My wife used to have a Raleigh Campus which is what you’re talking about, sit up and beg 70s bike. Rather than just the frame, we got the whole bike for £80 and it was in good condition, we only got rid when she got a mountain bike.

I used to work in a Threshers and we had a semi regular customer who only appeared when the stella bottles were on offer.
“it says here 6 for the price of 4 put there’s only 5 on the shelf, do you have any in the back?”
“no that’s all we have, its been a popular deal. But the cans are on offer too if you want them”
“I only want the bottles, I’ve come all the way from Walkley for this! You’re supposed to be providing a service, if i buy 5, i’m down a bottle!”
“yeah but it’s while stocks last and the stock hasnt lasted” etc etc etc every friggin time these were on offer. As though we had a magic stella bottle cave at the back of the shop that kept spewing them out.

But she was less insane than the doctor that made me get a supervisor to take over my checkout at Sainsburys when I put my hand in front of my mouth when I yawned. “and what are you going to do now? hmmm?!”
“erm, what do you mean”
“you have germs all over your hands and now you’re touching my food”
I then start laughing thinking it’s a wind up then his face says otherwise. So i had to go wash my hands.

To be honest even if I hadn’t yawned, he should have been washing his food anyway. I was a 16yr old male who did what normal 16 yr old males do…

£30 pound of myprotein isolate whey lasts me about a month and a half. £30 of steak wouldn’t last me very long. Still make sure I get lots of natural sources too, couple of eggs a day etc but after a hard ride the shake works for me. I struggle by the end of the week if i don’t have the shakes post ride.

No restriction on gear ratios. They use quite a bit bigger for SX than standard tracks and they tune it their own power / spinning ability

Haha snap! Long STP here too, 6’1″ and a 410mm post. I run a 50mm stem and it rides fine. But it depends what you’re used to. I used to ride XC on a 24seven darkangel and had that for 7 years so I’m used to weird bikes…

I went years ago and we finished off with a fastest flying lap each and my brother puked trying to beat my time. We were hitting the banking that fast you could feel the compression in the corner on the black line. IT WAS AWESOME.

If I had the time I would love to try proper racing. its not a ride from a to b and it’s not just riding in circles, its balls to the wall racing as fast as you can

I don’t sit down on technical descents any more than I did on a HT.

Ah but would you have done if you hadn’t ridden the hardtail first :wink:

Someone posted a video up there of the guy on the full suspension bike sat down through everything. Yeah obviously you can learn these things on a full suss but the consequences of not doing them aren’t as severe so the learning curve might not be as steep.

Riding fast on a hardtail requires full range of motion movements, using your legs and arms as shock absorbers.

Riding a full sus reasonably quick doesn’t require that, some people will get away with blundering through without picking lines or really moving much, sitting down a lot.

Now take the hardtail person who has practised hitting rough stuff fast and then give them another 5″ of travel as well as their legs and there’s a good chance they’ll be quicker than the “why do i need to pick a line on a full suss???” type rider.

My brother has a blender and it’s a dog on the climbs. But he rates it as one of the greatest DH hardtails, embarasses people on full suspension in the alps on it so puts up with the pap climbing.

I’ve got an STP and it climbs really well, certainly not single minded. I use it for everything, massively versatile and really light for what it is, reckon most ali 4x frames will be pretty similar.

Anytime I’ve seen trouble outside Elland Road, it wasn’t football fans involved, it was local thugs looking for a fight who never even went to the match. The club can do as much as it can banning people but if they sit outside causing trouble there’s not much they can do and thats where the police step in.

Clearly they’ll have to charge more for the service inside the ground but you need to draw a line somewhere. If some scrotes from leeds are fighting some scrotes from huddersfield a few streets away from elland road, why should the club be paying to police them?

We’re currently moving and we’re using an online agent (housenetwork) and it cost us £690 up front and we accepted an offer after 3 months. All our viewers raved about how organised they were. Saved us hundreds over the local muppets.

Yeah I think it’d be cadence and aerodynamics, most of the resistance at that speed will be air friction.

But why does Cavendish use such a massive gear? When he moves through the pack, you wouldn’t say he was spinning at all. In BMX racing it’s spin to win, top guys are doing 180+rpm stood up, Cav looks like he’s doing half that. If power is a function of force x speed, in my head he could be going even quicker with an easier gear, but it’s clearly working really well for him, where am I going wrong?

Amazing decision. We have the largest youth unemployment since records began and he decides these are the ones that need a kicking. If you want a job, there’s a good chance you’ll have to move away from home but good luck getting anything more than minimum wage so you’ll barely cover the rent. He’s doing a great job of ensuring anyone under 25 will never vote tory.

I’m probably tempting fate massively but not had a big one in a long time but I think that’s because I’m more skilled than my head lets me think I am. Stops me breaking bones though so not all bad

We wanted to use http://www.chrisbarberphotography.co.uk/ for our wedding as his style was really up our street but he was already booked up (a year and a half in advance!!)

But he recommended http://www.leeallenphotography.com/ and so would I, the photos were incredible and the way he managed everyone was brilliant, really easy going but knew how to get it done.

What are they like when you crash? my pre-lockon grips used to get dirt under tham and then start twisting at the ends, do these get round that problem?

I tried to watch supercross on tv with a mate who was a football superfan and he couldn’t see why anyone would want to watch it, found it mind numbing while I found it thrilling. Turns out people take different things from sport.

I enjoy DH but if you don’t know who anyone is and haven’t got any allegiances it can get a bit repetitive, especially if its a bad course.

But the football analogy doesn’t really work. I wonder how many people would turn out to watch Bradford City if they had to travel 6 hours each way to do it.

People take small blocks off? i’m confused… I love mine, probably less grip than some in the mud but then that’s more fun isn’t it! When they do break away they’re nice and predictable too. lovely stuff

This has got plenty of angles, I particularly like Nyquists face cam!

Like GW, I have a Giant STP and use it for everything. Looks comical with my 410mm post but it works and is fun. They do a medium and a large. I have a large and i’m 6ft1, does the job.

Ah great, all top advice, thanks for that. Hope may or may not be getting a call depending how successful I am splitting it open!

Hey is your friend still looking for the Orange?

I’d love to be proved wrong and that it’s not nicked but there’s a young lad in Levenshulme that I’ve seen a couple of times on a black orange (could be an alpine or a 5, i can’t remember which it was) with neon green rims, white fox 160mm forks, green hope brakes and green flat pedals, possibly DMR vaults. Seems really suspicious, thats over £3k of bike!

An alternate career for them would be to practise asking “Do you want fries with that?”

That was my first career. My alternative career is now Chartered Mechanical Engineer. Just because someone young is behind a till doesn’t mean they’re stupid…

My cat is a territorial arsehole. It’s recently decided to start defending our property from other cats by sitting in the window and shreeching like a banshee whenever another cat walks into the garden. Unfortunately this all goes off about 3am every other night. I agree with the OP, there must be something wrong with me for putting up with it…

Pressure won’t get turned down, you’d have to go out to thousands and thousands of little booster stations all over the region and manually adjust the pumps, half of which are fixed speed anyway so cant be fiddled with. That would be a huuuge job and the operations staff are stretched to the limit as it is anyway. Plus the network modelling required to check which areas have any spare capacity anyway would be massive.

Fixing leaks is obviously important but it’s not an overnight fix, whereas limiting peoples usage (hosepipe ban) is.

“Mountain Biking” isn’t cool. Never has been. I would bet good money nobody has ever pulled in a bar after describing themselves as a mountain biker. Doesn’t mean i don’t love it, but I think you’ve got problems if you do activities to look cool or worry whether your hobbies are cool.

I split my time between here and bmxtalk. Here middle aged men talk about chickening out on 2ft dropoffs, over there middle aged men talk about sending the 30ft doubles at the manc indoor track. But they’re not cool either because biking isn’t cool to the “normals”

P-P-P-POWER is more than just strength, you need to get fast too. I have been doing lots of big core lifts, deadlifts, squats etc but with them, at least once a week i do FAST explosive deadlifts and squats at about 50% of my 1rep max, about 3-4 reps, 5 sets with a good rest in between. Plus sprints oo the bike at the bmx track and on my commute home, i’m pretty pleased with my speed.

Northern are great for bikes, I use them everyday for my commute with my bike. They’ve usually got room for about 3-4 bikes depending on the type but I’ve never been refused even at rush hour when the train’s packed and there’s 8 bikes shoehorned in. As above, no booking, look for the carriage with the bike symbol and off you go.

One bike to rule them all! My lovely giant STP with u-turn folks would be and is my only bike. You name it, it does it. Dirt jump, DH, cross country, road commute to work, bmx track. Cross bike isn’t do it all, it’s just road and bridleways, you’re missing all the fun stuff!

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Manchester Indoor BMX track[/url] by 2manymikes[/url], on Flickr

I’d second the dbcombos linked up there. I’ve been doing the ultimate routine from the same guy for a year and a half now and it’s made a huge difference. He used to (still does?) coach the yeti team so he probably knows his stuff!

His routines cover everything, strength, power, conditioning, all with the dumb bells, barbell or body weight exercises.

I think he means tables the tricks not tables the obstacle, i.e. laying the bike over in the air.

I find tables easier on hip jumps instead of straight jumps, but i can understand your frustration, they’re hard to learn! I initiate it mostly with the handlebars and bring the legs up once it’s moving. I push down with the lower end of the handlebar, pull across my body with the upper side of the handlebar and pivot my hips up as the bike lays over. i’m finding this is really hard to describe in words…

heres a photo[/url].. that might explain it better

I think if one was to pedal like **** towards a big dirt jump, then one would fly through the air. Just hold on!

haha! we used to have some dirt jumps in Leeds and a lad on a cross country bike turned up and said something along those lines, “surely all there is to it is getting the speed right?” he couldnt be convinced otherwise and then completely nailed himself. Couldn’t knock his confidence though…

I found when I was struggling with dead sailors, concentrating on staying loose, light grip on the bars and making sure you do something in the air, a little whip, anything really, was a good way of preventing the dead sailors. Extending your arms and legs on the takeoff, also helps, at least some preload on the take off. Just going straight with no input was guaranteed dead sailor time for me.

Top of the Rock is essential, lots will say “but you’ve got to do Empire State Building!” but it’s not as good, you queue for hours and it’s really crowded at the top. Plus the view’s better from the Rock.

Here’s a few ideas;

Guggenheim Gallery, Whitney or Museum of Modern Art are great if you like that sort of thing. The Met is also good but massive, can be a bit full on.

The Lower East Side has loads of great unique bars.

You can pretend to be Tom Hanks in Big on the piano at FAO Schwartz. Plus the big Apple store is next door and Tiffany’s is down the road if your wife wants a look. (Was fine for me when we went in, most stuff was as expensive as my house so no danger of having to get the wallet out!)

Have a wander through Times Square after dark to get the full effect of all the neon, pretty impressive.

Grumpy old men in “all Britain’s youth are stupid” shocker

Way more fun. But thats cos I ride dirt jumps and bmx tracks a lot and just mucking about doing manuals in the street, and it would be silly on SPDs. Then when i ride XC (on the same bike) the performance advantage isn’t enough to justify having a separate set of pedals and shoes. i like finding something fun on the trail, drops or jumps etc, dropping the saddle for a bit then continuing the ride. If i was racing XC it’d be a different story.

People who permanently use SPDs think it is massive difference because when they try flats they’re not used to the technique. The pro downhillers generally train on flats and use SPDs as a performance enhancer come race day

I think there’s a psychological thing going on here i.e to non-cyclists – single file equals considerate, 2 abreast equals inconsiderate, despite what the conditions suggest.

However if i’m driving and I come up behind a cyclist, I have to cross the white line to overtake. So it doesn’t matter how many bikes are riding abreast in front of me, I can’t pass if a vehicle is coming in the other direction so it shouldn’t matter unless it really is so narrow that no car can pass if the bikes are two abreast.

Moving single file maight make some non-cyclists feel like you’re giving way etc but if they’re leaving the right amount of space in the first place it wouldn’t be an issue

Leeds inner ring road has right hand exits, but if you’re driving in Leeds city for the first time then it’s the least of your worries. “The Loop” sounds like such an innocent term to the uninitiated…

Chamley – wtf? Of colurse bimblers have a right of use the road as well FFS

Yeah fair enough i knew that wouldn’t go down well, thats why i asked for thoughts. Everyone’s got their own speed etc once they’re moving, some faster than others but I feel setting off as slowly as possible is just stupid. If you’re sat in an ASL and a trucks parked up behind you, there’s a pretty good chance they can’t see you from the cab. Given we’re years away from any decent development of cycling infrastructure, it wouldnt take much to give people a bit of guidance about getting in a more visible position. Common sense I would have thought…

Re. training, and i’m possibly at risk of sounding like I’m victim blaming, but what are people’s thoughts on training people how to set off from traffic lights? I’ve been riding into and out of Manchester for the past four years and I’m always amazed by the amount of people who set off during really busy traffic sat down in a piddly gear and are barely up to walking pace by the time they’ve crossed the junction. Meanwhile all the traffic are bunched up trying to pass where it’s least safe. Obviously educating drivers to have a bit of patience etc is the priority but if you’re sat in the blind spot of a 40tonne truck, maybe we should be trying to get in a more visible position as quickly as possible?

I can’t help but stand up and sprint away from lights, I get a bit of a gap so it’s easier for people to pass once the traffic is a bit more spaced out. Whenever i’m stuck behind a bimbler, i feel like a sitting duck with everyone waiting to turn behind or to try and squeeze past when it’s not possible.

Here’s one of the wife in Formby, pleased with this one

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Untitled[/url] by 2manymikes[/url], on Flickr

and this one

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Untitled[/url] by 2manymikes[/url], on Flickr