That ‘Lizard’ thing is good.
You do 10 secs plank then 10 secs with right hand off the floor, 10 secs with left hand off the floor, 10 secs with right foot off the floor, 10 secs with left foot off the floor, then 10 secs with right hand, left leg off, 10 secs alternate arm and leg, then 10 secs normal plank to finish.

It hurts, but a real sense of satisfaction and more interesting to do iMO

Why do weights? What’s the objective? Not critising, just wondering why you choose to supplement riding with weights rather than anything else…

I do 3 sessions of core strength a week. Has a massive impact on strength with riding and running – really allows you to get the power down…

I have a thin frame but fat does congregate round my midline a bit. My BMI is fine though and I do loads of exercise and watch my diet and portion size.
Funnily enough the more I watch my diet and the more exercise I do, the skinnier I am. The more sedentary my life, the more flab…

At 39 and with a desk/email based job which requires me NOT to move all day, I’m having to watch diet like a hawk to keep myself skinny. But if that’s what it takes then fine by me…

My bad.
I was there when that drop first went in, early 2007. A tree had blown down so we just threw a load of earth down to turn it into a ramp. TBH it’s was always a bit hairy finding yourself wheels off the ground and heading towards a tree!

It was done last summer at some point IIRC
Real shame. Whilst the trail is the same, the character of it and the feeling of whizzing through the trees is gone, and you don’t get the same feeling at all.
But it’s their land and at least they left the trail intact…

Some shocking driving there… but not atypical for London and if you ride here regularly you need to learn how to cope with it or you’ll spend your whole time angry…

A couple of points of view
1. he does seem to get himself in a lot of scrapes. I think he needs to ride more assertively – one on of the close passes (3.50?), he let a car through a pinch point – he could have stopped that happening with a proper primary position early on.
2. Cycling is supposed to be relaxing. I think he needs to focus on how he can enjoy his ride, just chill at people’s idiocy and spend less time getting angry. Not all those incidences were that bad and a few IMO he could have stopped happening with better anticipation. Riding angry IMO is dangerous, it takes your focus off anticipating the dangers…

Whilst I sympathise fully with the treatment meted out to him I wouldn’t ride with him, I think he’s got the wrong focus for his own wellbeing…

I can’t answer your original question OP but I do recommend going on the course simply from the point of view of learning a thing or to.

I don’t mean that as a judgement of your driving – I thought I was a careful and sensible driver and kind of knew why I was on the course I went on, but it made me far more aware of how to driver properly…

Personally I find tight twisty wooded Southern singletrack gives me a much bigger buzz than big rocky Peaks days out.
I also think I’m fitter – better and more consistent weather means more and longer riding days.
Oh and your drivetrain will last about 10 times longer!

I grew up in Cheshire and moved down South 20 years ago. Moved back to Manchester a couple of years ago and whilst the riding in the North West is great, the weather is frankly dire in comparison. Luckily I lost my job and came back down to London.
Once you’re used to Southern sunshine it’s hard to accept anything else if you like being outdoors IMO

Avoiding riding after heavy rain would certainly help. But the problem with that is you can’t control access + sometimes as a rider you don’t know the trails are knackered until you get out riding them, at which point it’s too late…

Bits of the Surrey Hills are dire after rain and with heavier use over the last few years have become effectively unrideable year round, except during an extended dry spell – Xmas Pud/Orange Clawhammer, Yoghurt Pots, T1 and T2 spring to mind here in particular…

Regular trail maintenance (see BKB) is definitely helping sustainability/protection from water and overuse and will in the long term help resolve the local issues without needing to armour the whole area like a Welsh trail centre… but it would be very labour intensive to support all trails in that way…

Crosshair brings a mature and educated point of view to this debate.

I don’t see why we can’t respect the request to leave footpaths alone for walkers to enjoy in peace and quiet. We don’t HAVE to ride everywhere just because we want to. There’s more than enough riding on bridleways, trail centres, etc

We don’t like drivers to have no respect for our desire to ride safely, so why do we think we can ride where and when we like with no respect for walkers desire to walk peacefully and safely?

Move to the South where it doesn’t rain*

* as much

Nav going east from Winchester can be tricky – very wooded. Once you’re on the open downs it’s easier – you just follow the ridge to Eastbourne.

Although I wouldn’t underestimate the ability to go the wrong way on SDW, and if you’re doing the double at night, you don’t want to waste energy getting things wrong – worth thinking about GPS IMO

I wouldn’t count this as ‘grassing’. In any case what’s wrong with ‘grassing’ if all you’re doing is telling the truth about someone who’s being dishonest? If you’re telling the truth then anyone who pressures you to not ‘grass’ is being a bully IMO.

If I were the director and knew something was up, and asked you for a report and I got the feeling you were covering for this other guy, I’d wonder if I wanted you in the company too. No need to put yourself in the line of fire with misplaced loyalty.

Always worth asking yourself in these situations if this other guy would cover for you if you needed it. Doesn’t sound like he would, so why do it for him?

If the director’s a decent guy he’ll respect you for your honesty and professionalism if you tell the truth…

Not sure much stuff from that era has stood the test of time really… The Sundays have probably aged the best. Wonder if they’ll ever get round to delivering their 4th album!
My Dad enjoyed taking the micky out of me wearing a t-shirt with Lush on it!

The liberal/handwringing angle is an interesting response to some pretty shocking stats which impact us all:

Obesity is a massive burden on the economic output of the UK:
More illness = higher load on NHS = higher taxes
More illness = lower productivity = lower GDP = lower wealth
Higher aggregate weight of the population means everything has to be bigger and stronger to carry the same number of people = more oil needed, = less room on public transport, = roads need to be made stronger…
Harder to recruit soldiers, police, firemen who are fit enough to do the job…

I don’t think the government have fully explained the breadth of impact of obesity to us yet…

Given the figures below, McD’s and other junk food shops need to be reducing in number, not increasing. I don’t think this is snobbery, it’s a pretty serious public health issue:

In 2010, just over a quarter of adults (26 per cent of both men and women aged 16 or over) in England were classified as obese (BMI 30kg/m2 or over). For the same period, around three in ten boys and girls (aged 2 to 15) were classed as either overweight or obese (31 per cent and 29 per cent respectively).

Source: NHS

An excuse to drive up premiums IMO
I did a course a couple of years ago and learned loads and am far more careful with my speed these days…

If someone has been given points and a fine then yes, increase insurance as they’re clearly a risk. But if they’ve been on a course to improve speed awareness, I would have thought they’d be a lower risk as likely to drive more carefully – so I’d like to see Admiral’s evidence that course attendees are a higher risk…

Singlespeed roadbike would be cheaper if cash is restricted. Or you could get a better frame and bits for same price.
Cotic Roadrat is c £650 s/s fully built IIRC

No riding but de-mudded some local trails with some judicious digging of drains and general trail maintenance.
Decided it was too muddy for a decent ride and went for a walk in the woods with cake at the village shop in the middle.
Beautiful day. Do wish I’d been out on the road bike!

Whatever the style of the warning HtS gave to the walkers, his warning is appropriate and if the walkers chose to ignore a well-meaning warning that they could get hurt then they’re idiots…

Walking on a designated biking trail is likely to cause an accident. If you’ve been given a warning of this and persist in walking on it then you’re a fool.

Bridleways IMO are different – walkers/dogs/horses have a right to be there and we should ride accordingly. But the whole point of one-way mountain bike trails is for riding bikes… in the same way that footpaths are for walkers only and riding on them is illegal and stupid

Better off walking the dog yourself, no?
IGMC (bored at work!)

Potholes can be avoided if you a) look where you;re going and b) other traffic allows you space to ride round them…

So I’d argue part of the problem with potholes is the other traffic!

Why are so many car drivers so angry?

Sold the dream that cars were the paradise of personal freedom.
Dream was oversold, driving now often more stressful and longer than the other options
See others getting round with ease. Jealous.
Add in: surrounded by a metal box isolating you from fellow road users, leading to lack of empathy and effective communication…

People get stroppy on the Tube all the time when others get in the way but you tend to get a dialogue between the two which generally ends in an embarrassed silence or a smile and lack of lingering conflict….

I had to have an engineer out a while ago – they made it pretty clear that if the fault was with my equipment after the junction box or something I had done wrong then it was a £99 fee, but if it was a line fault then it was free.

I remember them saying that to me. I told them all I’d done was plug the router in and how was I, not being a trained telecommunications engineer, supposed to know if the lines inside my house were knackered, and therefore avoid a punitive charge… struck me as taking advantage of customers’ lack of being to do anything about it, that one…

Crying

When you point it out to them, they come across as a bit confused. I do wonder if there are cyclists out there who’ve never driven and maybe don’t actually realise it’s illegal.
If they don’t they should probably be locked up for their own safety, a red light is a pretty universal signal!

Guy did that by Oval tube on Wednesday

I saw a copper on a motorbike sitting by the lights. I did wonder if he was there to go for the RLJers. I hope he was.

CEO Email addresses[/url]

Google is your friend!

I ditched BT last year after paying for a landline for 3 months which never worked. I refused to pay my bill. They tried to make me, I emailed their CEO who, to be fair, replied 11am on a Saturday morning with a ‘this is appalling, I’ll get someone onto it straight away’
His exec complaints team did get onto it. I still had to negotiate my way out of the contract they’d failed to deliver on but it got me out of the relationship.

I would have thought they’re obligated to tell you in advance of any fees that will be charged – maybe you should ask them for a copy of those communications as evidence…

It’s better than pre-2008 surely – totally ignoring the obvious unsustainability of how we were living

Plenty of people knew we were heading for a storm but either kept their mouths shut because they were creaming it or shouted down by those that were creaming it.

We’ve learnt a very valuable lesson about debt and credit and ‘wealth’ that I think earlier generations (pre Baby Boomers) fully understood but has been forgotten or possibly never known by younger generations.

Once we’ve learnt that globalisation has changed our relative wealth and settled into a more financially sustainable situation I think we’ll be far better off, morally and financially…

I think a few more Brits need to visit some third world or Arab countries and realise that relatively, in economic wealth and political freedom we’re still one of the richest countries in the world

And it’ll happen again in 3 generations time when those who haven’t lived through what we’re living through are making the decisions…

Are you suggesting that it’s fine to dazzle other riders so long as you’re safe?

No, I’m not.

I have bright lights to ensure I’m safe on the road. But I’m aware that in the darkness of the run down the cycle path through Hyde Park that the lights are very bright – it’s a lot darker in there so the contrast is greater…

The north/south path through Hyde Park is a bit of a mare at night. So many super bright lights you do get dazzled a bit. And I suspect I’m dazzling others myself with 3 front lights, including helmet!
Do what keeps you safe IMO. I take it easy through the parks simply because it can be hard to see the path properly as a result of all the riders coming the other way. But if they want bright lights so drivers see them, then that’s ok by me!

Definitely get out.
Her problem is already impacting your life because she can’t deal with it herself. It can only get worse…

Offroad I suspect they’re not suited but those that know their history will know derailleurs were only allowed in the Tour de France from the mid 1930’s
Fixed is what bikes used to be, gears are the new kids on the block…
I’ve ridden a fixie on quiet roads and it feels great. But London & SE traffic feels too unpredictable to want to ride fixed regularly

So long as they’re not all in hospital

It seems that almost anyone who can misbehave, has been…
African dictators
MPs
Bankers
Businessmen
Footballers
Pro cyclists
Drivers
RLJers
Radio One DJs

Winter is for the road bike

John Lewis
I have a reel 7mm wide, I use strips of it to retain rucksack straps and keep 2 inner tubes underneath the saddle of my road bike. Top stuff

Be interesting to see what she writes up after she’s been out for her ride (as per Twitter links)
She didn’t write that piece innocently so I doubt she’s really up for conversion…

Sadly unless you visit the article itself you miss out on the comments – like this one!

BIGOT!

14.11.12, 12:05pm

Where to start with you bile filled extremist rant?

All cyclists run red lights do they? Well, you are a ‘journalist’ so therefore you are a disgusting piece of vermin guilty of hacking Milly Dowler’s voicemail, yes? Or is that generalising and stereotyping?

It will be for the police to decide about the guilt will it? Maybe in your fascist utopian police state, but here in England & Wales we have Magistrates Courts who decide guilt in minor road traffic collisions such as this – and bombing down the A5209? What’s the speed limit there? Does the speed limit apply to bicycles? No! Even Bradley will have to exert himself massively to maintain a speed of 30mph on a section of road – so what is ‘bombing’? Oh and it was widely reported that the female driver was reported for summons prior to your ‘piece’. Do keep up with the news if you are going to share your ill informed opinion.

Plenty out there who never wear helmets? That’s correct but also not an offence in this country, it is optional – unlike speeding, wearing of seat belts, using a mobile phone etc – all of which I (as a police officer) have prosecuted many drivers for. Do all drivers commit road traffic offences? NO! Of course not!

Just because London is bigger than Amsterdam is not a case for removing cycles from the road either – just think if every cyclist commuter got off their bike and back into their cars – because, yes – SHOCK HORROR – most cyclists are motorists too!!!! GRIDLOCK!!!!!

Cyclists in the middle of the road – do please check the Highway Code, and all current relevant safety information you ill informed bigot.

My Wife was knocked down while wearing, hi-viz gear, a helmet and on a brand new non-MOT’able bicycle by a driver who was at fault due to being incompetent.

Your piece is just stereotypical bigotted bile because, oh woe is you, your late Mother chose to have an affair with someone who rode a bicycle. What sort of Daughter outs there dead Mother as an adultress?? The next time a there is a ‘black on black’ killing in central London, will you write a piece on how EVERY young black male is going to either stab or shoot you? No, of course you wouldn’t – or at least you I hope you wouldn’t.

There is room on the roads for everyone to share, what does need to be removed from the roads are bigotted vermin who think that saving themselves 4 seconds is more important than saving someones life