Folding Bikes - Are Our European Folding Bike Users O.K During This Volcano Debris Cloud Emergency?

To all our European folding bike users:

I am concerned about how you are all doing during this Volcano emergency. How is your folding bike assisting your travel plans on trains or buses now that most airlines are grounded for a time? I hope that you are not stranded somewhere unable to go home (that is a real fear I have when I am lucky enough to travel). Please report in and let us know. Do feel free to vent your frustrations here if you need to. I hope that the Iceland volcano will quiet down some so the planes can fly again.

Well as a Dahon rider and someone unable to fly, I feel qualified to reply. I wasn't going on a cycling holiday, just a regular spring, catch-some-Mediterranean-sun week away. The destination was Sicily and the plan was to check out some of their volcanoes. Ho hum.
I can rebook at a later date. Im not too peeved; the large high pressure system that is guiding the ash towards us is giving lots of dry, sunny weather in the UK, AND pushing our usual cloudy, raining spring weather southwards. It is cool and damp in the Med.

We dont expect anything to fly for a good few days to come then it will be chaos in the skys whilst the airlines try to get back on track.
My only surprise is that there is enough space to park all these aircraft on the ground. The urban myth is that there isnt room to ground every aircraft.
Thanks for asking.

There was panic buying in the shops yesterday, the UK gets most of its lettuce from West Africa, and the major supermarket chains were reporting an impending lettuce famine. I just don't know how we will cope. Folks living under London Heathrow flight-paths are reporting getting a full nights sleep for the first time since 1953.

There has been no impact, volcanic or otherwise on my Dahon Vitesse, although I am a little worried about fine dust being sucked into the bottom bracket and causing a sudden seizure of the rotating parts, precipitating me to the ground with potential loss of street cred.

I went out to a restaurant for pizza last night and noticed it was a bit charred around the edges. But these are dangerous times and we must go with the flow. Pyroclastic, or otherwise.

On the upside it's very sunny here, perfect for cycling. Normally, Spring in Britain is a time to lay out the rain gear. Now, all we are worried about is ash in our pizza.

On the news just now, most of the insurance companies are offering to pay out, with the exception of Virgin and a couple of others including John Lewis.

Iceland's own airport is still open ,proving that it's all a plot to wreck our economy, and avoid paying back the $200 billion they owe us. :-)

Silence is golden - you can even hear the birds in Thames valley - perfect for Biking.

Welcome back snafu ... love your humour !

Thank you. I am so glad we have got rid of all those nasty polluting aircraft, and replaced them with a volcano.

Thank you. I am so glad we have got rid of all those nasty polluting aircraft, and replaced them with a volcano.

At least the volcano is natural :innocent::lol:

Aaron :)

This morning on the news the anchor said ash cloud was worse today then on Thursday.

I just got back from cycling to find a large amount of it on my car. :-(

Thank you. I am so glad we have got rid of all those nasty polluting aircraft, and replaced them with a volcano.

That is a great one liner,kinda thing one would hear from some famous comedian. Maybe a Jay Leno type. You should consider being a writer for a comedian,that was a good laugh.

1) How did people take their 5,000 mile exotic vacations - twice a year - before airplanes???

2) Can anyone actually be happy confined to a folding bike for long periods?

Inquiring minds want to know. Call it the great European/Volcanic experiment.

Lou

Kinda reminds me of when our TV broke when I was in early high school. We found out that there was a lot of other things to do with our time than watch TV. Still is the same today...........I hardly ever watch TV.

Where I'm headed with this is: I wonder if folks will start coming to the conclusion that there are a lot of places to visit and things to do without having to fly there in an airplane? :thumb: I seems to me like flying is just getting to be more hassle than it's worth nowadays. :(

Jim

I would think the trains, buses and rental car companies are doing a lot of business right now.

I would think the trains, buses and rental car companies are doing a lot of business right now.

Then there was the guy (a comedian) of some sort that paid $5000 for a cab ride to get from point A to Point B in Europe someplace. I hope where-ever he had to get to to perform paid really well. :D

Jim

Then there was the guy (a comedian) of some sort that paid $5000 for a cab ride to get from point A to Point B in Europe someplace.

Jim

It was John Cleese - He could have emulated Eddie Izzard's marathons and done a silly walk from Oslo to Brussels.

That is a great one liner,kinda thing one would hear from some famous comedian. Maybe a Jay Leno type. You should consider being a writer for a comedian,that was a good laugh.

Not Jay Leno. Steven Wright. Master of irony.

[QUOTE=SesameCrunch;10685791]Not Jay Leno. Steven Wright. Master of irony.[/QU

Agreed. Funny man indeed.

1) How did people take their 5,000 mile exotic vacations - twice a year - before airplanes???

They didn't unless they were very wealthy and could afford to travel for a couple of years at a time.


2) Can anyone actually be happy confined to a folding bike for long periods?

I do 40+ miles a day on my Raleigh Twenty, if a folder is set up properly and fits there is no reason not to ride them longer distances, people tour the world on Bike Fridays, while technically not a folder they share many of the attributes; small wheels, small frames and compact size.


Inquiring minds want to know. Call it the great European/Volcanic experiment.

Lou

Aaron :)

'confined to a folding bike for long periods'

This chap (http://www.foldsoc.co.uk/Mike/dahon_touring.html)'set out on a Dahon Speed TR folding bike with the sole objective of heading south for the winter. Over the following nine months I cycled from Leicester to Dover via Salisbury, by ferry to Calais, around western France, around the Portuguese and Spanish coast, back into France then north from the Rhone valley to Belgium to back to England As the intention was to be as self reliant as possible the bike was loaded with everything thought necessary for lightweight camping.'

Our own Jur & Mrs Jur regularly tour on a variety of 20" scoots. It's not the bike, it's the motor. To hell with volcanos!

I had an epiphany. No, really! When the planes were due to start back on Tuesday, I cycled to Richmond Park instead of Richmond station to see what it was like when there aren't planes flying overhead every 60 seconds (a little unfair, really: they only fly directly over half the time anyway). But then, instead of cycling on to next station along the line, I headed off towards the city.

I'd made the concession of carrying my dress shoes and wearing trainers, and put a t-shirt under my dress shirt, so it wouldn't get sweaty, but basically I was in work clothes with a handbag over my shoulder, amongst all the lycra clad riders. I cycled home twice more this week.

Next week I expect to do both ways on the same day, and by the week after that I may have moved to cycling all the way most days (~40km or 25 mile round trip).

Even though I have a full sized bike, I plan to stick with the folder because I love it.

Just got to decide if buying a commuter bag (http://www.mezzobikes.com/UK/accessories.php) is worth it, or is that just accessory-itis? The bag would just be a pain if I was folding the bike.

There was some joke on the telly that someone had written to the BBC from under the Heathrow flightpath to say that now there were no planes flying he'd been able to listen to the heavy traffic on the M25 for the first time in twenty years. All almost back to normal, now, I'm told.

JEFMCG - Luggage is great on a folder, as you've divined, the problem is what to do with it when the bike is folded. Something with a shoulder strap would seem useful. The Mezzo bag looks cool, and it will hold a vibration-proof laptop.


Kudos for cycling to work, I'm just getting to the stage where 15 miles each way is possible, although my legs suffer for it the following day. My answer is pies.

My answer is pies.

Isn't that the answer to everything?

Isn't that the answer to everything?


I am coming to believe it may be. The cloud of Icelandic doom that has been hovering over the UK has been replaced by a cloud of hubris over the upcoming elections. My wacky neighbours have plastered their windows with 'Lib Dem' stickers in order to ward off the evil influence of another decade of corrupt loony maladministration. They will fail. The Brits know less about politics than they do about about volcanoes.

Still, it has been a wonderful two weeks of spring. Old Mr Sun beams down from the heavens, little woolly baa-lambs are boinging around in the fields, and house re-possesions are down by 0.2 per cent.

It is time to go bicycling!

http://i39.tinypic.com/2db1o9f.jpg

Will the election be decided by the political parties stances towards volcanoes?

I am all for then myself, but not in my back yard.

Heard that volcanoes are required for plate tectonics,weather and atmosphere, so a long term issue not to be decided in one parliament.

vote "yes" to volcanoes.
(Depending on results of relevant focus groups this stance could change!)

Will the election be decided by the political parties polices on volcanoes?

No. The Folding Bicycle Party will sweep all before it.

Snafu21 for president then.

Snafu21 for president then.

You're very kind. Have an OBE

http://scuba-doc.com/OBE%20Civil%20Medal.jpg

I read that the planes actually put out many times more pollution than the volcano does. So if anything the air quality is improving.

I was in Krakow, Poland, after the eruption and during the funeral of their president. It was martial law there for a bit. They don't mess around when world leaders are (supposed to be) coming to town. Barricaded off the city center with the cops inside, and snipers on the rooftops.

Folding bikes are mostly absent from Poland. But there were tons of stiffies out. Maybe more than usual, since everyone was stuck otherwise.

but there were tons of stiffies out. Maybe more than usual, since everyone was stuck otherwise.


... :o

JEFMCG - Luggage is great on a folder, as you've divined, the problem is what to do with it when the bike is folded. Something with a shoulder strap would seem useful. The Mezzo bag looks cool, and it will hold a vibration-proof laptop.
Thanks. After trying a simple and small pannier shoulder bag, and finding it was fine ... as long as I didn't peddle :-( I realised I needed a bag on top of the rack. A bit of on line browsing suggested the mezzo branded one wasn't that expensive, so I ordered it.

It just arrived! I'll post a review shortly as there are very few on the net. This is the only one I could find:

http://www.foldsoc.co.uk/Mike/MikesMezzo/Mezzod9-2.html#7._Luggage

p.s. it does come with a shoulder strap:




Kudos for cycling to work, I'm just getting to the stage where 15 miles each way is possible, although my legs suffer for it the following day. My answer is pies.

:-) As I was saying at lunch: "I'm cycling, so I can eat what I want. And then complain bitterly that despite all the exercise, I'm not losing any weight!"