I was feeling that way, but 3 days of sunshine and I’m pretty happy. Managed to burn my neck on Saturday’s ride!

Things seem to be improving for us down south.

Agree with above, I’ve often noticed he does point out the negative, you have to pay attention.

I bought a bike that he reviewed (I watched the review once I’d already made up my mind to buy), and agree with his thoughts about the bike. There’s a couple of things on the bike I don’t like, but overall I love it.

He’s much better, and more likeable than “Dave Arthur – Just Ride Bikes!” Who you could draw similarities with – no negative reviews. (well maybe he does, I haven’t watched him in ages as I dislike him)

1x is perfect for gravel, imo.

I bought a Camino with SRAM Apex 1. At the time other options were out of stock, and crazy long wait times (2021). I just went for the Apex expecting to upgrade it to GRX or something. But actualy it’s fine and it’s served me very well for gravel and winter road riding. Lower end groups are fine for gravel, where it’s going to get dirty and abused.

Wheels are the best upgrade you can make.

I find Met Office pretty good, nice app too. And they have a map on the app which is useful for avoiding downpours. On the map you can switch between 5day forecast / last 6 hours. Using the last 6 hours, grabbing the slider and rolling forward/backward is actually really useful to see how a weather front is developing/heading for you.

“Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, there had been a “large increase in the amount of rain that falls on the island, particularly in the wintertime, but also in the autumn and spring”.” SO basically, rain all the time.

From memory, May and June were nice. That leaves us with 10 months of wettness

I’ve been sticking to the road, but still f*king sick of it. I tried taking the hardtail for a spin last weekend, everywhere is a bog, not fun.

It’s when you roll the weather forecast app forward a week, and all you see if rain symbols! (as has been the way since July).

Just a different frontend to the Evans website then. Few changes to menus. Whats the point.

I’m Salisbury. Yes, tons of gravel routes – KAW comes through.

When it’s dry, this area is bloody amazing for gravel rides, miles and miles of tracks, chalk roads, deserted woodlands and drove roads where you’ll not see a soul. Also Salisbury Plain is great for once in a while. But at the moment, nope! That chalk/clay stuff that’s fast and grippy when baked dry is gopping when wet, claggy and not fun.

New Forest, as said above, is rideable all weathers. Scenic with plenty of opportunities to stop, pubs/cafes etc.

I’m more road than MTB orientated.

I really love the look of the older bikes. The thing I do appreciate about modern road bikes; clearance for wider tyres. I loved my 2011 SuperSix Evo but you couldn’t fit above 23c in the back without rubbing (the dropouts weren’t that well alinged either!).

On our club rides, there’s an equal mix of rim and disc, old and new bikes.

Nothing wrong with whey protein.

I make my daughter smoothies in the Nutribullet, well it’s my post ride one, but I split it with her.

I add a scoop of plain unflavoured protein powder, milk, some oats, a banana, mixed frozen berries and a big dollop of full fat greek yogurt. She loves it, and imo it’s pretty good nutrionally. It also includes a good amount of fibre, which is lacking in kids diets as they much prefer processed crap.

Last ever order placed 10 days ago. Just recieved everything I ordered which was a pleassant suprise, I’d half expected not too after the website went down.

Felt pretty sad about it tbh. I’ve been using Wiggle/CRC since I started cycling more seriously 15 years ago. Bought several bikes from them and TONS of jerseys/shorts.

Always my first port of call for bits and bobs. Not sure where I’ll be shopping now.

“My goal is weight loss, and also to feel stronger generally”

If I was in your shoes, I would:

1. Be mindful about calorie intake. Honestly, It’s not easy!

2. Walk/hike, quickly. Most people could find time to walk an hour at lunch and an hour later in the evening.

3. Calisthenics, partly in your room, and partly outside somewhere. It’s quick and simple. You want a push, pull, legs routine.

– Pushups, done really well, slowly and fully are very effective. I’ve started doing them again, and tried to be more honest with them, ie. doing a full range of motion and slowing it down, and worrying less about rep count at the minute.
– Bodyweight squats are also incredibly effective, you could just increase the reps until they become challenging.
– And then if you can find somewhere to do pullups/chinups, often there’s an outdoor gym thing in town centres, and even a play park. I prefer chinups, as feel like I’m getting an arm workout too, but it’s good to use both types alternating on different days.

The benefit of a routine like this is you could do it more regularly, even daily. Making you feel good, and feel and strong.

“and feel I’m piling on the pounds”

Can’t outrun a bad diet! Stay away from the biscuits 😂

1×11 on the gravel bike, which I’ve used all winter in road mode. Has been totally fine.

One thing I notice vs the 2x on the road bike. 1x is a lot quieter.

FWIW I hate shaving, the feel and the look.

Sure, you can make up other reasons like aero

It’s actually once of the most effective things you can do for aero benefits, it’s something like 15w saved at 25mph (someone racing). Substantial.

“Road pedals/Shoes – would I really benefit from them?”

Maybe a tiny bit, but if you’re riding casually, then probably not worth worrying about.

Road shoes are lighter. They do feel nicer, the larger cleat/pedal interface feels firmer/stiffer/more connected.

I use MTB shoes on the road through the winter, mostly becasue I’m using my gravel bike with road tyres on, and can’t be arsed to switch the pedals. I do notice more flex in the sole.

Unless you’re competing on the road, there’s no need to shave.

I used to shave the legs when racing TTs – there’s an undeniable benefit, reduction in drag worth quite a lot. But if you’re just riding for the joy, no need imo.

Some blokes like the feeling though, but that’s a different topic…

I have a Topeak Road MasterBlaster, proper frame pump. I have used many different mini pumps/co2 etc. A frame pump is brilliant, it pumps road tyres to full pressure (80psi ish) no problem and very quickly. There is a weight penalty, but you’re talking 100g or so.

I don’t bother with co2 anymore. It’s wasteful, as you have to take a mini pump anyway as a backup. So the weight of co2, infaltor head, mini pump and the mini pump mouting bracket probably all add up to being the same weight as the full frame pump.

You might be OK. I wear a large in the DHB tights, and other brand shorts. But a medium in DHB bib shorts, including the Aeron (which are really comfy).

I live near the section between Old Sarum and Stonehenge. Struggling to walk some of my usual trails it’s so sloppy! Not a chance in hell would I be riding it.

We did KAW over the May BH a couple years back. May conditions were perfection!

Spring/Summer is gravel for me (I’m dearly hoping it dries out soon).

I think May is peak riding, looong bright days, the ground is dry and fast, the woodlands are alive and vibrant! The greens are the brighest. But the air still has that nip, a cool breeze blows through, which I love. And the stingers have yet to get going.

Then as the summer gets going properly, lots of long post work evenings out in the countryside riding the chalk byways and droves. The weekly club evening rides, followed by beers in the pub until late.

I don’t mind riding through winter tbh, as other have said, just being in the saddle is medative in itself. I think it’s the rhythmic breathing and the cadence of the legs.

But summer riding, oh I love it!

I end up with what looks like an oddly small amount of seatpost showing.

Mine is a 63cm. It doesn’t have much seatpost showing, considerably less that my Tarmac does – that’s the other end of the spectrum to this and looks a bit weird having loads of post showing. But the Kinesis is nearly horizontal top tube with a good amount of stack (which I wanted), so, that means lot less post on show.

My list of requirements were pretty similar to yours. This will have full guards (when I can be arsed). But wanted an all season roadie, that wasn’t too heavy, could put proper guards on in winter, and not too expensive. I don’t race anymore, I ride becasue I love to ride.

I’m riding my Camino at the moment with 32mm road tyres and full SKS guards, but like you pointed out, that means I can’t go for a gravel ride when I feel like it, without a lot of faff changing stuff over. But, gravel bikes do make pretty good road bikes if your’re just riding for the joy of it, and using a lot of rural backs roads where tarmac is…well, not great.

I’m going to buy some fatter rubber for it, probably 32mm GP5000

I’ve just last week built myself a Kinesis RTD for that purpose. I’ve only had one 1hr shake down spin on it thus far, but I really like it a lot.

Beard and bald(ing)

Moituriser always!

Aftershave sometimes, when going out. CBA for mon-fri in the office.

The richest man in the world is he who smiles the most

Bloke who sits near me at work, postioned very high up in the company, spends A LOT of time talking to me about his pension pot and plans, escaping at 55 etc etc. He earns prob 4x what I do though.

Does very little in life outside of work. Most miserable man I’ve ever known 😂 Wouldn’t swap with him – I would rather be skint (with a bike at least)!

Seems obsured to me to spend your life worrying ad nauseam about your old age, and not living now.

I’d say that’s a geographical marker rather than a class one.

I’m southern.

I listen to r4 Today whilst hand grinding my specialty coffee in the morning.

But pour gravy on my chippy chips!

I need to work, so I’d say working class!

My 2021 Camino is my winter road bike at the moment. Full SKS mudguards, 32mm tyres. Brilliant. Doing 50 mile club rides without problem. As @stumpy01 noted, when you go from full on road bike to this, it feels slow, mainly due to the 71 degree headtube angle I’d say. But I’m doing 16-17mph avg on it quite happily.

Considering through summer it’s my most used bike (dreaming of fast, dry trails 😎) – this thing has been fanastic value, and a great bike!

Who needs to spend big to have fun.

With a view

and only count chest to bar as a full rep

Most people count getting your chin over the bar as success! But I’ll give one of these a go – sounds like it’s halfway towards a muscle-up

Take it from me. Just make sure the band is well placed under mid-foot so it can’t slip out when it’s fully stretched and give your arse a mighty slap! Wooohaa! 😫

One thing that helped me. I started with a resistance band until I could do 10, then chucked the band and could do 4 un-aided, progressed slowly from there.

Another thing, contract your abs! Well really, you use your whole body, but really tighten the core and it make a massive difference.

Oh and you know that total knobber doing sets on the climbing frame in the park? That’ll be you

Yep! 😂

Yep, they’re hard – for a cyclist! I was a bit slack with them over December as riding more often, so lost some strength pretty quickly.

I got up to doing sets of 10 during the summer when more dedicated to it (the last couple of reps were pretty ugly mind you!)

Although I could do both chin-ups and pull-ups, I prefer chins, I just like the feeling of arms getting involved, feel like I’m getting more bang for my buck. But still do pull-ups to make sure I don’t lose it.

I can do around 6 now, so want to progress back up to 10 by spring.

I’ll try do pull/chins 3 times a week roughly, 4 sets of 6 reps currently. For strengh work I do a push/pull split. But only really get time to do strengh 2 or maybe 3 times a week as riding is my priority. So to get 3 x a week I top up using the pull-up bars in my local outdoor gym thing when walking by on my lunch break.

By body shape I meant the tiny torso super skinny thing.

XC racers are no different to road cyclists , nor cyclocross. Runners are likely even leaner.

On the subject of build types, it might be the “You don’t choose your sport – the sport chooses you” thing though..

It sounds like pure fitness

When you’re fit, the fast rides are fun. And its as true in reverse.

Lot of the shops jumping on the dry Jan thing have 0% beers at reduced prices.

Just got myself 4 pack of Edinger 0%, 4 quid in Asda. I really like the Edigner, the head is wild!

Aldi had a variety, got some San Miguel again 4 quid.  And 4 cans of Free Dam 3 quid!

For gravel, Salisbury plain isn’t too far away. Use the website to check when it’s not firing. You won’t encounter angry Tory landmongers, or any one much at all! 

I don’t ride it all the time as it’s not very exciting, but, throught the spring/summer months I’ll go a couple times a month.

I find it quite theraputic riding for a bit of headspace, miles of empty chalk roads and only the odd (odd indeed!) 4×4 enthusiast to wave at.