For many years,SJS Cccles carried a variety of bespoke brackets to fit bottle dynamos to these bosses. Still do!...
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/dynamos/thorn-stainless-steel-sliding-dynamo-boss-for-thorn-forks-with-boss-type-1-tshape/?geoc=US
...and...
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/dynamos/thorn-stainless-steel-sliding-dynamo-boss-for-thorn-forks-with-boss-type-2-lshape/?geoc=US

Some of us who run standard or dyno hubs use the threaded sockes to store spare bolts/machine screws. George (mickeg) used his to store spare SPD cleat bolts, as I recall. I do the same. On a spare pair of forks fitted to another bike, I used the bracket to secure a B&M USB charging unit. Very tidy, it looked made for the task! On another Thorn fork, I am in-process making a spork mount to go on those same bosses. Screws threaded in from the reverse side, wing-nuts with beeswax on the threads and a homemade stainless clip to guard against rattling loose.

... I thought that it would never be used...

Think of the possibilities!

Best, Dan.

I'm assuming that the double-threaded upper lug on the right hand fork of a Thorn Sherpa is for a bottle dynamo. If so, that would mean the dynamo fits behind the brakes/fork and is a "right side" dynamo fitting. Am I right in all this?

First ride of 2026

Today, five-plus months since my last ride along the Ottawa River, I made my first ride of 2026.  (Errands for groceries on my city bike don’t really count.)  This was a brief mid-day aller-retour, just 45 minutes north to the river, west along the bikepath to Deschênes Lookout, then assemble in reverse order  But, it was a chance to see what’s going on with the big river, and to check a couple of adjustments made over the winter months.

We’ve had an Olde Tyme Winter, with above-average snowfall (about 260 cms), and lots of cold days and nights.  (The Rideau Canal, our 14-km skating rink through the middle of town, was open for 56 days – two seasons ago, it was closed for lack of good ice.)  But today, we had mixed sun and cloud, and the late-morning temp was 10º.  So I carried Freddie up from my basement workshop, covered myself with mild-weather gear, and set off for the river.  There was a brisk westerly a-blowing, the 60-kph gusts a foretaste of a serious spring snowstorm further north.  8th gear was the best I could do on my outbound leg, but I sailed along in 11th and 12th on the return journey.

The snow cover is almost all gone, but the soil and vegetation now appearing are all brown and yellow, with the evergreens—firs and cedars—offering the only greenery.  The colours are muted, sky, water and earth.  But there were signs of the spring to come: a couple of plump Canada geese in the water (they must have wintered in Ottawa – the migrants are usually a bit scrawny); and then, when I reached home, the unmistakable and magical sound overhead of a wing of geese honking as they headed towards the river.

Freddie was relaxed, comfortable and unfussed as ever, and drew a glance or two from pedestrians when I paused for photos beside the river. (#s 1 & 2 below.)  A small stream joins the big river beside the lookout, the small inlet bordered by bare trees  and still harbouring a few ice floes. (#s 3 & 4 below.)

Reaching home, I made a couple of micro-adjustments to improve the tweaks made during the winter: easing the rear of the saddle down a couple of mm, and tilting the nose up a similar amount; and rotating the bars upward a couple of mm, so that the flats are now fractionally “uphill”.  A test ride told me that the micro-adjustments did the necessary.  It's always remarkable how such those small changes improve a rider's comfort -- in this case, of my bottom, and my wrists, hands, and forearms.

interested. Can I try for size please? I am 5'7.
Liverpool based. Need a bike with rim brakes for bike trailer.
Thanks

I have no clue what one stone weighs

Quaint customs they have in Foggie Olde, eh George?  Well, of course it depends...on how big the stone is, and what type of stone it's made of, innit?  So many variables... But some Unassailable Authority once upon a time decreed that one stone = 14 lbs.

My experience sez it ain't so:  We lived in Salisbury when I was a kid, and would have picnics at Stonehenge.  I flatly refused to believe that one stone there = 14 lbs, and nothing I've seen or heard since has convinced me otherwise.