On Your Bike

J’en ai croisé beaucoup dans ces régions, donc je ne pense pas que ce soit difficile de les trouver. Je vous souhaite bonne chance.

Bonjour et bienvenue à SurviveFrance

Mais nous sommes anglophones ici.

Perhaps you’d like to introduce yourself and tell us more of your connection to France, and your love of cycling.

Yep, I used to live in Naucelles and did much riding in the Aveyron. Now I live in Mayenne, much flatter and better for my 82 year old legs!


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Fancy Dan bikes. You can’t beat a three speed Sturmey Archer with a hub dynamo light!

Love the dog. Is that gravel-coloured camo (presumably desert camo) he’s wearing ?

:slight_smile:

The road looks too smooth for him to be the Third Policeman…

@Roger_Lapin should get it even if no one else does.

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Flann O’Brien? :slight_smile:

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… and the re-arrangement of the molecules…

Yes. He’s cute. Caramel I think is on his passport

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The molecular theory, if I remember correctly Mark :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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If my memory serves me well (and it normally doesn’t) Brian O’Nolan (Flann O’Brien) referred to it as the Mollycule theory. I have several of his books somewhere. I must try to find them again. A joy to read, I much appreciate his sense of humour.,

Yes, it was due to the bumpiness of the roads which caused bicycle atoms to migrate to the rider and vise versa. Thus after a period of time, which was more bike or more human became a mute point. All documented in the Third Policeman and the Dalkey Archive.

I’ve lots’s of pals that live in Dalkey and it’s been a stomping ground of mine for fifty odd years. One of the nicest places to live in Dublin, even if it is a bit too far from the city for my taste.

Our family home, until I a sold it in 2019, was in Mount Merrion, a thirties/fourties’/fifties built senior civil service dormitory suburb where O’Brien lived too.

And finally, a very good pal and old schoolmate of mine had a pub called An Béal Bocht in Dublin. He bought it for a song in the late seventies as it was to be demolished for road widening. However given the speed of planning permission he got twenty or so years of use out of it :face_with_hand_over_mouth: He converted the back into a small bar/theatre and put on adaptations of O’Brien’s books. Tourists used to flock to it.

We used the front bar as “our club”.

I took a photo of some pals reading the hottest news. One no longer with us and the other now with dementia :slightly_frowning_face: carpe diem.

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I had the same experience with Halfords when I lived in England many years ago. I took my beloved Scott CR1 in to have a new cassette fitted. What a stuff up they made of it! I don’t think the “ mechanic” had ever worked on a real bike before! A FUBAR all round. Cyclists beware of Halfords! Unfortunately,the Scott was nicked some time later from my shed in France! And here I was thinking that the French are “squeaky clean” when it comes to thievery! Of course, it could have been a Pom. There are plenty over here.

The recent increase in fuel prices has lead to mass purchases of e-bikes where I live. Almost everyone has one now and the feedback is unbelievable:

" I don’t use the car now if I travel less than 20 km" from a man in his mid 70’s who stopped riding his velo de course 10 years ago.
The chap in his 80’s who is no longer allowed to drive his car , can now go the 3 km to the bar/ restaurant/ boulangerie every day and have a cooked lunch.
2 older couples we met at said bar, were touring together, which was unthinkable on none e- bikes as 2 were quite slow.

I do ride a velo de course, VTT , touring bike and mountain bike , but adding the e- bike to the stable has added an extra dimension.
Now that prices have come down these bikes are providing opportunities to keep fit and enjoy the fresh air to a wider audience. What’s not to like?

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Given that you seem to be knowledgeable and experienced on the subject of bikes, may I ask which e-bike you bought and why you chose that one? :bicycle:

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I recently left some gardening tools in the front garden while I came in for a coffee break. About 15 minutes later, there was a knock on the front door. On opening, I see a middle-aged couple (neighbours I had not yet met) with all my tools in their hands. I paraphrase but they said something along the lines of “You can’t leave these out otherwise they’ll be stolen!” They looked astonished that I had been so naive . . .

You are very unlucky if you get stuff stolen in France. Depending on where you live I suppose. I live way out in the boonies. I had a Scott road bike nicked from my shed several years ago now. It turned up on Ebay .uk! Go figure. I’ll say no more.

I just got a basic Decathlon Riverside hybrid e-bike. I have never had an e- bike before and so chose it because it was fairly cheap. It is quite heavy, but for me it does the job. I have no car and live a 30 km per return trip from a decent supermarket which is up hill and down dale, this bike gets me there and back and costs about 0.06€ for this journey compared to an average car which costs about 3.50€. Obviously this depends on whether you have the assistance on all the time or some of the time as it costs nothing while you’re going downhill. How far your charge lasts depends on how much assistance you use, but I have done 65km with charge to spare.

You can get e- racing bikes and VTT , racing bikes start at about €2500, these are much lighter than mine but much more costly. I only wanted mine for shopping trips and local rides to restaurants etc so it suits me fine. I shan’t be replacing my other bikes with e-versions just yet, but as I get older I probably will, so that I can continue to ride and enjoy it.

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Thanks for the info, @Arcalia .