PaulR

"Cyclists that use cleat pedals on their commuting bike- i've lost count of the amount of times i've been stuck behind a cyclist as a light changes to green because they can't get their shoes clipped on. Completely unnessecary in town." Oh my goodness. Ban cleats in built up areas. Won't someone think of the kittens. I once saw someone riding with cleats on Lordship Lane and I swear it caused God to kill a little fluffy kitten. Actually, I think cyclists should have as many bikes as they like. And cleats. I really love the sound of a bunch of cyclists setting off together. The clicking of dozens of cleats into pedals is music to my ears - the assertive metallic click of the SPDs, the bold clack of the Look system, the barely audible but finely tuned tick of eggbeaters - i could go on...

I'm delighted to hear how much you love your Bob Jackson. But I am confused by your suggestion that "johnny come lately" fixed riders regard themselves as different from any other cyclists. It's undeniable that there's a fashion for riding fixed, but I don't think that means that people who have only recently started riding fixed regard themselves as different or in any way superior. If anything, today's newcomers to the joys of riding fixed will look at old-timers with respect, but someone who complains about "johnny come lately" fixed riders might appear sad and possibly a bit snobbish. Of course, felt tip is right - it's no stranger to discuss riding fixed as an indentifiable strand of cycling than it would be to discuss riding folding bikes, tricycles, recumbents, MTBs, moultons, tandems etc. Someone riding a fixed wheel bike has presumably deliberately chosen that form of transport and can quite reasonably, in my view, feel an affinity with other cyclists who have made the same choice. That doesn't mean that they look down their noses at people who have made a different choice. OK, I'll go and make a coffee now.:)) 'bout now Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hello Everyone > > I have a fixed Bob Jackson and oh how I love it. > 12 years old now and it mixes with all my other > bikes. I'm confused though, what makes you johnny > come lately fixed riders different from any other > bicycle rider? > > Because you act like you are and indeed, you have > started a thread that suggests you are?

I saw the Rothmann up for sale and recognised it instantly - it's quite a distinctive bike. Good luck with the impending arrival: have you asked at BC whether they can track down a miniature fixed trike as his/her first steed?

snowy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Oh and hello all you fgss rabble! Rabble, hmmm... There's quite a gaggle of forumengers in the Brockley/ED/F Hill area these days, which tallies with the gradual increase in the number of fixed riders that I've noticed around here in recent years.

Another fixed rider here (also on lfgss) although I'm over the hill (agewise and in terms of living in SE23 rather than SE22). First foray was an old 531c-framed bike that I did up gradually, first as a single-speeder (used it in that format for the dunwich dynamo in 2005) and then fixed (dd in 2006 and 2007). The old conversion is now used by my elder son but I do fancy getting it resprayed by Mario Vaz some time and kitting it out with some slightly better equipment. A few years ago I decided to switch to an off-the-peg machine and got a Kona Paddywagon which I now use pretty much every day, including occasional night rides to Brighton, Whitstable etc. It's now sporting some very tasty and practical Nitto Promenade bars for a sit-up-and-beg posture. I bought a stereo (sort of space-age ghetto-blaster thing) on here a while back and turned up at the seller's house on my bike. She then arrived on a gorgeous (not baby blue) Rothmann fixed wheel bike, sold me the stereo and watched (I suspect with some wry amusement) as I headed off up Lordship Lane with the stereo hanging off my left handlebar. It survived - including the lovely descent from the Horniman to F Hill station. If only it had had batteries in it...

I am a cyclist and a motorist and a pedestrian and a user of public transport. I spend ridiculous amounts of money (or so it seems to me) keeping a car on the road for those (rare) occasions when it is the best option for transport but I am at my happiest when I can get around London on my bike or on foot. I certainly don't regard the fact that I spend money on running a car as giving me any rights over and above people who don't. If anything, the obvious danger of driving a car in a densely populated area imposes on me an extra duty of care towards more vulnerable road users and pedestrians. The idea that cyclists block traffic is laughable - have you really not seen how the cars clog up the roads of London? Oh, and if I am riding my bike and crash into someone (I've not managed to do that in the last 43 years) then I can be sued, which is why I have third party insurance through my membership of the LCC. Edit: "if you contribute something towards the up keep of roads (as a cyclist)" - well, leaving aside the point that has been made about road tax, and the fact that the roads are not funded just by motorists, bear in mind please that a very high proportion of cyclists are also car-owners who happen to use their bikes as well, causing significantly less wear and tear to the roads than motor vehicles, not that this is actually relevant given the way roads are funded...

I do love it when someone starts ranting about cyclists and irrationally blowing a gasket - it always cheers me up and reminds me why I enjoy commuting by bicycle and riding at weekends. Thank you for that Louisa. I saw a rural fox the other weekend - I was riding along beautiful country lanes in Oxfordshire at about 3am - as well as a deer and a badger. Thank goodness I did see them - if they hand't been there to keep me awake I might have dozed off and fallen off my bicycle and I wasn;t even wearing a helmet. It's a disgrace. Something must be done.

The sun had set a few hours earlier. The clouds are still lit by the sun because at this time of year the sun is never very far below the northern horizon and these clouds are about 50 miles above the earth's surface (so just about out of reach of the glare of London's bright lights!)

Did anyone else spot these eery pale blue clouds very late on Sunday night? I've seen noctilucent clouds like these outside London but was amazed to see them glowing so strongly through the glare of central London. http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f130/PaulRide/NLC20090712.jpg