Cryptic clues

[Motobecane]

If I was clueing this using an anagram I would go with something like:

Pull these to stop several kerbs being broken (5,6)

Spoiler

I've been a bit cheeky and missed out the apostrophe in kerbs but it can be read as:
Pull these to stop. 'Several kerb' is being broken.

Yes. Much better than my second attempt [Broken kerbs reveal bike parts (5.6)]. Yours meets all the rules and has a neat sense of meaning. But I believe I would have solved it quite easily. My problem was that everything I came up for 'brake levers' seemed too easy to solve! So I resorted to synonyms and reached too far... and crossed the line!

 

[RichardB]

Don't beat yourself up! It's all a bit of fun, and I am enjoying seeing other people's ways of approaching the clue setting, even if I am terrible at getting the answers. As to the 'how hard?' question (oo-er), I think it was Araucaria who once said "the ultimate aim of a setter is to do battle with a solver but to lose gracefully".

 

[rich p]

I hope you don't mind me saying but occasionally some of the clues in the thread don't actually have a definition.
This one for instance...
The finest underground railway in the world? (3,4)
There is no indicator that the solution is a bike part which wouldn't pass muster in the real crossword world.
Carry on, good thread.

 

[winjim]

I hope you don't mind me saying but occasionally some of the clues in the thread don't actually have a definition.
This one for instance...
The finest underground railway in the world? (3,4)
There is no indicator that the solution is a bike part which wouldn't pass muster in the real crossword world.
Carry on, good thread.

In this thread we do at least know that all the answers are cycling related, so I think maybe the definitions are less important than they would be in a real crossword. I shall have a think about how that clue can be improved though. What I need is a description of that bike part, that could also be a destination one could reach by underground railway...

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I hope you don't mind me saying but occasionally some of the clues in the thread don't actually have a definition.
This one for instance...
The finest underground railway in the world? (3,4)
There is no indicator that the solution is a bike part which wouldn't pass muster in the real crossword world.
Carry on, good thread.

Aha, themed crosswords are fine in the real world, though.

 

[Tim Hall]

What I need is a description of that bike part, that could also be a destination one could reach by underground railway...

Isn't that funny shaped circlip you sometimes find on a bike called a Mornington Crescent?

 

[Motobecane]

Don't beat yourself up! It's all a bit of fun, and I am enjoying seeing other people's ways of approaching the clue setting, even if I am terrible at getting the answers. As to the 'how hard?' question (oo-er), I think it was Araucaria who once said "the ultimate aim of a setter is to do battle with a solver but to lose gracefully".

Brilliant quote!

 

[Motobecane]

In this thread we do at least know that all the answers are cycling related, so I think maybe the definitions are less important than they would be in a real crossword. I shall have a think about how that clue can be improved though. What I need is a description of that bike part, that could also be a destination one could reach by underground railway...

Not all answers are cycling related... and I usually ask if I'm in doubt. I 'sort of' agree that the clues ought to contain definitions...

 

[Motobecane]

Have we got any unsolved clues, folks? I looked but can't see any.

 

[RichardB]

Have we got any unsolved clues, folks? I looked but can't see any.

Gives answer: drunken wink to Don. (1,4,4)

 

[winjim]

Gives answer: drunken wink to Don. (1,4,4)

There's this one, which may or may not strictly follow the rules:

What's that you're holding? Position, course? If about to popthe question, it could... give some support! (7)

There's also the wheel change one which I amended to:

Hands numb. Beaten, glum. Plan: tool. Ciao (6,10)

We know the answer is

Spoiler

Tullio Campagnolo

but for a bit of extra fun I'd like to know the specific event in cycling history the clue is describing.

 

[Motobecane]

Gives answer: drunken wink to Don. (1,4,4)

 

[Motobecane]

Easy peasy one:
Mixed up Prime Minister is for inflation. (4)

 

[jefmcg]

There's this one, which may or may not strictly follow the rules:

What's that you're holding? Position, course? If about to popthe question, it could... give some support! (7)

There's also the wheel change one which I amended to:

Hands numb. Beaten, glum. Plan: tool. Ciao (6,10)

We know the answer is

Spoiler

Tullio Campagnolo

but for a bit of extra fun I'd like to know the specific event in cycling history the clue is describing.

I had never heard of him (though I know his surname, of course), so when you first posted the solution, I looked up wikipedia.

Is this what you are looking for?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I had never heard of him (though I know his surname, of course), so when you first posted the solution, I looked up wikipedia.

Is this what you are looking for?

I'd guess it's this bit specifically:
While racing through the Italian Dolomites on 11 November 1927 with freezing weather and snow, he lost the race victory due to a wing nut he could not remove to change gear. The title that Campagnolo sacrificed through the Croce D’ Aune Pass encouraged him to develop the quick release wheel locking mechanism. This quick release skewer, which is in use and famous today, enables a bicycle wheel to be removed and re-attached quickly, and was the first of his many inventions from his father’s Vicenza workshop that he is well known for.