy your ass.

Seeing a photo of a warm and sunny beach has made me realise just how cold and dark it has gotten over the last two weeks. Pretty soon I'll be commuting in the dark each way.

Commuting for two

At least I hope two people commuted in together on it because that would be very cool :-D

Spotted yesterday on King St, Manchester

Note the two chainwheels located on the left hand side of the bike. This means their pedal threads have to be drilled opposite to the way that normal right hand side chainring cranks are drilled. i.e. you can't use those chainwheels on a normal bike (the pedals would unscrew). 

Although it's obvious I didn't know this about tandems until I was flogged a tandem chainwheel that was advertised as a normal chainwheel on ebay last week. Luckily a refund was forthcoming so I've bought a different one from Derekscycles instead, who not only have a great shop name but provide a damn good service too.

Do it properly....

 
Motorists of Britain, if you are going to block a cycle lane, at least make a proper job of it. Like this fella with his massive digger.

Brunswick Street, Manchester

If anyone from the DVLA happens to read this, you are more than welcome to use this image as an example for the textbook procedure when needing to block a cyclelane. Observe the attention to detail - the driver has aligned the inside edge of his caterpillar tracks with the inside edge of the kerb - very tricky considering his cab is 8ft in the air. You just don't get that kind of professionalism from your average cyclelane blocker - nice.

Commute Buddies

Occasionally a commuting cyclist, as with other (lesser) forms of transport, might start to notice other cyclists who set off along the same route as them each day. They might begin to exchange a knowing nod or a 'mornin' as their paths cross.…..Well there’s none of that nonsense if I take the long route in the morning. Just a load of horses and rabbits. It’s not so much of a ‘knowing nod’ from the horses as it is a ‘pass me some of that lush grass I can’t reach' kind of nod. The rabbits on the other hand just scatter when they realize that idiot on a bicycle is trying (and failing) to get a photo of them again.

Dog owners will recognise this form of animal telepathy. He is focusing his mind on the human, transmitting the mental urge to tear some grass from that nice looking clump and pass it to the horsey.

One second there are at least a dozen bunnies right in front of me....the next they've scattered and all I get it this crabby photo.

A flock of migrating Canada geese stopped off for a few days as well:

Message to the guy who asked about the Nexus yesterday

To the guy with the ginger hair, beard and black dropbars in Manchester yesterday. Nice chatting to you. Sorry I didn’t get chance to direct you to this blog, hopefully you’ll come across it anyway. To answer your question, the Nexus hub is great. Very smooth, free running and almost totally silent. You have to learn a different style of shifting compared to a derailleur, but it’s very simple and actually more user-friendly (it helps to ease off slightly when upshifting and be wary of the change between 4^th and 5^th). The range of 307% is more than enough for commuting 20 miles a day.

Mine is the sg-8r31 model. The latest one available is sg-8r36. Nearly all of the complaints you might come across on the internet will be about the earlier models such as sg-8r20. I presume from the experience of my hub that shimano have ironed out the problems with the revised models. Presumably the very latest models and the premium redband model or Alfines are even better than mine.

 

I intend to do a proper review at some point in the future, but for now, based on ‘fit and forget’-ability so far I’d give it 9/10.

Bike kit

This is the simple set of tools that live somewhere in the bottom of my pannier bag.

1. Punture repair kit (with tyre levers inside)
2. Crappy Muiltispanner
3. Decathlon multitool
4. Real spanner
5. Mini pump 

Plus I keep an old sock tied to the seatpost, which is just for using as a rag if I ever need to touch the chain when out on the bike.

That's it. It's not much stuff and doesn't weigh much or take up much room. Obviously the main reason to carry this stuff is incase I get a puncture and need to do a roadside repair. But since March 09 when I started commuting everyday by bike I haven't had a single puncture to repair*, so this kit hasn't been a whole lot of use really but one day it might be the difference between a very bad day or just a slight inconvenience.

You have to hope that more people will steadily begin to commute by bike, but I can imagine something as simple as a puncture putting people off, so my tips would be:

• Keep your tyres inflated fully - you are talking 50 psi+ even for cheap mountain bike tyres - much higher for skinny road tyres or small wheelers.
• Carry a simple kit of tools like above.
• If you're not prepared to do that - at least get a set of puncture resistant tyres such as Schwalbe Marathons. 
• Stay out of the gutter - not just because it will encourage drivers to blast past you without a care but also because thats where all the glass and nails collect.
• Don't go hopping on and off kerbs all of a piece - it pinches the tubes and twists rim tape.
• Keep an eye on your tyres - give your tyres a once over every so often to check for any cuts or shards. - letting the air out temporarily will allow you to squeeze the tyre to reveal any nicks or shards embeddded in the rubber.
• People also tends to get a number of punctures all at once. Probably because they've repaired the tube but not examined the tyre to make sure whatever caused the puncture in the first place isnt still embedded, waiting to cause another.

*Footnote:

I had this post all ready and lined up for posting when suprise suprise, I get off the bike at home to the sound of 'pssssssssssttttttttttttttttttttttttttt'. Puncture. Sods law strikes again. Anyway, at least it was at home and not halfway through the journey. So I'll be taking my own advice and replacing the Cityjets on the Nexus with a pair of Marathons as I'd orginally intended. 

Here's the bugger. A tiny shard of brown glass (do they even make brown glass anymore?, where the hell did that come from)

Lockdown

Part of my normal morning route is in semi lockdown today due to the imminent arrival of some members of  the Pathological Liars Society. Peter St and a few surrounding side streets are all closed to motorists meaning me, a few other cyclists and plenty of pedestrians got a very rare chance to experience a main city centre road without the bull in the china shop.

There’s a lot of barriers and checkpoints been setup on the various side streets, but nothing is manned or in operation yet. A few vehicles were getting access, but otherwise the roads are empty.

Interesting how the instant the road is clear, pedestrians begin walking around a 4 lane road without a care, cyclists lean back and relax & I stop in the middle of the road to take pictures. There isn’t even any thinking time, nature just takes over and suddenly that busy horrible city centre road has become a pleasant environment and you can see that  the 20 odd metre wide space is actually enormous and we are all getting seriously short changed.

The closure has had a knock on effect on Deansgate, meaning that was a bit less busy as well. I don't see why these roads at the very centre of the city need to be anything more than access only - like the auto bollard controlled areas at the bottom of Market St & M&S. Pipe dreams I know, but it would transform Manchester, just as it has transformed the area around M&S.

I love how these photos bring up other things that you never noticed at the time. People's adversity to rain shows no bounds. It wasn't raining whatsoever, but this gent was happily strolling to work with his brolly up. Even more odd when you consider how windy it is this morning.

In other news: They are filming the new Captain America film on and around Dale St in the Northern Quarter. I took a couple of snaps myself at dinner, but you are best just looking at captainamericafilmingmanchester  to see what's going on.

AFTERNOON UPDATE:

It seems all these motorists failed to read the various signs posted around the city in recent weeks warning of delays during the conference, so they drove anyway. Note all the lights are on green, but nobody is moving an inch. Doesn't stop everyone from parping their horns at eachother - because that always solves the congestion, doesn't it.

Compare this shot with the ones above, neither are a problem for me on the bike, infact if cars have to be on the road I'd prefer them in this state but which one looks most pleasant?