Unless they’re big whisky fans, a Lowland will be nice and drinkable, and not peaty or heavy. An Auchentoshan or similar would be nice.

You’ve just got to build intensity and amount of riding up. Buy a cheap second hand MTB and stick some slicks on it and get out at least twice a week monday to friday, + your weekend rides. When you do ride increase he intensity gradually, get your heart rate up and keep it up at a comfortable level for a decent amount of time. Do some Fartlek training on the bike, sprinting for objects in the distance and then recover then sprint again. Lamp posts work well on the road, sprint for 3 lamp posts, recover, then sprint again.

I’ve got a Revo Axis XS Its a dock, internet radio, dab radio, plays music streamed from your network, plays music over bluetooth from your phone, and it’s an alarm. It wasn’t cheap mind, but we use it all the time.

In cars and motorbikes the standard rubber hoses degrade with age and lose their wall stiffness, so tend to bulge slightly when the brakes are applied. Braided hoses give a better pedal/lever feel by not bulging, but probably no more than a new set of rubber ones would. The reason people put braided ones on cars/bikes is to ensure max performance, fit and forget.

I’ve never seen advanced pad wear from the use of old brake hoses tbh, and that’s in quite a few years of motorsort. :-)

We had a supplier say to us once “Don’t P155 on me and then tell me it’s raining”

I liked him, good bloke.

IMHO just look pretty.

There’s not enough pressure generated in an MTB brake hose for braiding to be useful.

They do make a difference on a car though, give a much better pedal feel in most cases.

martymac – Member

subaru forester, decent ones start at a lot less than 4k, use any money you save for fuel as they are a little thirsty.

+1

Gave up a few years back. Got sick of being a slave to them, and waking up in the middle of the night scared about my health. Cliche I know, but it is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. I feel much better, fitter, and healthier…and free frankly.

Don’t stress about the food, you’re better off being a little portly than ruining your health with the fags. Get over the hump and then ride the bike like mad to get the weight off.

What helped for me is not having snacking food at home..if it isn’t there, you can’t eat it.

Keep it up, and tell yourself every morning that you’re not going to smoke today

Wear these under my baggies. They’re really good.

larrydavid – Member
^ probably true, but your OP was massively lame.

Granted, not my best effort. Personal abuse wasn’t warranted though. I’ll try harder! :D

And the award for prick of the day goes to…

Really not necessary bud. :-)

yossarian – Member
I have just arrived.

Poor Mrs Yossarian! :lol:

Your adoration is touching guys. It’s so nice to be a hero to so many.

:lol:

Get back on. Resume normal routine. You had a bad day. You’re 46 not 64.

The Handbrake :lol:

Most things about strava are unrelaible, like when I beat a mate up a climb by some margin, and his iPhone gives him a better time than my Android gives me.

It doesn’t matter, I won, but it’s annoying.

Golfing friends on our usual Saturday morning round: “What are you up to this afternoon?

Me: “Out on the bike this afternoon”

Them:”REALLY? after 18 holes? going far?”

Me: “not really, 30 miles or so”

Them: ?!?

To them 18 holes of golf is their weekly exercise, and they need a well earned rest after it!

I still have a set of Farmer Johns that I put on my Giant Coldrock C.1991.

Can you stretch to a Norco Sight 2? Great reviews, but I’ve had no first hand experience.

As has been said…Drive the guy to the bank in your (soon to be his) car, pay the cash in over the counter, do the paperwork, give him the keys.

Oh and hope he gives you a lift home..!

Gutterball – Member

Jenson Button.

+1. I’d love to be him, the job, lifestyle, stunning girlfriends, money and he just comes across as a really nice bloke with it.

My Evil Sov is about 31lbs with a KS Lev, Minion/HR, Burly wheels and SLX groupset.

It doesn’t feel heavy when I ride it, and I always think a heavier bike will make me fitter. I do notice the difference as I also have a much upgraded Cube Acid with XT, Rebas, light wheels etc. But unless i’m doing an epic XC ride, it’s the Sov I choose every time.

Build it burly and don’t worry too much about weight. No point having a very strong and capable frame and bolting on weak lightweight parts. These things are designed to be ridden hard and soak up some stick.

Jedi would def disagree with this ^ but YMMV

comedyphil – Member

Toshiba. Had one for a couple of years. Two major faults:

1) It’s incredibly slow. The response time from the remote is often longer than a second, and it takes a while to turn on too (have no experience of other boxes, so can’t compare startup times, but seems slow to me)

2) It’s kinda buggy. Randomly, it will output everything in green. Like the old days of computer video when you had the wrong codec, everything coming out of the box is green. Also, it will freeze. Only way to fix both these problems is a hard reset, which then if you’re mid-record, cuts that short.

Basically, not great.

Have you upgraded the software? I have an LG box that I’d given up on, it displayed similar problems to yours. Apparently a lot of problems arose after digital switchover with some PVRs. I managed to find a software update, and now it’s right as rain. It wasn’t automatically updating by the way.

Cheers folks. Our hosts have said they will help us with route planning etc, so we should be fine. We can also hire a local guide too if required, so if we’re struggling it’s an option.

Thanks for the input for other places, food for thought for next year!

Rode with cleats in last years London to Brighton Off Road, stopped at a very busy rest point, and failed (despite trying) to unclip, keeling over onto my side while still on the bike. Sheepishly got straight up and rode of, didn’t stop for that rest.

Build up to things progressively. Start small work up. Session some small steeps until you’re confident.

There’s always going to be an element of just having to do it, to conquer your fears though, but if you’ve got the skills in your locker, you know you should/will be fine.

Didn’t get on STW over the weekend, and just thought I’d post to say that I’m so glad to see this thread is still thriving! :lol:

Not sure I can be bothered to catch up with it all though.

Faffing when you’re ready to set off.

Good on you! :D

Jezkidd – Member

Why not get some Instruction, Jedi changed my riding in about 5 hours

^This.

Jedi also offers a safe and controlled environment at Herts, so you can get to grips with stuff progressively. Def worth a visit.

Kenny Senior – Member

Who has slept in their car for quite a few nights?

Molgrips’ wife and children on the way home from doing the shopping?

:lol:

Ragley Marley is Alu, and will have the geometry you’re after.

As has been said, try a note first, saying ‘please stop stealing from my desk, thefts have been reported’. Might be enough to stop them. If it carries on. Get a spy cam set up on the desk.

Or just lock everything up. Sad that you have to do this, but it will put a stop to it.

I think it’s safe to say that riding has got harder, and faster and has driven technology and development forward. I don’t necessarily mean your average joe soap, but certainly at competition and pro level the demands on kit are a lot bigger, and these advances trickle down the food chain.

ETA: I think the rule of thumb is that it’s better that something is over engineered than under.

Woburn is the driest I’ve seen it in months, and that includes the majority of last summer! Kicking up dust last night, and bike didn’t need a wash!

My Mrs is a Cider buyer for Tesco! :oops:

I get a LOT of freebies which is nice, but there is a lot of shite being sold.

It’s a trend thing, Magners revitalised the Cider market for the masses, and you now see loads of people drinking it in the summer swimming with ice. Everyones jumping on the bandwagon trying to grab a share of the market. It’s a HUGE one by the way.

Kopparburg naked apple is nice, it’s no niche scrumpy, but a nice drinkable pint, it’s alright.

jamiep – Member

Someone at our work insists on eating oranges at his desk, slurping away and with his sticky fingers on everything. And the state of his rarely-washed coffee goes through me *shudder*

:lol: