"Airnimals" look straight out of scrapheap challenge

[Arch]

Right Bonj, just been shopping (on the small wheeled non-folding shopper), and yes I did see Marmite on the shelf. I asked one of the store supervisors (the lengths I go to to educate the younger generation) what the turnover was like for that particular delicacy ... She replied "Very, very slow ... Don't Know why we stock it, but it's very long dated". Whilst at the supermarket I checked the bike racks ... Out of 30 bikes that I saw 10 were 'small' wheelers' of varying types. On the way back home I called in at the LBS and guess what ... they had 4 'small' wheelers on the shop floor display, and are able and prepared to order others if required. Now whether these observations/results are peculiar to my area or not I don't know, neither do I know if they are significant in any way nor do I rally care.

<bonj mode> Yeah, well, it's all very well, Yorkshireman, coming on here with your 'evidence'. You'll prove anything with that. Well, my evidence is that I think the opposite, which of course is more important than your silly 'real life facts'... </bonj mode>

In another thread, bonj said recumbents were crap, and listed all the reasons that ignorant people usually list (and which all recumbentists know are false), plus the fact that he tried to ride one once, fell off several times and didn't like it. So we've learnt that he's not a natural cyclist, with little patience for learning a new skill. We have to allow for the fact that he might only just have taken the stabilisers off his MTB... And remember before, when he tried to ride a roadbike that apparently wasn't the right size, or set up for him, and pronounced it rubbish?

 

[Yorkshireman]

Bonj hasn't been out to play for some time ... Wonder if he's been naughty ... Grounded?

 

[derall]

Why smaller wheels aren't more popular on non-folding bikes if they're that good.

In a word, Moulton.

If you want a full explanation of the pros and cons of small wheels, then read 'Bicycle Design' by Mike Burrows. There's a very clear description. Basically, small wheels are better for lower rotating mass so are faster. Large wheels are better at going over bumps. Small wheels are great if they can be coupled to some form of suspension, as on the Moulton. Without suspension, bigger is better so it's a compromise between comfort and rotating mass.

 

[Arch]

I would so like to lock bonj in a room with Mike Burrows, except, he's (Mike) a lovely man, and doesn't deserve that...

Of course one of the reasons small wheels aren't as numerous as large is that the unthinking general public have a very fixed idea of what a bike should look like, so they go for that. Which is why you see so many people on badly sized bikes. They don't bother to find out any of the stuff most of us have learned, so they accept what's offered - generally run of the mill cheapo MTBs - and the myth is perpetuated.

I think bonj rides an MTB. Perhaps he'd like to tell us why he has a bike with 26" wheels, and not a bike with 27" ones.

 

[Yorkshireman]

Arch, you could lock Bonj up in a room with Burrows, Moulton and Einstein and the only one to come out unchanged would be Bonj ... The other three would come out gibbering ... ( Bonj is 'in the house' )

PS
He didn't stay long!

 

[Arch]

Arch, you could lock Bonj up in a room with Burrows, Moulton and Einstein and the only one to come out unchanged would be Bonj ... The other three would come out gibbering ...

Claim to fame. Mike Burrows washed my shorts once...

And another time, made me blush tomato red with a remark about dumplings...

 

[TimO]

Mike is a very interesting guy to talk to, and speaks a lot of common sense. I think he'd have little time for bonj, he doesn't seem to suffer fools gladly.

I'd love to have talked to Alex Moulton, but I suspect at his current age he's probably beyond popping down the pub for a quick one much these days!

I've always quite liked the look of the space frame Moultons, although being of a dismantlable design rather than a folder, one would not be as useful to me as my Brompton (and the Bromptons are a lot cheaper than most of the Moultons!)

Incidentally, I've certainly seen people racing on Moultons in the past, although whether they are still legal for racing/TT's I know not.

If someone hasn't mentioned it already, the reason why the UCI banned recumbents from racing was because they were too fast compared to standard safety type bike designs. It had nothing to do with safety.

 

[Yorkshireman]

Claim to fame. Mike Burrows washed my shorts once...

And another time, made me blush tomato red with a remark about dumplings...

Hmmm. Washed y'shorts Arch ... Why would he need to do that? ...
As for him making you blush ... If you will go 'putting it about' amongst 'older 'men ... Hang about here ... I might be 'in' with a chance

 

[derall]

Incidentally, I've certainly seen people racing on Moultons in the past, although whether they are still legal for racing/TT's I know not.

If someone hasn't mentioned it already, the reason why the UCI banned recumbents from racing was because they were too fast compared to standard safety type bike designs. It had nothing to do with safety.

No, the Moulton is not UCI-legal. Same reason as for 'bents - the combination of the small wheels and huge gearing makes them just too damn fast for competition.

One day I'll add a Moulton Speed-1 to the stable. Beautiful bike and so fast.

 

[Arch]

Mike is a very interesting guy to talk to, and speaks a lot of common sense.

Yes, and about many subjects. And the refreshing thing is, if he doesn't know about something and you do, he'll ask, instead of just airing false assumptions...

I think he'd have little time for bonj, he doesn't seem to suffer fools gladly.

plus, his wisdom would be wasted...

I'd love to have talked to Alex Moulton, but I suspect at his current age he's probably beyond popping down the pub for a quick one much these days!

I dunno. Picture of him in the latest edition of Cycle, he looks pretty sprightly..

If someone hasn't mentioned it already, the reason why the UCI banned recumbents from racing was because they were too fast compared to standard safety type bike designs. It had nothing to do with safety.

That was what I understood, yes...

 

[TimO]

No, the Moulton is not UCI-legal. Same reason as for 'bents - the combination of the small wheels and huge gearing makes them just too damn fast for competition.

That's what I thought, but I do have a memory of seeing pictures occasionally in Cycling Weekly (yonks back, when I used to read it), of people racing on Moultons. I guess they were possibly just entering in races that either didn't care about UCI rules, or didn't count in the final results.

I remember Mike Burrows saying that the tricycle people weren't half as worried about recumbents, and that he and Andy Pegg used to race Speedy's (Speedies?) against conventional upright trikes.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

So where's Bonj gone? I do enjoy seeing him get utterly pasted in an, ahem, "argument" such as this one, fighting an increasingly precarious corner without recourse to anything so inconvenient as facts or evidence but, instead, mere preconceived opinion.
Is that a fair summary?

 

[Yorkshireman]

So where's Bonj gone? I do enjoy seeing him get utterly pasted in an, ahem, "argument" such as this one, fighting an increasingly precarious corner without recourse to anything so inconvenient as facts or evidence but, instead, mere preconceived opinion.
Is that a fair summary?

I think he got a bit carried away in his all consuming quest re small wheeled transport. He sold his big white van, bought the latest, most expensive Moulton, loaded up, and .............
















Went touring .................................

























In The Alps






There is a sort of 'eerie' silence without him

 

[Christopher]

Yep, absolute cycle speed records are usually held by fully-faired recumbents. I sometimes daydream about one with a carbon-fibre shell with a graphite coating, aero dimples and a boat-tail to reduce vortex shedding off the back.

 

[mosschops2]

Not that "eerie" to be fair!!!! More "peaceful".

Or Calm.
Tranquil even.