Ian Smith wrote:

On Tue, 24 May, JNugent wrote:
Ian Smith wrote:

Neither does my unicycle. Nor is it covered in black grease (or any
other sort of grease). There's a small amount of grease sealed
within the pedals, and an even smaller amount sealed within the
cartridge bearings.

The tyre, pedal ends and seat (ie, all extremities) are all black
rubber, so not liable to scratch dig or gouge anything.

...but still containing enough road dirt to be easily able to foul
the clothing of an adjacent passenger, perhaps on their way to a
night out?

Oh, _road_dirt_? You mentioned hardened steel spikes meaning that
well-known sub-class of hardened steel spikes, "road dirt". Or is
"road dirt" a superset of hardened steel spikes? I forget. Whatever.

Road dirt. The stuff that fouls translucent grease and turns it black, as it
does to most of what it comes into contact with, not excluding clothing.

Yep, I agree. Loads more road dirt on pretty much all my rucksacks
than on the unicycle. I'm all for banning road dirt from the
underground.

Everyone must henceforth take off their shoes at the top of the
escalators.

Whatever your views on where the balance should be struck between
the rights of cyclist passengers and the rights of pedestrian
passengers, you *can* see why bikes (and, if appropriate, unicycles)
are banned on the Underground?

I understand some reasons. None of them are to do with hardened steel
spikes, black grease, or for that matter, road dirt.

We must differ on that.

On Tue, 24 May 2005, JNugent wrote:
Ian Smith wrote:

Oh, _road_dirt_? You mentioned hardened steel spikes meaning that
well-known sub-class of hardened steel spikes, "road dirt". Or is
"road dirt" a superset of hardened steel spikes? I forget. Whatever.

Road dirt. The stuff that fouls translucent grease and turns it black, as it
does to most of what it comes into contact with, not excluding clothing.

Really? I did actually have some vague notion about what you might
mean by the term. What I'm more confused about is why, if road dirt
is what upsets you, you decided to start the conversation by
complaining about non-existent hardened steel spikes.

regards, Ian SMith

Ian Smith wrote:

Really? I did actually have some vague notion about what you might
mean by the term. What I'm more confused about is why, if road dirt
is what upsets you, you decided to start the conversation by
complaining about non-existent hardened steel spikes.


Its called a tactical repositioning having found yourself on untenable
ground.


--
Tony

"A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought" Lord
Peter Wimsey (Dorothy L. Sayers)

Ian Smith wrote:

On Tue, 24 May 2005, JNugent wrote:
Ian Smith wrote:

Oh, _road_dirt_? You mentioned hardened steel spikes meaning that
well-known sub-class of hardened steel spikes, "road dirt". Or is
"road dirt" a superset of hardened steel spikes? I forget.
Whatever.

Road dirt. The stuff that fouls translucent grease and turns it
black, as it does to most of what it comes into contact with, not
excluding clothing.

Really? I did actually have some vague notion about what you might
mean by the term. What I'm more confused about is why, if road dirt
is what upsets you, you decided to start the conversation by
complaining about non-existent hardened steel spikes.

Yes... "spikes" was a bit OTT.

I should have made it clearer that I was referring to cogs. Not quite
spikes, but still hard and fairly pointy. And almost always greasy and dirty
(relative to clothing).

JNugent wrote:

Ian Smith wrote:
JNugent wrote:
Ian Smith wrote:

Oh, _road_dirt_? You mentioned hardened steel spikes meaning that
well-known sub-class of hardened steel spikes, "road dirt". Or is
"road dirt" a superset of hardened steel spikes? I forget.
Whatever.

Road dirt. The stuff that fouls translucent grease and turns it
black, as it does to most of what it comes into contact with, not
excluding clothing.

Really? I did actually have some vague notion about what you might
mean by the term. What I'm more confused about is why, if road dirt
is what upsets you, you decided to start the conversation by
complaining about non-existent hardened steel spikes.

Yes... "spikes" was a bit OTT.
I should have made it clearer that I was referring to cogs. Not quite
spikes, but still hard and fairly pointy. And almost always greasy
and dirty (relative to clothing).

....and in fact, I *did* make it clear!

Re-reading the post you refer to, I am reminded that I made no mention of
"spikes", but of "hardened steel sharp bits".

Hmm...

in message , JNugent
') wrote:

I should have made it clearer that I was referring to cogs.

Which unicycles (other than giraffes) do not have.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; in faecibus sapiens rheum propagabit

On Tue, 24 May 2005 21:51:21 +0100, JNugent wrote:
Ian Smith wrote:

On Tue, 24 May 2005, JNugent wrote:

Road dirt. The stuff that fouls translucent grease and turns it
black, as it does to most of what it comes into contact with, not
excluding clothing.

Really? I did actually have some vague notion about what you might
mean by the term. What I'm more confused about is why, if road dirt
is what upsets you, you decided to start the conversation by
complaining about non-existent hardened steel spikes.

Yes... "spikes" was a bit OTT.

I should have made it clearer that I was referring to cogs. Not quite
spikes, but still hard and fairly pointy. And almost always greasy and dirty
(relative to clothing).

And, of course, almost always entirely absent from unicycles.

regards, Ian SMith

Ian Smith wrote:

JNugent wrote:
Ian Smith wrote:

Oh, _road_dirt_? You mentioned hardened steel spikes meaning that
well-known sub-class of hardened steel spikes, "road dirt". Or is
"road dirt" a superset of hardened steel spikes? I forget.
Whatever.

Road dirt. The stuff that fouls translucent grease and turns it
black, as it does to most of what it comes into contact with, not
excluding clothing.

Really? I did actually have some vague notion about what you might
mean by the term. What I'm more confused about is why, if road dirt
is what upsets you, you decided to start the conversation by
complaining about non-existent hardened steel spikes.

You are wrong.

If you care to re-read the relevant posts, you will see that the
"non-existent" thing is any mention of "spikes" (except by your good self).
If unicycles have no hardened steel parts (or bits), please accept my
apologies (though I don't think it will be necessary).

"JNugent" wrote in message
...

If you care to re-read the relevant posts, you will see that the
"non-existent" thing is any mention of "spikes" (except by your good
self).
If unicycles have no hardened steel parts (or bits), please accept my
apologies (though I don't think it will be necessary).

Which parts of a conventional bike are made of hardened steel then?

clive

in message , Clive
George ') wrote:

"JNugent" wrote in message
...

If you care to re-read the relevant posts, you will see that the
"non-existent" thing is any mention of "spikes" (except by your good
self).
If unicycles have no hardened steel parts (or bits), please accept my
apologies (though I don't think it will be necessary).

Which parts of a conventional bike are made of hardened steel then?

I don't think there's _any_ steel on either of my favourite bikes except
for the brake and gear cables and the bearing internals. Plenty of
aluminium, plenty of carbon fibre, some titanium... but that's kind of
twisting the issue, because what he meant to say was not '...hardened
steel pointy bits...' but 'hard pointy bits', and those bikes
admittedly do tend to have. But we're not talking about bikes, we're
talking about unicycles, and all the bits of a bike which are hard and
pointy are bits a normal unicycle just does not have.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.
;; Jim Morrison