Are Our European Folding Bike Users O.K During This Volcano Debris Cloud Emergency?
#1
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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.
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.
#2
Senior Member
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.
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.
Last edited by MichaelW; 04-24-10 at 04:16 AM.
#3
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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.
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Aaron
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Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
#9
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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.
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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
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
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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? I seems to me like flying is just getting to be more hassle than it's worth nowadays.
Jim
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? I seems to me like flying is just getting to be more hassle than it's worth nowadays.
Jim
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Last edited by JimT; 04-17-10 at 03:28 PM. Reason: correction
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#17
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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
Lou
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Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
#18
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'confined to a folding bike for long periods'
This chap '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!
This chap '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!
Last edited by snafu21; 04-18-10 at 06:32 AM.
#19
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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 is worth it, or is that just accessory-itis? The bag would just be a pain if I was folding the bike.
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 is worth it, or is that just accessory-itis? The bag would just be a pain if I was folding the bike.
Last edited by jefmcg; 04-24-10 at 05:43 AM.
#20
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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.
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.
#23
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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!)
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!)
Last edited by bhkyte; 04-27-10 at 04:06 AM.