Safety things

[liv]

I'm asking specific questions here and not looking for general speculation and chat about the topics. Ideally I would like UK-relevant answers too; sorry that makes this post boring for some of my audience.

1. Does anyone have a known good, personally recommended source of FFP2/3 masks? I can Quack as well as anyone else but I know there are a lot of fake masks out there. I also would ideally rather not import them from the other side of the world, and that includes drop-shipping.
   
   
2. Has anyone seen a study about rates of Covid transmission between vaccinated adults and unvaccinated children? I am not looking for general information, much less opinions, about whether Covid is "dangerous" to children or not, I want some actual data about how likely I am to infect the children in my bubble, if I start relaxing my own boundaries now that I'm (well, will be by Tuesday) double vaccinated.
   
   
3. Indirectly pandemic-related: does anyone have any recommendations for bike lights? I've been using cheap, removable LED ones which are fine for short urban trips. But I'm not nearly as confident about going back to public transport as I had hoped to be after second vaccine, plus my OSOs now live a 10-mile, and not very well lit, cycle trip from here. I am worried about getting over-fancy lights because if they're expensive then they or the whole bike are more likely to get stolen. It probably makes sense to have lights that are permanently attached to the bike frame, but I'm not very confident in my DIY skills - if you've added your own lights post-market, how difficult is it, would you say? (Thank you seekingferret for spontaneously suggesting something; I might well go for what you recommended but I am hoping for some UK-specific suggestions if possible.)

TIA, people. I'm bored of this so bored. But since our leadership have surrendered to the virus, I need to figure out how to carve out some kind of life for myself.

Comments

[aldabra]

There have been studies coming out of Israel about transmission between vaccinated adults and unvaccinated children. I've been seeing them go past but I haven't been reading them.

[naraht]

Does anyone have a known good, personally recommended source of FFP2/3 masks?

Boots is where I've been getting mine. I assume they're legit although I have no real way of knowing.

[ewt]

Bike lights: Oxford brand (and similar) are relatively cheap, have mounting points that screw to the bike (but you can unclip the lights if you're leaving the bike out somewhere), and the ones that run on 3 AAAs are not too dim. They are pretty easy to attach to the bike frame, usually you just need a screwdriver or allan key, the instructions can be a bit hard to follow though.

If you have more money to spend on battery lights, I have heard good things about Cat Eye brand, though I haven't used them myself.

Most expensive battery lights have that kind of set-up: a mounting point that stays attached to the bike, and you then take the lights, but not the mounting points, off the bike when you leave it somewhere.

Another option for front lights is to get a silicone strap and a very bright LED torch. (I've had good results with this sort of thing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/383715652403?hash=item59573c3333:g:pjIAAOSwnH1WblhB ) This won't work so well for rear lights though!

It's worth making sure your front and rear lights take the same kind of battery), so that if you need to carry spares you only have to carry one kind.

My ideal bike light setup for unlit or badly lit journeys is a hub dynamo (this involves rebuilding your front wheel, it's one for a bike shop to do and not very cheap) with always-attached-to-the-bike lights on the front (various locations are possible) and on the rear pannier rack (Bausch & Muller are excellent, but there are cheaper ones that are perfectly adequate). I like my front light to have a standlight, so that when I stop at a junction it stays lit for a few minutes. (I believe this feature is standard on rear lights run by a dynamo, but I haven't checked recently.) The lights themselves are't too difficult to attach to the bike frame, but if you're getting the wheel rebuilt anyway then getting the bike shop to attach the lights and wire them up is the thing to do. I love the convenience of always having lights on my bike (and if you steal them, well, you'd have to wire them up to your own hub dynamo... I can't speak for how much they get stolen in Cambridge), and never having to charge the batteries. And they have been bright enough for riding on completely unlit roads in rural Somerset. There's no accidentally getting caught with no lights, they require very little maintenance, and I don't even have to remember to turn them on. How to weigh that convenience against the risk of theft is something I can't help you with as I'm not in Cambridge. If your bicycle is your main form of transport and you would be seriously inconvenienced without it, it may be worth insuring it for theft.

Tyre roller dynamos are also available, but they increase wear on the tyre and are a lot harder to cycle with, so I don't recommend them; I think you're better off with battery lights if you don't want to spend the money for a hub dynamo.

I then usually have a secondary light on the handlebars and seatpost -- often something USB-rechargeable that's easy to remove (my favourite brands have been Knog and Bookman, but neither are wonderful on battery life). This means that if something does go wrong with the hub dynamo (very unlikely, they're incredibly durable) or the wire (more common; new wires are like £3, but securing the wire to the bike properly should mean this isn't a huge issue), I still have lights. I find most of the USB-rechargeable lights don't have amazing battery life, so I probably wouldn't use them as my "primary" lights if I were regularly doing a ten mile journey. If I only want to use one secondary light I use the rear one: I can tell if my front light has a problem, but the rear light failing would just make me invisible to cars without my knowing.

The other thing that I've found sometimes useful in badly lit situations is actually a headlamp. I wouldn't want to only use the headlamp, but having something that shines light where I'm looking is useful if I do need to stop for any reason.

There is a type of light called Reelights that uses magnetic induction from magnets on your spokes, and a light fixed to the bike frame; despite how finicky I found them to install I do like these, but they are definitely a "make yourself a bit more visible" light rather than a "light the road in front of you so you don't hit a pothole" light.

This may be more information than you actually wanted, but I hope it gives you an idea of what some of the options are.

[yrieithydd]

I love my hub dynamo and powerful lights. No worrying about batteries and no forgetting the lights because they are there -and it even has a sensor so it just comes on when it's needed

[karen2205]

I've just ordered some FFP3 face masks from UK Meds - they should arrive by Friday so will say if they look dodgy - the site looked OK to me and they are selling unvalved FFP3 masks much cheaper than anywhere else I've looked.

[starlady]

I used CatEye for years and was very pleased--I still carry one that I broke the mounting on as a flashlight. I've since switched to USB rechargeable lights mounted on a band, since people here will definitely steal your accessories if they can't steal your bike.

[anais_pf]

Well, there is this article in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01549-z

[emperor]

This (though I did also get locking skewers to discourage theft of the dynohub wheel).

[lovingboth]

Lights - the Poundland / One Below front and rear lights are surprisingly bright, and at £1 each you can have two of each per bike plus some spares if you like.

I haven't seen any front ones in Poundland recently, but the One Below ones are identical, apart from the colour.

[liv]

Thank you, that is a good start. It kind of wanders off into talking about whether gatherings of children can act as infection reservoirs to reinfect adults, but it's helpful to know that infection of children goes way down in populations where adults are highly vaccinated.

[damerell]

I'd second the hub dynamo recommendations; I have one on all my bikes, and the good modern LED headlights (I could recommend specific models) are head and shoulders above what could be done with bulbs (and the best bulb headlights were adequate; I'm still using Schmidt E6s).

I would be happy to build you a wheel; I have built all my own wheels since about '02. However since I am a depressed procrastinator how good an idea compared to paying someone this is may depend on the relative amounts of money and patience you have.

[naath]

I can sell you a bike with a dynohub wheel (8 speed shimano hub, heavy, looks like shite, giant basket, me sized, step through frame). If that seems like a thing you want. I can certainly let you take it out and observe what it is such a dynohub would buy you. I'd actually recommend better lights, Busch and Muller probably for darkdark roads.

[liv]

Thank you. I thought Israel was vaccinating 12+? But seems a good starting point at least.

[liv]

Thank you, that's really good to know. Boots is very weird; I used to trust them completely on medical things but they seem to have got into woo in recent years so now I'm not sure. I think as a major high street chain they're not that likely to be selling fake masks, but who knows?

[liv]

Thank you so much for all this brilliant info! It may well be that hub dynamo is the way to go, and it's really helpful to get a picture of mechanically how attaching lights might work. It is definitely worth looking into secondary lights on my body or on other parts of the bike, thank you for suggesting that.

The thing about theft is, well. I've had bikes stolen before, Cambridge is a bit notorious. I do have a decent lock but I assume anything detachable will just get nicked. At the moment I'm not really cycling into town or parking my bike in the obvious theft hotspots; I'm hoping that will change but who knows on what timescale.

And yes, my bike absolutely is my main transport; I'm still nervous of public transport, and I don't drive, and most places I want to get to are not really within a reasonable walk. Like, I can walk to shul but it's like 45 minutes each way, and into town more like an hour plus. Financially I'm fine with self-insuring, but there's a world-wide shortage of bike parts and the insurance payout wouldn't make up for being without a bike for weeks or months. I guess that's less of a problem if just the lights get stolen, as I could then replace them temporarily with cheap lights.

[liv]

Thank you, that's helpful to know. I've gone for Cambridge Mask based on a recommendation elsewhere, so we'll see.

[liv]

Cool, I would not have guessed that was a good place to look. And yes, if I go down the cheap and replaceable route then knowing that at least reasonably bright ones are available is a great help.

[liv]

Did you fit it yourself or get a pro (or a friend?) to do it? It does seem like the right answer based on this discussion, I'm just not quite sure how to start.

[liv]

Gah, bike thieves are so annoying! If the lights are detachable it might still be worth it, especially as a lot of my journeys are going to be back and forth between home and partners' house, both of which have lockable bike storage.

[liv]

I'm honestly really tempted! It seems like a bit overkill to buy a whole bike in order to get round having to fit the dynohub. But I bet your bike would really suit me, short and heavy and ugly-looking and step-through are all things I desire in a bike. And you used to commute using it, so if it can get you to Hinxton it can probably get me to Wilburton.

[liv]

Yeah, it is obvious to me that LEDs are a huge leap forward in lighting tech.

Thank you so much for the building offer. None of this is very urgent; I'm not sure I'm ever going to be brave enough to cycle out to the village in the dark, and I have a good few months when I'm unlikely to need to. I suspect the road-block may be as much getting parts as getting past your procrastination, but I haven't yet tried. If I were to pay someone to fit a dynamo for me, I would first have to identify who can do it, and most bike-building places have a huge backlog, so that would probably take ages even if I do throw money at it. So I guess the question is whether it's better to buy Naath's surplus bike, or take you up on this really kind offer.

[emperor]

I got a shop (from whom I bought the dynohub) to build the wheel round the dynohub for me (probably sjscycles, but I suspect at least some bit of Rutland would). Everything else I did myself:

swapping a wheel is straightforward (if you've changed a tyre, you've done the necessary before)
replacing skewers is easy - take the old one out, put the new one in, profit.

Connecting the dynohub is mild faff - there's some clamping of spade connectors, and then wrapping with electrical tape (or using the heat-shrink stuff the dynohub comes with), and/or push connectors for the rear light - you can do all this with a set of fine pliers and maybe a hairdrier (if using the heat-shrink things); I used cable-ties to attach the wires to the frame. You need a spanner or two to attach the lights to your bike.

The possibly-fiddly bits are:

where to attach the lights to - probably your front fork crown has a suitable point; your rear rack is the obvious place for the read light likewise. If buying bits from a bike shop they can advise (or post pics and we can opine)

getting the front light pointing at the right angle - this needs a tape measure, a flat surface, some darkness, and some patience (and bike shops don't get it right in my experience), but the front light manual will say "center of beam should hit ground Xm away".

Happy to expand on any of the above if that would be useful...

[ewt]

One option might be to have a second bike: one that you're happy to leave in town, and one for the longer trip (with hub dynamo). That way if one of them does get nicked (or just broken), you aren't left completely bikeless.

However this very quickly veers into "the correct number of bicycles to have is n+1, where n is the number you already have" territory. (Ask me how I know, if you like, but please don't ask me how many bicycles I currently own...)

[ewt]

(Though I should add that since, oh, February 2020, I have been *very* happy with my strategy of having more than one bicycle in working order or able to be put into working order easily at any given time. I also like the idea of potentially being able to loan a houseguest a bicycle in future; I've been the houseguest who needed to borrow a bicycle before now, and it was incredibly useful.)

[starlady]

Yeah, once or twice people grabbed the CatEye light mount from the handlebar as I'd unclipped the actual light and taken it with me. I've since started using the paid locked bike storage that is available in my area and unsurprisingly I have not had a problem with accessory theft since.

[naath]

It could when I could... doyou have my phone?