Posts by JackElder
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Field Theory: How's that working out for…, in reply to Megan Wegan,
But with cycling, for example, and rowing, the equipment is mandated to be the same. So it relies on much much more of the skill/endurance/sheer madness of the sportsperson.
Nitpick: in cycling, the equipment isn't the same, but there are very strict regulations with which it must comply. For example, the UCI sets a minimum weight limit on bikes (6.8kg) - this is partially to minimise the role that equipment plays, but partially also a safety measure to ensure that people didn't use equipment that was so light it was unsafe. These days, the technology is at the point where you can walk into any bike shop and buy a lighter bike than that off the peg - in actual competitions, many team bikes have weights added so they reach the weight limit.
Within those rules, you're able to pick what you want to. So here, the gear selection is part of the sport itself - choosing the kit that you think best matches the event (for example, one rider may prefer a higher set of gear ratios than another).
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Hard News: London's Burning, in reply to BenWilson,
There’s probably scientific versions, analyzing crowd psychology. But I expect it’s pretty soft science.
The tendency to become 'lost in the crowd' is pretty well covered by research on deindividuation, which isn't too soft. See this article for a good summary of deindividuation and its effect in crowds (and in anonymous online forums - it's a psychological effect that's very applicable to modern life).
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Whoah. How does that work, legally? And how on earth did they manage to sneak that in without the helmet lobby going ballistic?
I presume that it's legally a park or something rather than a public road, so the legal requirement to have to wear a helmet while cycling on the roads doesn't apply. In much the same way as I could say, "Hey, you don't need to wear a helmet while cycling around my garden." It's great when you're in the garden, but as soon as you get on the road to go somewhere else, you need your lid.
Presumably they did it to emphasise the whole laid-back, family-friendly, cruisy atmosphere they're going for. More the beach cruiser atmosphere, rolling along at a calm 15kph, rather than the hammer and tongs demographic.
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How does the "you don't need to wear a helmet cycling here" thing work? Are they expecting people to drive to the waterfront, park up, then unload the bikes for a bit of a cruise around? I'm sure people will do that, so I guess it's a good way to appeal to more casual riders who otherwise wouldn't come in. I take it that it's not legally an area of road, so the council doesn't need to worry about the legal requirement to wear a helmet when cycling on roads?
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A full-bore road bike (carbon fibre everything!) is probably massive overkill for what you're after, Russell. One alternative is to look more at the touring or cyclocross models. Touring bikes are made to go long distances rather than fast, so will usually be a bit more rugged (higher spoke counts on the wheels, more solid frame, etc), and will probably have a lower gearing to get you up hills when carrying stuff. Cyclocross bikes, on the other hand, are basically road bikes designed for short, hard offroad races in ankle-deep mud - so go pretty fast on the road but can handle your basic offroad thrash (many cyclocross bikes have disk brakes these days too). Definitely worth looking at either of those.
One annoying thing about road bikes is that they often assume that you're a slyph-like roadie. For example, Campagnolo specifically state that if you're over 109kg, you're going to break their wheels - and anything over 82kg is borderline in their opinion. This is fine if you're a sponsored racer or a 69kg climber, but for a bike you're hoping to use day-to-day for the next couple of years, not such a good thing.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to Sacha,
In the case of apples it’s bears!
I clicked onto the last page of this discussion, saw only this quote, and assumed that the conversation had once again converged to Steve Jobs. Presumably revealing a hitherto unknown side to his character.
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Nah, for sheer cargo-shifting power you want an xtracycle. Allows you to carry enough stuff (full week's grocery shops, for instance) that getting uphill becomes an iffy proposition. You live on the flat, right?
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Hard News: How much speech does it take?, in reply to Rich Lock,
It’s a debate that’s been going on in the UK for quite a number of years. There is now a government-produced ‘life in the uk’ test that immigrants are supposed to take, but it has been heavily criticised.
One thing that I'm very grateful for is that I managed to get my UK citizenship shortly before all this nonsense came in. At the time, in the early 2000s, the process of getting indefinite leave to remain - and then, eventually, citizenship - consisted of acquiring various legal documents and sending them off with a cheque. Shortly after I became a UK citizen, they introduced American-style "citizenship ceremonies", where people gather at the town hall and swear allegiance to the queen etc. I just got a letter saying "congratulations, you're a citizen now", which struck me as a fundamentally more British way of doing things.
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Field Theory: Bicycle Race, in reply to Hadyn Green,
Isn’t that, to a certain degree, all sport? Obviously not necessarily the scenery, but usually the rest is there.
Yeah, but cycling is a condensed form. It's the espresso shot of sport. The Tour has about twenty stages over three weeks; it fits all the excitement of a normal full season into that short timespan. You can go from "who's that guy?" to "COME ON VOECKLER!!!" in two days.
Also, since teams usually don't last more than five or six seasons, and riders often switch teams in the off season, it encourages people to form attachments more to the riders than to the teams. For instance, I'd have trouble telling you off the top of my head which team most of the big contenders are riding for this year.
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Field Theory: Bicycle Race, in reply to Chris Bowden,
The different outfits represent the different classifications: yellow = tour leader, polka dots (always some interesting outfits) = king of the mountains, green = sprint leader, white = young rider. I think they even have a category for the most combatative. Why the girls? Well, it’s France!!
Yup. The leaders in each category get a different color jersey to wear on the next day's stage - so when they talk about a rider being "in yellow", they mean that the rider is currently winning the race overall. This makes it easier to pick out the leaders when you're watching the race. At the awards ceremony, the riders are presented the jersey by two young women wearing fetching outfits[1] in the appropriate color scheme. The exception is, I believe, the most combative rider, who just gets to wear a red number on the next day.
Mind you, not only do they get a jersey, they also get presented with flowers and - for the yellow jersey - a stuffed toy lion (this is related to the sponsorship from Credit Lyonnaise). Who could resist?
[1] Your opinion of how fetching the polka-dot ensemble is may differ.