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My Reflections
Posted by Ken Wood on 26/7/2025, 10:27 am
Hi everyone, good to be back on my road to getting better after a few health problems, now hopefully recovering. My reflections looking at all these very interesting comments, made me think what my thoughts would be, would anyone think I was outspoken, I am indeed slightly eccentric in regards to electronics and my view on this world today, hopefully, these thoughts will not offend anyone, as all are without prejudice, firstly, after my stay in various hospitals, receiving in my view, to staff, Nurses, Doctors, Consultants, each and everyone, giving me, life-saving attention to the highest degree, yet we are paying staff, now called resident doctors ( used to be young doctors) a salary on average £18 per hour (estimated) whilst an HGV driver some earning over £1200 per week! is approx £30 per hour, look at plumbers or bricklayers, all on over £1000 per week, whilst the resident doctors are working maybe twice the hours. Secondly. Immigration, one wonders, I have worked in Europe for over 30 years, mainly in Germany and have seen the transition over those years of that country, that transition from Germans employing immigrants as cheaper labour, but the downside was that those labourers then became team leaders, then bosses, then only employing immigrants and not Germans and that is now not a happy place, some were saying if they require citerzenship they must do 3 years in the armed forces if between 18 -40 years of age, I wonder if many boats would be going the other way if we said the same, lastly my sadness to admit my love of cycling and photography that increasing the weight of it carrying me this has made me to give way to adding a small electric drive system to my bike, all courtesy of "Electric Bike Shed" South Shields, and my hard earned savings, the system is very safe,unlike all these other electric bikes add-ons I reasearched, my research was deep as to regards the lithium battery problems, this system has many safety additional measures, that makes it the safest I have researched, I stil have to pedal, it just helps me when required, it is called "PAS" pedal assist system, as explained my eccentricity with electronics, my bike I caLL "My Mule" is fitted with so many electronic monitoring devices, including, Heart ,Blood Pressure, , together with miles, speed, GPS, it even has an emergency system if I have problems fall ill,or If I fall off etc, it calls my family explaining my location and problems. That is my reflection, and very long and probably boring to read, hope you enjoy, or maybe click to read another of my mate Normans great forum , take care and thanks.
Re: My Reflections
Posted by Sheila on 26/7/2025, 10:56 am, in reply to "My Reflections"
Ken, not boring for me, I enjoyed reading them. Happy cycling , with the new electric drive system.
Re: My Reflections
Posted by Maria Ratheram on 26/7/2025, 11:02 am, in reply to "My Reflections"
Agree Ken my own experience over the years and now has been good .Hope our Hebburn man Sir Jim Mackay gets involved and gives support.Maybe he can't but so many different opinions from patients I spoke to yesterday .
Re: My Reflections
Posted by Norman on 26/7/2025, 11:26 am, in reply to "Re: My Reflections"
Good to see you back after your health problems Ken. Your reflections weren't boring.
Re: My Reflections
Posted by Liz Dance on 26/7/2025, 11:33 am, in reply to "Re: My Reflections"
Interesting read Ken.
Re: My Reflections. transport
Posted by Allan Campbell on 26/7/2025, 10:07 pm, in reply to "My Reflections"
Good to hear you are recovering and had good treatment, I think that you were lucky to get a doctor who referred you.
We are having difficulty in getting to see a doctor, online form filling.
Re transport. There is a company Hymas that used to be on a small village between Knaresborough and Ripon called Burton Lenard. Their yard was too small so they bought land on what was the old A1 north of Ripon.
I pass their new yard fairly regularly and they now at a guess have possibly 100 lorries, most for feedstuff.
Pass the yard on a Sunday chocker block with trucks, during the week there can be as little as 10.
One of my diving pals worked for Reed Boardall at Borobridge but did nights for better pay.
It’s a few years now but he retired as too many Polish and others were undercutting wages.
Things improved and increased wages but the wages went high because there were very very few drivers about.
If you pull into a service area for a rest and watch lorry drivers a lot of them are grossly over weight. So maybe there is a high turnover due to health problems.
All skilled trades are the same lack, of trained people.
A joiner was last year £200 per day., plumbers etc the same. Getting you boiler serviced is difficult as lack of engineers at least where we live. Cost about £60 per hour.
It’s probably all down to supply and demand.
To important things Bikes. You had modified a standard bike ? I assume it has flat bars!
What was you bike and what was fitted to electrify it.
Motor built into the rear wheel.
I ask as I have a bike which I’m thinking modifying.
I have just had my Specialized Creo SL e bike modified from drop to flat bars. That was expensive £475. Going to try it out in Northumberland in the next few days. Expensive as new flat bar, break levers, grips, switches for electrics and dropper post.
When I walked into the local Specalized. Store two weeks ago the had modified a 2025 Carbon Fibre one with SRAM electronic gear shift. It looked fantastic. I balked at the price though £5,000, but thought and asked if they could convert my 2021 model but with less expensive gear The Sram gear would have cost say around £1,500 if used to convert my bike.
Why did I have mine converted. When bought in Nov 2021 it was great. But after a heart attack in early 2023 my physical ability declined. This year has been a nightmare health wise particularly since about 4 weeks before Easter so not a lot of cycling.
I have no idea what has been happening with me health wise since well before Easter. Sort of stressed out and very short tempered. That not being helped as Ann is not good.
I can only think that I picked something up on a hospital visit before Easter as both Ann and I were at the hospital 4 times each month, who knows what I picked up or something else.
It’s odd that in the last two weeks I feel that I’m snapping out of it.
However the main reason to swap to flat bar is safety. I never used the drops ( maybe twice ish) and drops are narrow and roads rubbish felt I could easily come off the bike. With drops hand holding the bar maybe 12” apart, with a flat bar say 24” apart so more stable.
My back gives problems so I also had the stack height raised about 10 mm to easy my back.
I had a dropper post fitted a few months ago to make it easier to get on and off the bike , only a 50 mm one, helps my balance problem.
The more upright riding position will give me better visibility over country walls etc.
When out riding with my cycling group ( pre heart attack) I felt it was a bit of a waste of time as always pressing on to the coffee stop and missing the vista around
Today dropped a bit gaff came away without my bike lock keys so cannot get the bike off the car and because of that cannot get the bike off of the cycle rack off, so cannot get to my tool kit Very dumb trick!
It great that I have been able to write this as been out of it for a couple of months. Also sitting in the caravan looking over to The Cheviot and its hills dam good.
Allan C.
Re: My Reflections
Posted by Ken Wood on 27/7/2025, 10:04 am, in reply to "My Reflections"
Hi Allan, thanks for your reply. In response to your question about the type of device to electrify your bike, after a lengthy and arduous research period, I chose "The Boost". Here is the link: https://www.boostbike.uk; your other question is what type of handlebars, my Ridgeback Expedition has drop bars with "Bar-end shifters, panniers and old style cantilever brakes, quite heavy, but I am carrying photography equipment and not in a race, and with 27 gears it make it a bit easier to climb, some hills but only some rest is walking, but not now, my dashboard with GPS, Phone, Smart watch, moniters my heart etc, "even a bell "yes a BELL" most road cyclist "DO NOT HAVE A BELL or it seems a MOUTH, really annoys me, when not even warning (I AM COMMING THROUGH) me they are going to pass! , cant tell how many I have knocked off when stretching my arms, all because they could not spend £3 on thier very costly £3-5k bikes, I rarely go on roads try to stay well away, seen far to many incidents on over 60 years of traveling, another thing that bugs me is, Why do road cyclist wear "BLACK" all BLACK" they dont realise they are just a trucks or car wiper blade away from trouble and wearing BLACK, same colour as the "BLACK ROAD " or wiper blade, BLACK is trouble for all vehicle drivers trying to see or maybe not seeing them in area's where their is shades from trees, tunnels, buildings, all dark shadows even the Sun, they are a total problem in Black to see, yet the drivers get the blame, why do Police and Emergency service all wear bright HI-VIZ clothes, workers everyone wants to be seen, all except road cyclist ,,should road cyclist have insurance is another question (just asking ),they can cause an accident and write off a car or injure the occupants, but they pay nothing,yet the vehicle owner has to pay more for accident insurance afterwards (end on rant). This is my enjoyment, OK the bike is a heavy old bike but it is my BIKE, and My joy to ride, used to see our area from a historic view of befor and after, streets, building or even people, all this for my little Facebook website, Pelaw People Past & Present, now with over 3500 members, my latest piece of equipment to make it even heaver is a small "Drone " for arial views. My old "Mule" has completed challenges for Cancer UK, on the C2C, Ravenglass to Tynemouth solo with all loaded with camping equipment and cameras, more runs, Seahouses. Edmundbuyers, my normal Sunday run was (hope to get back to that soon) to Tynemouth via the Tyne Tunnel or ferry, returning a long way round to Newcastle, Gateshead, and back to Pelaw, about 20 miles. I hope this helps. The Boost system is very light and very safe, hence my choice. Hope everyone enjoys my explanation (just my personal views), or maybe starts another conversation regarding my comments.
Posted by Allan Campbell on 27/7/2025, 2:24 pm, in reply to "Re: My Reflections"
Thanks for the info Ken. Will think about that system.
I agree with you about the Men in Black ( plus ladies) suicide pilots!.
Not even a red flashing light on the back and some going hell for leather without regard to other road users.
If you are happy with your present bike all well and good. I had something similar many years ago and then went down the Mountain bike route with a hard tail and then a full susser bought in 2004. Passed that to my son.
I’m a mountain biker at heart but some off road stuff a bit beyond me now. As I say I no longer bounce!
I admire what you are doing. A local bike shop in Harrogate Spa cycles caters for the likes of you and one their latest bike is almost MTB but you can have a suspension fork or a “:tourist fork”.
Yes my bikes have cost a lot! This current one very expensive. Then I look at the same bike but top of the range £12,000 + I could never justify that amount of money at my age and fitness level.
When I bought this bike I balked at paying the money but Ann said Just get it and I’ll sort out the cash.
She wangled paying for it over 12 months and never missed the money going out. It ended up that I felt that I got the bike for free.
I read a lot about these modern bikes and the gear that they have, transmission. Brakes etc. the mind boggles at some of the stuff.
Reading about these modern bikes bikes used in the Tour de France and how they are built and equipped WOW.
Safe journeys Ken. Allan C.
Ken's reflections-Doctors pay
Posted by Mac C on 28/7/2025, 10:59 am, in reply to "My Reflections"
Hi Ken Glad you are recovering and keep up the good work.
As to the Resident Doc I think we all must look beyond the misleading bill-boards being brandished using the £18ph claim! Look at this
They are effectively apprentices at years one and two so look at their earning growth potential. And beyond of course as they move to GP post and Consultancy. Yes they do work long hours BUT WITH OVERTIME their earnings balloon.
My support is for the host of Resident Doctors who didn't vote for this strike nor will they participate. Proper young people with a vocation not the rabble we see with the posters and load hailers. Goodness me it is a profession!!!
