I once put winters on the front of a car that ordinarily suffered very badly from understeer. With a fresh coating of snow one day I thought I’d have some slow speed fun into a corner. It was like somebody stuck a pin through the bonnet and into the ground. The contrast in grip between front and back was incredible and I quickly found myself facing the wrong way. It’s easy to imagine what kind of trouble it could put you in given an emergency situation at high speed. I was relaxed about it before then, I’d be uncomfortable mixing now. If you must, they’re better on the rear.

Tarling is 20 y/o and looking amazing tbh – one of the few things Ineos have got right recently.

He’s clearly an incredible talent but listening to his recent interviews makes you wonder how much support he getting with the mental aspects. He sounds completely beaten up already.

Ineos appear to be a sinking ship.

Galibier do a nice one. Don’t know about sizes.

Bugger. Tom Pidcock “deselected” for Ineos. Looks like the rumoured move is causing rifts

Sounds like more than a rift given he was second favourite to win. Hard to imagine they’d pull him out unless there’s a legal requirement to do so. I suspect he’s done his last race with Ineos.

Audax? Start doing long-distance events where power is less of an issue?

I would strongly suggest not doing this if you think chronic fatigue is genuinely an issue.

In that instance, rest is the most important thing you can do. If you must ride, do it in smaller quantities. Find something else to feed you dopamine in the interim. It sounds like you’re still figuring stuff out, so I would highly recommend doing some research around what chronic fatigue is and isn’t, because it’s quite unique in how it needs to be approached.

but she’s convinced that PPP (piss poor parenting) is at the root of most children’s problems.

I think we need to be careful about pointing the finger at individuals. If true, and it’s on this scale, then there’s a cultural problem that we are part of and all bare responsibility for.

It too easily becomes a convenient excuse to blame everyone but ourselves.

Depends very much on wheel / tyre combo in my experience. Some go straight up slow pumping with a track pump. Others have taken me the best part of an afternoon and dozens of attempts with 120psi from an airshot (with valve core removed). Once they snap onto to rim they’re usually fine but it can be a challenge getting them there.

I think the ripple effect of societal changes since Covid will make it very difficult to pinpoint anything with any real accuracy.

What I would like to see, with a documented rise in mental health conditions, is more research into the potential relationship between this and the physical damage caused by the virus iself. There’s evidence suggesting it’s damaging people’s brains, yet we’re very rarely making this connection.

(Unless this is what you’re suggesting? These questions usually come under the context of the impact of lockdown.)

Brutal as in remote and no shops/cafes? Or brutal as in mental steep gradients?

Both. Once you’re out of town you’re out and into the mountains in blistering heat. There’s the odd cafe about but depends where you are. Lots of long, steady mountain passes but some are savage. It’s not like Majorca where you can have a flat ride one day and a bit of climbing the next. The Alps are flatter.

Gran Canaria is amazing but absolutely brutal compared to Majorca. You can pedal 5 minutes out of town and it already starts feeling remote and not touristy at all. If you like climbing and heat you’ll love it. If you don’t like those things you’ll probably hate it. I’d go back in a heartbeat.

Edit: just realised this is an old thread and I replied six months ago…

Don’t want: big hotel / resorts / tourist urban overload; guiding or group rides; to see the same 30 cyclists at breakfast every day

The mountain roads were super quiet when I was there, especially if you travel further out, it feels really rural, unlike Majorca, which has some nice quiet roads but is a whole different vibe. I was on the outskirts of Maspalomas and fairly quiet around the resort with a quick ride out of town.

For me covid has never been worse than a very mild cold

The symptoms might feel similar to cold but the severity of infection is not a reliable indicator for long term outcomes in Covid. A great many people with very mild and sometimes asymptomatic infections are suffering long term damage, often with the onset of symptoms in the weeks following.

If you delve into the emerging evidence around the damage it’s doing to people, it’s really quite worrying. It’s still something to be taken very seriously regardless of your age and current state of health.

With the technology we have now, it would be simple to track each contestant and know if they had crashed within seconds.

Completely agree. Consumer bike computers already have crash detection. GPS can report your exact location. The technology might not exist in exactly the package organisers are looking for, but it exists and I imagine could be introduced relatively quickly at world tour level and world champs.

The wider question of general safety is a bit more complicated. For the most part they’re racing on the same roads they have for 100 years, and with far superior equipment. If there are an increase in crashes I feel that mostly comes down to the way they’re being raced, and this seems to be backed up by the number of World tour riders reporting that there’s no longer any let up in races, with them going full gas from start to finish. I think that’s part of the progression of the sport and something organisers have little control over.

There are various things to make sections safer, like more signage and crash mats, but nothing is going to take away from the fact that racing bikes on open roads at 60mph is dangerous. You can take it to a completely sanitised environment like a velodrome and still get some serious incidents. Much is down to the level of acceptable risk chosen by the riders (and I’m sure pushed on them by their sponsors) and I’m really not sure how that can be changed. It’s not like you can tell them to slow down. All the organisers can do is identify dangerous sections and take appropriate measures to minimise the risk of injury.

I’m with sirromj on this one. Living in a semi-rural area, pavements were the only thing that enabled me to travel between towns growing up. I still use them occasionally now, and almost exclusively with child in tow (I don’t care how much road awareness they have, it’s the awareness from other road users that worries me).

The important thing is that we all get to live another day, and in my experience the vast majority of people understand that and have no issues with people riding responsibly on pavements. In fact I think they often see those on the pavements as more human, somebody like themselves.

I will keep parroting this, but I firmly believe pandering to these arguments, and categorising ourselves into groups, or more specifically, a group that includes vehicles weighing several tonnes and capable of speeds well in excess of 100mph, is more damaging than not. It’s already pretty well understood by all that we don’t have the infrastructure to support cycling, so a little compromise and common sense is often seen as perfectly acceptable. Let’s not change that. At the end of the day, we’re WAY closer to pedestrians on the scale, yet we seem intent on dangerously placing ourselves on the other far side next to most motor vehicles, abiding by all the same rules, when in actual fact we have virtually nothing in common and present none of the dangers those rules were designed to alleviate. Rules that put us in danger. It makes no sense to keep reaffirming that position.

And it does all come back to this whole issue of ebikes and electric motorbikes, because that’s where the boundaries easily get blurred, making these arguments all the more difficult.

the narrative is pretty much established.

I don’t think it is. Ask most people and they don’t really know what an ebike is or how it works. If it comes up in conversation they start asking questions out of curiosity. Ultimately I think it’s this lack of awareness that leads to articles like this, and it’s not because there’s an established narrative, but because we lack one. Each of these articles do play a part in establishing the narrative though, which is why it’s important to call it out.

Obsessing about terminology like this is pointless imo.

While I agree that it will be very difficult to change at this point, I disagree that it is pointless.

There will undoubtedly be a ripple effect that works its way through our culture and laws for decades to come. It’s quite important to have a hard line between what we define as a bicycle and what we define as a motor vehicle, and it’s important to establish these definitions early.

We’ve been through this before. We still refer to particular kinds of motorbikes as mopeds, despite them not having had pedals for probably more than half a century. Something tells me the term will stick.

Is also part of the reason you fear for life in Amsterdam cycle lanes when ‘mopeds’ come flying past at 40mph.

I find a beanie makes next to no difference, but pulling the hood up on my Montane Prism almost silences the wind with noise cancelling. I think it’s just a case of stopping the wind getting to your ears.

IME, different all seasons behave very differently. Just like bike tyres have huge differences.

This why people like Cross climates. IIRC, they were developed as a summer tyre with M&S rating, and they feel like a summer tyre, except in the winter when they grip like a winter tyre. They really do seem to have the perfect compromise.

Proper winter tyres and winter leaning all seasons can feel very different with the soft compound. Personally I’d leave them on all year regardless, but depends on the car and level of performance you’re expecting.

I’m not sure there’s really any consensus these days, and you don’t get a lot for that budget anymore. Low mileage cars seem to fetch a ridiculous premium that really isn’t worth paying.

I’d look at getting the newest car you can with full service history, full mot with good history, and decent matching tyres. 

Insignia is something I’ve never had but heard all kinds of horror stories when I looked into them tempted by the low prices. I think they’re low priced for a reason. Some Ford engines seem prone to failure but well regarded otherwise and there’s loads to choose from. Skoda fetch a bit of a premium. I’d maybe be tempted by a Toyota Avenis or Honda Accord. I’d pick from what’s available though and go on quality.

Life is fragile. RIP.

I had one of these years ago. I think it broke eventually. It does a job and gives you a small, tidy stream of grease. I can’t say I ever found it satisfying to use though, it always made me want a proper gun with a trigger.

Not sure about gas but electricity meters can and are bypassed. A quick google says about 25k cases in the UK a year which are discovered.

There are always going to be people who fiddle the system. The number of untaxed cars on the road now is massive. If you make it difficult enough, and the penalties high enough, the vast majority will adhere, quite possibly more than they do now. Forgetting to tax your car is a fairly simple mistake anyone can make. Tampering with recording equipment is not, and easier to deter imo.

My parents’ electricity bill (not in the UK) comes with itemisation which shows exactly how much electricity they’ve used to charge their (plug-in hybrid) car each month.

I could well imagine some nations are more forward thinking on these things. I suspect once half the country has devised various solutions for charging their vehicles without proper infrastructure for it, then it will be difficult to change.

I also find it hard to believe we can’t produce cars capable of supporting a pay-per-mile road pricing system when we’ve been doing the same with electric and gas meters since the beginning of time.

OK, I’ve read it properly now. It says it will move to the first band. I was thinking £0 was the first band but evidently not.

From 1 April 2025, drivers of electric and low emission cars, vans and motorcycles will need to pay vehicle tax in the same way as drivers of petrol and diesel vehicles. This change will apply to both new and existing vehicles.

What is the definition of a low emission vehicle? It sounds like this differentiates them from petrol and diesel vehicles. I’m a bit confused.

It also says changes are coming in 2024. It’s almost the end of 2024 now. I’m still paying £0. When exactly?

I’m only commenting because I literally just bought a car in the zero tax bracket and was feeling smug. Will be gutted if they make me pay £20.

There seems to be a growing consensus that the amount of sugar we consume in a western diet is poisonous to our bodies. And that’s not just all the extra treats but the amount of carbs we eat before getting to the sweet stuff. I’m low carb and have been for a while. One thing it’s done is that it’s forced me to eat a lot more veg in place of all the high carb carb, starchy foods that made up most of my diet previously. My diet is far more diverse and full of nutrient dense rather than calorie dense food now. It’s almost impossible to get fat, and your taste definitely changes, appreciating simple foods more and craving crap less. Bread was always one of my favourites. It’s bland now.

Is this for new cars or applied retrospectively to older vehicles? I was always under the impression taxes were fixed for given years. Same model of my car is in different tax bracket for different years despite being identical in build and emissions output.

Pay-per-mile is the correct way to go for EVs imo, which is already applied to fossil fuel vehicles to a degree.

The sense of occasion of waking a V8 in a family estate car turns it into a totally different experience.

I have to admit, the sound of a big V8 or V10 is a selling point. It’s definitely part of the experience. I don’t think my sensible side would ever let me pay the premium for it, but if the OP is that way inclined, why not. All depends which bits are important to you.

It was a great car, but I found I wasn’t enjoying it much at all, because, rather than putting your foot down and enjoying it, I felt unable to do that, in almost all circumstances.  You found you were going so fast, so quickly, that it was either a case of losing your licence, or your car, due to someone pulling out of a side turn (for example).

No experience of the Audi, but I’d echo this. Modern cars are so capable, so refined, with so much power, grip, advanced traction control systems, they can be almost disappointing to drive. On a public road, keeping within any reasonable standard of driving, you’ll virtually always be so far within its capabilities that it’s almost boring.

Not saying you wouldn’t enjoy giving it the odd poke, it just depends what you’re looking for out of it. If you want something fun you might want to look at a hot hatch or something. If you want a fast wagon I’m sure there are cheaper, more practical options. I’d probably be looking at something along the lines of a BMW 335d.

Vigilante pedestrian assaults illegal motorcyclist would be more accurate.

But it also looks like bike-boy was swerving towards him deliberately so could have just been an instinctive reaction.

Not going to get too upset about the bike going down in this case, I’m afraid.

I wouldn’t argue with any of this, bike rider is clearly in the wrong whichever way you look at it. None of this makes the headline any less incorrect imo.

I’ve had a moan to the Beeb about calling it an eBike.

Is it not an ebike? It’s been discussed on here before, and it’s clear most people here (including myself) recognise an ebike as an electronically assisted bicycle. But I’m not sure whether the fact it has pedals or not changes that term, whether we like it or not. Personally I would prefer it reffered to as an electric motorbike.

More concerning for me is that contrary to the headline, that appears to be an assault on the rider, yet they’ve portrayed the pedestrian as the victim.

Much as I like Sepp Kuss I don’t think he did much to advance the idea that he’s a grand tour winner for the future.

He’s not really been good all year. There’s been lots of speculation whether 3 grand tours last year was perhaps a bit too much. The human body has limits.

Chris Harris was on Joe Rogan this week and talks quite openly about the demise of Top Gear and Flintoff’s accident. He’s scathing of the BBC, claiming he repeatedly warned them there would be a serious accident.

There was salmonella poisoning in the Bora camp. One of the staff was hospitalised. No idea if Roglic was affected, he was strong enough on a tough day yesterday, but I guess we’ll find out today.

Pollensa is probably as good as anywhere. Anywhere around that area is good. All the classic mountainous routes are around the North Coast, but there are some lovely quiet roads inland which are well worth exploring.

Sa Collabra (hugely over-rated and spoilt by coaches).

My advice would be to head out early. I seen one coach on Sa Calobra and that was when I crested the summit on return. There’s very little traffic early on. Some of those routes take you on main arterial roads too. There’s loads of cyclists so people are used to them, but need to watch out for the tourist traffic, etc. Again, you escape a lot of this by going out early.

Cap de Formentor is quite an enjoyable route for me and I think restricted for vehicles at certain times (not sure what the current state of affairs is with that). Some nice climbing and great views without being mental.

There’s good cycle infrastructure around Port de Pollensa.

So being polite often leads me to getting a bit um… Mischievous, pointing out the hypocrisy etc. they certainly aren’t leaving thinking they turned someone.

This doesn’t strike me as polite.

And i feel like i have wasted my time.

I’ve found the best strategy is just to be direct and straight to the point. Sorry, I’m not interested/don’t have the time/it’s not really my thing.

That way you don’t set any false expectations, stand awkwardly listening for 45 minutes, and they can use that time talking to people who are interested. Works for everybody.

I’ve found some cars are more prone to the wheels being stuck on than others. I had a bmw that was terrible for it, even after a couple of months.

amount of whacking would get it off. Half a mile (very slowly!) with loose wheel it’s had it free.

Had to resort to this tactic a couple of times when a mash hammer wouldn’t do it. No need to drive anywhere, rocking the car back and forth in the drive and jabbing the brakes can do it.

I’ve spent the best part of an entire weekend doing exactly this when I’ve stripped a bolt or 2.

I’d encourage anybody to give it a try, and it can save a ton of money. Just be prepared for things to go wrong.

My advice would be to make sure you have the correct tools. You can easily lose half a day hunting around the house for a 10mm spanner, or an entire week if you try your luck with the 11mm one or mole grips instead.

If you really want to make life good, get an impact wrench. (I see the investment in tools as a future cost saving).

Watch a load of YouTube videos before you start to get an idea of what’s involved and the problems you’re likely to run into.

Just realised I posted my earlier comment in the wrong thread:

No comments on today’s stage yet? That was the best battle of sheer will and pain faces I remember seeing for a long time. Absolutely brutal.

No wonder there weren’t any comments.

Was also pretty nuts that Roglic thought O’connor had finished in front of him.